PHOTO 1: Al Cambell knows how to hooke ’em and pose ’em! From Santa Rosa CA, Al is a professional photographer and poses with a rooster estimated at about 75 pounds. It’s alot bigger than it looks! Al and Captain Gerardo are both big guys. The fish was released. Big roosterfish are still off the Las Arenas ledge and lighthouse!
DORADO AND AMBERJACK HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK OF TACKLE SHREDDING AS OUR LA PAZ FLEET KICKS IN WHILE OUR LAS ARENAS FLEET STILL PRODUCES ACTION ON NUMEROUS SPECIES
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for July 13, 2008
PHOTO 2: Our amigo, Mitch Chavira from San Diego never fails to produce some of the best fish and best photos we ever get off the water. This was was outstanding for big amberjack…big cousins to yellowtail. Mitch here holds a 50 pound class “Pez Fuerte”. One of the best spots this week was the famous El Bajo Seamount.
PHOTO 3: Bill Johnson gets the smiling rights on this nice dorado he got off Las Arenas. For our Las Arenas fleet, the fish were scattered. One day the outter buoys were hot. The next, it might be the channel up by Las Cruces. Some days, the mahi would flash through not more than a few yards offshore. The fish were not congregating as much so we were trolling a bit more than usual to bring the fish close then keeping them around by chumming or leaving slabs of bloody bonito in the water.
PHOTO 4: Too nice of a photo to ignore. Those of you who like the inshore fishing, it can still be great. Mostly, many of the inshore species are being ignored because everyone is outside chasing the glamour fish! However, fish like this nice cabrilla are always around. Mitch gets his mug in the fishing reports twice this week! Felicidades! That’s Espirito Santo Island behind him.
PHOTO 5: Like I said…it was a great week for amberjack! R.J. King from San Antonio, TX is still in high school and on his first-trip to visit us. He hung this sweet 38 pound amberjack fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.
PHOTO 6: Corey Poach was on his first drip down here. Richard Natividad, on the right, has fished with us several times and has a knack for dorado. The guys are from S.California. Both gents hold up some dorado headed for the barbecue. They were fishing with our Las Arenas fleet. The dorado action changed from day-to-day and boat-to-boat. There was no pattern, but if you were at the right place and the right time and had a bait in the water, you were bit! By the way, much to the skepticism of the rest of the group, these guys swear that PINK LINE works best! Hard to argue with fish in the box!
PHOTO 7: Mary Wehner and her husband, Dave, were just with us and here Mary holds up a 37-pound yellowtail. That’s a trophy fish no matter how you cut it. The thing is, yellowtail season ended about two months ago! We had a great yellowtail season and normally don’t catch ‘tails after the early part of June. However, the last week or two, sporadic bites of yellowtail continued to come in indicating that there’s still come colder water down there. Some of my divers reported seeing yellowtail in the 60 pound class roaming the El Bajo Seamount!
PHOTO 8: Paul Kilborn holds up his first sailfish. Like many the past few weeks, he was on his first trip down here and slammed fish. The cool thing is that he did a great job of CPR…Catch-Photo-Release. He got the fish to the boat. He took the photo. He got it back in the water fast and let it swim away. Excellent! Captain Gerardo lends a hand.
PHOTO 9: Zack Barnard is 9, Connor Barnard is 11. They came down with mom and dad. According to dad, the boys handled the fish from start to finish on a tough day on the water and dad said, they just kept smiling! They proudly hold their catches of dorado here!
THE WEEKLY FISHING VIDEO CLIP
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THE FISH REPORT
Well, we had a pretty active week here. Boy…there were sure alot of species! Where do I start? The weirdest of weird seasons got even more goofy…
I think we had them all in one way, shape or form: DORADO, SAILFISH, MARLIN, AMBERJACK, CABRILLA, PARGO LISO, PARGO PERRO (dogtooth), PARGO MULATTO (barred pargo), WAHOO, YELLOW SNAPPER, ROOSTERFISH, JACK CREVALLE, POMPANO, BIG EYE JACKS, BONITO, SKIPJACK were just a few.
But then…add in the weird ones…TUNA…yes we even got a few TUNA. And where did the yellowtail come from all of a sudden? Yellowtail season ended weeks ago when all the cold water left us then…BOOM! We start getting yellowtail again.
Look…I don’t wanna blow smoke up the chimney, but it wasn’t WFO fishing my any stretch. It was good…NOT GREAT. At least not everyday. But, in all honesty, everyone got fish. And most got alot of fish. What I’m saying is that you could be on a boat that just missed the bite or sat on the wrong spot! The next day, you could be the boat that blows up the ocean and comes back with huge tails sticking out of your fish box and pound your chests as kings of the beach. Everyday was different. You COULD have a skunky day one day, then be on top of the hill the next.
Not kidding. If you hit the right spot, it could go world-class and explosive in the time it takes to cast a bait in the water. For some of the boats in our La Paz fleet that hit El Bajo during the latter part of the week…OMG…they whacked some of the biggest dorado of the season and more amberjack than I have seen in one spot in a long time. I had some freedivers in the area and they told me they saw 60 pound yellowtail swimming around down there. Big tuna were also seen breezing the area.
Bottom line…if you fish Las Arenas…light tackle heaven on a number of species. If you fish La Paz, expect about 90 percent dorado…and some of these dorado were tickling the 50-60 pound mark! Get ready to pull! It will be interesting to see what happens this week with the full moon. I’m not a big believer in the full moon stuff, but combine it with wind and the complexion could change of the fishing.
Several tips…this is one time, I would recommend bringing one or two tuna-sized feathers. One dark and one light color. The dorado are breezing. Sometimes, we find the schools by trolling the feathers then after a hook-up, chumming the rest of the school to the boat. Also, bring one or two sabiki /Lucky Joe rigs to catch a few of the larger caballitos or mackerel in the bay to top out your sardines for the day.
That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com
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