La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of June 26-July 3, 2016

July 3, 2016 by riplipboy

OUR NEW TAILHUNTER “EXPRESS” VIDEO REPORT – Take a look!

FULL VERSION REPORT

Hector Chacon from Arcadia CA has been coming to fish in La Paz with Tailhunter Sportfishing for over a decade. This week he got his largest fish ever, this huge amberjack near Espirito Santo Island that took a live bait. Hector battled the fish for over 45 minutes on lighter tackle to get it to the panga.

From Long Beach CA, Kennedy Nixon from Long Beach CA had only one day to fish in La Paz and made the most of it while fishing with the Tailhunter Fleet from Bahia de los Muertos and hooked and landed this huge dog-tooth snapper also called a “pargo perro” or “cubera snapper.”

Pretty photo of first-timers Randy Madson and is son, Trevor, from Utah fishing with Tailhunter Sportfishing when Randy caught and released this big rooster fish just off the Punta Perrico rocks.

This young man had quite a week. Tommy Newman from Illinois is just 11-years-old. He’s got several photos in this week’s fishing report. First day out, he put this big yellowtail in the boat all by himself off Espirito Santo Island.

Rich Pope loves to fish. Just off the “fruit loop” housing complex at Punta Perrico near the end of his first day of fishing, he latched onto this nice roosterfish that he released. Just below this photo is underwater video of rich with his fish and Captain Gerardo.

School-teacher Sam Sybesma heads to La Paz when the school season finishes for some fishing every year! He had never caught a yellowtail which are usually not around because the waters are too warm in the summer. But, look what showed up! Captain Chito gives a thumbs up!

Cheryl Delin was a last minute booking to come fishing with us. She was out with Captain Ramiro and is all smiles with this nice roosterfish she caught ad released. Great photo! She lives in California, but was raised in Japan and told me, “I don’t like to eat fish” so she would have released the fish anyway! Fun fun lady! Nice to have her visit.

Dee Dee Pope is as game as they come! She fishes. She hunts. She rocks! And she definitely rocked this big jack crevalle on light tackle using a mini-Whopper Stopper rod custom built by Ed Robison and coupled with a tiny Avet SX reel and light line. She released the big jack, but check out her video below and the underwater shots. Note how shallow it is and the rocks that bust overyone off when pargo and cabrilla strike!

As nice a young man as you’ll find. Chase Roberts from Washington with Captain Pancho was visiting for the first time and got a striped marlin. It could not be released. He did a nice job trying.

There’s a reason it’s called a “dog-tooth snapper.” Mean and ferocious, the attack out’ve the rocks and it’s rare to get big ones like Eric Delin’s fish here with a hand from wife, Cheryl. On the beach at Muertos Bay, these two are some fun folks.

First trip to visit us, Trevor Madsen, from Utah got the biggest dorado of the week on his very first day. He got some roosterfish also! Great young man!

Chuck Rodriguez and his dad with some dorado on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos. We should be seeing alot more dorado than we’re seeing, but waters are cooler than normal.

That’s a lot to try to lift up. But, 11-year-old Tommy Newman does his best on his first marlin with Captain Gerardo early last week. Check out the video below of the fish going off.

Our very own fishing champ and everyone’s favorite Tailhunter van driver, Jorge Romero, finally was able to take some time off and went out with Sam Sybesma and put the wood to a pair of 40-50 pound amberjack near Espirito Santo Island.

Brad Patti Charbonneau tags 7-16 rooster

Just south of Bahia de los Muertos, Brad and Patti Charbonneau from Sacramento CA got this nice rooster into the boat then released it after the photo.

Captain Armando with Jessica Reeve from Wyoming with another big roosterfish caught and released. Estimated 40 pounder!

A LITTLE BETTER THAN LAST WEEK AS WINDS DIMINISH…FOR NOW! BUT STILL TOUGH FISHING

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 26-July 3, 2016

Happy 4th of July Weekend, everyone! Hope it’s a safe and fun one for you all. We miss being there so eat some fried chicken and potato salad for us and enjoy some fireworks with the family!

