It's a Mexico thing

Right before Thanksgiving I put in a work order for my Telmex Internet. It was working but just painfully slow making things difficult for my writing. So I was happy to see the Telmex man working on the wiring in the office and as he drove off I went to my condo to see if it was fixed and lo and behold nothing not even the telephone line is working. 

I had a great week of fishing and we saw some fireworks for the Pacifico marathon that were astounding. I'll tell you what those Kenyan's can pick him up and put him down, very impressive athletes. So the point is I have a lot to report on but it will have to wait until I get my full-size keyboard and computer to manipulate my pictures.... I hope it's soon please stick with me here's a pic of a really nice robalo that was I am awful fun fish.

where reality and legends collide

In the States we all know that if you tell a story enough times people will start to believe it. Well here in Mazatlan there seems to be a happy middle area between fact and fiction, kinda like the Spainglish language and it seems to be embraced by all....when it serves a purpose. For example......last years storms did severe damage to some neighbor building's beach walls and a company was hired ( it turns out without permits ) to fix the walls and then reinforce with tons and tons of huge boulder rip-rap. And guess what they ran into ? Ancient Petroglyths like the ones up at Dimas 60 miles up the coast. So to show they were good stewards of history when the project was finished this sign appeared.

BUT....we got a neighbor who has more time and money than usual and was so taken by the Petroglyths at Dimas that he wanted some of his vdery own and put his crew to work with a Hilti tool....walla, just like real and almost as interesting. Here's one of his good ones and one that you can see is way to sharply cut, lines to straight and just well....no self respecting Mayan would carve something that ugly for people to view for the next 8,000 years. But hey, we got em and by jiminy we're protecting them.

Being on the perfect beach with the perfect companion in the perfect part of my life I found the perfect Cervesa for this quest I'm on . The company is pretty darn good at promotion in the USA but we've never seen this one....it just wouldn't be right hauling this stuff along on a Snowmobile ride in Petersville Alaska eh Crisco ???/

Boy howdy, it's been hot here and the craziest thing is that everyday is exactly and I mean exactly the same, high of 92 low of 70. The problem is that if you hike like we do you have to do it early as it'll crack 90 by 10:00 a.m.. So the other day at 7:00 we hoped the Sabalo Centro and rode to the end of the line and then did our favorite hike up and over the hill of Cerra Del Vigia. It's gorgeous. Here's a pic of the coast as we start up . Mazatlan off in the distance,

It got a little sweaty but me and MPeasy and Connie did just fine. Here's the 3 of us in a selfie and your's truly feeling like a pretty darn happy/lucky/contented guy.

I got it figured....if I ever write that ' miracle ' song I'm going to make a music video on this mountain that MP and Con are headed for. I think it's one of the coolest places on the planet and underlines what we love about Mexico. We're building walls, they're building memories.

And MP's telling Con....." wouldn't the band stand be cool right there ".....

Saturday night we have a routine. Jump the bus an hour and a half before sunset and go to Edgars Bar for music and a couple Tecates. Then it's off to the sea wall in Olas Altas to sunseta and people watch for an hour or so and then off to our favorite place Angelina's Latin Grill for Pizza and an Avocado / Portabello mushroom tower with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar, and a Pacifico or two of course. I was watching the kids loving the new Mazatlan Saltwater Pool when MP's artist eye caught this.....take a pic she said, thats' cooooooool.

1/2 hour before sunrise on Saturday I'm fishing down the beach a ways and see the lights of the fleet staging offshore for the Shot gun start of the Bisbee Billfish Tournament. I held the camera just as still as I could and holy moly , it worked. Finally the flare shoots off and the diesels belch and roar and.....I hope the fishing is better for them than it is for me right now.

Thanks for reading Mile 14.....

Let's talk ahhhh;;;;;maybe.....I know, fishing

There I am with my first consumable of the 2016 /17 season. These Cocanoco get really big and my goal this year is 15 or 20 pounder but I have to say my first nice fish of the year is the biggest snapper I've ever caught from shore. In past years you've seen the nice Corvina and Robalo that Team X has caught off the unique rocks at the Holiday Inn so I went there with the high tide last week and walla. It was really fun, I had 20 or 30 kids sitting on the sea wall and they all cheered when I landed it and then boo- ed when I dispatched it with a rock.  Before all was said and done this guy turned into the most photographed fish in Mazatlan as everybody wanted a pic...very cool.

