Tailhunter Fish Report

PHOTO 1: King of the week is Captain Steve Greanias from the Los Angeles area who rocked the big fish all week as well as several of the largest roosters of the season. Take a look at some of the underwater photos this week. Steve also took those. Steve does well every time he comes down and released all of his big roosters. Steve got 3 fish that went upwards of 50 pounds plus they lost a few as well. Steve and his dad got marlin (released) and big dorado, but made a point of chasing the big roosters that Las Arenas is famous for.

STORM STARTS THE WEEK WITH A THUD BUT AFTER THINGS CLEAR FISHING STARTS TO GET BACK UP TO SPEED

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Aug. 24-30, 2008

PHOTO 2: Two of the funnest folks we’ve had in a long time, Sherman and Shelley McDonell left snow falling in Wyoming to come enjoy some Baja sunshine and fishing. Both are extremely experienced and figured they’d try light tackle fishing in the Tailhunter House! Well, their first day out on 17 pound test and spinning rods, they got their first taste of Baja power. Double hookup within minutes! Shelley’s fish on the right was the larger of the two and in the 45 pound class and she fought it for an hour and 15 minutes! Attempts to revive the fish were unsuccessful so the meat was donated to the San Pedro pueblo.

PHOTO 3: Check this out!!! 40-pound class dorado underwater with the Mean Joe Green jig hanging on the lip. Steve Greanias stuck his camera underwater and got this spectacular shot just below the surface. The fish was hooked just north of La Paz.

PHOTO 4: Yes, another photo by Steve Greanias with his digital camera. His dad was on his first marlin (see photo below) and Steve poked his camera underwater again for this rare shot. The yellow on it’s flank is the lure trailing behind the hook. They were fishing over the canyon near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 5: Here’s the fish you saw underwater in the shot above. Captain Eddy Carballo helps Chris Greanias with the honors. It was Chris’ first marlin and was in the 150 pound class and the fish was released and swam away.

PHOTO 6: OK, Jamie…you made the report! Jamie Smith from Malibu and his nephew Daniel Estandia from Ventura CA area hold up a nice pair. Jamie has a 15 pound yellowfin tuna, but check out the size of the bruiser bonito that Danny is holding onto! Both the bonito and the tuna got larger this week after the storm.

PHOTO 7: Yellowfin tuna weren’t thick, but they were biting sporadically south of Cerralvo Island. Armen Minissian (left) came down to celebrate his birthday here in La Paz and he’s flanked by amigo, Andre Kerian (right) with a pair of nice yellowfin headed to the sashime platter.

PHOTO 8: Greg Voudouris and Harry Gouma were quite a pair this week. Fishing both Las Arenas and La Paz, they had a good week on dorado. They were often high boat each day on the mahi. Here’s part of their catch on day on the beach at Las Arenas.

PHOTO 9: Toros Marganian had only been trolling a feather about 15 minutes when this sailfish came up and struck the lure near Cerralvo Island. It was his first.

PHOTO 10: Bakersfield Sam Smith gets alot of credit. Despite showing up in the biggest and worst storm of the season so far, he and his dad hung in with alot of patience and kept it light and fun and still got in a bit of fishing in less than ideal conditions earlier in the week. He did get this nice dorado fishing with Captain Victor out of Las Arenas.

PHOTO 11: Steven Laurentis is our amigo from “Los Angeles and world for a big radio station there. Great guy who was on his second trip to see us here in La Paz. He’s holding up a pair of yellowfin tuna, but also go his first sailfish on this trip which he released.

WEEKLY VIDEO CLIP

Click here for a little video clip of some of the week’s fishing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzESE_8WlMU

Have the sound up!

THE FISHING REPORT

Well, where do I start? Fishing really tanked as we began the week. Straight up…it pretty funky and that was because tropical storm Julio came through here.

It was weird. There was absolutely nothing on the radar. Then, we wake up and suddenly we have rain coming. And not just a little blow. Turns into a tropical storm named Julio. In truth, it wasn’t much of a storm as storms go and thankfully, it wasn’t a hurricane so thanks to all of you who wrote and wished us well.

It was just enough to get my car muddy and have to turn on the window wipers and it was bad enough that we didn’t want anyone out on the water because it was rough and wet and the port captain shut things down for a bit.

