Tailhunter Fish Report

PHOTO 1: Tuna on the chew! Just a solid week of yellowfin tuna fishing for most of the week with some days the tuna were almost jumping in the boat. Friend and La Paz regular, Steve Marabella, shows off some of the quality fish that took up residence within a few hundred yards of the Las Arenas lighthouse near La Paz.

PHOTO 2: This is what ” WIDE OPEN” looks like on a panga! Ken Mitchell and Ken Gragg from Fresno CA flank Capt. Gerardo who’s trying to hold onto another fish in the middle. Boats were literally only a few yards away from each other often with every single rod bent on 25-35 pound tuna. You can see how close to shore our boats were fishing. Often anglers took limits of tuna within an hour or two!

PHOTO 3: Hacienda Heights CA resident, Sed Roldan (yes. .. my dad) came down for a visit and took more fish in two days of fishing than he had in several years of fishing with us. They simply had to stop. Within seconds of baits hitting the water, yellowfin tuna would rocket straight up and fight each other to gulp the sardine. Pangas were sometimes so close that several anglers hooked-up would tangle each other with fish!

PHOTO 4: After several trips this year to get tuna unsuccessfully, Lois Tsunoda finally put tuna in the box. She and husband Gary from S. California spent 3 days fishing with us of taking home doroado and yellowfin tuna while fishing with both our Las Arenas and La Paz our fleets.

PHOTO 5: Our friends, Richard and Jackie Yamada took time off from running their operation at the popular Shelter Island Lodge near Juneau, Alaska http://www.shelterlodge.com/ to chase some dorado and tuna instead of halibut and salmon. They got these nice yellowin their first day out fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet the day after Hurricane Rick left us.

PHOTO 6: Dave Prather from Arizona was on his first fishing trip down to see us and got into some fantastic fishing. In the middle of the tuna grounds’ve got an unusual bite and realized it was not fighting like a tuna. Instead, he pulled up this trophy grouper just yards off the Punta Perrico rocks.

PHOTO 7: Bob Dominguez said, “I” m done, let’s go home! “after tangling with his first tuna of the day. He was to go on and take tuna limits two days in a row as well as several dorado. Bob is from Hacienda Heights CA .

Photo 8 – Paul and Renee pose with just a few of their yellowfin tuna. This was Renee’s 2nd trip to see us this year. Last trip in the summer, he nailed a big wahoo. No wahoo on this trip, but he plugged the boat with Paul for several days with loads of yellowfin tuna and dorado.

PHOTO 9: Jeff Sakuda comes to see us about 2-3 times a year and always rips the fish. Under the tuna schools, Jeff found this grouper lurking and ready to eat! We got several big rock fish like this during the past week.

PHOTO 10: Shay Hamada and Kenji Yamada sometimes live in California, Hawaii and Alaska. He manages the Shelter Island Lodge in Alaska and also skippers clients and knows how to properly pose with a fish! Shay holds a nice dorado while Kenji hung this nice yellow fin.

PHOTO 11: Even though we had a Category 5 hurricane bearing down on us, Dan and Bob McPhee from the San Francisco Bay area said, they did not care and would take their chances about fishing. As it turned out, the storm by-passed us and their gamble paid off with several solid days of great fishing. They hold a handful of some of their yellowfin tuna.

PHOTO 12: All the way from the East Coast, Mike Bradley and Gerald Mulholland took so many fish their first day, they caught and released fish the rest of their days fishing.

PHOTO 13: An outsanding shot of Bob Sayre’s sailfish on-the-hook! Worthy of framing! The sailfish was released.

THE “PERFECT STORM” (thankfully) never materialized TEAR UP ANGLERS AND FISH!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 18-24, 2009

We appear to have dodged the bullet of “Hurricane Rick” a potential Category 5 storm that had been touted as the “Perfect Storm” and bore down towards Southern Baja. It had us all pretty much running for SANDBAGS with no real place to go. As it turned out, the storm turned south and diminished to a tropical storm and dropped only sporadic hard rain and some strong winds that cost us only one day of keeping the boats off the water.

The larger misfortune, aside from cancelations from many anglers understandably nervous about the impending storm, was that it dampered what had been the best tuna bite of the season and perhaps in many years.

