We haven't caught wahoo for several weeks, but that was because everyone was focused on the tuna and dorado! Randy Lyons took one day off from fishing the other species to troll around the south end of Cerralvo Island and came up with 3 'hoo! All were taken on dark rapalas. Randy, from Elk Grove CA and his amigo, Dick Winslow, had a stellar week with some of the best catches of the week. See the other photos of them below.
Yes...there are still some nice-sized tuna around playing among the 15 pound footballs. Many anglers are either getting beat up or busting off their fish or simply getting spooled by beasts they never see except for a smoke trail from their reels. This 60-pound class tuna by Cathy Corda didn't get away. She's trying to lift it on the beach at Las Arenas. The big tuna re readily eating chunked squid.
I believe that I will have to revise my predictions about the best time to fish for pargo. In the past few weeks, we've had some of the BEST and LARGEST pargo fishing that I can remember. Captain Pancho really tore it up this week with Dick Winslow who got his first tuna (sea below) as well as his first pargo which included several like this one in the 30-40 pound class. This one is a pargo liso (mullet snapper). The fish were boiling on chummed squid.
James Henning (blue shirt) brought 10 of his Denver amigos and kneels amid some of their catch of tuna and dorado. Over three days the guys limited or near limited on tuna, dorado, pargo, cabrilla and snapper.
There were some really nice fish caught this week and some surprising catches even for old-time returning amigos like Joey Fuschetti from Orange Co. CA who holds up a 50-pound amberjack. Joey has an unusual method of fishing that he swears by. He chops up bits of papaya when he fishes and chums with it first. We all think he's nuts. The captains just shake their heads. However, it's hard to argue with success. Joey always catches fish and often some of the largest fish of the day.
Like I said, above, it's been a crazy season for pargo and some of the biggest have been caught the last few weeks. Here's our good, amigo, Randy Lyons again with a big dog-tooth snapper taken near Cerralvo Island. Randy had several large ones during the week and said there was one that literally dragged him with from one end of the boat to the other with his heels dug into the deck and the drag completely buttoned down on a 2-speed reel and the fish was still moving! It eventually broke off in the rocks on 50 pound test. He said that chunks of squid tossed into the water got the fish boiling to the surface except once when spearfishers dove right into their spot and chased the fish away.
Blue water and fresh tuna for Tom Moon and Tony Toven off Las Arenas beach! The two caught tuna ranging from 10 pounders up to 63 pounds. Both are from the Los Angeles area.
This is what it looks like to have been on a fish for 4 hours...a 250 pound marlin on light tackle for Craig Corda. Check out the story below!
Initially, Dick Winslow didn't have any wire on his Rapala that morning, but Captain Pancho suggested putting some light wire leader on just-in-case. It did the trick. Dick got this wahoo and the sharp teeth of the wahoo shredded the lure plus the plastic sheath protecting the wire leaving the fish barely on by a thread. Straight mono would never have held.
Our La Paz fleet continues to consistently kick out dorado...about 90 percent of the catch for our fleet on the side with fish ranging from 5-20 pounds on the average. We're waiting for the larger bulls to show. Much of the time, the bite seems later in the day so we caution anglers to be patient and give the captain time to get the fish going. Our boats have been staying out extra long...sometimes not coming back until after 4 p.m. to find the fish. Joey and Bob hold up a couple of typical La Paz dorado.
WAHOO TUNA DORADO AND BIG PARGO RIP ANGLERS!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 8-15, 2010
A pretty good week here. What did you want to catch? It seemed like there were opportunities for everything from marlin to roostefish and from pargo to tuna and dorado! Such a great variety.
For our La Paz boats, the dorado bite continued fairly solidly. Perhaps there were too few big fish compared to last week, but limits or near limits were the rule rather than the exception for our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet. Most of the fish were 5-15 pounds. A larger La Paz dorado might go maybe 20 pounds. But there were also some jags of pargo, cabrilla and sailfish and marlin.
The most variety were for our anglers fishing out of Las Arenas. Our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet had it’s share of dorado up to 30 pounds. However, it was the other species that poked their heads up that continued to keep rods bent and anglers fired up!
For instance, there were good numbers of football tuna running 5-20 pounds, but every day or so, some guys tangled with the big gorillas that either beat the anglers or busted up the gear! No giant giant fish put in the boat, but several 40-70 pound yellowfin tuna were landed. As well, we saw several 20-40 pound yellowtail…that’s right YELLOWTAIL (in August) make it into the fish boxes.
As well, roosterfish and some huge pargo were also landed. Just like the yellowtail, we normally don’t see these big monster pargo this time of year, but it’s a screwy year. We’re seeing some of the best and largest pargo fishing of the year the last few weeks. The funny thing is that like the yellowfin tuna and the yellowtail, we’re catching these guys on big chunks of fresh giant squid! We’ve not had much live bait so we’re catching or buying giant squid in the morning and then chunking for the big fish! And they’re eating it!
Also, for several weeks no one has caught any wahoo. It’s not because they’re not here. It’s because no one has been fishing for them. The tuna bite has been so good that no one wants to veer off and take a shot. Well, several guys went after them and it was like the wahoo were just waiting and feeling ignored. The fish were on the usual spots at the south end of Cerralvo Island and jumped all over the dark Rapalas.
FIRST PERSON STORY
CATCH & RELEASE Marlin by Cathy and Craig Corda…sorry no photos…Cathy almost got pulled overboard!
“Another wild time at Las Arenas beach – while fishing for tuna at the sweet spot in front of the beach houses, south of El Faro ~ my wife Cathy, our guide Aldolfo and myself unexpectedly hooked up to a marlin- WHAM! the battle was on, taking out line very fast, about a 1/2 hr. into it we had the marlin close to the panga. WOW bigger then we expected ~ 250 lb. blue, on a 40 lb. line, with a Penn Senator reel.
As Aldolfo put the gaff into its back it woke up and off it went with Aldolfo hanging on for all he had and the marlin was splashing everything and everyone, Aldolfo’s feet left the pangas deck, I caught his shirt tale and pulled him back in before he went for a swim.
Marlin takes off with our only gaff in its back, for about another 1/2 hr. we kept the marlin on the side of the panga, calling for anyone to come with another gaff. Finally, we got the bait guys to come over, all they had was a harpoon, so they pulled up next to us with the marlin between both pangas and tried to harpoon it a few times but this only pissed the marlin off more, finally it turned and burned, broke the line. I was really relieved to get back to fishing for tuna, dorado and pargo all which were ranging in the 30 to 60 lb. range.
So this was a true “Catch and Release”. Side note ~ Aldolfo’s gaff floated to the surface and he got it back.”
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Here’s some video footage from the week taken on the beach. Click this…some good stuff!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llNsWm7xNLs
SOME WEEKLY FISHING HUMOR
I get sent all kinds of funny stories and video clips. This week, there were two that were excellent and I just wanted to share then with you.
The first is called “Adolph’s Bad Day.” For those of you who own boats, this will be especially good…
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81057766/
This one is all about fish leaping in the boat! The cameraman laughing is the best part!
http://www.purplepug.com/Videos/Asian-Carp-Wabash-River-August/13187983_T9fdj#957217611_fEWWb
Have a great week. 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
“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.”
Tailhunter Fish Report 
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