Weather – 7 (funky early in the week, but mostly gorgeous and low 90’s cooler than normal)
Fishing Conditions – 7 (much much improved)
Fishing Quality – 6-8 (can’t argue with marlin, dorado and big roosters and if only the dorado were larger!)
Fishing Quantity – 4 (lost alot of fish or counts would have been higher)
Traffic – 8 (town is quietly empty as summer vacationers leave)
Jonathan’s Attitude – 7 (hopefully optimistic with dorado and better fishing showing up!)
Quote of the Week – “My greatest fear is that when I die, my wife will sell my fishing gear for what I told her it cost.”
THE BIG PICTURE
Jeff Sakuda, our amigo, from Cerritos CA, who usually makes two trips a year to fish with us and Captain Jorge, had a banner week landing 4 wahoo and losing one fish that was even larger. Note how close to shore they area. This is Punta Perrico just outside Bahia de los Muertos.
Marlin bit strong this week, especially for our clients that fished with our La Paz fleet around Espirito Santo Island. Striped marlin and bigger blues really bent some rods. Most fish were released.
Finally, some decent showing of dorado this past week with Wade Gomes, Greg Gomes and Hugh Fielder.
Captain Jorge with Jeff and Marianne Sugawara and another wahoo plus a rainbow runner, cousin to yellowtail, which is a cooler water fish.
Another catch-and-release rooster! It continues to be a banner year for big roosterfish. This week, they ran 20-40 pounds along the beaches.
And yes! Dorado at Las Arenas too!
No, it’s not all the same fish. Jeff and Marianne caught 4 of them over 2 days.
DORADO WAHOO MARLIN END-OF-SUMMER-BITE
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for week of August 21-28, 2016
A much much better week than we have had in awhile…at last! Early on in the week we had some wind and a few sporadic showers, but as the week went on, both weather and water conditions improved and it was probably the best we have had in several weeks. Not surprisingly, the fishing also corresponded with the conditions and there were some nice catches. Still not up to what we’re usually at, but definitely a marked improvement over the past month!
The only thing was that it’s the end-of-summer and there weren’t many fishermen around. It’s like that every year. In fact, all of La Paz seemed to have “exhaled” as summer wound up and lots of vacationers and families went back to school including the local kids. Airplanes were less than full. Hotels have quite a bit of vacancy and La Paz activity dropped quite few notches. For at least a week or two, it’s a “sleepy little city” again. But, after Labor Day, we ramp up again and it’s full-steam into the meat of the season and our busiest months of September and October. So, having a good fishing report is incredibly encouraging.
LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY
The bad news is that the bait situation has not gotten better. It’s negligible at best. There’s a scarce mix of caballitos, sardines, ladyfish (sabalo) and mackerel. At best…
The good news…we’re still catching fish and we had one of the better weeks in awhile.
For one, there’s marlin and sailfish around. Both stripers and blues and smaller sailfish. And they’re close. The other good news is that we had a great week on wahoo. The fish are also close in…literally a hundred or so yards off Punta Perrico. Fish in the 20-40 pound class mostly with some larger ones lost!
Plus, in the rocks, the pargo and cabrilla are also eating and of course, there’s big rooster fish still around. And…we finally saw some dorado in the counts as well. Very encouraging!
LA PAZ
The best news is we finally found spots of dorado in several places, but the area around Rosario produced the kind of bite we’ve been waiting for. Not big fish, by any stretch. Normally, our smaller fish right now should be 20 pounders! However, we caught more dorado in the last few days of the week than we caught all year. Most of the fish were 8-15 pounders, with some 20 pounders in the mix and a few larger fish lost. My captains tell me that there’s some spots where there’s so many baby dorado, you can sit on the spot all day long whacking and releasing all the babies.
That bodes well for the coming weeks as these “babies” grow fast. Fortunately, all of our anglers this week went for the larger fish and got away from the voracious punk fish that will eat anything. As one of them told me, “some of the giant baits were larger than the dorado!”
