Feliz Navidad and a Happy (safe & healthy) Holidays from the crew of MARIANA, Incand LaPazFishingCharters.com.  This week the fishing community, which is much closer than many of us realize, lost a great angler and wonderful educator.  David Inchinaga passed away during the morning of December 19th after losing his battle to cancer.  Please take a minute to pray for his family as they grieve during the holiday season.  God blessed the angling community with his knowledge, friendship, and “Old School” presence; he will be missed. 

The fishing in La Paz remains challenging this winter; its windy,  cold in the evenings, and can be rough and wet as you make your way to the many world famous fishing grounds here.  However, for those that persevere and “go for it,” we are still catching an amazing variety of great fish that the areas are well known for-  Call it “quid pro quo.”

The schools of Sierra Mackerel seem to be getting stronger and anglersare loading up these awesome eating fish!  Sierras often go after anything shiny in the water and without hesitation.  Fishing with the correct light tackle set-up makes these fish an absolute blast.  I don’t know what is better, catching or eating these fish, hahaha. 

The weather is really the only challenge right now, as far as the fish go, variety is still up, but sizes have moved more towards normal.  Pargo (snappers) and Cabrilla (bass) are getting targeted a bit more as we try to stay close to shore using the islands and/or mainland to shelter anglers from the winds.  You don’t have to get too creative down here right now because most of the species we’re catching are mostly hitting sardines.  I’m not saying leave your irons at home, but fishing live bait is easier- you don’t ‘have’ to work as much.

For good fishing action and CPR (catch, photo, release) we are still catching smaller roosterfish and have been able to get into some schools of Jack Crevalle (Los Toros).  Both of these fish are great fighters and an absolute blast on the right match-up, but neither of these are popular on the plate.  If you are looking to put some fish in the freezer, we are still catching some Dorados, which are probably the most popular amongst our clients.  Rumors have it, that if you did make all the way it out to Cerralvo Island  (at the right time), there were Tuna and Wahoo roaming about.

On 1/4/2009 at 9:30am PST, our 2nd episode with Ronnie Kovach’sFishing Ventures will air on Fox Sports Net West; the show reruns on 1/6/09 at 2:30pm PST on FSN West.  I also want to remind everyone to listen for the LaPazFishingCharters.com Weekly Fishing Report with Ronnie Kovach’sRadio Fishing University on the 50,000 mega-watt AM 830 KLAA every Sat morning from 5-7am PST.  We will be hosting many listener trips in 2009 as well as filming some additional episodes for FSN with a grab bag of athletes and entertainers.  Join us and beat some of your favorite celebrities on the water!

Feliz Navidad and Happy Holidays!  Enjoy this Pargo recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh parsley, chopped, divided
• 2 lbs fresh pargo fillets recently caught with: www.LaPazFishingCharters.com  
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1/2 cup tomato juice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tomato, sliced
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. In a lightly greased baking pan, spread 1-1/2 cups of parsley.

3. Arrange red snapper fillets on top of parsley.

4. Combine onion, garlic, tomato juice, white wine and remaining parsley; spread over the snapper.

5. Arrange the tomato slices on top of parsley mixture.

6. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

7. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until snapper is opaque and flakes when tested with fork.