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Archive for July, 2007

PHOTO 1: Check out the colors on this incredible bull dorado. Shawn James of Los Angeles had just about wrapped up his day at Las Arenas with Captain Victor and were headed in. Just a few yards off the beach, the spotted a school or dorado and this big bull slammed his bait. Fish on! You won’t see many pristine dorado photos like this!

TUNA – DORADO – MARLIN TAKE CENTER STAGE (FINALLY!)

LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR JULY 28, 2007

PHOTO 2: Lookie ! Lookie! Can that really be….TUNA???? Yellowfin tuna spread on the cutting table off Las Arenas. Boats did really well this week on the footballs with fish being caught by both our Las Arenas and (surprise) even our La Paz fleet too! Rob Lloyd (left) and Jan Laes had came all the way from Washington state and had some banner days with us this week getting tuna, dorado, and marlin on their first trip to La Paz.

PHOTO 3: Classic La Paz photo this week. Pristine beach. Blue water. Blue panga. Rack of nice dorado. This is Tino Fernandez holding the big bulls. He and his buddies from the Central Valley area of California (Chuck Hunter/ Chad Hunter / Randy Darnell ) beat up on some fish and get this…donated more than 100 pounds of fish to the orphanage here in La Paz!
PHOTO 4: Not bad for a first timer on her first day!!! Michelle Durston gets an assist from Captain Jorge with this big bull. That was about all the help she needed. In two days fishing she packed the coolers with alot of dorado fillets. The dorado are in full force most days right now for both my La Paz and my Las Arenas fleets.

PHOTO 5: This is Tom Moon and Captain “Pelon” Roberto Carballo. Last year, Tom had to cancel when Aero California stopped flying to La Paz, but came back this year. On his first day, he got a great mix of dorado and these yellowfin tuna fishing with his buddy Rob Wood. Both are from the Los Angeles area. Surprisingly the yellowfin are popping up for our La Paz fleet. Normally, most of our tuna bite around Las Arenas, but for the last few weeks, the tuna bite has gotten stronger and stronger. Most of the fish are coming on trolled feathers with the average size being 5-15 pounds.

THE FISHING REPORT

Pretty solid week around here! Storm Dalila got us a little nervous mid-week, but she blew outside and into the Pacific leaving us with a day of chop and strong winds, but other than that, it was overall some good to excellent action all the way around. No one got blanked. Everyone usually had too much fish in their coolers!
LAS ARENAS
Incredible variety right now. Highly unusual for the summer, but no one complaining! This week randing from Cerralvo Island all the way to Pescadero and then outside to the buoys, I counted 10 different species of fish. Almost like a fish smorgasboard.
Outside at the buoys…dorado and billfish including a few sails this week and even a few blues hooked and lost. Some of the dorado now are growing up too…big bulls in the 20-40 pound class are not uncommon. The nicest surprise…the slam of football yellowfin off Cerralvo Island, Punta Perrico and the lighthouse! I sure hope this continues. These aren’t the big sluggers, but sure are fun when they decide to start boiling!!!
In addition to the pelagics, there’s still some decent inshore stuff to be has as well. However, it’s tough to guage. So many guys are out chasing the blue water stuff, that it’s hard to really know how good the inshore fishing can be. However, I’ll tell ya what…there’s still roosters along the beaches up to 40 pounds. There’s still pargo and cabrilla in the rocks as well so don’t discount some of the trophies that could literally be in 10 feet of water only a few yards off the shore!
LA PAZ
There were some days this week when our clients blasted the schools so badly, they filled their ice chests in a single day. After that it was catch and release or spend the days snorkeling or chasing species other than dorado, tuna, and marlin. If you wanted to catch a marlin, the last few weeks would have been one of your best chances to put a billfish on the rod! So many anglers who had never caught a billfish got not 1, but 2 or even 3 billfish this week!
Additionally, it seems the dorado schools have finally firmed up and their several great spots north of the island with fish about 15 pounds, but as large as 50!!!
On top of that, when was the last we got tuna out of La Paz? I can’t remember a real honest solid jag of tuna in YEARS!!! However, some boats that found the spots this past week got 2, 4, 6 even 10 tuna aboard. Jig strikes are the best way to find the schools and after that…. THROW BAIT…and get ’em coming to the boat to chew!
The dog days of summer are here! It’s hot and humid and the fish are biting. But the beer is just as cold !
Have a great week!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
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.”