So having caught this guy I suggested to my friend Bob that we be there the next morning as I really hadn't fished very hard to catch him and I figured we were onto it.....nope, nada..... But as Bob and I headed up to the beach to go home we come across my friend Jesus and what's he got on the line ???? you guessed it, about a 35 pound Rooster fish. Jesus had it real close to shore and I figured it was on it's way to the fillet table when we hear 'ker snap', busted line, the fish wins. Jesus just smiled and gave me a high five and then went for another lure. Here's a pic of him with it on and if you enlarge the 2nd photo you can see the Guyo in the lower left pretty darn good.

Only once before have I seen so many roosters crashing bait. The water would explode at my feet with hundreds of little fish trying to get away while the Roosters literally momentarily would get beached, Many times they had 1/2 there bodies out of the water.....the problem is that when they're in this attack mode they are almost impossible to catch because they know real from plastic. I had one on that hit a white topwater but he spit and that's as close as we came. When the dust settled I was wishing Id dropped the rod and taken a video for you, it was crazy....way worth the price of admission. Here's the bait they're on, it's not their usual meal of mullet so if any of you know what that is please holler, I'd like to know.

The Rooster fish are all over Mazatlan, the water's warm so I expect to catch a good one real soon. It's identical to this guy I caught yesterday but a little larger....aren't they just the most gorgeous creatures ?

Every boat fisherman knows that getting wet is a bad bad deal, But, if you fish the surf you better enjoy the elements. This morning it was good for surfers but kinda bad for fishermen, I took several ' over the bow' as we say. Sometimes the natural rhythm of the fishing keeps you away but other times you look up and ooooooooohhhhhh noooooo, just try to stay in one place so you don't get knocked down and smile through it.....that's what I do.

I gotta get done with this blog because it's headed towards sunset and we don't miss those babies. Most nights there's 3 of us now that fish Toro and celebrate the end of the day. Here's a pic of my buddy Bob with a typical Toro. It hasn't been red hot but each evening we catch 10 or so between us.

And here's my friend Dave the Bum , the 3rd member of our nightly ritual. He's got one on the beach and as you can see he's posed a fish or two in his life.

It's a little warmish

And that's no joke. The jet age is a wonderful thing, I took this going away pic at Mile 14 about 5:00 p,m. and it was 36 degrees . A short 24 hours later snapped this pic, it was 93 degrees and as you can see the humidity has us all fogged up and we've been kinds fogged up ever since we got here. This is the earliest we've ever been to Mazatlan and I guess ol guide #003 under estimated the weather....but it's a wonderful problem to have.

MP has a gorgeous new kitchen. Custom cedar cabinets and concrete counter tops with a really cool one handle faucet, we're waiting on one more counter top and then I'll post a pic. Prior to this project I would have called b.s. on you if you told me that termites could eat your particle board cabinets until they literally fell off the wall, but it's true and only one of the challenges of ownership in hot and humid Mazatlan. the first few days here you spend battling the gremlins that visit while you're gone, the corrosion of both the saltwater environment and the humidity is astounding....At mile 14 it would drive me nuts to have this all going on but here....well. it's just normal. Here's a short list of my projects.....
1. The air conditioner is broke again....but it did work for the first day thank goodness,
2. My internet router wouldn't power up....took a while but I realized the surge protector corroded out.
3.Our water cooler leaked a 4 gallon puddle overnight.
4. The slider wouldn't slide.
5.Our fridge is making a really weird sound....kinda a warning sound I think.
6. And the strangest is that after I cleaned all the co-ax connection of corrosion and got the TV working only half of it works...and you know me, it's the left side.

A buddy of mine told me to quit sniveling 1/2 broke is better than 3/4 broke.... I told him ya know when you're watching Fox News 1/2 is more than enough. And oh, it's election day so the busted TV is gonna put a weird twist on a weird election, I'm gonna need a few beers for that deal.

