Fishing in Huatulco, Oaxaca

Giorgio Sandonà with marlin

The fishing in Huatulco is good but not quite as good as Los Cabos or Manzanillo. Huatulco is located on the west end of the gulf of Tehuantepec, this gulf is very wide and the isthmus, the narrow part of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, make the sea on the Pacific side very rough. Sometimes the wind in Salina Cruz is 100 Km an hour (60 mph).

From the end of November until March is the yellowfin tuna season and big dorado (mahi-mahi, bull-dolphin) season due to the coldest water during the year. From March until the end of May the fishing is very slow, some dorado, some wahoo, some small yellowfin tuna. Beginning in June is the sailfish season and this peaks in July and August. July is also good for blue marlin that you can catch just 5 miles from shore. The sailfish come at the beginning of the rainy season and the water becomes warmer day by day. Sometimes in this period you have 8-10 sailfish strike during the morning and it is very exciting to sometimes see the sailfish feeding just outside the bay. In this period the Copalita river is full of water and on the Ocean you will see a large area of dirty water where the river drains into the sea. At this time you will find a line dividing the brown dirty water from the blue one. At the edge you can fish for dorado, sailfish, and wahoo. Occasionally we have a strike from a small shark when trolling very slowly.

Local fisherman engage in shark fishing all year long. The day before they go fishing for barrilete (bonito). The next day they leave at 5 p.m. and go about 10 to 20 miles offshore, at this time they stop the panga (small open fiberglass boat with outboard engine), they cut the bonito in 2 or 3 pieces and put it on the hook. The number of hooks may vary from 250 to 500. At one end of the line there is an anchor and the other they tie to the panga. They eat and sleep on the boat until 5.30 a.m. when they start retrieving the shark. Many times in the Santa Cruz port on the left side around 8-9 a.m. you see hundreds of dead shark just from fishing during the previous night.

If you decide to go for shark it is better during the daytime because at night it will be dangerous due to oil tankers that are going in and out from the Pemex (state oil company) port at Salina Cruz. When you get to the area just cut in 2 pieces the bonito without the head, put on a shark hook, and fish with your 50-80 lbs. rod. This type of fishing is done drifting not

Carlos Ramos catches a dorado.

trolling, and be careful about the sun. When you catch a shark you must be careful putting it inside the boat because shark live for a long time out of the water.

Fishing in Huatulco is still good until the end of September. After this you have about 2 months of slow fishing. I never intend to catch swordfish during the night and I don't know anybody in Huatulco who has. Huatulco is still a good place to fish because there are just a few boats doing sport fishing and there is not a fleet of commercial boats. On the ocean sometimes you will see just a few shrimp trawlers coming from Salina Cruz and in winter time just a few commercial boats for tuna fishing with nets.

Giorgio Sandonà
sandonag@sympatico.ca
Huatulco, Mexico
February 1997

Fish of the Oaxacan Coast
Fishing for Sailfish in Puerto Angel, a link to an article by Mario Bozzi.

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