Puerto Vallarta fishing report October-2010

The crew of Ian, his son Allister, Scott, and myself met at
the marina around 4:45 AM last Thursday. Captain
Freddy and his crew were already working, procuring
some bait for the day. We jumped on board and shoved
off from the marina around 5:20.

We were told that the water at El Banco wasn't fishable
right now (cloudy and no bait), so we headed to La
Corbetena.
We get to the rock at sunrise, and we start by pulling a
spread of plastics. Not even 5 minutes after we put the
spread out, the port flat pops. In the distance, we see a
black marlin tail walking. I grab the rod and jump in the
chair, and line continues to dump from the Tiburon 50w.
They use a mono top shot and pack the reel with braid
underneath and the fish quickly had us to the braid. The
fish went deep for about 30 minutes and then surfaced
for two jumps...it then went deep again. The last 20
minutes or so was a constant give and take...the fish took
line whenever it wanted it seemed. I finally brought her to
the boat after about a 50 minute fight. She measured 134
inches from the bill to the tail...(didn't get a measurement
from the fork of the tail to the jaw, unfortunately). The
captain estimated her at 500lbs.
We spent the remainder of the day trying to catch the
large cow yellowfins that puerto vallarta is known for. We
had a tough time catching the preferred bait (very small
bonita) for most of the day and tried to make do mostly
with cabbies. We did catch several dorado Towards the
end of the day, we did finally get a yellowfin to eat a
cabbie using a kite. Ian grabbed the rod and fought the
70 or so lb yellowfin to the boat. We missed one yf on a
small bonito, and we missed one more on a cabbie I can't
say enough about the Ana Maria's captain and crew.
They worked hard for us, and they even stayed out 2
extra hours at no extra cost just because they genuinely
want to catch fish. There was a friendly rivalry going on
all day between the Ana Maria and El Matador...good
times.
Brad Sawin