Written by Stan Gabruk of Master Baiter’s Sportfishing & Tackle November 13th, 2026
Puerto Vallarta Fishing Report
We’ve entered the best fishing period of the year. However, the timing can still be challenging in an El Niño year. The good news is water temperatures are perfect. There is high visibility blue water everywhere. There are massive amounts of bait around the area. The hurricane season is over, finally. Dorado are moving into the area, trickling in. All our major pelagic species are running our deep-water fishing grounds as well. If you plan on fishing here in Puerto Vallarta, now is the time to get on the water!
Puerto Vallarta Fishing Report
Anywhere from Corbetena to El Banco are fertile fishing grounds. If you’re looking for Blue or Black Marlin at the 300 lbs level, we’ve got them. If you’re chasing Yellowfin Tuna from 30 lbs upwards, they’re also running in this area. There is plenty of varied bait, and the water is high-visibility blue. With water temperatures around 84 to 86 degrees, the conditions are near perfect.
This Puerto Vallarta Fishing Report notes strong action north of El Banco, with larger Yellowfin Tuna likely nearby. At a tournament last week there were Dorado and Sailfish at the weigh-ins, the first real sign of Dorado just in time for the tournaments. Corbetena remains a great option for anglers seeking variety, with Black or Blue Marlin possible there as well. Remembering that fish move, be prepared to burn fuel to reach your Bucket List targets.
Puerto Vallarta Fishing Report
For those seeking an 8 hr fishing trip, the area around El Morro, about six miles south of the Marietta Islands, yields Sailfish of good size. The other day smaller Yellowfin Tuna Footballs were spread from this area to Corbetena. Bait isn’t an issue, but you may have to push some water to find your catch. Dorado are moving into the area, and this is a potential hot spot in the near future. Stay tuned. You’ll also find Jack Crevalles and Bonito around 20 lbs, which can be good bait.
The other day there was a trash line that yielded smaller species like Jack Crevalles and Football Tuna. If you’re chasing action, you’ll likely find it in this zone.
Moving a bit north between the Marietta Islands and Punta Nayarit (aka Punta Mita), anglers have been seeing Striped Marlin, with possible Dorado and Sailfish. This area isn’t exactly on fire, but if you’re willing to roll the dice, anything is possible. Again, blue water, plenty of bait in the area and Roosterfish are worth targeting. Give yourself eight hours and you could come back with a fish story for the rest of your life!
Inside the bay, it’s always great fishing. This year we’ve seen some strange stuff with the El Nino situation. If you’re targeting Sailfish, your chances right now in the bay are every bit as good as Corbetena or at Punta Nayarit. In fact, a few weeks ago, when a Hurricane was passing the bay, I had a client who boated one baby Sailfish, a large Sailfish and a 250 lbs. Blue Marlin, no more than three miles out of the entrance to Marina Vallarta. Now this was highly unusual and we’ll blame El Nino, but this gives you an idea of how mixed up the fishing is right now. We just had the Dorado Tournament at Los Muertos Pier, they were boating the first real signs of Dorado this year! Everything seems to be about two months “late” this year. But those looking for a shorter day and have some fun action, the bay can’t be beat. Again, Sailfish are focused in two areas, La Cruz area and Los Arcos. But they’re pretty much all over the bay, so anything is possible, but if you want to target Sails, you now know where to go. With good sized Jack Crevalles, Bonito, Skipjack Tuna and more, you won’t go wrong with a six-hour trip in the bay.
One thing I forgot to mention, we’ve been seeing Roosterfish in the 20 to 30 lbs. range in the south end of the bay. Punta Negra north past Yelapa are great places to try because the beaches there are both sandy with rocks, aka structure. With bait in the surf, this is perfect for Roosterfish and they’re super fun to catch.
Details: If you’re here in PV and you’re taking your own boat out, be advised the conditions are close to perfect. With no rain, we didn’t have much dirty water this year and maybe that’s why we have so many Sailfish in the bay. Bait is readily abundant in the form of Sardines, Ballyhoo’s (which nobody uses for bait), Google Eyes, and as the water temperatures drop, Squid in the form of Krill or larger will be the Whale Food that brings them into the bay. The bite has been pretty steady from about 09:00 to late afternoon! Live bait is king, naturally. But lures or dead bait can work as well, so give it a try.
A bit extra: For most of this fishing season, El Nino and the changing currents have pushed our fish to the north, to areas like San Diego. That’s normal with an El Nino, but things are changing as our water temperatures are still perfect, but they’re not the normal 90 degrees. We’ve also had our share of “close to shore” Hurricanes this year and that didn’t help our fishing season much. But like I said, things are changing and will improve our fishing situation quickly. Water temperatures in Southern California are dropping rapidly as is normal. The Species we’d normally be targeting here, will be moving south in a big way. With several pending storms near Alaska, with the combination of these two specific situations, fish will start moving south. To expand a bit, there are actually two major storms, bringing 40 ft high waves to the west coast as a cold front moving quickly will soon put an end to their season. In about two weeks, I’m expecting Dorado numbers and sizes to increase. Yellowfin Tuna should also be moving in and with our bait situation, why would they leave? So I’m hoping for a super strong late summer / spring season invasion of Yellowfin Tuna, Dorado and Sailfish.
Shared Fishing Trips: One last thing, the demand for people looking to share a fishing trip has gotten to the point I had to figure out something. For those singles or double’s that are looking to go fishing and the budget isn’t quite there. Or for the person who wants to make it more of a social thing as you catch fish, I now have an area on my web page where you can sign-up to share a fishing trip. No be warned, we’re still working out any bugs. We will only offer two boat types and depending on the people looking to share a boat can look on my calendar, on the web page to see if there are people looking to share on a date. We can go from there. For shared tips, we normally do 8 hrs. Half a super panga for instance would be good for two people. If we have more than four people, we’ll jump that boat up to a larger boat. We’re still working the bugs out, but if you’d like to check out the page, you can here: https://masterbaiters.com.mx/shared-trips/ .. Like I said, it’s a project in work, if you have any suggestions, please share them. And if you’re looking to share a trip before we get this all “bug free”, just contact me and we’ll go from there. From Mid-November on through high season, we’ll be offering this option, so check it out!
Until my next report, don’t forget to kiss your fish!
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Written by Stan Gabruk
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