Bills and Chills, the Winter Stripers are back!

Hello again everybody and welcome to another week of outstanding fishing in our World Class Fishing Grounds. With the weather gradually inching its way warmer, we’re seeing a real improvement in the available species of fish in the area. But it would be a mistake to assume we’re talking about the usual places!!

That’s right ladies and gentleman, things are wide open out there right now, so open it almost reminds me of summer when we see the Monsters! Now there isn’t any Monster Yellowfin Tuna out there right now, but with the water temperatures moving up rapidly, anything is possible. Remember in mid January we were seeing 200 pounders out there….

OK, now that you’ve taken the bait, you may ask where this is all happening? Well, I know, and I’m not going to tell you… Ha Ha Ha Ha…. But seriously, if you went to El Banco this week, you were disappointed with little to no action. Now if you went fifteen miles out past El Banco, then you would be hitting Mahi Mahi in the forty pound range, Amber Jacks, Rainbow runners, and other fish we don’t mention nearly enough in this article. But for your fuel dollar this week, this wasn’t you best option.

Corbetena has improved this week with more action with Cubera Snappers or Pargo in Spanish, Jack Cravells, the occasional Sail Fish, Mahi Mahi, and a general grab bag of arm yanking game fish. But the water last week was a little dirty which has changed with warm waters migrating up from the Barra area

Rooster fish, while out of season, have been showing up at their favorite haunts. El Morro, Marietta Islands, Sayulita area have all been strong for those hoping to find the real chicken of the sea! In Spanish, Rooster fish are called Gaillos (guy-yos) the Spanish word for Rooster as in Fighting Chicken. So if you’re in the area, you too could find out why I love to catch these fish.

But the real story for this week as I predicted last week, the waters at Cabo Corrientes has spiked to a very warm 80 degrees. Cabo Corrientes is the other point opposite of Punt Mita Now if you’ve ever heard anyone talk about water temps (like we all do); you’ll know this is Summer Time Water Temps! As a result there have been Striped and Blue Marlin, Yellowfin Tuna (footballs), Sailfish and Mahi Mahi thick enough to walk on. Terrafin charts (www.terrafin.com) that show water temperatures (one of those weather satellites) is worth it’s weight in gold this time of year. It shows where the warm water is and helps the “in the know” angler immensely. But there’s a secret out there you’ll need to know, so keep this to yourself; Trolling pink plastic lures and Goggle eyes at the same time is working great. Once this happens, you can boat these Green and Blue beauties until you cry uncle! Striped Marlin to 500 lb s has been a real surprise, but hey, there you are.

Just a reminder, there are a lot of start up companies in Marina Vallarta offering to book you a charter. When choosing a charter company, look for an established company who actually has people working in it that fish, remembering talk is cheap! I can’t emphasize enough that experience in this business is everything. Do you really want to risk a thousand dollars on a day of fishing on a “fly by night” operation that’s only been in business for maybe a month? Anyone can have a web page to book charters, and there are several that do, but no shop or established location. So be careful and of course, you’ve always got me for advice, information and support of all kinds. So be safe and have fun out there. If they don’t know what Terrafin is, they may want to sell you the Marina next! But more likely a tour of some sort.

Carlos is still out there painting Graffiti with the help of concerned vacationers who want to be part of Puerto Vallarta by caring and taking their valuable vacation time to participate. Donations are now coming in regularly of time and materials. We need people to continue the fight, so all volunteers are welcome. Together we can insure our beautiful Saphine City continues to welcome visitors from around the world!

This week I’ve included a picture of Janett Hildago and Vanessa Arriola. They’re the original Fish N Chicks of Master Baiter’s. They went fishing with us and released every fish they caught, so I included a picture of them in the hopes we can get more of you ladies out there. If you catch a fish, I’ll front you a shirt like theirs. What could be better than free clothes and a day on the water?

Until next week, don’t forget to kiss your fish!