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Archive for March, 2009

Posted in Uncategorized on March 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Yellowtail season is on. Nice forkies like these held by Gary Palese and Bob Robbins from Arizona are eating sardines, mackerel and heavy iron fished on the yo-yo. There’s a number of hot spots. See below. Not all days, unfortunately, are as flat as what you see here. Winds keep being stubborn.

PHOTO 2: Angela Farrell hung this nice Cerralvo Island yellowtail on live bait. Angela has a knack for big fish whenever she comes to La Paz. She took this one on her mini Whopper Stopper rod and Penn 4/0 with 40 pound test.
YELLOWTAIL STILL SOLID EVEN AS WIND BLOW BUT INSHORE BITES PRODUCE BIG CABRILLA, SIERRA, PARGO and EVEN SOME DORADO!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of March 22-29, 2009
The bite has been pretty good. It would have been better if the winds didn’t kick in. It was pretty fierce a few days, but the guys who hung in even during the blustery days got into a nice jag of quality yellowtail in the 15-40 pound class. Mackerel and caballitos were best north of town around Espiritu Santo Island, north Cerralvo and El Bajo Seamount. For those who know how…yo yo heavy iron got the largest fish. Blue and white and scrambled egg patterns were hot tickets.

For our anglers on the Las Arenas/ Muertos side, a nice mix of yellowtail, pargo, sierra, bonito and two days when dorado showed up! Sardines were the best bet. Surprisingly large number or big cabrilla. Biggest problem were the number of pelicans and seagulls marauding the fly-lined baits. Some of the anglers went to trolling small crank baits and were able to avoid the birds and put good numbers of legal cabrilla aboard. But, overall, a good mix of fish for our Las Arenas boats whereas our La Paz boats concentrated largely on yellowtail and pargo/cabrilla.

There were some hints of big solo tuna at the north end of Cerralvo Island, but when we checked it out, there was nothing there. This is the 3rd or 4th time the fish came up briefly for a boat or two but then went deep again when the fleet went to check it out. Just never know. Have to be at the right place at the right time.
Also, some reports of early season (real early!) billfish cruising around already, but not biting. This bears keeping an eye out. To the south of us around Cabo San Lucas, they’ve had the best marlin bite in the last few decades and normally, that body of fish starts to move up into the Sea of Cortez and our waters as the ocean warms. Maybe they are early this year! Normally, our billfish don’t show up until late spring.
We’ll keep an eye out!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate
“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 March 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: These are the type of fish that made El Bajo famous! Bill Evans recently retired to La Paz to do just this…fish his brains out! The waters laid flat, the fish came to eat and Bill got into some nice grade yellowtail like this awesome fish!

PHOTO 2: This is just so classic. The bent rod on flat water with yellowtail under the boat. That’s northern Espiritu Santo Island in the distance just north of La Paz. The waters don’t always look like this during the spring, but when they do, time to get out. Bill Evans had a great day on the water.

PHOTO 3: We just came off 3 months on the road doing all the fishing and hunting shows. Every now and then as we criss-cross the states you come across some signs that are just too funny to pass up. We drove past this “motel” in Baker CA. It’s just WRONG on so many levels! Read all the signs! Look at the picture! No big rigs allowed except for deliveries! By the way…the motel didn’t have any windows. Only doors! Too funny! There’s probably a perfectly good story behind this… It’s on the way to Vegas. Lots of you have passed through. Interestingly, it’s right across from the famous “Mad Greek Restaurant.” Best strawberry shakes around!

PHOTO 4: Our last stop on the tour was Salt Lake City. Wow…great gas prices!
YELLOWTAIL BITE BUT NOT SO EASY TO PUT THEM INTO THE BOATS!!!
The La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of March 22, 2009
More yellowtail this week, although not as many. That, however, might have been a function of the fact that there weren’t many anglers out this week, but also, some of the fish were thick, mean and strong and there were more fish lost than put in the boat! These fish are not only tough, but when you get into the 25-40 pound fish and surround them with rocks, reef and other structure, the fish has the edge. Put that up with the aspect that many anglers just don’t know what a strong fish can do and more-often-than-not, the fish wins! It’s one thing to hook a fish, it’s another to put that grumpy fish in the boat.
As one angler said this week, after losing two…”These ocean fish don’t nibble!” No, they don’t! They slam! What I see so often is an angler getting bit and then just hanging on as his or her elbows get slammed to the gunwale of the panga. They try to hold on instead of lifting and trying to turn the head of the fish. They fail to realize that the bottom isn’t that far away and that fish (this goes for pargo too) already has a head of steam when it hits and the first thing it’s gonna do is head down! Next thing is “zingpowie!” The line snaps…game over!

