Puerto Vallarta Report 3/04

[Capt Josh]

Real quick one today guys cause i have to jam out to the airport to head to the Fred Hall show for a week but the good news of course is that the tunas are very much indeed still hungry out there...

After our previous sucess last week with some bigger fish in the 160 - 175# range we decided to try our usual big fish season game plan and opted to put some large live skipjack behind the boat for a few hours yesterday morning...

It didn't take long to get bit as the right rigger came crashing down we thought we were in the money but it turned out to be a huge pargo (cubera snapper) instead of the fat tuna we were hoping for...anyway...still not a bad compromise...

Back out go some fresh baits and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...once again the pargo's fooled us and it was soon appparent that there was no way we were getting a skipjack through those pargos for the tunas to have a look at them...

After using up the rest of the skipjacks we had in the tuna tubes on pargos we broke out the kite and skipped to my loo all morning...

Skip skip skip skip skip....BOOOOOM!!!...it didn't take long for the tunas to go airborn after our high flying goggle eyes...we ended up landing 3 out of 7 tunas that morning up to 90#'s and then decided to put some plastic in the water to go outside the drop off and have a look around...

After a short fifteen minutes of trolling i spot a huge...and i mean HUGE...school of spinner porpoise with birds all over it but despite our best efforts we couldn't raise a fish from it...to tell you the truth by the looks of the meter there wasn't much under those porpoise anyway...

We break off from that meley after a half hour or so of fruitless effort and continue trolling...not another half an hour goes by when i spot another school of spinners and this one has even more birds on it...

We mow this school pretty good with lures, baits, deep drop jigs, you name it...but despite foul hooking a porpoise with a dirty bird/ahi pussy combo we come up short...backing down after that porpoise full speed with it jumping off the stern like a blue marlin was pretty cool...i felt a bit sorry for the little ******* but we did manage to get line off of him and he swam away no worse for wear...although i think that's the last time he'll come near a dirty bird/ahi combo for a while...

After the porpoise incident we left the second meley and once more stumbled upon a third school of porpoise this time common dolphin but not much birds on them so i did a few passes and decided to head back to the rock...

By this time the wind has completely died on us and it's harder to get the kite skipping presentation right than sqeezing out a popcorn fart after a week long drought...but we battle our way through it and manage to raise a real good fish in the 200# range but it's not meant to be as the hook pulls free...

The tuna gods give us a few more chances after that but things just aren't jiving down below in the cockpit as the boys miss three or four more fish but what can you do...

Call her a day and break out the cocktails i say...and that's precisely what we did...

I'm gone for the next week but back in the saddle again starting next tuesday so look for some more reports later next week...we've got all sorts of crazy stuff going on like swordfish trips and some extended range charters so we're going to play way out on the fringe and see what we can come up with...

Good luck out there this week...catchem up...

[johnseafood]

sweet report and thanks for sharing it with us. Keep up the good work down south

[hrdcor32]

Nice job, thanks for the report

[Capt. Mark]

JT .. good work on those tunas and cocktails. You ruined me with the Anejos/ Pineapple in Miami.. I'm back to fishing in between shows and seminars (and Anejo's) later this week .. keep the reports coming ..

Mark
Canyon Runner Sportfishing

[Capt Josh]

Mark there's no faster way to a man's heart...or a senorita's p's and q's than Bacardi Anejo...

Good luck with those seminars et al...did you guys pull the trigger on a new boat yet???

I'm fixin to get in a little bucketmouth fishin while i'm in California...pork rinds and crank baits baby!!! can't wait...should be great...

OK...off to the aeropuerto...VAMANOS!!!

[O-SEA-D]

Thanks for the report, Great read.

Sounds like you guys were getting the tunies pretty good.

[Capt. Mark]

JT .. we are very close to finalizing something .. just working on details at this point . Have fun in Cali .. Crankbaits and pork rinds ??? yeah man ..

Mark
Canyon Runner Sportfishing

[#1Gaffman]

Very cool report Capp!!!


Souds like you guys are wackn the crapola out of the Big TUNERS!

[Liquid Gold]

Nice work there Josh...If I wish I would have been able to fish with you again over the boat show but I heard you had to bug out early! Tried to Get the guys from Pelagic out with Dave Trafton but the weather didn't exactly cooperate....Maybe next time!

Late bro
Capt. Justin