Sailfish are awesome!

Mexico Fishing Trip Report | Cory and Tara Glauner

TRIP TAKEN: Ixtapa Mexico Sailfishing Lodge
CONSULTANTS: Todd Osborn and Patrick Kissel | Outdoors International

January, 2022

Tara and I have had a busy few years. Building a house, totally rebuilding this website, living with my folks because we sold our house, raising kids, covid, etc. You know, normal life. We needed a break, and this fishing trip in Mexico was perfect. Our friends, Todd, Kim, Matt and Jodi had been here the year before and had a great time. In fact, it’s the Pembers favorite vacation and they asked to come with them this year. Sold! The outfitter offered a whole week to Outdoors International to host, so Patrick and Lacey put together the rest of the group. Time for some fun in the sun.

Flying to Mexico

Traveling to Mexico

Travel to Ixtapa, Mexico was pretty easy. Luckily we had learned from Todd’s vetting trip last winter to avoid Mexico City. We flew from Boise, had a short layover in LA and then arrived at the Ixtapa airport that afternoon. Man it felt good when that warm ocean air hit us as we stepped out of the plane.

The outfitter sent a shuttle to pick us up and it was a short one-hourish drive to the lodge where we were met with fresh lemonade on ice. Easy peasy other than having to wear masks on the plane. I hate the masks. We had a delicious dinner and met the rest of the group.

Fishing Lodge

The Lodge

The lodge is a gem in a poor Mexican fishing village. It isn’t super fancy, but it’s nice. The rooms are comfortable. There’s a pool and a great lounging area with a beautiful ocean view and a beach. The staff is friendly and accommodating, and the food is incredible. Authentic, homemade mexican food every day. Mostly fresh fish caught daily by our group.

Be warned though, there is no hot water, so get ready for some lukewarm showers. However, after a hot day out on the ocean they are almost welcome. Almost.

Dorado fishing is fun
Dorado. They’re beautiful when they’re alive and delicious when they’re dead.

Day One

We were up at 5:30 for coffee and a great breakfast, then the driver showed up to transfer us down to the marina. The girls at the lodge packed a cooler for us with lunch, waters and other beverages if you are so inclined.

I hooked my first sailfish within an hour. They fight hard! I was getting it in close to the boat and it broke off. NOOOOOOO!!!! Luckily though we hooked another one less than an hour later. I tried to get Tara to take this one but she insisted I fight it. I sure love her. We took some pics and admired the beauty for a few minutes before letting him swim back into the ocean. Felt good. Real good.

The rest of the day we caught a bunch of bonito, I caught my first dorado, we saw tons of sea turtles, dolphins, and a random refrigerator (which had dorado hanging under it). Everybody else caught fish as well. Lots of sailfish and dorado. Great day!

Today was the day Tara slayed the Dorado.
Today was the day Tara slayed the Dorado.

Day Two

Today we zero’d on the sailfish but slayed the dorado. Can’t complain. Life is good.

Roosterfish

Day Three

No, I’m sad to say that we didn’t catch that roosterfish. But we tried. We started out inshore and saw TONS of roosterfish, but couldn’t get anything to hit the bait. We toughed it out until about noon, caught a few bonitos and then headed back offshore. We saw some dolphins, lots of turtles, a few whales and caught quite a few big dorado. A good day even though it didn’t turn out like we wanted it to.

Funny story, some guys in our group fished offshore in the morning then headed inshore and slayed the roosterfish. They even caught a pompano, which we ate that evening. It was spectacular. Everybody else had a good day. Lots of sailfish and dorado were caught.

Tara and I being silly on the beach.
Tara and I being silly on the beach.

Day Four

Today was a long day on the water. Everyone else was inshore fishing today (and they killed it on the roosterfish). We didn’t even get a hit. Oh well. That’s fishing. After we got back to the lodge, we all decided to walk down to the beach before dinner. Before long we found ourselves sitting down at the local beach bar. The bartender was ecstatic to have a bunch of Americans at his place and really outdid himself entertaining us. Some of our group ordered drinks right about when we should be back for dinner so Patrick and I went back to the lodge to tell the cooks that we were fine and beg forgiveness for being late for dinner.

There was some confusion paying the tab we heard due to the conversion issue. I can’t stress enough that you should bring Pesos. Dollars are a pain for people to convert in the rural areas. It will save you a lot of headache. Dinner, as usual was amazing and everyone had fun shooting the breeze and telling stories from the week of fishing.

The next morning, Patrick had arranged for a nurse to come to the lodge to administer the required COVID test prior to flying home. It went smoothly and was much appreciated.

A week spent fishing with a great group of people who are now friends.
A week spent fishing with a great group of people who are now friends.

Most of the group flew out that day, but Tara and I went to relax at a Resort in Ixtapa with the Pembers for a few days.

In summary, a super cool trip if you like to fish. If your spouse likes to fish too, take them with you. If they don’t, they’ll hate it. Viva Mexico!

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Fishing Report

  • How would you rate your trip overall? It was a perfect winter fishing getaway.
  • How were your guides? We really liked our guides. Even though they didn’t speak any English, we were able to muster up a mix of Spanglish and Charades to ask questions, have some laughs.
  • How was your lodging? Good. The only reason I don’t say “great” is because our room was pretty simple and a bit…rustic. All of the rest of the rooms were very nicer.
  • How was the food? Delicioso! Traditional, local cuisine. If I have a complaint, there was just too much of it! LOL Seriously, though the food was great. Fresh caught fish (by us) every day. 
  • How was your outfitters communication? Good enough.
  • How physically demanding was your trip? Although, they can be some long, hot days out on the ocean in a panga, you can’t say that it was difficult.
  • How would you rate your consultant? Great. Todd had been here before and gave us some great tips, and Patrick was the host of the trip and did a great job.
  • Would you book another trip with OUTDOORS INTERNATIONAL in the future? Yes
  • Can we use your stories and/or photos on our website? Yes
  • Can we use this in social media? Yes. My Instagram handle is: @coryglauner
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There's a reason I keep booking this steelhead fishing trip!
Second time I’ve done this particular trip. The steelhead run was awesome! The food was even better than the first time, which is hard to imagine, and our guide is the best there is! If catching big fish is your thing I highly recommend booking through Outdoors International.
Ernie Sorenson
Mark Stasz with a great dorado.
We had an incredible time fishing in Mexico. We've already booked our next trip and can't wait to go back!
Mark Stasz
Greg Pope with a Strobel Lake rainbow trout.

I expected big trout on this trip based on all the stories I've read over the years, and I was not disappointed! I broke my own personal best rainbow trout record at least SIX times on this trip, with the biggest being a 16 pound beauty.

I will be going again soon!

Greg Pope

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Cory Glauner Founder, CTO
With a background in web development, online marketing as well as years of experience as a hunting guide and outfitter, Cory Glauner is the founder of Outdoors International.