FULL MOON GRAND SLAM for 17-year-old Marcos Holguin and 13-year-old Ricardo Gil del Montes, Jr. from Los Angeles. Captain Jorge helps out with the nice pargo (dog tooth snapper), yellowfin tuna and nice yellowtail caught while fishing with with chunked squid and our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. It was a good week for the opportunity to catch multiple high-grade sport species despite fears of the full moon. Highly unusual to find big pargo and yellowtail in these warmer months!
It's incredible that we are getting yellowtail of this quality in July. Normally, we only get these in the cooler months of February to May, but LAPD detective Mark Holguin holds a nice pair. Note the two other tails at his feet! The fish are in shallow water near shore and have averaged 15-35 pounds this week.
Even better than a grand slam (3 sport species) is a Grand Slam plus One! Northern Cal residents, Dave Tyree and Steve Artis hold up a yellowfin tuna, a yellowtail, a dorado and a barred pargo...all prized catches. They fished 5 days and encountered similar results each day.
Some of those bruiser yellowfin tuna are still around! New Mexico angler Darren Hanson holds the gaff on a fatty taken off Las Arenas. The fish were in-close most days and showed an affinity for chunks of giant squid which meant starting the day pulling up 50 pound squid from 1200 feet down...a workout!
S.Cal resident Gina Fowlkes and husband Mitch brought the family for a week of fishing and shows off a days catch with a nice mix of dorado and yellowfin tuna
Yellowtail trio on the beach for Victor, Ricardo Jr, and Ricardo Sr. Gil de Montes. Keeping it in the family.
Mahi for the coolers! Long time amigo, Dave Castanon and son Brent from La Verne CA is and fire captain and is often chasing brushfires this time of year, but got down for a quick week of fishing and started off with two good-sized dorado!
Juan Martinez says he catches all the fish...all the time! He holds up one of the yellowfin tuna caught this week near Punta Arenas.
Mean slugger tuna up to 60 pounds like this one held by Dougie Idsinga continued to battle and frustrate our anglers often taking up to 2 hours to boat them. Many larger fish were lost. That's Cerralvo Island in the background. Some of the fish were hooked within casting distance of shore or could be seen swimming in the shallows.
Marcos Holguin's dog-tooth snapper is the first picture in the report, but a solo shot was worth posting again because it's such a great fish! Surprisingly, we've got a good pargo bite going on with dog-tooth snapper, mullet snapper and barred pargo all biting!
Ernie (on the left) had some reservations fishing with newbie rookie Rick (on the left) and joking told him so. But, as you can see from the two mugging for the camera, they did just fine.
Despite all the other "glamour" species showing up these days, our bread-and-butter fish for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas Fleets continues to be the dorado which are scattered over a wide area with more sargasso weeds stacking up in the channel. Steve Artis holds up a nice bull.
NO FULL MOON BLUES! FISH BITE STRONG!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 24 to Aug. 1, 2010
In all my years here, I can remember very few times when it was possible to catch a “grand slam” of fish and where there was so much quality in the water. So much for the full moon! I was worried, but as it turns out, this has been one of the better fishing weeks of the season in terms of variety as well as quality.
When we speak of a “grand slam” it’s the fishing equivalent of taking at least three sportfishing species the same day. This week on several occasions, we had anglers nail big tuna, big yellowtail plus a marlin or a big dorado or big pargo or roosterfish all in the same day…sometimes in the same hour!
The weirdest thing is that we’re well into the thick of summer. Tuna, dorado and marlin are typical this time of year, but we’re having one of the best runs of yellowtail…a fish we normally catch in the COLDER water months of February to May…slamming baits right now!
The fish are a nice grade too. Tuna in the 40-60 pound class are not uncommon and there have been fish much much larger lost. Yellowtail are 20-40 pounds. Pargo are 10-40 pounds. Roosters up to 70 pounds were caught this week!
The best shot at this variety was with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The fish are not very far either.
One of the guys said, “We’re so close to shore we’re fishing for rooster fish one moment then the next just a few more yards out…we’re fishing for tuna!:
One big tuna bit just offshore and they fought it for two hours. By the time they got the fish to the boat, the boat was literally on the beach as the fish had towed the boat around and was now only in about 10 feet of water!
Las Arenas has been quite the surprise!
The bad news is that live bait has been very difficult to get for our pangas there. Sardines are not very plentiful. The good news is that there has been giant squid and chunks of giant squid have worked solidly all week. As long as they are around, certainly, the tuna seem to keep hanging out. But some days there are no squid!
The other problem with the giant squid is that…well…they’re giant! As one angler put it…”By 8 a.m. I’ve pulled 4 of these 50 pound squid up from as deep as 1200 feet! I’m covered in sweat. I need a beer. I just want to sit down. Instead, the captain takes a 3 pound chunk and sends it back down and I’m now bit by a 50 pound tuna that kicks my butt for another hour!” Another angler laughingly said, “I offered our captain an extra 20 bucks to do all the work to catch the squid for me! That’s too much work! The captain laughed and said I had to do it myself!”
Chunking the big squid and dropping bits in the water to drift then pinning a big slab on a huge hook has been the ticket. Or, a small weight and a strip of squid sent down nails the big pargo or yellowtail. Slow-trolled strips have been great on the dorado.
Our Tailhunter La Paz fleet has not been encountering as much variety, but there’s been no shortage of fish either. Dorado between 10 and 20 pounds have been the main target as patches of sargasso weeds normally found in the late spring are now popping up and holding fish. There have also been some jags of wahoo at the north end of Cerralvo Island as well.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: 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
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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm
Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate
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