Summer is here bringing with it the seasonal rains, many call monsoons, but in reality it’s just a mostly daily heavy rain that will last a few hours then leave a nice, “fresh” breeze to follow. If you’re a local, it’s a welcome break from the heat and humidity. But if you’re a “fish”, the rain is a god send. The rain fills the rivers, washing the organic materials like leaves, twigs, seeds and many other things fish love to eat. We call this a trash line, clean water on one side, dirty water behind it. Finding a mature trash line can guarantee Dorado. Same goes for floating debris or floating logs, you have a Dorado Goldmine! Trash lines can be great for Dorado and other smaller fish. But if you’re looking for a species bigger than your car, aka a Black Marlin, you’ll need a ten hour day. Bucket List Marlin are presently at your disposal and being boated daily! It appears that we’re finally in the middle of our summer fishing season. For those holding off on making reservations hoping for better Marlin or Tuna, it’s time to make a move.
This week it seems like we’ve been riding a rollercoaster. Some days are incredible and some days are not as good as we would like. But every day is a new day and we’re seeing slight, yet important changes in conditions. We’ve also seen heavy rains in the mountains and in the local area. Everything seems to be in a “flux” situation where one day you can have great arm burning action, the next you’re wondering what happened? The fact of the matter is fishing is an inexact sport where we’re all vulnerable to the whims of the weather and the fish gods. The secret is to be informed and ready to go in a heartbeat. Having said that, this week is definitely better than the last week with the challenges of no bait at Corbetena, but there were fish if you could make bait. This week things are much the same, but like always, not everything is the same. Small improvements can mean big differences in targeted species and the amount of action you can expect. Right now you’re rolling the dice, the only question is, how lucky are you?
As we get deeper into the early stages of Puerto Vallarta’s high season for fishing, we’re still waiting for the “fishing” public to arrive. Nothing new here, this is pretty much normal. As we see the conditions pick up, there really aren’t very many fishing charters. We have great fishing, but it’s hard to give a report, when there are so few anglers hitting our fishing grounds right now. Now this may sound negative, but in reality it’s an opportunity to have Puerto Vallarta’s world famous fishing grounds to yourself. Now this is priceless when you have 300 lb Marlin, Sailfish, Dorado and more waiting for you to arrive! So forgive any holes there may be in this week’s report, but the bottom line is we have great fishing and if you head out to these fishing grounds, then next week, I’ll be writing about you! If not, I’ll be writing about somebody else.
Well, it’s starting. We’re seeing another massive infusion of Smaller Sardines and other baits moving into the area on top of what’s already out there. To call this whole area “Bait Landia” would not be an exaggeration. Water temperatures are staying steady between 73 and 75 degrees. The days are longer now, the water is warming on the surface and the “Seasonal Change” indicators are kicking in again. Soon we’ll be changing the clocks here in Mexico, I understand North America has already changed. Normally we get past Easter before we see the drastic results of swirling and clashing currents which result in coffee colored dirty water. Mix that in with the “clean green” and then the green water that looks like coffee is frustrating. There are some blue spots of water out past Corbetena a bit and of course north of El Banco. With this being a La Nina Year, we may be seeing the regular seasonal patterns returning to normal.
You know I’ve been writing these articles now for something like twenty years. In that time, writing and paying attention to conditions, you begin to learn and see what happens with the seasonal changes. That means how currents work, water temperatures change, the results of these types of natural ocean movements and the things that just don’t “fit” in the scenario. So it’s not surprising to me when the seasonal changes comes and frankly we’ve been waiting for it. But it’s a La Nina year, which throws a wrench into everything you’d expect, especially water temperatures. Then we come into March.
Well, we made it past the holidays with decent fishing if not challenging. When it comes to Sportfishing in Puerto Vallarta, right now anything is possible. From Corbetena to Punta Nayarit (aka Punta Mita) it’s a real mixed bag and if you don’t have the inside scoop, you’re struggling. For the last few weeks we’ve seen a rollercoaster of water temperatures, crazy currents, massive amounts of Krill (aka whale food), Blue water, Clean Green water, you name it, we’ve been dealing with it. Some days the fishing is on fire, other days they’re nowhere to be found and even worse, when you do find them, they won’t take bait. We’ve seen this all before and the experienced captains know what to do. So what’s the answer, for now we’re throwing the “kitchen sink” at them, once again demonstrating how important a “bag of tricks” at the ready is! Even with massive amounts of bait in the water lures will still “work”. But things will be changing soon, our warm water summer species of Marlin and Tuna will be bugging out soon. For now if you’re lucky enough to be in Puerto Vallarta fishing, you’ve still got time to get that “Bucket List” finned fantasy before we transition to winter species.
Here we go again, the rollercoaster of rising and falling water temperatures has struck again. It’s frustrating because we know “The Big Chill” is coming. Every year I hope we get through the holiday season with warmer water temperatures so the fishing remains great for the holiday travelers. So we got past Christmas, but barely and now we’re seeing dramatic drops in water temperature. Which means we saw the return of dirty water and the clean green water. Both are indicators of colder water temperatures, but we’ve seen this as recently as two weeks ago. So what happened? Who knows, all I know is we have to deal with it. The good news is we still have Marlin, Sailfish and Dorado. The bad news is we also have massive amounts of Krill or Whale food. This means every species in the area is chowing down on the “fast food”, which is known as Krill. The challenges are obvious. But even with massive krill, which even the bait if feeding on, you can still have some great action. It’s not going to be easy, being equipped with the right information can improve the odds, stay tuned.
Under big blue beautiful skies Puerto Vallarta is a fishing wonderland right now. Normally we have colder water than we do so it’s interesting to see warm water species all over the area in their “off” season. Yes folks Punta Mita is alive with some of the most desirable species we have and they’re not too far out. An eight hour fishing trip can almost make you think it’s summer! It doesn’t matter what you’re looking to catch, you have a shot, maybe a low percentage shot, but hey, it’s a shot, take a pic!