But, I felt bad for the amigos that were here and lost a day of fishing and had to keep watching the weather screens like us wondering from day-to-day if they’d be able to go fishing that day. Hat’s off to all of them who kept patience with us and kept smiling!

The fishing was not great as you might guess, but everyone made a go of it and did their best…captains and anglers both! They scratched up a few dorado, some bonito, a few too many needlefish and some roosters.

As the week went on, the rain left us and the winds died down, but the clouds still hung over us, but the fishing did improve seemingly with each passing day. More dorado started up in the counts including some larger 30 and 40 pounders. We saw quite a few billfish and got a few to bite. Several anglers got 2 or more billfish in a single day. Most were released. As well, roosters along the beaches kept things fun for the light tackle guys and ladies plus we’re seeing more sierra which leads me to believe that there’s some cooler spots of water here and there.Some of the roosters, as you can see from the photos, were the trophy-sized horses that this area is famous for. We had a few wahoo jump the lures, but nothing stuck. Tuna showed up back in the counts as well with legitimate 15-pounders at the north end of Espiritu Santo Island.

Like I said, it wasn’t great fishing by any stretch, but as the week went on, things got more promising.

Hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, we’ll be back in the swing of things and fishing is back up to speed.

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://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: , 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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PHOTO 1: Lots of firsts for Kenny Nishimura from the Sacramento CA area. First time in Baja. First time fishing in Baja. First dorado! And it’s a gem. He holds up a sweet bull dorado that raked him across the ocean for awhile, but he put the fish in the boat! Kenny was fishing with his dad and other Sacramento firefighters this past week north of La Paz where dorado were a bit picky this week, but there were still some prizes to be had.

SCRATCHY FISHING MAKES ANGLERS WORK HARD FOR THEIR FISH THIS WEEK BUT EVERYONE STILL WENT HOME WITH FISH!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Aug. 16 to 23, 2008

PHOTO 2: One of the highlights of the week was the re-appearance of wahoo willing to go after a trolled lure or bait. Both the north and south side of Cerralvo Island had a few biters like this great 37-pounder held by Scott Singleton from the Sacramento area in California. He was fishing with our Las Arenas fleet south of the island

PHOTO 3: Tony Glover was on his first trip with us. He took a vacation from serving in Afghanistan with special forces protecting the U.S. embassy in Kabul and decided to do some fishing and also get his scuba certifcation. Tony hung this slugger bull dorado fishing north out of La Paz with Captain Marcos.

PHOTO 4: Kari Strickland from Mobile, Alabama poses with a dorado she hooked and landed east of Espiritu Santo Island. This was her first trip with us here in La Paz.

PHOTO 5: Paul Romano comes to see us every year with his dad Carl and has so many adventures every time! His first day fishing he pulls up on this huge blue marlin estimated at over 300 pounds. Many of you know famous Captain Chito Martinez standing alongside. Paul said he got the fish in about an hour. All the fish was donated to local families.

PHOTO 6: I couldn’t resist. Kenny Nishimura also got his first roosterfish with us this week as well as his first dorado. It’s great when you’re 14 years-old and on a trip with dad. He actually got several roosterfish on this particular day fishing less than 50 feet off the Las Arenas beach in water no deepter than 3 feet.

THE FISHING REPORT

I have to call it like I see it. It was a bit of a down week this past week around here. Actually, it’s been a little longer than a week of picky fishing. I know some are blaming the full moon on the 16th of August, but I hate putting the blame on a lunar cycle. Not my style. Most of the time this past year on a full moon cycle we slammed fish. But not this last week.

I can’t detect anything really different. Water is and has been a great 85-88 degrees on the surface. Our scuba divers tell me even at depth, it’s not much cooler…a warm 82. Air temperatures are in the upper 90’s each day and we have our seasonal tropical rain showers in the afternoon. Water is mostly clear. Winds have been down with only slight breezes. Criminy…we even have good bait!

