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Archive for September, 2011

First timer to La Paz, Bob Chadwick holds up a couple of his nice tuna typical of the fish we were getting this week with our Tailhunter Las Arenas flight. While not crazy biting, the fish were definitely "on-the-chew" better than the week before when a full moon seemed to keep the bite down. Bob's biggest fish here weighed 38 pounds.

Our amigo, Ken Gragg, has made three trips to fish with us this year...and the year's not done yet! He's given a hand here by Captain Victor to hoist up a big-boy bull dorado estimated at about 45-pounds.

Here's the end-result of man vs. sealion. Although the tuna came back nicely this week, it seemed that at least 1 out of 3 fish hooked was lost to a big dog sealion that parked itself in the middle of the schools and had a field-day munching hooked fish to the frustration of many of our anglers. Sealions aren't usually a problem, but this week this one pesky butthead couldn't seem to get enough as shown by Ken's "big catch."

Three days fishing with us for Ron and Lenora Kellogg resulted in a handful of tuna and dorado to bring home. These were caught their first day out with us fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

We had alot of great couples visit us this week. Kim and Matt Hoey pose with some of their catch after their first of 3 days fishing with us. Kimber has a dorado. Matt hoists a 25 pound tuna.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Well, as mentioned, I dropped my regular video cam into the water on the beach last week so this week I had to use my backup cam.  The shots are shakier than I would have liked, but you get the idea!  Click and enjoy some of the highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqHA9t18fq8

FULL MOON LEAVES AND FISH GET A BIT HUNGRIER AGAIN

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 18-25, 2011

We recovered nicely after the full moon last week.  The further we got away from it, the better we seemed to do.  It wasn’t a full recovery given what we did BEFORE the full moon, but we were definitely back on the fish bite.

 

For our Las Arenas boats, the tuna came back nicely.  They were squirrelly at times with the bite taking off early one day then very very late the next day.  Another time, they would eat only small sardines fished live and the next day they would only eat dead sardines chummed in the water.  Another day, they would eat only slow trolled sardines or larger caballitos.  Talk about picky!  The secret was just hanging in there and keep trying a bunch of things until something worked.  Also, it meant working through several dozen bites of big feisty bonito that would tear things up.  Some days, our pangas would get 2-4 (20-40 pounders)  tuna but would also nail several dozen bonito too which meant for a really tiring day!  Lots of smiles most days.

 

I guess the biggest of problems was the monster that becomes the scourge of fishermen all over.  There was one rat bastard sealion that planted itself right in the middle of the tuna school all week.  You would think the thing would be gorged after taking about 20-40 percent of all the tuna hooked…that’s alot of tuna…but every day, it was right there again torturing us!  We usually don’t have sealion problems, but this week we sure did.  Guys were doing all kinds of thing.  They were putting out dummy lines.  They were heaving dead bonito at it (mostly to no effect except straining some arm muscles) and also throwing the occasional sinker at it…also to no effect.  The best was my suggestion to two of our guys to get the hottest habanero sauce they could find and fill a dead bonito with it.  Then toss it at the sealion. 

 

They did it and said the sealion went right for it and gulped it down then came up barking like it’s mouth was on fire!  It swam away to bother a different boat!

 

Anyway, the tuna seem to be back and with it there was also a decent bite of dorado as well as roosterfish and finally someone hooked a wahoo…maybe the 5th or 6th we’ve had all year in what has been a pretty sour year for wahoo. 

 

For our La Paz fleet, again, the further we got from the full moon, the better.  Limits or near limits was usually the case with decent 10-20 pound fish the norm and mostly found on the west side of Espiritu Santo Island.  The bite could be early and then everyone comes home or, on some days, it was sparse pickings until fish exploded late in the day.

