PETO, POMPANO, AND WORLD RECORD GIANT CANDY

March 3, 2007, Restaurant El Manglar, David Burns, Tecolutla, Veracruz, Mexico:

Fishing on Mexico's Atlantic coast at Tecolutla has been awesome for over two weeks now; as the weather improved and as the water warmed, the bite has gotten intense.

Last weekend the Peto, or king mackerel, were finally located and the fishermen were happy. Mexican commercial fishing Capt. Cero reported a catch in excess of 100 kilos Saturday. This week everybody caught fish or shrimp. All species were present and accounted for, and therefore everybody is happy.

This weekend marks Tecolutla's annual Festival of Coconuts which more or less signifies the beginning of spring. To celebrate, the residents split into teams to make the different parts of a three block long coconut candy which is recorded in the Guinness World Book of Records as the longest in the world. Teams take pride in either shaping the candy into interesting designs or flavoring the coconut with chocolate, pineapple, tequila or one of many other mouth watering temptations. The culmination of the event Sunday finds long lines of tourists waiting for the free give away of the world record candy.

The Pompano fishing report is very enthusiastic this week.

My friend Gary, who spends his winters down here but hails from the north shore of Minnesota, provided me with an in-depth course on how to catch Pompano this week. Lessons began Tuesday with three fish, continued Wednesday with an unprecedented "four in the bucket," and when I left Thursday morning, somewhat frustrated, he'd already landed one, and then he showed up Friday grinning with yet two more.

The Pompano were mostly in the 2.5 pound range but the prize was a beauty that tipped the scales close to the three-and-a-half pound mark; one can only imagine how a fish that size bends the pole and causes the drag to scream.

So that's 10 fish, and not just fish but rather the highly coveted Pompano, landed in only four days...if Guinness was keeping Pompano records.

I was no more than ten yards away and using the same equipment yet got skunked, so I really don't want to talk about it.

We both landed many other fish of varying species but compared to Pompano they are not worth the mention.

We were using or standard surf fishing equipment mentioned in other reports. The water was warm and sometimes the skies were clear and sometimes overcast but the seas were very calm.

Discouraged but not beaten, I'll be back at it this coming week and hope to report a more equal distribution of Pompano.

That's it from Teco.