Tom Arroll
04-30-2008, 01:09 PM
Hi,
Just got back from a family trip to Mexico where I did a little fly fishing. We flew into Puerto Vallarta and headed North to Sayulita in the state of Nayarit. The next day we headed to San Pancho/San Franscisco which is a small sleepy fishing town. I searched out the local Panguero named Pando to arrange some fishing. Pando owns several Pangas that are used for commercial fishing as well as charters. I fished with two nice Pangueros, Waldo and Christian. They seemed to underderstand the concept of fly fishing but had no direct experience. We started by checking out some homemade FAD bouys for Dorado but saw none. The water had been too "green" or cold for Dorados to start showing up. We headed back towards shore to look for some bird/baitfish action. We soon started seening some large scools of Sardina's getting crashed by fish. The fish turned out to be large Jacks with some Roosters mixed in. I started with poppers with no luck and then changed to a Sardina partern that has worked well for me in the past. Despite casting into hundreds of feeding Jacks they refused my fly. The fish would take a look and then turn back to eat the real Sardinas. I though that my fly was a bit too bright and flashy compared to the Sardina that were around so I changed to a somewhat darker Sea Habbit Sardine pattern. Within a couple of casts I had my first Jack on and was well into my backing. I am always amazed what fighters Jacks are. Despite using my Sage 10 wt it still took me 15 min to bring the fish in. The Jacks ranged from 15-25 pounds. We spent the rest of the day chasing the pods of feeding fish which where as large as 100 yards in diameter. I hooked and landed about 6 more fish. I was only interested in retaining one fish because Jack meat is a bit dark and rich for my taste but the Pangueros wanted them to sell on shore. I had a couple of nice hits from some scary big Roosters but no hookup this time. Amidst all the bait we saw a number of large schools of Pargo about 15 feet down. This was realy cool because I did not realize that they traveled in schools and fed like this. We tried to fish for them but by the time my fly would get down to their depth they had moved with the baitfish.
After staying in San Pancho for 3 days we headed north to a place called Playas de las Tortugas which is about 1/2 hour south of San Blas. The place we were staying at was right next to a mangrove estuary/lagoon. I tried fishing the mouth as well as up into the magroves for snook with no sucess. There was a very active fishing village next to the estuary so I beleive this system has been fished out. The estuaries around San Blas are much larger and appeared to have more fish but I was unable to fish due to family obligations.
One eveing when I was walking with my family on the beach at sunset we ran accross a realy interesting fish. This long skinny fish looked somewhat like a deep sea Cutlasfish or Gaper but it had very undeveloped eyes (see pictures). The fishe's eyes seemed more like ligh sensors or possibly even luminescence organs. I have tried to ID this fish with my Ichthyology guides but no luck so far.
Thomas
Just got back from a family trip to Mexico where I did a little fly fishing. We flew into Puerto Vallarta and headed North to Sayulita in the state of Nayarit. The next day we headed to San Pancho/San Franscisco which is a small sleepy fishing town. I searched out the local Panguero named Pando to arrange some fishing. Pando owns several Pangas that are used for commercial fishing as well as charters. I fished with two nice Pangueros, Waldo and Christian. They seemed to underderstand the concept of fly fishing but had no direct experience. We started by checking out some homemade FAD bouys for Dorado but saw none. The water had been too "green" or cold for Dorados to start showing up. We headed back towards shore to look for some bird/baitfish action. We soon started seening some large scools of Sardina's getting crashed by fish. The fish turned out to be large Jacks with some Roosters mixed in. I started with poppers with no luck and then changed to a Sardina partern that has worked well for me in the past. Despite casting into hundreds of feeding Jacks they refused my fly. The fish would take a look and then turn back to eat the real Sardinas. I though that my fly was a bit too bright and flashy compared to the Sardina that were around so I changed to a somewhat darker Sea Habbit Sardine pattern. Within a couple of casts I had my first Jack on and was well into my backing. I am always amazed what fighters Jacks are. Despite using my Sage 10 wt it still took me 15 min to bring the fish in. The Jacks ranged from 15-25 pounds. We spent the rest of the day chasing the pods of feeding fish which where as large as 100 yards in diameter. I hooked and landed about 6 more fish. I was only interested in retaining one fish because Jack meat is a bit dark and rich for my taste but the Pangueros wanted them to sell on shore. I had a couple of nice hits from some scary big Roosters but no hookup this time. Amidst all the bait we saw a number of large schools of Pargo about 15 feet down. This was realy cool because I did not realize that they traveled in schools and fed like this. We tried to fish for them but by the time my fly would get down to their depth they had moved with the baitfish.
After staying in San Pancho for 3 days we headed north to a place called Playas de las Tortugas which is about 1/2 hour south of San Blas. The place we were staying at was right next to a mangrove estuary/lagoon. I tried fishing the mouth as well as up into the magroves for snook with no sucess. There was a very active fishing village next to the estuary so I beleive this system has been fished out. The estuaries around San Blas are much larger and appeared to have more fish but I was unable to fish due to family obligations.
One eveing when I was walking with my family on the beach at sunset we ran accross a realy interesting fish. This long skinny fish looked somewhat like a deep sea Cutlasfish or Gaper but it had very undeveloped eyes (see pictures). The fishe's eyes seemed more like ligh sensors or possibly even luminescence organs. I have tried to ID this fish with my Ichthyology guides but no luck so far.
Thomas