Punta Cana trip

007

Active Member
Fished out of Punta Cana last month, so thought I'd post up a report.
The trip wasn't fishing focused, but we did get out one day, so might help anyone considering a trip to Punta Cana

We stayed at Bahia Principle resort (http://www.bahia-principe.com/en/resorts-in-dominican-republic/resort-ambar-blue/) for a week between Nov. 4-12. Great resort with amazing food and beaches.
Nice when they serve caviar with the breakfast buffet!
Caviar at Breakfast.jpg

The resort is over the top, highly recommend it!
Pool.jpg Beach.jpg

Although, I did hunt around (TripAdvisor) for reviews of charters, it seemed to be a pretty mixed bag of good or bad experiences. So figured I would just check with resort staff and other guests once we arrived.

Didn't have much help from the resort staff, either they didn't know anything or just directed me to the 'guest services'. I waited a few days and ran into a couple of guys from the U.S. east coast, that were walking around the beach with casting rods. Talked to them and they said the trip out, with the guest services, was decent so decided to go that route.

It was $120US for myself and $80US, for my partner as she wasn't into fishing, for 5hrs on a shared boat. Kind of nice option if your girlfriend or wife just want's to get out on the water for the day and could careless if she landed a fish or not. Tried to book for the next morning (they did a morning or afternoon trips) but they were booked, so had to wait another day; probably shouldn't wait too long once you arrive as they may all be filled up.

We were picked up at the front lobby of the hotel at about 6am, in a nice mini van. From there we stopped at another 4 resorts and picked up other people. All in all it took just over an hour to get to the marina; which was about 15-20mins away. I would recommend, if you can, find the name of the marina and boat and arrange your own transport for about $20US.

We got to the marina and there was a bit of confusion as to the number of passengers, not a good sign!!! There were 13 of us (two non-fishers), for the two boats!!! I had tried to ensure the number of fishers on the shared boat' and was told 3-4 maybe 5. So that was a bit of a bummer, but hey your on vacation and kind of have to roll with it!!! Though there were 3 Americans' with us that were right pissed!!!

Nice 42' boat with quality gear and overall in good shape. The captain and deckhand were great, they we real fisherman and were actually pissed with the 'company' for booking so many! They had a huge Igloo cooler full of beer, water and pop and said help yourselves!

Once we got the groups divided, we headed out.
Fishing 1.jpg


Continued...
 
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With in about 10-15mins the deck hand started letting out the lines, he had a dozen or so bait rig's all set up ready to go (good sign!!!) I asked what the bait was but can't remember the name (?)
Bait.jpg


He put out two lines off the stern and then dropped the outriggers with one more line on each rigger, then sent out a 5th line off the middle of the upper fly bridge.

It seemed pretty rough and one girl was over the gunnel the whole time; poor girl (lower left) she did NOT have a good experience!!!
Fishing 10.jpg

We got into a few barracuda within about 15mins so that got everyone a little lively (sorry no pics); they were released right away.

Then after about two hours we hooked a dorado, started reeling that one in and bang another rod went off. Got the first one into the boat and lost the second.
Fishing 8.jpg

The captain whipped around, as fast as he could, to put us over them again.

With in 5 minutes bang, another one hit on the port side line, then the center rod off the fly bridge! I was in the back corner by the starboard rod, filming with my GoPro and it started peeling line out. I dropped the camera (yes IN the boat!!!) and proceeded to grab the rod and start fighting the fish. By this time things were getting a little f'ed up with the other two fish. The others couldn't understand that the captain was trying to pass the rod down to the deck and the guy with one on would have to do an over-under pass of the rod. The deckhand looked over at me a few times to check in; I think he was pretty happy to see I had it under control lol!!! They managed to loose the first two and just as the deckhand was gaffing mine, the starboard rigger rod went off. He got mine in, grabbed the rod peeling line, got it set, reeled on it for a bit then looked around for someone to hand it too! He kind of had a look of... 'oh f$%#, who do I give this to...' ended up passing it to someone, and the guy did a masterful job of getting it in the boat!
Fishing 5.jpg

We tried a few more passes, with nothing else for the day.

All in all I was happy with the trip. The deck hand worked hard, he was continuously checking lines, redoing the bait, the captain was on the radio all the time, checking in with other boats and trolling off to different spots based on intel he was getting.
Jo Fishing 3.jpg
 

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did i miss the name of the charter? thinkin of trip south!
 
Nice write up. We stayed at that resort for our honeymoon 11 years ago. It was only a year old at that time and was a nice big resort. I didn't do any fishing as at the time it wasn't recommended to book anything not through the resort. Perhaps next time.....
 
Nice write up. We stayed at that resort for our honeymoon 11 years ago. It was only a year old at that time and was a nice big resort. I didn't do any fishing as at the time it wasn't recommended to book anything not through the resort. Perhaps next time.....
Yeah, the resort is pretty big now 4,000+ guests per night. But it is divided into 6 'areas', and there are 2 sections that are 'Adults Only' if you don't have kids
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