Tailhunter Fish Report

PHOTO 1: Nathan Weiner came down to put the hurt on a big fish and got this big bull dorado on 20 pound test off Las Arenas. Bigger bulls have moved in for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets although pesky winds during the week and occasional flurries of rain resulting from southern storms kept blowing the sargasso weeds apart. Dorado still remained the main catch for most of our anglers.

TUNA SURPRISE LA PAZ ANGLERS ALTHOUGH BILLFISH AND DORADO STILL ROCK ANGLERS DESPITE TROPICAL STORM FLURRIES

LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR AUGUST 26, 2007

PHOTO 2: Lots of folks think that just because everyone is out in the blue water chasing marlin, tuna and dorado that the inshore fishing is dead. On the contrary. The inshore fishing is just being ignored! This past week we got cabrilla, pargo, roosterfish, rainbow runners and other rockies like this great snapper (huachinango) being held up by Sharon Imada of Whittier CA

PHOTO 3: Mark Aizawa from Pasadena and his family always seem to do well, not matter what’s going on. Mark is holding a nice dorado, but they also go snapper, tuna, jacks, and billfish. While the majority of the dorado fishing is north of La Paz, if you want variety, the most species can be found for our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 4: This is just too good of a photo to pass up. Joey Fuschetti and Captain Jorge hold up one of several tuna they got around the islands. Joey comes down alot and insists that chumming with chunks of papaya is the key. Hard to argue. Joey always gets the most and often the largest fish in his group by the end of the trip. Tuna have been a surprise all month. They are not always there, but doggone it…every few days they pop up and roll big time. Areas around Cerralvo Island both north and south have been holding fish between 5 and 40 pounds.

PHOTO 5: I don’t often post up photos of billfish. Actually, most times, we don’t have to, because most billfish are released, but when they are dispatched they are never wasted and this has been an incredible season for billfish. I kid you not. There are days when you can encounter billfish after billfish with multiple hookups. Take a look at these two young ladies. Alyssa Shinto and Eryn Imada from Whittier CA are two of the gamest anglers we’ve had in awhile. They had not done this kind of fishing before. Despite big seas and winds, they continued to go out every single day with no complaint. In fact, when given the option to cancel, they insisted on fishing! They did very very well!

THE FISHING REPORT!

What a week!!! I’m not sure how to explain it. If you talk to some guys, they’ll tell you fishing was off. Other guys stuffed their ice chests. It was really hit-or-miss! If you fished several days, you got fish. If you only fished a day or two, you limited yourself and you could have hit one of the days when the fishing was off. Mainly, we hit the periphery of the big storms that have been swirling around the Western Hemishphere all week creating havoc.

While we didn’t get any big storm (thankfully!), we did get flurries of strong winds; strong waves and “torito” rains hit at times that made it uncomfortable and even unfishable at times. But 10 minutes later…an hour later…the sun would break out…the winds would die…and the world would be right again and the fish would bite again!

During times like this, you could be getting drenched in the panga by rain getting miserable and 1/4 mile away your buddy could be in sunshine getting bent on fish after fish! Ten minutes later, the situation could be reveresed.

Like many things, it’s all timing. Be in the right place at the right time with the right bait in the right boat. It made all the difference.

Overall, the tuna bite sure surprised folks! We’re always wondering when they’ll show up and August has been pretty good but we just never know when and where they’ll show up. This week the 5-30 pound fish showed up at the north end of Cerralvo Island and then in various spots around the Punta Arena area. In addition to bait, the fish also hit trolled feathers.

Dorado, however, were still the spotlight. I’m sure alot of guys were a bit disappointed that there weren’t more bigger fish, as many of the fish are still in that school-sized 10-20 pound class, but larger bulls are out there up to 50 pounds and many an angler will tell you this week that they had a big fish or two on the line and farmed it!