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PHOTO 1: Now THIS is a BEAST!!! Dan Ferialdi from Pasadena pulled this bad boy off one of the many buoys off Las Arenas. He hit the honey hole as the buoy produced several huge dorado including this one that bottomed out a 50 pound scale! Take a look at the head of this bull dorado and the fact that Dan is about 5’9″ and the tail of this thing is still on the deck!

DORADO AND MARLIN SET THE PACE STILL TRYING TO GET IN GEAR WITH MORE TUNA STARTING TO POP UP!

LA PAZ- LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR JULY 22, 2007

PHOTO 2: This is a great shot for many many reasons. Bill Albright was an avid fisherman until 21 years ago when he ended up in a wheelchair. He had not been fishing since then. With the help of his family…We got him into a panga and on the water at Las Arenas with Captain Jorge and he got himself this nice bull dorado as well as some others and a pompano. The smile says it all. We were all pulling and glad he got to pull again too on some fish! Bill is a great guy being very patient with all of us. He’s out on the water again as I type this!

PHOTO 3: Jessie Pfost is 19 and just finished her first year of college and stands here with Captain Joel, one of our favorite guys. She was out for a few hours in rough conditions and got a handful of dorado although we had to work up to getting her to touch the bait! We’re working on it and she’s a great sport.

PHOTO 4: Now here’s a nice handfull of mahi mahi! Randy Darnell has 5 bull dorado he and his partner caught fishing this week on the La Paz side. The bite was anemic at times as we got more winds, but you could go all day and not find a thing then hit one spot in the last 15 minutes and all heck breaks loose! The thing to do is keep at it and keep a line in the water. As I tell guys, you are only 1 bait away from turning a good day into an awesome day and if you don’t have a rod in the water you’re DEFINITELY not going to catch a fish unless one jumps in the boat!

PHOTO 5: Pete Mason holds up a regulation keeper dorado. This is the kind of schoolie we’re getting right now…or should be! Conditions are still a few weeks behind schedule of where they should be as far as weather and water. Hence, the fish are also a little late as well, but we’re seeing a more consistent bite weekly on the nicer grade of dorado like this one held by Pete.

PHOTO 6: Roger Smith and Ralph Crayton from Los Angeles were fun to have around. They’re holding a few of their Las Arenas dorado here. The dorado are eating the sardines as well as feathers very well. The key is NOT to lose any fish! If you bust off that first fish, it will often take the rest of the school with it and you’re gonna be bummed as that might be your ONLYchance to get into the school so having your “A” game together doesn’t hurt!

PHOTO 7: Now here’s an interesting shot! Look closely. That’s my amigo, Bob Horton, maker of Toad Tamer Rods in Palm Springs CA holding the 80 pound rooster. Up front is my other good amigo, Rabbi Shelly Donnel who makes his residence in Israel these days! If you look closely at the mouth of the roosterfish and in front of the skipper’s face, you will see a huge fin and back end of a snapper. That’s about a 5 pound snapper! The darned fish inhaled the huge snapper and basically kinda choked on it while Bob fished it mightily. Talk about jamming the whole meal in your mouth!!!

