OPENING PHOTO: Can it possibly be? Yes, Johnny Bartee of Glendora CA and Alan Isham from Rancho Cucamonga CA are holding up YELLOWFIN TUNA! Go figure! A welcome surprise in an already weird year. The fish showed up a few times this week of S. Cerralvo Island. Check out the nice pargo too!
NO DOUBT DORADO ARE HERE ALTHOUGH SOME DAYS ARE TOUGH – OTHER SPECIES LIKE AMBERJACK, MARLIN, WAHOO, AND EVEN TUNA PICK UP THE SLACK!
The La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for June 24, 2007
PHOTO 1 : Bruce Husson from San Diego hefts one of several nice dorado he hooked fishing out of La Paz this past week. Although fishing was hardly wide open, this was by far the most consistent week of dorado fishing of the season with all of our La Paz boats getting limits or near limits most days as dorado season seems like it’s finally kicked in. If winds continue to die down and conditions improve, the dorado bite will only get better!
PHOTO 2: Rick Carlton came down from San Diego and hefts a nice roosterfish that was released. Although it’s hard to see, Rick’s panga is only a few dozen yards off the beach at Las Arenas where roosters are still holding around the bait. In the last few weeks it would seem the roosterfishing has tapered off. In fact, the roosters are still there up to 50 pounds. It’s just that not many anglers are fishing for them anymore now that dorado and good-eating amberjack have shown up. Live sardines are still best for these pez gallo with the larger ones falling for live large ladyfish (sabalo). Big fish…big baits!
PHOTO 3: Mike “Intimidator” Gravert has a great time fishing with us. In fact, he fished 10 days with us. All the way from Sacramento, I can’t get him to smile when he holds fish! But, he’s never happier than when he’s fishing. Over his trip, he got several blue marlin (released), dorado, pargo, snapper, cabrilla, wahoo and a few other species as well. This dorado was caught out of La Paz. 
PHOTO 4: Kelee Sharlack didn’t have too bad of a trip. From Northern California areaa, this early season bull ripped a live sardine off Espiritu Santo Island. Kellee was fishing with her favorite Capt. Joel and got quite a few of these nice dorado over the course of her stay. Fishing the dorado right now, can be hit-or-miss all day until you hit the right spot then it can turn into utter madness as fish slam from all angles. As one clients told me, “We could have had 40 fish in an hour if we wanted to!” Fish are loving the live baits, but the larger bulls are hitting trolled feathers and stripped bonito. So, bring your tuna feathers, anglers! Bright colors work best.
PHOTO 5: For our Las Arenas boats, there are fewer dorado but they seem to generally be larger fish. Greg Covello holds a pair at Las Arenas Beach near the lighthouse.
PHOTO 6: Wahoo are still biting…sort of! One day everyone gets hit. Then for two days, nothing even bumps! The hot spot is still some of the high spots at the south end of Cerralvo Island trolling with larger dark Yozuri Magnums or CD 18 Rapalas. No wire is best. One method we seem to find effective and has resulted in some strikes is to troll like normal then stop the boat. Sometimes, it seems that wahoo are simply trailing and not striking. When the boat stops…WHAM!!!! Here’s Mike Gravert again. Good day when you get a wahoo!
PHOTO 7: La Paz has more dorado (5-15 pound size), but generally, Las Arenas has the larger fish although fewer of them. Sam Henning on his first trip here from Colorado stuck this good bull off Las Arenas fishing with Captain Victor.
PHOTO 8 : Check out the colors on this pargo. Derek Chu of Philadelphia spent two days off the end of Cerralvo Island with his dad and they hammered all kinds of pargo, cabrilla, jacks and pompano.
PHOTO 9: This is me and Captain Victor who many of you know. I was working my light spinning rod in front of the Arenas lighthouse and got 3 of these beasts. It’s your every-day garden variety needlefish that we all hate. But…look at the size. Check out the head! The beak of teeth was about 2 feet long and if I had let go the tail, it would have touched the deck of the panga.
THE FISH REPORT
Well…some folks who fished down here this past week might tell you that fishing was not very good. But, I gotta tell you…not many of them were OUR folks! We did pretty good! It wasn’t wide open and if you fished few days with us, there were some rough spots…winds came back…bait a little tough…periods of slow fishing.
But WAIT (as they say in the info-mercials) !!!!
If you fished with us a few days, you went home with fish! You might have an off-day but overall, there was some great fishing in between too and all our anglers got fish.
So…check out the photos and that will tell you the story. Yes, the winds came back up again and turned the waters off-color and cooler and made some mornings bumpy, but if you had a bait in the water you probably got bit! Let me bust it out like this…
LAS ARENAS
We still have alot of variety around the south end of Cerralvo, Punta Arenas and Punta Perrico. Generally these are the areas where the water was calmer although some mornings there were late starts until you could get enought bait.
Wahoo continued to tease with a few fish caught every other day or so. People would crash the areas and scatter the fish then take a few days for the area to re-load.
Dorado could show up at anytime and anyplace. Generally, many of the dorado from Las Arenas were the larger variety especially if you were fishing the buoys.
Marlin are rather abundant. Some boats got multiple hooksup daily as many of the billfish are starting to finally warm up to the idea of eating a bait and are also actively eating all the small dorado in the area.
Inshore species like roosterfish are still around although not many are being caught as anglers have turned their focus more towards the better eating fish like the dorado and wahoo. Still, any of the sandy beach areas could hold pez gallo if you threw a handful of bait and watched the combs explode. In the same area, jacks and pompano are also being caught.
As well, amberjack up to 50 and 60 pounds were caught this week along with more pargo and a smattering of small yellowfin tuna popped up in the middle of the bonito and skipjack schools.
LA PAZ
For the second straight week, dorado were the central focus of our fleets. Safe to say, I think we’re finally into a solid dorado season. Some boats did better than others, but almost all our boats would get limits or near limits ( We did have one boat that took a load of bananas and and didn’t catch a thing while their buddies on another panga discovered the bananas, threw them overboard and suddenly started hooking up!)
Fish are school-sized 5 to 15 pounders mostly with a few 20-30 pound bulls mixed in and some larger fish getting lost. Live bait works best, but larger baits like caballitos and mackerel or trolling dead bonito strips or feathers seemed to produce the larger fish.
The best areas are around Punta Coyote, Las Cruces and the gap between the islands. Same areas are getting lots of marlin sightings.
FISHING TIPS
1. Bring flurocarbon leader if you have it. 30 and 40 pound leader seems to make a difference
2. Dark colored Rapalas or similar for the wahoo
3. Small swivels if you have to use leader
4. Trap-hook rigs (double hooks) for the larger pargo
5. Lots of sunscreen and a giant hat…it’s HOT!
6. We do not troll alot down here, but some of the bigger dorado are coming up on feathers!
AIRLINE ALERT
If you are flying in September or October down here and you are holding a ticket with Delta Airlines or it’s partners you need to call up your travel agent or Delta Airlines. This past week, Delta canceled or changed many of the flights to La Paz during those months. For some, it was simply a matter of a time change. Others have been re-routed so that there’s a short stop somewhere. Others (not many) have been cancelled.
That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”
Tailhunter Fish Report 
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