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Archive for September, 2008

Posted in Uncategorized on September 27, 2008| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: “She outfished me!” laughed Tom Bartlett as he helped wife, Diane, hoist her bull dorado for the camera. It was a great week for dorado with limits or near limits most days!

GREAT WEEK FOR DORADO FISHING HIGHLIGHTED BY THE GIANT SQUID FINALLY SHOWING UP!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Sept. 20-27, 2008

PHOTO 2: The size of the fish doubled this week for the dorado catch. Standing on Las Arenas Beach, Jim Andrews from S.California holds up a beauty he got flylining live bait just offshore.

PHOTO 3: Patrick Tomyoy really wanted to catch a marlin. He had no idea what he was in for. He was fishing for dorado with 25 pound test when this big striped marlin whacked him. With the help of Captain Miguel, he fought the fish for almost 4 hours north of La Paz. We don’t often target billfish although we surely have our share in our waters, but not much you can do when one of the big boys eats your little bait. An epic battle!
PHOTO 4: These guys always do well. Our good amigos, Jeff Sakuda and Criag Fuschino hold a pair of winners. Jeff holds one of the few yellowfin tuna we got this week and Craig holds the bull dorado. The next day, both amigos each got a wahoo to cap things off.

PHOTO 5: Not many tuna taken this week, but but ones that were were closer to 20 pounds than previous week like this one held by Johnny Wong from Pasadena CA

PHOTO 6: Lionel Frailey from Arizona always wanted to get a roosterfish. He succeeded! The roosterfish are still along the areas beachs ranging up to 50-60 pounds. This one was released.

PHOTO 7: Ladies in da house with fish! Roseanne Ishihiro from Hawaii was on her first trip. Marianne Sugawara from Cypress CA makes it down several times a year. The dorado bit nicely for the ladies!
PHOTO 8: Alex Molina came down with a pack of his firemen buddies and he displays one of the good looking dorado caught off La Paz waters this past week.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Turn up the sound and click the link to see some of the fishing clips from this past week:
THE FISHING REPORT

What a week! Dorado! Dorado! (And more dorado!). Not a whole lot of BIG fish, but there was generally now shortage of action for 10-20 pounders with limits of fish the rule rather than the exception. There were a few bulls in the 30-40 pound class, but they were fewer and far between Suffice to say that at least the fish were bigger this week than last and there were a few days this week when the boats came back early or simply stopped fishing the dorado well before noon because anglers simply had too much; got bored with too many dorado; or wanted to hunt other species. All of these are GOOD things which meant lots of action and fillets for the ice chests.

Overall, I’d have to say that our Las Arenas fleet did better than our La Paz fleet, but our La Paz boats weren’t far behind.

Our Las Arenas boats ran into several days of the giant squid (20-60 pound beasts to start the day!) and using them chummed schools of hungry dorado into a frenzy towards the boats. After that the schools would eat live bait, chunked squid, trolled bonito, chunked bonito, trolled feathers…and even a piece of lunch burrito that one angler dropped over board in the middle of the bite and had two dorado race to explode on the toritllas! Actually, the larger problem has been reminding anglers and captains to RELEASE more fish, especially the smaller and female fish! As the week went on, I think anglers got the clue as we heard stories and saw more fish getting tossed back.

But a word about these squid. These are the big boys everyone keeps asking about. Imagine starting the day winching up one of these creatures from deep water when the sun is climbing higher and the humidity is already 80 percent and the captain tells you that you need several of these for bait! As one guy said, “It was like pulling a refrigerator up the side of a building with a string!” But all had fun. If you can, bring the BIG heavy squid jigs with you!

Roosterfish were sporadic but still on the beaches. Tuna would pop up and bite then go down fast. We had 5 or 6 wahoo biters, but only 2 landed at the south end of Cerralvo Island.

For our La Paz fleet, the bite was scattered, but centered generally between the islands. The dorado were a touch larger than their Las Arenas counterparts and the largest dorado of the week came from our La Paz boats. We had a few marlin hooked up and released as well. There were stories of tuna breaking at the north end of Cerralvo Island, but every boat that chased them there never found the fish.

