mexican (mayan) riviera ,has anyone fished there?

[Kanuck]

hi all wifey suggested we could charter fish a day so,, has anyone got tips for us please?

Such as recomended charters,species,rates,tipping,and what of the catch? Do we have to arrange this ahead to get the chef to prepare it? and so on. This is my first chance to do this type of trip.Any and all advice would be appreciated. And even obvious advice will be welcomed.Thanks

Edited November 17, 2010 by Kanuck

[mercman]

Lucky bugger

Best advice...don't forget your sun screen, and have a great vacation.

[irishfield]

You will find that the majority of charters give their/your daily catch to the restaurant to cover their dock slip. Way it is in Cancun anyhow, or at least was.

[HTHM]

My son in law went on a charter on his honeymoon and came back with a 7' 100 pound sailfish, he is waiting on the mount right now. Expects it around March - April.

[scuro2]

Join this forum. http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=55

[Kanuck]

thanks guys,, hope they check for swamp gas before we get there,,,wow.

good info on that wsf site too thanks all~

cheers

kanuck

[Outrage19]

thanks guys,, hope they check for swamp gas before we get there,,,wow.

good info on that wsf site too thanks all~

cheers

kanuck

[Outrage19]

Once you get a taste of the salt water fishing, maybe you'll get that boat down to Cape Hatteras with me

 

Adrian

[jerdog]

I went out in the Playa Del Carmen area here's the link to the operator I used there: Captain Rick's

 

They let you keep fish you catch except for billfish and barracuda. There are lots of restaurants in the port area too that will cook your catch for reasonable rates.

 

My advice would be to take a look at the long range weather forecast before heading down (a week in advance) to get an idea of what the winds are going to be like so that you can plan your activities accordingly. If I had waited past the second day of my trip I wouldn't have gotten out because the winds were too high.

[kickingfrog]

Mexican and Mayan Rivera are not the same thing.

 

Mexican Rivera is the West Coast Pacific Ocean, Mayan Rivera is East Coast Atlantic Ocean.

 

Might make a difference... might not.

[Kanuck]

going to the gulf side. across from Cozumel island,just south of playa del carmen.So Cpt Rick looks like a great option.Thanks again.. hope to have some pics to report!

cheers!

[fish_d00d]

Coincidentally, I was at the Grand Princess Riviera in May, and had a great time. They definitely have it right that there are many Canadians who visit the resort. I would say 90% of the folks I bumped into were Canadian. It's a shame that tragedy struck in such a beautiful place.

 

Anyways, in regards to fishing...

 

I would sneak out of the hotel room around 7:30 each morning to try and catch something off the beach. I had brought my own 9ft telescopic rod that I picked up in Hong Kong, and an Abu Garcia Saltwater reel, spooled with 40lb Powerpro and 20lb fluorocarbon leader. I also brought an assortment of large hooks, egg sinkers, crankbaits and swimbaits.

 

The first few mornings, I skunked out. Without any "live"/flavored bait, I only had the cranks and swimbaits to work with. After a few days of catching nothing, I decided to slip my waiter a couple US dollar bills after dinner, and he hooked me up with a cup full of small shrimp! (At All-inclusives, they don't like you taking food from the buffet). The next morning, I decided to give the shrimp a try, but realized I didn't have any small hooks. I instead removed a treble hook from one of the cranks, and it proved to work fine. I had previously spoken to one of the resort employees on the beach, who claimed that big permit and bonefish swam into the beach area when the tide came in. So, that morning, I went waist deep into the swimming area of the beach (no one was there at 7:30 in the morning). The water was pretty murky, and I tossed my line just in front of me. Within seconds, I had a bite! A bonefish about 1 1/2 lbs in size. Small, but still exhilarating. I let it go in hopes of catching bigger fish. Next, I landed a permit around 2lbs. Within the next hour, I caught about 7 fish altogether. Finally, people arrived to swim, and I decided to leave. I had kept 3 of the fish, and gave them to the aforementioned resort employee. The next day, I took a charter out to fish deep sea. We paid about $250 USD for the 4 of us. The sky was crapping on us, and the waves reminded me of The Perfect Storm, but within the 4 hours we were out, we had a bite from a marlin, which was very exciting, but ended up with only a 30lb Barracuda. The next day after that, I only managed to get a chance to fish in the afternoon while the wife was sunbathing on the beach. I decided to rent one of the resort's kayaks and venture out to deeper water again. It was tough to steer the kayak, as the waves got to be pretty big in that area. To be honest, I don't recommend doing this unless you are very confident in your ability to balance and control a kayak. I had left all my lures on the beach, and had just the shrimp and my treble hook tied on. You can understand my disappointment when I was rowing in about 15'-20' of water and saw another good sized barracuda just about 12 feet from my boat. Had I my shiny cranks on my, I would have had some fun. With nothing to lose, I tossed out my crappy shrimp and instead scared the beast away. That was my last chance to fish in Mexico.