THE FISHING REPORT

I guess you’d have to be blind if you can’t figure out that we got a number of dorado this week! Just look at the photos. I guess I could just end the fishing report!
However, since I don’t want a bunch of e-mails from you for more details, let me fill you in…
Yes, dorado were center stage this week. Whether you fished Las Arenas or La Paz, that was the mainstay quarry. I wish I could say it was a sure thing but it’s not. You could run over the right spot or not. Simple as that. If you missed the spot or you lost your big boy at gaff, that could be it.
On the other hand, get into the swarming school and your whole day could be made…indeed your whole trip…in the next half hour as rods bend, fish jump, and all heck breaks loose! Just all about fishing!
There’s still too many little ones out there for my liking and, if you let them go, believe me…by the fall, these little punks will be regulation prize fighters in the 20 pound class. Dorado are pretty unique. They have internal grown hormones that any pro athlete would envy that allow them to grow fast fast fast! However, as you can see from the photos, there’s some good sized ones already out there.
What amazes me is how many guys I bump into from my own fleet as well as other fleets who have an off day and you hear them grumbling that their captain sucks. This is the same captain who limited the previous 10 days-in-a-row. Then, the anglers switch captains who just happens to hit the honey hole and now this captain “is the hottest captain on the planet!” Sometimes that second captain had gone a week doing so poorly that he was slumping worse than an old mattress. Oh well….
Here’s the bottom line…fish a few days. If you fish one day, you could have a bad day. Fish a few days and go with the flow. I’ve not seen anyone go home without fish. That’s the bottom line!
Besides the dorado…well, MARLIN!!!! Striped marlin, and to a lesser degrees blue marlin are still here and willing to bite. I’ve had so many first timers hook their first marlin these last few weeks. Stripers can be balled up thick and not want to bite then the next spot, they’ll all charge the boat and you’ll get into multiple hookups! The only problem is that with multi-hookups, the fish go in opposite directions and there’s not much the captains can do to help you out! It’s hard to fire up the panga to chase fish headed for different points of the compass. If this happens to you…cut your buddy off!
The nicest surprise…and I do man surprise…is that tuna were biting this week. Nothing WFO, but hard to deny that we’re in to an early (or late) football season with 7-12 pound fish coming up on jig strikes or eating the live baits. Best spots have been around Cerralvo Island.
Other species we’re seeing: cabrilla (big ones); pargo; roosterfish; some wahoo; sailfish; jack crevalle, amberjack.
Gear tips…
1. If you troll…light colored feathers and jigs, especially ones that are dorado colored. Even dorado are eating your dorado and the marlin are having a buffet on all the small dorado out there.
2. First time I’ve seen cedar plugs working, but the natural wood ones have taken some of the tuna and larger dorado.
3. Flurocarbon leader.
RED ROOSTER ALERT
Those of you who fished with me for many years long range on the Red Rooster out of San Diego or who have fished on their own, well remember Jorge the chef for more than 30 years on the boat. One helluva guy not to mention one of the best fishermen, especially for wahoo, that you’d ever meet. Jorge is currently in an Ensenada Hospital with a brain tumor. Lots of the fish brothers are sending funds to help him out. Even if you can’t send money, I’m sure any notes would be welcome. Jorge put up with alot from us over the years.
If you’re interested, send money or notes to :
Linda Palm-Halpain
Red Rooster III
2801 Emerson St.
San Diego, CA 92106
That’s my story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
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.”

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PHOTO 1: “BIRTHDAY JACK!” Now THIS is a fish. This is an amberjack (pez fuerte). It was Wes Howard’s birthday and he said he wanted a BIG fish! Well…imagine this toad of a fish! Wes got it at the south end of Cerralvo Island fishing with Captain Ramiro. It was over 100 pounds because it was put on a 100 pound scale and bottomed out the scale! Wes is 6’2″ and weighs 340 pounds and this fish STILL looks HUGE!!!
PHOTO 2: MORE BIRTHDAY JACK! Here’s the rest of the story. This bad boy bit a sardine on a little 1/0 hook and Wes fought it out of the rocks for 2 1/2 hours on 25 pound test!!! Quite an accomplishment. After this, Wes didn’t want to fish another day. He also got dorado and rock fish as well. Great birthday fish!

DORADO FINALLY KICK IT UP A NOTCH WITH MARLIN STILL MILLING ABOUT!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for July 15, 2007

PHOTO 3: Las Arenas started kicking out more of the “right kind” of dorado this past week. Here’s a slugger bull dorado being held by “Pirate” Ed Santillan of Mira Loma CA. Punta Coyote is in the background. These bulls were sometimes freeswimmers but other times, you hopped from buoy to buoy hoping to hit the right one. You could hit 10 and find nothing or hit the right one and watch the waters explode with fish fighting to get to your bait!
PHOTO 5: These were some of the funniest guys we’ve had in a long time. Great times whenever they’re around. Here, Albert Salazar, Mike Sergiuff, Oscar Howard and Gerry Burford strike a dorado pose for us. All the guys are from the San Gabriel Valley area near Los Angeles.

PHOTO 6: Ricky Fraysure from Palmdale CA has one of the best eating fish around right now. He’s holding a big African pompano. These fishe are just about 30 yards off the beach in front of the Arenas light house and have a propensity to eat a sardine with a small weight atached. This fish is huge. Ricks a big guy and this thing is the size of an XL pizza plate that feeds 10 people.
PHOTO 7 : It’s been a great week for striped marlin around here. Multiple hook ups and multiple sightings every day. Somedays they won’t eat and others…they almost attack the boat. More than once this past week, anglers told me they were hooked up to one or two only to have others circling the boat at the same time! Most are fortunately being released.

