Mexico 7/19 and 7/20

[codybuehler]

Hi all! We were at Mexico 7/19 and 7/20. Thought I would share some insights here.

 

Wednesday morning we were pretty much solo 90-130FOW between Mexico launch and the plants. Most other boats were out deeper in front of or past the plants.  Did morning and afternoon. Steady fish all day, but not crazy. 7 for 12. Only landed kings. The rest were either small fish or knock offs. Skippies all the way up to 13lbs.  The morning was any variation of spoon that had black, silver or glow. Not sure of the name, but the best one was black edges, glow center and a red dot on the bottom. No flasher or meat bites, all spoons. Afternoon the fish went tropical and only went after brighter spoons. Mixed veggies or blue, all UV I believe. Didn’t touch the black and glow spoons from the morning. Took one on a two face flasher and similar color Atomik fly.  Dipseys out 225 on 3, riggers down 84’, 10 color leadcore all took fish. 300 and 400 weighted steels got nothing. Speed was 2.3-2.6 at the probe. Lots of suspended fish 65-70’ down but zero hits from those except the couple on the leadcore. 
 

Thursday was the opposite. Same area, no hits. Wandered east and north, then back west, one small brown on a glow bloody nose spoon 84’ down on the rigger. Two knock offs besides that on the same rigger. Glow bloody nose and green uv alewife colors. Saw lots of suspended fish in the 65-70’ down range, some bait. 
 

Fleas were very minimal. Sea Flee line made them an afterthought. Leadcore had no fleas all day; dipsey wire, steel and downriggers had a few but nothing crazy at all. 
 

temp was 75-80’ down most places, the more East I went, the lower it got. 
 

This was my friends first trip like this that wasn’t a 6 hour charter. He was ready to head home after 3/4 of the way through day 1. Haha We released the smaller salmon and kept a few of the bigger ones. He was pretty pleased for a few fish in the freezer for home.

 

It was also my first use of the weighted steel instead of copper. I’m not sure I’ll ever use copper again. What a difference! It didn’t catch any fish, but I also wasn’t fighting with the copper when the spool spun a fraction of an RPM faster than it was going out. Amazing stuff. I have had lots of luck with copper, but I have always felt like it hates me and enjoy my suffering no matter how careful I was.
 

 

 

 

[p3434]

Thanks for the report. 

[elrodalonzo]

Excellent report.  Nice job fishing.  Thanks.

[rswanson330]

Thank you.
We need more Mexico intel...

[codybuehler]

25 minutes ago, rswanson330 said:

Thank you.
We need more Mexico intel...

Sure do! Everyone I assume is pretty hush hush right now with the LOC derby and whatnot. I have a firm belief that you can put someone right on top of the hungriest fish and tell them exactly what to do that’s worked 1000 times

before and it still doesn’t mean the fish will cooperate. Case in point-what works day one doesn’t mean it will work day two!

[Gator]

Copper hates everyone lol. I wish it weren’t so effective 

[IrishMist]

On 7/21/2023 at 10:22 AM, codybuehler said:

Hi all! We were at Mexico 7/19 and 7/20. Thought I would share some insights here.

 

Wednesday morning we were pretty much solo 90-130FOW between Mexico launch and the plants. Most other boats were out deeper in front of or past the plants.  Did morning and afternoon. Steady fish all day, but not crazy. 7 for 12. Only landed kings. The rest were either small fish or knock offs. Skippies all the way up to 13lbs.  The morning was any variation of spoon that had black, silver or glow. Not sure of the name, but the best one was black edges, glow center and a red dot on the bottom. No flasher or meat bites, all spoons. Afternoon the fish went tropical and only went after brighter spoons. Mixed veggies or blue, all UV I believe. Didn’t touch the black and glow spoons from the morning. Took one on a two face flasher and similar color Atomik fly.  Dipseys out 225 on 3, riggers down 84’, 10 color leadcore all took fish. 300 and 400 weighted steels got nothing. Speed was 2.3-2.6 at the probe. Lots of suspended fish 65-70’ down but zero hits from those except the couple on the leadcore. 
 

Thursday was the opposite. Same area, no hits. Wandered east and north, then back west, one small brown on a glow bloody nose spoon 84’ down on the rigger. Two knock offs besides that on the same rigger. Glow bloody nose and green uv alewife colors. Saw lots of suspended fish in the 65-70’ down range, some bait. 
 

Fleas were very minimal. Sea Flee line made them an afterthought. Leadcore had no fleas all day; dipsey wire, steel and downriggers had a few but nothing crazy at all. 
 

temp was 75-80’ down most places, the more East I went, the lower it got. 
 

This was my friends first trip like this that wasn’t a 6 hour charter. He was ready to head home after 3/4 of the way through day 1. Haha We released the smaller salmon and kept a few of the bigger ones. He was pretty pleased for a few fish in the freezer for home.

 

It was also my first use of the weighted steel instead of copper. I’m not sure I’ll ever use copper again. What a difference! It didn’t catch any fish, but I also wasn’t fighting with the copper when the spool spun a fraction of an RPM faster than it was going out. Amazing stuff. I have had lots of luck with copper, but I have always felt like it hates me and enjoy my suffering no matter how careful I was.
 

 

 

 

Thanks for great report.  We all need to share more regularly and in real time.  I'd share more, if I caught fish more 😪

 

How far behind ball were you running your flashers and the spoons?

 

Thanks again!

[codybuehler]

18 minutes ago, IrishMist said:

Thanks for great report.  We all need to share more regularly and in real time.  I'd share more, if I caught fish more 😪

 

How far behind ball were you running your flashers and the spoons?

 

Thanks again!

Spoons were 50’ back. Flasher, around 20’. 
 

I also use light leaders. I was running 15lb test. Up’d it to 20lb for spoons and 25lb for flashers this year. Haven’t noticed a decline in hits yet. All flouro carbon.

[Fat Trout]

10 hours ago, codybuehler said:

Spoons were 50’ back. Flasher, around 20’. 
 

I also use light leaders. I was running 15lb test. Up’d it to 20lb for spoons and 25lb for flashers this year. Haven’t noticed a decline in hits yet. All flouro carbon.

for salmon I've been running 20 for spoons and 30 for flashers for quite a while for salmon with no issues.