One note…this time of year the heat (combined with humidity) can be really incredible.  Most of us are used to it, but we can’t stress enough about drinking liquids, especially water.  Sorry, beer and margaritas don’t count!  You can’t drink enough water here, especially when you’re on the water fishing.  The heat literally sucks the moisture from your body.  We’ve had several people feel the ills of heat stroke…headache, chills…almost like the flu. Fixed ’em up with Gatorades, water and just getting in a cooler environment.  But just a heads up that it’s important to keep hydrated!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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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Retired fire captain, Jesse Franco, shows off one of the type of yellowfin tuna typical of what we were catching this week off Las Arenas. The bite seemed to have suffered this past week during the full moon. Fish averaged about 20-35 pounds most days. Jess got this one on live bait just off from Punta Arenas.

It would seem to be too warm for amberjack, but several large ones were hooked this week. Amberjack are the good eating big boy cousins to yellowtail and we normally see them around late spring and early summer when conditions are cooler. However, Fabio Caldron was fishing with our amigo, Hawk Davis off Cerralvo Island when he roped this big beast estimated at 50-60 pounds or larger!

Lisa Ogle...first timer on the ocean...from Oregon probably caught the largest tuna of the week...estimated at 70 pounds by our Captain Victor. She just didn't have a camera to take a photo of it! So, you get her 2nd best tuna! We enjoy showing- off the ladies and especially when they're first timers! She and her husband Brian, a hunting guide, also got into a big day of dorado.

Dean Francoeur and Jeff Lipp hold up a couple of their yellowfin at Las Arenas. Some of the problem with the tuna may have been the difficulty in catching bait. Some days the fish bit early and other days, the tuna waiting until the last minute to bite. Dean's fish went 27 pounds on the scale.

More like it. Greg Marsalla took one of our super pangas north outta La Paz as he only had one day to fish and probably had one of the better days this week with three of them on the boat taking some quality dorado.

John "JD" Drucker makes it down every year to visit us...sometimes twice a year...when he can get away from work and always does pretty well on the fishing. He's holding one of his Las Arenas yellowfin tuna here on the beach.

Jeff Sweet fished with first-timer Greg Landerer and got 4 nice yellowfin tuna for their efforts their first day. Largest fish was 24 pounds.

Our buddy from Washington, Mike Whitlow, celebrating his birthday for an entire week in Mexico, posted up with this quality yellowfin tuna he caught fishing with Captain Adolfo.

VIDEO CLIPS OF THE WEEK!!

Sorry…no video clips this week.  FUMBLE FINGERS ME…I dropped my video cam in the water!  What a doofus. I was taking some shots and had removed the waterproof housing so that I could get better audio.   It slipped out’ve my hands.   It’s fried.    First time in all these years here that I’ve ever dropped a camera in the water.  Of course, it happens to be the ONLY camera I have that is NOT waterproof.

FULL MOON MAKES FOR A STICKY BITE BUT TUNA AND DORADO STILL ACTIVE…SORT OF…!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 11-18, 2011

Some great photos this week and if you just looked at the photos, you might be inclined to say that we had a pretty nifty week of fishing.  But….hold on…in all honesty….There was a noticeable drop off in the good tuna bite that went off last week off Punta Arenas and South Cerralvo Island. 

Not sure if it was the full moon or the scarcity of bait, but things were definitely off.  Our pangas averaged only 1-4 tuna in the 20-30 pound class although we did hit a fewer in the 40-60 pound class.  They were few and far between.  Compared to last week when 5-10 tuna in the 40-50 pound class was more the norm. 

 

But everywhere this week the bite seemed to have dropped off…even for our La Paz fleet.  Everyone got fish but it was more of a picky bite.  Excluding what you may or may not believe about a full-moon affecting things, conditions seemed good except for one thing…the bait!  It was harder to get.

 

For our Las Arenas fleet, our normally good sardine areas held few or only tiny sardines which meant some days we had to jig for caballitos.  Or, we had to go way up the east side of Cerralvo Island to find sufficient sardine supplies.  For our La Paz fleet it was also a struggle to get bait. We got the bait, but some days it took alot longer to get enough to head out.