Maybe it’s just Mother Nature giving us a reminder slap not to be cocky and telling us it’s still fishing! Because Jiminy Crismas, we had some good dorado and tuna fishing the past few weeks. As all things here in the Cortez are cyclical, I can only believe it’s going to go on the upswing…just in time for YOUR trip coming up! Right? I have my fingers crossed! September and October are traditionally our BEST and hottest fishing months to swing on fish so don’t get all droopy-eyed. (Yes, I know the tuna and dorado are getting caught on half-day boats in S.California so don’t write me and rub it in!) This is still Steinbeck’s and Ray Cannon’s Sea of Cortez we’re talking about!

So, wassup?

Well, the great tuna bite of the last month for our Las Arenas fleet tapered off. Actually the problem could very well be the bait. We have LOTS of it. Not a problem. However, during the weeks the tuna were going off, we had the scrawniest, tiniest baits imaginable. They barely fit on a hook. They were so small they were almost transparent. If you saw them you’d have to roll your eyes and figured you were in for bad fishing. On the contrary, the tuna LOVED the small baits and gulped them by the handfuls.

Well, this past few weeks we got the NORMAL sized sardines back. Good healthy swimmers. The kind we love to have in the baits wells. Unfortunately, the tuna don’t seem to like ’em as well. I guess we have to go looking for sickly bait! Go figure!

Anyway, the tuna we found dropped from about 10 per boat/day to about 1-4 per boat per day and generally caught at the north and south ends of Cerralvo Island. Football-sized yellowfin ranged from about 8-17 pounds punctuated by flurries of bonito, skipjack and the occasional wahoo, marlin or sailfish. Roosterfish sometimes turned to be the saving grace on a few days when the boats would come in go light tackle in the inshore roosters catching and releasing most fish. However, just to be totally honest, I saw two days when the main catch was TRIGGER FISH! Great eating, but hardly what you come to Baja to fish for.

For our La Paz fleet, it was picky as well. It was pretty much so-so fishing with a few highlighted spikes. Most boats that past week got only 1-4 dorado on the average with a few nice bulls. However, it seemed one or two boats each day would find a hot spots and get limits in short order. If you were on a boat that worked hard, but just didn’t find the spot, you had a scratchy day. Some of our captains blamed the lack of current and the fact that it was “too calm” some days for the dorado.

I have to believe we’ll be rolling again. Despite what I wrote, everyone DID catch fish and everyone who wanted to bring home fish brought home fish. If you fished only one day, it could be that one day that stunk, but generally speaking, if you fished 2, 3 or 4 days, you went home with a fairly full cooler. It’s just that you had to really work hard for your fish and there was no room for error. Often, I’d talk to the guys coming back to the beach and they’d tell me they “only got 2 fish.” Of course, they’d be disappointed, but the captain would tell me they “LOST FIVE!” Like I said, you gotta be on your game. No second chances!

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://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: , 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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PHOTO 1: Big man with big bull dorado! Mike Cramer holds up a legit 36 pound mahi. (See the scale in his hands). There weren’t alot of dorado this week, but there were surely some nice quality dorado caught this week. Mike got this bad guy fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.

TUNA STILL FRONT AND CENTER MOVING CLOSER BUT DORADO AND BILLFISH STILL IN THE RING AS WELL!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Aug. 10-17, 2008

PHOTO 2: Our buddy, Joey Fuschetti from Irvine CA rocked with this huge bull dorado that could easily have been a 50 pound class fish. Joey always does well fishing here at least once-a-year and got this dorado fishing with our La Paz fleet.

PHOTO 3: No shortage of sashime and sushi meat! Two of the nicest guys, Leo Dunn and Mitch Kawamoto, hold up just a few of the football tuna they popped south of Las Arenas. The fish got a little bigger with most now over 10 pounds. Small sardine baits were the key as well as light line and flurocarbon leaders.

PHOTO 4: Like I said…there were som brute dorado around this week. Mark Azaiwa, holds the head of a trophy bull helped by Captain Pancho with our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 5: Las Vegas in the house! Eric Jones. Rob Manke, Sean Maes and Dave Jones started off their trip with a load of fillets. They hold up just a few of the tuna and dorado they whacked fishing with our Tailhunter Fleet out of Las Arenas.

PHOTO 6: Two of our best friends and darned good anglers, John Dunne and Gina Dunne from the Sierra Madre area of Los Angeles, come to visit every year. They also stack up the ice chests. This year it was full of dorado and here, some of the yellowfin footballs they scored south of Las Arenas. As the week went on, the fish got bigger and closer to the island.

