Welcome back to another exciting week of world class fishing in Puerto Vallarta. After years of writing about fishing and the conditions, I’ve learned that nothing is predictable when it comes to the oceans. Last week we were talking about the dropping water temperatures and the “clean green” water that wouldn’t go away. This lasted for two weeks and it’s an indication of changing seasons with changing currents. While people were catching fish in these clean green conditions, fish don’t cotton to it. Things have changed now and conditions are more favorable. Blue water has finally replaced the green water. Water temperatures are up, Krill is down a bit and more bait is moving in. This puts Puerto Vallarta fishing in a favorable position and these conditions should last past New Years. Thankfully we have warming water temperatures, Blue Water, Dorado and a host of world class action! Fishing is still in a transition period, but the good news is these recent changes are for the positive. YeHa!
Living in a tropical place like Puerto Vallarta, Hurricanes can and do happen all the time. Most are hundreds of miles out to sea and frankly the general public doesn’t know anything about Hurricanes until they come close to shore. But this last week we had a slow moving Hurricane that screwed with the fishing for three days. So the report this week is positive and we expect the perfect conditions for Dorado, Sailfish and Blue Marlin to continue. As we move into “High Season” for fishing we’re in tournament season, which of course means the time of the year to boat that “bucket list” fantasy fish. Feeling lucky?
What a way to start an article, Trash Lines, Hurricanes and Too Much Bait. The picture that paints is negative and not very inspiring, but in fact it’s perfect and exactly what we expect at this time of the year. A few years back we had 26 different and active Hurricanes pass Puerto Vallarta fishing areas with no impact. Keeping that in perspective, the important thing to know about Hurricanes is: Which direction is it heading, How far out is it and how does it affect the conditions regarding swell size and frequency. Or you can rely on a person like myself to get you the correct information, in a non-panic way. And yes, we had another Hurricane pass us as this article is being written. But if Hurricanes don’t get landed, they have a tendency to head north with few sea lane interruptions. Hurricanes bring rain and that produces trash lines, thank the fish gods. More importantly, depending on the direction and distance of a Hurricane, it can and does push fish away from the Hurricane. Lately we’ve been lucky with plenty of fish, but you need the correct information if you want to catch fish. Right now the amount of bait in the bay and surrounding Puerto Vallarta fishing grounds is massive. There lies the biggest challenge!
Sometimes it feels like I’m almost making excuses for the “fishing conditions”. Clients come into my shop midwinter looking for summer species. Being at the wrong end of the calendar it’s disappointing for some. Things have changed, water is warming up, Red Tide has all but disappeared, No dirty water to speak of and we have a trash line. With the La Nina keeping water temperatures down I was wondering when the numbers and species would ever pickup. But we’re back in the Summer High Season for Fishing in Puerto Vallarta. Conditions are improving by the day, the “locals” are stuffing themselves with varied “karnada” or baits. Now if we could just figure a way to keep the air temperatures and humidity down, everything would be perfect!