Right in front of the beach between the Las Arenas lighthouse and Muertos Bay a line of 25-35 pound tuna literally took up residence and slashed and ripped anglers for several days. One concentration of the fish in perhaps only 50 feet of water had fish grabbing air and hang time while fighting each other to jump on live sardines, dead sardines and almost anything else thrown into the waters. If you looked down you could see the tuna shredding the water under the pangas and many of them were so close with every rod bent that many of the pangas were getting tangled up with each other.

Fortunately, the fish were so thick that anglers were laughing and shouting at each other because it took no time at all to get bit almost instantly! I’ve been here a long time and this was one of the funnest tuna fish bites … ever!

It was just way too much fun to look out over the area and see fish breaking water, boiling, coming out of the water like they had not eaten in weeks. You could throw a sardine in the water and within seconds … it did not stand a chance … two or three tuna would try to inhale it and literally crash into each other trying to be the first to hit it.

Between the boats, all you could hear guys were yelling and screaming and laughing and the sound of clickers and drags going off … such a sweet sweet sound! Those of you who have been in bites like this, know what I’m talking about.

As well, dorado went off nicely with fish in the 10-20 pounds and surprisingly, in the same areas, big snapper and grouper also showed up to mix it up with the bite. A few wahoo were hooked, but all lost.

After the storm, things got a bit slower and anglers had to work a bit harder for the tuna, but there was no slow-down on the dorado. Heck, it was almost like the dorado had something to prove after being ignored by the great tuna bite the last few weeks. The tuna did not charge as hard so the dorado filled in the slack. Easy limits if you wanted them! Bottom line … way too many fish! That’s what I’m talkin ‘about!

WEEKLY VIDEO CLIPS!

If you want to see more and see it live … check out this week’s video clips and turn up the sound! Click this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLQqr56fEVY

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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PHOTO 1: Just another lovely day in paradise. Paul Sipillian and Leo Avakian from Los Angeles just put in a really tough day of fishing! Yellowfin tuna bit hard all week just outside of Muertos Bay, actually just in front of the old Hotel Las Arenas. Our pangas were coming back to the beach after only 2 0r 3 hours on the water totally plugged with fish. Hey…who’s gonna clean all that tuna?

PHOTO 2: Two of the most prolific anglers we see each year, our amigos Steve Greanias and his dad, Chris, always stick the fish big time. They fished 3 days and spanked the tuna, but on their 3rd day fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet they concentrated on dorado but then went inshore and went after the pargo! They got the fish boiling behind the boat, then Steve started heaving the surface iron and nailed some of these fish that most folks think only bite in the springtime!

PHOTO 3: All the way from Illinois! Bob and Bill Sayre did some fishing and SCUBA with us but on their first day on the water with rain threatening, they fished out’ve Muertos Bay with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and dog-piled on some really quality dorado and yellowfin tuna.

PHOTO 4: Martha Bell from Hacienda Heights CA wanted me to be sure to tell everyone that by 9:30 a.m. in the morning fishing with Captain Victor, they were completely limited on tuna and dorado like this one with Captain Victor in the background and the south side of Cerralvo Island. This was Martha’s first time fishing in La Paz.

PHOTO 5: Maybe on the of the larger dorado of the week, normally, we get alot of the larger bulls in the fall. However, this year, we’re getting more school-sized fish in the 10-20 pound class. Robert Marganian shows off his nice female mahi on the beach.

PHOTO 6: Naveed Ahmed, our buddy who says “The curse is over!” because he never caught fish did so on his first day on the water with us. Fishing with Captain Archangel and amigo, Dave Asman, from Chicago, they got limits of nice 20-30 pound yellowfin tuna “until our arms hurt” as well as a wahoo.

PHOTO 7: Eddy Bell holds two nice bull dorado from a day of fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet north of the city around the islands. Eddy is from Hacienda Heights CA.

PHOTO 8: The picture kinda speaks for itself. What a day! Robert and Toros Marganian from Lake Arrowhead CA jumped into a school of tuna that could be seen boiling from the shore in a frenzy. This kind of catch was not unusual this past week in what has been the best bite of the season for our fleet.