Well…

It was a better week than last week when waters were green and the winds blew. This week with the winds diminished, waters started to settle down and blue patches returned and some of the turned-up cold water dissipated. But, I gotta tell you, this is as strange a June as we’ve had. Well, it’s now July, but we should be thick into our warm water fish like dorado, billfish, tuna and other species.

Instead, this is much more like April/ May fishing! Waters are noticeably colder than normal. It’s breezy. The evenings and mornings are actually cool. And the fishing is way different!

We’re not seeing much of any dorado. Our catch has been winter/ springtime species like pargo, cabrilla, snapper, jack crevalle, rooster fish, amberjack and…(this is crazy)…YELLOWTAIL! It’s 4th of July weekend and we’re hooking yellowtail.

They say El Nino is finally done and moving off. After 18 months, a return to “normalcy”…whatever that is…would be pretty nice!

LAS ARENAS

Still our area with the most variety and the most action. It’s not been spectacular by any stretch. The fishing this week was a tad better than last week when it was like a desert out there some days. However, our captains and anglers still had to keep at it and bring their best game to the water. Or sometimes, it was just dumb luck which can be alot better. Hit or miss some days. But there was still action to be had.

The catch has been some nice rooster fish with most of them running hefty 25-60 pounds. Pretty much everything getting released. The biggest issue is getting those big sabalo/ ladyfish baits to use on the big gallos. Some days, it really takes a long time to get them and if you don’t have the bait, it’s gonna be tough to get the big roosters. Also, some days the roosters where there and some days, they just didn’t come to play. Alot of our rookie anglers seemed to do the best on the roosters which was nice to see, but some of our vets who know how to catch the big fish worked hard, but had a hard time.

Besides the roosters, the variety is pretty wide. Like I said, it’s alot like April/ May fishing when you have warm and cold water fish all in the same area. I think the fish are confused too.

We’re getting some big dog-tooth snapper (pargo), big jack crevalle, white bonito, rainbow runners, cabrilla and the marlin and sailfish are getting more active too.

LA PAZ

Fishing north out’ve La Paz towards Espirito Santo Island has been a conundrum even moreso than fishing at Las Arenas. I’ve never seen so many changes.

This past week, yellowtail popped up! In 21 years here, I’ve not seen yellowtail this late in the season. The fish are quality 20-30 pound forkies too! The biggest issue has been our anglers have lost 2-4 fish for everyone they put in the boat. But that’s why I mentioned that you gotta be on your game for alot of these fish. If you lose fish, then yes…it’s gonna be a disappointing day and a big mistake I’m hearing from the captains is some of the lack of experience. You can’t let these big fish “run.” Like the pargo, cabrilla and amberjack that live around structure. There is no place to “run.” It’s not like hooking a marlin, tuna or wahoo in more open water with alot of deep water around you.

Here, the water can be literally only several feet deep so letting these fish run means you’re already behind the 8 ball because they’ll go right back to the rocks and BANG! You’re snapped off .

We’re not seeing the open water dorado we normally encounter this time of year. We’re having to work inshore where these big fish like the amberjack up to 100 pounds…tough yellowtail…toothy pargo and cabrilla will beat you up and spit you out!

When they hit, pull…lift and turn the handle of the reel so you can turn their heads. Once they head down, you’re pretty much lost.

TAILHUNTER OUTREACH SAYS GRACIAS!

Dylan Williams, Tommy Newman, Earl Lawson, Jilly and Jim Newman with some of the items they brought for our Tailhunter Outreach Program this week.

Big gracias to the Rodriguez Family for bringing down two massive shipping chests of items that will be useful to the school kids and also the women and their families at the battered women’s shelter.

Richard Pomeroy stuffed an ice chest down with school supplies for our kids! Thanks, Rich!

A big thanks to all our Tailhunter amigos who brought stuff down this past week for our Tailhunter Outreach program. Each week, we’re sending off over 100-150 pounds of school supplies, clothes, hygiene items and sports equipment for our neglected kids and also the women’s shelter. You’re all awesome!

That’s our story

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