Two days in Acapulco

[BenCantrell]

I was waiting to post this until a few IDs were settled (mostly damselfish... they suck), but it's taking longer than expected, so here it is.

Last Saturday my friend Ryan and I finished a week-long road trip from Mexico City to Guadalajara and back.  Saw a lot of cool (albeit very small) freshwater fish, and I'll put up a post about that later.  There were a lot of uncertainties about whether or not we would get to hook & line fish during the trip, so we added 2 days at the end so we could have some guaranteed saltwater fishing in Acapulco.

$200 gets you 6 hours on a really nice boat with a captain and first mate.  Hotels are decently priced, so if you can find a cheap flight to Acapulco, it might come out being less expensive than paying for a charter in the states.  The scenery isn't bad either.

Day #1 - species whoring with sabikis

Longnose Puffer


Chameleon Wrasse


Longspined Porcupinefish


Panama Graysby


Finescale Triggerfish


Pacific Red Snapper


Bullseye Jawfish


Orangeside Triggerfish


Spottail Grunt


After the boat we had a few hours to kill before heading to the hotel so we microfished a dock in the marina.

Cortez Rainbow Wrasse


Damselfish #1


Damselfish #2


Short break at the hotel, then we fished the rocks a bit as the sun went down.

Damselfish #3 - orange color is from the sunset, might be same species as one of the two above


Mexican Night Sergeant


Tinsel Squirrelfish


Ryan picked up these species that I didn't.  We pretty much went back and forth on who had the highest species count for the day.  Made for a fun day.

Banded Wrasse


Calico Lizardfish


Spotted Cabrillo


Panamic Sergeant Major

[Pinoyfisher]

Dang, most of those fish look like they'd taste great fried up!  It's the Asian in me. So cool! Will devote a day of micro fishing when I go to Cabo in September.

[BenCantrell]

Day #2 - trolling Punta Bruja and then attempting to species whore with sabikis

We planned to bottom fish some deeper rocky areas by Punta Bruja (Point Witch), but when we saw bait fish blowing up at the surface we quickly got some lures on and trolled for a bit.  We went 4 for 4 with different species being caught, and had 2 others lost before making it into the boat (unsure what they were, maybe a mackerel and a tuna).

Pacific Sierra


Pacific Jack Crevalle


Striped Bonito


Black Skipjack


When the sun came over the mountains the bite died off so we switched to bottom fishing.

Rivulated Mutton Hamlet


Pacific Mutton Hamlet


Everything else was repeats from the day before.

Chameleon Wrasse


Damselfish #4


Longnose Puffer


Damselfish #5


Panama Graysby


Damselfish #6


Finescale Triggerfish


Unfortunately we didn't get to eat anything because we had to head straight to the airport when we finished on the boat.  It was an awesome two days though, really glad we did it!  If anyone wants contact info for the boat we went on or the driver we hired to take us around town, let me know.  Hope everyone enjoys the fish porn. 

[BenCantrell]

Dang, most of those fish look like they'd taste great fried up!  It's the Asian in me. So cool! Will devote a day of micro fishing when I go to Cabo in September.

The captain and mate kept all of the triggerfish, snappers, graysbys, mutton hamlets, and of course the 4 bigger fish from trolling.  Apparently those are the good eating fish!  I've had triggerfish sashimi in Japan, pretty good but on the chewy side.

I really wanted to eat that sierra...

[sasquatch]

Curious what your most species per drop was on the sabiki.

[BenCantrell]

Curious what your most species per drop was on the sabiki.

I don't think we ever caught 2 species on one drop.  The red snappers were the annoying species of the trip.  Most were only about 4 inches.  The most I caught were three in one drop.

Despite all the cool pics I posted, the fishing was actually pretty slow compared to the Florida Keys.  We would sometimes fill up all 6 hooks on the sabiki fishing some of the bridges there.  Might have even had 5 different species on one drop!

[Latimeria]

Awesome trip Ben!

So let me ask you, why did they take your fish?  Was it part of payment or do they take everything like they do in Hawaii?

[sasquatch]

Awesome trip Ben!

So let me ask you, why did they take your fish?  Was it part of payment or do they take everything like they do in Hawaii?

Looked like he wrote they headed straight to the airport from the boat. No time to prepare to eat or take with. Crew probably knew upfront and grabbed some easy dinner.

[BenCantrell]

Looked like he wrote they headed straight to the airport from the boat. No time to prepare to eat or take with. Crew probably knew upfront and grabbed some easy dinner.

Yup they got a really good deal out of it.  We also never left Acapulco Bay, so we hardly used any gas.

[Latimeria]

Gotcha.  Good deal indeed!

[vdisney]

Great pictures and an awesome variety, thanks for the report...........Verne