I flew in on August 5 and stayed at the La Cruz Inn. (
La Cruz Inn ..:":.. Puerto Vallarta - La Cruz de Huanacaxtle Mexico). Nice place at a reasonable price and walking distance to the La Cruz marina.
I met Danny Osuna on the morning of August 6, and we headed for El Banco where Danny had good action on smaller yellowfin tuna recently.
Arrived at the Bank about 9 a.m. and caught bait. We flylined some bullet tuna and I connected on a pargo fairly quickly (after farming a couple bites). We put the 40 pound class dogtooth on deck and went back to fishing.
We ended up catching two more pargo in the same size class and continued to fish bullets and skippies on the flyline.
There were porpoise around and they stole our bait a few times. We tried slow trolling skippies, but again, the porpoise were a nuisance. We went back to flylining and I got a 30 pound yellowfin on a bullet tuna.
Danny decided to move north of the bank to troll away from the porpoise and about 20 minutes into the troll, we got a knockdown and I got hooked up to a blue marlin in the 200 pound class – hot fish that tore all over the place making some great jumps and charging the boat. Conditions were beautiful – light wind, almost slick conditions, water was deep blue and beautiful. Incredible day. Bait everywhere. We released the blue in short order as this size fish is no match for 30 pounds of drag and 5 and ½ foot Calstar heavy action rods. As we released the blue at boatside Danny said “Welcome home.” This was my first trip of the 2008 season and my third year fishing with Danny. We were all a little rusty this morning, but the cobwebs seems to be clearing and Danny, Alvino and I found our old rhythm with the small blue. It felt really good after a long brutal winter in Chicago.
We went back to fishing the remaining skippies and in about 10 minutes got a knockdown on the left rigger. I grabbed the rod and the bait was grabbed and dropped several times. I tried to hook the fish, but missed twice. Finally, on the third time, I hooked the fish and a dorado came out of the water behind the boat jumping twice. We brought it boatside after a couple more jumps and Alvino stuck with the gaff. The dorado ate a 3 pound skipjack, so it was good sized.
On the deck it looked like a twin to the 49.5 pound dorado I saw weighed at Bud N Mary’s marina in June. It might have been a little larger, but we called it 50 pounds – really nice dorado.
We went back to fishing and Danny was having trouble getting the boat to respond. He started working on the engines to try to fix things up. It was about 1:30 I think. Danny kept on for quite awhile and could not get things corrected. We started slowing heading in and eventually a panga came out with a new fuel filter, but that did not solve the problem. Danny sent me in with the panga and said he’d see me the next day.
When I got back to the marina, Danny’s brother Roberto told me the fuel pumps on Danny’s boat needed to be replaced and that the Marla was going to be out of commission for at least a day. Roberto also said the other Marla’s Fleet boats were booked for the next two days and that he could set me up with another boat for the next day. Since I am swamped at home with work, I told Roberto that I’d head home early and be ready when I come back down in 3 weeks.
So, long story short, my trip got cut short, but in part of one day of fishing, we had great mixed bag action getting three pargo (40 pound range) a 30 pound tuna (and two footballs I did not mention), a 50 pound dorado and a 200 pound class blue marlin (released). Great way to start the season.
I have fished about 35 days with Danny the last 2 years and this is the first time we’ve had this kind of problem. Nothing to be done about it, and these things happen occasionally. I have another 15 days fishing with Danny this season, and I know that if the fish are in town, he will get me some good shots at trophy fish. Looking forward to getting back down there in early September with Danny and Alvino. The water conditions look great in PV and there is a massive amount of bait around, so I would not be surprised to see the bigger yellowfin roll into town soon.
Bogii
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