 

Still, we did get some good dorado this week with our La Paz fleet doing better than our Las Arenas fleet. But it could be like pulling teeth at times.  Imagine some of your favorite captains…all stars like Chito, Raul, Boli, Pancho, Jorge, Victor… and others getting only 1 or 2 fish!  That’s unheard of!  Wow!  But then the boat right next to a hot boat could get 10 fish!  Crazy.

Some good roosterfishing, sailfish and marlin bites too.  Will see what happens as we move away from this full moon. 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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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The yellowfin tuna came up barking this week! Nice 30-80 pound fish for our Las Arenas fleet and showing here with some of our buen amigos: Mary Heilman; Ed Vander Veer; Mike Whitlow and Bobby Whitlow. Great week of tuna fishing!

The picture is a little deceiving, but our amigo, Jorge "Campion" Romero is actually about 6' tall, but has to lean way back in order to lift this tuna estimated between 70-80 pounds that he rocked off Las Arenas on 50 pound test! He only got one but it was a horse!

In addition to the tuna, it wasn't like the dorado disappeared from the center stage! For the entire summer, the dorado have been voracious! Our popular Captain Chito has a big smile with a big dorado for Ed Vander Veer from Portland OR who nailed this big bull north of La Paz.

Captain Victor from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet flanked by Bernie Pirih and Jim Cirar from Reno NV area and a whole mess o' yellowfin tuna they hooked line live caballitos. The largest of these was scaled at 45 pounds.

It was another active week for marlin and sailfish with most fish released or busting off. However, this one could not be released. Left to right: Esteban romero, Randy Bryan from Chino Hills CA , Capitan Joel , John Nagy from Marina del Rey CA.

Like a kid with a pool toy, Mary Heilman from Oregon cradles her big bull dorado she caught fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet off Espirito Santo Island.

Mike Whitlow spent his birthday with us from Washington and spent 5 full days slamming dorado, tuna, cabrilla, pargo and other species. But what he really wanted was a big roosterfish. He finally got the big fish on the last day...at the last hour of fishing! "It made my trip," he said. The big fish was released. Captain Adolfo looks on.

Personal bests on the "bucket list" for S. Californian, Don Busse, who got his largest dorado...a 25 and 30 pounder fishing with us this past week.

Natalie Espejo probably loves to fish even more than Bob Gurbuz from Los Angeles...in fact, she's crazy to fish and, as shown in the photo, often catches the largest fish when they fish. Actually, she gets impatient with him if he takes too long to pull in his fish! Bob is actually an experienced angler but says, "She's the boss!" Fun amigos! They got into the tuna bite this week at Las Arenas with their largest fish in the 40 pound class.

It's an outstanding time to fish inshore or along the islands, largely because everyone is outside chasing the bluewater fish! However, species like cabrilla, pargo, snapper and school-sized roosters like Bobby Whitlow's fish here that he caught and released can make for an entire day with plenty of action, That's Captain Adolfo grinning in the stern of the panga.

There comes a point where your arms ache and your back screams and you have to say, "No mas! Let's go home!" That's what happened with Tom Moltzen and Al Skiff who plugged the panga with yellowfin tuna (and Captain Pancho) and were back on the beach by 10:30 a.m. off Las Arenas.

Alex Trasvina brought his dad, Victor, down for a last-minute fishing trip and got into some of the yellowfin tuna one day fishing with our Las Arenas fleet then fished their 2nd day and slammed the dorado with our La Paz fleet.

First-timers to La Paz to fish with us, brothers Steve and Glenn Libbrecht from Nevada put numerous tuna in the pangas as well as dorado. This shot is from their 2nd day fishing with Captain Jorge. All the fish were 40 pound class sluggers.

