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Archive for June, 2009

Posted in Uncategorized on June 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: “Changes in latitudes…changes in atitudes” – Jimmy Buffett. A summer sunset this week in La Paz Bay. Cheers to our Colorado amigo, Dave Hagen, for taking the shot. He spent this past week with us taking both fish and fotos!

PHOTO 2: All it takes is one! After getting skunked all day, Junior Azores from Ventura CA dropped down a live zebra fish and got hammered by this big amberjack for his only fish of the day but it made him king of the beach. The big fish topped out a 50 pound scale and we estimate that it would have gone 60 pounds. This fish is the big cousin to the yellowtail.

PHOTO 3: From Denver, Dave Wade made his first trip to see us down here in La Paz and spent a few days fishing with our Las Arenas Fleet then with our La Paz fleet. He went home with quite a few dorado fillets similar to this bull mahi he put in the boat fishing out’ve Las Arenas.

PHOTO 4: DORADO SEASON is ON! Full turbo dorado for bulls like this fish caught by Sandra Raveling from who is stationed in Seattle with the U.S. military. She’s helped by Frank Gillespie from Utah. This was especially a hard-fought fish because if you look closely at the flank, you’ll see the white “nick” where she actually snagged the big dorado and had to really wrestle with the fish for 45 minutes on light tackle!

PHOTO 5: Can it be???? A yellowfin tuna??? Yes…your eyes don’t deceive you. But don’t get too excited. I think this fish was lost or something. Our Fish Brother, Alan Nojadera, from Ventura CA was hopping the outter buoys off Las Arenas with our fleet for bigger dorado and hung this YFT. It’s the only yellowfin we’ve seen in weeks and there were no signs of any other fish either. It was just a wrong-way fish!

PHOTO 6: Newly-wed catch! Just so you don’t think that dorado are the only things we’re catching, Austin Adams and Stephanie (Schmidt) Adams from Utah came to spend some honeymoon time with us and got tangled with some nice jack crevalle (toro) that are still schooling off the beach and beating up anglers. That’s Cerralvo Island in the background.

PHOTO 7: Strike the pose! Big fish on the beach being held by Isaac Schmidt from Utah who pulled this out’ve the waters near Punta Perrico. The fish went 32-pounds and took a live sardine. Little brother, Nathaniel, holds up his own dorado in the background.

PHOTO 8: I wish I could have gotten a photo of these guys with their flyrods. Bob Yagnich (left) and Manny Martinez came to visit us from Colorado with flyrods in hand intent on roosterfish and dorado. They got both, but they really tangled with the dorado. Manny broke his 10wt rod on this big bull dorado just as it got near the boat! Time to check on that warranty! Both were fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet.

PHOTO 9: Wendy Fantozzi is one of our favorite amigas and she CAN fish! Here she holds up a nice amberjack she got on live bait. Fishing 4 days with her husband Jonathan Spier, the pair got dorado, amberjack, bonito and pargo. Also, happy birthday, Wendy!!! How was that tequila shot at the FUBAR Cantina?

PHOTO 10: I couldn’t help but publish this shot. I THINK it’s Dave Wade from Denver. He wins the tatoo award for creativity!

PHOTO 11: Sed Roldan from Hacienda Heights…yes, this is my dad…came to visit us for Father’s Day. It was great to have him down and have him hang out at the new bar and restaurant. He got his first roosterfish off Las Arenas Beach. He’s helped here by Captain Adolfo. The fish was released as were several others.

PHOTO 12: Our buddy Dave Wehner from Northern California comes to see us every year and usually goes home with a load of fish and Kodak moments such as this one with a big bull dorado he took off Boca de Alamo with out fleet using live bait. We did a majority of our fishing off Las ARenas this week because of high winds on the La Paz side, but everyone got fish!

PHOTO 13: From BAKERSFIELD, CA, Ken and son, Steve Gragg, ran into some of that rough wind and weather we had mid-week but hung in and nailed some nice dorado including this pair on live bait with our Las Arenas Fleet.

DORADO GO FULL TURBO ON ANGLERS THIS WEEK DESPITE SOME ROUGH WEATHER!

