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