A COMMERCIAL BOTTOM FISHING TRIP AT TECOLUTLA

Oct. 7, 2006, David Burns, Restaurant El Manglar, Tecolutla, Veracruz, Mexico:

The weather has been the pits. It began raining apocalyptically Tuesday night and just stopped Friday afternoon, so there isn't a lot of fishing to report at Tecolutla.

However, any day offshore is a good day in my book and I did get a line wet Monday. We met, as usual, before sunup and spent over an hour debating as to whether we should mount up or not as there were winds blowing.

An interesting side note here; I learned how to differentiate between the sounds of a wind from the ocean and one from the land. After the lengthy debate, Capt. Ziro Guzman, my regular compañero, said," Let's do it." One crew member decided he wasn't into it, but the rest of us hopped on board and made ready. After crossing the river to gas up and take on blocks of ice we raced down river and out into the big blue where we ventured out over 30 kilometers.

The fishing day was not the best as it was overcast, although this does make for more comfortable temperatures, and there were winds in the 20 to 30 k.p.h. range. We were on and off the fish as the captain had problems keeping us in position.

We dropped anchor once but it was an equally frustrating struggle to get on top of the fish. We started off in 55 fathoms and ended the day, closer to shore, in 33 fathoms of water.

I began the day fishing with a "reviser" which is a line with 13 small tuna circle hooks and a two-kilo weight at the end. We bait them up with cut mullet. On fishing days such as the one I'm describing, when the bite isn't ferocious it isn't worth the effort so I quickly switched to a spreader with two small shaughnessy hooks, at different heights, on either end utilizing the same bait but only a one-kilo weight.

The day was not a total waste as we landed 30 kilos of nice sized Besugo, a member of the snapper family, 10 kilos of Huachinango or red snapper, and an assortment of other species.

Me? I had a good time but for Ziro and the crew, for whom this is their livelihood, they had hoped for a better outing.

Tuesday found me back on the beach doing my thing but without any noteworthy results. Same old same old, but don't for a second think I'm complaining.

Weather forecasts from Mexico's CFE (Commission Federal de Electricidad) for the beginning of the week are not promising but I will persevere in hopes of one day filing a jaw dropping, mouth watering Mexico fishing report.

(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.