This was our 2nd trip with Capt. Salas. Our first trip, 2 yrs ago we caught kingfish and snorkeled and my wife and I had such a good time we booked him again.  On this trip it was a rough day due to weather and had to cut our trip short. Before the storm hit, we caught a huge Grouper(70lbs) and Amberjack (40lbs?). We come to Playa often and will not use anyone else. I would recommend this captain to anyone looking for fishing, snorkeling trip.

Fishing with captain Salatiel felt like fishing with a family member. Also, it is very clear that Salatiel fishes not just for a living…but to live.  He asked me what I “would wish to catch”. I told him that “I’ve never caught a sail fish”. Well…guess what: I/we caught the most beautiful sail fish I’ve ever caught. (Naturally he was honest about fishing vs catching and being lucky). I will definitely be back to fish with him.

Hurricane Hermine had caused our trip to be cancelled for three mornings in a row but Captain Salas and I kept trying to make it work and at noon on the third day the wind laid enough for us to go fishing. Captain Bernie and Jesus meet Mike and I at the boat and we were fishing by 12:30 pm.  Around 1 pm we hooked up with our first fish which was a beautiful sailfish, around 7’ long.  We caught 3 barracuda after that, one of which was very large, around 5’ long.
This fishing trip on the “Juancho” was the highlight of our vacation. The crew was awesome and i really appreciate Captain Salas working with me for several days to make this trip happen. I would tell anyone they are missing out if they don’t go fishing on the “Jauncho”.

Sincerely,
Brian Guest

Captain Salas had 5 high quality, very large conventional reels with lever drags. Easily handle a 500lb fish with his gear, chair and belt. We caught a 25lb cuda, a small needlefish and a 10lb cuda. Big fish were miles out due to recent rain, but El capitan got us on some shallow water cudas. Deck hand was very helpful and led us on an awesome snorkeling tour for a quick 30 minute break. The boat was plenty big for 3-4 people +crew. Not a big beautiful yacht, but it is very clean got the job done very well. Helped us get setup with a beach restaurant to cook our fish. Honest captain.

It rained the weeks before we arrived and we were battling a full moon which lowered the abundance of fish.  Capt Sal warned us in the morning and then described what all we were going to do.  Troll for a while for big fish, Bottom feed for shallow water fish, and jig for shoreline fish.  We gave it our all in the 4 hours we booked and we were successful enough for the circumstances.  We caught a 3 1/2 foot barracuda, some sea bass, and numerous others that we released.  Had a lot of hits that got our bait but not the hook.  It is called FISHING and not CATCHING!!!  We will definitely book this trip again with Capt Sal the next time we come to Playa. Had a great day at sea with family and felt very safe and cared for by the crew.