Mexico Fishing

[sarps]

My husband is excited to take a deep sea fishing excursion during our NCL Star cruise on 4/30. These excursions are offered in 3 ports: Acapulco, Ixtapa and Cabo. Does anyone have any experience fishing in these locations and could you recommend one port over another for this activity?

 

Sandi

[Oregonians]

We've fished Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, and Acapulco (just last month, off a cruise). You can go out in a smaller boat for a couple hundred dollars, or charter a million dollar yacht, especially in Cabo.

 

We didn't catch anything out of Acapulco, on a smaller boat with 2 of us and 3 crew. We were mainly going for tuna. I have a friend that runs a small fishing and golfing lodge out of Manzanillo, and he said that fishing has generally not been that good this year.

 

When we fished Puerto Vallarta a few years ago, we got plenty of tuna.

 

Been to Cabo 3 times with half a dozen others. Chartered a nice yacht with air conditioning, TV, full kitchen, leather furniture etc. Went for bill fish (Marlin etc.) and Dorado (aka mahi mahi or dolphin fish). These boats troll fairly fast, and it can be a rough ride. (Much faster than, for example, trolling for salmon in Alaska if you're familiar with that) Fair amount of sea sickness. Last trip, another person hooked a big blue marlin (close to 400 pounds). Theoretically, this should be catch and release, but they are often hurt in the process, and the crew tries to steer you to keeping them because they want the meat (which is supposedly not all that good) , so the fish was boarded and cut up. I did catch and release a striped marlin.

 

In 2 full days those were the only fish the entire boat got on my most recent trip. (The Tv came in handy as something to do, and the leather couch was great for sleeping) On a previous trip, while trolling for marlin, we got into a school of dorado. That was fun, no need to catch and release, and very tasty. The boat got a dozen in maybe 25 minutes.

 

Let me know if you have any more questions.

[neveslaw]

I've fished these waters several times including on cruise ship excursions. The best fishing will be off Cabo. But be warned, the excursion boats have to leave late because you will not be off the ship until at least 8:00. That limits how far out the fishing boat can go, plus you miss the morning bite. Fortunatly, tuna usually will bite all day long, everyone catches a fish and they are fun to catch. Tell the boat captain that you want to fish tuna.

[csteck]

We did the Acapulco Fishing excursion with Royal Caribbean. We were taken for a expensive ride. The guides had 6 poles, 6 hooks and some bait , They tied it 20 feet behind the boat on the surface and took us for a rough ride at about 30 mph. I don't think most fish swim that fast. Our group complained and RC gave us a $ 50.00 credit. They said they would not use that guide again. The other part of the tour were on a different ship, They caught fish and had a great time.

[nana t]

I haven't fished the ports that you mentioned but my one and only fishing excursion has taught me a lesson. Don't do it! As someone said earilier, we were taken for a ride. We booked through Carnival for an excursion in Cozumel. There were six paying passengers and a two man crew. We boarded the boat about 8 a.m. and rode real fast out for about 45 minutes THEN the crew boy STARTED getting the poles(4) ready. I felt like this should have been done before we got there. He explained that he would catch A fish and let us take turns reeling it in. He put the lines out and we slowly trolled around for about one and a half hours sucking in exhaust fumes. All passengers had a bad headache within 30 minutes and one poor girl was pitiful. My husband is an EMT and tried to make make her comfortable by taking her into the shade and opening a window near the front to get a fresh breeze blowing. He gave her salty chips to try and help with the nausea. The Two crew members did nothing but smile as they seemed to be sharing a private joke. Long story short, Crew boy never hooked a fish so we never even touched a fishing pole. I felt like the whole thing was sort of a rip off. I know you can't predict when the fish are going to bite but I felt that alot of MY PAID FOR time was wasted on getting the poles ready. Even if the fish had been biting , all of us could not have been actively fishing at the same time because there were only 4 poles for 6 people. The on;y plus for these guys is that the drinks provided were cold and they had a variety to chose from including alcoholic. With all of us having a headache and feeling bad, water and soft drinks were the drinks of the day.

[mii]

Maybe it might help if you post this question on the Ports of Call board under Mexican Riviera. I have seen that question brought up there. Maybe someone there can help you.

 

Marilyn

[Ice Travel Agent]

We actually did that in cabo and i am not a fishing type person but the bf and the kids had a great time i enjoyed the ride! :)

[springtxbill]

We went once in PV and did great on the tuna.:)