Tailhunter Fish Report

YES! SIX WAHOO!!! ONE BOAT ONE DAY!!!

PHOTO 1: I guess you could say that Norm Clayton from Escondido CA had a pretty good day. He was with his wife Noni and Captain Eddy Carballo. It’s a pretty good day anytime you get a wahoo, one of the most sought-after fish in our waters. Well, Norm got his 60 pounder. What a slug of a fish! Well, he turned right around and gave the whole thing to his captain. He didn’t want it! Why? Well, Norm didn’t get ONE wahoo. HE GOT SIX WAHOO in what has to be one of the most epic wahoo days ever down here! In fact, it was so good, he gave 3 fish to his captain. He didn’t have any more room! The day before he slammed tuna and dorado and now had to figure out what to do with SIX WAHOO from 40 to 60 pounds! Oh…it was also his birthday!!! Some guys have all the luck!

Norm read my fishing reports and brought the right stuff…a CD-18 purple and black rapala that simply got crushed by Mr. Hoo. over and over again! We had a banner day this week when several dozen wahoo blew up on the La Paz fleet…that’s right…not my Las Arenas fleet…the hot spots for the wahoo was for my La Paz boats that almost NEVER get wahoo! The fish zone was a place called La Reyna a little rock just to the north end of Cerralvo Island. in that one day, we hooked and caught more wahoo than in the last 3 years combined.

WHAT FULL MOON? WAHOO EXPLODE OFF NORTH CERRALVO IN BEST BITE OF SEASON. TUNA TEAR UP THE BEACHES AT LAS ARENAS IN A BLOODY WEEK OF FISHING PANDEMONIUM!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for September 30, 2007

PHOTO 2: Just another day of dorado fishing! While tuna and wahool hogged the spotlight this week, there was no shortage of dorado no matter where you fished. Larger bulls up to 40 or more pounds finally started to show up but limits or near limits of the mahi were available as long as the other species didn’t “distract” you. Overall, the dorado have been much smaller this year perhaps due to the water temps being off, but anyone who wanted dorado got dorado.

PHOTO 3: Here’s a nice mix of fish! Scott O’Connor and Glenn Delmendo, both police officers from the Los Angeles area show off a great day of fishing with tuna, dorado and a sailfish that really added some adventure to the day. After fighting the fish on light tackle, they got it near the boat. Attempting to gaff the fish forwarad, the fish turned and instead the gaff stuff in the tail. The fish went ballistic again and took off with the reel screaming; the fish dancing across the water and the wooden gaff still stuck in the body! It almost pulled Glenn overboard when it took off again.

PHOTO 4: It’s not all surface fish right now! Some of the best fishing is inshore for cabrilla and pargo. Mike Recchia holds up a nice pargo mullato (barred pargo) he pulled out of the rocks.

PHOTO 5: Mike La Torre and Mike Recchia hold up some nice dorado from fishing north of town. Dorado continued to be the main target for our boats fishing out’ve La Paz. The nice thing is that the fish seemed to have moved close, right off the S. end of Espiritu Santo Island near Bonanza Beach which was such a hot spot last year. Live bait, lures and trolled slabs of bait al worked well. Good to see some larger bulls finally showing up too!

PHOTO 6: Carrie Shilyansky was so excited about the possibility of catching her first ocean fish! She had never done anyting like this at all. On her first day she simply slammed the fish and after that…it was all over! Carrie had the “bug.” Great to see someone get “turned onto” fishing. Here she’s holding a good sized Las Arenas dorado!

PHOTO 7: That’s popular captain Jorge with his arms crossed and that’s Robert and Nick Venezia from Los Angeles smiling and struggling with yellowfin tuna just off Las Arenas beach. Their first two days were s0-so. They decided to come back for a 3rd day and third time was the charm. They tore up the fish! I rarely saw a time when at least one of them did not have a tuna hooked up. Note how close they are to the beach. The cool thing about the tuna bite at Las Arenas is how close we are to the beach! No long boat rids!

