When trying to decide on a place to spend our honeymoon in August of 2009 there were really no options. Sarah had fallen in love with Roosterfish so the Pacific coast, from Mexico to Peru, was the destination right from the beginning. Deciding on an actual location was just as easy. I had always wanted to fish with a fellow named Ed Kunze who I had exchanged emails with quite a few years back. He seemed to know his stuff and boasted about the fishing around the then sleepy resort area of Ixtapa/Zihuatenejo.
As it would happen, friends of ours had purchased a condo in the area a couple of years back and we were able to rent it for our trip. I contacted Ed and explained our situation and he sent us a copy of the book he is writing about the area. We used this information to plan everything from the moon phases to what gear we would need. The only thing left to do was get there.
We booked three days with Ed. The first one would be spent gear fishing with a couple of local captains just to get our feet wet. We caught plenty of fish including Jacks, Bonita, Needlefish and Barracuda. Then the plan was to drive 2 hours south of town to a small fishing village where we could have miles of ocean all to ourselves for 2 days. Ed was a great tour guide during our drives. Pointing out sites of interest and teaching us about the local culture. He told us about some must see places and also places to avoid. The most important thing we learned was how to catch Roosters on the fly.
We would be fishing from the boat, casting towards fish that would be teased out of the surf zone with poppers. It was a team effort. One man controlling the boat and keeping us from getting caught inside the breaking waves. Another, Cheva, cast the poppers from the bow into the surf and reeled them back, hopefully with Roosters following. Ed coached us on were to cast, what to do with our line, proper stripping technique and explained everything there is to know about roosters. Sarah and I had the job of casting our flies next to the popper when it was in range and hoping that a Roosters would inhale them.
We had tough conditions. It had rained hard recently and the inshore waters were coloured. Although there were plenty of roosters, they were alot more finicky than usual. We had plenty of shots at fish and just as many refusals, some right at the boat. A few of the fish that we teased up were simply huge. Day one we got no takers but seeing the fish following the poppers and made us all the more excited to get back on the water. Day two was much like day one. Intense and Frustrating all at once. Sarah had a case of the 40 ounce flu and at one point someone joked that she was chumming the water for us. I blew a shot at the largest fish of the trip and needed to sit down and think about it. Sarah took the rod for her turn and on the next cast she was hooked up. She managed to ignore the four guys yelling instructions to her (we suspected her fish would be a world record) and landed the fish after a frantic fight. We tried to fish some more after that but were eager to get this fish back to a certified scale to weigh.
Two hours seems like a lifetime when you have a possible record fish in the vehicle. We got to a scale and the fished weighed in just over the current record. After a bit of paperwork and 5 months of waiting we recieved official word that the record has been accepted. Sarah was the Womens flyfishing 8 kilogram record holder for Roosterfish.
Earlier this year the record was broken. We knew that it wouldn't last long as there is a small number of women fly anglers who hold the majority of records. The new record could easily be broken in Ixtapa and maybe one day we will give it a shot.
