15
Dec 10

Nature is a trip – Vallarta

I’m down in Vallarta for a long anticipated family trip.  We love playing in the pools, lounging about and having some good quality time together.  I, as you might expect, bring a fly rod or two along (in this case, two loaners from Orvis, the Hydros and their Access in an 8).  In years past I’ve come to have some pretty good fishing at the river mouth that separates Puerto Vallarta from Nuevo Vallarta.  I’ve caught dinner there a couple of times and really had started to get it dialed.

This year… not so much.

Some storms came though during the summer and my guess is a few million cubic yards of sand got moved around.  What I used to know is now a total mystery again.  There is a little bay, where once there was open water.  The river now has two mouths and I can’t even get to the place where I had had such good luck for the past couple of years.

Amazing how much nature can alter things in the span of a few months.

Now, I can’t find the big fish. The little fish?  Oh yeah… I have those DIALED.  I’ve caught dozens of little Jacks… little… ounces, not pounds.

After my 25 pound Jack in Belize... this is a little underwhelming.

I repeated an old mistake and asked the concierge if they had any information on fly fishing.  No… I could take a party boat, but no… they don’t know anyone who has a panga who could take me out in the bay to cast for some Jacks. However, I also asked one of the doormen, Jorge.  He knows.  He knows a bunch of folks and he and I, in theory, are going to go fishing with a friend of his on Thursday.  I will need to pay for gas, but that’s it.  We’ll see how that goes.  I’m looking forward to it.


27
Nov 09

Toro! Toro! Toro!

Another day here in Vallarta, still no bonefish.  However… today I caught a Toro, also known as a Pacific Jack Crevalle, that was 12.8 pounds.  I’ve caught a ton of these down here… but mostly around a pound… this fish was just lovely.  Had me so far in my backing I could see the spool.  Probably broke my 7 wt. reel, actually.  Took about 20 minutes to land. 

I couldn’t be happier at the moment.

Now, normally, I’m a Catch and Release guy all around… but after 20 minutes, I had my doubts if this fish would survive.  I brought it back to the resort and had it prepared for dinner.  It was yummy.  Way more food that we could eat, so we fed many of the staff tonight.  This is my largest saltwater fish to date.

Good times.

Toro!