PHOTO 7: First timers from Oregon, Chris and Julie Groth came down from the Portland area where Chris is a commercial fisherman who traded in his rain slickers for some shorts and t-shirts. They got so much fish they were giving it away to whoever wanted at the hotel.

PHOTO 8: Check this out. We all know what needlefish are. They are a curse to those of us who fish these waters. We have some big ones here. Well, check out Danny Wong’s needlefish! I put it on a scale and it measure 17 pounds! By contrast, the tuna this week were only about 12 pounders.

PHOTO 9: It’s soooo cool when people catch their fish fish. Here, Sharon Aurand from the S.Francisco bay area holds up her very first yellowfin tuna aided by Captain Jorge

PHOTO 10: Nice day! Tom Aurand and his son, T.J. pose with their first day of fishing. A nice rack of yellowfin tuna and a dorado in the sand. It was their first time down here to Baja and they probably caught about 9 different species of fish over the course of a week plus had billfish rising, but not quite taking their lures.

PHOTO 11: CAUGHT in the act! When you have fresh tuna you might as well make sashime while it’s fresh! Ray Quon is caught with all the essential ingredients making sashime in his hotel room!
PHOTO 12: All smiles, Captain Jacobo holds up a dorado caught off Espiritu Santo Island picked up by Leonard Kam who was on his first trip down to see us.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Check out some of the footage from this week. Click this:

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

THE FISHING REPORT

If you can put aside the weird tropical weather, it was a pretty darned interesting week of fishing…actually it was pretty good! Tuna kept up their charge and for our anglers that fished the Las Arenas area, that was what kept most of the focus. For our La Paz anglers, I’ll be honest, it was hit-or-miss. Most of the fish were dorado. Frankly, there weren’t many, but there were a few real trophy fish.

But let’s talk about the tuna first. The primary spot had been south of the Muertos Bay area. OK, so these were football sized, fish, but ya gotta admit, catching 5-10 footballs a day, plus add in a few dorado, some roosters, a bunch of bonito, a couple of jacks and way too many needlefish and it adds up to an action packed day. There were a few scratchy days when the bait wasn’t quite right (smaller the bait the better!), but over all, it was all good.

The thing about the tuna is that they seemed to be getting bigger. The 8 pounds of two weeks ago became 10 pounds. This week there were more 12 and 14 pounders. By the end of the week, there were a few 18 and 20 pounders and although we didn’t catch any, there were reports of 30, 40 and 50 pound breezers on the perimeter. Even moreso, the spot of fish has moved so that they are in spitting distance now just south of Cerralvo Island.

Not only is that a shorter boat ride, but that’s also a great area for wahoo and billfish. Sure enough, we did hang a few sails, marlin and hooked few wahoo this week as well.

For our La Paz boats, it was so-so. Not sure what’s up. One boat would hit limits of dorado. The next boat would get 2 fish. The boat 50 yards away would take 4 dorado. No rhyme or reason. The hot boat one day could go ice-cold the next. It’s fishing! There are some big billfish eating the small dorado. Paul Romano got a 300 plus-pound blue marlin at mid-week.

I’m writing this and it’ full moon. Last full moon, all heck broke out with great fishing. We’ll keep you posted!

That’s my story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://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: , 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.”

Read Full Post »

PHOTO 1: Talk about a GRAND SLAM fishing day! Oregon boys on their first trip down here are Troy King (left) and Jess Robinson (kneeling). Captain Joel Martinez lends a hand. Fishing with our La Paz fleet, the guys got a big trophy bull dorado, the striped marlin and a mako shark! There was quite a bit of variety in the water this week!

TUNA STILL HOLD THE SPOTLIGHT WHILE DORADO FISHING SLOWS A BIT BUT BILLFISH GETTING MORE INTERESTED!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Aug. 2-9, 2008

PHOTO 2: Josh Evans from San Francisco knows how to swing on fish! He had a full week of bent rods, but did quite a few billfish including this sailfish. Hat’s off…Josh released lots of fish including ALL his billfish. You rock, amigo!

