COMMERCIAL FISHING VERY GOOD BUT BEACH CASTING SLOW AT TECOLUTLA

Oct. 14, 2006, David Burns, Restaurant El Manglar, Tecolutla, Veracruz, Mexico:

What a week. The weather has been stellar at Tecolutla; actually temperature-wise it's been more like August than October, with highs around 100 degrees, and the sun is incredibly strong as it sits low on the horizon. The ocean has been calm and crystal clear.

The Mexican commercial fishermen here have been enjoying optimal fishing conditions. This is unfortunate for the many hundreds of kilos of Huachinango, Pluma, and Besugo that have ended up in coolers and later over ice for transport to market in Mexico City. The guys have been too busy to stop by and provide details, but as they bicycle by on their way home to get some rest for the next day they have all been very happy and have indicated that the fishing is good.

Just off the mouth of the river, many lanchas have laid out long nets and returned to shore with significant catches including Rhonco, Arrastrador, Jurel, and Cojinuda which is another member of the jack family.

Not to be outdone, the camarones have practically been jumping into the boats. Many wives of the fisherman have been by the restaurant trying to sell several kilos of nice looking medium sized shrimp. We use the medium sized shrimp for soup and serve the small-banana sized ones for entrees.

The only slow fishing has been my own surf casting.

When the water is calm and clear I don't have much success. Having stated that, I enjoyed an awesome half-hour Thursday at sunup. After having lounged too long in bed earlier in the week, missing the sunrise bite, I committed to getting out there Thursday in time for magic hour.

Conditions were perfect for casting and I could see a lot of surface movement.

The lazy man's rig was replaced with my trusty half-ounce Luhr Jensen Krocodile. By the way, if a Luhr Jensen rep is reading this I would happily field test any heavier metals they may want to comp.

I waded out to where the water was around chest height and began casting. Boom! The first cast gets hit like a freight train. You know, this is a fishing report so a little exaggeration is acceptable if not expected. I reel in a small Chocomite or baby snook.

Always the consummate optimist, I released the snook quickly and cast again in hopes of landing a larger one. Well, several casts and six releases later the bite died and I was left to eat chicken for comida.

Asi es mi vida.

Six hours of lazy man fishing left me empty handed but I finished reading my novel for the week and had some empty beer cans for my neighbor who collects them and the returns them for scrap value. Roughly $1 for a kilo, now that's hard work.

That's it this week from Tecolutla, Mexico.

I leave Tuesday for the beaches of Oaxaca. Such a tough life but someone has to do it.

(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.