Tailhunter Fish Report

Verda Boyd with her favorite, Captain Jorge, has a knack for putting fish in the panga. The retired sheriff's officer from the S.F. bay area holds up one of her pargo she hooked off Punta Perico near Las Arenas. Pargo became a main focus over the last week or so as yellowtail tapered off.

Take a look at what might be one of the last yellowtail of the season. Our amigo, Jack Perris, from Garden Grove CA fished with us a few days and put a variety of fish in the boat including this yellowtail.

Craig Norton from Oregon poses with his wife, Debby, and a fat pargo mulato (barred pargo). Craig was on his first trip with us and was fishing with our Las Arenas fleet. The big fish hit just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos.

For a first time visitor, Desiree Weisser, from Orange Co. CA had a banner day on the water showing off a nice catch of sierra and bonito. Some of that went for ceviche that night at the Tailhunter Restaurant. She's posing on the sand at Bahia de Los Muertos.

We were wondering when the roosters would begin to show up and I think it was really that we were just concentrating so much on the yellowtail. Each week it's gotten a little better, but this past week, the roosters were schooling up. NOthing huge, but most fish were fun 5-20 pounders!

YELLOWTAIL SAY ADIOS BUT PARGO AND ROOSTERFISH TAKE HEADLINE STATUS

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 15-22, 2012

It would appear that the incredible yellowtail bite of 2012 has left us.  With the exception of a few fish here and there, not many yellowtail to speak of the last two weeks and even the commercial pangeros are off to fish other species.

In it’s place, the focus has been on other species that are normally caught at this time, but haven’t gotten much attention at al the last 3 months.

This past week, the pargo have really been on a tear, or at least, we’re seeing so many more in the counts mainly because everyone is fishing for them so there’s a direct correlation!  The big red guys are in their springtime spawn and schooling up in the shallows so the action has been visually and physically exciting with big moving schools of voracious 10-40 pound fish up close to the rocks and foaming when boat is thrown in their directions.  But that’s also the bain of these fish as well…rocks!  There’s plenty of action on the pargo but “action” doesn’t necessarily mean “catching.”  Probably only 1 of every 6 or 7 fish hooked makes it to the panga.  Many of our anglers who are fishing these pargo for the first time come back with comments like:

“Craziest strongest fish I’ve ever seen in Baja.”

“I hooked at least 5 of these fish and I couldn’t even lift the rod.  They immediately rocked me before I could turn the handle.  So much power!”

“I didn’t have a chance.  Two days fishing, I got 3 of the smaller pargo, but lost so many huge fish!  Frustrating but fun!”

“I was blown away by how powerful these fish are.  If you don’t turn their heads, they take you right into the reef!”

And so it goes!  We have clients down these days who look forward to nothing else but the challenges of these pargo year-after-year.

In addition to the pargo, we’re getting our first real action on the roosterfish as well.  Again, it might be a function of the fact that with the yellowtail moving on, the roosterfish are getting more attention.  However, reports of 2, 3, 5, 10 roosterfish caught and released have not been uncommon this week with our largest being about 40 pounds as the school-sized fish appear to have moved in to feed.

In addition to the pargo and roosters, some of the other classes of fish that helped keep the action rolling include snapper, sierra, cabrilla (seabass), bonito, ladyfish and some fat jack crevalle.

One of the more exciting things that happened this week was a report from one of our amigos who lives in La Ventana and fishes all the time.  When he’s not fishing, he’s kite boarding…his new love.

Check out what he wrote to me…

“Tuesday, I was kiting 1/2 a mile off shore between Punta Gorda and La Ventana when I came upon 100 or more birds crashing the water. There was sargaso everywhere and yes…..Dorado! I was literally kiting among Dorado slashing thru the water crushing bait. I saw at least 6 or 7 fish going ballistic at once with birds diving at jumping bait everywhere. And no fishing rod………. I was so caught up in the moment and amazed with all the action, I crashed my kite and ripped it in half. I talked with several kiters later in the day that had similar experiences with the exception of the kite crashing. Anyway, it was another day on the water to remember.”

We’ll keep you posted.  That’s our story…

Jonathan and Jilly

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

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