La Paz / Las Arenas Report for Week of June 21 to 27, 2009

We had some touch-and-go-weather this week as we watched storms build to the south of us and intially promise wind and rain. Fortunately, the darned things blew out and to the west far to the south of us bringing only a few days of strong winds during mid-week.

Fortunately, most of the wind was around La Paz (really rough!) but having two fleets, we simply moved those folks who didn’t want the rough stuff to go fishing with our Las Arenas fleet where waters were generally alot calmer and fish were certainly alot closer to shore.

Either way, this week there were no shortage of dorado. You might go all day and hit nothing then BOOM! You find the spot and the waters explode with 10, 20, 30 or more fish and every rod bent! Or, you might hit a fish here. Two there. Another one here. At the end of the day you realize you had a pretty full day and your box was full!

There are alot of small fish around in the 5 pound class and great to see so many of them released. However, fish in the 20-40 pound class are running out there too and some larger bulls closer to 50 were hung and even more were lost…many by angler error or simply because these are outstanding fighting fish that can rip line; do aerial acrobatics or dog-down deep!

The biggest thing was reminding folks that THERE ARE LIMITS and INSPECTORS ARE CHECKING (more on that below), but even then, in the heat of battle it’s hard to think of catch-and-release! Give it some thought beforehand so that when the time comes, it’s not a big thing to pull the hook and let the fish…especially the females and smaller fish go.

These fish are biting on live bait, dead strip bait as well as lures although the bigger fish are produced by larger baits such as caballito and dead strips of fresh bonito or skipjack.

Other species include roosterfish (sometimes all you can handle!); marlin…stripers and blues (many feeding on the young dorado)…pargo, amberjack, pompano, jack crevalle and cabrilla.

Hot areas include Boca de Alamo; the inner and outer buoys; any of the high spots and banks, the channel outside of Las Cruces, Punta Arena; Punta Perrico; the SE side of Espiritu Santo Island.

LICENSES AND LIMITS

Yes, they are checking right now! Inspectors are going boat-to-boat somedays. They are checking boat licenses as well as angler licenses. We are one of the only authorized vendors of fishing licenses so we have them here at our store…but that means you also have to have them on you when they ask for them!!! Don’t leave them in your room. Inspectors are friendly and professional, but they can and have confiscated some fishing gear; fish and other items. It’s the law!

Also, they are being much more thorough about limits. The days of packing 20 and 30 small dorado in the boat are long gone, but even then, there’s no reason to put a dozen baby dink dorado in the box. The inspectors ARE being pretty lenient, but they CAN enforce the limits harshly. Listen…I don’t agree with alot of things they do, but they have been hammering ALOT of boats, especially south of us on the East Cape. No reason to tempt anyone. Many incidents start with not having your licenses! It’s a simple thing. All-in-all, the inspectors that have been in our area have not been jerks. Very professional and a few times, were understanding when a fisherman said he forgot his license in his jacket back in his room. Just a heads-up! Our fishermen have been really great and realizing they have alot of fish anyway so have been readily releasing much of their catch as have other fleets as well. At the end of the trip, many still have more fish than they can bring home.

JACK

Thanks to all of you who offered prayers, good thoughts and money for our friend and family member, Jack Velez, who has been in the U.S. for the last 3 weeks. It turned out he had and continues to have a complicated heart problem. Doctors in Mexico could do nothing so he went to the states where they somewhat stabilized him but he’s still very weak. They were going to do a bypass on him, but are unable to do so and he’s been released from the hospital to come home now to La Paz. He hopes to be ready to pass out breakfasts and bad jokes shortly like always. I have forwarded all your great e-mails to him and he has read and appreciated all of them and says “thanks for the jokes!” God bless you all for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers.

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Tailhunter International La Paz

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Posted in Uncategorized on June 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Starting the new day into a sunrise as we make bait. Just too nice of a photo to pass up. Also, an opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Father’s Day to start out the fishing report!