PHOTO 9: Every year these two brother get together for a fishing reunion in La Paz. They’re among our favorite Tailhunter amigos. They always get fish! On the left is Rod Brown fron Alaska. His brother, Jeff, on the right, lives in Minnesota! Over almost a week of fishing, the two brothers got an incredible variety of fish.

PHOTO 10: You’ve probably never seen one of these. I had never seen one either except when scuba diving. The locals call is a “mojarra.” It’s better known as a “porgy.” I”m told it’s great eating. Jeff Brown from Minnesota caught it.

PHOTO 11: Check out the quality of these yellowfin tuna we’re getting. Scott Brasier poses at Muertos Bay with these 35–30 pound sluggers that went raging this past week here. Scott was on his first trip with us and came all the way from the midwest.

PHOTO 12: The Sashime Club! The fish are barely in the boat and these guys usually have the wasabi and soy ready to go! Randy Nakayama, Derick Tagawa and Mark Kojima know how to eat them as well as put the tuna into the boat.

POSSIBLY THE BEST TUNA AND DORADO FISHING OF THE YEAR GOES BALLISTIC AS LA PAZ GOES ON HURRICANE WATCH!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 11-17, 2009

What a week! In between sporadic tropical showers, we had perhaps the best fishing of the season. Slugger-sized 25-30 pound tuna blew up on our panga fleet at Las Arenas/ Muertos in such a furious bite that on many days the boats were pulling off the school and headed back to shore at 9:30 or 10 a.m. in the morning or going out looking for something else to do because there was no more room in the panga fish boxes! At one point, I stood on the beach and I could actually see the fish foaming only about 100 yards off the beach with the bite only about 100-200 yards in front of the old Hotel Las Arenas.

The baits are really small and 20-30 pound test fluorocarbon leader with #1 hooks are the ticket using live or dead chunk baits, but you’d better hold onto your socks because a lot of the anglers weren’t ready for some of these fish. As one angler put it, “I’ve caught tuna before, but something about these fish has them ultra aggressive and put them on steroids or something because these fish do NOT quit!” Another angler said, “After two of these fish, I had to sit down, my arms were shaking. Stupid little 30-pound fish pull like no tuna I’ve ever run into.”

If you look at these fish, they’re just MUSCLE fish. Round, fat and feisty! They were fighting to the baits at times as if they hadn’t eaten…EVER! Just a blast!

On top of it, especially later in the week, it seemed that the dorado got tired of being second tier catches and moved right inshore with the tuna and the “dorado rodeo” went off with streaking dorado and hooked dorado surrounding all the boats. “Point-blank fish shooting” was how one of our Denver anglers described it. “I’ve never seen so many dorado flying around a boat. If the boats weren’t plugged with tuna, they were topped off with dorado! (Many were released and the flyfishers really had a blast!)

If anything else was biting, it was hard to know since everyone had jumped on the dorado or tuna schools. However, we did hook a few roosters (released) and three wahoo were hooked and lost.

FIRST PERSON REPORT

Thanks to our new amigo, Leo Bishop from Canada who took the time to write this:

“What a day !! we had only one day remaining on our vacation with so many things left to see and do. Jonathan went out of his way to “customize” a trip package for us that included fishing in the morning and snorkeling in the afternoon. We knew the weather was calling for rain, but we sucked it up and went anyway. By the time we had our eyes open, thanks to the free morning coffee, we had already loaded up with live bait and had lines in the water. 5 minutes later, bang-bang !! double hook ups on some nice sierra. After playing them in we moved about a half mile to a new location and dropped or live bait rigs over the stern and began slow trolling. Over the next 3 hours we boated 5 nice Dorado, lost 3, and landed numerous bonita. We didnt, even have a chance to notice the rain……………who cares ? Fighting fish is a great way to stay warm !! In fact just as the bite subsided a little, so did the rain. We reluctantly reeled up our gear and headed out to the snorkelling area. As we cruised along we agreed that even if the snorkelling was off due to the morning rain that we had already gotten our moneys worth, man we were blown away……we swam with huge sea lions, (they are very peacefull and non agressive) and their pups are so curious, a massive, mezmerising school of sardines, and spotted several species of large groupers including a rare golden grouper ! Long story short, we are so glad that we got out their despite the weather for a trip of a lifetime ! “

