Tailhunter Fish Report

PHOTO 1: This man gets to smile alot. Dr. Gomez is not only a physician, but also owns the largest toy store in Guadalajara! You gotta love it. Here he’s all smiles again holding a huge 39 pound bull dorado. Fishing with Captain Archangel, the fish is indicative of our great dorado week with fish spreading from Las Arenas to La Paz waters. I think dorado season has finally arrived!

DORADO FINALLY JOIN THE PARTY AND LA PAZ AND LAS ARENAS FISHING PRODUCE WIDE ARRAY OF SPECIES!

La Paz / Las Arenas Report for the week of June 29, 2008

PHOTO 2: Dorado finally decided to join the show and came up strong after holding out for weeks with only little teases. This one held by our amigo, Lance Cole, hung the scale at 38 pounds. It was Lance’s first dorado and turned out to be a trophy. Dorado schools under the buoys and around the sargasso weeds and in the channel around Las Cruces and Punta Coyote kept most anglers pretty happy!

PHOTO 3: Roger Lees from Windsor CA getting an assist from Captain Adolfo (“Yofo) on a big roosterfish. The big roosters are still around the Las Arenas lighthouse area on the sandy patches and near the dropoffs. We’re having a banner year on the roosters with fish ranging from 5 to 60 pounds. This fish was released…they taste pretty bad…lucky for them!

PHOTO 4: Unbelieveably, after our outstanding yellowtail bite of spring shut off, we rarely see any more of these big jacks. However, just about everyday someone gets one of these stray mossback giant yellowtail. Pater Gregoris holds up a beauty here. No rhyme or reason why yellowtail suddenly stuck their heads into the picture because waters should be too warm right now, but no is complaining, especially with trophy fish like this.

PHOTO 5: Our friend, Mark Martis from Redondo Beach CA has come down here so many times over the last decade he’s pretty much a local resident. He alway does well. Standing here with Captain Adolfo, he shows off a barred pargo (pargo mulatto). Lately, we’ve been catching quite a few of these battlers with fish showing up around the rocks, reefs and even in the sandy areas if there’s structure around.

PHOTO 6: Captain Ramiro poses with Dianne and Bill Alexander. She’s holding a pargo) snapper while the gents hold some nice-sized pompano. The pompano bite over the last 2 months has been exceptional for inshore light tackle anglers for this great eating fish.

PHOTO 7: It doesn’t get much better than this for variety or good eating. Just to show you some of the diversity of species we’ve been getting out of Las Arenas. Jeff Gans and Dave Wehner from Ione CA had quite a day here. This was Jeff’s first time here and he’s holding a pargo and a yellowtail. Dave his hanging onto two nice amberjack…big cousins to the yellowtail. The amberjack are just coming into season right now and seem to be getting bigger. Last year we landed several fish between 70 and over 100 pounds. Great eating!

PHOTO 8 : We promised Illiana Stevens of La Paz that she would finally catch a roostefish and the photo is proof. At a little honey hole just west of the Las Arenas lighthouse, Illiana got 5 fish in quick succession and released them all. There are several spots where you can hook a dozen or more or even sit on the spot all day as long as your bait lasts and catch these school-sized roosterfish. Light tackle is hoot. They literally boil around the boat and it’s only yards off the beach. It’s good that most are getting released.

PHOTO 9: John Enright from the San Diego area along with Captain Manny Archangel hoist a big sailfish. They chased and chased this fish for 45 minutes trying to get it to bite then said, “forget it” when the fish showed no interest in the baits. They then went to fish for pargo inshore. Coming back outside, the fish was still there. This time it attacked a sardine. Fish on! The sailfish could not be released, but the meat was donated to the San Pedro pueblo. This was John’s first trip down here.

PHOTO 10: Again showing the diversity of the bite right now, Troy Coffey from the Los Angeles area is a professional Hawaiian ukelele player and took time from serenading us with great Hawaiian tunes to nail some fish. He’s a pretty good angler too! He’s got a nice barred pargo and an pompano in hand.

PHOTO 11: Captain Adolfo peeks out from behind Kris and Victoria Weiers from Windso CA. Victoria is 6 years old and as game as they come! Mom holds up the amberjack above her head.

