We are heading into late January, and you’d almost think it was late November fishing. With water temperatures hovering at 73 degrees, the ‘clean green’ water suddenly returns.
Clean green water usually isn’t a Dorado’s best friend, but if there’s bait in the water, minor things like water temperatures are easily ignored.
None of this means much to the visiting tourist looking to get on the water and have a day they’ll never forget. To them, all they want to do is catch fish, and that’s easy.
If you’re interested in fishing Puerto Vallarta’s world-class fishing grounds, it’s not too late, amigos, to boat that bucket list finned fantasy. All you need to do is choose which species you want to target, from Sailfish, Dorado, Striped Marlin, or Yellowfin Tuna, and I’ll tell you where to find them!
If you were surfing the Puerto Vallarta Facebook pages, you’d find many local captains boasting their abilities as they present Dorado pictures for your approval, hopefully resulting in a reservation. Remembering there are a lot of other species out there, look no further than Corbetena.
Right now, about eight miles north of the rock, it’s a fisherman’s paradise. Pick your fish; Sailfish are large, and Striped Marlin is more abundant by the day. Spinner Dolphin are running with Yellowfin Tuna in the 60 lb range, and the Dorado are in the 25 lb average range and aggressively attacking baits!
At El Banco, remember this location; there have been Yellowfin Tuna in the 80 lb range, Sailfish of good size, Dorado in the 25 lb range, and possibly Blue and Striped Marlin.
Many of those are coming very close to the Island Cleofus, just about a hundred miles from Marina Vallarta. With fuel cost the way they are, you’ll be looking hard for fish, when Corbetena seems to be the best location for fishing in Puerto Vallarta at the moment.
If you’re looking at an eight-hour duration fishing trip, anywhere from El Morro to Punta Nayarit, ‘the sky’s the limit!
Wahoo at 40 to 60 lbs are still in the area on the back side of El Morro to Corbetena. Dorado in the 20 lb range aren’t that common at El Morro, but they’re playing hard now!
Jack Crevalles, Sierra Mackerels, and even Sailfish are on the available species menu. If you’re at the Punta Nayarit point, it seems anything outside eight miles off the point turns into a barren fishing area. So be advised, Sailfish and Dorado off Punta Nayarit are in the 3 to 8-mile range off the point. Throw in Jack Crevalles at 40 lbs, Bonito at 20 lbs, and other possibilities make this area well worth your precious fishing dollar.
This week, when you think about fishing in the bay, the first thing that comes to mind is Krill. Krill, the whale food in the Bay of Banderas, gets flooded from early January to late March. During this time, we naturally have Whales, but with all this Krill, we have Dorado still hanging out at Los Arcos! They may be full of Krill, but no worries, the Dorado are hitting everything!
Sailfish are a little thin in numbers in the bay, but Sailfish are a freaky thing in the bay anyway.
Near Yelapa, there are Yellowfin Tuna footballs and Skip Jack Tuna in the 20 lb range as well.
Jack Crevalles are getting larger and more concentrated by the day at the other end of the bay. If heading out for a four-hour fishing trip, this is where you’d most likely be headed.
Sailfish, for some reason, like the area around the La Cruz Marina. And, of course, we have Sierra Mackerels, Skip Jack Tuna and Jack Crevalles cruising the bay.
We have seen the clean green water with a cooler temperature in most of Puerto Vallarta’s fishing grounds. But it isn’t affecting our warm-water summer species much.
Right now, live bait is king, but sometimes dead bait and lures will tickle their interest. Lures that work well in clean green water have purple coloring. Guacamayos and Petrolero lures always work. So give them a try; it can’t hurt.
The bite is still locked in from about 08:30 to 11:30, then picks up again in the afternoon, about 14:30 to sundown. I suggest you be at your chosen fishing area before 08:00! And, of course, the water temperatures are a chilly 73 degrees for our summer species, but again, they don’t seem to be affected. And there you are, folks, the latest and the greatest.
Until next week, don’t forget to kiss your fish!
