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Archive for July, 2009

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

PHOTO 1: Hector Chacon, our good amigo, is on the right. He’s holding his dorado. “One of the most incredible bites I’ve ever had. They were everywhere!” On the left…some guys will go to any length to make sure their boss doesn’t know they went fishing. “Mr. Modelo” also holds up a dorado! (Nice Mask, Dave!)

PHOTO 2: Steve Kechichian from S.California just finished his freshman year in high school and made his first trip down to us. In addition to roosterfish, he also got this nice yellowfin tuna his first day out on light spinning gear.

PHOTO 3: Dave Rose from Denver caught the fish, but Captain Armando does the honors. Check out the size of this big pompano caught off Las Arenas! The pompano came back this week and were feeding near the drop offs near the beaches.

PHOTO 4: Bruce Husson and Rick Carlton show off a pair of their La Paz dorado they caught north of town. The dorado schools continued to park themselves out in the channel this past week. The guys are from the San Diego area.

PHOTO 5: The Kellogg boys showed that there were still some yellowfin tuna off Las Arenas this past week. They weren’t as fast and furious as previous weeks, but the footballs were still in the area!

PHOTO 6: Ron Wesp and Bonnie Buiniak from Arizona were way fun on their first trip with us. Their first day they picked up some dorado and tuna. Their second day, they did much better on dorado.

PHOTO 7: Our amiga, Andrea Wood from Orange Co. She loves the pool but gets out on the water every other day or so and always does well. She holds up a big bull she slammed north of town.

DARK MOON (OR SOMETHING) PUTS A DAMPER ON LAS ARENAS TUNA/ WAHOO BITE BUT DORADO AROUND LA PAZ SAVE THE DAY FOR ANGLERS

La Paz/ Las Arnas Fishing Report for July 19-25, 2009

Well…so much for the “dark moon” stuff. Fishing actually took a hit this week. That big bite we’ve had over a month at Las Arenas with tuna, wahoo, dorado and billfish fizzled to scratch fishing. Given that I could see very little change in wind, water or weather, I don’t know what happened. Of course since MOST anglers like to fish the dark of the moon, there were some disappointments because we were pretty full all week.

Personally, I never believe in that stuff. You fish when you fish. It’s not that the fishing was terrible. It’s that it wasn’t as stellar as it had been previously. Also, when the fishing gets picky, you’d better have your game on. If you miss fish after fish, it’s not the captains fault that your ice chest isn’t as full as you want. Your opportunities are more limited. The smarter fishermen abandoned the off-shore species and went inshore and still had a blast with roosterfish, pompano and cabrilla. Fish for what’s there!

The better fishing was with our La Paz fleet that did continue to jump all over the dorado, but for sure, it seemed like there were fewer large bull dorado. The dorado on La Paz saved quite a few trips and It was pretty hard not to get bit. Fish remained in numerous places. It seemed like the smaller schoolie fish were in the channel between the islands. Larger bulls were on the high spots. So…if you wanted action and quantity you went to the channels and looked for patches of weeds or working birds or…you simply looked for a big pile up of boats! If you wanted the larger fish you buckled your chin strap and you went out trolling and hunting a bit further out.

Bottom line…everyone got fish! Any other week, this would have been a pretty darned good week of fishing. It was just that the fishing had been so off-the-charts the last few weeks that we got spoiled! I”m sure it’ll turn around. There were still plenty of dorado!

WEEKS VIDEO

I don’t have any fishing video clips this week. My video camera conked out on me. However, folks have been asking for video of the new FUBAR/TAILHUNTER BAR. We had some big parties this past week so I thought I’d pass some of that one. Click the link:

Have a great week!
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 July 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: No stranger to these fishing reports, Cole Chavira (11) poses with a nice dorado and sisters Monica (20) and Gabi (18). They’re from the San Diego area and Cole always nails big fish down here. Dorado were once again the backbone of the catch this past week typical of July fishing.

PHOTO 2: This is another photo that’s suitable for framing! Love having dads and kids down. Wally Lee took time out from Wells Fargo board meetings to bring the family and took youngster Aiden out to pull on some dorado. The young man did just fine! They fished north of La Paz and got this on live bait.

PHOTO 3: Some people come down to Baja their whole lifetimes hoping to get a sniff from a wahoo. Casey Barber got one her first day out fishing with our Las Arenas fleet. (See her on the video clip). She was pretty excited. The fish scaled at 34 pounds. Early in the week, the wahoo were crashing the boats.

PHOTO 4: Sometimes I think Mitch Chavira has a professional photographer follow him and his family out when they go fishing. They ALWAYS get great shots…and outstanding fishing! Mitch comes down several times a year and holds up a big bull dorado he caught out’ve La Paz.

