Surf Fishing, Puerto Peñasco Mexico
I was fortunate to be able to fish in Mexico over the weekend. One of the perks of living in Arizona is that we can be to the north end of the Sea of Cortez in about four hours. Rick invited me and Eric to stay in his condo and wade fish an estuary then pontoon the inshore waters around Puerto Peñasco a few weeks ago. He’s caught some awesome fish down there and I was really excited about the trip.
We crossed the border with no problem on Friday morning. You can feel a difference on the Mexico side. Its a night and day different from being in the US.
The civil unrest from drug trafficking has caused big changes that I hope can be resolved, though it doesn’t look good for now. Ricks condo was great though, the grounds were pretty and it’s in a safe hotel zone.
We drove straight to one of the estuaries and hit the high tide. With the full moon the tides were nearly six meters each day. Thats a lot of water moving in and out. The shallow estuary was pretty much a river with the tide rushing. It felt very foreign fishing there amongst the Panga guys making their meager living.
We caught a lot of “Cabrilla”, a type of Sand Bass.
Fun and aggressive fish. We were hoping for Pompano and Corvina but still happy for some fast action on the fly. With water temperatures near 90* still its a bit too early for the bigger gamefish to be in close to shore chasing bait.
Day two we fished right off the main boulevard in open water. Rick led off and kicked hard through the surf in the pontoon boat. I wont lie, I was apprehensive to be out in open ocean water in Mexico with my legs dangling in the water. Rick assured us it would be ok and it was. We caught more Cabrilla, some Trigger Fish, and one Panama Graysby. Fun fun throwing baitfish patterns in salt water.
After hours of kicking around we were tired and hungry. A restaurant called Pollo Lucas fit the bill. Amazing Mexican food and Mexican cola (the kind that’s sweetened with cane sugar instead of corn syrup).
The final day we headed back to the estuary for a few hours as the tide changed. At the turn off of the highway to the fishing grounds there was a group of people, some with guns. They ended up being federales checking the local fisherman for licenses and drugs. Our hearts started to pound seeing masked military looking guys holding automatic guns. For all we knew they were cartel members hijacking anyone that came by. They told us to go on through and once we talked to other fisherman (I speak spanish), we confirmed that they were the good guys.
Fishing was good the last morning. We all caught several and had a seal come up on the beach and say hello.
Over the past year i’ve really started appreciating the entire experience of my fishing trips. The idea of the sum being more than the parts is really true. We didn’t catch the big game fish we were after this time but the whole trip was an experience I wont forget. Looking forward to more Mexico fishing in the future.