PHOTO 2: It’s upside down but it doesn’t diminish the great-looking dorado caught by our “Mai Tai” Queen, Amy Mann from Oregon (she has discoverd the joys of dorado as well as mixing fruit juices and Captain Morgan rum). He’s not Captain Morgan, but he’s a great captain but no for drinking…Capt. Archangel lends a hand with the gaff. The fish was caught fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. That’s Cerralvo Island in the background.


PHOTO 3: All the way from Virginia, my pirate brother, John Benson, fished out towards Cerralvo Island off Las Arenas and hooked onto this 40 pound class dorado they fought for 30 minutes. They also hooked a striped marlin as well. Both fish were picked up on live bait.

PHOTO 4: Vanessa Luciano from Canada builds websites. Charles Belnavis is one of the most awesome tatoo artists around http://www.tatoosbycharles.com/ and one of the original members of our “Team Modelo” boys that started out with us way way back in the day. The two team to hold up nice fat bull dorado that ended up in garlic and butter that night!

PHOTO 5: Inshore fishing is getting largely ignored because of the great dorado bite, but inshore fish like this tasty barred pargo held by Alan Beilstein from San Diego are still in the shallows along with roosterfish, pargo, jacks, pompano and sierra too. That’s Las Arenas Beach about 20 yards behind Alan.

PHOTO 6: Devon Morse just finished his freshman year in high school and dad, Joe Morse, brought him do La Paz for the first time to catch a few fish. They hit into the dorado nicely and show off one of their bulls they caught fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet between Cerralvo and Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 7: Happy folks! All from the Northern Cal area…Janine and Roy Stenzel and Kevin Bradley and Mark Jacobs pose at Balandra beach with two of a number of dorado they hooked while fishing with us just north of La Paz. For Kevin and Mark, it was their first time out!

DORADO PUT ON A SHOW THIS WEEK AS ANGLERS GET MULTI-HOOK STOPS!
La Paz- Las Arenas Report for Week of June 14-20, 2009

If you were looking for dorado this week that was the predominantly hot biter this week for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and Tailhunter La Paz fleets. There were bunches of fish as well as scattered fish under patches or areas of sargasso weed or under any floating structure such as buoys or floating debris. Sometimes, the best way to get them would be trolling feathers, but also slowly dragging a nice messy slab of bonito generated some viscious strikes from big bulls…or marlin which are also in the area eating bait as well as the smaller dorado.

Once you got the boat hooked up, then throw bait and hopefully the school comes charging. The biggest problem is actually getting people to slow down and release the smaller fish and female fish and remind folks of limits. No kidding you could suddenly realize after the heat-of-battle that you have several dozen fish in the box…well over limits!
Trolling patterns include brighter colors like white and blue or else pink/red/white.
Marlin, not surprisingly are hitting dorado-colored patterns or (my favorite) strips of dorado belly and collar. It leaves a nice smelly oil trail that the marlin (and other specie including other dorado love!)

Other species include roosterfish still along a lot of the beach areas and in the rocky areas, cabrilla, pargo and amberjack have been the predominant species…not to mention, too many needlefish! Live bait is working the best on pretty much everything, but if you want to play, throw plastics and retrieve slowly. Also shiny spoons working as well.

UPDATES ON JACK
Thank to all of you that have been sending their good wishes for Jack. We have been forwarding each and every e-mail to him and whenver he can, he’s been answering. He really appreciates it. He’s been hospitalized in L.A. now for over 2 weeks and it was touch-and-go for a bit. Currently, he’s been moved and had an initial heart procedure but they are now waiting for him to stabilize so they can do a bypass. You can write to me directly at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com and I”ll forward all messages to him. We appreciate that you keep our Tailhunter Team and Family Member in your thoughts and prayers!
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY EVERYONE!
Best fishes!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com
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 : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

Tailhunter 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 June 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Glenn Delmendo hit the big time with this monster of a dog-tooth snapper (aka cubera snapper/ pargo perro). He was using a live sardine and initially thought he had an amberjack that was dogging him but lit up when he got it near the boat. He was off the SE corner of Cerralvo Island fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 2: Here’s another shot of Glenn’s big pargo but Scott O’Connor also got a big dog as well. Both are S.Cal police officers.

