Tailhunter Fish Report

MARLIN-SAILFISH-DORADO and EVEN TUNA GRAB SPOTLIGHT – NO BOOZE SALES – AERO CALIFORNIA – PHOTO OF THE WEEK

RODS BENT ON BILLFISH AND FINALLY SOME TUNA!

It only seems to be getting better. While you could still have the off-day, not only did the dorado continue to provide constant action for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets, but yellowfin (football sized) tuna finally showed up at Las Arenas off Punta Perrico just outside Muertos Bay close to shore. These were fun-sized 25 pound fish that all of a sudden showed up early in the week where guys were trying to catch a few bonito to strip bait. All of a sudden…tuna were blowing up all around out of nowhere! At first it started with about 1-2 fish per boat then by mid-week we had about 5-6 per boat. By end of week we were at a steady 2-4 tuna just 1/4 mile off the cliffs. The secret on these tuna was light line…20-25 pound test and using 20 pound flurocarbon leaders!

Additionally, several days this week it was almost impossible not to get a marlin or sailfish hook up and several of our pangas had double, triple or even quadruple hookups simultaneously and reported that other marlin were still swimming around the pangas eating anything thrown in the water as if they were 10 pound dorado competing for chum! (See the photo story below!) Besides that, a smattering of decent sized roosterfish, a couple of wahoo and even some hefty dog tooth snapper made for a darned good week! I fished one day with Dr. Dave Perine from the state of Washington. Dave comes down every year and decided he was going to get a big dog tooth. At one point he was 14 misses in a row as the big snapper were busting off 130 pound test in the rocks!!! Well, on number 15, we finally got one of the big dogs into the boat. It was only about 35 pound…quite respectable…but there wasn’t much of that leader material, but a fine looking fish!

I was out several times this week with folks actually . Great shout out to the Pez Gringo guys who spent most of the week with us and not only spanked the fish and parited to tell about it, but made a point of releasing a ton of marlin as well as huget 50,60 and 80 pound roosterfish. Today was a great example of fun fishing. I was with Julian Ramos who will be a sophomore next year in high school and his chum Alex Tovar who will be starting high school. While their dads were chasing larger offshore stuff, the buys hooked 2 tuna, 4 dorado, 8 roosterfish and 3 huge jacks. (most of the fish were released). What a great day and we probably could have sat on that spot of roosters and bent rods on them all afternoon.

Looks like we could have another banner marlin season. See the photo below but black marlin shouldn’t be here yet. They are generally a late summer/fall fish. Well, several huge fish were hung this week, but one 800 pounder was hooked and fought for 6 hours before it was released on our cruiser “Black Magic.”

STOCK UP EARLY

As I mentioned last week, July 2nd is national elections here in Mexico. If you’re coming down, no booze can be bought or sold that day so stock up ahead of time.

AERO CALIFORNIA

This is supposed to be the week that Aero Cal poops or gets off the pot, but we’ve heard that before. If they do come back up this week, you can be sure that we’ll jump all over that!

If you want to read a great piece on what Aero California’s closing did to La Paz, click this link to La Paz Mexico.com and written by my amigo Russ http://lapaz-mexico.com/articles/new.html

PHOTO:

If you ever doubted you could get big fish on small pangas…Greg Covello (holding the head) weighs about 280 pounds and is a security guard at the Tracy CA prison. He was on his first trip to Baja fishing this week. We can only estimate that this fish was around 400 pounds ore more…a huge black marlin. Remarkably it hit a mackerel then snagged itself in the stomach just deep enough for the 6/0 hook to bury itself just under the skin. The tough skin will not rip! On 50 pound test and no leader, Greg battled the fish for over 2 hours on the panga. He didn’t have a fancy reel. He was using a simple stock Penn 4/0. Had the fish been mouth hooked it probably would have gotten free by busting the leader, but because it was snagged, the 50 pound held. They were going to release the big fish, but 50 yards from the panga, the fish died and they had to handline the fish in. Captain Yofo is second from the left. Even he said he was exhausted. When the fish hit the beach…the anglers took only a small chunk of the fish and donated the rest to the towns of Aguamarga and San Pedro which have been on hard times. On the far left is Cesar Carillo who also works at the prison and also took a turn at the rod as well. An incredible fish!

