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La Paz – Las Arenas/Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of July 10-17, 2016

July 17, 2016 by riplipboy

THE EXPRESS TAILHUNTER FISHING REPORT WEEKLY VIDEO!

For those who don’t have the time to read, take a look and listen to our express weekly fishing report version above!

RATING THE WEEK: (Scale of 1-10)

Variety: 7 Good (never knew what you’d hook up)

Action: 3-5 (Poor to OK on the number of hook-ups)

Quantity of Fish: 3 (Not so great)

Quality of Fish: 7 (some big fish out there which also had an effect on the Quantity of fish…lots of fish lost)

Weather: Hot (90’s)

Water: Cooler than normal, but getting warmer high 70’s-low 80’s

Beer: Icy

Overall: 3 (sad face waaaa…)

Jonathan’s Tempermant: Hopefully Anxious

Quote of the Week: “The best fisherman is the person having the most fun even if he has no fish”

THE FULL STORY

ROOSTERS STILL CHARGING BUT MARLIN WAKE UP

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 10-17, 2016

The big smile says it all! Becky Csutoras from Elk Grove CA never has a bad week of fishing with us. She hoists up a huge slab roosterfish south of Bahia de los Muertos with Captain Pancho. The fish was released!

Craig and Cathy Corda hit the home runs with a paid of magnificent dog-tooth snapper! Wow!

It was a good week to check of fish from the bucket list. Our good amigo, Ken Chaplin, is a hunting guide and this is his 2nd trip to visit us and he finally got the marlin off his list. He caught and released this striped marlin near Las Arenas and released it. He also caught a blue marlin and a huge roosterfish. See below.

Captain Chito and Terry Biggs with one of the only dorado we’ve seen all week. Hopefully, more on the way!

From Denver somewhere behind that dorsal fin is Ben Larkin who hefted this huge roosterfish near Boca de Alamo with Captain Adolfo. The fish was released.

McKenzie Pitts had some kind of week. Not only did boyfriend Josh propose to the Oregon gal, but her first day she gets a marlin right off the bat at Bahia de los Suenos/ Muertos. She got another one a few days later. They could not be released and meat was donated.

Rich Keogh has been fishing with us for many years and he had a tough week like so many other amigos. However, Captain Raul with our La Paz fleet put Rich over this big cabrilla north of La Paz.

Birthday fish for Buzzy Cook on his first trip with us and celebrated with this big roosterfish north of Boca de Alamo with Captain Pancho. The fish was released.

Rusty Cain Jeff Hampton marlin tags 7-16

Another guy who checked it off the bucket list…Rusy Cain with buddy, Jeff Hampton. Rusty got his first marlin and went home and booked to come back to fish with us at the end of October! He was with Captain Armando.

Shaka Brah! From buddy Guy Petree and Oscar Castro who cradles another roosterfish that got put back in the water right after the photo!

Terry Biggs chito tags cabrilla pargo 7-16

Terry Biggs with Captain Chito and some hefty good-eating rock fish including a barred pargo, dog-tooth snapper and a big trophy cabrilla (seabass).

Pretty good week for jack crevalle. Just think roosterfish without all the adornment on the back! Tough tough fish to battle. Guy Petree again with the pose.

Scott Brown of Santa Barbara with another striped marlin caught north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island. The fish could not be released.

Amigo, Ken Chaplin fished hard all week. And, although the fishing was tough, he did get a striped marlin…blue marlin and this nice big roosterfish that he released. He also realeased some of the largest jack crevalle of the week also.

GENERALLY SPEAKING

Waters are still cooler than normal, but improving. Big rooster fish are still keeping anglers bent, but the marlin finally woke up after weeks of dis-interest. Things are encouraging although it’s summer and there’s still no dorado around! There was a big dorado tournament to the south of us and the winning fish was FIVE POUNDS! (He still won a big check so that’s awesome as long as it’s bigger than 2nd place!)

But…Either way, another real “iffy” erratically frustrating week of fishing.

It was also REALLY hot this week with some big temperature spikes for a day or two that went into the 100’s then dropped back down after a day. It produced some big afternoon winds on the backside low pressure and also gave us our first thunderheads and afternoon showers and bluster late in the day.

