The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Went back down to Vallarta last week and brought the rod along, of course. Went out and fished just down from the Grand Mayan in Nuevo Vallarta where we were staying and... well... it kind of rocked. In years past I would catch a couple of fish, miss many more and my largest would be palm sized. This year I caught a lot more of an actual target species (Jack Cravalle) in the 1-2 pound range that put a good bend in my rod. I ended on Friday fishing for 4 hours at the river mouth and managed 24 fish to hand, largest maybe 2.5 pounds. It was fantastic. I got in a little hot water for fishing about twice as long as my wife expected... but the fishing just couldn't be left behind... and when I was just ready to leave a local net fisherman showed up and I wanted to catch him some fish. Managed to give him six. Kind of nice to help some guy support his family.

It was a great, great trip and my little 10 month old daughter loved the lazy river and pool complex at the Grand Mayan. A great, great trip... for the fishing, for the family vacation.

B-

Sounds like fun. One time when I was in Hawaii on the beach a local fellow came down on the beach and started fishing with just the tip of a rod catching these little 2"-3" fish using tiny bits of shark for bait on about a size 24 hook. I got to talking to him and it turned out he was catching them to use for bait on his boat for the big ones! He had an extra tip with him and I helped him catch 100 of these little guys in about a couple hours (limit was 50 per person). What a blast and a nice break from the tourist thing.

Beerfly

Pretty cool...been thinking about heading down there next year sometime. I'll keep that in mind.

-Greg

My wife and I are celebrating milestone birthdays in May next year........yes, more than 30! OK, and more than 40! We are planning to celebrate in Puerto Vallarta and have a place reserved real close to the beach. Last night I casually mentioned your post about bringing the fly rod to Mexico and I received a glare that would have cut through steel. Normally my wife is GREAT about letting me fish just about any place I want to go. But clearly fishing is not on the agenda on our visit next May!

hee hee... I got in a bit of trouble the last day for fishing too long, but it works out if your wife likes to sleep in... you go out for a couple hours and start the day at a reasonable time... like 11:00...

Normally, the shore fishing has not been too hot for me down there... a few small fish, palm sized, and some needle fish thrown in to really shred your flies. This time I found THE spot... if I moved up or down 20 feet my catch rate dropped off big time... and this was only at the river mouth. I'm sure there are other places that would be productive, I just don't have a ton of experience in the salt, so I'm still a novice. They have big snook around the area too, but I've never hooked or cast to one that I'm aware of.