PHOTO 3: Don Snyder decided to celebrate his anniversary by giving his wife their first fishing trip to La Paz. Don is a famous turkey hunting guide in Kansas. He got a number of fish including this big dorado which happens to be his personal best fish while fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Don said he couldn’t believe how hard ocean-fish pull! He also had on a marlin for about 10 minutes that broke off after some nice runs!

Photo 4: Nancy Engel from Colorado was on her first trip down and proved that the waters are still cool enough to hold some yellowtail! Captain Armando looks on while Nancy holds up the forktail. She was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet just off Punta Perrico when she hooked the fish.

PHOTO 5: Lucky gal, Heidi Crannel from Portland OR, is helped by Captain Jorge just a few yards of Punta Perrico with this nice school-sized roosterfish. Heidi got the fish and later that night, she got proposed to on the beach by Brian Mayo her new fiance! He bought a 25 dollar ring off one of the beach vendors but delivered the real stone when they got home! Congrats to both of our amigos.

PHOTO 6: This is the week our dorado finally busted through. About 80 percent of the fish were dorado for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets. Glenn Delmendo, Don Mariano and Scott O’Connor hold up a trio of mahi at Las Arenas beach.

DORADO SEASON FINALLY SHOWS UP!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 13-20, 2009
If I here going to mark a calendar, I would mark this past week as the official start of SUMMER as well as the official kick-off for dorado season!
We’ve been having dorado on-and-off since March and some nice flurries here and there, but this past week was the week they showed up in numbers! We had to advise clients that they needed to start releasing the smaller ones and females which often isn’t easy in the heat-of-battle as some of the bites came on fast and furious! Folks had some fun.
For both our Las Arenas Fleet and our La Paz Fleet they both found the dorado as sargasso weed patches came down the channel. The sargasso weed not only provide shelter for baitfish, but flying fish and other lay eggs in the sargasso. You can almost see the dorado laying in wait for the hatchings as well as for the adults. Often patches of weed just explode in the water as dorado slash into the patches.
Actually, just about any floating debris out there or other object such as trash or commercial buoys can hold dorado if you hit the right spot. Fish were variable in size from 5-10 pounders up to 50 pound fish. Pretty neat stuff too considering we had a full moon going.
As for other species, the roosterfish showed no signs of letting up although we didn’t get any larger fish this week. Still, I think we’ll go on record as being one of the best roosterfish seasons in a long time. Smaller fish in schools of 10-20 pound fish were not uncommon so these weren’t exactly “small fish.” It’s just that for the first time in many weeks we didn’t have any HOGS in the 50, 60 or 70 pound class.
Other species this week included a smattering of marlin and sailfish plus pargo, cabrilla, sierra and even some scattered yellowtail still around as well.
On a more somber note:
Many of you know Jack “Crazy Jack” Velez who has been with us since the beginning almost 15 years ago. He’s been our manager, our team member and our friend. Jack’s not doing very well. He has a serious heart condition so we sent him up to S.California to get checked out as the doctors here in La Paz weren’t doing much. As it turns out, Jack’s very sick and in the hospital the last 2 weeks. He needs surgery but may be too week to undergo the procedure.
Many of you remember him over the years with his nutty jokes too early in the morning or have been unfortunate enough to have gotten a “wake-up” call from him as he would shout into the phone “LETS GO FISHING!” then hang up! Jack is always the one who delivered the breakfasts and lunches in the morning as well. If you can, please keep Jack in your thoughts and prayers as one of the TAILHUNTER FAMILY.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Tailhunter International La Paz
“When your life 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 June 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Jorge Romero got a late start. He wasn’t even going fishing because he got up too late, but he and his buds decided to go out anyway. They did not even get to the boats until 9 a.m.!!! By 11 a.m. they were done….FIVE WAHOO up to 70 pounds. Taken at the south end of Cerralvo Island. Two hours of fishing in perfect conditions! The only reason they stopped was because they broke their Rapalas!

PHOTO 2: This is a Rapala. This is a Rapala after it has taken 5 wahoo. Looks like a pit bull chomped on it. This is how powerful the wahoo teeth are. If you look at the tail, you can see where the tail hooks finally broke at the body and the lure would no longer “swim.” Time to go home! It’s a CD-18 size about 9 inches long.