Perhaps as part of the dorado showing up are the billfish that have also really kicked it up a notch. Favorite food of the marlin…blues and stripers…are baby dorado! We had a number of billfish hooked but most either were released or came off.
Inshore, still all the triggerfish, pargo and cabrilla you could want, but it was nice that the blue water fish went on the chew a bit so we could give the inshore species a rest.
Water – 3 (bumpy at times depending on the winds and nearby storms)
Fishing Quality – 1 (big fish around but mostly all lost or broke off)
Fishing Quantity – 7 (if you were catching triggerfish easy limits)
Quote of the Week – “Fishing is my anger management”
THE BIG PICTURE
Jeff Sakuda, our amigo for so many years, was trolling a small Rapala on just 30-pound-test for pargo while fishing with Captain Jorge and got this 20-pound wahoo hooked instead just before the weather changed and they had to bring it closer in.
Dee Dee Radar was fishing not to far off Espirito Santo Island north of La Paz and got this trophy cabrilla into the boat.
Mike Zech and Aaron Warren from Portland OR with Captain Rogelio and a nice barred pargo. They also got lots of triggerfish and had a big blue marlin on for a bit that broke the line and took off with the lure.
Roosterfish like Vanessa’s fish here with Captain Jorge just inside Bahia de los Muertos were about the size of the roosters this week. This fish was released.
Surprisingly great eating and tough battling fish, triggerfish have been easy pickings the last few weeks especially around the rocks, reefs and islands. Thanks for Joey Fuschetti for the photo.
Clarence and John showing off the kind of dorado we were hitting this week…when we could find them.
Joey Fuschetti with a china maru…also knows as a hawkfish.
THUNDERSTORMS ADD TO END-OF-SUMMER FISHING LULL
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 14-21, 2016
Not much to tell you this week. Weather wasn’t the most cooperative. Summer thundershowers or threats of showers, thunder or lightning were almost an every-day occurrence. It didn’t always happen or it rained and thundered in one area, but not another or the predicted precipitation lasted 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there. Very tropical overall. My point being that it wasn’t always “Chamber of Commerce” clear sunny beach weather.
For fishing, we had a lull. What can I say? After months and months of solid anglers every day, this past week, we just didn’t have many folks coming to visit and fish. Actually, it’s kind of typical this time of year.
It’s the end of summer. Families are headed back to school so it marks the end of our “summer vacation” visitors and families that come to La Paz. (Local kids also head back to school as well). Anyway, families have other things on their plates and it’s a rare dad who gets to slip away from home to go fishing while leaving mom back home to deal with back-to-school craziness! So, there just weren’t many fishermen and this was the slow week of the season. Given the weather, maybe that was a good thing.
For those that did fish, it was a mix. I’m sure the weather had something to do with it.
At Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay some rooster fish were caught, but they missed some of the big boys. The ones caught and released were the smaller 10-15 pounders. There are wahoo in the area and we hooked 2, but lost them. Our friend, Jeff Sakuda got one 20-pound wahoo…while trolling a small Rapala on 30-pound test for pargo! The dark Rapalas are still the trick. There were some tuna that hit earlier in the week.
For our La Paz fleet, the inshore fishing once again provided the most action with big triggerfish, pargo, cabrilla and smaller amberjack making up most of the catch. Offshore, a few dorado in the 10 pound class hooked and one of our pangas had a big blue marlin on the line that broke the line after awhile.
More intermittent rain and thundershowers are predicted over the next few days again. Remnants of Tropical Storm Kay that formed east of Cabo San Lucas, but moving westward out to the Pacific.
Sorry, it’s a little long this week. Had alot to go over and the video quality isn’t that good for several reason. One, I was born funny looking to begin with. And also, I was crushed for time to get this up on time and had to do this in just one take! Hope it’s OK!
