FISHING AT TECOLUTLA, VERACRUZ, MEXICO

Sept. 23, 2006, David Burns, Restaurant El Manglar, Tecolutla, Veracruz, Mexico:

Here's the fishing news from Tecolutla, north of Veracruz, for this week.

On Monday some high winds kept everybody on dry land, and then Tuesday and Wednesday it rained heavily and nobody went out fishing. Thursday was a beautiful day on the beach but there were high winds out on the ocean so again nobody left port for fishing.

I spent Thursday hauling in bare hooks except for the one time I had fun playing a small jurel.

Tecolutla fishing conditions had clear skies, Caribbean-like waters, very small waves, and the water temperature cooled slightly from last week but the water was still warm to touch.

I caught the fish on my standard lazy man's rig, top and bottom treble hooks, using a four-ounce weight and dried shrimp as bait.

I really have to get my long rod out because beyond the second trough, approximately 175 yards, there were huge schools of bait fish teaming along the surface as they were no doubt being chased by some huge predator: the quintessential surf caster's frustration.

On Thursday I crossed paths with Don Pablo Manzano, a card carrying senior citizen, who throws the largest cast net I've seen with the strength and endurance of teenager and the skill worthy of his years. He had been tossing the net between the waves and after an hour-and-a-half had roughly a dozen small snook in his bucket. Not his best day, as i've seen him fill a bucket, but better than my effort.

A fisherman's daughter came by our restaurant this morning and was selling a very sexy four-kilo plus snook, or robalo in Spanish, that was caught using a large net strung across a portion of the river. The same girl had fillets from a hog fish, or pez puerco, but I think that was her uncle's catch and she had no more information regarding it.

As a side note I believe pez puerco to be the best filet for eating. The texture and flavour are unsurpassed. At our restaurant, I usually use the hogfish when I prepare filete relleno de mariscos or al mojo de ajo.

Sportfishing charter information for Tecolutla, on Mexico's Atlantic coast north of Veracruz: senorburnsy@hotmail.com, 011-52-766-846-0515.

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