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
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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Posted in Uncategorized on September 20, 2008| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Tuomas Holmberg from Los Angeles with one of the larger dorado taken this week. We scaled it at 41 pounds taken on a sardine in Bahia Ventana. There were alot of dorado this past week, but very few approaching this trophy sized beast!

DORADO GO ON THE RIP JOINED BY YELLOWFIN TUNA THIS PAST WEEK. BIG ROOSTERS ALSO STEP UP!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of Sept 14-20, 2008

PHOTO 2: Big dorado are the norm in the fall here in La Paz, but this past week, there weren’t many big ones at all. However, Frank Venesca holds a gem taken while fishing with our La Paz fleet north of the city.

PHOTO 3: Some guys just got the luck! Anthony Avila, Jr. came down on his first trip. Not only does he get his first billfish…a sail…but he also gets a wahoo right off the bat on his first day on the water. Go figure! Great fish. Guys come for decades and never get a sniff of one of these. Anthony is gonna get spoiled.

PHOTO 4: Goofy shots are always the best. These guys just had too much fun. From left to right holding dorado at Las Arenas Beach is Wes “Big Kahuna” Howard, Anthony Gallardo, Jorge Villegas and Ruben Gallardo, all from the Los Angeles area.
PHOTO 5: Every few days this past week, the tuna went strong to the baits. These yellowfin were 12-20 pounders. The fish also moved closer just off the old Hotel Las Arenas south to Muertos Bay. Here, Don Nose and Mark Lee heft a few tuna that ended up in their box along with a mystery dorado!

PHOTO 6: Funny thing about the tuna this past week. The smaller your bait, the better the yellowfin tuna liked them! Bigger baits caught dorado. Smaller baits caught tuna. Johnny Wong from Pasadena CA and Stever O’Rourke ripped into the tuna schools with my Las Arenas fleet.
PHOTO 7: It was a good week for roosters. The big boys were right there in the shallow waters. True to it’s reputation, there’s a reason why Las Arenas is known as the “Roosterfish Capital World.” Steve Tomata and Ray Lim were fishing with us for the first time and got a double hookup on these two 35 pounders not too far from the Las Arenas lighthouse close to shore.

PHOTO 8: Randy Lee is from Los Angeles. Bruce Dodge is from another planet. (Gotcha Bruce!) and two of the nicest and funniest guys when they come down here. Bruced hooked this nice sailfish. There were quite a few billfish around feeding in the bait schools and on the samller dorado, tuna and bonito.
PHOTO 9: Hector Chavez from Salinas CA had a good trip with us. Got his first roosterfish as well as his first dorado on his first time fishing…ever. This 40 pound rooster ate a slow trolled live bait off Las Arenas Point.

PHOTO 9: My good buddy, Pablo Bejarano from Rosarito Beach, Baja Norte, made the report this week with this nice dorado. Congratulations, Pablo. This young man can really dance too. We put a few tacos into him one night and he stopped the crowd in the restaurant when he decided to show off his footwork!

PHOTO 10: Gotta love this photo. It’s our Dave Crawford from Texas who dodged Hurricane Ike to come play in La Paz. Along with his amigo, Larry Daniels, they had a great day on the dorado and yellowfin tuna.
PHOTO 11: Shout out from Jorge Villegas showing off one of many schoolie dorado he racked up fishing two day with our Las Arenas fleet. The dorado were sometimes so thick you could “free gaff” them said one of our anglers.

PHOTO 12: Keeping it tight, Mark Avila, Anthony Avila, Manny Avila, Manny Jr. Frank Venesca and Anthony Avila, Jr. gather around a big mess of fish headed to someone’s barbecue.

PHOTO 13: Brad, Jeff and Greg Smith (they’re brothers!) and amigo, Frank Villa all came from northern California and ran into a mess of yellowfin tuna and dorado.