The Quick Summary Week at a Glance (Scale of 1-10 worst to best)
Weather – 2 (Tropical Storm Javier came through)
Water – 5 (Could be better. Could be worse. Blue and warm but took a step back from the storm)
Fishing Action – 6 (Really good if you were fishing for inshore species but only a 2 for offshore bluewater stuff)
Fishing Quality – 2 (Not so good. Big fish were scarce or folks lost them. No medium fish to speak of.)
Forecast – 5 (Might get some rain on Wednesday and Saturday. Nothing serious…for now)
Jonathan’s Attitude: 4 (Tired and frustrated trying to predict the fishing bite during this crazy season…Just shoot me already!)
Quote of the Week: “Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught.”
THE BIG PICTURE – FULL REPORT
Our Colorado buddy, Frank Kunze looks a tad tuckers out after tangling with this blue marlin north of La Paz! He had it on light tackle and good for him…he released the fish to fight another day!
This might be the most important fish of the week. As dorado go, it’s not that big, but bigger on so many other levels! You see, Lisa Gibson has been fighting and just beat cancer. They were going to come several years ago ,but then she got the diagnosis. She said that thoughts of coming fishing here in La Paz often kept her going. So, this trip was a celebration of all things good! She and her husband, Rick, caught 14 different species of fish over 3 days!
Here’s a guy who knows how to pose with a fish! Chad Stachowicz is the man behind the mask and holding one of the nicer dorado from the week! He also just got married a few days ago! Fishing honeymoon! Erin’s photo is below!
They literally got married and jumped on a plane to start the honeymoon in La Paz! Erin and Chad Stachowicz here with some nice triggerfish and a bonito. Chad’s dorado is the photo above. They also lost a big pargo in the rocks!
Carolyn Broshear has to be one of the most joyous gals we’ve run across. She’s always laughing and it’s evident here with this big roosterfish and Captain Victor. She said the roosterfish really hammered her but had a blast. She also released the fish too!
Ah yes! The right kind. Rick Gibson from Arizona with an early morning trophy roosterfish and Captain Pancho! It was also Rick’s birthday too! The fish was released.
Another rooster in the boat! John Radar from Colorado told me, “I’m so handsome the fish are scared!” Captain Victor helps for the photo. John released the big roosterfish.
Captain “Jolly Roger” Rogelio and one of the big triggerfish we’ve been catching around Espirito Santo Island with Lisa Gibson. Great eating fish!
Frank Kunze again with a rooster just south of Bahia de los Muertos! The fish lived to fight and grow bigger!
Captain Victor was on fire this week with the roosterfish. This time Dee Dee was on the bite just off the rocks and she takes a quick pose before letting this one go too!
TROP STORM JAVIER DAMPENS FISHING
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 7-14, 2016
The week got jacked a bit by Tropical Storm Javier that hit us mid-week, but all-in-all, it could have been alot worse. Mainland Mexico got hit pretty badly. Cabo San Lucas and the East Cape got alot of rain and strong winds. We were braced for it here in La Paz, but ultimately, we got some heavy winds the actual day of the storm with some 50-60 mph gusts and a few hours of steady but not torrential rains and thankfully, that was it. No hurricane. No flooding or damage to speak of.
But, from the perspective of fishing, it didn’t do us any favors.
The storm hit mid-week. The day before it was already getting windy and cloudy. Some flashes of lightning and thunder and the waters were already getting choppy.
The day of the storm, forget it. It was completely blown out and impossible to get out. Plus the port captain closed the port and kept everyone inside anyway. So, we had to cancel all the trips and basically tell folks to sleep in; hang out and go hang out by the pool. We had great folks with us this week and everyone was cool and just rolled with it and kept smiling.
The day after the storm, we were back out on the water, but as if often characteristic of storms, the day after, the waters are turned over and dirty. It was still choppy and conditions weren’t exactly optimum.
So that knocked 3 days out’ve the week right there.
