Back to doing our annual Puerto Vallarta trip with Marla’s Sportfishing after a two year hiatus thanks to covid.
Our trip started out very slow the first day. Saw and chased a school of small schooling yft (probably about 10 lbers) hoping some larger ones were underneath but couldn’t get any hookups. That afternoon went to shallower waters and jigged up a couple of aj’s and triggers for some ceviche. Trolled around for some skipjacks (usually easy to catch) and were only able to get one before setting out another spread in the afternoon. Finally had our first hit that afternoon and it ended up being a little thresher.
Couple of hours later had another hook up and it turned out this guy wanted to eat a squid.
The next morning we had the same, not much life going on. By midday we hadn’t had so much as a nibble so decided to head to the back of the island off the beach there to chase some rooster fish. This is where our trip turned around. We had a blast most of the afternoon casting poppers and slow trolling baits catching both roosters and jacks on lighter gear.
So later that afternoon we decide to try the tuna grounds again so trolled over that way hoping to pick up some skipjacks for bait. This time we had five in no time so our hopes were encouraged a little.
Got to the tuna grounds and set out our spread when we started seeing a school of tuna busting bait with some jumping out of the water. These looked to be a little bigger than the day before. Had one school of bait pass by the boat so I went up front to throw a popper. At one point had something inhale my popper without a topwater explosion but unfortunately no hookup.
The sun had started setting and we were less than thirty minutes from calling it a trip when one of our lines went off. Ran to the back of the boat to start fighting a nice fish and halfway though my fight one of our baits under a balloon was hit. It was pretty much a walk off grand slam for us!
Ended up with two tuna, 231 and 90 lbs. Full coolers for the trip home.
Our trip started out very slow the first day. Saw and chased a school of small schooling yft (probably about 10 lbers) hoping some larger ones were underneath but couldn’t get any hookups. That afternoon went to shallower waters and jigged up a couple of aj’s and triggers for some ceviche. Trolled around for some skipjacks (usually easy to catch) and were only able to get one before setting out another spread in the afternoon. Finally had our first hit that afternoon and it ended up being a little thresher.
Couple of hours later had another hook up and it turned out this guy wanted to eat a squid.
The next morning we had the same, not much life going on. By midday we hadn’t had so much as a nibble so decided to head to the back of the island off the beach there to chase some rooster fish. This is where our trip turned around. We had a blast most of the afternoon casting poppers and slow trolling baits catching both roosters and jacks on lighter gear.
So later that afternoon we decide to try the tuna grounds again so trolled over that way hoping to pick up some skipjacks for bait. This time we had five in no time so our hopes were encouraged a little.
Got to the tuna grounds and set out our spread when we started seeing a school of tuna busting bait with some jumping out of the water. These looked to be a little bigger than the day before. Had one school of bait pass by the boat so I went up front to throw a popper. At one point had something inhale my popper without a topwater explosion but unfortunately no hookup.
The sun had started setting and we were less than thirty minutes from calling it a trip when one of our lines went off. Ran to the back of the boat to start fighting a nice fish and halfway though my fight one of our baits under a balloon was hit. It was pretty much a walk off grand slam for us!
Ended up with two tuna, 231 and 90 lbs. Full coolers for the trip home.
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