PHOTO 8: Bob Gonzalez (right) came down this week and told me, “I just really want to catch at least ONE dorado! I’ve never caught one. If I catch just one, it will make my trip!” Well, he got more than just one. He put quite a few fillets in the ice chest. Norm Schickling shares the Kodak moment with a couple of excellent bull mahi.
PHOTO 9 : Sometimes the rookies do the best! Bill Johnson from Running Springs CA (left) and Steve Robles (right) openly told everyone, “We don’t know what the heck we’re doing! We’ll be happy to catch needlefish!” Well, on their first day each of them spent 45 minutes on each of these nice bulls in a double-hook up. “I was so tired! Crazy fish kept going round and round the boat!” said Steve. Captain Francisco stands front and center.

PHOTO 9: This is Jerry Mason’s lure showing what teeth can do to a purple Rapala! These are the big Rapalas’ I’ve been telling you to bring down for months! Jerry said it took one wahoo, but two big amberjack. This is the lure you want to keep! The more scars the better! If it’s not broke…don’t fix it!!!
PHOTO 10: Everyone asks, “What’s an amberjack?” and “What does it taste like?” Well, if you like yellowtail as a sportfish or as eating fish or you enjoy yellowtail (hamachi) at your favorite sushi restaurant…that’s AMBERJACK! The Mexicans call it “Pez Fuerte” (the strong fish) and these bronze bulldozers run from 5 to over 100 pounds and are the big cousins to yellowtail. The meat is fuller and more flavorful as it eats a variety of foods including…well, just about anything it wants like clams, mussels, crabs, lobsters, other fish….so the meat reflects all these great flavors. Dorothy Danielson of Palmdale CA put the hurt to this big boy. Captain Jaibo looks on. Dorothy got this amber off the islands. Amberjack have been a great surprise these past few weeks.

PHOTO 11: Steve Artis was one of our first guys to sign up his reservations this year. He and his amigos really worked hard at their fishing and hung tough. Steve came from Antioch CA and holds the kind of bull dorado we’ve been known for, but have been elusive until recently as waters finally started to warm. Las Arenas waters are a good 5 degrees warmer than the waters north of La Paz which only finally turned blue.

PHOTO 12: Two sea turtles doing the “wild thing.” Absolutely no privacy these days! Unfortunately, on the darker side, these guys are endangered and even possessing a single turtle egg can result in a year in a Mexican jail. But that does not stop folks from killing and selling both the turtles and their eggs which are considered a delicacy. Turtles just doing their onw thing on the surface are especially vulnerable. The only think taken were some great photos.
PHOTO 13: Abolutely no reason for this photo other than it’s another “day at the office” and a beautiful Sea of Cortez sunrise to be thankful for with friends and family and a promising day of fishing.

PHOTO 14: Bob Ames from Texas was on his first trip with us here to La Paz and had his hands full with this jack crevalle or “toro” (bull) as the Mexicans call it for it’s feistyness. They don’t taste good, but they make up for it in brute fishing strength. Famous Captain Jorge smiles from behind.

PHOTO 15: This is Harriet. She’s with Bob, above! She’s from Texas too and Jorge is helping here with another of these great jack crevalle. Schools of these jacks up to 30 pounds have been rampaging in front of the Las Arenas beaches especially near the old lighthouse.