PHOTO 14: Pete Mason had quite a day tangling with the big roosters. Talk about grand slamming! Pete got a 34 pounder, 50 pounder and this 62 pound rooster. All fish released.
PHOTO 15: Not a big week for wahoo, but Brian Kam from the San Francisco Bay area, busted up this one near the south end of Cerralvo Island.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Turn up the sound and click this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkJn1ut6RCI
THE FISHING REPORT
Wow…what a week. It had it’s ups-and-down, but overall, I’d have to say it was a pretty darned good week of fishing down here! There were some slow moments, but I think for most guys who fished at least 2-3 days, they had some great action!

In fact, some guys had some outstanding trips…trips of a lifetime. Many personal best or heaviest fish were caught. Or, many guys got their first tuna, wahoo, marlin, or dorado. It was good to see the smiles. For instance, Patrick Tomyoy fought a 150 pound black marlin close to 4 hours on 25 pound test. Lionel Frailey, Ray Lim, Steve Tomata, Hector Chavez got their first roosters and all of them were trophy fish! Anthony Avila, Jr, got his first wahoo AND his first sailfish. I can’t even name all the guys how pulled on their first tuna this week.

But that’s how it went.

Far and away, the most prevailant catch were the dorado. Some time they were like little punks everywhere. They were some moments they were so close to the boats and so thick, guys were trying to free-gaff them! Both our La Paz and Las Arenas Fleets got into the dorado. There were more fish on the Las Arenas side, but the larger bulls were caught by my La Paz boats.

The biggest problem was actually the lack of larger fish. It seemed like the fish gods put a 10 pound dorado into a copy machine and pressed “copy!” There were so many fish that looked exactly alike! It was rare to get any fish over 20 pounds or even 15 pounds although we did have a few nice bulls to put in the boxes (see the photos). But, I could have used a few more of those. Still, there was no real shortage of the streaky spring-time dorado. Usually, this time of the year, the dorado are more like 20-50 pounders. They must be out here somewhere!

As for other species, we had a nice surprise of tuna for my Las Arenas fleet in the area of Punta Perrico and Bahia de Los Muertos. Not far from shore at all and the fish went 10-20 pounds. A few days every boat had about 5-10 of the fish hooked. A few other days, the tuna went to ground and only a handful of tuna were brought to gaff. However, some boats hooked tuna they COULD NOT STOP!!! So some of the bigger models appear to have moved into the area.

In addition to the tuna and dorado, it was a pretty good week for roosterfish too. Funny thing. Some days we couldn’t get a sniff from the roosters. The next day when no one really wented them, they were THICK!!! Small ones…medium…sized…large models! Just depended where you were fishing. Check out the photos above. These are the ones that were not released. Quite a few others were dropped or let go to get even bigger. The largest of the fish this week were 50-60 pound brutes.

For other stuff…a few wahoo were yanked and spanked ,but more often it was the other way around. The anglers lost the fish! A few billfish were caught while guys were trying to fish dorado or tuna and sierra in the bay indicate to me that there’s some cooler water moving in.

We’ll keep you posted!

That’s our story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
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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Posted in Uncategorized on September 14, 2008| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Manny Gonzalez had never fished before. He had never even had a fishing rod in his hand. He casts his first bait and hooks this good looking dorado bull fishing just a hundred yards from where he is standing for this photo at Punta Arenas Beach. Dorado were the mainstay of the catch this week.

TROPICAL STORM LOWELL PINCHES THE FISHING A BIT WITH A FEW HOURS OF HEAVY RAIN AND ALOT OF ANXIETY BUT DORADO STILL TRY TO DO THEIR PART

LA PAZ/ LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK OF SEPT 7-13, 2008

PHOTO 2: Anthony Garrett was on his first trip down to see us and had a good time. (Right Anthony?) He’s holding a few of his first-day dorado here that he got on live bait off Punta Perico.
PHOTO 3: A pair of nice dorado for Brian Kam who came from the San Francisco Bay area.