PHOTO 3: Here’s a hog of a fish! This is a “dog tooth snapper” aka “pargo perro” aka “cubera snapper.” Vince Preszler holds it up while standing on Las Arenas Beach. These fish are rare, not because there are so few, but because they are so difficult to catch. They get much larger and usually hang out in the rocks and are near impossible to wedge out. Well, this guy must have been lost because it ate a tiny sardine way out in deep water where the tuna schools were feeding!

PHOTO 4: Wally and Jeff Lee are from the bay area and were on their first trip with us. Here they are after their first day of fishing where they whacked the yellowfin tuna that have been on the chew now for over a week.

PHOTO 5: Nice dorado for Grace Ching from the San Francisco area. Gracie fished with us for about a week and hung some nice tuna as well.

PHOTO 6: Rob Burns is our buddy from Texas. He has way too much fun and this is his 3rd trip to visit us this year. Rob fished several days again, but on this particular day, he decided to use his flyrod and got 8 fun yellowfin tuna.

PHOTO 7: Justin Simon and his pals area all from Los Angeles area. They raced up to see us from Cabo San Lucas to squeeze in a day of fishing with our Las Arenas fleet and nailed a box of tuna from that school just to the south of Muertos Bay.

PHOTO 8: Leon Throckmorton was on his first trip with us. Donnie Rhea (on the right) visits us all the time and was on his 2nd trip of 2008. They love the light tackle and show off two of their bull dorado. Both fish took almost an hour to boat on the smaller gear fishing with our La Paz fleet north of La Paz near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 9: Steve Bryan and Dave O’Leary came down from the rainy state of Washington to check out our La Paz sunshine and get in a few days fishing. They spanked the yellowfin tuna as shown by two of the several tuna they caught their first day. Most of the fish have been about 10 pounds more or less, but as show by Steve’s fish, there’s some large models swimming in the schools! Steve and Dave also got in a day of dorado fishing and hooked and released a sailfish as well.

PHOTO 10: This is a real special fish. Chris Dufour is on the right. His wife Alissa is on the left. Chris did not catch this striper. Allissa did! On 25 pound test, she battled this fish for almost 4 hours north of La Paz! Quite an accomplishment and she did NOT hand off the rod. Alissa has fished with us a number of times and always does well.

PHOTO 11: OK…yes…that’s a yellowtail on the left being held by Kevin Kurstin about to enter his senior year in high school and fishing for the first time with Tailhunter International. We normally do not get yellowtail down here during this time of year, but this 18 pounder and others like it seem to show up a few times a week to remind us they’re still around. Kevin also got a nice yellowfin for his fishing efforts!

VIDEO CLIP FOR THE WEEK

Click this and turn up the sound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qw2P9DD7Mw

THE FISHING REPORT

Not sure who to characterize the week. It was one of ups-and-downs! If you were fishing for yellowfin tuna, well, that school of football tuna south of Muertos Bay for our Las Arenas fleet just continued to rip for a 2nd straight week. If you were fishing for anything else like dorado, billfish, roosters, etc., it kinda depended on where you fished and just being plain lucky, not to mention having your game plan together and your “A” game in place.

Listen…everyone got fish. That tuna bite for our Las Arenas fleet continued to roll. Nothing big but certainly alot of fun and our light tackle guys had a blast as well as flyfishers. The fish are about 8-15 pounds, but FLASH…bigger 40 and 50 pounders have been seen and were boiling just outside the zones but were either moving too fast or wouldn’t eat what we chased them with or threw at them. However, seeing them is sure encouraging. I did check out one of the larger fish caught on the troll by a commercial fisherman and it’s guts were full of little squid so that might be the ticket OR could signal that the squid might be coming up from the deep channel and bringing the tuna with them. We’ll keep you posted!

But, on top of the tuna, we also got a handful of dorado, billfish and roosters each day as well. The ticket for these tuna were the eenie-meenie little sardines we were using all week. If you had big sardines, the tuna weren’t interested. If you had the tiny sardines, you’d better hold onto your socks!

For our anglers fishing with our La Paz fleets it was hit or miss at times. You could hit the right spot on the right day and it could be well over by mid-morning. You’d have enough fish or enough BIG fish to call it a day. Dorado tails would be hanging out of the fish box. On the other hand, there were times you really had to work at it and spank the water to get fish to rise or find the right spots. Some boats got ’em and some boats didn’t. The next day, you could go from goat to hero or hero to goat. Alot of it was just luck.

