Puerto Vallarta Fishing Reports

High Season For Fishing in Puerto Vallarta Begins Now!

October 30, 2026 9 minute read

Officially, we are now in the ending days of October which is the beginning of both high season for tourism and for world class fishing in Puerto Vallarta. Everyone has heard about the El Nino Year we’re having and it has presented its challenges. Earlier this summer we had rather extreme water temperatures, that has changed to a more comfortable temperature of 85 degrees. With all the recent hurricanes we’ve seen days when the port was closed. But with every Hurricane cloud comes a silver lining in the form of Marlin, Sailfish, and Yellowfin Tuna amigos. We have wide open fishing, but it could be some work, nothing here is easy. Then again, nothing good is ever is!

Like I mentioned earlier, we don’t really know where this whole “El Nino” monster is going to go. Earlier in the season we were seeing 90-degree water temperatures and they went north of that. We had very early Yellowfin Tuna of size at Corbetena in June. Blue Marlin also came in early. But the big surprise was the Black Marlin. We didn’t really see any last year at all. Black Marlin seems to like the hotter water temperatures and show up when the water is exceptionally warm. Now that the water is back to the comfortable range of 85 or so, we’re seeing Blue Marlin at stretched out from Corbetena to north of Punta Nayarit, to El Banco and waters north.

You may have recently heard my part of Mexico has been dealing with Hurricanes, one after another and it’s been sending swells, rain and heavy weather up and down the Mexican cost. We’ve been more or less “shut in” when it comes to fishing. But what we had improving fishing conditions as the numbers of Blue Marlin 250 lbs. to 400 lbs. are picking up. Yellowfin Tuna are running anywhere from 60 lbs. to 200 lbs off Corbetena to El Banco. But north of El Banco by about 15 miles or so, the Yellowfin are much more abundant, larger and hungry! but be advised as mentioned earlier fish are on the move. One day they they’re at Corbetena, the next they’re north of El Banco. With El Nino we lose our normal currents that push fish into the area. So the mentioned Hurricanes will push fish into the area, and that’s where we are now. Sailfish are also running the area as well. What we normally see is the October time frame means a big increase in Sailfish numbers. With mostly blue water, no bait issues and perfect water temperatures of 85 degrees and dropping.

These past few days, in between the Hurricane port closures, we see the Sailfish numbers in the area From Punta Nayarit to El Morro rocks picking up in numbers and they’re hungry. There is a Trash line in this area, but nothing is happening on it which is disappointing. I heard a rumor there was a Dorado hookup, but this is the only information I have for local Dorado which is very unusual. It’s the currents and the complete disarray of how the water is flowing up the entire west coast of the Americas! The good news is there is plenty of bait in the water, so you’ve got a better than 70% of boating a Sailfish. Now we have seen some hits on live skipjack Tunas by Blue Marlin about ten miles off the point and that’s not as unusual as you may think. If Dorado come in, and they should be in already, this area will be a hot spot! Also, there have been some Roosterfish boated north of Sayulita on sandy beach areas.

Inside the bay is our normal summer fishing conditions. That means most of our world class fishing at this time of the year is about larger species like Marlin or Yellowfin Tuna. At this time of the year we normally have Dorado in the bay. This year for some reason they’re missing. With the Turtles being released, they’re normally in the bay looking for an easy meal, but not so far this year. What we are still seeing are Jack Cravalles, normally a winter species taking baits from 15 to 25lbs. We still have some Sierra Mackerels, again a winter species, in the bay. Bonito to 20 lbs. and are very tasty! The big surprise is there are Sailfish in the Los Arcos Area of good size and more abundant than you’d think. There are baby Dorado and very young Roosterfish off the Punta Negra beach, but they’re mostly not keepers so let them go. Not too much to say about the bay, but you’ll catch fish and have fun. Great for family days on the water. Something people seem to ignore is the simple fact not everyone wants to catch “Mody Dick”! If you’re in PV with a family, you want to catch fish, no way around it and that’s what we’re selling. At times when the action could be better in the bay, you need to remember the fishing is always great in the bay, always! The only questions is what’s going on in your head? Do you want to boat a “bucket list” species, we’ll do that. But what if you have a short day and you want to catch something for the dinner table. Well, we can fix you up. If you want table fare species, Snappers are all around structure near Yelapa and other locations. You can go home with a full fish box if you’re open minded and don’t demand a fish as big as your car. These trips, I’d suggest six hours, are less expensive, not too long of a day and super fun. I can go out and chase “Monsters” every day, but in reality, local, inshore style fishing is perfect for me as well. So if you’re looking for Suggestions, just ask… I’m full of it. I mean of them… ha ja!

The weekly details are pretty much the same as last week. Get on the water and be at your chosen fishing grounds buy 08:00. It seems the Jacks and Bonito are hitting early morning, but the later hours are good for Sailfish for some reason. Water temperatures are dropping and are still at the 85-degree range in most locations. We have some dirty water in the bay from the local rains and like mentioned earlier, a trash-line that’s mature is a fisherman’s friend.

Master Baiter’s Sportfishing is the only fishing company in Puerto Vallarta that offers this Freeze Your Catch and Store until you come and get it!

Tuna Bite: I’ve been getting reports that north of El Banco, about 15 miles north has been seeing great action with Yellowfin Tuna anywhere from 70 lbs. to over 200 lbs. depending on how lucky you are. Now we have a series of new boats for exactly this bite, especially if you’re not into an overnight or longer trip. My 33 ft. Grady White, with a couple of 250 hp Yamahas will put you on Tuna, but it’s a 15 hr. day that seems like a much shorter day. We also have our 67 ft. Hatteras Sportfishing Yacht for multi-day trips and we’re considerably less expensive than out competition with private bathrooms and cabins! I’ll past a picture below to get you excited.

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 signup 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!

One last thing, recently there has been a lot of news articles about Puerto Vallarta in the interest of public safety in Canada and the U.S.A. I have to say I’ve never seen so much fear mongering in my life. We’re all scratching our heads about the “out and out lies” they’re pushing. Yes, we had one day, 1 stupid day where the local bad guys created some chaos that happened on a Sunday. By Monday morning all the “chaos” was long gone and people were going to work and living their lives like normal people do in Puerto Vallarta. But I got another phone call today, they were telling me the mainstream press in north America is running an endless loop with AI making it all worse. Well, I had to put a video together because even my long-time clients and friends think it’s dangerous here in PV, it isn’t. If you’d like to see the video I posted, nothing fancy, but it addresses the issue. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6MWHVjlR8U

Thanks for reading my reports and if you’d like to get on my mailing list for my Newsletters, send me an email (Catchfish@MasterBaiters.com.mx) and I’ll put you on the list. Look for us on

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Thank you very much for visiting my site. We do all of this to earn your confidence and your business. If you come in the shop and mention that you’ve been reading my reports, I’ll give you a free T-Shirt with a charter. And as a customer we will freeze and store your catch. This is an exclusive service for Master Baiter’s Sportfishing & Tackle’s clients !

Written by Stan Gabruk