HURRICANE WATCH FOR “RICK”

As I write this, we’re watching Hurricane Rick form off the Baja Peninsula. We thought storm season was all over, but this one surprised us and could be headed our way by Wednesday or Thursday. We feel badly for all the folks who may have to cancel or postpone their fishing trip with us. If there was any way to foresee this or wave a magic wand, we would! For updates, click this: http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/ep200920.html

TAILHUNTER VIDEO CLIP

I know I always used to post a weekly video clip, but we’ve had some technical difficulties this season. However, here’s a good roundup of some of our hot bite the last few weeks. Click this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_g-jI-RJ0k

TAILHUNTER GRILL AND FUBAR CANTINA MAKES TRIP ADVISOR

We made Trip Advisor after only 5 months! Check it out: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g150771-La_Paz_Baja_California.html

If any of you have been with us and partied or dined and want to add a report, that would be great.

Have a great week! Hope we stay dry down here!

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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PHOTO 1: Not a bad way to start a fishing trip. We’ve moved the pangas over to Muertos Bay and after a slow start because of winds, late in the week the bite finally turned on. Posing with a portion of their catch are Johnny Doumas, Jay Sanchez, Leo Avakian, Avo Agourian, Armen Minissian, Sam Henne and Paul Sipplian. The sailfish was an accidental catch by Avo (center). He was fishing a Megabait just jigging it for bottom fish and on the way down, he felt a hit. Suddenly, the rod blew up and he realized he had accidentally snagged a sailfish ON THE BACK! He had to fight it and while doing so, his partner (Armen) caught 2 yellowfin tuna. Avo was going to release the sail, but it came in dead having been dragged backwards. It was donated to the pueblo. Note the solid size of the yellowfin tuna! They’re only about 200 yards off the beach.

PHOTO 2: Here’s another great story. Dan Fink from northern California has been coming to Baja for over a doezen years trying to catch a wahoo. He brought his sister, Julie with him this year. They weren’t even at the wahoo grounds (which haven not produced in about a month!). They were in the middle of the tuna bite. Mary was fishing a little sardine on light line (with NO wire!). She gets bit and wham…wahoo on! She hooks it right in the corner of the mouth with a little #2 live bait hook! It gets better. This was Mary’s first time fishing on the ocean. They also got a number of yellowfin tuna as well as pargo.

PHOTO 2: One of our most successful anglers each year, Steve Greanias and his dad, Chris, show off a couple of nice yellowfin tuna and a handful of dorado. Steve also had on a big roosterfish that he fought and came unbuttoned.

PHOTO 3: Johnny Doumas holds up a sample of the nice grade of yellowfin tuna we have biting now out of Muertos Bay with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. The fish are ranging from 15-35 pounds and are from the lighthouse down towards Cardonal. Live and dead sardines fished with a small hook and flurocarbon leaders are a plus.

PHOTO 4: Dorado are biting right now, but not many of the big bulls we’re accustomed to this time of year. However, Fred Roupp, Jr. and Captain Rogelio with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet pose with a 33-pound dorado they caught north of La Paz. This was our largest dorado of the week.

PHOTO 5: With Muertos Bay shimmering in the background, Captain Pancho with Jay Sanchez and Leon Sipplian on their first trip to fish with us hold up a handful of fat yellowfin tuna.

PHOTO 6: Two of the funnest guys who show up each year, Toros and Robert Marganian took time off from their plumbing business to pull on a few nice yellowfin tuna this week. The smaller sardines are working well on these fish. They were lockjawed early in the week when the winds were blowing, but came on stronger as the week went on.

PHOTO 7: All smiles, Johnny Wong and Tim Armstrong from Pasadena CA fished earlier in the week with us when we were still launching off Las Arenas Beach. Nice handful of YFT. They were fishing with Captain Victor.