PHOTO 8: Paul Scheuring from Los Angeles is the head writer and creater of the popular TV show “Prison Break.: The show is in its third season and it is Fox’s second most successful TV show (behind “24”). Paul was down for his bachelor party and took a day out fishing. Can’t ask for me…a striped marlin and a dorado. Captain Juan Chuy looks on.

PHOTO 9: Fernando Sucre from Palo Alto strikes the pose for the camera to hold up his dorado. Dorado bite has been solid all week. The hard part is not getting discouraged if the fishing is slow. You can go all day with nothing, but then come up on the spot and one bait in the water can turn into hours of pandemonium with fish from 5-50 pounds.

THE FISHING REPORT!

A full moon and even a late week tropica storm (Julliette) couldn’t stop the bite this past week. There were a few bumps here and there. You could hit a slow spot but overall, if you just check the photos, there was some nice fish to be caught and no one who wet a line went home with an empty chest.

In some respects, the fishing this week was just short of phenomenal!

Let’s begin with the wahoo bite north of La Paz at La Reyna. Listen…we just don’t hang that many of the speedy skinnies on the La Paz side. However, about mid-week kicked off by Norm and Noni Clayton’s 6 wahoo bonanza, other boats cashed in and fish up to 70 pounds were caught. Purple rapalas were the hot rig and double hook-ups were no uncommon. But this bite was unbelievable. We simply don’t hang that many hoo’s out of La Paz. Ninety-nine out’ve 100 wahoo come from our Las Arenas fleet! However, all of a sudden north Cerralvo Island simply exploded.

If you were fishing our La Paz fleet and didn’t get a wahoo, no biggie. More and larger dorado showed up this week as well with fish between 25 and 40 pounds more evident everyday! Willing to hit the live baits, slow trolled slabs of mackerel and bright colored feathers were all effective.

The second hot spots was over at Las Arenas. Where did all these tuna come from? After several years of scratchy tuna fishing, suddenly the area between the lighhouse and Punta Perrico…literally 100 yards from shore…has become the tuna battleground!

I’m not kidding, limits or near limits of 10-25 pound tuna every single day. The fish are foaming!!! Will this last? I don’t know, but imagine pulling up on the spot literally a jig throw from the beach, dropping a bait and in seconds foaming fish and a bent rod! Some boats were getting so plugged with tuna so early, they were coming back to clean fish by 11 a.m. on the beach!!!

I fished several times this week. The first time I was out to goof with Randall Lee who brought 20 of the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters group with him. By 11:30, both of us had hammered so many tuna without barely moving a spot, that we told our skipper to pull over to the Giggling Marlin Restaurant in Muertos Bay. For the next 90 minutes, we “hid” and had a great lunch before driving back to where the other boats were cleaning fish no one the wiser that we had only fished a few hours.

That was topped later in the week when Tropical Storm Juliet was playing games with us. Folks…it was more than a little rough. We had to wait at Las Arenas beach for the waters to calm so we could push off the beach. Well, it was so rough that the bait guys couldn’t get enough bait. I started the day with abou t 15 pieces. Not much, you say?

Well, an hour later, 10 yellowfin tuna and still had 4 pieces left! The othe boats were also similarly plugged with limits. 25 to 40 pound outfits or even lighter is ideal for this kind of fishing. Some flurocarbon leader is a bonus, but this was as simple a a hook and a small rubbercore sinker then HOLD ON!!

Dorado would breeze through the tuna schools as well and along the beaches we still have schools of roosters and jacks!

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.comU.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 at your nearest music store and in concert…the “Get Bent Air Dorado Band!” Standing in the shallows at Balandra Beach, Joey Horvath, Drew Baumgartner, Joe “Pineapple” Caricugan (who is a professional musician) all from the Ventura Ca area, play some sweet music with this trio of mahi they took north of La Paz. I have no idea what the guy is doing behind Joe!

