It sure looks like winter has arrived here in Leavenworth. Although it has snowed quite a bit I am still holding out hope that we get enough rain to wash it away and I can get some more trips in with the Smoker Craft. I don’t want to tuck it away too soon and miss some great early winter fishing.

Judging by the amount of snow that we got here in Leavenworth this past week, I picked a great time to be away. My wife and I spent the past week in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, enjoying the sunshine and mid 80s temperatures. This town of about 160,000 is on the Pacific Coast north of Acapulco. It is known for beautiful beaches and great fishing. One of the first things we did, after getting settled in, was to arrange a fishing trip with Victor Vargas Valle, who we met on the La Ropa Beach in front of our hotel. He picked us up early in the morning and delivered us to the marina, where we were met by his cousins Carlos and Jair aboard their super panga. We headed out of the bay into the open ocean, with “the White Rocks” as our destination fishing grounds. This large rock island has no vegetation and is home to hundreds of birds. Soon after the rods were run out, we hooked a nice bonito, the first of six I would land that day. The first baited hook on an outrigger got a savage strike, but either a big Sierra or shark had cleanly cut the line. Although we didn’t get another strike on our bait rod, we did see three huge leatherback turtles and a pod of dolphins. It was a great day on the water. This week’s photo was taken on the boat that day.

Whenever I travel, I always take at least one rod along. Sometimes as many as three. When I am heading for Belize, I will take a few, two flyrods and a spinning rod. On this trip to Zihuatanejo I just took a spinning rod along and a few lures that I felt would be good for species that hang out close to shore. One morning my wife Eileen and I walked to the far edge of La Ropa Beach, where a breakwater met the shoreline. I tried a lure that was really made for topwater bass fishing, but when I threw it as far as I could, where I could see some rocks on the bottom, I saw something slash at it. I finally hooked something that jumped and tore off some line. When I got it to the beach, I discovered that it was a needle fish that was about 3 feet long. These fish are very slender and have a long needle nose with rows of sharp teeth. I released it and although I tried several more casts didn’t hook anything else. At one point my lure popped off, but Eileen spotted it on the water, and I was able to swim out and retrieve it. This experience was encouraging, though. I am always the optimist!

After having some success casting from shore in Zihuatanejo at one end of the mile-long La Ropa Beach, I tried a spot at the very opposite end. There was a big rocky point here with many large rocks scattered all the way into the shore. This was a very popular spot for snorkelers, so I had to be sure to avoid them with my casts. I did see some fish splash near my lure, and I was pretty sure they were needle fish. I was throwing that topwater bass lure but switched to a pink and white Shimano lure that weighed three ounces and would put me closer to those rocks. The needle fish liked this one, and I landed two, before losing it on one of the rocks. As I was tying on another plug, a snorkeler came up and gave me the lure I had lost. He saw it stuck on the bottom and brought it to me. I was amazed to have my hot lure back, and after a couple more casts I landed a small snapper. Fishing like this was a great way to spend the time on the beach, and next time I will know what kind of lures to take.

Anglers who like to fish for coho on the Icicle here in Leavenworth had some success, but the very low water conditions were an issue. This hampered the return of coho into the Icicle from the Columbia. According to the dam counts there were over 25 thousand coho that passed over Rock Island Dam and over 12 thousand went over Rock Reach. That means that there were as many as 13 thousand that could have run up the Wenatchee River and into the Icicle. Better water conditions came very late in the season, which ends on November 30th, and anglers did enjoy very good action when this occurred. I had heard that the number of coho that arrived made the stream look like something you would see in Alaska. I checked on the river prior to the end of the season and there were still people fishing and getting near or close to their limits. Everyone is hoping that the big returns of sockeye to the Icicle can be expected every year. Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate, and we will have higher water to conditions and excellent fishing much earlier in the season.

Now that I am home, I need to get out here locally and see what’s going on. If I can’t launch the boat, there are great shore fishing opportunities this time of year.