THE FISH REPORT

Fishing definitely got better this week as waters warmed and we lost some of the green currents that hurt us for several weeks. Lots of marlin in the area and it was not uncommon for the pangas to get multiple strikes although at times numerous marlin simply teased the boat and swam away. Dorado were biting better for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleet. It’s still behind the curve of what we normally see, but there was a marked increase as the week went on. Lots of wahool still swimming around the S.end of Cerralvo Island, but sometimes that’s all they did was swim and not bite! Pargo, cabrila, amberjack and roosters still offering great action inshore.
Overall, I would have to say that early in the week, Las Arenas was the place to fish. Waters were easily warmer by a good 3-4 degrees around that south side of Cerralvo Island. As a result…The bite was simply more consistent and there was alot more variety. No particular fish was wide open, but as you walked the beach, you’d see that boats would have some dorado, the occasional tuna, some billfish, amberjack (see the photos above!), pompano, roosterfish, pargo, some wahoo, cabrila, jack crevalle, etc. It was a good mix. If you were out at the buoys and hit the right buoy, you could easily slam some 30-50 pound dorado. The secret was hitting the RIGHT buoy that was holding fish. There’s something like 80 buoys just offshore. You could hit 20 and find nothing, but the boat ahead of you goes to buoy 21 and finds all the fish YOU were looking for. Luck of the draw.
As the week went on, the La Paz area finally got into the program. Most of the week, it was picky. A few dorado. Quite a few marlin, but not much consistent action although alot of guys hooked their first marlin with alot of stripers. Fortunately, many of the fish were released because sometimes a boat would hook 3 or 4 stripers. The bad thing… However, that could be the ONLY bite of the day with dorado going lockjaw most of the week. Later in the week, the waters got warmer and bluer and the dorado finally jumped in and boats on the weekend hit their pace with much much better dorado action with bigger and more fish and boat taking limits or near limits. We don’t do much trolling, but many of the larger fish were taking trolling feathers or slabs of fresh bonito.
It’s HOT down here! Bring the sunscreen and big hats! I kid you not!!! It may not feel like it, but it’s 100-104 right now. It doesn’t feel like it on the water, but believe me, it sucks it outta you so drink alot of water and lather the sunscreen. I’m seeing alot of macho guys who think they “never burn” fishing without their shirts all day who turn to lobsters and pay dearly for showing off their torsos all day. It’s not fun! Sunburn hurts!
DELTA AIRLINES
OK…this is getting old. I’ve been writing about this for months and guys still show up surprised.
1. Delta airlines IS charging for rod tubes if you’ve already checked-in two bags. It’s $100 bucks EACH way!!!! Combine as many rods in a tube as you can. The folks are the check-in desk…frankly suck. I’m sorry. Sometimes they charge and the next person doesn’t get charged. There’s no rhyme or reasons. I’ve heard them tell people that they charge if the tube is over 84 inches. I’ve heard them tell people they charge if it’s over 60 inches…even if it’s not your third piece of luggage. I heard one story from an angler who was simply told that his 7 foot tube was not going to be allowed at all…”because it won’t fit in the plane!” SAY WHAT???? Just be prepared. Argue at the counter. Tell ’em their idiots. They are. Even old Aero California was not this bad.
2. Delta Airlines stands for Don’t Expect Luggage To Arrive. It also means Delta Scare-lines! It seems that every single flight arrives and several people do not have their luggage. Delta routinely lightens their plane by taking luggage off. Yes…OFF!!! Or, once they are full, that’s it. The rest of the luggage has to wait for the next plane. Do not be one of those people. Be the FIRST in line.
That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
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.”

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PHOTO 1: Dave Crawford from Amarillo TX said he ALWAYS wanted to make the fishing report after visiting us numerous times. Well, Dave…you got it! He got this early morning fat wahoo off Cerralvo Island with the purple Rapala still dangling from it’s mouth! Although fishing started off really stingy, the wahoo sure burned a few reels off the south end of the island.

PICKY FISHING ALL WEEK GETS BETTER AS WEEK GOES ON BUT MARLIN AND WAHOO PICK UP SLACK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for July 8, 2007

PHOTO 2: Scott Kendall (L) and Dave “Splash” Lopez from Canoga Park CA have been with us many times and always do well. Scott is holding a nice red snapper while Dave posts up a nice amberjack. They two got a number of different species including wahoo. For Las Arenas, fishing was still mixed with both topwater pelagic species as well as inshore species such as what Scott and Dave are holding.


PHOTO 3: Don’t mess with the baby! Actually, Dave Lopez shot this great photo of a “baby” whaleshark passing under the panga. This guy was only about 25-30 feet long. Docile and gentle these guys can get as big as 50 feet and will often let you swim with them. Don’t worry…they eat plankton but are, in fact, a true shark!