STORM HOVERS OVER US BUT TUNA AND DORADO REFUSE TO SHUT DOWN AND PROVIDE STEADY BITE FOR LAS ARENAS AND LA PAZ!

PHOTO 2: All the way from Ohio, Dave Stroud and Rich White rolled down here for their first visit and spent a few days tangling with dorado, yellowfin tuna and even the great-eating pompano Rich is holding in his left hand. Dorado and tuna were the prevailant species this past week. Nothing spectacular in terms of size, but the decent sized fish provided some solid action and good eating fillets for the freezers.

PHOTO 3: From Hacienda Heights, CA , John Ford and Bob Gonzalez are here on Arenas beach. John on the left is holding one of the larger tuna of the week. Most of the tuna were football-sized in the 10-20 pound class, but there were a few in the 30-40 pound class that kept things lively.

PHOTO 4: Every year for several years, Jeff Del Dotto and his son Chris come to visit us this time of year. This will be their first time getting their photos in the report! They’re from Tracy CA. The number of dorado that showed up around Las Arenas was surprising since Las Arenas had been “tuna land” for about the last 2 weeks. However, our boats found the fish at the buoys, as well as under a dead whale, a dead turtle and some other floating objects. A few tossed sardines at the object often got the waters boiling as the fish rose.

PHOTO 5: Randall Lee and Bob Holmberg from Los Angeles came down on a charity trip with the Catholic Big Brothers group. Their first day they fished Las Arenas and the two amigos post up several nice dorado and a tuna headed to the dinner table.

PHOTO 6: Glenn Delmendo and Scott OConnor, are from the Los Angeles area. They started off their trip finding a honey hole of dorado in the channel between Cerralvo Island and El Sargento.

PHOTO 7: Mike Alperin and his buddy in the back, Lee Cook, flew out here from the East Coast and I gotta admit…I like their style. Rather than necessarily chase the blue water species, the two amigos kept to light tackle, mostly using 8 pound test and spinning rods. Both are experienced anglers and in 4 days of fishing got over 20 species of fish including big bonito like this one held by Mike. According to Mike this bonito was just short of being a new IGFA record, “if only he had eaten a bigger piece of bait.”

PHOTO 8 : A better rack of mahi you will not see. The boys from Wayne Longs Utah group had never done anything like this but were well on their way to filling up the ice chest with this gerat rack of bull dorado.

PHOTO 9: Wayne Long from Utah brought several families to hang with us for about a week. The tuna were good to them this day. These yellowfin tuna were nice 15-25 pound “footballs.” The tuna bite has been the best in several years. Granted, the fish are not huge, but have been more solid than we’ve seen in many years with an on-again-off-again bite since July. The cool thing about the tuna is that they’re not very far from shore. There are several hot spots with some as close as within 100 yards of the beach. It’s not complicated fishing. Using live bait, just drop it into the water and hold on!

PHOTO 10: For our La Paz fleet, dorado continued to be the mainstay. If you want to specifically target dorado, then 90 percent of the catch for our La Paz boats is dorado. But marlin and big sailfish also appeared in the boat wakes as well.

PHOTO 11: Tim Eng and his son, David, from Rowland Hts. CA rolled in and quickly rolled out’ve La Paz. They got in one day of fishing and spanked the yellowfin tuna. Tim wanted to fish a second day, but David was too worn out from the first day. Tim thought they would only catch one or two fish.

THE FISH REPORT

You know…there are some weeks of fishing that are bad. There are others that are spectacular. But like life, there are some weeks that are just good. Nothing high. Nothing low. Nothing upsetting. Just a good week to cruise through.

