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November Fishing Report-Cliff's Notes Version - 11/21/2012 2:31:08 PM
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trollboy8
Posts: 579
Joined: 3/14/2006
From: Orem, UT, USA
Status: offline
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We had a fantastic trip to Akumal November 10-17. I am going to give a very, very brief report AND I am going to do it in reverse chronological order, you will see why.
Friday November 16: We went out in the morning from 7:00 am and basically threw the kitchen sink at the fish. It was pretty calm, but there was a very strong current. We mostly bottom fished with Butterfly jigs and cut bait. We chummed, we moved from spot to spot, we fished deep, we fished shallow, we fished inbetween. We trolled among some diving frigate birds but ended up with a couple of strawberry groupers and redmouths that we caught on handlines and bait. Fishing was about as slow as any day I have spent down there, but I still had a great time and was treated to a delicious lunch at Francisco's house prepared by Francisco's wife Lupi-escabeche, grilled chicken, a light soup with pasta, onions and sweet peppers, fresh corn tortillas and pickled onions. Awesome. Didn't go out in the afternoon so I could help Ashley pack up.
Thursday November 15: Went out early, 6:00 am. Trolled north and picked up a decent barracuda on the downrigger. REALLY strong current, made the fish seem bigger. Spent most of the rest of the morning deep jigging and caught a small bonito on a little green mackerel butterfly jig. It was my lightest rod and that little fish gave a great fight. We picked up a few strawberry groupers, grey snappers and redmouths on bait.
We went out again late (4:00 pm) to do some late afternoon bottom fishing, but the wind had picked up and we resorted to trolling. After dark we threw out the drift anchor and tried jigging something up with the glow-in-the-dark flat-side jigs. I hooked up with what was almost certainly a medium sized amberjack or a horse-eyed jack only to fight it from 150 meters down to almost the surface before he came unbuttoned. We found that in 30 mintues the current had moved us from right out in front of Akumal to just past Aventuras Akumal. Way too much current to bottom fish with much purpose so we headed in.
Wednesday November 14: Went out at 7:00 am with Steve (Tracie's husband--more about him later). We caught sardines down by Chemuyil and even tried our luck with some liveys. We trolled, we bottom fished, we trolled some more, we bottom fished some more. Honestly, I can't remember if we caught anything trolling, if we did, it was nothing of note. Pancho and Luis (Francisco's sons) put us to shame catching a few bottom fish while we came up empty. Still, a good time out on the water with Steve.
LUNCH: Francisco and Lupi had us over for lunch (Ashley and me along with my in-laws). INCREDIBLE. Enchiladas de Mole and every bit as good as back in May. SOOOO GOOOD.
Went out again at 3:00 pm, trolled and picked up a small barracuda. Came back in, showered and headed to the pueblo for rib night at Tequilaville. I can be pretty picky about my ribs, but I have to say Tequilaville did a great job. Ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender without being mushy and the sauce was a lovely accent to the flavor and not overpowering. Great job Tequilaville, and the potatos that came with the ribs almost stole the show they were so good.
Tuesday November 13: Fished from 7:00 am till noon. Caught a couple of barracudas and got bit off buy a few more. MAYBE even lost a wahoo or a mackerel based on how quickly it took out line before coming undone. Hooked a decent sized dorado that jumped several times before throwing the hook. Not the BEST fishing, but it was fairly steady and a lot of fun. Afternoon was a lot like the morning only with even more bites but even fewer fish brought to the boat. My wife and inlaws did come along for the trip this time and we did manage to hook a barracuda on while Butterfly jigging so my mother-in-law got to have a good little fight.
