SLOW SPRINGTIME FISHING FOR OFFSHORE BOATS

April 10, 2005, Josh Temple, Prime Time Adventures, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Fishing Report:

As offshore fishing at Puerto Vallarta continues to suck, big time, we have spent a good portion of the week fishing inshore, chasing pompanos and roosterfish around with excellent success. We've put in some serious fishing time offshore of Puerto Vallarta as well, but with action on the "no bueno" side of the spectrum. If it wasn't for the cache of epic Puerto Vallarta fishing stories we've accumulated from this past season the days offshore would have been looooooong and borderline boring.

But the opportunity to devote some serious time to inshore fishing at Puerto Vallarta has opened our eyes to just how much there is still to discover down here. Yesterday, for example, we caught 6 different species of fish including a possible world record sierra mackerel and a 40 pound roosterfish that absolutely kicked our anglers butt on light tackle. The topwater hits we've seen along the edge of the reef on live bait are awesome, and when a 50 plus pound rooster detonated on a cabbie I was letting out just behind the boat, I started screaming as though a 200 pounder just devoured a skippie. Those roosters are pretty exciting fish.

The fishing losses were heavy this week though. We've stumbled on another pretty unknown Puerto Vallarta fishing reef that's loaded with big roosters. We've not hooked one under 35 pounds from this spot. On the right tide these fish are literally exploding on the baits. But, although the hookups have been plentiful, these big fish know exactly where the coral heads are, and you've got to be real quick and damn lucky to get through that kind of maneuver.

I'd say right now our landing to hookup ratio is 1 in 4. Pretty terrible, you're right, although understandable if you saw where we're hooking them. But when you see a 40 pound rooster light up and charge a bait from 50 feet away sometimes the bite alone is worth it.

The pompanos have been a surprise too during our Puerto Vallarta inshore fishing recently. They have a tendency to chase the cabbies up to the surface before they decide to crash the bait, which leads to obviously exciting topwater action. I think you could do some real damage on these fish with topwater plugs. Next season.

All in all this has been a really great week to end our Puerto Vallarta sportfishing season on. The offshore scene has shut down, but we did say we didn't care if we caught another tuna the rest of the season after that 355 pounder, so although not completely accurate we did basically get what we asked for.

And the fishing shut down offshore of Puerto Vallarta has focused our attention inshore where we've discovered a completely new fishery that requires study. It's something that Shrek and I are looking forward to spending some time on when the giants aren't around.

The fly rods are coming out in the next few days of fishing as well. Little by little we're letting go of Mexico for a few short months and starting to work ourselves into a frenzy over giant king salmon and halibut.

We're looking at hitting the road in less than a week, so I'm not sure if I'll have time to get another report up with all the cleaning, packing, and general shlepping around to be done.

When we eventually do get back to Canada it's up in the air whether or not we'll be seeing any time off. Likely it'll be right up to Rupert to get the boats ready, fish a little steelhead and trout in the rivers, and whamo into our salmon and halibut season. Shrek will be stepping back into the captain's seat on one of our Gradys, a move he is definitely looking forward to.

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic season. We'll keep the posts up when we get back, and I'm looking forward to seeing you guys up north for the first time this year...and back down here in August this year. Get ready for another amazing year of fishing.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Puerto Vallarta and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Puerto Vallarta may be found at Mexfish.com's main Puerto Vallarta page.