La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Sept .27-Oct. 4, 2015

October 5, 2015 by riplipboy

Looks what popped up! We haven’t seen anything like this in several years! Tuna! Ben and Shawn Kirk from Timnath, Colorado and ROGER ( “aka GEORGE”) and Marilyn Young from Mountain View, Missouri with several handfuls of yellow”fun” tuna footballs taken just south of Bahia de los Muertos.

From the Portland, Oregon area, first time visitors, 13 and 15-year-old Matt and Josh Mitchell had a pretty good day fishing with dad out’ve Bahia de Los Muertos taking tuna, rainbow runners, pargo and cabrilla.

Cross one off the bucket list for Mark Smith with Captain Adolfo as Mark hoists his first wahoo that he caught on a purple and black Rapala. Mark also got his first tuna as well.

One guy who had one of the best times this week was Dan Corcoran. From Folsom, CA, Dan dialed up a nice trophy yellowtail which is very unusual to see these fish in such warm waters!

Striped marlin Jorge tags mike corcoran 9-15

MIke Corcoran had some kind of week with about 7 different species of fish including this striped marlin with Captain Jorge. He also got a sailfish later in the week. The marlin was not able to be released ,but meat was donated.

Sacramento firefighters Greg Quick and Greg Lack with a couple of their mid-week dorado. More dorado showing up some days out’ve Las Arenas.

Nish and Eric Munson tags tuna dorado 9-15

First tuna of the week that started things. I thought it was no big. Just an isolated thing but then the tuna came strong a few days later. However, good amigos Tim Nishimura and Eric Manson show off a couple of footballs and a dorado.

All the way from Montana, Curtis Wells and Captain Pancho with some of the nicer dorado of the week. Curtis ended his week with his first sailfish.

Tom Cox from Colorado was visiting us for the first time with his family and poses with a couple of yellowfin tuna that are headed for the freezer.

ERRATIC UNPREDICTABLE WEATHER AND FISHING…AND TUNA?

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 27-Oct. 4, 2015

I’m not sure where to start with the report this week. There were so many changes…so much variation…so much variety…so much unpredictability and ups-and-downs that each day deserved it’s own report. It was great fishing or bad fishing depending on who you talked to. It was great weather or bad weather depending on who you talked to and where you fished.

There were so many variables that affected the fishing every day.

Super full moon (fullest and biggest all year)
An eclipse of the moon
super high and low tides
super currents
water that was too calm (yes…that’s bad for fishing)
water that was too rough (bad for fishermen and pangas)
a mini-chubasco that blew in for 2 hours and drowned La Paz in 4 inches of rain (and dirtied all the waters with run-off)
totally clear blue sunny days
too much bait in the water (fish weren’t hungry for anything on a line)
not enough bait to be found (waters too rough to catch bait)

So, you add in all that stuff and it was impossible to tell what the fishing day would be like. That’s not to say it was bad. There was some really good fishing actually with some big surprises! But, there were some really slow days as well. Captains worked hard. Clients worked at it hard. But the fish just wouldn’t go.

LAS ARENAS

Holy mackerel??? …er TUNA!!!!

For the first time in two years…TUNA!!! We got a little tickle early in the week and I didn’t get excited. However on FRIDAY, the tuna schools blew up on our pangas just south of Bahia de los Muertos. Fun footballs that we call “yellow’fun’” tuna! These were 8-12 pound fish and it was WFO…all you wanted. We have not seen a day like that in two years! All live bait. Now that was something to get excited about.

But then…the next day Saturday is the day the weather changed on us and we had the big rainstorm. Guys told us the fish were “foaming” and biting everywhere. They just weren’t biting the hooks! We only got 2-5 tuna per boat. As of the writing of this, I have no idea what will happen. On Sunday, the day after the storm, we couldn’t send out any pangas from Muertos because the roads were all washed out and the beach was a mess plus the water was all turned over and dirty. Stay tuned!

On the other news…there were numerous marlin and sailfish hooked up during the week and while the tuna were there. Plus dorado and some inshore rock species. Oh and few unexpected wahoo as well.

The rub was that, it changed from day to day. One day crazy good. Next day you had trouble buying a fish! Or, two pangas would have fish of a lifetime catches and the other pangas right next to them would be sitting there trying to scratch out a single fish.

LA PAZ

Like Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay, the fishing was unpredictable and erratic.

You could load up on all the dorado you wanted and be back on the beach by noon drinking beer in the hotel. Or…you could be the boat right next to it and get two dorado and a bonito all day. Or be the panga that hooked 2 billfish, but couldn’t find a single dorado. Or be the day that La Paz fish just weren’t biting and you find out you should have fished with our Las Arenas fleet instead! Luck of the draw. Luck of the weather.

I really felt badly for some of our folks who just happened to be fishing on the wrong side on a given day or were the boat that worked hard for fish, but it just never went off. You could have a group of guys and some go home needing extra ice chests for all their fish. Their buddies end up barely filling a single ice chest! Felt bad for the anglers as well as the skippers who worked really hard to put fish in the boats.

BIG LITTLE STORM

This video was taken 10 minutes after the storm started from the front of Tailhunter Restaurant. The bay in front has disappeared and the streets are already flooding

The photos above, courtesy of Clima La Paz are from downtown and show what a few hours of torrential rain can do.

All the weather reports predicted was there was a “chance of a thunderstorm” Saturday afternoon. Wow…what an understatement.

It crashed like a mac truck into the city. It rained in sheets and buckets with huge rips of thunder the lightning. Within 10 minutes, the storm drains were backed up. The force of the water was blowing manhole covers up into the air. Cars were stalling in the streets that turned into roiling rapids. Motorists were stranded and people were swimming across parking lots. There were landslides, falling holders and collapsed roofs. The water was coming down so thick that visibility was cut to only a few feet. Some vehicles were swept away. There were crazy kids riding tubes, boogie boards and kayaks down the rushing streets that flowed into the ocean. People became trapped in their homes, buildings or on blocks that became isolated by flowing rivers of water.

Then, it suddenly just stopped.

THANK YOU!

Dan and Gary Okazaki from Cypress CA with a big load of school supplies for the kids.

Josh and Matt Mitchell from Portland Oregon…thanks for the thoughtfulness, guys!

Many thanks to all of our amigos who brought down supplies, clothes and other great items for our “Pack for a Purpose” program to help disadvantaged school kids and also the local women’s shelter! You have great hearts. Not shown, but thanks also to Shawn and Ben Kirk from Colorado and George and Marilyn Young from Arkanasas and Ken Cavellon from Washington.

As well a big shout-out to Vic Patton who made a cash donation to our scholarship program as well!

You’re the best!

That’s our story! Have a great week!