LAS ARENAS/ BAHIA de LOS MUERTOS

It was another week of hit-or-miss on the water. Like everywhere else, there’s no dorado to speak of other than the occasional 5-10 pounder when dorado should be 90% of our catch. Waters are still cooler than normal although warming a bit and getting bluer finally after 3 weeks of cold green waters. We are actually seeing some spots of 80-83 degree water although there’s still obvious patches of green, dirty colder water mixed in or down below the thermocline. I know this because it’s July and we’re still hooking some yellowtail and sierra…both cold water fish that we normally get in March and April or the wintertime and definitely not in the summer. This is the latests I have seen them.

No wahoo. No tuna. Had some guys out looking but got shut out.

Our best bet in the area is the rooster fish and again, they are hogs. The smaller ones are 25 pounders. The larger ones rolled up around 60-70 pounds and some possibly bigger as almost all the fish are getting released and we don’t always have photos of all the fish. Which is fine. I’m glad folks are releasing them and getting them back in the water as soon as possible. Given having a great photo or releasing a healthy fish, I’d rather have the fish swim away to go again another day and make more babies!

Other stuff around included some big horse jack crevalle, some white bonito and some pargo and cabrilla. And a small flurry of some really big dog-tooth snapper (again usually a cooler water fish!)

Still some sharks around too after that flurry for about 2 weeks when every boat seemed to hook up a shark. Bait has been an issue (again) until late in the week when the waters were filled with mackerel everywhere which might account for the lack of fish. They were too full! But, maybe this will also bring the sharks back following food source.

The other item of big interest are the marlin. They woke up! See below…

LA PAZ

Just like our fleet at Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay, there no dorado. No tuna. Not much of any pelagic species. Waters have been colder than normal the last few weeks. But…hold on…

They’re getting better! Patches of blue showing up and water is getting clearer. Also, one other indication is the marlin and sailfish finally started biting!

We’ve been seeing the billfish for several weeks. They have been totally lethargic and uninterested in much. Just finning and sitting on the surface. This is the kind of behavior we normally see in the early spring when waters are cooler.

I kept telling folks that if the water temps kick up just a degree or two, the fish will get active!

Well, sure enough the temps rose and the fish started to bite. We hooked more billfish this week than we have in the entire year. Every day there were 2, 3..5 billfish hooked. Many were lost after battles on relatively light tackle. Most of the ones brought to the boat were released. We had sailfish up to about 70 pounds. Striped marlin in the 100-120 pound class or larger. We even had a few smaller blue marlin to about 180 pounds. Fish that were kept and unable to release, a good portion of the meat was donated. But, for all the photos you see here, probably 95% were released.

The other indication of warming water is the algae bloom. Normally, again, this is a phenomenon that takes place in the early spring. As the waters warm algae starts busting out. Moss like stuff appears and starts clogging up the beaches. Waters can get cloudy. Then, as the waters warm the algae dies off and we come out on the other side with clean, blue fish-laden waters! So, this is a good sign. Plus, we’re seeing sargasso patches form up in the outer waters that are usually another good harbinger of warm waters and more dorado.

Other than the dorado, the inshore fishing has been surprisingly good. Big pargo. Big cabrilla. Big snapper. Regretfully, these are mean big fish. I’d say for every 1 fish put in the boat, 3-6 fish bust off in the rocks! For every 5 or 10 pound fish, 20-40 pounders just shred the anglers. They are alot for fun, however…and frustrating, but great action and good eating!

TAILHUNTER DONATION NATION

Ken Chaplin and John “Buzzy” Cook live way up by the Canadian border and spent the week with us, but still jammed several ice chests with a table full of school supplies, clothes and sports equipment.

Our railroad guys…Terry Biggs, Rich Keogh, Mitch Embry (with Jilly) and Ed Bird filled about 100 pounds of bags with toiletries, hygiene products, toys and school supplies for our program. Thanks, Guys!

If you ever wonder where your donations are going, check out Gary Wagner and his son. Gary’s the owner of the famous Giggling Marlin bar in Cabo, but does tons of charity work. He and his son came out to La Paz to pick up donations to distribute to the orphanage in Los Planes that you see stacked on the table. Thanks everyone. Thanks to the Wagners too!

Just this year alone so far, you folks have brought down over 1/2 a ton of donations for our Tailhunter Outreach Program benefitting kids and families of two outlying schools, the women’s shelter as well as the orphange in Los Planes. Ever bit helps and your thoughtfulness makes a big difference. Thank you sincerely for the big hearts!

That’s our story!

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