GOOD FISHING FOR JACKS INSIDE THE BAY

Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Mexico Fishing, Ed Kunze, Sept. 4, 2004:

The 80-degree clean blue water is only about 1 mile of the beach. Overall, Ixtapa Zihuatanejo fishing can be rated as decent. Most Ixtapa Zihuatanejo fishing boats are averaging between two and three sailfish releases per day, but the tuna and dorado are scarce again.

The big news is still with the outstanding roosterfish bite that has not let up for about two months now, along with lots of huge jack crevalle. In fact, some of the best jack fishing is taking place inside Zihuatanejo Bay.

Even though the roosterfish are outstanding, you normally only dream of a day like the one Luis Maciel had with his Ixtapa Zihuatanejo fishing client Pat Johnson of Tulsa, OK on the panga Gringo Loco. They were fishing the Pantla area when a huge area of fish erupted on bait just off the beach. Mixed in with the game fish were large sierra, jacks, and roosters. When it was all over and done, fishing with surface poppers to the breaking fish, Pat and his fishing partner had 10 roosters averaging between 35 and 45 pounds, 7 jacks of about 12 to 15 pounds, and 2 sierra. They were absolutely exhausted, and told Luis to head back to the Zihuatanejo fishing dock before 11:00.

Luis told me they had lost at least 10 more big roosters on short strikes, and at one point a large jack was literally battling with a large rooster to see who could get the popper first.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Ixtapa Zihuatanejo and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Ixtapa Zihuatanejo may be found at Mexfish.com's main Ixtapa Zihuatanejo page.