Overall, fishing wasn’t spectacular anyway. Roosterfish, some billfish, lots of triggerfish, some pargo, cabrilla, jack crevalle, a few dorado and a couple of wahoo lost. We’re expecting some thundershowers late Wednesday again.
LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY
Once again, the rooster fish factory saved the day on more than one occasion. Big feisty fish from 20-50 pounds. All released. Great fighting. Thrilling if you’ve never caught one and everyone is always surprised how close t shore these big fish can be and how shallow the water can be. But, rooster fish were once again center stage for our anglers who fished this area.
Beyond that, a few billfish hooked. A couple of wahoo lost. The rest of the catch was a picky scratchy mix of some jack crevalle and bonito.
LA PAZ
This is where most of the action was. This is where the fillets came from if you planned to take home some fish.
But strange. We SHOULD be thick in to the dorado this time of year. But, we’re only getting a handful a day..if that. Still, it’s more than we were getting two weeks ago. We SHOULD be into 10-30 pound fish. The fish we’re getting are only about 10-15 pounds at best. Conditions are improving, but we’ll have to see.
There’s sailfish, blue marlin and striped marlin and we hooked and released a couple of them. We had one rooster fish come up and eat a marlin jig that was trolled over a high spot. Never seen that before!
The main focus then was inshore stuff around the islands, reefs and rocks where there was great bite of 2-5 pound triggerfish mixed with cabrilla, pargo, amberjack and a few others. All great eating fish and lots of the larger fish lost to the rocks and sharp teeth.
DONATION NATION
Kent Hawkins and Joey Fuschetti had a full ice chest of stuff including a ton of sports equipment. Joey is a coach and he had bags of balls plus swimming gear and even his original baseball mits from when he was a kid.
Clothes…school…supplies…book bags…just incredible from Kevin Davis, Dennis Smith, Phil France, Joe France, Del “Santa Clause” Winterfeld and Steve Gross all from Washington.
Portland OR friends in the house! Steve and Dorothy Murata brought down 72 sets of toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss for the kids!
Major shout-outs to all our awesome Tailhunter Tribe amigos who kindly brought down donations for the schookids at our outlying schools, the orphanage and the woman’s shelter. Your big hearts go a long way and we’re grateful. In the last month alone we’ve donated over 1000 pounds of much needed things.
Also a big THANK YOU to the kids in Lisa and Rick Gibson’s family (photos of Rick and Lisa above). The kids took their own money that they had saved and went out and bought school supplies to donate! WOW! Unfortunately, I didn’t get photos of Rick and Lisa and the stuff they brought down…or their kids who did not make the fishing trip! 😦
TAILHUNTER MINI-VIDEO FISHING REPORT FOR WEEK OF AUG. 1-7, 2016
THE WEEK IN SUMMARY (scale of 1-10)
Weather – 7 (sunny but humid)
Wind – 9 (not an issue/ sweet breeze in the afternoon and evenings)
Fishing Action – 4 (More fish with our La Paz fleet, but smaller. Las Arenas fewer fish but overall larger)
Quality of Fish – 6 (Big Roosters / Nice billfish / Tasty rock fish)
Water – 6 (bluer and warmer)
Tailhunter Restaurant – 6 (good crowds/ cold beer/ finally something to watch…Olympics and NFL Football)
Jonathan Attitude – 6 (cautiously optimistic / a bit of tight shorts over possible rain coming)
Forecast – 5 (El Nino broke my crystal ball / watching this weather right now)
Quote of the Week – “I don’t go fishing to find myself. I got fishing to lose myself.”
THE FULL STORY – THE WHOLE ENCHILADA FISHING REPORT
Olga Atamanyk is from Russia and she and her husband Anatoli walked into the Tailhunter Sportfishing office in La Paz speaking no English or Spanish. None of us could speak Russian! All she could say was “BIG FISH! BIG FISH!” and pantomime fishing with her hands and arms! So, we sent her fishing with Captain Pancho out’ve Bahia de los Muertos. She and Anatoli caught and released two huge rooster fish and a big jack crevalle plus triggerfish which they brought back to Tailhunter Restaurant to cook up. The big smile says it all. Captain Pancho from the Tailhunter Fleet lends a hand.
