Mexico 2017 - Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta 2017
   

Inspired by some YouTube footage about catching big roosterfish from the shore, Simone and I arrived at Puerto Vallarta - Mexico in the beginning of September 2017. We stayed at the RIU Vallarta in Nuevo Vallarta, about half an hour from the city of Vallarta.

Awesome resort, classical and a real Mexican atmosphere, really great food. We stayed for 13 days and were lucky there were no hurricanes or earthquakes in our area. Like I said, the footage on YouTube promised some great fishing possiblities from the shore of the Vallarta beaches.

The seawater was quite dark, maybe because of the rivers in the area which contains a lot of mud and are floating into the sea. The surf was quite doable, only in the second week the surf was much to high for fishing from the shore. The sea up front of the resort is quite shallow, wading was possible though.

I fished every day with lures from 05.00 till 09.00, and only the GT Ice Creams made some long distance casting possible. There were no big fishes under the shore like the locals said so up front. The only good spot seemed to be the pier of the marina, which is an hour and twenty minutes walk from the resort. It can be done when walking in the dark, but at noon you might as well walk the Sahara, not recommendable at all!!!! At one point I considered robbing someone of his water bottle, because I was all out of water and facing dehydration.

Didn t get any bites there as well at the pier, by the way. How different when fishing with bait (shrimp and squid), before the weight hit the bottom, you got a bite!!!!! All little fish though and in 99% of your catches, it will be a catfish.

The sea is really infested with catfish, mind the barb on their back and on their sides, when stang it can be a really painfull experience. I caught some ladyfish and little snappers, nothing big at all. I gave a plastic bag full of little fish to my favorite barkeeper Saul, who gave me a bottle of tequila in return. Later, he showed me some vids about him cooking and eating the fish with his family, they enjoyed it very much.

I met some great guys from England, Kenny and Trevor (Southhamton area) and another guy named Ian (Hull), all of them packed with rods, gear and dreams. We talked about our catches and experiences every day, they also caught catfish on the shores and blanked too at the marina hotspot (according to the locals). Ken and Trev told me they booked a charter with a guy named Gustavo, who’s name soon was changed in Gestapo by Kenny……

They went fishing by boat on a Friday, Simone and I booked another private charter (Rokera) for 6 hours with the guys that won the Penn tournament a couple of months ago (Raul and Jesus). They took us to the hottest roosterfish spot on Vallarta, about 15 miles out of the shore, very near an island.

There was a big boulder in the ocean and it looked very fishy. We couldn’t get a single bite up there, fishing with 5 rods, live bait on. Some time later we drifted along the coast line and I managed to catch a needlefish on my own rod, missed two other bites on the popper above the reef. The Englishmen didn’t get any bites also on their boat btw. We had a great day on the ocean and saw dolphins and turtles but unfortunatly no screeming reals!!!

So the fishing on Vallarta near the resorts is not very recommandabel, the weather, culture and food will guarantee a great vacation anyway though. There are a lot of sea turtles on Vallarta, one time a nest hatched behind me during fishing. On another day I was wading and I saw hunting rays, two times one swam up against my leg, scary stuff because the water is too dark to see what's happening when you're hit. Standing on the shore, you could see them hunting through the surf at high speed. A tourist from our hotel was stang a day later, walking through the shallow water near the shore.

Great vacation anyway, we caught a lot of tequila, fishing was very bad!!!!!!!