 

My advice to you:

Bring large hooks and sinkers. Find a way to get some nice sized cutbait. If, unlike me, you can manage some time to fish during dusk (dinner time), take your large hooks, sinkers and cutbait, wade as far out as you dare into the water, let your line out, and walk back to the beach. Reel in the slack, sit there and wait for those bigger permit and bonefish to come in and feed. If you can't, try the morning, and catch the smaller ones near where people usually swim. I figure people bring food with them into the water(?), and this attracts the smaller fish to populated areas of the beach. Don't get me wrong, these small guys are fun to catch too!

 

I hope you're able to pick up a few tips from my recount, and hope you have a good fishing experience on your trip.

[Kanuck]

thnaks minnow for those ideas, gonna pack a telerod,hooks sinkers and maybe a spinner like a mepps. fly monday back in week! cheers

[JohnF]

I went out in the Playa Del Carmen area here's the link to the operator I used there: Captain Rick's

 

They let you keep fish you catch except for billfish and barracuda. There are lots of restaurants in the port area too that will cook your catch for reasonable rates.

 

My advice would be to take a look at the long range weather forecast before heading down (a week in advance) to get an idea of what the winds are going to be like so that you can plan your activities accordingly. If I had waited past the second day of my trip I wouldn't have gotten out because the winds were too high.

 

Wind is always an issue this time of the year down there. I'm not sure when it neds but I'm told there are seasons when the water is dead calm off shore. We go in January every year and it's not uncommon for the ports to be closed at least once a week for a few days. It sure makes for interesting open water diving. You miss a lot of days and when you do get out the waves are pretty intimidating for the inexperienced. It's not just the seasickness which generally clears up s soon as you hit the water but getting out of the boat in big rollers is exciting enuf, climbing back aboard the dive platform is really a thrill, waiting in the trough for the deck to slap down in your face and you grab at the ladder and hang on for the upride while the tough little Mexican feller grabs at the reg on your tank to haul you up. The waves are sometimes creating 10-12' troughs so the live boat looms huge and high with the captain holding the boat into the waves just waiting for the perfect moment to ease off on the props as you grab for a hold on the water level deck right above the props. It's even more fun with the outboard driven 6 packs trying to get a ladder hold or climbing up the motor if it's off.

 

 

On the fishing charters you hopefully don't have to climb aboard but you'll have constant motion to contend with. Stay out of the cabin and watch the shore as much as possible. If you gotta puke just hang your head outboard and downwind and let her fly. You won't usually be alone. I've seen guys hardly miss a word in a conversation as they turned and hurled and came straight back to the conversation while wiping their lips.

 

One thing you'll find is that generally the Mayan locals who work the boats are great. They're little bitty guys, tough and strong as all get out and probably won't speak much english, but they know exactly what they're doing and they'll help you a lot, just grinning and smiling the whole time. Treat them with respect and tip them when you're done. They earn it. The companies make the money and these guys aren't overpaid. I've gotten to know a lot of locals through my diving and some of them work for the same companies and I hear stories from them. You'll probably find more private operators down the coast from Cancun, places like Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Aventuras, Akumal and even farther south but that's as far as I've had to travel for my diving. Sorry I don't have too much info on the offshore guys but when in Mexico diving is my thing.

 

JF

[Kanuck]

thanks John hopefully no diving while fishing,will pack lots of gravol though!

I will be happy if we can get out at all for some fishing.Gonna try the shore in the mornings too.

Likely should not do the all u can drink nite before any boating, lol

cheers!!

[JohnF]

thanks John hopefully no diving while fishing,will pack lots of gravol though!

I will be happy if we can get out at all for some fishing.Gonna try the shore in the mornings too.

Likely should not do the all u can drink nite before any boating, lol

cheers!!

 

If you've never been there before don't be alarmed by how rough it looks along the highway going south from the airport. The resorts are excellent and the service is exemplary at all the places we've been. We always stay in Cancun but we take a lot of day trips to Playa etc and out to Coz and not always for the diving. The people are almost always friendly and good humoured about the language thing.