However, we also did see quite a few billfish. A number of them were hooked and lost and proud to say quite a few of them were also released as well. The fish are scattered. Some days there wouldn’t be a billfish. The next day, the boats would have 2, 3 or more fish around the boat. That’s fishing.

Weather has been real tropical lately. (It even hailed one day!That’ right HAIL!!!)Almost everyday, a bit of rainstorm falling somewhere for a few minutes. Sometimes, they’re real gully-washers and others are like a warm shower. They blow over pretty fast but are putting alot of debris in the water for dorado schools to hide under! We’ll keep you posted. Still, might be a good idea to bring a light windbreaker or cheap pancho, or do like I do and just cut some holes in a trash bag!

CAPTAIN JORGE

Our ever-popular Captain Jorge appears to be sick again. As many of you may recall, he was out about 4 years ago with serious intestinal problems that required surgery in Guadalajara. Apparently, the symptoms have come back. Not sure what it is, but he’s getting checked out. He’s been out of the lineup for 2 weeks now and until further notice, w’ere not sure when he’ll be back in the starting rotation with the first string. We’ll keep you posted. Jorge is one of the best captains not to mention one of the most likeable of any captain you’ll ever meet. Bear with us if you’ve requested Jorge. Believe me, he’s chomping at the bit to be out on the water ASAP.

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://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: , 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.”

Read Full Post »

PHOTO 1: Talk about a GRAND SLAM fishing day! Oregon boys on their first trip down here are Troy King (left) and Jess Robinson (kneeling). Captain Joel Martinez lends a hand. Fishing with our La Paz fleet, the guys got a big trophy bull dorado, the striped marlin and a mako shark! There was quite a bit of variety in the water this week!

TUNA STILL HOLD THE SPOTLIGHT WHILE DORADO FISHING SLOWS A BIT BUT BILLFISH GETTING MORE INTERESTED!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Aug. 2-9, 2008

PHOTO 2: Josh Owens from San Francisco knows how to swing on fish! He had a full week of bent rods, but did quite a few billfish including this sailfish. Hat’s off…Josh released lots of fish including ALL his billfish. You rock, amigo!

PHOTO 3: Here’s a hog of a fish! This is a “dog tooth snapper” aka “pargo perro” aka “cubera snapper.” Vince Preszler holds it up while standing on Las Arenas Beach. These fish are rare, not because there are so few, but because they are so difficult to catch. They get much larger and usually hang out in the rocks and are near impossible to wedge out. Well, this guy must have been lost because it ate a tiny sardine way out in deep water where the tuna schools were feeding!

PHOTO 4: Wally and Jeff Lee are from the bay area and were on their first trip with us. Here they are after their first day of fishing where they whacked the yellowfin tuna that have been on the chew now for over a week.

PHOTO 5: Nice dorado for Grace Chang from the San Francisco area. Gracie fished with us for about a week and hung some nice tuna as well.

PHOTO 6: Rob Burns is our buddy from Texas. He has way too much fun and this is his 3rd trip to visit us this year. Rob fished several days again, but on this particular day, he decided to use his flyrod and got 8 fun yellowfin tuna.

PHOTO 7: Justin Simon and his pals area all from Los Angeles area. They raced up to see us from Cabo San Lucas to squeeze in a day of fishing with our Las Arenas fleet and nailed a box of tuna from that school just to the south of Muertos Bay.

PHOTO 8: Leon Throckmorton was on his first trip with us. Donnie Rhea (on the right) visits us all the time and was on his 2nd trip of 2008. They love the light tackle and show off two of their bull dorado. Both fish took almost an hour to boat on the smaller gear fishing with our La Paz fleet north of La Paz near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 9: Steve Bryan and Dave O’Leary came down from the rainy state of Washington to check out our La Paz sunshine and get in a few days fishing. They spanked the yellowfin tuna as shown by two of the several tuna they caught their first day. Most of the fish have been about 10 pounds more or less, but as show by Steve’s fish, there’s some large models swimming in the schools! Steve and Dave also got in a day of dorado fishing and hooked and released a sailfish as well.