As for billfish…what can I say? The marlin continue to be thick! Can you say “wall of marlin?” At times, they marlin are so pesky that the guys get angry because they’d rather be hooking dorado and the marlin won’t leave the baits and lures alone. However, on light tackle, these fish are sure alot of fun. Nice to see that alot of guys are releasing their fish too!

That’s my story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745Mexico 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: Hard to resist kid photos! This is 10 year old Bryn Parmenter and Captain Miguel. Bryn has himself a nice bull dorado. Bulls are still out there and seemingly getting bigger! They are in a wide area north of La Paz and around Cerralvo Island.

MARLIN AND DORADO BACK ON CENTER STAGE DESPITE BUMPY SUMMER WEATHER PATTERNS

La Paz / Las Arenas fishing report for August 19, 2007

PHOTO 2: Larry Crass and Al Cohen have been fishing together for many years and with us for more than I can remember. It is just like these two guys to play tug of war with a fish like this and argue about who caught it. This is a 40 pound class bull dorado caught off the Las Arenas area.

PHOTO 3: James Molina from Arizona got so many species of fish this past week including dorado, cabrilla, roosters, tuna and this striped marlin that was released. Capt. Archangel, from our Las Arenas fleet, gives a hand and a funny face pose! Marlin continued to be thick this week with most fish getting released.

PHOTO 4: This is Danny. This is his first marlin. He was so excited that by the time I reached him on the beach to warn him, he had been posing in many different poses with his fish. I tried to warn him, but it was too late. Marlin have a slime on them that when it touches bare skin can be extremely irritating and caustic. Danny had posed with his fish holding it across his bare chest; over his shoulder; carrying it on his back and here reclining in the surf. Within minutes of this shot, he was in agony. I tried to tell him, “I told you so.” A bad rash developed over his upper body that we had to scrape away with salt water and sand. I also told him that pouring cold beer on him would be good too and that the acid from the beer would counteract the stinging slime. He had several friends pour beer on him. I also said that pee works good too but he drew the line at that, no matter how painful when several generous hearted friends also offered to lend a hand at that too! The rash was gone in 20 minutes. (I knew it would all along, but it was funny watching them pour beer on him).

PHOTO 5: Kathy Newbold from Arizona is a trooper. A real gamer. She gets really seasick, but gutted it out to go out fishing almost everyday with her husband, Ken. I gotta admire someone like that. She holds a nice dorado and pargo here at Balandra Beach.

PHOTO 6: Coach Joey Fuschetti has been visiting us for years. He’s a high school coach and does alot of youth programs all year then cuts out and comes down to pull on fish. Joe has a knack for getting bigger fish than everyone else. Here he holds one of the better sized tuna taken off Las Arenas. Joe chums with pieces of cut papaya and swears by it. He did well all week chumming with papaya. Can’t argue with his results. Joey is from Orange Co. Califorania.

PHOTO 7 – Here’s James Molina again. They decided one day to fish inshore alont the islands and got all kinds of rock fish including this roosterfish that was released. Yes, roosters are still here!

PHOTO 8 : One of our best amigos is Dentist Roy Morita from Modesto CA. He always brings us See’s candy! Here he’s holding some great eating pargo which are still pretty abundant inshore. This size, while not large, is highly prized in the markets and restaurants because it fits on plates and pans whole and gets the highest market prices.

THE FISHING REPORT

We got a little sprinkle here and there and those pesky winds were back every few days, but thankfully no HURRICANES!!!

I think most folks this week would tell you it was a pretty solid week of rod bending. No one went home empty. There were alot of fish caught…alot of bigger fish lost…everyone had opportunities and alot of anglers had stories of fish that got away. It was too bad that there were some weather conditions that didn’t help things, but if you had a line in the water, you got bit!

I guess the most inconsistent thing was that the fish didn’t stay put! One day the dorado were in one spot and the next they moved somewhere else. The same could be said for just about every species…tuna, wahoo, marlin…every single species kept us guessing. A captain could be “on fire” one day and the next could look like the goat for no fault of his own except that an area teeming with fish one day would be desolate the next!

