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Archive for April, 2009

Posted in Uncategorized on April 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: San Diegans Matt Muckerman and Mike McFeely started their trip out to Muertos Bay with a nice little grand slam of some dorado, cabrilla( seabass) and a really nice dog tooth snapper. Look carefully at the photo. In the background, Tom Staples puts a liplock on a dorado while Captain Archangel takes the Kodak moment!

PHOTO 2: There’s such a nice mix of fish possible right now. The waters are transitioning between winter/ spring/summer so the fishing reflects that. On the tailgate, there’s dorado, sierrra, cabrilla, and amberjack ready to be filleted! These fish were all caught on live bait taken no further out that 100 yards from the beach.

PHOTO 3: Al Tesoro comes down twice a year and loves the inshore species. This particular day he spanked the sierra big time. These are excellent light tackle fish and even better on the table! Al shows off a trigger fish to be made into ceviche and there’s also a seabass (cabrilla) trying to hide in the stack of sierra.

PHOTO 4: From Denver area, Bill Blount on the right brought his boys down to escape the recent snows of Colorado. Nice dorado for the day given it’s still springtime! Dorado have moved into the area and perhaps is a vanguard of a really good dorado season.

PHOTO 5: Just a fun photo of our Captain Armando. I saw this huge plastic Pacifico bottle in his panga and couldn’t help but laugh. He says he broke his thermos so he keeps his drinking water in it. Looks really funny when you see him drinking out of it. I imagine at one time it had beer because the street vendors sell these during the city carnivale!

PHOTO 6: Yes…the MAN is on the loose. They’re checking licenses more often these days. They’re being very nice and professional about it, but if you are at all on a fishing boat, even if you are not fishing, you’re required to have a license. It’s a pain in the butt to get licenses here in La Paz…howver…Recently, we’ve been named as one of the 5 places in La Paz that will be selling licenses directly to clients.

BIG YELLOWTAIL, ROOSTERFISH AND JAGS OF DORADO ROLL INTO ANGLERS!

The La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of April 19-26, 2009

First off, if you tried to e-mail me this week, apologies if you couldn’t reach me or I didn’t respond right away. We had some bugs in the new system we’re installing. For future reference, here’s my new e-mail address www.riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

Let’s talk fishing…

A wacky wacky week here. We had a little bit of everything it seems. No shortage of variety at all. Take a look at the pictures for a small sample of what could be caught on a given day!

Our La Paz fleet again struggled with a few days of wind which made it either hard to fish or else made it difficult to fish the mackerel which are the larger baits preferred by the big yellowtail out at the islands. However, on the day when the bait and wind were aligned, wow…some big beefy fish to be had.

In addition to 30-40 pound yellowtail, there were also some big cabrilla, pargo as well as some 30-60 pound roosterfish…clearly the largest roosters we’ve seen so far this season. As I said, the larger baits were the ticket, but sardines were available and were also effective, but to a lesser degree.

For our Las Arenas/Muertos Fleet, well…dorado were clearly here! Some times, the bite was literally only hards from the shore and the fish would slam into the fleet while guys were fishing in 20 feet of water! Other times the mahi were found outside at the buoys. Near the south end of Cerralvo, spots of wahool were seen and several hooked and lost. As well, again rumors or fast break tuna were seen moving with the dolphin, but not slowing down enough to jump on them.

Inshore, the roosters (between 5 and 30 pounds), big jack crevalle and pompano tore up the guys near the beaches. In the rocks, pargo liso and dog tooth snapper (cubera snapper) were on the hunt and were willing to bite but NOT ready to be dragged to the boat so we lost quite a few of those beasts this week. As well, mix in good numbers of sierra, snapper, and cabrilla as well as smaller yellowtail, rainbow runners, amberjack and bonito and it made for an action-packed day!

Check out this week’s video clip!

TAILHUNTER IS NOW AN AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR LICENSES

By the way, Tailunter International is now an authorized dealer to sell fishing licenses. It’s a pain in the butt to get licenses if you have ever tried in Mexico, but now, we can sell them direct!