This photo of Eric Stefan from Kansas makes me smile on so many levels. It’s a great picture and a happy fella, but it’s also maybe one of the biggest dorado we’ve seen in awhile and they got several that day. Fingers crossed!
Wes Perkins from Portland OR found a speedy wahoo his first day of fishing with Captain Victor. Posing on the beach at Muertos Bay.
Lowen Hobbs and his girlfriend Heather, from Poway CA had only one day to fish with Tailhunter Sportfishing. They went out of Bahia de los Muertos near Las Arenas and hooked this big blue marlin right off the bat. They also hooked and released a big rooster fish. They were not able to release the marlin. They fought the fish almost 2 hours on light tackle. They were with Captain Pancho from the Tailhunter Fleet.
Got what he wanted! Captain Gerardo helps out young Earl Natrass from Cool, California who really wanted to catch a big rooster! Nicely done and they also released the fish.
She’s always laughing! Chelsey Stefan from Topeka KS with her first dorado that she battled mightily on Captain Chito’s panga caught north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island. Check out the video of Chelsey below!
For one day fishing, it’s hard to top Lowen Hobbs from Poway CA. He got this nice roosterfish south of Bahia de los Muertos and released it then got bent on a big blue marlin (photos at the beginning of the report).
From Mesquite, Nevada, Darrold Stefan loves to fish. This jack crevalle yanked him around a bit before getting his photos taken and put back in the water! Darrold also caught a few marlin during the week.
Gary Wagner from Colorado Springs CO (owner of Rancho Costa Plenty at Muertos Bay) and Rush Whitmarsh from San Diego pose with a feisty jack crevalle just outside the bay. The guys released the fish to fight another day.
Great photo of Earl Natrass from Cool CA with his roosterfish still fresh and all lit up with great colors! Catch…photo…release…well done!
Captain Pancho and Bernie Stefan from Kansas with Bernie’s fat rooster from his first day fishing. Bernie released the fish.
Detante at it’s best! Hard to beat the smiles our our Russian friend who ony had one day to fish, Anatoli and Olga Atamanyk who also got 2 giant roosterfish!
Just had to post this one up! This tiny dorado was a hungry fella and grabbed Chelsey’s hook and gave it all he had! Captain Rogelio helps for the photo. They released the little tiger!
Not bad for just one day of fishing for Anatoli Atamanyk with Captain Pancho and his big rooster he fought and released. Great photo.
DORADO HIGHLIGHT A BETTER WEEK…BUT WAIT…
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 1-7, 2016
Not up to our usual summer standards by any stretch, but this past week was definitely an improvement over last week. The bite was more consistent. There were no weather related issues. The water was cleaner, warmer and bluer. This all added up to better action for our anglers.
And…(drumroll)…we had some dorado show up! These were quality fish too. Nothing spectacular. Nothing on fire. But given the dearth or mahi this year, this was very encouraging.
Hopefully, things will improve…but wait…
As I’m writing this, we’re on storm watch. Mother Nature is gonna maybe have another laugh at our expense and drop kick us to see how we roll. There’s a potential tropical storm headed our way which could be dropping some rain on us by the time you’re reading this. If I had hair long enough to grab, I might be pulling it out right now in frustration. More on that below…
LAS ARENAS
After a week or so of some iffy fishing I was wondering if our rooster fish had left us. Well, if they did, they came back nicely. Good to have the big gallos back to put on a show. We had some good roosters this week like normal.
Fish ranged from about 10 pounds to over 60 in some cases. Not good to eat so as far as I know, all of them were released, but hard not to get thrilled by a big fish in shallow water and that’s exactly what these big slab fish do. They kick your heart rate up a few notches.
That’s the good news.