Some hot spots, however, that did produce some nice bites included the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island….there were a few days where the tuna were to thick you could jackpole them into the boat and dangle a bait above the water and the fish would leap out of the water to grab it; Ventana Bay, Las Cruces and north of Espiritu Santo Island for dorado as well as the buoys…for dorado ranging from 5 pounders to 50 pounders. These same areas were also hot for marlin where hooking 2-5 billfish was not uncommon.

Y’know…guys will go years wanting to hook a billfish and not get a thing, but you can be a total rookie right now and end up the whole day fighting one billfish after another! Most of the striped marlin are about 100 pounds or so, but some guys fought and lost some of the big slugger blue marlin that were in the 250-350 pound class.

With the tuna…just no way to tell. Darn these fish move around alot! However, we’ve had tuna every week but not every day. That’s the problem. They pop up willy- nilly wherever they darn well please! They are also in quite a range of sizes. I kid you not…one day, the tuna are the size of trout! I would not even call them football tuna. These are like cute little pet tuna or something! Then, the next day, 20 pounders pop up. Go figure.

Anyway…hot tickets….

1. Flurocarbon line

2. Purple rapalas

3. Blue and white tuna feathers

4. Purple and black feathers

5. A windbreaker or cheap pancho…or in a pinch a trash bag with holes cut for your head and arms for 3 minutes of rain!

TWO MOONS AT YOU!

If you are out and about at 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 27th, you can see something that no one alive today has ever seen or will ever see again in their lifetimes. The planet Mars will be so close and so bright that it will seem like there are 2 moons over earth. Check it out. It won’t happen again for over 200 years. Howl while you’re at it. I bet there’s gonna be all kinds of crazy things happening!

KAYAK SHARK FISHING

You gotta check this out. These Alaska guys are fishing for salmon shark outta kayaks!

http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/9195704p-9112127c.html

That’s my story. Have a great week!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

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.”

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PHOTO 1: All hail the king! This is our new wahoo king. Darrell Manginelli from the Ventura area of S.California got SEVEN wahoo and lost others while fishing with us. One day he and his lady Christine Merriman (see photos below) got FOUR of these much-sought-after speedsters. The fish were once again near the south end of Cerralvo Island which you can see in the background and were crushing the big purple Rapalas. After one day, Darrell showed me his lure completey scarred and torn up and he was saying he was looking for a “new one.” I told him “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it! There’s a reason the wahoo love this particular lure and do NOT lose it!” In all honesty, the wahoo bite last week and earlier into this week was incredible, but tapered as a small weather front hit mid-week and had not revived by this past weekend. Hopefully, this coming week…

WELCOME TO THE MARLIN ZONE! DORADO GET SMALL! TUNA GET SCARCE! BUT BILLFISH PICK UP THE SLACK!!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Sunday Aug. 12, 2007

PHOTO 2: Captain Victor (he shows up an awful lot in these photos!) peaks from behind the big wahoo held up by Tim Sayre who came all the way out with his dad and brother from Illinois to fish Las Arenas. What a day, they got two wahoo and numerous other fish.

PHOTO 3: Pete Smigeiskit holds up another ‘hoo. This is turning into the best wahoo season in a number of years. They fish are not there every day, but at the end of the week, the numbers don’t lie. The fish will bite or 2 or 3 days, then take a powder for a few days, then come back on the chew again after kicking back. The ticket is just being there on the right day!

PHOTO 4 : Check out 18-year-old Stephanie Huth from the San Gabriel Valley area of S.California. Then chcck out the thickness of the “neck” of this huge slugger toad wahoo. What a beast. Wahoo are supposedly the fastest fish in the ocean clocked at speeds of 60-70 mph when they want to kick in their jet bursts! If you ever hook one, be prepared to MOVE! With a sleek rocket-body like you see here, these fish are built for speed. Las Arenas has been the top spot all season!

