Louis came to our condo to pick us up at 7:00 am and drove to Los Peines dock which was next to Marina Vallarta. I was surprised to see so many local panga charter boats there.
The Babalu was very clean and nice, and had enough room for three as I saw in the picture. But we got the bad news. They couldn’t get bait (goggle eye) as every boat did that day. We headed for the Rock ( Corbetena), which is 36 miles from the harbor.
When we got there there were a few boats trolling to catch skipjack for bait. We trolled around the Rock, but it was very difficult to catch skipjack. We finally start slow trolling with two live skipjack only after 11:30 am. We didn’t get any hit while trolling a few hours and didn’t see any surface action all.
While trolling, we saw the depth changes constantly. There were about half dozen underwater peaks around the Rock and those underwater peaks are magnets to attract baits and game fish.
After the tide change in the afternoon, we were getting excited as there were some bird actions and small tuna start to pop here and there.
We threw poppers while chasing birds and jigged while drifting throughout the afternoon.
Tuna were popping not far from our boat while drifting. I thought we might land a few tuna if we had live goggle eye baits with us. The highlight of the day had to be the catch of nice jack on poppers by Anthony. He threw his poppers toward bird action and a fish hook his popper and we all thought he hooked up with a tuna finally. After fighting for a while with his Stella 20000 and Smith popping rod, the fish came up to the surface, but it was a nice jack instead.
On the way to the dock, Louis drove the boat to the marina dock at Paradise Village within short walking distance from our condo. We took a shower and went to a restaurant at Paradise Villages's main hotel.
We were very tired, but everybody seemed to have a good mood.
the Babalu and other pangas at Los Peines dock
Anthony fighing a fish which took his popper
and his catch
poorman's GT
I got a fish on my jig
Approaching Paradise Village marina dock
Capt Louis
