PUERTO VALLARTA

Eddie and Alfredo and I had saved up for this trip the whole year.. we were supposed to take it last year but the swine flu had its way on the country and we werent able to get a flight. This year we were determined to make it happen. Last wednesday we finally made it over there. My grandparents who live over there for most of the year lent me the keys to their aparment on the outskirts of the town. We couldnt have arrived at a better location. The view was amazing and the fishing was guna be even better.

We fished from the rocks along the beach and managed to get a few small groupers and some huge houndfish... the houndfish over there are crzly big and pull out some nice drag on light tackle. After fishing for a few hours we hit the sack early cuz we had to be at the marina early the next morning.

We met captain hector at the dock the next morning and looded up with another captain on one of his super pangas the pcsosita. We headed out for the long run (35miles out) to corbatena rock which is basically a huge rock that porturudes the surface in the middle of the ocean. The bait gathers there so ppl have been known to catch marlin up to 800lbs there and also big tunas. alfredo and corbatena rock

We trolled around the great rock and 5 minutes later zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.. it was alfredos turn for first fish so he grabbed the rod on what we thought was a marlin. As it finally neared the boat we saw that it was not a marlin but a HUGE sailfish... even big for pacific standards.

We fished the rest of the day.. but it was very slow so we didnt catch anything else.

The next day we were restless to get out and fish but we didnt have a charter booked so we went into a little neighboring town and hired a local to take us out on his panga to fish. We had brought our own tackle so the trip was quite cheap.
We headed to a spot and began to vertical jig. I caught a blue runner and put it out on my tld 20.. and free lined it.. and within a couple mins.. zzzzzz what we at first thought was a tuna turned out to be a very big jack crevalle. We then continued fishing.. and put out some more blue runners. Something one of them .. but for some reason did not get hooked. Eddie caught a nice bonita on light tackle and then we called it a day. headin in so we could grab some dinner and head home to get sleep for the next days fishin trip.

The next day we met up at the dock around 8am.. tryin out the bay we caught a couple small bonitas for live bait to see if the roosters where out. We lost a couple of em. to huge houndfish and ended up catching another nice crevalle but thats not what we were out here for so we headed out to corbatena. At corbatena i landed the biggest rainbow runner that i have ever seen lost another one and then we caught some nice pargos.

We talked to victor the captain of the bella de mar I and we told him we really wanted to get the tunas so he agreed to meet us at the marina the next morning at 5 to head out to El Banco... a set of structures similar to the marathon hump which lay 50 miles out of the marina llarta.

The next day we woke up in excitement.. TUNA TIME! We headed out to El Banco to find the tuna. We passed el banco and continued running for about 10 miles until we saw what we where looking for. Imagine seeing 3 football fields full of jumping porpoises.. i mean hundreds and hundreds of em.. hundreds of birds divebombing .. it was mayhem.. and this was why we were in mexico. The tuna swim under the dolphins and between them is the bait... we ran ahead of the school.. dropped to free line goggle eyes in front of em.. and wham zzzzzzz.. im hooked up onto my first yellowfin.. and boy do they fight.

we end up catching 4 in the school.. (the largest one is not pictured in the bottom pic cuz is already been steaked up due to the fact it didnt fit in the cooler.)

The captain says we can either stay here and fill up the boat with little tunas and go out and chase the monsters (puerto vallarta is known for its monster tuna from between 200-400 lbs) thats what i am all about so we start running and looking for schools. We finally find another one and see some big tunas jumping ( around 150-200lbs) and we all get really excited.. but for some reason they wont hit the baits. We pitch baits pick em up and get in front of the fast moving school like ten times but nothing until... zzzzz both rods go off.. but they are'nt tuna we have a double header on sailfish. I loose mine but eddie continues fighting and brings his up onto the boat.

After the sails we try freelinin a couple more gogs but no luck.

We start headin in and the mate begins to clean and packadge our tuna... i try some sashimi with soysauce and boy is it good.

On the way in we take a stop at corbatena rock again to get the snapper bite.. we're catching some real nice dog snappers but i really want that cubera.. so i hook a gog under its tail and let it swim down into the blue... zzzzzz ive got something really really nice on.. it comes up and its a cubera.. highfives go around as its put in the boat. we keep fishin for snapper for a while and caught some nice specimens.

That day was amazing some real nice tunas a sail and those snappers to top it off.

The next day we relax at the hotel and fish off the beach/snorkel the rocks around it. It was a fun day but no exciting fish were caught. We head to bed early cuz we need to be at the dock at 5am for our last day of fishing. The next mornings alfredo doesnt wana go cuz of his bad sunburn so eddie and i catch the cab to the marina. We head out and as always find the tuna school.. i loose a monster and eddie hooks up on a spunky yellowfin. As it nears the boat i hop in the water for some photos.. i regret not taking video becaus it moved so fast i could barely catch it on film.

We dont get any more tunas to hit from this school so we search out another one... and when we find it we aproach it with trollers instead of livies. zzzzzzzzzz The 50 wide goes off... we think its a really nice tuna because its first run is a good five minutes... I yell to wake eddie up who is sleeping on the box... it takes him a couple minutes but he wakes up. The "tuna" aproaches the boat but it is fighting wierd with less sporadic movements that are regular for the tuna. Eddie jumps in the water to get some footage of my tuna... and imediateley sticks his head out of the water to yell "ITS A *#&*$#$ SAIL" Its my first pacific sail.. so i too jump in the water to get some footage of the beauty and her release.

Me at the leader with my first pacific sailfish


shes so beautiful underwater.

In the future i plan to dive in the water and capture these fish on film because its so amazing to be in the water with these majestic animals of the blue sea.

We run to find another school that may be near the 300 foot purseine ship in the distance... the captain tells me how these ships encircle whole schools of tuna and take them out at one time. Its really sad to see.. they send out helicopters to pick out the largest schools and use hightech sonar to make sure they're nets are deep enough to catch even the deepest tuna. its really sad.. idk how big the actual school of tuna is but from what i see they must be killing hundreds upoun hundreds with each drop of their net not to mention thousands upoun thousands of baitfish.. and to be honest i have absolutley no idea how every one of the hundreds of porpoises get out of the net.. (i think they dont) .... my hatred towards this ship was distracted as we saw a blue marlin skimming along the surface of the water.... we took several casts at it with livies but it seemed uninterested... so we began to head in .. i wish we had hooked up into some monster tuna i mean in the 200-300lb range.. but that may have been the work of the tuna ship.

I hope to return to puerto vallarta soon.. because I have fallen in love with the place.