By now you've noticing that something really important is missing from this blog post . It's true, I ain't had a single tug on the line yet and I worked it pretty darn good this morning. The beach is so quiet that i anybody catches it'll be me. But I did get ya fish pic....how's about these dry sardine snacks that have different seasonings on them. They're real crunchy and really really fishy tasting so you go for a nice little dip in salsa picante and wash em down with a nice cold .....Pacifico , of course.

Stand by for fish a bit larger,

Fall-In-Hole

Legend has it the name came from one of my old neighbors who decided to take his boat fishing back in the 1960's while under the influence of alcohol. People had seen him fall out of his boat and scamper back aboard so you know in this little town of ours that was really  really small back then word got around pretty good. Somehow or another he had the feeling that the only people who knew something had happened were the people at our boat launch that saw he was soaked to the bone so for years he said he's been chased into the river by a Brown Bear...I like that part best, and as you can see they're still around. We walked down to Fall-in-hole on Sunday to say good bye.

This wonderful mini wilderness area is 1/2 mile below our house. When I first started fishing the river if you weren't at Fall-in-hole you weren't fishing. Here's a pic of me with some of the fishiest water on the Kenai River behind me. This stretch of river is protected from development by Mother Nature herself. On both sides the wetlands and swamps sweep and turn through hundreds of acres that make up our back yard.

Stewart's island used to have many huge cottonwood trees that the eagles just love. Me and MPeasy started to notice about 20 years ago that the Beaver were taking them down so protected several with chicken wire and now there's only about three big ones left....and the Eagles still love them.

As we're on final approach here for Mazatlan we just kinda horsed around this day. My favorite Ornithologist says that this guy here is one of the first migratory birds to arrive every spring....and it looks like this particular guy is the last to leave as well. He's an American Dipper.

Everybody's seen what the Mile 14 looks like either from the river or the road but here's a shot of it from downriver. I was standing right at the top of the island , our house is way up that bluff to the left. Where I'm standing there is 4 ft. of water in July.

So we had a couple beers and took a nice long sauna...it's something that is easy to miss while we're away and something our house sitters love to use. With the sauna down at the river it makes it an event....look at this mug getting out of the 180 degrees....Oh, I'm getting haircut when we hit town.

Here's me and my running buddy saying good bye to the Kenai River at Mile 14...So I hope ya'all come back to this blog, we'll be catching some fish real soon..... I hope.

And of course ya know....we'll be singing some new songs, I got several all worked .

Unbelieveing

That's a word my French speaking friend Jacque Lizin made up to describe the wonders of Alaska. So this morning that was about the best word I could find to describe how bright the Northern Lights were. It's by far the best I've seen on the Peninsula and rivaled the night Chrisco and I drove our Snow Machines home from the Petersville Roadhouse at 2 a.m. without our headlights on. Something strangely humbling about seeing the sky move....

I love this pocket camera I have. It's actually my second Lumix dmc-fh25, I dropped one in the sand a couple years back so I have a replacement as well as a new waterproof Lumix that I can't wait to use in Mexico. I always have the camera set at " Intelligent Automatic'...that kinda describes my life. But this morning with the Aurora just a burning up the sky I found the pre set features and settled into the 'Starry Night" mode . I set the camera on the tripod and hit the 1 minute choice and Walla....I think I not only hit homer but maybe a grand slam.

The Camera has a Leica lens and I think for a pocket camera that makes the deal. I'll put these two pics onto my picture program and do some manipulating and should be able to enhance them some.

It's been cold and crisp here at Mile 14, 11 degrees when we went to the gym yesterday morning. So it's perfect weather to frame the beauty of Alaska. My old friend Jimmy Taylor is a camera expert and these are the kind of sunsets he captures for all his friends.

Once again as hard as I try it looks like I won't make my goal of 185 pounds before Mazatlan. Right now I'm at exactly 190 with ten days to go....I know the way. I've been walking 2 hours everyday for a total of at least 5 miles. I'm keeping my calories down to about 2000, give or take a cocktail or two....But ya know the deal with goals is this, ya gotta have em, ya can't hit without swinging. Here's pic of me this morning at our new gym.

