
One of our frequent amigos, Dave Lindell, from Pendleton OR with Pat McDonell from Western Outdoor News and Dave’s big wahoo…his first. This might have been the largest fish of the 3 day event. Dave had several others hooked up as well.

Some other great fun amigos and always a blast to be around Dave and Michele (“with one “L” ) Conklin who also had some big fish and out of everyone might have also caught the most fish of any team in the Panga Slam event with the number of hookups they had each day. They’re from Spokane WA.

Love this shot of good friends, Cathy and Craig Corda with Craig mugging from the panga as Cathy holds their big wahoo!

First timer, but hopefully not the last time, Paul Csenar from Newport Beach is another of our amigos that got his first wahoo this week…in fact, he got TWO! He also got his first marlin this week as well.

On fire! Michele Conklin with the largest dorado of the week with husband Dave and a nice cabrilla. They had more hookups than anyone else and a great variety of fish!

Big smiles from Ron Lawver, Sr. from Washington and Captain Victor with a trophy roosterfish in flat waters near Las Arenas. The fish was released.

What the heck? It’s June! Phil Okamoto got this yellowtail off Espirito Santo Island. No one could believe it until we saw the photos and the fillets. Most yellowtail run from February to Apil when the waters are cold. Waters are almost 80 degrees right now!

Right there in Bahia de Los Muertos, there’s some nice schools of roosterfish like this one caught by Catlyn Wagner right near where we launch the boats. Her dad is good amigo, Gary Wagner, who owns the famous Giggling Marlin Restaurant in Cabo San Lucas. The fish was released.

Candid photos like this one with our Captain Rogelio and Orhan Gurbuz with his big cabrilla are gems!

Boy did I goof!!! I’m really meticulous about photos on these fishing reports that I’ve done now for almost 20 years. But, I forgot this photo from two weeks ago of our own Uncle Johnny Enright and his wife Nancy! OMG!!! Sorry, Johnny and Nancy! I owe you some big time drinks at Tailhunters next time!!!

Kansas in the house! Marion Lawver with another fine roosterfish off Bahia de Los Muertos in flat calm waters! Fish was released.

Surprise catch for Phil Okamoto and Kristine McGrath. While fishing Espirito Santo Island with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, they got a double hook up on two big sharks that they thought were makos, but turned out to be blacktips. One eventually busted off but the other took a two hour fight. It yielded some beautiful white tasty meat. Phil stuck his camera underwater to take some shots and turns out…there were as many as SIX other sharks under the boat!
FISHING STILL TRYING TO MAKE A COMEBACK AFTER STORMS
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 14-21, 2015
Happy Father’s Day Everyone to you and your families and all dad’s everywhere!
The week started off with all of us watching with a bit of trepidation as Hurricane Carlos was building far to the south of us. Just what we need! But, like many others, Carlos petered out long before it ever touched Baja and went inland leaving us with a great week of nothing but warm blue Baja skies…temperatures in the low 90’s…and water that seems to keep growing prettier the further we get away from the last storm, Blanca, two weeks ago.
Blanca put the hammer on what had been an increasingly good fishing season. So, now that it’s passed, it seems with each passing day and the further we get on the calendar away from Blanca, the better the water gets and hence the better the fishing seems to be as well. Although, Storm Carlos did send some wind and big waves our way!
Overall, a pretty decent week of fishing. It’s been better, but this week was not all that terrible by any stretch! It just could have been even better as things try to right themselves and get on an even keel.
LAS ARENAS/ BAHIA DE LOS MUERTOS
As mentioned above, with each day away from the storm, things get better. Prior to the storm, we had an epic wahoo bite…probably the best I’ve seen here in the 20 years I’ve been working down here. So, anytime something like a weather-related event comes along, I get worried.
Well, the wahoo sure seem to be back. As one of my guys told me, “There were free-swimming wahoo all over the place!” Never seen anything like it. The fish are sticking around for some crazy reason and surely no one is complaining.
The fish are 20-50 pounds and eating bait as well as lures like dark-colored Rapalas. Rapalas, especially purple and dark-colored black/ white or grey combinations have been hot. Bring some down if you can. Especially the Rapala CD-18 or even better, the Rapala X-Rap 15 of Rapala XRap 30. The stores here in town keep selling out even with the price tags of almost 40 dollars for them. Worse is that many anglers are losing their fish so if the lure belonged to a captain…adios…there goes $40 bucks!
If you have time, take the treble hooks off of the lures and replace them with single hooks!
But, the truth is that these are home-run fish. Big or go home! For every fish we put in the panga, 2-4 fish are lost! Or, worse, many times, one of our pangas come in and the anglers have long faces. They got nothing, but tell me they lost 3, 4 or 5 fish! These fish are fast and hard chargers and they have sharp teeth and a hard jawbone so you really have to stick that hook hard when they bite.
For other fish, the other news is that it seems the marlin really woke up…finally! Quite a few marlin getting hooked up. Mostly stripers and blues with stripers going 90-120 pounds and blues up to 300. Every day this week several were hooked up and fortunately, most fish are getting released.
Additionally, rooster fish were back nicely in the counts. Most fish were 15-30 pounds, but there’s a school of 2-10 pounders right in Bahia de Los Muertos and if you just wanted to stay in the bay and catch-and-realease small roosters all day, it’s not out of the question.
Not many dorado showing up which is a surprise! Again, the conditions are the dispositive factor. Late in the week we had big waves and winds that were residual effects of Hurricane Carlos way to the south of us. Although the sun kept blazing and we didn’t get any storm conditions, the storm did send up waves and wind which then affected the fishing negatively.
LA PAZ
Good bit of variety for our Tailhunter anglers fishing with our La Paz fleet. More dorado showing up in the counts although, not alot of big fish just yet. Most fish are schoolie-sized 5-15 pounders with the occasional 20 pound mahi in the box. I expect this is just the opening round and the mahi fishing will get better. Lots of and lots of little fish around and sure, you could put a big dent in your ice chest fishing some of the trout-sized dorado, but what’s the fun in that? Hopefully, bigger and tougher guys will arrive as we move into summer.
For other species, our pangas are still finding some great marks of pargo mulatto and yellow snapper as well as some hefty trophy-cabrilla.
As well, we are also seeing more anxious billfish like sails and marlin and rooster fish in some of the coves up to 50 pounds.
2015 TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL / WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWS PANGA SLAM

