PHOTO 1: Wahoo showed up again this past week. Quite a few bites. Some got to the boat and were lost. Others were fought and lost. This is one 50 pound class ‘Hoo that didn’t get away! Our amigo, Gama “King” Flores from California was fishing in the tuna schools off Punta Perrico. He wasn’t even fishing for wahoo. He had a live sardine on the hook. No wire! This big skinny bit his 30 pound string and the fight was on! Gama won. Other fish this week hit black and purple CD 18 size Rapalas as well as a few of the dark Marauders.
MUERTOS BAY AND SOUTH CERRALVO EXPLODE WITH TUNA AND DORADO AS THE GREAT FALL BITE OF 2007 CONTINUES!
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Oct. 20, 2007
PHOTO 2: Shane Vroman was here in May and was all over the big roosterfish. He came back this week and spanked the dorado and tuna. Shown here with some of the fish he and his amigo, Mike Berkowitch caught at Muertos Bay. The waters have been teeming with fish now for several weeks and no idea how long it will last, but bait has been close, then within minutes you could be in the middle of foaming fish. Shane and Mike said that several times they were in thick schools of tuna and dorado.
PHOTO 3: We had a bunch of great folks from Utah this past week. Dr. Bob Gray on the left stands on the beach with some of his yellowfin tuna. On the far side is his daughter, 22-year-old Tiffany Gray on her first salt water fishing trip. Steve Davis is next to her and Grant Glather is next to Dr. Bob. There was no shortage of tuna with most fish in the “football” category of 10 to 20 pounds, but just alot of fun to catch as fish were often coming out of the water and boiling around the boats.
PHOTO 4: Unlike previous weeks when Muertos Bay and Las Arenas were almost 90 percent yellowfin tuna, more dorado were taken like this nice bull held up by Tiffany Gray who came with her dad and amigos from Utah and Alaska. It was almost one-stop shopping some days. If you went to one spot, it was non-stop tuna. When you had your fill you simply moved the panga and caught dorado or roosterfish or went hunting for wahoo or billfish.
PHOTO 5: Santiago (“My friends call me Jim”) Garcia from Orange Co., California is given an assist from popular Captain Manuel Archangel. Santiago sent two day fishing for tuna and two days chasing only dorado and were not disappointed. Most of the doroad were in the 10-20 pound class like the tuna, but great fighters. However, there were larger bulls seen and lost. With everyone concentrating on the tuna, often the buoys…popular dorado hangouts were unmolested by boat traffic and were just waiting for someone to throw a bait in the water.
PHOTO 6: Dr. Blaine Austin from Utah is one of our frequent amigos and always does well. He was another of our Utah friends who came to visit this past week. He fished La Paz one windy day and then fished Las Arenas/Muertos with his daughter Jan and Sara where they had a banner time on the tuna and came in early.
PHOTO 7: Dave “Poolman” Baker from Huntington Beach CA (The O.C.), stuff an ice chest or two with his fish fillets after spending 4 days hammering the fish at Muertos Bay with Captain Victor. One day as he was on his way in, only minutes from the beach, this nice dorado whacked his line and was taken. The fish is so fresh, check out the incredible blue colors on it’s flank that were still shimmering.
PHOTO 8 – It’s a long way from Canada to Baja, Mexico, but Andrew Fitzel made the trek to find out what it’s like to fish in shorts and a t-shirt! Weather this week was perfect with daytime temps in the low to mid-90’s with very little humidity and water temps right about 85!
PHOTO 9; Callie Petersen has been visiting us since our earliet days here. She and her husband, Bruce, have been good friends of Tailhunter for many years. They used to live in Orange Co. California but now own a big spread in S. Dakota (or is it North Dakota?). Callie always does well with her fishing holding up a big-time bull dorado she got that blew up a sardine next to the boat.
PHOTO 10: As the week went on some of the tuna got a bit bigger, but size didn’t matter to some anglers. One of the neatest guys you will encounter, Roger Kunz, on the left is a good as they come. A Korean War Vet, he came with his cane and an attitude that he was gonna go out and hang fish like everyone else. What a gamer! Here, his nephew Marlon Kunz, gives a hand in holding up a nice grade yellowfin tuna. By the end of the week, some 30 and 40 pound fish were showing up.
PHOTO 11: You’ve been waiting for them! Yes, the big squid showed up this week briefly and it remains to be seen if this is going to be the start of a run! Several of the hug squigglies were hung and they were big ranging from 50-70 pounds! This one is being held by Santa Barbara resident Mark Trafelski.
PHOTO 12: We had friends from all over this week. Jeff Brown has fished with us before and its always a pleasure havng this amigo from chilly Minnesota come see us and have hm enjoy the sun. Here with Captain Marcos from our La Paz fleet, Jeff holds up several dorado. The fishing on the La Paz side was largely dependent on how strong the north winds were blowing, but the smaller dorado seem to be moving out and larger dorado coming in stronger.
PHOTO 13: Self-explanatory!
THE FISH REPORT
What another incredible week of fishing, especially for our anglers that fished out of Muertos Bay/ Las Arenas. Undoubtedly, this is a late season bite to remember!
It has been ages since I have seen tuna fishing like this around here. Talk about “fishy waters!” I think there must be a line of tuna and other species stretching from the channel between Cerralvo Island past the Arenas lighthouse; over to Muertos Bay then down to Los Frailes on the lower East Cape because the area is just plugged with fish.
The cool thing is that some of these gamefish are literally only casting distance from shore. Imagine going out 100 yards fronm the beach and tuna are coming out’ve the water for the chummed baits! Imagine motoring 5 minutes off the beach and finding yourself in the middle of a school of hungry dorado that are slashing each other trying to get anything thrown in the water!
That’s the way it has been the last few weeks and this past week, it only seemed to get better!
In addition to the packs of football tuna, dorado started moving in as well as sailfish and marlin. You never had to go far or you could literally pick a species then when you were tired go find something else to catch.
This isn’t rocket science either. Take your rod. Get a hook. Put a bait on it. Put it in the water. BOOM! You’re on. Just don’t drop the rod in the water like several guys did this week.
Fish are numerous, but not really really big, but nonetheless if you’re on light tackle can mean hours of mayhem. However, as the week progressed, the tuna started to eat steroids or something. The ten pounders turned to 25’s and 30’s. Same with the dorado. The larger bulls were getting hooked.
Several of our guys fought sailfish on light tackle and got beat up. When the sails came around again, they pulled their baits out’ve the water and were having one of that!
Quite a few or our anglers would get limits of fish so fast this past week that the biggest issue becaue what to do with the rest of the day. Many came right up onto the beaches where the roosterfish have again shown up and offered some great light tackle site fishing where you could see the big dorsal fins slash the surface.
Lastly, looks like the big sqiud have finally shown up! I don’t know how long they will be here, but if you are coming down you might want to pack one of those big heavy squid jigs in your pack. The squid were 50-70 pounds.
For those of our anglers who fished La Paz, it was good. Not great, but good. Some days there were problems with bait but the biggest issue was the north winds making things choppy and uncomfortable. The seasons are changing and no way to tell if we’ll be in winter mode fishing soon. Dorado were the mainstay and how you did depended on whether you found the school or not in the chop. If you found the school it could be crazy. If not, then you dinked for 3-5 dorad per day. But…the nice thing was that the mahi are growing bigger so more larger fish hit the fish boxes!
Looks like another nice week on the way!
That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International La Paz
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.”
Tailhunter Fish Report 
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