PHOTO 5: Another week of football tuna! The bite tapered later in the week, but earlier…the fish were blasting just off the point at Punta Arenas. Greg Jones from Bakersfield pulled a couple like this out using live bait.

PHOTO 6: Big headed bull dorado! George Simpson (holding the tail) fished with us for the first time this past week but got tuna, wahoo and dorado like this one. He’s aided by Captain Jorge and son Damon. He was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet.

PHOTO 7: Dorado were our bread-and-butter-fish this week which is more typical of a summer bite. Tony Adamich on the left with Gary Skul from Colorado and John Mramor from Atlanta after a day of fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

PHOTO 8: Hardcore! This is Romie Gonzalez. He loves his sushi and sashime. Someoen passed him a piece of sailfish to take home and he immediately took a bite! Can’t argue with the freshness! But I like mine chilled with soy and wasabi!

PHOTO 9: Our good buddy, Barry Wood, went out with Captain Chito out of La Paz and hooked this awesome dorado on bait. Daughter, Andrea, helps out. They’re both from Orange Co, CA.

PHOTO 10: Three of our favorite guys…Steve Herron and his boys Jackson and Austin…all hailing from Park City UT, got quite a haul of fish over 4 days. Here they show off yellowfin tuna as well as Austin’s wahoo. caught with our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 11 – We could not have asked for a funner lady to be fishing. Di Rosas was so excited about cathing this yellowtail…about 25 pounds…that she was almost dancing on the beach. It was her first fish! Very strange to get yellowtail this time of the year as they’re usually caught in the spring, not the sweltering heat of summer, but several fish in the 20-45 pound class were hooked this past week.

BIG VARIETY OF PELAGIC SPECIES INCLUDING DORADO- WAHOO- BILLFISH AND TUNA HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of July 11-18, 2009

Just another super week of fishing here. The last 2 or 3 weeks have been unseasonably great. Maybe it’s the fact that the waters or air temperature are hotter than normal, because it’s over 100 every day. Waters are a good 5 degrees hotter than normal and it sure is muggy, but the fishing has been good to spectacular. Normally, mid-summer, we’re locked into dorado. Nothing wrong with that. Dorado are our bread-and-butter fish here in La Paz for a good part of the year. However, school-sized dorado are the norm about now…5 to 20 pound fish.

Well, at least for a month, sure, we’ve got the punks, but also, big bulls are solidly here as well. Fish in the 30-50 pound class have been smoking drags for weeks! But, the best surprise is the other species that have been pounding our two fleets. Football-sized yellowfin tuna in the 10-20 pound class showed up about 2 weeks ago just off the shore near Las Arenas and it’s been an easy run (swim?) to the spot and limits have been the rule rather than the exception. On top of it, wahoo charged into the foray about a week ago also where the pangas were getting 2-4 hookups per day (notice I didn’t say they were “catching” that many as many fish were lost!), but it’s made for some exciting fishing to have free swimming wahoo around the boat willing to bite bait, lures and trolled Rapalas and Marauder and Yo Zuris. (THE CD-18 size..if you’re wondering…if you use the small ones, they’ll swallow them and BLINK…you’re cut off!)

Fishing did slow a bit at the end of the week as we got some weather patterns overhead and the barometric pressure changed, but overall, it just seemed like they were glitches and anomalies. If the tuna didn’t bite, then the dorado bit and vise-versa. Hard for anyone to complain! Overall, just some good solid fishing!

Additionally, we’ve still got roosterfish in the shallows and striped, blue, and black marlin cruising the areas eating the smaller tuna and dorado as well as into the bait schools. Not many sails this year, but we get a few hookups a week. Kudos to all the guys releasing their billfish!

Oh…and surprise…BIG yellowtail showed up as well…way out of season. These fish must have been lost, but off Las Arenas we caught several fish in the 20-40 pound class!

That’s our story! We have a full week of fishermen here…we’re loaded so we’ll have some full reports for you coming up!

WEEKLY VIDEO CLIP

Click this for this week’s video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNrsCdwWe3Q

Turn up the volume!

Cheers!
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 July 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Ricardo Garcia…El Jefe for the La Paz Board of Tourism and a good amigo loves to fish and got into some of the excellent wahoo fishing which is the best we’ve seen in ages here with multiple wahoo hook-ups each day. The fish are eating bombs, trolled lures and even snapping live bait!