PHOTO 5: I don’t often show photos of marlin here, but this week, there were days when that’s ALL we were catching! You could not keep them off the lines! Boat were hooking 1-5 marlin a day one some days, especially mid-week when nothing else was biting! Fortunately, most of the fish were released. I can think of a number of anglers this week that caught 1, 2, 3 and even 4 marlin by themselves and let all of them go. Bravo! Others, like this great first marlin by Kevin Bell look as perfect as a fish mount on the wall. For alot of first timers, this was a big thrill this week as the marlin were eating big lure, small lures, baits and jigs! It was not uncommon to talk to an angler who would tell me they had half-a-dozen marlin surrounding the boat “like mackerel.” Pretty amazing to have big fish like this fighting to eat your little sardine! Fun week. None of the marlin that were taken were wasted. Meat was taken and even when the angler did not want the fish, it was donated to families who needed fish and some donated to the old folks home here in town.

PHOTO 6: Like I said…sheesh…there were alot of marlin this week! Brian Sayre holds up his first…a nice striper. Tales of larger blues were not uncommon either! Brian is from Illinois and this was his first time fishing our area. They also got dorado and tuna. One day on the beach, I counted 26 marlin hooked between 9 of our boats of which only 3 were kept. There were many other marlin that were also fought and broke off.

PHOTO 7 – Christina Merriman got her wahoo off of Las Arenas. This 40 pounder fell for a purple and black rapala. Christina had another fish even bigger come off just before the gaff. These wahoo weren’t shy about striking. And it didn’t matter if it was early or late in the fishing day. If the fish were ready to eat they bit!

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PHOTO 1 – I couldn’t resist! Smiles say it all This is 5-year-old Ezra Kinsche. Came out with mom and dad (see below) for his first trip. He got his first dorado and had a great time, but more fascinated with catching puffer fish! Dorado continued on the chew big time for La Paz anglers this past week!

WAHOO BLOW UP AT LAS ARENAS WITH TUNA – DORADO GETTING BIGGER – MARLIN STILL BENDING RODS – A GREAT WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Aug. 5, 2007

PHOTO 2 – Not bad for first time fishing! Nice batch of mahi! Fewer schoolies and more bulls were showing up north of La Paz with fish going 15-30 in many cases with larger 40-50 pound bulls!

PHOTO 3: Kevin Beehn came is from San Francisco CA area, but flew in from Istanbul, Turkey for day of fishing to get his girlfriend out for her first time fishing. They got a batch of nice dorado as well as tuna. It’s been a nice surprise getting such a great mix for our La Paz boats. The bite is straight north out’ve the bay between Cerralvo Island and Espirit Santo with several nice spots of fish!

PHOTO 4: Here’s 5-year-old Ezra Kinche again but this time with mom and dad. They came all the way out from the East Coast. There’s a great story here. Ten years ago, they were living in Ventura CA and came out to La Paz to fish with us. Ed proposed to Katie here in La Paz. He almost did it on a panga with Captain Victor! Anyway, Katie said yes and they moved to the East Coast. This was their first time back and they slammed the tuna by 9 a.m. in the morning and brought back their 5 year old son, Ezra. Great week for tuna fishing and one we’ve waited for a long time! The fish are south of the island but as close as a hundred or so yards off the beach! When they crash, it can be a frenzy!

PHOTO 6: Neil and Kathy Soto from San Bernardino CA have been visiting for a long time and some of the nicest folks you’d ever want to meet. Each time down they always came with a group or with the family. Well, the kids are finally up and grown so they did a spontaneous trip to get into the dorado bite. Kathy had never been on the boats with Neil and she did great. The dorado are swimming solo…at least the larger ones are, but the fish are also hitting in schools and swarms where an empty day can suddenly turn into madness as 10, 20, 30 or more fish suddenly appear and crash the panga. Just be ready and have extra rods ready to go. The secret is not to lose that first fish. If it swims away…bye bye school ! Don’t get cocky and farm that first fish!

