PHOTO 1: A new Tailhunter Poster Child!!!The angle of the photo might make this look a little bigger than it really is, but this is still a BIG fish!!! Make no mistake, this is a beast. It’s trophy! He surely knows how to pose in front of a camera. Actor and outdoor hunting TV show host, Rick Kasper, had a number of banner days fishing with us this week and got into some of the big yellowtail we found north of La Paz. Forty-pound fish were not uncommon and captains told me of larger fish that were lost to the rocks. “We lost several in the 50 pound class right next to the boat!,” said Rick.
PHOTO 2: Jeff Sakuda from Monterey Park CA has had some incredible trips with us over the years coming down twice a year or more. Fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, Jeff put some meat in the cooler with this heavy fat yellowtail, he caught on a big bait…the secret to the larger fish…larger mackerel or caballitos for bait. 
PHOTO 3: BUCKET LIST PHOTO! Before they went fishing that morning, John Carser, Tom Hinmon and Mark Rodman told me that they had been trying to catch a wahoo for year and that they wanted to try for wahoo that day. I told ’em that there’s wahoo, but it’s hit-or-miss and that they would have to commit the time and might not get any fish at all and then it would be too late to get anything else. But they said that wahoo was on their “BUCKET LIST.” OK…go for it. Well…what’dya know…they come back with THREE wahoo! One each. That’s incredible. That’s like telling someone you’re going to a ball game and saying you’re gonna hit a homerun! Then do it…
PHOTO 4: Rick Kasper and Dr. Doug Finn, visiting from New York on his first Mexico trip and first day ever on salt water scored 9 yellowtail, 10 doradol (most released), sierra and cabrilla.
PHOTO 5: Captain Archangel with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet holds up one of the wahoo caught this week off the S. end of Cerralvo Island (when the wind wasn’t blowing!). The fish was caught by Harry Hsu, recently retired and on his first trip to La Paz. Note the big purple/black rapala dangling from the mouth
PHOTO 6: Dr. Doug Finn from the Bronx, NY, said it was “the best fishing of my life…like the stuff you only see on TV shows!” He was bruised and battered after a few days of fishing and trying to stop big yellowtail like this one.
PHOTO 7: Our amigo from Portland, Brent Layng, is an ultra-triathalete, but had his hands full with yellowtail and big cabrilla (seabass) like this one the past week. The big pargo took a blue and white lure fished on a fast retrieve in about 60 feet of water west of Ballena Island north of La Paz.
PHOTO 8: Did I mention that we’re catching more dorado these days?
PHOTO 9 : Todd Wheat from N. Cal specifically came down this past week to cross rods and wits with our tricky pargo and got a personal best with this big pargo liso (mullet snapper). Todd was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and got in a few days before the winds ripped things up. The big pargo are right there in the rocks. It’s our largest of the season…so far!
PHOTO 10: Harry Hsu on his first trip with us got a wahoo as well as this nice female dorado fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. More dorado are moving into the area and Harry took this on a live sardine.
PHOTO 11: Bryan Layng came down from San Francisco to check our our spring-fishing and right off the bat, tied into this horse of a yellowtail that swallowed a nice caballito fished off the bottom. These heavy fish were off Espiritu Santo Island.
PHOTO 12: Popular Captain Jorge always seems to do well, especially when fishing with Jeff Sakuda who got into yellowtail, sierra, cabrilla and a prized-wahoo off S. Cerralvo Island after fishing several days with us.
PHOTO 13: Not a bad lineup for Todd Wheat and Greg Gregory fished 3 days with us but scored with pargo liso, big sierra, pargo mulatto, cabrilla and a rainbow runner.
PHOTO 14: They might not be big fish but they were fun fish, especially if you’d not ever done much fishing at all and our bonito schools were voracious this week and lots of fun on light tackle! Our family had a great time when they visited. Left to right, my daughter and son, Jessie and Jarrett Pfost, nephew-in-law Brian Palacios with the dorado; niece Summer Stevens and son-in-law Brian Reid who got several firsts on this trip. We were fishing with our amigo, Captain Lenny Bishop on his boat, “Pampered Lady.” He does a great job working the islands for fishing, snorkel and tour trips.
WEEKLY VIDEO CLIPS
A MIXED FISH BOX OF GREAT FISH MARRED BY ROUGH WINDS LATE IN WEEK!
It hasn’t been a great week of fishing but it hasn’t been a bad week either! Many of our anglers who fished with us this past week might tell you they personally had an exceptional time fishing. It all depended upon where you fished and what you fished for!
There are no so many different species lighting up the water here abouts and around La Paz that it’s hard to finger any of them or say any one of them is going off the charts. That old saying about “on any given day…” Well, this past week about anything could happen!
For instance, off the north and west side of Espiritu Santo Island north of La Paz, we had the best example of our crazy fishing. In about 60 feet of water, huge 30-40 pound homeguard yellowtail went off for the better part of the week with boats taking 1-8 fish each. The best baits were the big mackerel and caballito and tying them to a dropper loop or sliding egg sinker with 60-80 pound leader a few feet from the bottom with a stout rod; a reel with good drags and loaded with about 50-60 pound test. These were big thick fish and many were being broken off. Yo-yo iron on a fast retrieve in green/yellow and blue/white were also very effective.
The funny thing is that these are cold-water fish generally. Strangely, in the same area, schools of 5-15 pound dorado would suddenly move in and boats would take a limit or two of dorado in the same spots on iron, live sardines or slow trolled feathers.
In fact, if you looked anywhere in La Paz Bay and north towards the island you’d see low flying and dipping birds…a sure indication that there were dorado working the spots. Again, in the same spots as the dorado and yellowtail, big pargo and cabrilla as well as sierra (more cold water fish) and barracuda and bonito (more warm water fish) could be caught! Go figure! What it did was make for some fun fishing for lots of variety. The key to getting the big yellowtail was getting the larger live baits like mackerel or caballito.
In contrast, for our Las Arenas fleet, the bait situation for sardines continued to be a long run to the islands. Fortunately, enterprising commercial pangeros are running up there then coming back with bait to sell to the fishermen. The coolest thing was that at the south end of Cerralvo, we hit the wahoo every day! Not every boat, but at least one of our boats a day took 1`-3 wahoo that ran 20-60 pounds! Like the dorado, these fish are a bit early in the season but when they hit are eating the dark colored large Rapalas.
(We did have one day, THURSDAY, the winds were so strong, we were not able to fish. It was nuts! Like a baby hurricane with the sun out. We sent everyone home back to bed!)
Inshore, look for roosters, jack crevalle, big-eye jacks, cabrilla and big time pargo that are more frustrating than anything else. As well, marlin and sailfish are here ,but still not quite ready to openly feed, but every other day or so someone hooked on that quickly broke off. Most times, they sit there and just sun themselves until you almost run over them with a panga!
That’s our story!
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
Tailhunter Fish Report 