The more things change, the more they stay the same. We’ve seen some small changes this week in our world famous fishing grounds of Puerto Vallarta. Water temperatures are still a steady 85 with bait and water conditions just this side of perfect. Blue water, Sailfish, Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna are here for the taking. Dorado are still small, but we won’t complain. The whole area from the beaches to Corbetena are full of action as we continue deeper into High Season for fishing in Puerto Vallarta.
Every year the fishing season develops differently. Forest would say “Fishing is like a box of chocolates”! With constantly changing currents and weather conditions we never know what we’re going to get. This year we’re seeing some exciting indicators and frankly I haven’t been this excited for the new fishing season for many years. Water temperatures are perfect, Bait conditions are perfect, the seas are as smooth as I’ve ever seen. Yellowfin Tuna of good size, early season Dorado in large numbers. I mean we even have had some rain so there are mature Trash Lines, it’s very exciting stuff. Want to know more, keep reading…
The Season is developing nicely. Water temperatures are up to a perfect level and after all that Spinner action last week with smaller Tuna, we’re now seeing some sizeable Yellowfin Tuna. Sailfish are increasing in numbers and size, Stripers aka Striped Marlin are still in the area even with the increased water temps. Big surprise yesterday was a Blue Marlin boated off Corbetena. Early summer fishing couldn’t be better than it is now. Even Punta Mita has come to life. We have arm burning action and by all indications this is just the beginning of a great season, YeHa!
This year it seems the seasonal rains are slow in arriving. We’ve seen rain, not the heavy, all night type of pours we’re used to s we’re getting trash lines. This of course means the water in the bay is clean for the most part. What was encouraging last week, has trickled down to finding Spinner Dolphin and hoping they’re running with Football Tuna. It’s a 60 / 40 thing, with vs. without. Other than that there are fish in our fishing grounds. You’ll either want to go for a shorter day or ten hours. Eight hours is on the thin side right now with few Dorado and Stripers in some areas. The bottom line is it seems the fish are swimming freely with no real issues with too many fishing boats in our fishing grounds for the moment. If you’re here in PV this is a great time to be in a boat!
Let’s start with the deep water fishing grounds of Corbetena. Locally known as the “Rock”, things have been happening in our absence. Sailfish are circling the area now, Striped Marlin are running the area also from 60 to 150 lbs. It’s early and we’ll see some smaller Stripers but this is a temporary thing as they’ll continue moving north to the Cabo area with cooler water temperatures. Yellowfin Tuna are a surprise to me running anywhere from 40 to 100 lbs in June! We aren’t seeing any real numbers of Black or Blue Marlin, but the water temperatures are in the correct range so it’s just a matter of time, stay tuned.
I was talking with Capt. Cesar a few weeks back and I was asking him what Fluorocarbon line was going for, as he replied about two dollars a meter or yard, it sounded correct, but expensive. Monofilament is 75% cheaper. Both have specific good and bad points. But when you walk into a tackle shop and you look around you are in essence in a fish hardware store. Each product has a specific use, it is up to you to decide how it’s all going to be put together hopefully using your local knowledge to guide your way. But what if you don’t know “why” you would want a specific type product? It’s just fishing, right? Fishing line is just fishing line, right? The answer is of course, yes, it’s just fishing, and Leonardo just painted pictures. It all depends on how you decide to look at things.
As we come into the summer season, for the most part now the ‘breeding season’, you know Spring fishing season when the fishing is not at it’s best. No worries, it passed us by this year, but that means we’re coming into the beginning of High Season for Big Game Fishing! Sailfish will be picking up in numbers, Striped Marlin may already be roaming PV’s deep water locations and this is just the beginning. It gets pointed out to me all the time that most people don’t have my level of knowledge about the bay. Now I am a long way from being an expert, but I am familiar with the local area and this is what we’ll be seeing in the next few coming weeks. Puerto Vallarta is coming back to life, Fishing is open, but the supporting local businesses open June 1st and we’re already getting reservations.
I was talking with my friend and business associate Carlos, he mentioned that he loves my “Stuff”… But, insert pause, I”m not really learning anything. So, coming from a guy who is more about business than fishing, he doesn’t have a clue as to what fish are in the bay. Carlos and his family are “PataSalada” or translated: They’ve been here since before the Love Boat found us! Know’s nothing except the basics of Marlin, Dorado, Yellowfin Tuna, Sailfish. I can imagne there are many people who really aren’t into fishing, but would find this interesting, so here we go folks.
I was telling a friend about the things I learned from a group from the Scripts Institute, students from the world famous College of Oceanography in San Diego county. Living in Southern California, to me this college was the way people actually got their foot in the door, in the oceanography world that is. So when I noticed a scientific type / military-ish boat was just “marching” a ‘step’ at a time around the bay it was out of the ordinary. You never really know what many of these ships are doing in the bay. This particular day the crew from this ship came to my shop to get some of our world famous T-shirts.
During this “Pandemic” fishing here in Puerto Vallarta is locked down, we’re not even allowed to go fishing on a private boat. For now of course we’re in the same boat as the rest of the world. Being in the “Big Game Fishing” business I’m naturally very keen on the market around me. With the internet now we have all sorts of options available online. Great looking sites, look very professional, but what do you know about this company, I mean it’ not Amazon now is it? With companies like Master Baiter’s or Mikes Fishing, you can easily find the owner and get any contact information you may want. But when you’re looking at some web page which is booking second or third rate fishing boats in Puerto Vallarta, what do you know about these people or this company. Remember online sites are not regulated by the authorities. What does this mean, stay tuned!