PHOTO 2: “Yea Baby!” That’s what Rene Renteria yelled out when he hit the beach with this fat stuffy wahoo. The angle the fish is held makes it look shorter than it is. This was a THICK fish! That had is sashime the fish at the FUBAR TAILHUNTER CANTINA that night!

PHOTO 3: Chris Ortiz poses with a bull dorado he pulled off between Cerralvo Island and Las Arenas point. The fish ate live bait and still has it’s fresh colors on it. Chris had a pretty good outing with a solid cooler of dorado fillets. This was it seemed like the dorado got tired of being pushed out’ve the spotlight by the tuna bite!

PHOTO 4: Ed Basurto from the Sacramento CA area said this fish “worked me!” The 40 pound class bull dorado was one of a number of big bulls caught this week.

PHOTO 5: Bakersfield CA vistors Greg Jones and Jo Marie Corbell fished with us for the first time and dog-piled on the fish. He shows off a few of his dorado, but also got into tuna and at one time had on a sailfish and wahoo on at the same time!

PHOTO 6: Once again for the 3rd straight week, the tuna charged the boats. This pair is held up by Dan and Josh Moore who also hung a nice wahoo. These yellowfin tuna varied from 10 pound footballs to 25 pound plugs.

PHOTO 7: One of our favorite amigos, Jorge Romero, has a knack on the wahoo. A few weeks ago, he got 5 wahoo in two hours. This week he got 3 wahoo and lost 5 Rapalas in the process. Here he does the man-up pose with a big skinny he took off the South End of Cerralvo Island.

PHOTO 8 : Mark and Ben Driver from Portland OR showed up right in the middle of the tuna bite and spanked fish big time over several days of fishing. Here, they hold up 4 yellowfin they hung while fishing north out’ve La Paz. According to their Captain Chito, they were trolling for dorado when all the rods went off and suddenly swarms of yellowfin foamed around the boat when they threw bait!

FISHING RODEO AS WAHOO JOIN THE FRAY WITH TUNA AND BIG DORADO!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of July 5-11, 2009

I’m not sure where to start!!! I usually try to “understate” the fishing to some degree. I mean…fishing just CAN’T be good ALL THE TIME, right?

Well, just when I thought it couldn’t get better…IT DID! First we had a killer dorado bite going on that seemed off the charts. Then about 2 ½ weeks ago the tuna exploded in a surprising bite that covered waters north of La Paz…around Cerralvo Island…and several points south…such that anglers were getting limits of tuna in an hour or two of fishing!

Then, this week…WAHOOOOOOooooooooo!!!! What can I say. Guys fishing tuna on live bait were suddenly getting chomped by free-swimming wahoo. Zing-powie! Then guys started throwing bombs and trolling Rapalas and other lures and the wahoo went nuts! Guys would get bit several times…lose a few and get one or two to the boat! Several boats took 2, 3, 4 wahoo each. These fish went 25-50 pounds in a bite like I can’t remember! These fish were not picky. They loved the trolled lures, but for once did not seem picky about the colors…purple/black…green mackerel…blue mackerel…fire tiger…bright orange…all got hit! Just check out the photos and I’d have posted up even more photos, but just did not have enough space!

Will it continue? I have no idea!

But what a bite. On two occasions, I heard clients tell me they got into dorado so thick that two fish actually jumped in the boat (not kidding…I saw the fish!) One hit a guy in the back while he was hooked up and the fish fell back in the water. We had some big roosterfish too. As for marlin and sailfish…we had several striped marlin and several sailfish caught and released. But Ryan Hershey from Colorado hooked a fish estimated to be 700 pounds (Captain’s estimate) that we have to give high-5’s to…HE RELEASED THE FISH! Good on you! Barry Wood from Orange Co, CA had on a 400 pounder that spooled them faster than the boat could catch up! Barry said, “When I saw it, I knew I wanted no part of it!”

Tell ya what…if it’s any indication, I’ve been vacuum sealing 100-200 bags of fish here at the TAILHUNTER/ FUBAR every afternoon and this does not include all the fish that the anglers are telling me they are releasing!

THE WEEK’S VIDEO CLIPS

I got the camera working again! Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile, but here you go! Right off YOUTUBE! Just click the link to see this week’s video clips of the fish! Click this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4RYQvOdIfQ

JACK IS BACK

Thanks to so many of you who kept tabs on our friend and Tailhunter family member with your e-mails and prayers. He is now back in La Paz after being in the U.S. for a month in the hospital. He’s not moving fast and is very weak but it’s good to see him again. He’ll be taking it easy for awhile as he tries to regain his strength.

That’s our story!
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 July 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

PHOTO 1: Yes…they are here! What a week. The yellowfin tuna showed up and rampaged through the fleets in a frenzy and in the kind of madness we rarely see. Captain Jorge holds up a YFT for Sara Moss. Notice how close to shore they are!

