RED SNAPPER AND YELLOWFIN TUNA TO 270 POUNDS CAUGHT

Sept. 20, 2005, Larry Lionetti, El Pescador, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Fishing Report:

John Carrido from Riverside, Calif., had a dream to catch a giant Yellowfin tuna. He researched the internet and discovered that Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, could have his fish. John never had time to take off from his hectic schedule to take a long range trip so he found an alternate way to find his fish and booked the El Pescador for a two day trip.

When he was in the airport on his way to Puerto Vallarta, John went to buy a disposable camera so he could document his trip and coincidentally he passed by a copy of Sport Fishing Magazine with Capt. Josh of the Prime Time on the cover.

He bought the camera and the magazine to further read about Josh, who, with only that article, became a fishing icon in his eyes, and the giant tuna he would hopefully encounter.

He arrived a few hours later with his friend Robert Voit, of the basketball family, on his private jet.

Departing from the docks of Puerto Vallarta at 5:00 a.m. the next day, John was in for a trip of his lifetime.

Not long after arriving at the soon to be infamous El Banco, we were trolling goggle eyes from the outriggers and in no time we hooked two large fish.

One of these fish turned out to be John's dream fish that he fought for three hot hours.

As John was playing his fish I called Josh on the Prime Time and let John tell Josh that what he read about the cows in Sport Fishing was true. After having a very successful fishing day and John landing his 270 pound tuna, we headed into Punta Mita where we anchored the boat and took a panga to shore for dinner.

To John's surprise, we had dinner with Josh and his deckhand, Shrek, where fish stories where exchanged all evening. Before leaving John was sure to get Josh's autograph on the cover of Sport Fishing Magazine.

We then returned to the boat to get a few hours of sleep before day two. Up long before sunrise, we arrived at El Banco in the dark and put the quartz lights over the railing to watch the party beneath the surface gather. We saw small schools of bait fish being chased by larger schools of skip jack that were followed by shadows of giant unidentified fish, undoubtedly the ones we where after.

Before day break, there was a lot of fish action, bringing in Pacific red snapper and a variety of tuna which continued on throughout the day but nothing to compare to John's 270 pound dream tuna.

On the way back in, Robert made a call to the captain of his jet to start the engines to ensure a quick departure. Once we got back to the dock John and Robert bought 4 big coolers at Sam's Club, stuffed their fish in them and left for the airport where the Citation jet was standing by to load the fish and fisherman. If that isn't a dream come true, then I don't know what is.

(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.