PHOTO 4: He lost 50 pounds (CONGRATULATIONS cuz he wasn’t even fat to begin with!) and got himself a dorado! Dave Berthold, our amigo from the East Coast turned 40 years old, lost 50 pounds; started kickboxing and came down (never wore a shirt for the whole week so he could pose for fotos!) and got himself this nice dorado. He was intent on getting a marlin which eluded him, but he sure did a number on some big dorado all week. He also has a great sense of humor…right Dave? Dave? He’s gonna beat me up after reading this. Boom! Kick to the head. Dorado got a little lockjawed this week. They were harder to come by. They are out there, but did not always want to eat. Larger ones ate lures trolled through the fishing grounds.


PHOTO 5: The East Coast has been well represented these past few weeks down here. Doug Hollinger from Trenton, NJ, was on his first trip down and hung this nice pair of dorado fishing near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 6: Our New Mexico buddy, Larry Daniel told me, “The more I fish here, the more I realize I have so much more to learn!” One of the nicest guys and easiet guys to have down here fishing, Larry is holding a barred pargo (pargo mulatto). These guys are still up around the rocks and can get pretty large. Great eating and tough fighters on the first few runs when they try to get back into their caves.

PHOTO 7: Rusty Koch, Morristown, NJ has his hands full with a sweet bull dorado. That’s Cerralvo Island in the background. Most of the dorado have been caught in the gap between Cerralvo and Espiritu Santo Island. Some days you’ll see a ton of these guys around and they won’t hit a thing. Other days, they literally eat the paint off the boat. I think we need our water temps to kick up just a few degrees more and it’s gonna bust wide open!

PHOTO 8: No, that is not me even tho’ it looks like my legs, but this is what happens when good people go bad! We had about 100 people every day this week and so we decided to toss a big taco feed party at the Sunset Bar on the pier. Great time.
PHOTO 9 : These taco feeds are a blast. Folks get into it…as you can tell ! That’s Sheila, Andrea, Yvette and Heather getting into it. Some folks left too early and missed the bar dancing and conga lines!

PHOTO 10: Nelson and Julie should just forget their day jobs and do this professionally up on the bar!
PHOTO 11: Keep folks happy by feeding them!

PHOTO 12: James Newman is from Monterey CA and is headed to the FBI academy in Virginia soon. He uses his power of investigative reasoning to try to figure out what this sign is saying. A “Boob” crossing? Dolly Parton Museum? Nuclear power plant?

THE FISHING REPORT

I won’t lie to you. It wasn’t our most shining fishing week for sure! It was pretty scratchy. Basically long periods of nothing punctuated by flurries of everything from pargo to marlin and wahoo to tuna, but the dry period in between could be quite a drag.
Water temps dropped 4 degrees earlier in the week and the fish simply went lockjaw. EVERYONE SAW FISH! Imagine schools of marlin and dorado that could care less what you threw at them. Imagine dorado and wahoo turning up their noises at baits tossed right in front of them or schools of marlin diving down when a mackerel was in front of them as if the mackerel had some kind of stink on it! Just weird!
But…that’s not to say we didn’t catch fish! On the contrary, everyone still went home with fish. You might have some down times, but there were still fish that were willing to bite and guys still got marlin, sails, wahoo, dorado, pargo, amberjack and other species. It was just hard to put your finger on the bite and certainly, you had to be either lucky or have your “A” game with you.
I would see the fish boxes with one or two fish in them and the disappointed look on the angler who would dejectedly tell me they had a “slow day.” Then, I would talk to the captain who would tell me that the angler who had a “slow day” also popped three fish off and had on a marlin or two, but farmed them! That’s actually a very GOOD day, but a bad CATCHING day! Hookups count!
If you farm fish or miss a bite, that could be your one and only shot so you have to be chilly and take your ops when you get them! You could come up on that one giant school of dorado that’s willing to chew, but if you lose ONE fish…it takes the school with it and it’s SEEE-yaaaaaa!!!! There’s goes the school. There goes the bite for ALL the boats. It’s not the captain’s fault. It’s not the bad water or bad bait. It’s pilot error!!!
But…that’s how it is…
La Paz waters were still green most of the week, so the dorado weren’t really interested, but let me tell ya…the marlin sure seemed to want to go! Boats were getting at least one marlin hook up a day or more! This was a great week to take a shot at a marlin if you were fishing on the La Paz side of town. Stripers were going about 100 pounds and there were also some blues hooked as well.
On the Las Arenas side, there were two stories. If you fished inside, you had a good shot at amberjack, pargo, cabrilla, jack crevalle and roosters. You could do that all day long OR…
You could go outside of hit the high spots and take a shot at wahoo or tuna or hit the right buoy and whack dorado. Understand this…there’s 80 or so buoys out there. It’s a matter of luck. Not everyone holds dorado. Much like kelp paddy fishing back in S.California. If you hit 6 of the wrong ones, you could go stink. If you hit the RIGHT one, it could make your day.
Toward the end of the week, fishing did pick up especially for our Las Arenas boats taking a number of different species and hopefully encouraging that we’ll get outta this bit of slump!
LAST THING…
If you’re flying in Delta and want your luggage to arrive with you…
1. Do NOT be the last in line. Be the first in line. Delta is leaving luggage behind on every trip both coming and going.
2. Put a label on all your luggage.
3. Do not pack your medicines, cash or important papers in your luggage. Carry it on with you!
That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
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.”