It's called  the River City Wellness Center and boy howdy did the owners spend some lettuce on equipment. It's as nice as any gym we find in our travels. It really illustrates how it's going in our town as it matures into a city...It's long ways from the dirt road's of  Soldotna I found 45 years ago.

I don't want to bore you with big long drawn out opinion piece about our recent Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting here in Soldotna, I'll let Craig Medred do that for me, here's a link to his on-line newspaper. He has two articles of interest for us sport fishing folks . One is 'Disorderly and Safe' and the other ' Counting Big Salmon'.....https://craigmedred.news/  I especially like the remarks, they say a lot. You see Craig Medred was fired from the Alaska Dispatch News for shining the light on a Board of  Fisheries appointee who was / is  a cheat claiming residency in two states so he could kill more stuff cheaper than a non-resident. The owner of the paper didn't want Craig to run the story and embarrass the new Governor by pointing how crooked the B,O,F. process looks sometimes....well guess who I sat next to at this meeting ? Yup, same guy, still peddling influence, still grappling to hold onto the past like all commercial fishermen.

In the Medred article you'll see that the board  entertained an agenda change request and then debated their own proposal to limit boat size in the dip net fishery, out of  'safety' concerns. But when you give it the old sniff test you see that it's just a left handed way to limit harvest by the people of Alaska so the the salmon can be harvested commercially, by a minority.  Good work Craig !

This came across the Internet and I got a hardy chuckle. I tell people that when I was in elementary school that I was actually educated by the janitors because they moved my desk out into the hall so often. So please come back to Mile 14....where I'm going soon there's gonna be plenty of interesting people to talk to and I  talk to em all, it's the way I am.

Final Approach

I hate to be in a hurry for ANYTHING....in fact I counsel the young guys around Mile 14 all the time to  not get in a hurry but I have to tell you that the first week of November brings two things I can't get to soon enough. We jump the jet the jet for Mazatlan and this election cycle will be over !  I have to say that I haven't seen anything as tacky as this election on CNN since Joe Hanes and I were glued to the O.J. Simspon trial some 20 years ago.

Without giving you my view on who's best or what oughta happen I'll just say this...what the heck happened to plane old American civility, tolerance, respect and just simple politeness ? I'm afraid that the biggest effect this election will have on America is that it further distances us from understanding and caring for others like we already see so much of today, more alienation and more of the me, me , me, me, mentality . So here's my political signage...this election is driving us all a little nuts I think.

So I'm staying busy in prep for surf fishing. You've all see the piles of gear that I take to an already overstocked tackle locker......here's a short list.
10 Line strectcher's
60 small jigs (more in a sec)
15 Lazer Minnows, 2 ounce
1200 yards Power Pro 20 and 30
Sabichi rigs
15 B-2 squids
5 pencil poppers....well , you get the idea.

Last year I had a real breakthrough after watching my friend Alejandro down size his gear when he'd see the tiniest of sardines right in the surf being chased by Pargo or Robalo. He'd throw out a tiny white feather jig with his hand line and let it just kinda bounce around in the rocks. The genius of it is that it's so light it won't just sink and get hung up. Here's a pic of one on the left of the bigger lures.

That particular jig caught these cool looking Grouper of some sort and the nice little batch of Amarillo Pargo's . These fish are excellent eating and you'd never know they were around until you learn to see the 'nervous' bait right ion the foamy whitewater on shore and usually in the rocks.

So this year as I was tying up flesh flies for my trout fishing I figured while I was at it I'd tie a bunch of those feather jigs myself. I hate to not buy them from Rafe at PescaMaz but no worries, he's got plenty of other stuff I'll be needing. Here's a few of them done and some really small rubber swim fish from Bass Pro that oughta work pretty darn good to. Just like the trout at Mile 14 it should be rewarding to catch fish on my own flies.

So I hope you all hang in there with me....real soon I'll have adventures and catches to report on...And cheer up America...