That’s how it was this week. We kicked a little fish butt. Everyone got bent. Some folks got more than others. Some got less than others. But everyone had fish to bring home. Some got their first tuna or first dorado or first billfish. Most of the fish were that nice 10-30 pound grade. Certainly nothing that would put your knees, but at the same time a nice grade of fun fish to bend a rod and the fact that there were enough of them to keep you busy, meant that at the end of the day, you had some good fish in the box. At the end of the trip when you were pulling things our’ve the freezer, you realized. “Gosh, I guess I did catch a few fish!”

It was another good week of good yellowfin tuna for our Las Arenas boats. Most were footballs but a few hit into the 25-40 pound class. The bite rolled around a bit. We hit fish along the rock highway south of Cerralvo Island. There was also a good spot just off the Las Arenas lighthouse. Again, that little cove about 1/4 mile off the old Hotel Las Arenas kicked out some good fish as did Punta Perrico. The ticket is to get your bait and get to the spots before too many other boats showed up.

As far as dorado fishing, the best place would have been to fish directly north out’ve La Paz. Several areas were ripe. Around the corner at Las Cruces some of the better grade bulls were found at various times this week. Surprisingly, we even had a nice bite out at the El Bajo Seamount of dorado, some tuna and some billfish. It’s rare, but when the seamount goes off, it can be spectacular.

The cool thing was that as the week went on, dorado fishing also improved for our Las Arenas boats! Hitting spots like the buoys and from Punta Perrico down past Boca de Alama could be very productive. The larger bulls tipped in at 25-40 pounds.

Marlin are still around as are unsually large sailfish up to 150 pounds. Usually, it’s the sailfish that are smaller than the striped marlin, but this year, it’s just the oppositie. Also, yes…there’s still roostefish along the beaches. Either you will tangle with the fun 10 pounders or the big slugger 50-100 pounders will roll up in your chum line.

IF YOU ARE HEADED TO COSTCO

My amigo, Tom Gatch, who is a well-known write rand Baja sage, just completed his book called “Hooked on Baja.” I wanted to give a shout-out that the book is now available at Costco or else online at http://www.google.com/products?q=Hooked+on+Baja,+Tom+Gatch&hl=en&um=1&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title

If you go to Chapter 7, Tom has nicely stuck me in there with one of my stories. The book is filled with all kinds of fishing stuff as well as stories about and from some of the top Baja personalities (so I’m puzzled why I’d be in there, but grateful!). Check it out.

That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 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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PHOTO 1 – Michael “Flipper” Thompson and Joey “Joey 805″Horvath were on fire for few days this week nailing yellowfin and this nice sailfish off Las Arenas where we had the best tuna bite of the year. No doubt, 2007, the tuna are back on the chew after taking a few years off.

TUNA EXPLODE OFF LAS ARENAS IN BEST BITE OF THE YEAR AS FISH CHEW ONLY 100 YARDS FROM THE BEACH!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Sept. 16, 2007

PHOTO 2 – Just had to post this. It’s our friends from the Get Bent group that comes down every year. Lots of fun and always ready to accomodate with a “candid photo” if you look closely. Thanks guys! The group spanked the fish their first two days loading up on tuna. As I’m writing this, the guys are currently out on the water and have two more days hopefully to top off the ice chests with a few loads of dorado and wahoo.

PHOTO 3: This was the first time down for Shawn Dixon and Kai Lu. This is the grade of yellowfin tuna we were taking all week. Almost within minutes of hitting the spot, fish foamed and would bite almost as long as you kept the chum coming. Some guy were pulling off after an hour to go look for other things to catch having plugged the fish boxes with too many tuna!

PHOTO 4: Drew Baumgartner got his first tuna ever this week despite lots of fishing experience. Lots of guys got their first tuna this week. However, true to tradition, Drew unhesitatingly ate the heart of his first tuna…and liked it so much…he did it again so we could photograph it then licked his bloody fingers! Nothing like tradition!