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PHOTO 1: What a gem of a photo and fish! No lie…we had it on a scale. This is what a 60 pound wahoo looks like! Johnny Bartee from Glendora CA is given an assist on the left by Alan Isham of Pomona CA (check out his cool shirt…”I see dead fish!”). This neat fish was taken off Las Arenas dragging the rapala you see still hanging from the mouth. It was certainly a good week for wahoo for our Las Arenas fleet although as the week went on, fishing got a bit tougher.

WEEK STARTS GOOD BUT FULL MOON, GREEN WATER, LOTS OF WATER TRAFFIC AND WINDS HAMPER THE BITE!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for July 1, 2007

Photo 2: Some really nice wahoo this week for our Las Arenas folks! Jeff Sakuda from Monterey Park comes down 3 times a year and always does well with Captain Jorge. Check out the nice wahoo. The wahoo continued to show a preference for trolled dark Rapalas and Yozuri Magnums.

PHOTO 3: OK…just had to put this in. It’s me and I do not have a hat or my bandana on so don’t be writing me about it! That’s not the point! Len and Cheryl Atkinson brought me THREE In-N-Out double-double animal style burgers in vacuum sealed bags! As much as I love Mexican food, sometimes you just GOTTA eat something not wrapped in a tortilla and covered with salsa! If only there was a way to get the hot french fries down here!

PHOTO 4: The dorado were hit and miss this week after two weeks of pretty solid fishing. The dorado bite got a bit picky. Lots of small fish, but occasionally some sweet mahi like this bull held up by our amiga “camp counselor” Marianne Sugawara from Cerritos CA. Marianne had a good few days of fishing including nailing a wahoo.

PHOTO 5: Danny Kadota, famous S.California sportfishing captain and ex-rep for Loomis rods (now with Quantum) and his brother Steve, love fishing inshore for pargo, jacks and other species. They nailed these nice amberjack in the shallows. Despite the fact that it’s July, inshore fishing remains steady for amberjack, pargo, roosterfish, cabrilla and even the occasional sierra! If you want action, just tell your skipper you want to chase some of these bad boys in the rocks!