The bad news from the area was that there wasn’t much more biting. We had a few billfish. There were a few wahoo bites that were lost, although we got a few. There was one solitary tuna and a few rock fish, jack crevalle, bonito, and assorted mixes. That was it.
LA PAZ
Our Tailhunter La Paz fleet surely had the most variety and best action overall.
Inshore fishing continues to be the highlight with some huge triggerfish, pargo, cabrilla, amberjack and parrot fish really surprising some of our anglers who often go to the rocks a big dejected when the blue water fishing doesn’t work out so well. Then, they hit the rocks and get schooled a few times by giant pargo and cabrilla or get triple bites on huge jacks or the triggerfish and realize they’re having a blast and filled the fish box with some quality fillets.
But, the big surprise was finding a couple pods of dorado…finally! We should be hitting limits of dorado every single day right now in a normal year. This isn’t a normal year. It’s been like this for 2 seasons now as we hit the tail end of the El Nino conditions. But, some of our anglers found some of the mahi schooled up and got a few handfuls into the boat that were quality 10-25 pound fish and some larger ones lost! We can only hope for more!
As for other species, the deep canyons and drop off areas still produced some good billfish action for stripers, sailfish and the occasional hookup (and loss) of bigger blue marlin.
THE STORM?
As mentioned above, we’ve got our eye on a tropical storm that might be hitting us with some thundershowers and wind starting Monday. As I write this on Sunday, wind is already stronger than normal although the sun has been shining. This is NOT a hurricane, but there might be some flurries of intermittent rain, thunder and lightning coming Monday and Tuesday.
This is Tropical Depression Eleven-E as of Sunday and the possible path it might take over the next few days. Or not…the diagram changes every few hours.
The advisories seem to change every few hours. It’s not really going to affect anyone here on vacation. The margaritas will flow and tacos will be eaten. I’m only writing this as to how it might affect our fishermen, divers and snorkelers that it’s just something we’re watching and might have to do some adjustments to fishing schedules and that waters might be a little rough A little rain here and there is no big deal. Fish still bite. But if it gets really windy that might be another issue.
TAILHUNTER DONATION NATION!
Wow! Don and Sue Ogden DROVE about 10 crates of school supplies down to us including books, teaching materials, about 50 completely packed pencil boxes and so many other things all headed to the orphanage at Los Planes. Incredible.
All the way from Topeka, Kansas, the Stefan Family brought down a big batch of things for our charities. Super fun family and their first time fishing with us in La Paz. The empty ice chests that brought all this down went home with about 100 pounds of fish filets! Nice exchange!
Our good friends for so many years, on their 2nd trip here in 2016, Grant Darby and son-in-law, Ben Van Gerpen from Washington brought down school supplies, toiletries, hygiene items and clothes, which I think we’ll deliver to the women’s shelter here in La Paz. You rock, guys!
All the items that came in this week literally filled the entire back and the inside cab of a truck! I think there was over 300 pounds of supplies and we are so grateful. The donations go to so many needy families and kids and are priceless.
Conditions: 4 (cloudy, humid, a few passing storms, windy at times and choppy)
Sunshine: 3 (much of the week overcast, but finally sunshine late in the week)
Bait: 3 ( better for La Paz than Las Arenas)
Quality of fish: 5 (nice marlin and roosters)
Quantity of fish: 2 (sometimes there were only triggerfish caught)
Optimism: 6 (it’s gottta get better!)
Quote of the Week: “I have 99 problems. Fishing solves all of them.”
THE BIG PICTURE
From Puyallup WA area, fireman Seth Maxwell is on his honeymoon with his new wife Vann. Their first date was fishing. He proposed to her while they were fishing and now this! Nice amberjack off Punta Arenas!
C.J. Randolph with the big boy dog-tooth snapper (check out the choppers!) on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos! CJ is from Pacific Palisades CA
Gary Wagner and his daughter, Sydney, with her rooster caught not far from Gary’s place in Bahia de los Suenos…great lodge Rancho Costa (Plenty!). The fish was released!
