La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Fleet for Week of Nov. 9-16, 2014

November 16, 2014 by riplipboy

Touch all the bases! Talk about “grand slamming” Rafi Achmetov from Virginia and Arlan Schmitz (New Mexico), flank Captain Jorge with three nice catches! They had barely left the beach at Muertos when the big wahoo hit. They got that in the boat and got hit by the dorado then topped it off with a roosterfish (not able to release). Great example of some of the variety right now.

Whoa! That’s a fat wahoo for Virgil Redwine and Bob Donahue! The duo had some kind of week with us! They used conventional tackle for the wahoo but with the flyrod, they got numerous dorado, jack crevalle, roosterfish and other species!

After a week of fishing in Cabo, Randy Matz and Barbara Morris from Coalinga CA came north to do a bit of panga fishing with us. They show off some of their catch…a trophy-sized pompano and a dorado.

Catch of the week for Marty Koschnitzke! He and his girlfriend, Belle, got a couple handfuls of dorado with Captain Armando, then he proposed to Belle on the beach back in La Paz and she said, “Yes!” Congratulations to them both!

Surprising roosterfish bite for so late in the year! Virgil Redwine caught and released over a dozen roosters many on the flyrod. The roosterfish have been very good to us the last few weeks!

tags Joseph Cisneros Carlos Rojas wahoo 11-14

They were able to squeeze in one day of fishing and Joe Cisneros and his bud, Carlos Rojas from San Diego turned in a nice day…they got this fat wahoo and lost two others at the boat!

Mike Carter who lives in Pescadero just south of La Paz put the hurt on some dorado plus this nice pair of tasty pompano. These are fish we normally don’t see until the springtime.

Another cold-water fish that showed up lately indicative of the changing season…sierra! Captain Pancho poses with Brian Mee from eastern Washington and this speedy sierra!

A rare catch! It’s a mutant cabrilla (seabass) that we call a “Baja Grouper” or “Golden Grouper” that we catch now and then. Captain Archangel seems a bit distressed, but he’s one of our best at catching reef species!

Virgil Redwine and Bob Donahue had a great week….wahoo…dorado…sierra…roosterfish…jack crevalle…roosterfish…They released most of their fish too!

Another example of our variety this week…red snapper…dog tooth snapper (pargo) and amberjack!

SOLID FISHING – CRAZY WAHOO – VARIETY!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 9-16, 2014

Perfect conditions…willing fish…lots of variety…light traffic…a nice action week of fishing!

Our anglers this past week probably could not have asked for better conditions that we often get at this time of the year. There can be days as we transition from warmer to colder conditions where the winds blow strong and cool and it gets a bit choppy. We’ll see more of those kinds of days as we get closer to December, but this past week wasn’t one of them as the season winds down.

This time of year, we get fewer fishermen and more folks simply escaping for a few days in the sunshine from colder areas or here for the holidays. So, if this is truly the end of our fishing “rush” for the season, it’s closing with a bang!

There were incredible varieties this week. Bottom fish. Topwater fish. Bluewater game fish. Warm water fish. Cold water fish. Trophy fish. They pretty much all game to the party in one way, shape or form. Some days were better than others. Some boats did better than others. But the whole week…taken in totality… provided some excellent action, especially if the anglers fished more than one day. Our conventional anglers did great. Our light tackle folks did great. Some of our BEST fishing was had by our flyfishermen…after a season that was really tough on flyfishing!

I’m not sure where to start.

For one thing, I’m pretty convinced now that our La Paz side fishing is headed into winter condtions. Fishing for La Paz has been pretty inconsistent as waters cool down. There’s still some dorado, but it’s erratic. For that reason, most of our fishermen are fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Waters seem to be holding warmer and, even on the breezy days, fishing is closer to shower and there’s no arguing with the variety. Everyone is getting fish every day. I would say the anglers who go for the “home run” fish and chase the big trophy fish are most likely to be at the whims of nature, the fish and luck, while the anglers who “go with the flow” and chase whatever is biting have had the better success.

The majority of the fish were dorado. Nothing huge, but fun 10-20 pounders were common. Great for the first-timers, light tackle and the flyfishers. We also had bonito, jack crevalle and schools of sierra and incredibly surprising numbers of rooster fish show up that all meant great bent rod action plus a few sailfish hooked and lost. We also got a few nice wahoo off that high spot at the south end of Cerralvo Island. Incredibly, some of our wahoo were being caught right against the rocks just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos just a few minutes off the beach.

On the bottom and off the reefs and rocks, we saw amberjack for the first time. None of the huge ones, but 10-20 pound amberjack are a fun size and great eating at that size. Plus dog-tooth cubera snapper (pargo), barred pargo, yellow snapper and cabrilla (Mexican sea bass) in varying sizes up to the larger 15 pound pargo.

It was the kind of week that you almost never knew what you were going to catch. It really feels like we’re right on the brink of things changing over. I don’t know how much longer this kind of fishing will continue. It could change by the time you’re reading this. We’re right on the brink. It just has that “feel” as I watch the waters, the winds and the air temperatures every day. However, with this “El Nino” season, there’s just no telling and I’ve been wrong all season! So, until things change, we’ll continue to ride the wave and enjoy the bite!

That’s our story!