PHOTO 12: Parting shot…there are few words that fishermen like hearing more than, “FREE BEER!” About mid-week, the Honda motors people sent down a bunch of reps to the beach to inspect some of the many Honda outboard motors now being used by the fishing fleets at Las Arenas. They did their inspection then drove away. Well, as they drove away, a pickup truck loaded with cold Pacifico on ice pulled in and announced “all you can drink free beer for anyone on the beach!” I’ve never seen some of these anglers run so fast down to the truck!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Check out some of the action…pargo…roosters…amberjack…yellowtail. The saiflish you see in the video could not be released and meat was donated. Other billfish were all released.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUSfV38noZo

THE FISH REPORT

Well…this is one of those weeks when the photos can do all the talking! A pretty nice week of rod-bending when all was said and done. I think most folks had some fun. The best part is that the dorado bite finally looks like it’s turned on a the mahi mahi finally joined the party!

It finally felt like summer. It’s just not right when the dorado aren’t here, but after a week of very little winds, it gave the waters a chance to warm up again and clear out the ugly green stuff that’s been haunting us for a few weeks. Sure enough the dorado came to chew!

Most of the better bite was for my La Paz fleet. In an area that encompassed the Las Cruces/ Punta Coyote area, the dorado put limits or near limits on many of our boats. True, there’s some dinky fish out there and happy to hear many were released. However, no doubt, we had some legit bad boys as well with some fish in the 20-50 pound class size. Many large ones were also lost. Sometimes the boats took a few here and there and at the end of the day, there were a stack of fish. Other times, there would be almost nothing then wham! Dorado all around and pandemonium as fish ripped everything in the water for a few moments of madness. Great fun!

It’s just nice to have La Paz back in the game because previously almost 90 percent of our fishing had been out of Las Arenas.

Not that Las Arenas was anything to sneeze at either.

If you’ve never fished here, you’d be surprised at the variety. No single species dominated but there was a great smattering of big pargo, sailfish, marlin, wahoo, big and small roosterfish, pompano, jack crevalle, bonito and skipjack, big eye jacks, dorado, cabrilla and even a few tuna. Great action.

We’re looking for even better things now that the dorado are back and the winds are down!

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: , 755 Paseo Obregon, 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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POSTCARD 1: Hi Mom! This is what a 46 pound dorado looks like. I know. I put it in a scale. It dwarfs the angler, Ray Holguin from Los Angeles who fought it for 25 minutes (without and shirt resulting in a horrendous sunburn that made it hard to slap him on the back to congratulate him!) Ray took the fish outside off Las Arenas. Not many dorado this week, but there were a few quality fish like this one!

NOT AS WINDY AS LAST WEEK BUT WATERS STILL STIRRED UP AND GREEN OUTSIDE FORCED MOST ANGLERS TO FISH INSHORE WITH GOOD RESULTS!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of June 22, 2008

POSTCARD 2: Take a look at this photo and the next. Talk about a banner day! Guys come from all over the world to get even one of these babys and they come year after year only to be eluded, frustrated and disillusioned! Well, Makani Fisher from Utah not only gets two big pargo…this one being a pargo liso (mullet snapper), but one of the largest you’ll ever see! It was scaled at 46 pounds! They get bigger, but rarely do you see them landed! Even Captain Victor is straining to lift it off the deck.

POSTCARD 3: Here’s Captain Victor giving Makani Fisher a hand again. Hey…if the kid can horse in TWO of these toads, he can hold up his own fish! Again, a spectacular catch of a pargo. This one is a dog-tooth or cubera snapper. Like a giant goldfish on steroids! A real prize!

POSTCARD 4: Tom Romanello is our forest firefighter amigo from Idaho. We didn’t do too well fishing directly out’ve La Paz this week, but Tom sure had an excellent day with his dad getting several nice dorado including this nice bull. However ,they had to run waaaaaay north going almost 70 miles north of La Paz just to find the cleaner warm water. That’s normally a ridiculous distance to have to run for our fish, but Tom and his dad made the most of it!

