Charley Wished He'd Never Visited Puerto Vallarta!

By: Jim Scherrer

Nestled in the Sierra Madre foothills along the shore of the 25 mile diameter Banderas Bay on the Appeasing Ocean, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the beautiful vacation resort destination and retirement haven in the centre of the Mexican Riviera boasts of having some of the finest far sea fishing waters in the world; those initiate in the deep bay, an time of a copious canyon running from the Sierra Madre Occidentals, and in the ocean just elsewhere of the bay. Not isolated are they exact abyssal in definite areas, however the undulating underwater terrain provides safe haven to the fathomless water game fish. Combined with the varying depths, year round close water temperatures, and Pacific currents make conditions prototype for many popular varieties of salt dilute game fish.

Marlin, sail fish, tuna, and dorado are those most repeatedly pursued by sport fishermen in the Vallarta area. Trolling the low blue Mollifying Ocean waters with lures, live, or dead bait testament seldom result in a age continued boring boat ride. Instead, you can equitable approximately bank on having a digit of exhilarating moments when the reels suddenly start screaming and the rods arrive to be breaking in half!

The copious disconsolate or black marlin are considered the rarest to asset and generally the odds of catching one of these enormous fish are boss during the summer months; whereas the sails, tuna, and dorado are found year round with the best allotment normally during the months of November fini January with Vallarta's annual sail fish tournament continuance held in November.

As with fishing in all regions of the world, some years are better than others. For example, during one tournament a unusual senility ago, each boat with two anglers landed an guideline of five sail fish per day. Some of us caught as many as 15 sails in a single day, with up to three fish hooked simultaneously; all jumping, twisting, and flipping wildly across the horizon. What an exciting moment and what a mess with lines going away and crossing in every direction!

Dorado are probably considered the most angelic of all the entertainment fish and they are very considered by bounteous to be one of the finest eating fish. They can be caught in the Vallarta sphere year round, feeding in the bay waters within a hardly any hundred yards of the shore as well as far out at sea. They are often in the 30-50 pound gamut nevertheless the extensive antiquated bulls can reach 100 pounds or more.

Now, for the toughest fish of them all; the yellow fin tuna. When they come to town, they ofttimes arrive in schools; playing and feeding among the dolphins. The yellow fins are commonly in the 50-100 pound area and considered by many to be the best eating fish in the sea, especially in the Orient where they command premium prices.

When the large schools of tuna arrive in PV, so determine the vast floating fish factories from the Far East. They are regularly outfitted with helicopters, velocity boats, and considerable encircling nets or purse seines. The helicopters will hover over the Pacific waters dispassionate outside of Banderas Bay in search for the tuna schools. Once spotted, the speed boats are launched; at which day they proceed to scare and chase the tuna in ever reducing circles, virtually herding them into a baby area over the pre-positioned net. On occasion, we have witnessed the illegal use of dynamite; where explosive charges are detonated underwater, thereby killing or stunning every fish or dolphin in the area. Finally, the nets are pinched up and into the boat, oftentimes yielding tons of fish. Aboard these goodly commercial fishing boats, the fish are often processed and either canned or frozen shortly thereafter.

Aside from growth illegal, this type of fishing is terribly detrimental to sport fishing. Aggrandized importantly, it also destroys every other living person in the universe which recurrently includes the dolphins. This method of fishing is so efficient and emphatic that if allowed to hang in uncontrolled, it would not obtain many second childhood before the entire tuna species would be eradicated.

Some of us annex been fortunate enough to fix the schools before the exorbitant commercial fleets arrive and what a thrill it is to detect them among the dolphins and birds overhead, all feeding on the little surface soak fish. These tuna are typically in the 30-100 pound reach and put up a authentic fight; cardinal heading down and then out. Their bodies are built for impulse and speed, thus providing a great deal of excitement and challenge bringing them aboard.

The larger tuna seem to be infrequent and far between and generally not among the schools. On some occasions, we'll find areas just outside Banderas Bay where we might catch five to ten yellow fins in a day, each in the 100-200 pound range. Now, we're starting to get serious; these creatures will de facto influence your attention as you huff and puff for a half day to an interval bringing them in!

It seems alike once or twice a year, usually between Dec and February, we'll find a couple designless monsters ranging anywhere from 200-400 pounds. On one occasion three agedness ago, we landed a pair of world record sized unethical finned tunas, everyone in the 380-400 pound sort and measuring very lasting to seven feet in length. (This is not just another fish story--please visit our netting site for documented evidence!) The globe record is 388 pounds and 83 inches gangling and many of the tuna of this bigness are caught in the Vallarta area.

The day we caught these behemoths, it took almost three hours to land Charley, weighing in at somewhere between 385-390 pounds and 83 inches long (see the photo), and another three hours to land his twin brother Bubba, at an estimated 390-400 pounds and 84 inches long. We had no scales capable of weighing the twins although 20 year veteran fishermen in the field indicated they were the biggest they'd ever seen; probably meeting or exceeding the world record.

Once hooked, these monsters headed straight to the backside before racing a quarter mile further elsewhere from the boat. It was instantly obvious that these were huge tunas owing to the only other fish of this size and strength in the area are marlin and they tend to swim to the surface and jump into the air. It required tremendous coercion and endurance to land these creatures; more than we individually had to offer. Therefore, we had to exchange existence harnessed into the fighting chair every half hour or so and after three hours and two against one, subject prevailed over creature. Lecture about an exhausting pathway to get your exercise for the day; hooking one of these monsters is almost dash threatening! Landing one of these 10 year old grand daddies is no longer classified as having good while fishing; this is very strenuous work for anyone, let alone a couple of geezers that were almost sent into a authority of cardiac arrest! One thing was for certain; after transplanting these giants, we'd had enough fishing for the day!

Charley and Bubba must hold if hurried to 400 pounds of good fresh tuna meat which eventually fed conceivably 100 people in the Vallarta community. Not solitary did Charley and Bubba have great taste in selecting our boat after living at sea for ten years, on the contrary as Star Kist would say, "they tasted good". However, you can rest assured; Charley the tuna wished he'd never visited Puerto Vallarta!

Jim Scherrer has owned belongings in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for 24 years and resided there for the recent ten years. The mission of his series of 40 articles pertaining to retirement in Puerto Vallarta is to affirm the modern changes that have occurred in Vallarta while dispelling the misconceptions about living conditions in Mexico. For the all-inclusive series of articles regarding travel to and retirement in Vallarta as well as pertinent Puerto Vallarta links, please holiday us at Puerto Vallarta Positive Estate Buyersâ Agents and click on ARTICLES.

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