Punta Mita on Fire Offshore with Marlin, Sailfish, Roosterfish, Wahoo and Snapper Robin Wade - WONews
go to original April 5, 2015

The offshore tuna action is heating up out of Puerto Vallarta but the amberjack bite is already going strong. Photo courtesy of PV Sportfishing

The fishing out of Puerto Vallarta has been good both inside and out. Whether you take a short trip or a long trip for bigger fish, any trip is catching fish.

Punta Mita is on fire, with frenzied fish all over the place and when (not if) you find a churning bait ball they are the size of a small asteroid,” Stan Gabruk owner of Master Baiter’s Sportfishing & Tackle said. “Just go 2 to 6 miles off the point of Punta Mita in any direction and you can’t go wrong. You’ll find striped marlin to 275 pounds, blue marlin to 500 pounds, sailfish, roosterfish from 20 to 60 pounds and jack crevalle are everywhere to 50 pounds or larger. There are also wahoo at about 60 pounds everywhere. Snapper to 35 pounds are so thick they’re turning the sea red in huge, monstrous schools.”

“But there is so much bait out there, with varied types that change daily, that it will make you wonder which bait or jig to use,” Gabruk said. “Coming across a bait ball will be your best bet. Just cast a jig or live bait into the middle of a bait ball and rig yourself for some arm burning action. Especially for roosterfish, which are running with the red snapper, which are in a second layer just under the roosterfish. If you can get your bait below the roosters, you’ll start banging the snappers.”

“The snappers are hugely abundant, but they’re not exactly taking baits if they’re not in a feeding frenzy,” Gabruk said. “Sailfish are lounging on the surface in the same area. If you cast bait at them you have a 50-50 chance that they’ll take it. For the moment, the bite is around mid day, maybe a little earlier, but by the time you read this article it will be moving earlier. And since you’re in the same neighborhood, the Marietta Islands are happening as well. But since it’s the same time and distance, with more options at Punta Mita, why waste the effort.”

“Wahoo are at all the locations,” Gabruk said. “They’re anywhere from behind El Morro to Corbeteña and up to El Banco. They are worth the time, but bring plenty of bait and be ready to lose some lures. At Corbeteña and El Banco there are sailfish, blue marlin, wahoo and jack crevalle. It’s worth the distance and the fuel dollar, but why would you do it when you can do it all in eight-hour which is cheaper all around. There are yellowfin tuna in the area, but they’re footballs like you’d expect this time of the year, for me, Punta Mita is the obvious choice.”

“Inside the bay there’s some great fishing, amazing in fact,” Gabruk said. “Jack crevalle and all the other players are just a mile or two outside of Marina Vallarta. A four-hour fishing trip even produced a sailfish in the bay this past week at Los Arcos. Huge jack crevalle, skipjack tuna, bonito and snappers, all these species are in the same size ranges as mentioned earlier.”

Damon Martin at PV Sportfishing said they had a few slow days starting out the month but both the inshore and offshore fishing had picked up. “We have been catching big amberjack outside of the Marietta Islands and lots of jack crevalle off the north side of Banderas Bay,” he said. “And the big cow yellowfin tuna continued to bite on overnight charters 80 to 120 miles offshore.”

“Billfish and also a few smaller tuna have been caught outside of El Banco and in open waters 20 miles out from Punta de Mita,” Martin said. “We have also been catching marlin with live bait and trolling lures at slow speeds offshore. Captain Torres nailed a 400-pound black marlin outside of El Banco last week with live skipjack aboard the My Marlin and also caught the biggest tuna of the year so far at 362 pounds.”