PHOTO 8: Dr. Bruce Dodge from La Canada CA hit full limits of yellowfin tuna fishing with Captain Jorge and our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Cerralvo Island and Ventana Bay in the background. Bruce organized the annual Catholic Big Brothers & Big Sisters Charity Event and fund raiser with us and 3 days of fishing.

PHOTO 9: Sneaking away from his last year at Humboldt State College to get in some fishing, Andrew Campbell and mom Kirsten from Boise ID braved some strong winds and rain and still put some excellent fish in the panga. In addition to yellowfin tuna they also caught dorado over a quick weekend of fishing before Andy had to scoot back to class.

PHOTO 10: Dan Rubendall came down with the big group from Catholic Big Brothers and Big Sisters charity event and tournament and almost got big fish of the day with this bull dorado he caught in the channel between the Arenas lighthouse and Cerralvo Island.

PHOTO 11: You gotta love the unconventional. Rob Pinkerton and Mike Delaney pose with their catch of yellowfin tuna while playing in the sand. Mike…thanks for that pole dance at our TAILHUNTER BAR! We have it on video!

PHOTO 12: They always do well. Manny Avila and Tony Avila holding some of their catch this week of tuna and dorado. Thanks for the “Venturi wine pourer” guys. It works great!

WINDY WEATHER AND SPOTTY FISHING FINALLY GIVE WAY TO SUNSHINE AND SOLID BITE…MAYBE BEST TUNA BITE OF THE YEAR!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 4-10, 2009

There were times early in the week where I was really pretty nervous. That bad weather cell that came through last week and dumped a bunch of rain on us and wouldn’t go away without spitting out the occasional shower finally gave way to sunny skies. That was the good part. The bad part is that behind the storm we got several days of incredible north winds. It’s certainly NOT what we’re’ accustomed to this time of year. I mean…it was ROUGH! We actually had some folks queasy which is pretty rare! One day, the captains didn’t even want to go out and it delayed us getting out.

That’s not too good when you’re doing a lot of topwater fishing. I felt badly for our flyfishers and some of our light tackle guys.

On top of it, the fish got squirrelly too! It was a pick bite at best. Normally, we’re going full turbo in October.

Anyway, as the week went on the winds calmed and …SURPRISE…the bite got better. Dorado finally decided to wake up and join the party although we’re not seeing a lot of the big bulls of fall. Most of the fish are the smaller 5-20 pounders. They can be found pretty much anywhere right now, but a lot of guys (and gals) come down this time of year expecting the big horses and they just haven’t been very prevailant this year. Live baits, of course, work well, but stripped dead bonito really get ‘em going. One thing we did find…there’s another good use for the pesky needlefish!

One of our captains…Boli…with our La Paz Fleet got resourceful and started using long strips of the silvery needlefish and slow trolling it behind the panga. Within 5 minutes…HOOK UP!!! He’s been doing it all week and getting dorado. Best of all…the other needlefish don’t attack it. I guess there’s finally something they won’t eat!

Besides the dorado, the best part of the bite later in the week took place with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Because of the north winds we moved the fleet over to Muertos Bay. When the bite turned on, we got…well…look at the photos above! Tuna…wahoo…sailfish…as well as pargo, marlin…roosterfish…cabrilla…snapper…sierra…and others. Great variety! However, the tuna bite really want off-the charts! At times, you could see the tuna foaming if you were standing on the shore as the fish were really that close! Boiling 20-30 pound tuna blowing up on the baits and every rod in every panga double bendo! On one day, our pangas were back on the beach by 11 a.m. with the guys telling me that by 10:30 they had limits of tuna and could have gotten more. Hope this sticks around! Several nights we vacuum packed over 200 bags of fish for our anglers.

Weather has cooled tremendously. It’s great. After a season of 5 months of some of the hottest weather any of us can remember with almost every day over 100 degrees with roaring humidity, it’s now about 85…sunny…and really “Chamber of Commerce” weather! But keep an eye…possibly more rain on the way this week!

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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PHOTO 1: Marissa Rendall from Hermosa Beach CA shows off the two main fish we caught all week…dorado and yellowfin tuna. This was Marissa’s first time fishing and she enjoyed the tuna sashime we made for her at the Tailhunter Bar that evening. She was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and Capt. Pancho.

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