PHOTO 3: Take a look at the back of the truck and what’s inside lying on the ice! Except for a few steaks, the guys donated all the fish to the La Paz orphanage! Double bravos!

PHOTO 3: One of our best amigos…Doug Oclassen from Boulder CO ripped this big roosterfish near the Las Arenas lighthouse. Note how close they are to shore! Doug said it had the biggest body and the “tiniest face” he had ever seen on a big fish! Look closely at Captain Jorge. He has his tongue sticking out!
PHOTO 4: This is a BIG dorado. I know because Denny Dyer (left) is about 6’4″ and our captain estimated the fish to be about 60 pounds! This fish was taken outside of Las Arenas towards the buoys. More dorado showing this past week!

PHOTO 5: Bob Lederer comes all the way out from the East Coast each year to spend a few days fishing with us. He’s holding a real nice bull dorado here.


PHOTO 6: This is a nice amberjack. It’s even nicer when you put this fish onboard with a light spinning rod like Glenn Oclassen from Mill Valley who has been visiting us for years. Glenn got a variety of fish over a week of fishing with us.

PHOTO 7 : Everyone keeps asking now the new TAILHUNTER bar is doing! Well, we’ve survived the first month now and so-far-so-good! We’re fine tuning things, but the food is hot and the beer (on tap beer!) is cold and we’re carrying all the NBA and NHL playoff games so we’re drawing some nice crowds. Got some good rock’n’roll and blues as well. Hope to add live music and karaoke in the next month too! We’re right on the waterfront and have the two bars; two restaurants; the mini-mart; fish packing facilities; our offices and…soon…the tackle store (I hope!)

PHOTO 8: We’ve kind of become a nice destination for local Harley Clubs which is pretty cool. Here, they pose for a photo op. Despite all the leather…most of these guys are attorneys, doctors, executives and business owners just having a good time and stopping by for beer and tacos!

PHOTO 9 – World’s BIGGEST pinata! Our staff has named him “Sancho.” He’s an 8-foot great white shark hanging from our ceiling 3 stories up above the waterfront. All our fish mounts for the restaurant were done by Rocky Markham of Worldwide Fish Mounts in S.California.

DORADO ROOSTERFISH AND WAHOO POP THE HITLIST AS WATERS WARM!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 30 to June 6, 2009

Both the weather and humidity went up this week matched only by the fishing as numerous varieties again visited us and bent sticks. It wasn’t WFO but good to very good fishing for a number of species put fish on the hooks!
For our La Paz fleet, they still ran into some windy conditions and it’s not going great guns just yet, but all week the sargasso patches have been growing north of town in bigger areas and bigger patches. As well, more flying fish are laying eggs and hatching in the area as well. That means one thing…DORADO CITY! So, yes, more dorado and bigger dorado started to whack the lines this week with some nice catches as large as 40-50 pounds. We’re not fully amped just yet, but things sure look promising to only get better. Still some off-days but over all, any day can turn on and be banner. We also saw more marling this week also!
For our Las Arenas fleet, we had a few jags where the wahoo just went OFF! I think the secret is to be there when there’s the least amount of boat traffic. The more boats criss-crossing that south end of Cerralvo, the lower the chances of hooking up. Each time a panga has done well, there were very few boats out there. Forget that the captains only insist that the wahoo bite in the early morning. Try it out early then either hang out and commit to staying there (gamble but what the heck!) or…go and come back later when fewer pangas are dancing on the spot. Trolled Rapalas and Y0-Zuri lures in dark colors do the trick.
For other species, again, roosterfish are putting on a show. If you ever wanted to catch a roosterfish, this is the year. I’ve never seen so many roosters…big and small…around the area. I guess this is why it’s called the “roosterfish capital of the world.” Our larger fish were all 50 plus pounds this week, but seemingly no shortage of 5-15 pound fish either that are great on light tackle.
As for other types…we still have straggler yellowtail and big pargo here. Even some sierra are still being caught. In the areas of the roosterfish, jack crevalle and pompano have been working over the light tackle and flyfishing guys.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Tailhunter International La Paz

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