So, it’s deceiving when the fish counts are low. The truer tail is not how many were caught, but how many opportunities did you have that were lost? But all fun!

Like I alluded to…it’s the same with pargo. Big bruising fish, and like the yellowtail, they are structure oriented and probably even closer to the rocks. If you can’t turn them in that first run, well…they’ve got their momentum up already.

“Just got back from my 2 days fishing. I had a good time and some good success toward my multiple species goal. 8 new varieties including a good size Dogtooth Snapper on the last day, at the last hour, at the last minute. It was a wrap as soon as the Snapper was boated,” according to Nick Morenc who fished this week with us

Anyway…yes, pargo (snapper) in the shallower areas near drop offs and reefs. Yellowtail…from what we can tell…are in the deeper areas moving in the channels between the rocks. High spots too! Best areas are off Muertos Bay, the Las Arenas lighthouse, north Cerralvo Island and El Bajo Seamount.

Still lots of sierra in various spots. Cabrilla and yellow snapper were also in the mix. Several nice roosters were caught and released.

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate
“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 March 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Photo 1: Dave Harper, all the way from the chilly cold of Wyoming came out for a few days and got into a surprising bite of early season dorado. Check out this nice bull but also notice how close he is to shore and how calm the waters are! Dave hooked this on live bait. (Details below!)

Photo 2: Again…dorado in March? We usually don’t see these warm water guys until May or so, but Hilda Sexauer holds the proof with this young bull. Captain Jorge lends the assist.

PHOTO 3: Here’s Dave Harper again, but this time holding up a big yellowtail taken off Punta Perico. If the fish looks funny, it’s because it was subject to a sealion attack. The dog grabbed the fish, but they were able to chase it down and get the fish back losing only some yellowtail guts!

PHOTO 4: I keep getting asked what “sierra” look like. We’ll here you go. Nice rack of fish caught by John Diciccio and Sue Nielsen. These are great light tackle sportfish and make excellent eating. Top-of-the-line for ceviche!

PHOTO 5: Here’s John Dicicco and Captain Victor holding a fat yellowtail. This is typical of the type of big ones coming along right now. John has more details below.

PHOTO 6: Salt Lake City International Sportsman’s Show…last stop on the 2009 tour. Thanks to all of you who came out to all the shows! Headed home now to La Paz!
BIG YELLOWTAIL AND SURPRISING DORADO MARK THE WEEK’S BITE!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of March 8-14, 2009

Interesting week of fishing. A bit windy as might be expected this time of year, but again just an interesting mix of fish as well! Yellowtail are definitely here. I don’t think we’ve seen the full brunt yet, but in between punky 10-15 pounders there’s definitely homeguard mossbacks around in the 30-40 pound class. Best areas have been off Muertos Bay, Punta Perico then north of La Paz around the El Bajo Seamount and north Cerralvo Island. The fish eat the sardine bait, but if you can find the larger caballitos or mackerel, it’s like french fries in front of a kid! In the deeper areas, heavy iron fished yo-yo is also working. Scrambled egg and blue/white patterns work best. Wind like a madman until your arms fall off is the best way to get chewed! If you don’t crank hard you won’t get bit!

The other part of the fishing report is the dorado bite that started last week. Normally, we don’t see dorado this early. Normally, we get numbers like this when the waters start to warm up in a month or two. Sure, we’ll get the stray bite or two but we’ve had limits or near limits several days! Our bite has been rather close to shore too! Only about 100-200 yards off Perico rocks, but there’s also some fish outside by the inner buoys.

All-in-all…some exciting stuff happening. We’ll keep you posted.

Here’s some first-hand reports:

This is from Dave Harper who has his photo above with the dorado and yellowtail:

“We had a great time fishing with Jorge, as you heard, the first day was wide open for Dorado. I was not expecting that and we were pretty darned happy to have boated 15 dorado before 11:00!!! All three days were calm (?).

The next day I caught my first yellowtail, but only after a 15 minute battle with the fish, followed by a 20 minute tug of war with a sea lion!! It was only through the persistence of Jorge chasing after the sea lion when it surfaced and tiring it out that I got it back, and it was pretty much intact somehow. Pretty funny stuff. We also hooked 5 big pargo Lisa and were schooled by every one of them. Humbling. I am ready to battle those buggers again!!!”