PHOTO 5: Mike and Julio Vega were also on their first trip with us. Holding a bunch of yellowfin tuna, the guys were literally fishing within casting distance of the beaches. Early in the morning the fish bit like mad dogs with some guys limiting in the first 60 minutes. As the boat traffic increased, the bite would diminish and the boats would depart. However, one by one, the boats would snake back into the zone. Guys using small 1 or 2 oz sinkers to get their sardines below the rampant needlefish found the bite just as hot.

PHOTO 6: Las Arenas used to be known as an incredibly fertile fishery for yellowfin tuna and made it’s name on the yellowfin as well as other species that could be caught close to shore. The bite this week has been reminiscent of the old days. In fact, there’s been an nice on again-off again tuna bite through the summer, but the last two weeks, the tuna have been biting like the old days!

PHOTO 7: Kelly Ashmore holds up on of the nicer grade tuna after his first day. The yellowfin don’t need much. Basically pin a bait in the hook Put the bait in the water. Hold on!

PHOTO 8: Since the hurricane two weeks ago it took a few days for the fish to get back to speed. This week there was no doubt, but we never expected it would be the yellowfin. Glenn and Frank Dellari from the N.Cal Area plugged an ice chest or two with fillets.

PHOTO 9: Three generations of the Van Steenkiste family. Roger on the left has already been here twice this year, but this time, brought his son Greg and his grandson Matt for their first times and did a banner number on tuna and dorado this past week.

PHOTO 10: Yes…there are still dorado around…quite a few actually, although the focus has shifted to the tuna bite this week. Las Arenas still had it’s share of dorado and for our La Paz boats, almost 90 percent of the catch has been dorado with fish ranging from 5-30 pounds, although there’s some larger bulls like this one held by Ivan Lau of El Monte CA. The larger dorado this week were willing to eat the baits, but also showed an affinity for slow trolled strips of bonito as well as trolled feathers that had dorado colors of yellow, green and red or orange.

PHOTO 11: Not all the tuna were footballs. There were some larger fish that came piling through and most of them did a number on the surprised anglers who just weren’t ready. However, this is one 45 pounder that didn’t get away.

THE FISHING REPORT

Well, if there were any doubts that the hurricane two weeks ago had done a number on the fishing season, those doubts went right out the window.

We’re back on track! Dorado continued to rip lips for our La Paz guys and we’re seeing more and more marlin again. Wahoo bit of the south side of Cerralvo Island and we just had one of the best weeks for roosterfish that we’ve had in about a month with everything from 70 pounders down to feisty 5 pounders.

However, the biggest news was the arrival…en masse…of the yellowfin tuna schools off Las Arenas. It was like the old days. Fish foaming and on the chew as soon as you pulled up the boat and stopped the motors. In a line of fish from the Las Arenas lighthouse all the way down to Boca de Alamo, all it would take is a few sardines tossed in the water to get the fish up and boiling. A few days, I could even see the fish foaming standing on the shore! The fish were literally withing casting distance of the beach on some occasions! Guys were getting plugged with all the fish they wanted in an hour or so then had to put the rods down to rest or else grabbed heavier gear and went looking for roosters or pargo or wahoo. Other guys came back with lighter and even ultra light gear and would hook fish after fish and bust them off or take longer times to battle the tuna having a blast!

If you’re coming down this week a few tips…

1. Flurocarbon leader seems to make a difference. You don’t need much. Just a few yards or 20, 25 or 30.

2. Small hooks for small baits

3. The larger dorado like dorado colored lures

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 Pichlingue KM5; Numero 205, La Paz, Baja 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: Steve Greanias has a banner day out of Las Arenas although he did catch more fish out’ve La Paz. It’s hard to top a 70 pound class amberjack ripped off the south side of Cerralvo Island. Usually, these bigger members of the jack family (think yellowtail on steroids) are around high spots, structure and pinnacles, but this bad boy struck a trolled lure in deep water! Great eating!