That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter InternationalWebsite: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.comU.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

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SORRY TO START THIS WAY –

So, there was I was on Thursday evening strolling over to Hotel Los Arcos to meet my clients who were coming in from the airport. Parking was unusually difficult so I had to park some blocks away and as I got closer to the hotel there was quite a crowd around and I began to notice a lot of my friend who work at Hotel Marina and La Concha Beach Resort as well as other hotels here in town. I figured there must be a big union meeting at Los Arcos because most of my friends were waiters, room maids, porters, etc. As I greeted them, I laughing asked, “Where’s the party and how come I wasn’t invited?” They laughed back.

So, I walk towards the lobby and its PACKED! I walk smack into the TV cameras and crowds and find out that the hotel has gone on strike. Well…not the hotel, but the union of hotel employees. Apparently, the contract had come up and negotiations had stalled and BOOM…hotel suddenly closes! People were being turned away to other hotels. Current clients were being packed up to other hotels!

This is no bueno. The hotel, like all hotels and other tourist related businesses here in La Paz have been extremely hard hit by the Aero California situation and the lack of airflights into town the last 3 months to where various parts of the hotel had already been closed down. Now this!

Like most strikes…money is at the heart, but also a big political thing. Luis Cuppola is the owner (also owns the Finnesterra in Cabo) is running for the senate as the “choice of the worker.” Big black eye to him when his own hotel workers take a walk!

Bottom line, if you’ve got reservations at Los Arcos this week, better change them! I spoke with hotel management who hope it resolves soon, but we all said that about Aero California too. If you’re one of my clients this week, we’ve already taken care of you. However, many of you who read this are not my clients so talk to your agents or give us a shout to see what can be done. All of my clients have already been placed in other hotels. Once again…until further notice, Los Arcos Hotel is closed due to a workers strike!

OK…let talk fishing…

YOU WANT DORADO WE GOT DORADO!

I think I will dub this the official week that dorado and marlin season started. Still a bit windy, but the dorado bite went into full swing this week with good numbers of chicken-sized schoolies topped off with nice 30-40 pound bulls. It wasn’t wide open or all day, but some spots really produced and if you wanted dorado they were there to be caught. Additionally, marlin finally decided to get with the program instead of just cruising the surface and actually jumped baits and lures along with sailfish. On the La Paz side, areas such as Las Cruces, Coyote, the Canyon and Punta Norte all produced as did the sargasso weeds accumulating in the channel. On the Las Arena side, if you hit the right buoy it was dorado rodeo. You could dink dink all day and get limits or do it with one-stop-shopping if you hit the right buoy. Biggest dorado of the week was a 45 pounder by Rich Strauss of Cleveland who landed a personal best. Inshore as well, roosters, jacks, big bonito and pargo were still on the chew although drawing less attention now that the mahi are centerstage.

AERO CALIFORNIA UPDATES

Still on the ground, but according to the newspapers this week, all the planes have been tested. All the paperwork has been filed and submitted and turned into the government to get the planes back in the air. It’s in the governments hands now (always was!). For the first time, town is buzzing that Aero Cal will be accepting reservations again after June 12th. I want to believe!!!!! But…my optimism is tempered. I want to see their planes flying with people first! The planes have been flown around here, but not with clients…just yet!

In the meantime, most of our clients are either coming through Cabo San Lucas and we are shuttling them up or coming in on the limited flights offered by Aero Mexico.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Big jacks such as this one taken by Doug Oclassen (left) of Boulder CO, helped by his dad Glenn were voracious and could school up in huge spots. Using light tackle, the Oclassens got quite a few of these tough fighters and released them all.

That’s my story!
Jonathan

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