VIDEO CLIPS of the WEEK

Click here for our video and still images from the week on Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nodouT1xwE

Bonus Video Clip of the Week is Martine, the Italian opera singer who stopped by to visit us on the beach!  Turn up your volume and click the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63dtVb3ZarU

TUNA BUST UP LAS ARENAS ANGLERS WITH DORADO CONTINUING ON THE CHEW!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 4-11, 2011

Overall, despite some occasional dips, it was an incredible week of fishing for both our Tailhunter Fleets here.  Not only did the dorado keep biting fast and furious for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, but tuna popped up mid-week for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.  It was pretty good pickings.

 

The tuna were a great surprise.  On and off over the summer the tuna would tease here and there with a handful popping up every few days with nothing solid.  Well, about Wednesday about 5 miles offshore between the Punta Arenas lighthouse and the south end of Cerralvo Island the fish came charging.  Accompanied at times by the porpoise schools…and sometimes not…the yellowfin were “jumping out’ve the water all around the boats!” said one of our anglers.  “I’ve never seen 50-100 pound fish like that and after catching several 40-pounders, I’m glad we didn’t hook any larger!  One guy fought one for almost 3 hours and lost it!”  

 

The biggest problem for our Las Arenas fleet was the lack of sardines for bait so the guys had to catch caballito and also do a bit of trolling as well (cedar plugs again seem to be the hot ticket!).  But the big caballito hit the water like candy to a kindergarten class and for several days the boats put 2-10 fish aboard each day plus losing others…many much larger.  The size range of these went from 10 pound schoolie tuna up to 100-pound pigs with most of the fish in the 30-40 pound class…perfect for most anglers.  “That was plenty big for me!” said one of our anglers.  “I could not handle anything larger.  Before this a big trout had been my biggest fish!”

 

For the rest of the catch out of Las Arenas, we also hooked some marlin, sailfish, roosters and a nice smattering of pargo, cabrilla and snapper for those anglers that wanted to work inshore and along the island for fun light tackle fishing.

 

For our Tailhunter La Paz fleet…the boom on dorado continued.  It’s been bread-and-butter all summer.  If you want to put fillets in the cooler then chasing dorado north of town with our La Paz fleet has been the way to do it.  Dorado have been incredible most days with fish from 10-50 pounds.  Sometimes it’s one fish here.  One fish there.  But, often, the guys were telling me it could go from sheer boredom to pandemonium as big schools of mahi suddenly crashed and every single rod would be bent and it was frantic fishing at it’s best. Several days this week the fishermen were back on the beach cleaning their catches by 11 or 12 noon or earlier!

 

Still no wahoo in the picture or giant squid…we keep getting asked about both!  But the dorado and tuna sure kept everyone busy this week.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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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The better grade of tuna popped up off Las Arenas and Cerralvo Island. There weren't many of them, but the ones that did show up were in the 40-100 pound class with some larger ones mixed in. Chance Vega from Long Beach hoists up a 40 pounder that just came over the rail.

Dorado continued to be the main attraction for both our Tailhunter fleets with some really nice grade fish being about 90 percent of the weekly catch like this big bull that Captain Rogelio is helping Ron with fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

There's no question that there's alot of billfish in the water right now and the guys fishing for dorado and tuna are getting quite a few surprise hook ups. I wante to thank our amigo, Tom Beautnagel, who took some great billfish photos this past week, including this fantastic shot of our Captain Gerardo gunning the boat and trying to chase down a jumping sailfish hooked by one of his anglers. This is what we call a "Nantucket Sleigh Ride!" All you can do is hold on!

This guy never has a bad day. He is always smiling! Our good friend, Rick Kasper, actor and outdoor TV show host got into that nice jag of tuna this pas week off Las Arenas.

You gotta give this smiling gal props! Debra Guyton from Buena Park CA was fishing for the first time this week and got badly seasick, but refused to stop fishing even when she could easily have gone back to shore. She'd get sick...catch a fish...get sick...catch a fish...and kept smiling too! She got some big tuna as well as some great dorado like this one!

