From The Vault: Punta de Mita and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico- April 2019

Punta de Mita, Mexico- April 2019

This was a spring break trip with the family to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last spring and while we spent most of our time adventuring together I did manage to find a fly guide to the north in the small surfing community of Punta de Mita. Erasmo Fly Fishing was energetic, eager to hunt the area and fun to hang out with despite the tough conditions. I first settled on a single day and the goal was to hunt rooster fish and big jack crevelle, but to be honest I just wanted to see the area and get a feel for what it's potential was since the Baja region to the north was very busy and often over run with too many anglers.

First I must say he was very good at responding to emails and fortunately for me spoke very good English. When I arrived from my hour drive from PV he was there ready to go and had a nice super panga well equipped and sea worthy.

 We ran just a few minutes from the harbor out to the main point where there were jagged rocks meeting the breaking surf from the Pacific Ocean. It was quite beautiful and already worth being there. We instantly found large groups of bait and schools of big jacks but you could tell something was not setting well with the fish. They were milling around in tight schools and not feeding at all. It was a case of too much food and perhaps the full moon had these fish eating at night and resting during the day, or at least while I was there fishing they were not eating. Some schools we approached literally appeared asleep, strange and disappointing. 

I liked how he was eager to search for some activity and we did find some smaller bar jacks and rainbow runners interested in flies. After we covered lots of territory and burned up a few hours of time and fuel we called it a day. Thats how it goes sometimes and all you can do is search and try.

Back at our hotel in PV I walked some beaches in search of any near shore action but saw nothing. I watched some locals with heavy spinning rods work jigs and they too came up empty yet the bird watching was quite good and the sunsets incredible.

On our second to last day I reached out to Erasmo Fly Fishing to see if I could bring the family up for a whale tour and a couple hours of fishing. We arrived and toured the small town of Punta de Mita which was laid back and inviting. Again Erasmo was great despite challenging fishing conditions and we just made the best of it. We had lots of luck with longfin pompano or palometta and small jacks. We saw some big jacks but no movement to anything much less a fly, likely needed a hard weather change and warmer water as it had been cool for us. 

The one exciting moment on this last day was seeing a sailfish circle the boat. I had an 8wt in hand at the moment paired with a #2 white clouser, the sailfish gave me about a half second look before vanishing into the deep. I can now say I have cast a fly to a sailfish!

I hope to revisit and try for better luck in this lesser known fishing area of the Southwest Coast of Mexico. From my conversations with Erasmo he indicated March through June and again in October but also that any month good action can happen as this is a major migratory lane.