La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Aug. 7-14, 2016

August 14, 2016 by riplipboy

MINI- VIDEO REPORT

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.

triggerfish Lisa Gibson Rogelio 8-16 tags

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! 😦

God bless you all!

That’s our story!