PHOTO 4: Two of the funnest folks we’ve had in a long time are John and Dolores Ehler from Denver Colorado standing here with Captain Pancho from our Las Arenas fleet. Check out the dorado and yellowfin tuna in front of them. There weren’t many tuna this week. They got elusive on us again, but there were a few. The key to them was the lightest line you dare to use!
PHOTO 5: Ian Boyd, Dave Boyd, Jeff Gilbertson and Dave Stoller do a group pose with dorado at Las Arenas Beach. Dave has a roosterfish he’s cradling. (See below)

PHOTO 6: Dave Boyd wanted a rooster and got this trophy 33 pounder on live bait in shallow water off Punta Arenas. Attempts to revive the fish weren’t successful, but the meat was donated. There are still quite a few roosters around. You either find some loners like this one with the larger fish going 30-70 pounds or you hit schools of smaller fun 10 pounders.

THE FISHNG REPORT

I guess the story this week was Tropical Storm Lowell mucking things up. Like most storms at this time of year, it comes out of nowhere. One moment, you’re looking at all the 5 day forecasts and the next, it suddenly changes and shows 5 days of storms on the horizon. Our biggest concern, of course, is whether it becomes a hurricane or not. Lowell did not get bigger and badder. When all was said and done, it messed with the fishing a bit and dropped some heavy rain for a few hours. It caused the port captain to shut down the port for the most of a day. That forced us to cancel the boats for one day. That was kind of it. We feel badly for the guys who can’t fish that day, but most made good use of it…staying out later the night before to enjoy the town then getting a chance to sleep in the next day and have real breakfasts!

So, bottom line…Lowell was more a big inconvenience than an actual emergency.

As for the fishing, before the storm, we had a fairly nice bite of dorado going on. Both our fleets at Las Arenas and La Paz got into maybe 3-8 dorado per boat per day with a mix of bonito, and the occasional tuna. On the La Paz side, our boats got primarily dorado but also got to raise a few marlin and sailfish.

Most of the variety fish were caught on the Las Arenas side by our other fleet. A few tuna got into the counts with the dorado, but we got a few wahoo biters, some sailfish and pargo. Plus, our failsafe, roosterfish were pretty much good to have along the shorelines. It wasn’t great fishing, but it wasn’t bad either. Just kinda of mixed up and unpredictable because of the storm.

After the storm, it seemed to get a bit better everyday, but at the time of writing this, it’s still a bit early to say what’s up. We’ll keep you posted. My suggestions if you’re coming down fishing is to go with the flow. Don’t be “species specific.” Fish for what’s there. Don’t shoot for the homerun. The captains all want to catch fish so let them put you on the bite and you’ll have fun. By far, the boats this past week that didn’t focus on a particular species got the most bites and had the best times.

ALASKA STATE CLIENTS

If you’re one of our Alaskan clients, Alaska Airlines has some incredible fares and companion fare discounts if you book before Oct. 13th for a trip down here in 2009. Check it out. Some of the companion fares are as low as 50 dollars.

ALASKA AIRLINES FLIERS
This past week, Alaska Airlines started using Horizon Air (owned by Alaska Air) to start flying down here to La Paz. If you’re booked on Alaska to fly down here, check your schedule to make sure it’s the same flight. It may have changed slightly . Also, the Horizon planes are smaller than the Alaska planes so they’re alot tighter on weight restrictions and luggage sizes. Get there early to your terminal if you’re bringing gear with you!

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
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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Posted in Uncategorized on September 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: The tuna are back!!! Bigger and stronger. South of Las Arenas, we located the tuna schools again and hit some larger 20 and 25 pounders held by Lyndon Johnson and Jack Minter from California

TUNA FOUND AGAIN WITH DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH TO START THE MONTH!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of Aug 31 to Sept. 6, 2008

PHOTO 2: Shelley and Sherm McDonnell all the way from chilly Green River, Wyoming hold some of the dorado they got fishing light tackle with our Las Arenas fleet. There weren’t alot of big dorado this week, but the numbers were nice!