PHOTO 10: This is a real special fish. Chris Dufour is on the right. His wife Alissa is on the left. Chris did not catch this striper. Allissa did! On 25 pound test, she battled this fish for almost 4 hours north of La Paz! Quite an accomplishment and she did NOT hand off the rod. Alissa has fished with us a number of times and always does well.

PHOTO 11: OK…yes…that’s a yellowtail on the left being held by Kevin Kurstin about to enter his senior year in high school and fishing for the first time with Tailhunter International. We normally do not get yellowtail down here during this time of year, but this 18 pounder and others like it seem to show up a few times a week to remind us they’re still around. Kevin also got a nice yellowfin for his fishing efforts!

VIDEO CLIP FOR THE WEEK

Click this and turn up the sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qw2P9DD7Mw

THE FISHING REPORT

Not sure who to characterize the week. It was one of ups-and-downs! If you were fishing for yellowfin tuna, well, that school of football tuna south of Muertos Bay for our Las Arenas fleet just continued to rip for a 2nd straight week. If you were fishing for anything else like dorado, billfish, roosters, etc., it kinda depended on where you fished and just being plain lucky, not to mention having your game plan together and your “A” game in place.

Listen…everyone got fish. That tuna bite for our Las Arenas fleet continued to roll. Nothing big but certainly alot of fun and our light tackle guys had a blast as well as flyfishers. The fish are about 8-15 pounds, but FLASH…bigger 40 and 50 pounders have been seen and were boiling just outside the zones but were either moving too fast or wouldn’t eat what we chased them with or threw at them. However, seeing them is sure encouraging. I did check out one of the larger fish caught on the troll by a commercial fisherman and it’s guts were full of little squid so that might be the ticket OR could signal that the squid might be coming up from the deep channel and bringing the tuna with them. We’ll keep you posted!

But, on top of the tuna, we also got a handful of dorado, billfish and roosters each day as well. The ticket for these tuna were the eenie-meenie little sardines we were using all week. If you had big sardines, the tuna weren’t interested. If you had the tiny sardines, you’d better hold onto your socks!

For our anglers fishing with our La Paz fleets it was hit or miss at times. You could hit the right spot on the right day and it could be well over by mid-morning. You’d have enough fish or enough BIG fish to call it a day. Dorado tails would be hanging out of the fish box. On the other hand, there were times you really had to work at it and spank the water to get fish to rise or find the right spots. Some boats got ’em and some boats didn’t. The next day, you could go from goat to hero or hero to goat. Alot of it was just luck.

However, we also did see quite a few billfish. A number of them were hooked and lost and proud to say quite a few of them were also released as well. The fish are scattered. Some days there wouldn’t be a billfish. The next day, the boats would have 2, 3 or more fish around the boat. That’s fishing.

Weather has been real tropical lately. Almost everyday, a bit of rainstorm falling somewhere for a few minutes. Sometimes, they’re real gully-washers and others are like a warm shower. They blow over pretty fast but are putting alot of debris in the water for dorado schools to hide under! We’ll keep you posted. Still, might be a good idea to bring a light windbreaker or cheap pancho, or do like I do and just cut some holes in a trash bag!

CAPTAIN JORGE

Our ever-popular Captain Jorge appears to be sick again. As many of you may recall, he was out about 4 years ago with serious intestinal problems that required surgery in Guadalajara. Apparently, the symptoms have come back. Not sure what it is, but he’s getting checked out. He’s been out of the lineup for 2 weeks now and until further notice, w’ere not sure when he’ll be back in the starting rotation with the first string. We’ll keep you posted. Jorge is one of the best captains not to mention one of the most likeable of any captain you’ll ever meet. Bear with us if you’ve requested Jorge. Believe me, he’s chomping at the bit to be out on the water ASAP.

That’s our 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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PHOTO 1: These two characters have fished all over the world and are two of the funniest. Jack McGuire and Doc Moses from Southern California stopped to fish with us for the week in between a trip to Alaska and then off to Africa to fish…or something like that. I couldn’t keep it straight. Anyway, they got into our best tuna bite of the season so far. Footballs like this were foaming south of Muertos Bay pretty much all week and it was easy limits!

