Every angler, visitor or local alike have endless possibilities from the moment you leave Marina Vallarta. It´s an amazing this come this time of the year, Sailfish increase in numbers to the point of being the dominant species in the area. This week you can pretty much find Sailfish any where you´re heading to, anywhere. At Corbeteña there are plenty of Sails in the 200 inch range, well over 150 lbs, Plenty of Blue Marlin in the 350 to 600 lb range. Cubera Snapper to 60 lbs on trolled Skip Jack Tuna (Skippies). One nice development this week is Yellowfin Tuna are a little more abundant running 40 to 80 lbs, with some in the 125 lb range if lucky. I have also gotten 300 pounder Monster Reports, but nobody has seen any pictures, so I´ll leave that up to you.
The month of October in Puerto Vallarta is normally one of the hottest of the year. It´s normally November when we get the temperature break as the seasons change, but we´re feeling the ¨Indian Summer¨ about four weeks early this year. Not unusual for an El Nino year. The Rainy Days have more or less ended now, the trash line is a thing of the past. But the good news is we have Marlin, Sailfish and finally Yellowfin tuna at El Banco and Corbeteña. But it all comes down to luck and timing. Plenty of bait and high visibility Blue Water as we see enter PV´s High Season for Fishing improving!
It would be nice to tell my clients there is any species they would like to catch in our world famous fishing grounds. But in reality there are so many factors as to why a certain species is abundant, then there are others that should be abundant that are M.I.A.! One day you´re hitting fish like a machine, the next day you start to wonder if you went through a time warp after the extreme swings in available species at specific fishing grounds. What does this mean, well you don´t know if there´s going to be fish at your chosen fishing grounds or not. But there are fish out there, it is still fishing and at this level of fishing nothing, but nothing is guaranteed. For the local guy who can fish when things are perfect, then you´re like me, pick and choose your days. If you´re on Vacation looking for Moby Dick, I can tell you he´s out there, but he is cruising the neighborhood, eating until he´s full and then ignoring baits. It´s the Fisherman’s job to entice, to lure, and ultimately to get this fish to take your bait. So that´s the deal, fast moving fish, plenty of bait, stuffed fish, welcome to my world amigos, fishing just turned into ¨fishing¨!
Every year we wait patiently for October to arrive as this is when High Season for tourism begins. But we´re in the middle of High Season for fishing and the fishing is great. Lacking Dorado, we´re seeing Marlin, Sailfish, Tuna, yes I said Yellowfin Tuna coming in nicely. Water temps are perfect, the water is blue, the fish are here the only thing missing is you!
Very seldom do things change quickly in the world of Deep Sea Fishing and this week is much the same as last week, but a little different. What is different you may ask, well we´re seeing Dorado, finally at Corbeteña! But that´s not all, we´re in High Season for Fishing now so we´ll be seeing conditions improve, fish coming more and more abundant as water temperatures up north start to drop. The weather is perfect, water temperatures are still perfect and with the High Visibility blue water everything is coming together nicely. It´s time to shake that piggy bank amigos, Puerto Vallarta fishing is back on track which means World Class is here again!
After essentially writing the same fishing report for the last six weeks we finally have some Dorado moving into the area! Sailfish are everywhere and Marlin numbers are picking up as well. We even have Yellowfin tuna moving in, beautiful blue water and plenty of bait. It´s all coming together finally and we´re all chomping at the bit to get out in some of the world’s best fishing grounds!
As we move deeper into Fishing High Season here in Puerto Vallarta we see little change from the previous week. In fact if you read last weeks article, it´s pretty much the same. Having said that there have been some microscopic changes as late with Dorado moving, but don´t get your panties in a bunch, the numbers are not impressive. Marlin this week are averaging in the 450 to 600 lb range with very few boats heading to El Banco. Corbeteña is full of Sailfish and Cubera Snappers. Water temps are in the ¨perfect¨ range of 86 degrees. Blue Water, Plenty of Bait, Any Day Now… Any Day Now!
As you already know if you´ve been reading my weekly articles that the water due to strong and swirling currents is still dirty, coffee colored water. This is of course due to the muck being stirred up on the Sea and Bay floor bottom. But there seems to be some good news, things are getting a little better and soon we´ll be seeing some clean water, hopefully. For those adventurous souls who brave the ¨dirty tide¨ and head out past Punta Mita, you´ll find high visibility blue water. In that blue water is Sailfish and larger Black and Blue Marlin.
The good news is El Banco and Corbeteña are sitting in clean blue water! We still aren´t seeing Dorado anywhere of any size, but we do have Big Black Marlin, Sailfish and Cubera Snapper. So the ¨doom and gloom¨ period is coming to an end. So if you´re in the mood to boat some world class fish, then I suggest El Banco where Capt. Hector of Bella Del Mar, our 28ft Super Pango boated an 800 lb Marlin, Released four Sailfish and had two Marlin chasing baits. This floored me because we´ve been seeing 400 to 600 lb Marlin, decent sized but not large by any means. Now with the abundant bait in the form of Skip jack Tuna (at 10 lbs), Bonito, Flying fish, Goggle Eyes and more it´s nature’s version of McDonalds out there in ¨Fish City¨.
If you´ve been following my articles you already know the main fishing grounds have been taken over by muddy, dirty water from the seasonal rains. Not that this is abnormal, it´s just lasting longer than expected. The good news is the dirty water is finally clearing out of Corbeteña and loosening up around the Marietta Islands. Areas north of Punta Mita are cleaner, with local bay waters presenting challenges. Now if you find clean water which is just north of Corbeteña by about five miles you´ll find Sailfish and Marlin. So it´s not all doom and gloom for fishing, but you´ll need a little luck and an experienced captain.