 

Don't worry about swamp gas exploding. I think that claim is a crock. I've dived under some of those places, almost literally. A friend of mine actually entered a cenote in Puerto Aventuras when a resort parking lot collapsed to expose the water below. His dive shop was at the time just across the street. It was easy to see from his pics of the collapse that there's not much but limestone under everything. Typically there's about 18 -20' of solid limestone between the jungle and the caves which are usually water filled that close to the salt water as they all join the Caribbean somewhere along the coast. You can even see some of them bubbling up just off shore in a few spots if you know ehere to look. The jungle floor covering is pretty thin and in my experience of hiking back to jungle cenotes I can't say I remember places where there was enough sediment under the jungle growth to trap swamp gas. The most common gas is probably the monkey farts. I'd bet anything that explosion was a mechanical problem. Recent coverage seems to bear that out.

 

I'm sure you'll enjoy the holiday. If you have a free day and like old stuff do the day trip to Coba. It's a recently uncovered Mayan site with lots of buildings and a 325' pyramid you can still climb if you don't mind heights. Chichen Itza is farther to travel and they don't let you climb the pyramid any more. The tour companies like Thomas (whatever) have beautiful modern air conditioned buses and you're really quite close where you'll be staying so the bus trip is probably less than 30-45 minutes each way. If you want to visit Cancun for anything you can ride nice modern highway buses cheap. Forget cabs for that. Be careful with renting cars. I've heard horror stories about damage charges and the roads tend to be very pot holey in places. Also the local highway cops love tourists in rentals. A friend of mine spent $20 on each of two roadside bribes to drive his rental about 15 miles to play golf one morning. On the plus side there's really only one road so you can't get lost until you get into Cancun city.

 

JF

[Dutch]

I just returned from 2 weeks in the Mayan Riviera area. It was my 3rd time to the same resort - Bahia Principe. It is about 20 minutes north of Tulum and 40 minutes south of Playa Del Carmen.

 

I like this resort as there is a deserted lagoon just south of the main beach that is secluded and private and is a great fishing area. It is not looked on favourably fishing from the beach at any resort where swimmers frequent, but I doubt anyone would say anything to you as long as the beach is essentailly deserted. I don't have a problem when I go to the deserted area. I see maybe 3 other people the entire time I am there, which is usually for 3-4 hours at a time.

 

I take an old medium action rod and a spinning reel spooled with 20 pound power pro. Braid is better considering all the coral around. I use a small octopus hook and a couple of split shot. I get fresh bait from the kitchen, I have not yet once seen them say no. I prefer some type of fish with skin on, then calimari, and finally shrimp if they don't have 1 or 2. The skin helps the bait stay on the hook, calimari stays on better than shirmp. With shrimp I am constantly re-baiting. I have never had luck with any artificial bait from shore.

 

I gets hits constantly from the small reef fish. Once I get a hook-up and land something, I use it as bait, especially if I am losing a lot of my buffet bait to merauders. It is really like fishing panfish with worms, constantly rebaiting until I catch a bait fish, then it gets better as the flesh does not come off the hook as readily.

 

I catch quite a few snappers and grunts, usually nothing huge. I got a 2 pound snapper this year that fought like a 10 pound smallmouth - lots of fun. Pretty predictable action.

 

Went out on a charter last year and got a nice barracuda. This time of year the offshore fishing is not great, but usually you can catch barracuda. I know all about the wind - we were out in 8-10 foot swells, water breaing over the stern here and there, but the captain was really great and held the boat nicely. I suggest Akumal beach if you are looking for a charter. Just get a collectivo there and go to the beach. NEVER, and I mean NEVER go through the resort for fishing. Not only are the captains the same that drive the parasailing boats, but they have no idea how to rig bait or troll. The prices are insane too. Go to Akumal and ask one of the coopeatives at the palapas on the beach, they can hook you up. I have heard of Captain Ron's and of El Pascador. Everyone reccommends them even if they have never fished with them, because they hear about them and read on the internet. They are expensive. Support the liitle guys and arrange something with a local on the beach. They appreciate it that much more.

 

We saw this guy walking down the beach - got us pumped!

 

 

The 'cuda I caught:

 

 

 

This picture shows the seas we were dealing with:

 

[Kanuck]

Well we made it back.It was great ,service was awesome.Thank you all for tips etc.

You were right John it looks rather sad on the road in.However the people are really nice.

Minnow I only had last morning to beach fish,little guys kept taking my shrimp.

Here are a couple of pics.

Adios and gracias!

Kanuck