HURRICANE HENRIETTE BLOWS THROUGH AND SAME TIME MORE EARTHQUAKES GIVE US A JOLT WHILE FISHING TAKES A POWDER BUT STARTS TO BOUNCE BACK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for September 9, 2007

PHOTO 2: Now THIS is what a dorado is supposed to look like! What a beast! This 45 pound bull is being held by Captain Gerardo and the smiling guy is Dr. Jim Stewart who tells me during the winter he lives in Arizona and the rest of time time near Jackson Hole, Wy. The fish were scratchy after the storms disturbing the waters not to mention probably shaken by all the tremors we’ve been having. Of all the fish, the dorado seemed to come back online fastest with our best fishing being done by our La Paz fleet.

PHOTO 3 : Who said you can’t catch roosters during the fall. Steve Greanias (above with amberjack) and dad, Chris (below with chilicano) jumped on two 60-70 pound class roosters off Las Arenas. One of them was fought with the reel completely backlashed in an epic battle. Both fish were released. After the hurricane we had a nice flurry of roosters start biting along the sandy beaches between El Sargento and Punta Pescadero. The larger the bait, the better the chance at one of these big sluggers! Quite a few others were hooked this week, but over-anxious anglers didn’t let the big fish eat the big baits and dropped the fish. Gotta let the big dogs chew their bones before you set the hook!

PHOTO 4: Good frends of mine, Ivan Lau and his dad, Ivan, Sr. from El Monte CA came in right after the storm and fished 3 days with us. First day they hammered the dorado fishing out of La Paz. On their second day, they got roosters, as well as some yellowfin and dorado. The yellowfin had been on a tear before the storm, but they were harder to find after the storm. The fish are surely out there and some of the fish later in the week were in the 20-40 pound class, but a lack of bait to chum the fish up, was the most prohibitive issue. If you had the sardines to use as chum, you could get the tuna to bite the hooked baits. If you’re coming down, the sardines are small. Consider using smaller hooks like #2’s for the tinier ‘dines!

PHOTO 5: What the???? Is it a mutant sardine? Is it a big mullet? Actually, it’s a milkfish which we call chilicanos! In all my years down here this is only the second one that I’ve seen hooked on rod and reel. They often school off Cerralvo Island, but rarely take a bait. This 30 pounder inhaled a sardine fished by Chris Greanias. He said it was quite a battle with long runs and spectacular leaps!

PHOTO 6: Jamie Smith (right) from Malibu and Avo Oughourlian (left) hung these nice dorado off Las Arenas. It was encouraging that the dorado came back so fast after the storm with the fishing better at La Paz than Las Arenas. However, at the time of writing this report, there’s some magnificent debris lines forming up from all the stuff washed into the water from the hurricane. Once these form up and the water clear up, look out! Traditionally, this stuff brings in all kinds of beast that hunker down under the debris.

PHOTO 6: People come for years and years hunting the elusive wahoo and never get a sniff. Steve Button from Santa Clara CA got only 1 fish this day, but it was a fish he had been hunting. Taken on the dark purple rapala below, he said they had barely put the rods in the water and the big Hoo zipped it. Wahoo fishing after the hurricane was one of the highlights with several fish hooked.

PHOTO 7 : This is what wahoo teeth can do to a CD-18 Rapala after a single strike! This is Steve Button’s rapala after it was mauled by the sharp teeth of the wahoo in the photo above!

PHOTO 8: Orange Co, CA, John Berry of the Big Fish Electric Co. has already been here twice this year and just booked another trip for November. This bull dorado fell to a live sardine.

PHOTO 9: Look at the colors! This is the legendary pargo liso of Las Arenas. Tom Radoumi of UT is the angler and he put alot of meat in the cooler with this 30 pound hog. Everyone thinks that these big pargo are only around in the spring. We don’t catch many in the fall simply because most folks are out chasing tuna, dorado, billfish and wahoo outside. Inshore fishing during the fall can be outstanding!