PHOTO 3: Left to right…Serge Douzjian, Jamie Smith, Dan Estandia, and Greg Voudouris, hold up a few of the fish they got. Jamie is holding up a nice cabrilla (seabass) and Greg holds onto his snapper.

PHOTO 4: Nice lineup! Bottom row left to right: Nick Voudouris, Avo Oughourian, Toros Marganian. Back row left to right: Chris Greanias, Capt. Steve Greanias, Johnny Gouma, Serge Douzjian, Andre Kerian, Danny Estandia, Jamie Smith, Robert Marganian with some of the dorado they nailed one day fishing out with our Las Areanas fleet.
PHOTO 5: Tim Gudeneau is holding up some of his yellowfin tuna next to Don Baker. Both are from the Orange Co. area of S.California. Tim has been telling me for years about coming down and finally made it. He got his first dorado and his first tuna this day and you can see him eat the traditional heart of his tuna if you click the video clip above. Rookies believe anything!

PHOTO 6: Oregonians from Portland, Charlie Pongrantz and Brent Lakey got a box of these dorado on their first day fishing with us. They were off the Arenas lighthouse.
PHOTO 7: Makelle Catmull and Kent Christensen from Utah won this trip on a contest and got into the yellowfin tuna this week as well.
PHOTO 8: Too nice of a photo to ignore. Chris Greanias holds up a pretty permit. These guys roam the shores foraging and make great inshore light tackle sport as well as great eating.

PHOTO 9: One of the better dorado this past week was taken by Avo Oughourian, This nice bull was taken while Avo was fishing with our La Paz Fleet.

The WEEKLY VIDEO CLIP

Click the link and see the dorado and tuna as well as Tim Gudeneau of Mission Viejo CA eat the heart of his first tuna as per “tradition!” Turn up the sound!

Click this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfu0zVJsBUY

The FISHING REPORT

Fishing hasn’t exactly come roaring back, but I’m sure not hearing a lot of complaints. After the storm almost two weeks ago, fishing got sticky but better day-by-day. It still isn’t on fire, but darn there sure is a lot of action to be had! So, I’d have to say fishing isn’t too bad after all!

No one is going home without fish! I”ll tell you that much. And everyone is having a good time. Probably the biggest news is that our Las Arenas fleet seemed to have found the tuna schools again south of Las Arenas and this time the fish have some legit 25 pounders in there. For a lot of anglers…including a bunch of first timers…you mix in 3, 4, 5 or 6 of these hard-charging yellowfin…add in about a dozen 15 pound bonito. Throw in some pesky needlefish and maybe a handful or several dorado…and you come back to the beach just beat up to shreds! I mean it! Oh…and let’s not forget 100 degree sunshine too! Takes a lot out of anyone our there. We have to keep reminding anglers that drinking beer out there on the water is fun and part of the whole ambience of fishing here in Mexico, but YOU MUST DRINK WATER or you will cook your brains right out’ve your head! Wear a hat. Put on the sunscreen. Common sense!

Anyway, yup…the tuna came on nicely. There’s also dorado breezers too. Not many big ones, but enough to get flashes of color in the fish box. Live bait. Stripped bait. Fresh dead bait and tuna feathers are working well. Don’t forget 25 pound flurocarbon line too! That’s a big plus!

For our La Paz Fleet…the dorado were definitely here this past week. But some days you find the spot and other day, it’s picky. Most of the boats got 3-7 dorado each day out’ve La Paz. Not many big bulls but most fish were 10-15 pounds with some 25 pounders rounding it out. Several big bulls were hooked, but not many landed. Roosterfish along the shores and pargo inside the rocks have been a great change-up!

If you’re flying Alaska the next few weeks, you know that Horizon is now the new carrier. Horizon is owned by Alaska so it’s not a big deal. However, the Horizon jets are smaller. Instead of 5 seats in each row, there’s only 3 seats in each row. Space is limited in the cargo hold too. So, get there early if you’re bringing a lot of gear. Just an FYI!

That’s our story
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
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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