Steve and Terri Townsand were May's first serious fly fishermen and they chose the SOL.  Steve is a fishing professional who runs a guide service for fly anglers on the Trinity River and you should check out his website.  Phil was in awe of how Steve was able to roll the line to the surface and whip it out of the water to cast it right in front of him (on a rocking boat no less).  Steve hooked a number of small Dorado on the fly at the buoys in front of Sayulita.  Terri caught and released this beautiful Rooster using live bait and light tackle.  Captain Miguel, Juan and Phil were once again in awe of the beauty of the art of Flyfishing. 

A quick photo before the release

Captain Miguel and Juan are still finding it difficult to return to the Marina in the afternoon without a 'Catch of the Day'.  The other Captains don't help matters much.  Of course it is all in good fun but the comments like "Hey, you got Skunked Miguel" and "Yeah, sure you released ALL your fish" and "Struck out, huh?" don't help.  I guess Phil has a ways to go yet.  It is hard to educate a group who, for generations have supported their families by Catching fish, the logic of releasing them is not an easy concept for them to grasp.   

This is an excerpt from a publication called THE ANGLING REPORT.  It covers the latest fishing news world wide.  Phil is very proud of the mention that he received and is more enthusiastic than ever about the sport of Fly Fishing!  Carl Hoffman took this first ever fly fishing photo of Phil and of course Phil thinks that it should be on the cover of National Geographic or at least Field and Stream.

Cancun, Aruba, Puerto Rico….Over the years we have dug up names and contact details on guides and outfitters in all of these great spouse pleasing, general-tourism resort areas.  Now, Honor Roll subscriber Carl W. Hoffman has found a fishing guide in - of all places! - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  Our long-term goal, of course, is to make every general-tourism resort in the world "safe" for addicted anglers.  Good work, Carl!

To be sure, Puerto Vallarta is not a discovery-type place to go fly fishing.  What Hoffman found there was an emphasis on trolling for roosterfish, fishing the bay for sierra mackerel and some opportunities for false albacore.  He fished with two guides he found via the Internet, the first of whom he identifies as "Phil in PV" of Charter Fishing in Puerto Vallarta (Tel. 011-52-322-221-5402. E-Mail: philinpv@hotmail.com or ectm@pvnet.com.mx.  We site:  www.vallartafish.8m.com)

Hoffman says Phil admitted that he had only guided "several" fly anglers before.  Still he was "quite knowledgeable" about the long rodder's needs.  Hoffman says that on the day he fished with Phil they spent the morning unsuccessfully trying to catch some sierra mackerel in the bay for teaser bait and ended up trolling with purchased goggle-eyes to tease up roosterfish.  He says the only roosterfish they managed to catch was a 30- to 35- pound fish that hit the teaser bait and had to be landed on the spinning tackle they were trolling with.  Finally, the boat captain received a radio report about schools of false albacore about five miles off the beach and this is where Hoffman says he enjoyed many hookups with six to 10-pound albies.  Hoffman says he fished for eight hours with Phil and paid $350.  Despite Phil's limited experience, Hoffman recommends him to fly anglers who want to fish while visiting this destination. 

This photo if of Carl Hoffman, taken while fishing with Phil on the SOL.  Carl's advice to Vallarta fishermen is that they should be more aware of the 'Catch and Release' practice.  Phil is working with the captains and mates and they are now terrified to gaff ANYTHING.  This is good advice and we want anglers to enjoy our waters for years to come. 

Phil was happy to have his 2nd Fly fisherman in the same week.  Captain Miguel and Juan were feeling very confident and looking forward to taking Russ Mann out on the 17th.  When Phil picked him up in the morning, he noticed that Russ had a bag and Phil thought that there was a super high tech collapsible fly rod tucked inside.  Oops, it seems that someone forgot to mention that we do not have any fly gear.  Captain Miguel frantically ran around Los Peines Marina at 7:00 am in the totally unlikely chance that someone would have some.  Nope, not even a fly was found, dead or alive.  But Russ was a good natured guy and opted for a day of light tackle spin casting.  Phil read the 'Catch and Release Riot Act' in the morning.  Russ comically told Phil in the afternoon of how one of the Dorado that he caught was gut hooked and Juan was STILL hesitant to gaff the fish.  Of course Russ gave him the okay and Juan and his family had an unexpected Dorado dinner that night.   Sorry about the screw up Russ but the ESPERANZA is bringing in some fly gear so we will not have this problem again.