PHOTO 10: Josh Thrasher brought his Oregon guys down for a few days and unfortunately, fishing was curtailed when we got slammed by the hurricane and fishing wasn’t exactly stellar immediately after the storm. However, they hung in there and did put some dorado fillets in the chest!

PHOTO 11: You have to admire the spirit of it all. Hurricane Henriette slammed into us early in the week. It was “only” a category 1 storm..mild by many standards but it did drop alot of rain and the wind blew like crazy knocking out power and flooding many areas. The hotel parking lot of La Concha Beach Resort and some of our anglers made the best of it…grabbed kayaks and broomsticks and with rain pelting down had a little kayak regatta!

PHOTO 12: Not many folks can say the went swimming during a hurricane, but Eric Engstrom’s guys from Northern CA organized a pick-up football game in the swimming pool with the seas going nutes behind them and rain coming down in sheets!

PHOTO 13: Winds howled and rain fell. It wasn’t supposed to hit us but then it veered and jagged when it should and gone the other way and well…we were right in it’s path! Henriette was worse then we expected, but not as bad as it could have been. This photo was taken in the day during the middle of the storm when winds were 80 mph with gusts up to 100 and rain coming from all directions.

PHOTO 15: The hardest part of the storm was that so many fishing trips had to be canceled. Nothing to do but crack another beer and wish it would stop. Even in the middle of the blast, some of the guys attempted to get in a little pier fishing (and got bit!). Mind you…they are fishing when the world was crashing around them and 20 pound coconuts were falling from the trees above! To all the guys who were here this week and patiently kept smiling even when it was apparent they wouldn’t get to fish, you’re the best. We’ll grow the fish bigger when you come back!

THE FISHING REPORT

The photos pretty much tell the story, amigos. The week started with a bang. We were deep into the fish. Tuna all around Cerrlavo Island. Dorado scattered around and willing to eat just about everything. Billfish were biting everyday.

Then, a tropical storm that wasn’t supposed to hit us decided to pay a visit and that was that! Henrietta kicked in with 80 mph winds and a couple of days of rain. There was some flooding and damage about town but thankfully, it was not as bad as it could have been.

Nevertheless, it kept us all indoors twiddling our thumbs and bailing water for a few days not to mention cancel dozens of fishing trips scheduled this week.

When we did get back on the water , it was green, cloudy, colder and not very cooperative. Bait was harder to find. Fish were edgy and picky. Thankfully, the dorado around and north of La Paz got untracked within 2 days of the storm and fishing started to rip again albeit with mostly smaller fish. There were some nicer bulls taken and several billfish were also hooked.

For Las Arenas, hard times lingered. Bait that was normally caught around the island went deep and made it harder to fish. With minimal bait, it was harder to chum. The tuna are here ,but with no chum to bring them up , it was a scratch bite. Some tuna that were caught were of a better grade averging 20-40 pounds. A few dorado were taken, but nothing to write home about mostly except for some larger bulls. The nice surprise were the roosterfish that suddenly showed up off the beaches and willing to eat.

As long as the weather holds, I can only imagine that as we get further and further away from the storm, conditions will improve and we’ll be all over the fish again!

Have a great week! 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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PHOTO 1 : Possibly one of the coolest billfish photos I’ve ever seen. This is Jeff Ott’s sailfish taking flight in the early dawn against a rising sun off Las Arenas and Cerralvo Island. Jeff was on his first trip with us to the area from Utah. Note how close the fish is to the gunwale of the panga. Outstanding!

TUNA TURBULENCE AND TEMBLORS AS AUGUST CLOSES OUT!

LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR SEPT. 2, 2007

PHOTO 2 – Richard Shipley from Utah is all smiles with a bull dorado. That’s Cerralvo Island in the background. He and his group got quite a mix of fish over 3 days of fishing.

