Help fishing in Yucatan

[shoefish]

For barracuda, anything that is shiny will work. Fish for them around any structure- inshore that would be docks, bushes, etc, and offshore it would be any reefs, drops, etc. If they're around they won't be hard to find. You'll want to think about running a wire trace in front of your lure to give you a better chance at landing them though....those teeth will cut through your leader faster than you can say "I'm hooked up"

Have fun down there and be sure to post up a report!

[4kit]

A little updade on the lures I think to bring... Hope to have spare room for some clothes.

[CGMate]

I agree about the duck hunting. Im going to be in isla mujeres for the month of january sailfishing, but i plan to visit sisal for a couple of day to hunt.

[whalebreath]

You'll be fine with those trolling lures, never had any luck in the Caribbean with the small Bonitas quite unlike the South Pacific where they eat 'em up.

I like the smaller Yozuri minnows trolled slow they are killer, cast they work well too.

[CFScheer]

My has been going to Playa del Carmen - just south of Cancun - where we have a condo for about 10 years. We do alot of fishing out of a panga with a local captian, but use all our own gear and call the shots as far as the fishing goes. You'll have alot of options on how to fish depending on the season.

For January we would probably concentrate on vertical jigging using the Japanese style jigs, aka "butterfly" for amberjack near the drop-off. Where we are this occurs about 1.5 miles from the shore and drops from 100 feet to well over 1000. The 300 foot range seems to be the spot. We'll 20/30 up to 60lbs. a day sometimes with an odd grouper, tuna, kingfish and barracuda thrown in. You'll need specific gear to do this (check out the vertical jigging forum), not to mention a boat with sonar and GPS...we bring our own.

Bait fishing on the bottom works throughout the year - this depends largely on the captain's ability to get bait (sardines and small jacks) and keep them alive though. Grouper, red snapper, barracuda, jack and other assorted reef dwellers will all be caught, and in their respective seasons we will pick up sails, mahi and wahoo at the same time due to the proximity of blue water. Put a bait on the bottom with weight and free line one out on top.

Finally, trolling the reefs will get you barracuda, grouper and snapper (having a downrigger will help). While trolling off-shore in certain months can get you mahi, wahoo, tuna, sails, and even Marlin. Bait seems to work far better than lures here.

The fishing can be really good here and you have lots of different tactics to use. The biggest challenge is finding a boat and captain that can accomadate you and the way you want to fish and has the gear and the initiative to put the necessary groundwork in to find the fish.

Bottom line, bring your own gear and put time in finding the right captain.

good luck

[CFScheer]

After writing my last post I took a look on google earth where Merida is. You're a long way from any sort of contintal shelf, so you can disregard most of the information in the last post I made. You'll probably want to focus on tarpon, snook, cudas and jacks over on that side of the yucatan.

On another note...if you liked Costa Rica and want to spend more time there fishing then check out the project I manage.
www.sierpedelpacifico.com

We sell homesites on a river that flows into the ocean....world class fishing on both. Sites come with a boat slip and have a pretty low entry-level price point. Our builder came from Quebec and was into sturgeon fishing back home as well.

- Cassidy