MIXED WEEK OF FISHING WITH WEIRD WEATHER BUT TUNA FINALLY PUT ON A SHOW FOR OUR LAS ARENAS FLEET!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of July 27 to Aug. 2nd, 2008

PHOTO 2: All the way from the Carolinas, the Daly family…Jim Sr., Jim Jr., Madison and mom, Lake hold just some of the yellowfin tuna and dorado they ripped fishing a day just south of Las Arenas. This has been the first sustained tuna bite of the season…football season…with football and peanut tuna from 5-15 pounders ,but willing to eat sardines, squid, iron and feathers!

PHOTO 3: A bull of a fish! Chad Everett from Los Angeles holds a huge bull dorado caught north of La Paz in the dorado grounds that stretch between the islands and down the channel. Dorado fishing was a bit chameleon. One day they were touchy and the next day they charged the boats. However, there were some huge bulls like this one caught that tore into anglers and tackle.
PHOTO 4: Every year we go to the Portland Sportsman’s Show up there in Oregon. And every year, Jess Robinson (right) says he’s coming down. It’s been happening for about 5 years now. We’ll, he finally came down! This was his first day fishing at Las Arenas. His amigo Troy King is on the left. Although it rained a bit that day, these Oregon guys didn’t have a problem and got limits of tuna and a full day of action on several other varieties. Later in the week, they also got dorado as well.

PHOTO 5: Every year, our good amigo, Roger Van Steenkiste makes several trips to see us and always does well. In fact, he’s coming back again in September now that he just retired this year. Probably no one catches more than Roger. He won’t let them and he hangs tough no matter what. Here, he’s with his daughter Judy on her first trip her with him from Arizona. Over several days they hung dozens of tuna and topped that with lots of dorado as well.

PHOTO 6: Two happy fellas…Rick Hocking and his son, Carney, had several banner days or dorado fishing with our La Paz fleet. They fished with Captain Marcos Martinez (center).

PHOTO 7: Another one of our neat Oregon amigos is Wes Perkins. Wes holds up a nice pargo mulatto (barred pargo). These fish make great eating but are tough fighters trying to yank them out of the rocks. Although they get bigger, this is a trophy.

PHOTO 8: James and dad, Roger Hall show off some of the variety we’ve got lately. Dad holds up a pair of delicious pompano. James holds some dorado. James had a tussle with these dorado but could hardly predict the huge dorado bulls he got the next day!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Just turn up the sound and click here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnV35jAAUbw

THE FISHING REPORT

Yellowfin tuna finally put on a show for us this week in the first sustained tuna bite of the season. The fish weren’t big. Peanut and football sized tuna in the 5-15 pound class were the norm with some bigger fish on the fringe, but there was so much action no one really cared!

In between the foaming tuna with fish crashing all around the boats plus hungry bonito and breezing dorado, there was no shortage of action. If you’re a light tackle or flyfisher this was ideal fishing.

The fish were just south of Muertos Bay and our Las Arenas fleet has been on them most of the week, but so have boats from the East Cape. At first, I thought that the bait might be a problem. The sardines are TINY!!! I mean smaller than your little finger. They barely fit on a hook. However, the tuna rolled all over them. If you tossed a handful out of the panga, the tuna could not get to them fast enough and anything with a hook got inhaled.

Flurocarbon line in 20-25 pound test leaders seemed to have an edge, but it was hard to tell. Everyone was bit!

For our La Paz fleet, it was a bit more anemic. Maybe it had something to do with the weather. It was kinda of windy most days and cloudy too. Several times, we got hit with brief showers and tropical downpours that lasted several minutes as cells moved through.

However, it was strange. One day the dorado would simply explode on anything in the water. The next, captains and clients would tell me there were dorado and marlin all around the boat and the fish would sniff the baits and go bye-bye! Really frustrating.

Several spots were productive. Despite the occasional slow day, most guys fish more than one day so even if there was a slow day, the next day probably made up for it. Find the right paddy or high spot and you could be done early. Our friend Coach Donnie Rhea had two days where they were fully loaded and plugged with dorado by 10 a.m. One-stop dorado shopping!

However even on the slow days for our La Paz Fleet, there were several HUGE bulls caught. We got a number of fish in the 40-50 pound class that fought anglers to exhaustion with battles lasting over an hour. On two occasions, dorado ripped line faster than the boats could turn and the anglers got spooled!

Will keep you posted!

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://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: , 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.”

Read Full Post »