POSTCARD 5: Another good week on big roosterfish! This has to be the best year for the big boys we’ve seen in ages. It’s been on now since March. These fish are in relatively shallow waters. Kamika Fisher from Utah (that’s his son in the photos above) holds a big pez gallo. Kamika is a big guy himself! Note the gaff held by Captain Victor. Our captains have been gaffing the roosters in the lip so that they can be released. On this particular day, their smallest rooster was 35 pounds. Their largest was close to 60 pounds.

POSTCARD 6: Montebello, California in the house! June Akike and Julio Cornejo from Montebello CA came down specifically to try for pargo. When I first saw their gear, their artillery was way too light so I beefed them up some 60 pound test and my personal “meat sticks.” They lost their first 4 fish to the rocks, but finally hung these two beauties!

POSTCARD 7: It must have been a good week for pargo judging from all the photos. It wasn’t! There weren’t that many caught. Most kicked the hell out of anglers who simply could not stop the powerful fish. However, it seems that many of the ones that were caught this week were all heavyweight champs…like this pargo liso held by Kamika Fisher from Utah.

POSTCARD 8: PHIL COO from Duarte CA grins with his nice amberjack. We’re seeing more and more of these big cousins to the yellowtail. We got several last year that were over 100 pounds. Great eating and a nasty fighter too! These guys use rocks to their advantage.

POSTCARD 9: This is George Romanello from Duarte CA. George had a great trip nailing this roosterfish held by Captain Archangel (released) but also getting numerous other species as well. I really wanted him to have a good trip. Last year, George was all set , but had to cancel when his passport did not arrive on time! It got there one day late! He made up for it this year.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

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PHOTO 1: Dan Flatt from Atwater CA is a school teacher who was on his first trip to visit us. Despite some tough winds, Dan and his wife, Susan (photos below) got into some of the nice dorado that showed up north of La Paz between the islands around the sargasso patches near Las Cruces.

ANOTHER TOUGH WEEK OF OFFSHORE FISHING AGAINST THE WINDS (GO AWAY ALREADY!) BUT DORADO ARE HERE FOR SURE AND INSHORE FISHING FOR ROOSTERS, JACKS AND POMPANO STILL HOT!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Sunday June 15, 2008

PHOTO 2: Susan Flatt, like her husband, Dan, (above) is also an educator from Northern, California. She’s holding one of the nicer dorado taken north of La Paz this week where a spot of mahi was found around Las Cruces.

PHOTO 3: One of the funnest guys of the week and light tackle enthusiasts, Jonathan Speir from Sonoma CA holds up the kind of roosterfish that made Las Arenas famous as the “roosterfish capital of the world.” If the rooster doesn’t look that big, consider that Jonathan is about 6’4″ tall and the tail of the rooster is barely touching the deck of the panga! The rooster was released as were most of the big roosters all week.

PHOTO 4: Another great example of a real pretty rooster taken near the lighthouse off Las Arenas where fish between 10 and 80 pounds have been hanging for the past 2 months. Dan Flatt from Atwater CA does the honors.

PHOTO 5: This is Charlie and Greg Gibson holding up a sample of some of their catch after fishing a day out of Las Arenas. Left to right: barred pargo, amberjack, snapper and pompano. This particular day they also hooked two sailfish. Charlie’s broke off, but Greg hooked, fought and released his. Both had a blast using lightweight spinning rods for all their fish. Greg also spent the week completing his PADI scuba course certification.

PHOTO 6: Smile says it all. Nick Fantozzi holds up a nice snapper here. Great eating and highly prized in the markets and restaurants and much sought after by the commercial panga fishermen, these fish are a tough fight out of the rocks.

PHOTO 7: Wendy and Cara Fantozzi got out on the water a few days with us this week. High winds made it difficult and tough to get out some days to the outter buoys where the larger dorado lurked, but some breezing school-sized dorado like these held by the ladies have moved closer to the beaches and island.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

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PHOTO 1: Jerry Reiter and John Torascio from the Ventura CA area hold up some of the nice class bull dorado we hit this week. Both anglers were on their first trip down here and tangled with some nice fish. Dorado fishing wasn’t great, but the fish that were caught were usually trophies like this!