PHOTO 6: Here’s a great story. Kasidy and Cassi Manhart came all the way from Utah. Their plane forgot them (Delta) AND lost their luggage too! But, both came with great attitudes (and Cassi is also pregnant with their first!) and they wacked fish! They got a number of species which was incredible for first times. On these wahoo…people come for years and never even get a wahoo to sniff. These two were trolling about 5 minutes into the day when WHACK! One rod goes off. While one of them is fighting it the other lure just happened to be sitting dead in the water when the second wahoo came up and blew it apart!
PHOTO 7 : It’s impossible not to post up this photo. Dorado fishing kinda tapered a bit. There’s alot of them out there the last few days, but they weren’t always very cooperative and many of those that were caught were too small to be worth keeping so thankfully, guys were throwing them back…that’s how small they were. Kasidy had no problem with this big bull. Live bait and trolled feathers did the best on these larger fish this week.
PHOTO 8: Hector Chacon from the San Gabriel Valley area in S.California came down with his family. They took two boats out one day. Fishing stunk. Nothing. Zero. Then, Hector remembered that his wife had packed BANANAS in the ice chest. He remembered that I said bananas are bad luck. So, he tossed all the bananas into the ocean. Within minutes they were hooked up. Bonito, dorado and even a mako shark were hooked. They yelled over to his father’s boat to “THROW AWAY THE BANANAS!” But, it was too late. The other boat got skunked.
“I still can’t believe we fell victim to the banana curse ! I couldn’t get what was happening, that morning, all three of our trolling lines got snagged not once but twice ! We finally threw some live bait and got lots of action but could not hook anything except a baby dorado which we let go. Finally I remembered that we had brought bananas for the kids to snack on and told my wife and daughter, to throw them over board. Not five minutes later two bonita’s hit our feathers. They became bait which enabled us to hook a small shark, and two dorado,” said Hector.
PHOTO 10: We encourage the release of our billfish, but sometimes the fish dies and it can’t be released. The meat is never wasted! For both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleet, they are seeing tons of marlin out here, but they don’t often go for the bait or lures. Other times, they charge the boat like mad dogs. I’m happy to say that we’re releasing about 85 percent of our billfish catch. This sailfish was caught by Captain Victor and John Berry, from Los Angeles, who owns the Big Fish Electric Company.
PHOTO 12: Chris Sena from Lafayette CA hung this big headed wahoo with our Las Arenas fleet. That’s S.Cerralvo Island in the background. There were a few days early in the week where there were spots of wahoo so thick and free-swimming that the commercial pangeros were actually harpooning them with sharpened rebar tied to a rope! Talk about cowboy fishing!
PHOTO 13: Tony Adamich and Brendan hold a pargo, a tuna and a striped marlin. I’ll let Tony tell it: “…in two days we caught eight Dorado, 5 tuna, 3 Red Snapper and too many dorado to even count and released…and that was during a supposed slow week.”

PHOTO 14: Folks ask about flyfishing all the time down here and it’s getting more and more popular. Chris Anderson from Brentwood CA shows the power of our fish. He hooked a striped marlin on his flyrod and fought it for quite sometime. That is…until the marlin straightened the hook! Epic! I believe he told me it was a Gamakatsu or Owner hook which are some of the strongest you can tie on!

THE FISH REPORT:

For once, maybe the photos don’t tell all the story. Some great fish caught, no doubt, but most of the time this week, we really had to work at it.
It wasn’t easy. You could work it all over the ocean and then hit a productive spot at the very end or nothing at all. It was weird. If you fish a couple of days, everyone still got fish and believe me there were some banner wahoo, billfish, dorado and roosters caught, but if you were only fishing one day…you could hit a rough spot!
Normally at this time, we’re pretty much great guns on the dorado and most of the bluewater species, but lingering winds pushed up some cold green waters from down deep turning much of the water chilly. Let me put it this way. On the surface, it would be 80 degrees but only 15 or 20 feet below, there’s a thermocline that’s 65 degrees and COLD!
The fish are confused or lockjawed! The water temps change from day to day almost and you could see dozens of marlin sitting lazily on the surface or else tons of dorado that won’t bite. The next day at the same spot it’s utter chaos! It’s just really hard to know.
Cold green water combined with a few other factors as well…I hate to admit it, but this WAS the full moon plus there’s a ton of water traffic out there. As the week went on we started out with some pretty decent fishing but as the weekend drew nearer and the city got more crowded so did the traffic on the water PLUS there was a big local dorado tournament over the weekend.
None of these things by itself would have done much to impact the fish, but all together…the put a whammy on the bite!
But, enough of the negative…here’s some positive stuff…
1. At Las Arenas, our fleets still got some great inshore fishing for pargo, amberjack, roosters and jack crevalle as well as big bonito plus offshore species like wahoo and dorado. It’s not wide open, but this past week, Las Arenas was the better place to be so we switched alot of our clients over to Las Arenas. There’s definitely more action at Las Arenas.
2. Marlin marlin marlin…everywhere. Sometimes the bite and other times you’d think you threw a stinky sock at them. They swim away Of the ones we have hooked this week, most are getting released but our biggest was a 350 pounder and a 150. Many first timers hooked their first marlin this week.
4. Lots of mako sharks around. Great eating and we’re putting a few on the boat, but most times, they bite through the line like it was a wet noodle.
5. More sargasso weed buildging up which heralds some great dorado season upcoming
6. Bait has been tougher to get with the winds so get loaded; get on board; be the first one to get to the fishing grounds. That means if you dawdle, you might be SOL on getting bait.
Happy 4th of July everyone!
That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
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.”

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