Big schools of Giant Yellowfin Tuna are being found in large quantities currently off of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Many boats making the trek out to the islands are having great success both on surface feeding fish, and by dropping a sinker rig to over 100-feet. Matt Harbour of Huntington Beach, CA recently returned from a successful trip down south and wrote in to recap his adventure:
“Steve Danziger, Matt Gerns, and I fished aboard the 60' yacht, Journeyman , this weekend (Jan 19 on 1.5 day) outside the buffer zone of the Tres Marias, Puerto Vallarta. There were lots of fish feeding on Pelagic Red Crab 14-miles off the islands. We were scheduled to do a 2.5 day, but plugged the boat on the first day and opted to head home Saturday night to catch the NFC and AFC (NFL) championship games. We caught 20 Yellowfin over 100 lbs, including a 248.5 lb. (caught by me), a 215 lb. (caught by Matt Gerns), and 190 lb. (caught by SteveD). Classic ‘plunker’ bite with 1 - 3 fish hooked all day long (50% of the fish hooked on dropper loop at 100+ ft.). My largest came on the double trouble rig off the kite......two cows were fighting for the bait and both were actually hooked (second fish straightened the hook almost immediately). Gern's fish came on a flylined squid.......largest one in the tank. Both caught in approximately 30 minutes.”
Below: Matt Harbour (left) and Matt Gerns show off their PV Cows
With the fishing being so hot in the area, a couple of San Diego’s storied long range fishing vessels decided to head for PV, passing by the further north Clarion Island and Hurricane Bank where they normally fish this time of year. The January 27th report from Capt. Justin Fleck of the 124-foot EXCEL read:
“Today we started fishing outside of Puerto Vallarta in grease calm weather. Our day started out similar to yesterday with a little bit of action on smaller grade tuna up to 50 pounds. Late in the day there were a few bird schools around with some good grade tuna crashing underneath. We picked off ten fish 140-250 pounds with five cows. Phillip Bruce was first to hook up with his biggest tuna ever at 225 pounds. Next was Max Dallorso with a 237. Then Nonon Alvarez 209. David Christopher 210. And the final cow was caught by Scott McCall with a chunky 251. There is definitely the chance at landing a trophy down here.”
Below: A couple of the cows to come aboard _EXCEL _off Puerto Vallarta
Needless to say, if you are in the mood for big yellowfin, now is the time to head to PV.