From John Dicicco who also has his photo above with the big yellowtai:

“For what we were told is off season fishing, we did pretty>well: 2 Yellow Fin, 22 Sierra, 1 Pargo and about 45 Pelicans. Too>bad we couldn’t eat the Pelicans. We also lost 2 Yellow Tail and 2>Sierra. Breakfasts and Lunch on the fishing days were very good.>>We had several very good dinners but two that stood out were, El Jibe>in town and the best was Pichilngue Restaurant. It was the>best meals I think I have had in Mexico and in the top ten ever.>And not a bad view either.>>This beats hell out of Cabo. I hope it doesn’t change.”

Thanks, guys!

COMING TO BASS PRO SHOPS THIS FRIDAY

This Friday March 20th, I’ll be giving a seminar at the Bass Pro Shops theater in Rancho Cucamonga CA on extreme light tackle fishing in La Paz. It’s at 7 p.m. and this is geared towards an extreme light tackle fishing trip to La Paz in August. Come check it out! Promise not to heckle!

TAILHUNTER ROAD TOUR 2009

Final thanks to everyone who came to see us the last 3 months. Jill and I have been on the road over pretty much most of the Western U.S. Seven states and a lot of miles as we hit the big fishing shows in Sacramento, Denver, Portland, San Mateo (San Francisco), Phoenix, Long Beach and Salt Lake City. We had a great time and it was great to see so many old amigos! Thanks to all who stopped by and have a great 2009 fishing year! Now back home to La Paz and let’s get fishing again!

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate
“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 March 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Mitch Chavira and his 11-year-old son, Cole from the San Diego area never fail to do well when they fish La Paz. They say it’s better to be lucky and good but these two have both going for them and often put fish on board when everyone is just scratching around. Cole especially has often set the waters on fire. This past week when alot of other anglers were hiding from the winds, these two were out at El Bajo knocking out yellowtail on bait and iron. Check out some of these nice fat yellowtail.

PHOTO 2: Mitch Chavira with another fat forktail for the box. There’s more details below in our report, but Mitch said the wind was really kicking most days, but one day it just laid down flat and was epic.

PHOTO 3: Just one more day on the water. Cole and Mitch with another triple on yellowtail. They lost several others and also released other fish as well.

DID YOU SAY DORADO IN MARCH? BIG YELLOWTAIL TOO FOR LAS ARENAS AND LA PAZ BOATS IN BETWEEN WINDS

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for week of March 1-8, 2009

What a crazy week. I wouldn’t say it was fantastic fishing, but there were some fantastic bites here and there as things certainl warmed up on the waters!

Big yellowtail were in the counts again with 20-30 pound fish rolling around not too far out of Muertos Bay and Punta Perico. But we are supposed to be catching yellowtail right now. It’s that time of the year. We get yellowtail this time of year. But, here’s the surprise…in that same area schools of dorado showed up! That’s right. Dorado are normally warm water fish. However, schools of punky 8-15 pound fish came up to bite. That could only mean that there’s some fingers of warm water moving around. These fish were hungry and ready to bite! We normally do not see these fish until at least late April or May. We’ll keep you posted! There were also some reliable reports of dorado just outside at the buoys as well!! What’s up with that? No one is complaining!

Another nice surprise was that north of town, despite strong winds we’re finally seeing some activity as well. If you can brave the rough water and breezes, there are some good windows of opportunity finally opening up. San Diego residents, Mitch Chavira and his 11-year-old-son, Cole, who have successfully fished La Paz for many years got into some great yellowtail fishing especially at the El Bajo Seamount using bait and iron. According to Mitch:

“We had to work hard to get fish as the wind was blowing and had the bite pretty shut down. We did get fish every day and our last day at El Bajo was epic as the wind finally laid off. They really wanted the iron! One guy had to stay dedicated to the yo yo which got em going and allowed us to get em with surface iron and bait as well. We boated three, released a couple at the gaff and lost a few to the rocks. It was a hoot! Man they pull so much harder in the deeper water! We had our drags buttoned all the way down. Cole now 11 yrs old was really man handling these fish! Made the ol man proud.”

Just before posting this, we got more reports of a jag of big pargo that came up on the east side of the island! These were the nice dogtooth and mullet snapper with fish up to 40 pounds. They came. The ravaged. They went down! Wow….things are perking up!!!

PRINT MEXICAN FISHING LICENSES NOW ONLINE!