Monday November 12: Finally got to meet Steve (Tracie's [from LocoGringo] husband). Was an absolute pleasure to share the boat with him. Really nice guy, really likes to fish and I never felt like I had to entertain him. I hope he had as much fun as I did. We caught a couple of barracuda and all in all it was a little slow, BUT, toward the end of the trip we had a big bull dorado hit the right rigger and Steve was hooked up. It was a good 20 or so minute fight and Steve did ask me at one point whether or not fighting the fish was actually supposed to be fun. Hopefully I got some good pictures of the fight, Steve went home with a blister for his trouble--along with a very nice catch. Just before coming in, we stopped out at one of our favorite amberjack spots and just like that Steve got hooked up on a very strong medium sized amberjack. My only regret is that when I took the picture of Steve with his fish at the beach that I didn't do a better job of cropping out my father-in-law who was helping Steve pull up the dorsal fin on the fish. If you have seen Steve's facebook post, you know what I am talking about
LUNCH at the Lol-Ha snack bar. Chilaquiles and the combination plate to share. It was great!
PM: Trolled looking for more dorado, saw a school and hooked one but he got off. Otherwise just a little barracudita.
Sun November 11: Maybe the best fishing day I have ever had in November. We started strong with a good sized barracuda right out of the gates. The frigate birds were out, there was a little wind--ok, quite a bit of wind--and the seas were pretty high, but plenty of surface confusion and lots of sargassam weed floating. Also, I don't know if dorado like plastic bags or if we were just getting a little bit of good karma for going out of our way to go pick up plastic bags when we see them (yes, we fishermen like to look out for the turtles too) but we had some great luck everytime we fished a plastic wal-mart bag out of the water. We chased the frigate birds and just couldn't get in front of whatever school of fish they were following, but suddenly the birds turned an bee-lined it to our boat. I think it was the sweet Blue Water Candy dredge that we pull behind the boat. Anyway, BOOM, one of the short lines went off and seconds later the left rigger hooked up. The first dorado came to the boat, a nice sized cow, the second one got off. I was pretty much satisfied at that point, but we just kept following the birds. I cannot tell you that everytime we caught up to the birds that we caught a fish, but I can tell you that everytime we caught a fish we had just caught up to the birds. You can keep your $3,000 Lowrance, I will take a diving frigate bird any day of the week. For the next 2 hours we had steady action, either getting bites from small schoolie sized dorados (usually too small to hook) or hooking up with good sized cows. Just as we were about to come in we got a big hit on the right rigger pulling a red and black Iland Tracker with rainbow beads. A good 20 minutes later and 200 yards of line peeling off the reel, we finally got him to the boat, definitely the biggest out-of-season dorado I have every caught. In all, we hooked up with and jumped about a dozen dorados of various sizes and came home with six good sized ones including the big bull. It was a fantastic way to start the trip, even though, as it turned out, fishing for the rest of the week was pretty sub-par. It is days like that one though that keep me coming back for more. We had 4 hooked up at one time--something I had never experienced--even though we eventually only landed two of the four. Loved seeing Francisco driving the boat with one hand with a rod--reel screaming--in the other hand.
Anyway, it was a great trip, and, as always, if you ever want to go out with Francisco, let me know and I can get you all set up. Now Francisco even has some really cool souvenir t-shirts you can buy to remember your trip!
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If you ever want to talk about fishing, feel free to contact me!
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RE: November Fishing Report-Cliff's Notes Version - 11/21/2012 4:15:22 PM
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nevertoolate
Posts: 256
Joined: 1/29/2005
From: Utah
Status: offline
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Woo-hoo!
And some people still ask "when is the best time to go fishing?"
That's too easy: Whenever you can!!!
Even though your first day was fabulous,
it sounds like every day was okay,
something going on every day!
Next we need a pic or two, esp those six doradoes on the first day,
and Steve's two too.
I'm sure Francisco looks forward to your every trip,
not many customers want to fish every single day (and even twice most days).
It sounds like "good eats" comes in second place,
do you ever have time to snorkel, or is that Ashley's job?
Bob & Wannetta, Brigham City
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RE: November Fishing Report-Cliff's Notes Version - 11/22/2012 11:18:08 AM
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AlwaysSilver
Posts: 31
Joined: 10/24/2011
From: Bloomington, MN
Status: offline
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Hey Trollboy
Sounds like you had some really unexpected success on your first day. Congratulations! As for the rest of the week, we all know the old saw about any day fishing is better than ....
Appreciate the update. Will be down there for 4 months starting this weekend. Finally!!!
Keep having fun where ever you can drop a line.
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