PHOTO 1: End of the 2008 Road Tour in Salt Lake City, Utah. After 3 months on the road through Califoria, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington and Utah, we’re done. Thanks to everyone who came out to the hunting and fishing shows to see us and came to chat. Now back to home to La Paz and let’s go fishing!
PHOTO 2: Monica was out fishing with Kevin Beehm of S. San Francisco and got into a nice school of jack crevalle. These tough fighters normally run in big schools off reefs and beaches and have such a hardcore reputation as fighters that the Mexican name for them is “toro” (bull). They’ll hit bait as well as lures with a crash and are excellent sportfish on light tackle or flyrods.
PHOTO 3: Another shot of Monica with a jack crevalle. Jacks are related to yellowtail, amberjack, pompano, roosterfish and several other species of the jack family that run in our waters. Most of them taste pretty good. Others don’t. However, all of them are grumpy battlers when hooked.
Another surprising and good week of fishing off Muertos Bay. Those big fat yellowtail are still on the chew with more big fish in that 20-40 pound class of slugger. I don’t know how to explain the bite because fish of this quality don’t normally start showing up until about April or even May.
And then again, the better yellowtail bite is usually north of La Paz, especially off the north ends of Cerralvo Island and then around Espiritu Santo Island and El Bajo Seamount. However, for whatever reason the fish gods have decided, these big forktails have decided to park themselves right off Punta Perrico in relatively shallow water. Go figure. Like most things, it’s probably a chunk of bait sitting there or something.
I’ve dove the area with tanks and the area is pockmarked with terraced channels that go from about 10-100 feet with schools of fishing swimming parallel to the shoreline. It would be great to see what these schools of yellowtail look like underwater as they’ve been there in numbers now since February.
The only other time I’ve seen concentrated yellowtail was a dive I did off the wreck of the Salvatierra a ferry boat that went down in the channel between La Paz and the south point of Espiritu Santo Island. Right under the fantail of the large ship, I swam up and felt like I was being watched. I turned to my right and under the fantail there must have been a 20 foot curtain of hundreds of 20-30 pound yellowtail all facing into the current like a huge sheet of fish. It was amazing. I just parked myself on a little patch of sand about 15 feet in front of the school of hundreds of fish and sat down on it and just watched and watched until my air tanks got low. I wonder if the schools of Perrico are like that now too!
Anyway, these fish are eating bait pretty readily so it’s not complicated fishing. Basically, pin a bait on a hook and drift it down. A bit of flurocarbon leader doesn’t hurt. The fish do not seem to be line shy at all.
In addition to the big yellowtail, however, there’s schools of jack crevalle in the area (see the photos). These fish taste like the bottom of a shoe, but are excellent sportfish. There’s also schools of bonito and skipjack, cabrilla (seabass) and pargo in the same area as the yellowtail.
Well, we’ve been on the road since the beginning of January and we just wrapped up our final show in Salt Lake City. What a great venture it is every year and continues to be. Eight states covered in that time and driving the whole time perhaps through one of the worst winters on records through rain, sub zero weather, high winds, snow, ice, and mud. But at each show, at each city it was incredible to see all the old friends and meet the new ones. Thanks for all the hospitality, amigos. We got invited to so many homes and asked out to so many dinners and lunches and drinks, we could have been taken care of from start to finish and never paid for a motel or a meal. Thanks to all.
Now…back home to La Paz and a great 2008 season!
That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter Fish Report 
Leave a comment