Puerta Vallarta - July 2006

[yellowfin]

I fished Puerto Vallarta for 3 days in July 2006.
Hooked up 6 big marlin and successfully stayed attached to a 400lb+ black.
Trolling big livebaits gives a real headache if you dont want to deep hook the marlin but soo exciting a way to fish (if only the dolphins would leave you alone)
I also spent 1 fantastic hour dangling a livebait in front of two 100lb plus sailfish which just would not eat it.
I had yellowfin to 30lb and some huge needlefish.
Even catching the bonita for bait hurts your arms.
Couldnt recommend PV MARLIN highly enough.
The guy who organises the boat is Danny and he really looks after you.
Puerto Vallarta is a wonderful place - I will be back soon.

[PanamaJack]

I fished Puerto Vallarta for 3 days in July 2006.
Hooked up 6 big marlin and successfully stayed attached to a 400lb+ black.
Trolling big livebaits gives a real headache if you dont want to deep hook the marlin but soo exciting a way to fish (if only the dolphins would leave you alone)
I also spent 1 fantastic hour dangling a livebait in front of two 100lb plus sailfish which just would not eat it.
I had yellowfin to 30lb and some huge needlefish.
Even catching the bonita for bait hurts your arms.
Couldnt recommend PV MARLIN highly enough.
The guy who organises the boat is Danny and he really looks after you.
Puerto Vallarta is a wonderful place - I will be back soon.

Hi Yellowfin
I know it's always difficult when the tackle's provided by the charter boat skipper BUT a way to avoid deep hooking with livebaits is to utilise circle hooks. Bridle rigged circle hooks, providing they're not offset, will most of the time, as you push the drag forward, work their way up through the Marlin's throat and neatly lodge in the scissors of the jaw. Obviously the key thing to avoid with circles is the temptation to strike. Once you've allowed it adequate drop back just push the drag to strike and, if you can, start winding. As soon as the line's tight and beginning pulled off the spool you'd fight it conventionally.

So rather than use 'J' hooks when you go back it might be worth taking out some non-offset circles. Dependent on bait size, and accepting that different manufacturers using differing scaling, something between an 18 and 22/0 should do. With Sails, especially using Ballyhoo or Blue Runners as bait, you can get away with something much, much smaller.

Your other point about being 'plagued' by Dolphins. They're normally very shrewd and seize the back of the Skipjack, avoiding the hook. Local crewmen we've used in Panama would just tie a short length of that very fine copper wire they use for bait rigging around the bait's tail root. Dolphin have excellent eyesight and the presence of that used to act as a deterrent. Didn't bother the Marlin though!
Dave

[yellowfin]

Great advice all round there Panama.
Particularly liked the wire round the bonitos tail idea.
Some good thinking on the circle hooks.
I will be experimenting this year for the first time with circles for my local fish - skate,congers,tope etc.
Its not that I am deephooking fish now as by using my usual smallish (half pound max whole or half fish)baits I strike immediatly and almost always have a clean mouth hook-up,the problem comes with too many undesirables (small dogfish) taking the bait and forcing me to crank them up 350'-450' at anchor in a big tide - no fun.
From my pikefishing days I know that the bigger the bait,the more time you gotta give and you dont know if its a 200lb skate swallowing in 10 secs or a 20lb conger which might take a minute to get a big bait fully in the mouth.
Avoiding leaving a hook (bronzed or otherwise) in any fish is the object.
Thanks for the help Panama,I will let you know how I get on later in the year.

[PanamaJack]

It's never easy timing strikes and as you say the bait size is a significant factor, as is the size of the fish.

I guess to illustrate that, and fishing Bait 'n' Switch with deadbaits for Blue Marlin I'll happily set the drag after 5 or so seconds with small baits - things like Scad - providing the fish is taking line steadily. Sometimes you get occasions where the line jerks and I then tend to leave it in free spool for longer, although often that's a prelude to the bait being dropped. Something didn't feel quite right for the fish.

Of course though if a fish starts jumping it's felt the hook and all you can do is to start crankinking fast in the hope you come tight before it throws the hook.

Another member of our Club though - who in 2007 released 51 Blues from Cape Verde, 6 of which came Bait 'n' Switch - using larger Skipjack deadbaits uses, as a rule of thumb, a count of 13 for fish estimated under 400lbs, 10 for larger fish. BTW he favours 19/0 Lazer circles.

But then, at the other end of the scale, and this is purely to illustrate that there can be no fixed rules, one of the Sails I released in Costa Rica this year hooked up with hardly any drop back. We had one strike and immediately the fish hooked up I started retrieving one of the other lines quickly. The line was still running through the outrigger clip. As I raced it in I spotted the tip of the tell tale bill, out of the water, tracking it less than 30' from the transom. Then, before I could put the reel in free spool, the fish had taken the bait and hooked up in a split second. There was just so little drop back, but the circle was lodged right in the scissors.

We run the dead Ballyhoo with a small chin weight, an egg sinker, which creates a straight, fast vibrating action in the water. And whether this coupled with the bait apparently trying to 'escape' make the Sail more agressive I really don't know.
Dave

P.S. We billed the first fish and towed it around until we got the second to get this 'double header' picture.

[yellowfin]

Great looking sails panama - thx again for the help m8.