They came to get a tuna or two and Kevin Meyerhoff and Brian Hoff did get these two that ended up on their dinner plates at our Tailhunter Restaurant as ceviche, sashime and Hawaiian poke.

It's a bit hard to tell all the players behind the dorsal fin, but for sure, it's our popular Captain Pancho with Ron and maybe Tyler and the smiles. This particular day, they got the sailfish AND a marlin fishing off Las Arenas and major kudos for quickly releasing both fish to swim away! Quite a few billfish in the water many around the schools of small dorado and bonito. (Thanks for the photo, Tom!)

Showing off a nice rack of Las Arenas dorado, Capt. John Seidensticker from Huntington Beach CA shows of some good sized dorado typical of the size we're getting right now.

HOT WEATHER AND HOT DORADO FISHING PACE THE WEEK!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 28-Sept. 4, 2011

Again, it was a pretty hot week for dorado fishing around town, especially for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet where filling the coolers in a single day was sometimes the rule rather than the exception for quite a few fishermen if they wanted doado meat!  Fishing north of town, there was both quantity and quality with some 30-40 pound fish taken each day. 

 

 It wasn’t quite so frisky for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, but dorado fishing was still fairly steady but the bonus being that we found several spots of tuna that ranged from 20-100 pounds that were close to shore or to the island plus quite a few hookups on sailfish and marlin.  So, all-in-all, lots of variety.

 

Perhaps the biggest concern all week wasn’t the hot fishing.  The fish took care of themselves!  If you had lines in the water and a few days fishing like most of our clients, you were gonna put some fillets in your ice chest without really trying too hard.  However, the hottest things was the weather! 

 

We had our normally warm temps in the high 90’s and low hundreds that are tolerable to most folks.  No biggie.  However, I can’t remember when it was so humid.  For instance, one day it was 98 degrees at 3 p.m. but with the humidity, the heat index had us at 118!  Another day it was only 101 degrees, but with the humidity and the heat index it was a whopping 129 degrees at SIX P.M.!!!!!  Amazingly, as soon as the sun dipped down the afternoon Corumuel winds come up every day and immediately, the temperatures drop within 30 minutes by 20 degrees and then continue getting cooler with the breeze refreshing everything through the night.  Our biggest concern wasn’t reminding our fisher-folk to hold onto their rods…it was reminding them that they MUST drink waters!  Beer doesn’t count.  The ice in the margarita doesn’t count!  With temperatures so high, people don’t realize that the liquid in their bodies is getting sucked right out with every breath and dangerous heat stroke is a very real possibility!  In the past, we’ve had folks literally tip over and pass out and had to call the ambulance or get sick when they came back to their rooms thinking they had the flu or food poisoning with cramps and chills when, in fact, they were just heat stroking.  Fortunately, it’s not happened yet this season, but as long as you wear a hat.  Stay in the shade as much as possible and stay hydrated, folks are fine.

 

But back to the fishing…

 

Yes…dorado…dorado…dorado…Hahahahaha…(yawn).  Seriously, we’re thankful the dorado have been ripping all summer.  Great fun. Great fighters.  Great eating!  Probably 90 percent of the catch this past week has been dorado. 

 

But, the continued bites by sailfish and marlin to unsuspecting anglers who are have a little sardine out there swimming around on light tackle trying to hook a dorado or tuna then suddenly finding a 7-10 foot fish on the end is usually pretty thrilling.  Most times the fish break off after a fight or, if taken, almost all the billfish are getting released. 

 

Even moreso was the exciting appearance of the larger grade of tuna off Las Arenas.  Some of the fish were as close as Punta Perrico which is about 5 minutes down the beach from where we launch our pangas near the lighthouse.  30-40 pound models were the norm, but larger 50, 60 and a few fish over 100 pounds were hooked and most lost.   But this is definitely something to keep an eye on.  The tuna were hardly wide open, but boats that went to the tuna zone got 1-4 fish each most days.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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.”

 

Read Full Post »