ESPERANZA SPORTFISHING FINDS STEADY ACTION OFFSHORE

Oct. 23, 2005, Kurt Hjort, Esperanza Sportfishing, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Fishing Report:

Fishing here in Puerto Vallarta has stayed strong and shows no signs of letting up soon. The change in moon has put a kink in the all day fishing action we saw last week, but fish are still to be had for those with patience.

Our charter fishing groups this week saw varied action at Puerto Vallarta and all left very happy.

Larry and Brenda from Minnesota stared off the fishing week on Monday and we had 2 sailfish releases early in the day on our way out to Corbeteña. Once there, we found our skipjack baits and within 20 minutes we were hooked up to a 300 pound class yellowfin that gave Brenda a great fight on 50 lb standup tackle. She is tough and beat the fish in just under on hour. Good on ya Brenda!

Next up was Larry's turn to tango with a tuna but things did not go as planned. His tuna hit a goggle eye set out for a sail or dorado on a Penn 30 wide and well, I guess that reel had some maintenance problems as it gave out after about 40 minutes and we broke the fish off trying to handline it up. No fish, but a great story to take home with them.

Near the end of the day, we nailed a 30 pound wahoo to close out a great day on the water.

Fishing next came our friends from Seward, Alaska, Steve Zernia and crew. This day was dedicated to fishing inshore Puerto Vallarta waters for the roosterfish. The big roosters are here and these guys saw some good but not hot action as we caught and released four fish in the 45 pound range and had a boat next to us land a 60-plus pound monster that ate a skipjack.

Sails and dorados are also here at Puerto Vallarta and are being found just outside the mouth of the bay and up and down the coastline and should get a lot better as we get into November. Trolling lures and skip baits are the way to target them, and have a live bait ready to pitch to any tailing sails or around any floating debris for the dodos.

Puerto Vallarta fishing waters have been calm and the weather has been quite stable and should be cooling down to be more comfortable soon.

Inside the bay, the half-day fishing trips are seeing some dorados, sailfish and small school tunas to 20 pounds, but the skipjacks have invaded and are in huge schools, literally tearing up the surface. It should be some fun for our flyfishers this coming week.

(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.