Have a great week! That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill
Tailhunter International

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Posted in Uncategorized on April 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Cole Chavira from the San Diego area has been in our reports probably more than anyone over the years. This young man is GOOD! He’s often got big fish in his hands and here he holds an incredible and rare Baja Grouper. On top of it all, knowing their scarcity, he released the fish! Caught north of La Paz near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 2: No stranger to La Paz fishing, my amigo, Charlie “Stix” McGhee has fished with us many times and I’ve done quite a few long range trips with him also. Not many better! He holds up a quality La Paz yellowtail here while standing on the beach at Balandra. Charlie lives in Poway CA . Expect to see him here again in a few weeks when he comes back to La Paz for our Cabin Fever Classic.

PHOTO 3: Mitch Chavira comes down about 3 times a year. I’ve taken so many pictures of him over the time he’s one of our regular poster boys. He not only catches fish, but he looks good doing it too! He got this beast of an amberjack fishing north of La Paz while yo-yo-ing blue and white iron! Amberjack can get up to 100 pounds in our waters and are the big cousin to yellowtail.

PHOTO 4: Robinson Whitaker came all the way from Gainesville GA where he attends a military academy to come fishing with his dad. Check out the flat waters! They were able to get outside and get into some nice dorado with Captain Jorge including this nicer early season dorado.

PHOTO 5: You gotta love it! Eric Mikity from Chino CA rocked his first roosterfish this past week as well as some other fishing including dorado and got to scuba dive for the firs time as well. Great pose! He plans to come back with dad later this year and get his scuba certification with us now that he’s gotten a taste!

PHOTO 6: “There must have been 30 dorado around the boat!” said our buddy Rob McClean from S.California as he and his sister, girlfriend and uncle tore into a big school of mahi just off Las Arenas. “We had to pull away from all these fish. There were too many. We told the captain to go inside and look for pargo. The dorado were too easy!”
MORE WIND AND SOME SURPRISE BIG FISH PACE THE WEEK
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 12-18, 2009

It’s hard to describe the fishing week. Everyone got fish, but some days were better than others. Some anglers (as you can see by the photos this week), got some real NICE fish. Some boats could be right next to others and slam fish after fish while the boat 30 yards away would have a slower day.

A lot right now depends on the weather. Winds are still irregular. In the span of a day, the wind can change several times in intensity as well as direction. That makes for some churned up water so consequently, most of our fishing is out of Muertos Bay. Those who did brave the stronger winds out of La Paz, got some BIG TIME slugger fish, but some days they were bounced all over the place. It just depended on the level of discomfort you were willing to handle!

Then, some days…it was flat flat flat! It’s just that time of year.

In addition to the weather, talent and experience had a lot to do with it as well. There’s a lot of easy fun fish around…sierra, roosters, cabrilla, smaller snapper, bonito…but the bad boys…the yellowtail, the bigger pargo liso and dog tooth snapper, the amberjack…it’s not like you jump in the boat and say, “I want to catch yellowtail and pargo today!” like you’re ordering up a Happy Meal at McDonald’s. These are tough fish. They got big because they know how to attack and fight. They’re not gonna just let you pull them into the boat and they have everything in their favor like rocks and reefs.

I had two guys come back one day grumbling because all they got were some bonito and some sierra and if you looked at their scores, it seemed like they had a so-so day. They weren’t very happy. However, I talked to my captain and he told me they lost 6 bigger pargo or yellowtail and just weren’t fast enough or strong enough to rip back on the fish. These are trophy fish. Dorado are nice. It’s easier to catch them because once they are hooked they don’t try to climb back down into a cave or something. They’re generally in bluer water with nothing but blue around them so you can fight them. Even pulling a 20-pound pargo to the boat takes well…for basically all the stars lined up in your favor!

Of course, then there is always the newbie rookie that gets 4 on his first day fishing and says, “What’s the big deal?” I guess that’s fishing!