PHOTO 3: All the way from New Jersey, Chris Barnard brought all his brothers and uncles down for a big La Paz reunion this past week. They got billfish, dorado, tuna, and numerous other species. The dorado remained the most prolific fish this week with fish scattered in all the warm spots between Punta Pescadero up through Cerralvo Island and up north of La Reina lighhouse. Winds that persisted over the weekend made the fish hard to find at times after cooler waters came in or winds scattered the sargasso weeds. The key was finding blue water or pieces of debris from sporadic weekly rains that had washed junk in to the water.

PHOTO 4 – Captain Victor of our Las Arenas fleet poses with Earl Denos, our amigo from Mission Viejo CA and his fishing partner Todd McChesney from Utah. The dorado recently have been quite a variety of sizes from 5 pounders up to 40 pounds with some larger fish lost. We’re hoping that the bigger bulls start to move in now, but we’re waiting for the waters to stay consistently warmer.

PHOTO 5 : Randy Galaz and pro race car driver Art Saavedra from Las Vegas NV tore it up with a great mix of dorado and football-sized tuna. Art was most proud of doing a big 150 pound billfish on 20 pound test he fought for over an hour on the small Whopper Stopper rod he’s holding in the photo meant for ultra light big game fishing.

PHOTO 6 : For our La Paz fleets, dorado were the hot ticket early in the week when they were pushed out’ve ths spotlight by a raging tuna bite at the north end of Cerralvo Island. Joe Barnard holds up a nice pair standing at Ballandra Beach where we clean our fish. Joe and his family filled alot of ice chests fishing both La Paz and Las Arenas despite having to cancel one day due to a fast -moving rain squall.

PHOTO 7: Cory Kato from Whittier, hung tough during some tough fishing and tough weather and still got to pull on some good fish on his first trip to Baja. Here he poses with a good-sized dorado. Despite the rough conditions, Cory insisted on going out every single day!

THE FISHING REPORT

To those of you still coming down this week, bring a windbreaker or pancho. It might rain. It might not. Weather down here in the tropics is funny. It could rain buckets….50 yards away from you and you could be bone dry. Or it could rain directly on you and last 10 minutes!!! Bottom line…no matter the weather…as long as you want to go out and it’s safe (no fish is worth getting dangerous), we will find a way to fish!


We did it this week when high winds made it impossible to get our boats off of Las Arenas beach (it’s the wind that bothers us more than rain!). We put everyone back into the vans and hustled them back here to La Paz and put them on our super pangas. It was still rough, but at least they still got out fishing and still caught fish! We will always do our best.


Earlier in the week, it was pretty much a dorado bite for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets. Billfish mixed in as well with stripers and some really big sailfish. It was a pull at times, but if you hung in, there were fish to be caught. Where we fished and what we fished for was largely dictated by the weather which was as inconsistent as your girlfriend changing her mind on what to wear!


However, by the end of the week, the weather eased up and…TUNA!!! North and south ends of Cerralvo Island started to kick out yellowfin tuna! Fish ran 5-30 pounds. A real nice grade of fish! At times, they were foaming the pangas just like the old days!

Inshore, there’s still some good cabrilla, pargo and roosterfishing. The fish are still there, but not many anglers are fishing for them.

What will happen this week? I can only guess. Anyone with a crystal ball, please contact me!


The last part…in addition to the rain and wind that came up from time-to-time this week, we also had a 6.4 earthquake on Saturday! In over a decade here, that was my first and it rattled doors and windows pretty hard.


Centered just about 35 miles north of La Paz in the Sea of Cortez, there weren’t any injuries or damage reported, but it shook up some folks. Most of the anglers and divers had great stories to tell.

You could see the ocean actually vibrate. Folks sitting in beach chairs were actually bounced around. Divers who were underwater said they could actually feel the compression wave underwater and fish immediately disappeared into any nook and cranny! The sound was like a loud explosion. Anglers told of big rock slides as cliffs collapsed off Cerralvo Island like icebergs calving in Alaska sliding into the ocean. Pretty fantastic stuff!


That’s my story!

Have a great week!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115E
-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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