(L-R) Cathy Conklin, Dave Lindell, Dave Lindell, Malina Lindell, Paul Csenar, Dave Conklin (kneeling), Michele Conklin (pink bikini), Craig Braswell, Jonathan Roldan (kneeling), Jilly Roldan (kneeling), Dave Frausto, Pat McDonell, Tom Robinson, Bill Jubb
It was one of our smaller groups in the 16 years we have held the event, but perhaps one of the funnest groups we’ve had here in my memory. The fishing could have been better. We’ve had better outings. But it’s hard to have had a better bunch. Or a more gratifying result. Please read to the end and find out the surprise ending!
Day 1 we fished Las Arenas and got into some nice wahoo and marlin. For some it was their firsts of those species. We didn’t have a scale to the beach, but biggest fish was probably Dave Lindell’s wahoo (Pendleton OR) or Dave Conklin’s wahoo (Spokane WA) . Tom Robinson from Orange Co. took his first marlin after a bruising 2 hour fight on a little Avet reel and released it to fight another day. That night we went with the group to Costa Restaurant at the marina for some great seafood and live dance music.

Our favorite alfalfa farmer, Craig Corda, holds up a wahoo from the first day.
Day 2 – We moved over to fish La Paz side and there were some school-sized dorado and rockies taken. Michele (“Michele with one “L”) Conklin had the biggest dorado of the day and their boat also had the most hook-ups. That night was taco party night at Tailhunters for the big feed.

Two wahoo and a jack crevalle among other fish that day plus two other wahoo lost for Michele and Dave Conklin.
Day 3 – No fishing! Party day! We joined up with Fun Baja and took the whole gang out to Espirito Santo Island for a day of snorkeling and scuba diving with the sealions and then to the island itself for a catered lunch, mass consumption of icy cold beer and some paddleboarding and kayaking. It was a spectacular day! The problem was we spend the WHOLE DAY out there having way too much fun and by the time we got back, everyone just wanted to kick it and take it easy so everyone was on their own for dinner and pretty much hung out at La Concha pool

Beach gals…Cathy Corda and our own Jilly Roldan!

In the most heroic act of the week, when one of the boat engines got a glitch and couldn’t make to closer to the beach, Pat McDonell and Dave Conklin swam the ice chest with 4 cases of icy beer to the beach about 200 yards away . Give give give!

Yes, go THAT way , David! The girls are waiting for you to bring the beer out to them!
Day 4 – Actual tournament day for the money! The other days were just warm-ups! $600 jackpot on the line. Everyone went charging! Unfortunately, so did the winds and waves which were ripping for the earlier part of the day. Fishing was scratchy at best for a handful of small dorado although Paul Csenar got his first marlin. Big fish turned out to be an 11.7 pounds skipjack caught by Bill Jubb! That was it. But again, with a giant cooler of beer on the beach and another with ice-cold watermelon slices, it turned into another beach party!

Pat McDonell assumes the position in front of some of the pangas or our La Paz fleet parked at Balandra Bay.

Craig Corda…living the dream! Too bad the waters are 80 degrees. Beer 33 degrees.
Dinner that night at Tailhunters for our all-you-can-eat Hawaiian Rib Dinner! Oh man…talk about sticky fingers and smackin’ lips!
Western Outdoor News Executive Editor Pat McDonell who is the best MC in the world…did our closing and passed out more swag to everyone. But then he awarded the $600 jackpot money to Bill Jubb…
And here’s the awesomeness:
Bil Jubb took all the money and he told everyone he was covering the drink tab. Then, he donated the rest of the winnings to FANLAP, which is one of our favorite charities here in La Paz! The balance of that amount of more than $400 is enough for two high school scholarships to pay for the expenses of two high school students for a year. (Here in Mexico, mandatory public school is only given until 9th grade…after that, the individual must fund further education themselves!). What an incredible ending which drew much applause and high-fives! Thanks to Bill for doing that.
But, that wasn’t all…upon departure, Dave and Malina Lindell (from Pendleton, OR) two of our frequent amigos here to Tailhunters left us another donation with enough to fund possibly another two scholarships! We are speechless and grateful beyond words. Blessed!
THANK YOU EVERYONE! THANK YOU WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWS and PAT MCDONELL. THANK YOU FUN BAJA. THANK YOU JILLY ROLDAN and our TAILHUNTER CAPTAINS, STAFF and RESTAURANT FAMILY and a special SHOUT OUT THANK YOU TO BILL JUBB and DAVE and MALINA LINDELL for making a difference in some young lives!
That’s our story! God bless all you dads!

Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website:
www.tailhunter-international.com
Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
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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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