PHOTO 2: Nothing quite like yellowfin tuna coming closer to the boat. But this is often the time when anglers relax and the fish makes another blazing run to freedom and the anglers break off. The yellowfin started as 10 pounders, but by week’s end, they were in the 25 pound class.

PHOTO 3: Looking for the headshot with the gaff so as not to spoil the sweet meat, this tuna actually did not end up as sashime but was released as were many others. Limits at times were so easy that anglers went to circle hooks to more easily let the fish go!

PHOTO 4: Outdoor TV show host, Rick Kasper from Thousand Oaks CA, ripped this beauty of a bull dorado with the south end of Cerralvo Island in the background off Las Arenas. Captain Pancho lent a hand on the gaff.

PHOTO 5: Dennis Cadal and Alan Nojadera from the Ventura CA area hold up a paid of sweet bull dorado. The fish charged on the live bait while the guys were fishing from our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. We’re crediting Al with catching the first yellowfin tuna of our season and starting the YFT bite we’ve got this week.

PHOTO: 5: These are some beasts! (The fish, not the fishermen!). Kris Kasper and Cole Thomas just graduated from high school and came down with their buddies to fish our area for the first time and slammed the dorado. These big fish were caught of Las Arenas Beach. That’s the new lighthouse in the background.

PHOTO 6: One of our best amigas, Wendy Fantozzi, with her favorite captain Victor hung all kinds of fish while here this week including pargo, amberjack and this beutiful bull dorado.

PHOTO 7 : The Utah clan of Anthony Schmidt (here for his daughter’s honeymoon) take a family pose with their dorado. The largest is a 32 pounder on the left.

PHOTO 8: Another great group shot…the Hardesty Boys…Nick, Jim, Rob and Scott hold up their fish…well, Jim is holding a zebra fish! Dorado were still going strong but tuna moved in this week.

PHOTO 9 : Al Silvas just took this great shot. Blue water. Big smile. Big fish. Life is good!

PHOTO 10 : Reg Powell came all the way from Colorado intent on getting a rooster on his flyrod. Here he hold the proof. The fish was released.

PHOTO 11: Frank Gillespie, Jr. from Utah. Puts the gaff into this bull dorado headed to the fish box.

FISH EXPLODE FOR ANGLERS AS TUNA CHARGE IN FORCE BUT DORADO POWER IN AS WELL FOR BEST WEEK OF THE SEASON!
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 28 to July 4, 2009

We possibly had the best week of fishing of the entire season this past week. What a fish-rodeo! Yellowfin tuna made a surprise crash and literally foamed and exploded on our panga fleet. We had pangas coming in back to the beach early with shocked clients and bloody ice chests.

“It was nuts!”
“Never seen anything like that!”
“It was like the old days in Baja…fish everywhere! There were so many tuna around the boat then the dorado came blasting in!” were just some of the comments.

Folks were getting limits and telling us they were releasing as many fish as they caught. At the FUBAR we were vacuum sealing fish for hours each afternoon. The early showing of the tuna was the biggest news. These fish started at 10 pounds, but towards the end of the week 20-25 pound muscle fish were not uncommon. Folks were saying they couldn’t get baits in the water fast enough. The fish ate live bait, dead bait, lures, iron, surface poppers, flies…they weren’t picky and they came ‘en masse.” This wasn’t a pick bite. This was the full panzer division blitzkrieg on the fleets. On top of that, dorado would charge in as well as if they didn’t like getting the spotlight taken away from them. Fish up to 50 pounds were ripping lines and hearts!
Bigger baits generated larger fish, but not always. Several marlin were hooked on small sardines and small hooks too. Often the method to find any of the fish was to slow troll a live bait, chunk of dead bait or small feather…enough to rip the water…when the rod went off, throw live bait and watch the foamers come tearing into the boats!

I don’t know how long this will last. We have a full moon coming on this week and I”m not a big believer in the full moon thing, but this tuna bite is just so crazy that I don’t want anything to upset the apple cart…if you catch my drift! In the meantime, life is good…the fish are biting!

LIVE WEBCAM

We have a live webcam now on the TAILHUNTER BAR/ FUBAR CANTINA. If you want to watch, just click:

When you get the webpage type in the word: remoteuser
You do not need a code word. You can watch the view from the 3rd floor of the bar 24/7!
Happy 4th of July Week Everyone. I’m craving Kentucky Fried Chicken, parades and potato salad!

Best fishes!
Jonathan and Jill

Tailhunter International La Paz

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