Monte Adridge from Utah with a really gorgeous white marlin and Captain Pancho near the south end of Cerralvo Island.
One of the rare dorado caught this week. Van Maxwell, again in the report with Captain Chito north of La Paz.
Gary Wagner again, our amigo, with his son Miles’ roosterfish and captain Manny looking on! They are near Punta Perrico and released the fish.
Here’s Vann Maxwell again with big smiles and a huge roosterfish and Captain Pancho. The fish was released. Look closely and you can see the rain hitting the water in the background!
Pretty photo of Marlene and Monte Adridge visiting us for the first time from Utah and a big rooster just off the rocks near Baha de los Muertos. The fish was released.
Slug of a trophy cabrilla (seabass) for young Captain Randolph out’ve Las Arenas/ Bahia de los Muertos!
Dietmar Kruger with a nice barred pargo that’s going to get filleted!
You alway remember that first fish! Kudos to Marlene Aldridge for the fiesty bonito that was released and Captain Joel near Espirito Santo Island.
WEATHER AND FISH RELUCTANT PARTICIPANTS
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 24-31, 2016
It was a struggle this week. It’s been a repeated pattern all season. We have a week or two of really encouraging fishing and conditions when things look like they’re turning around followed by some really tougher fishing a week later. The last two weeks, the billfish really kicked it in and we were even seeing a few dorado finally.
This week the winds came in strong. So did cloudy skies and even some rain in the mountains and occasional showers on the water for our anglers. We barely saw sunshine. The billfish bite, while still OK was not as consistent as the week before. The dorado couldn’t be found. Even our reliable rooster fish were harder to find. It was like two steps forward…one step back.
We didn’t have alot fishermen this week, so maybe that was a good thing. We’ve been really solidly busy, but this week we had a few days with only a few pangas out. But, the guys really hung in there and worked hard. The captains were working especially hard. As I told my captains, when the fish are biting, all of us are superstars and the “best captains” in the world. When the fish are not biting, we have to prove we’re good by showing the clients that we work even harder. Some of our guys were staying out just a little longer than normal to give our guys as much time on the water as possible. We did whatever we could. Sometimes it paid off. Sometimes…well, that’s fishing. Not for lack of effort by the anglers or the captains.
LAS ARENAS/ BAHIA de Los MUERTOS
Roosterfish have saved us time-and-again all season. The fish are nice quality fish of 25-60 pounds. But this week even the roosters were harder to come by although we still got a few. As well, surprisingly, we got amberjack this week. We had not seen any for about a month and these are usually spring-time fish when waters are cooler. It’s really surprising to get any when it’s almost August!
A few billfish hooked and lost. Wahoo are apparently still in the area too. We had several inadvertent hook-ups but fish either bit-off or were dumped.
LA PAZ
Definitely our area this past week with the most action. Not great fishing, but the better area just to get your rod bent. There were billfish out there with stripers and larger blues getting hooked, but nothing like it was last week. Word is out now and there’s so much more boat traffic out there with alot of local boats all zipping back and forth across the marlin holes. So, I’m sure that had an effect on it too. A week ago, there were 1-3 billfish per boat some days. One day we counted 26 vessels criss-crossing the same patch of water over…and over…and over…
With the marlin action diminished…
Alot of our action has been inshore for pargo, cabrilla, jack crevalle, triggerfish, bonito and amberjack. Again, we would normally NEVER even be talking about these species of fish this time of year. These are spring-time species. We SHOULD be talking about dorado! But other than the occasional free-swimmer, there’s just not much out there for pelagic species. Other areas are also having their issues finding dorado as well so it’s not just us.
On the upside, the waters are warming and clearing up. Much bluer every week and there’s a bunch of sargasso weed about 10 miles north of town that’s moving south towards us so that’s very promising because the live bait situation is also improving. My captains are saying to give it 2-3 weeks and they think we’ll be getting dorado.
Tailhunter Fish Report 