Anyway, the old adage seems to have held true this week. Fewer fish but bigger fish were found by my La Paz anglers. (Yellowtail and Roosters) More fish and more variety were caught by my anglers that fish with our Las Arenas/Muertos Bay fleet. (Sierra, bonito, smaller yellowtail, cabrilla, snapper, pargo, dorado, roosterfish)

Bait has been fine, but there’s a lot of birds right now too making it a pain to slow troll with bait somedays. I would recommend that if you can, bring some smaller Rapala-type lures. They’re effective in trolling and getting down and away from the birds.

One thing to keep an eye on…the waters are REALLY warm! I”m not sure how much longer the yellowtail and other cool water fishes will be around. It’s starting to feel alot like late spring fishing already!

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones: from USA : 626-638-3383from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
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 April 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Waters got rough late in the week as winds kicked in over Easter weekend, but Bob “Gladiator Juice” Duncan of Santa Barbara went where other pangas didn’t want to go and was rewarded. He’s seriously bent her for almost 20 minutes when he dropped a live bait over the side. Study in intensity. Captain Jorge “Moscoron” looks on.

PHOTO 2: SCORE! Big yellowtail over the side. Using his mini- Whopper Stopper rod, Bob Duncan gets that yellowtail to gaff. Goofing, Jorge Romero from La Paz, our fishing buddy tried to stay anonymous. I think he was supposed to have been at work that day! Unfortunately, he’s now on the internet and his boss in La Paz reads the fishing reports!

PHOTO 3: Getting into the spirit of the weekend, Emily Duncan and dad, Bob, hold up a couple of nice sierra at Muertos Bay Beach. Sierra were thicker early in the week before the winds came up.

PHOTO 4: For the sheer joy of it all ! The smile from Christina Moreno, fishing for the first time, even though she grew up in La Paz, just beams, as does husband, Lance Cole. They had a nice day inshore with pargo and cabrilla and here she gets to find out that even little bonito pull hard!

PHOTO 5: Doesn’t get better than a big smile and a nice cabrilla from Christina Moreno of La Paz!

PHOTO 6: If you were willing to possibly get wet and blown around, there were still big yellowtail to be had. Jess Akeroth and Steve DiGuiseppe hoist some toad-sized slugger yellowtail taken while fishing out’ve La Paz north at the island.

PHOTO 7: Pargo city! Steve Di Guiseppe, Ross Martinez and Gabe Martinez hold up their day of pargo and cabrilla fishing when they headed north to Espiritu Island. They had 3 days of this kind of fishing. Steve is an attorney from Ventura Co. CA area and Gabe is an attorney from Las Vegas. I went to law school with both amigos. Dad, Ross Martinez, has an interesting history. He owned a gas station in Vegas that is now the site of the MGM Grand Hotel!

PHOTO 8: Fat yellowtail and big smiles for Gabe Martinez and dad, Ross Martinez of Las Vegas. The fish was taken out at El Bajo seamount.

PHOTO 10: OK…were’t not officially open yet, but we’re close! But we had a surprise birthday party for Jill at the FUBAR Cantina on the ground floor. Standing room only! Mariachis showed up and tequila and cerveza flowed. Incredible evening! We hope to be “officially open” this week!

PHOTO 11: We had a packed house. It was marked as a “private party” but people off the street just kept stopping in so we invited ’em on in! Great vibe. Great time. We’re excited about opening after more than 2 years of work.
VARIED WEEK OF FISHING MARKED BY SOME NICE HIGHLIGHTS AS WINDS AGAIN KICK IN!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for week of April 5-12, 2009

To be honest, it wasn’t a GREAT week of fishing, but some folks had a GREAT time! Does that make sense? The bite was so-so some days and winds came up late in the week, but those of our anglers who fished several days might have had a slow day here or there, but made up for it on other days.

It was a time-place issue. Right place at the right time with the correct currents and minimal wind. I’m not a big believer in the full-moon thing, but when you combine it with strong winds that kept shifting directions, high currents and quite a bit of spring break traffic, the bite wasn’t as good as it had been.