A TOUGH WEEK OF FISHING MARKED BY INCONSISTENT WINDS AND DROP IN WATER TEMPERATURE – BUT STILL SOME NICE DORADO AND INSHORE SPECIES!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Jun3 1-8, 2008

PHOTO 2: On his first fishing trip ever, Andy Ewing from Seattle WA rips this 50 pound class roosterfish off the beach near Las Arenas. Trophy roosters like this moved in a few weeks ago in shallow waters. Andy released this fish after taking this great shot. Note the flat waters!

PHOTO 3 : One of the biggest problems this week was the falling water temperature. Inshore waters went cold lockjawing the fish. The warmer water was outside around the buoys where toad-sized dorado like this one held by Joel Ofrancia of Seattle WA were hanging out. Joel hit three good day of this kind of fishing. The problem with getting outside to the warmer water was the fact that sometimes the winds were blowing so hard, it was impossible to get across in all the chop and wet. I put this fish on a scale myself and it went 42 pounds!

PHOTO 4: Just too pretty of a photo to pass up. This is a hooked dorado next to the boat. It was unhooked and released.

PHOTO 5: Now here’s a great shot. Our amigo, Doug Oclassen from Boulder CO is hooked on a striped marlin. Captain Victor looks on. Cerralvo Island in the background. They tried to release this fish but were unable to and the meat was donated. However, during the week they released other billfish and numerous dorado, roosters and jacks.

PHOTO 6: Butch Lawson always seems to do pretty well everytime he comes to see us. He’s here with Captain Jorge and a dorado they picked up. Butch is from the Monterey CA area.

PHOTO 7: Dave Newman doesn’t get to take his shirt off very often. He’s from Chicago, Ill. and is constantly sending photos of his frozen yard. However, he’s dynamite on light tackle whether from a panga or the beach. He’s standing here on Las Arenas beach just around from the lighthouse where schools of jacks and roosters congregate. He’s holding up a nice jack he nailed on 15 pound test and a Shimano Calcutta 400 reel!

PHOTO 8 – Not sure if this needs explanation, but I promised someone I’d post it. Kids, don’t try this at home. Seen often in Baja Mexico, it’s a pink-eyed Pacific Pargo Belly.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Check out some of the dorado action this week. You will see a marlin here that got taken, but almost all marlin this week were released as were most of the roosterfish. The one you see in the video swallowed the hook and the meat went to folks who needed food.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYsBqoaB4qM

THE FISHING REPORT

Right up front…IT WAS A WEIRD WEEK! It had all the makings to be an outstanding week, but for a few glitches mother nature threw at us.

Here’s what happened. Those pesky winds hit us again. One day from one side. Next day from the other. Sometimes it seemed like they sucker punched us from different angles at the same time. What occured is that water temperatures dropped. That resulted (I think) in alot of the fish going “lockjaw” on us. I mean…they were there, but just wouldn’t open their mouths to take a bait!

The warmer waters were outside by the buoys or around the islands. BUT…to get out there, you had to be willing to get your teeth kicked in going out there and getting battered around. Most guys opted to stay close to shore where the aforementioned cold water took it’s toll and even needlefish didn’t bite on some days.

This was mostly at the middle of the week with the funky weather. At the beginning and the end of the week, there was some good to great action on BIG dorado outside as well as marlin and sailfish with most billfish getting released. Inshore, especially along those shallow beaches, jacks and roosters and pompano (basically, almost all the jack family) were there varying in sizes from small 2 pounders up to 60 pounders. This made for some great inshore action.

No wahoo to speak of this week and that flurry of tuna seems to have gone back down to the trenches. The thing we’re watching is that if these winds stay down, it looks like the La Paz side fishing is actually starting to heat up with some dorado located in warm water betweeen Espiritu Santo and the north end of Cerralvo Island.

Fishing tips….

Flurocarbon leaders

CD 18 sized big Rapalas in dark colors for wahoo

Hook sizes #1 to 2/0 for most baits

Don’t forget zip lock bags for your fish

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: , 755 Paseo Obregon, 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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