More big news…

YOU CAN NOW GET YOUR MEXICAN FISHING PERMITS ONLINE! It’s about time! You have no idea what a pain-in-the-keister it is getting your Mexican fishing licenses here in Mexico. Talk about bureaucratic B.S.! (I can’t say what I really think because Mexican officials read my postings!) But, it’s not like walking into your local Wal-Mart and paying your money. Five minutes later you walk out with your fishing license! In Mexico, it takes us 2-4 days to have a fishing license for one of our clients.

However, now, using your credit card you can actually do everything on the internet and be ready to get bent! Here’s the link to keep handy: Click these. http://www.bestbajafishing.org/ or http://www.discoverbajacaliforina.com/

I love technology!

LAST STOP ON 2009 TAILHUNTER TOUR!

We’ll after 3 months, we’re finally headed to our last round up on the Tailhunter Tour for 2009. It’s been awesome to see so many amigos….San Mateo, Sacramento, Denver, Portland, Phoenix, Long Beach and now…Salt Lake City. Going out with a bang at one of our favorite venues. The International Sportsmen’s Expo will be from Thursday to Sunday this week, March 12-15 at the Expo hall in Sandy. Great facility built for the Olympics. Hope to see you this week!

That’s our story
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Phone: (626) 333-3355

FAX: (626) 333-0115Cell: (626) 278-1585

Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“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 March 1, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Roosterfish appear to have shown up a tad early this year, but Las Arenas isn’t called the roosterfish capital of the world for nothing. Captain Jorge hosts a nice pez gallos taken south of Muertos Bay on live bait. Notice how close to shore he is. The fish was released.

PHOTO 2: Hotel Perla, one of La Paz most historic hotels on the waterfront has been added to the Tailhunter list of lodgings for our fishing clients who prefer to stay downtown in La Paz.

PHOTO 3: Hotel Perla is now available for our La Paz clients who prefer to stay downtown on the waterfront area close to restaurants and shops now that Hotel Los Arcos has been closed.

PHOTO 4: The cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium where the NFL Cardinals play indoors. We just spent the week there for the International Sportsmen’s Show. Our booth was right at ground level and this photo shows the indoor stadium before we all set up. Had a great time in the town! Thanks to everyone who came by and said hi!

PHOTO 5: We got a chance to sneak out behind the scenes at the football stadium and came upon a secret locker room down a dark hallway where we probably should not have been!

MORE LARGE YELLOWTAIL MARK MIXED BAG OF FISH THIS PAST WEEK!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 22-28, 2009

The winds last week brought up some cold green waters that put off the fishing bite the early part of the week, but it seemed to improve as the week went by. Not many anglers out to get a really good read on the bite, but we did get some smaller yellowtail in the 10-15 pound class close to shore. As the week went on, we saw some of the larger models show up in the 25-35 pound class. Again, thoug, it’s really hard to get good feel on this to know if there’s a lot of fish in the area or they’re just breezing through and just the vanguard of the larger bite still coming. Still, it’s encouraging and everyone got fish this week. There just weren’t a lot of folks on the water, but this coming week, we’ll have more boats out with spring break here so we’ll hopefully have a better read on this for you.

Still… Pargo and roosterfish are still around and big big bonito have been great fun as well. Sierra schools keep coming in and out and when they hit…it can be bendo bendo bendo as they rip into the lines non-stop. Bait is fine. Hopefully, the winds will stay down so the water temps can get back to normal.

HOTEL PERLA NOW ON OUR ROSTER!

With the unfortunate closing of the historic Hotel Los Arcos earlier in the year, we needed to have another resort property for our clients who wanted to stay downtown on the waterfront. We’re happy to announce that we’re now able to lodge our fishing clients in the equally historic Hotel Perla. Built in 1940, the Hotel Perla has been a great destination right in the heart of the La Paz waterfront with walking distance to shops, restaurants and nightlife. Let us know if we can set you up. As usual, depending on our fishing, we’ll pick you up right there each day to get you on the water. We still have our other great hotels as well, La Concha Beach Resort and Hotel Marina.

FRED HALL FISHING AND BOAT SHOW THIS WEEK!

It’s that time again. The big circus is coming to town. The Fred Hall Fishing and Boating Show at the Long Beach Convention Center March 4-8 (Wednesday to Saturday) rolls in. Come see us! This is the big one so come early. We’ll be in our usual spot in the tackle section right next to Izorline. Look for the booth with the palapa roof overhead!

We’re just leaving our ISE show in Phoenix. What a great show. Great to see so many old amigos and clients and what an outsanding facility. We were actually on the football field at ground level in Cardinals Football stadium. We had never done the Phoenix show before and had a great time. Thanks to everyone who came by to say hi.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate
“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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