FISHING ABOARD THE CHARTER BOAT CHAPPY ONE

Aug. 19, 2006, Erik Landesfeind, Puerto Vallarta outing on the charter boat Chappy One:

My fiancee, Rachel Baker and I spent a couple of days fishing in Puerto Vallarta on August 15-16, 2006.

We had originally booked to fish with Captain Manny on his new boat "The Pacifico," but due to an overbooking error, we had to get bumped to another boat.

This is the first time in my life that I was bumped to a nicer boat and I would like to thank Manny of the Pacifico, fishpacifico.com, for his professional handling of his error, a real rarity in this industry.

The Puerto Vallarta charter boat that we were bumped to was the "Chappy One," a beautiful 2003 36-foot Luhrs run by Manny's friend Captain Tori. This boat is fast, wide, comfortable with air conditioned cabin, and is fully loaded with top of the line tackle. If anyone is looking for a sportfishing boat to book in Puerto Vallarta, don't hesitate to contact chappycharters.com.

On our first day of fishing, we ran out to El Banco to try for the yellowfin tuna that have been biting sporadically at best. As luck would have it, the tuna pulled a no-show. Rather than trolling around all day for nothing, we decided to fish for pargo, or cubera snapper. This is a real blast. The pargo bit on the flylined skipjack as we drifted over the high spots on the bank. We ended up going 5 for 6 on the pargo before we ran out of bait.

The second day, we decided to stay local and fish the Marietas Islands and El Morro area. Other than a few small assorted jacks and a surprisingly large sculpin, we didn't catch much until the last hour of our trip where we hooked 2 sailfish and Rachel landed a large one that was guesstimated at 120-130 pounds.

Overall it was a good trip to Puerto Vallarta with excellent weather, if you like it blazing hot, and 80-85 degree water temperatures.

Sea conditions were flat calm. We had all the bait you want, small skipjack and bonitas. Caballito were available in the marina for $1 each.

(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.