Fishing

Time to meet the Captain – Captain Ed Kunze

By Paul Phillips

I met him back in 2000. I had talked with him a bit before then, figured oh, just another gringo in paradise, I was wrong. Only took one meeting, one short evening to know he was the guy, he had it together. Capt. Ed Kunze could fish, could write, and he was 100% behind saving the fishery of Zihuatanejo. He fishes conventional but his passion is fly fishing and a passion it is. He wanted fly fishing in ZIH to such a degree that he went to the deserts of Baja’s East Cape for three months to guide for Baja on the Fly and conduct a self taught school. He got an Orvis endorsement as a guide, came back to ZIH and started training captains in the boat handling and bait handling techniques to get fly fishing off the ground and running in Zihuatanejo. Run it does, four years ago you might have seen one guy with a short round tube containing a long stick on the dock, but today they are common, they fill pangas and cruisers daily. He did it, he introduced the sport to ZIH, and brought the fly fishermen here to flail their long wands with pieces of feathers on the ends.

When he isn’t fishing, he is writing. His column in this magazine, “Meet the Captains,” has been spotlighting a different tag and release captain in ZIH every month since October 2000. He doesn’t run short of captains because he is constantly convincing new Captains to get with the program to save the fishery for their children. His column has contributed much information on the captains of the ZIH fleet and he has also written on topics such as Mexican dishes and culture.

Capt. Ed is 55, his formal education is a Degree in Civil Engineering. He has lived in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico for six years. He has fished many parts of the world, including the San Diego Long Range fleet, Panama, the Mediterranean, Canada, Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the Baja Peninsula, and Mexico's mainland. He is a guide for conventional gear and fly fishing for billfish, dorado, and roosterfish. He was listed among the top ten captains in the world in last year's Tag and Brag competition for tagging billfish. Kunze is also the only non-Mexican captain licensed and permitted to fish with tourists in the Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo region and he is currently the International Game Fish Association representative for the Zihuatanejo area. Capt. Ed has trained most of the area captains in techniques for fly fishing saltwater species, and was HIGHLY instrumental in establishing the tag and release program for billfish in Zihuatanejo. He is a Salt Water Fishing author and a regular fishing columnist, who is active, with both U.S. (TBF, NOAA) and Mexican organizations (PESCA), in the conservation of the saltwater fishery in Mexico. He is now involved in establishing a roosterfish tagging program and foundation.

Many people have asked why I recommend booking fishing trips through Ed Kunze. Ed isn’t a charter broker in the sense of charter brokers, travel agents, etc. Ed lives in ZIH. He doesn’t broker charters and stay in the US, Europe, Asia or somewhere else in Mexico. He doesn’t have a “representative on the dock”, but not have anyone around to help you if needed, his representative is him. Ed is a fly fishing guide and he does assist captains with their charters, getting deposits, meeting their clients, doing language translation when required, etc. Many captains prefer and request you go through him to obtain their services. In turn he is welcomed aboard as a guide with “his” fly fishing clients.

His personal attention to detail doesn’t always mean just fishing. Ed had assisted a group from Europe in obtaining a charter from Jaime Morales, owner of the Vamonos boats and the guys were fishing on the Vamonos III. About 10:00 in the morning, Ed got a phone call from one of the wives. The women had been in a major accident, a head-on collision on the national highway, as they were heading back to Zihuatanejo. He told her he would be there in ten minutes. Capt. Ed called Capt. Ruben on the Vamonos III by cell phone and had the guys turn around and head back in. Capt. Ed not only helped coordinate with the Federal police, ambulances, hospitals and doctors, he stayed with his clients every step of the way to ensure they got the medical attention they needed. He was also there to help translate and just offer all around reassurance, giving a vote of confidence to the injured and their families who were in a foreign country, unable to speak the language and had no idea what to expect. There were X-rays, surgeries and broken bones but luckily none of the injuries were too serious and everything was taken care of. The statesman for the group gave Capt. Ed about as good a compliment as a man can get in the form of a thank you when he said, “We are just appreciative you were here to help us today.” Ed’s answer was his usual, “No problemo.”

If you want to contact Capt Ed for your next fishing trip in ZIH, he can be reached at (755) 554-4876 or edkunze@prodigy.net.mx. For more information on Capt. Ed and his boats go to www.sportfishing-ixtapa.com or www.zihuatanejo.net/seaandsand .

Paul Phillips is the founder of Fintastic’s Tag & Release Tournament, Zihuatanejo’s first total tag and release billfish tournament held in Zihuatanejo from 1999-2003.

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