But…

EVERYONE still got fish! If you were willing to bust out north of town with my La Paz fleet, then there were big yellowtail, big pargo, cabrilla and roosters north around Cerralvo Island. The ticket, again was minimal winds and having the big baits like mackerel.

If you fish with my Las Arenas fleet, again…a lot of variety. Some of the guys early in the week were able to get out to the 88 bank and the outter buoys and got into some dorado that were incredible. Some 40 and 50 pound fish were logged in. Interestingly, there was FOG out there on the water too which was pretty eerie until the sun burned it off. How often do you see fog in Baja waters?

Inshore fishing produced smaller yellowtail plus a collection of sierra, jacks, roosterfish (some nice sized), bonito, pargo and cabrilla. I had some flyfisher this week that got beat up nicely by bonito and roosters and had a blast. The biggest problem were the huge numbers or pelicans and other birds. Sheesh…they hit almost every bait that hit the water.

Jill and I were on the water Saturday…the windiest day of the week. After so many bird incidents, we switched over to smaller Rapala, Yo-zuri and other shallow diving lures and trolled the rocks. This got the birds off our backs and we hit cabrilla and pargo one after the other losing several lures to big fish that took us into the rocks. The blue colored lures worked better.

That’s our story! Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176E-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,
MexicoTailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm
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 April 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Can this be? Dorado in April? Charline Oistad from the Sacramento CA area came down with her husband and brother for their first trip to La Paz and got into some nice fishing including this pair of spring dorado using live bait out of Muertos Bay. Read below…there were more than just dorado biting!

CRAZY FISHING MIXES WITH CRAZY WINDS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Report for week of March 29-April 4, 2009

Not sure how to describe this past week of fishing….

As I sit here at the moment looking out at the ocean, it’s grey. So is the sky. The wind is screaming out’ve the west and I’m glad I’m not out on the water today. Weather-wise, it’s been a windy and choppy week which is not uncommon for this time of the year. You definitely want a windbreaker or sweatshirt right now. Some days are flat calm, but better to have the protection and not need it than need it and not have it. Some days it starts by ripping then settles out. Sometimes not. Guys have told me they’ve gotten wet getting out to the fishing grounds, especially those headed north out of La Paz.

But…

Some darned good fishing this week! Where do I start? Out’ve La Paz, the yellowtail continued to hammer out by the islands and at El Bajo Seamount. Mackerel and heavy iron were the ticket to these slugger fish that run into the 40 pound class. If you have a Lucky Joe rig, bring it to catch the mackerel. These are tough fish and many are getting lost to the rocks and you definitely want to use the heavy 50 and 60 pound string on these big fish!

My amigos, Steve Di Guiseppe from Ventura CA area and Gabe Martinez from Las Vegas came with dad, Ross and friend, Jess, and spent their first day pulling on the yellowtail. The next 3 days they found “the honey hole” of pargo! “Almost every drop was a hookup!” They got limits of pargo and big cabrilla almost everyday and lost many, but hauled in a bunch of fillets every day to the hotel restaurant for daily feasts that they shared with other guests.

From our Las Arenas/ Muertos fleet….

Can you say smorgasbord? What’s going on? One day it was like going down a buffet line. Incredible early season fishing. Inshore, lots of sierra, roosterfish, big cabrilla and pargo were on the chew. But offshore, spots of floating squid prompted the fish to go nuts!

“We went out to the buoys with Capt. Jorge,” said Rob McClean who’s from California and one of our regulars who fishes with us several times a year. “We got to one and there must’ve been 50 dorado there! We stopped catching and releasing after awhile. Took some for the ice chest and said, let’s get outta here. This is too much! We went inshore to catch pargo!”

Yes, dorado came out and big ones too! Some 30-50 pound fish (Captains estimates on the weights!) were caught but some striped marlin also were caught as well. Rumors of breezing tuna also came in, but no one was able to get on them as they seemed to traveling with fast-moving dolphin schools also jumping on some of the floating squid.

This is getting interesting! We’ll keep you posted.

Happy Easter Week everyone! Be safe if you’re traveling and God bless.

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.comU.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur,

MexicoTailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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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