PHOTO 7 : For those of you who fish La Paz before, when was the last time you saw a catch like this? Dorado PLUS tuna!!!! Both La Paz and Las Arenas are kicking out both species right now. As I recall, this was the first day’s catch! This filled up two ice chests. They still had two more days of fishing to do!

PHOTO 8 – I couldn’t help but put this photo in. Shawn Cooper took this great striped marlin photo of his son’s first marlin Great shot. Marlin have been balled up around our area from the East Cape to well north of us in La Paz and they are finally chewing! Big time! We encourage releasing these guys whenever you can because it is not unusual to hook more than one of these a day. One boat this week hooked 5. Another hooked 4. All fish were released!

PHOTO 9 : Gina has the knack for big dorado. She never fails. Gina is from the Pasadena/ Sierra Madre area of Los Angeles and fishing with Capt. Chito, she’s always into the big bulls. Over three days she got marlin, tuna and billfish including her first marlin.

PHOTO 10: Mitch Kawamoto is in the middle of John Knowles (left) and John Dunne (right) and they’re holding up a whopper of a sailfish. Mitch is a long-time experienced long-range fisherman and is about 5 feet tall and weighs about as much as my tackle box! Everyone always pulls for Mitch. He had a couple of bad trips the last time down although everyone else got plenty of fish. This time, Mitch got the sailfish, marlin, tuna, and dorado. No shortage of sashime meat for his cooler!

THE FISH REPORT !!!!

This was perhaps one of the best and most consistent fishing weeks of the season. If you had a line in the water you got bit and everyone who wanted fish in the cooler took home fish in the cooler. It didn’t matter whether you chose to fish with our Las Arenas or our La Paz fleet although some anglers preferred one over the other, not because of the fishing action but because they preferred one type of species over the other

For one, our Las Arenas anglers were all over the yellowfin tuna this past week. Nothing big but yellowfin in the 10-20 pound class were all over the rods and eating in a nice arc between the south side of Cerralvo over to the Arenas lighthouse then down towards Punta Perico and south to Pescadero. It’s been awhile since we’ve had an nice bite like this. However, even more incredible was the explosion of wahoo once again on the high spots south of Cerralvo Island. Guys come for years looking for wahoo and never get a sniff. Unbelievably, there were a few days this past week when the boats AVERAGED 2-4 wahoo biters A DAY with some hoos as large as 60 pounds. Darrell Manginelli is one of our long-time amigos. He’s my new hero and king of the wahoo. I lost count, but I think he got 7 this week including 4 or 5 on one day and that doesn’t include the ones that got off! That is UNHEARD OF ! You should see what his purple Rapala looks like. At one point he wanted to get a new one, but I told him, “There’s a reason they like that lure. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!”

Roll that into a box full of tuna, add in a few dorado, perhaps a billfish or pargo and you’ve filled the ice chest in one day!

The ticket on the wahoo continues to be the dark purple and black/white Rapalas, Marauders and Yo-zuri’s.

For our La Paz fleet, more outstanding dorado fishing with the mahi now getting away from schoolie fish and more consistently in the 15-30 pound class. The biggest problem some days was knowing when to stop and adhere to limits because when the dorado swarm the pangas it could be pandemonium with every rod going off. Additionally, the marlin continued to be thick with multiple hook ups on numerous occasions with stripers as well as sailfish and the occasional blue marlin ripping into the baits.

WANT A HOTEL ANYONE????

Everyone keeps asking. I thought it had just been sold, but apparently not. Hotel Las Arenas is for sale if you got the fat wallet! Click this:

http://www.doradoproperties.info/detalle.php?id=011-12&en=true

If you buy it, make sure to let me know!!! I’ll send you my resume!

ALASKA AIRLINES CHEAP FLIGHTS!!!!

Alaska Airlines has some cheap rates again!!! Go directly to the airlines or their website. Hook it up. The sale goes on for several months and seats are below $300 bucks round trip Los Angeles/ La Paz. Call us to set up the hotel and fishing!

That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/

Phone: (626) 333-3355

FAX: (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.”

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