EXPRESS VIDEO FISHING REPORT

THE WEEK AT A GLANCE

Weather –  Nice Sunny high 80’s to low 90’s.  Getting a little more breezy and cooling down.  More north winds.

Water – Still nice, but cooling.  Mid-80’s.  Seeing more cooler water fish moving in.  Colder thermoclines.

Quality of Fish – Billfish, tuna and wahoo are good sized when you can get them.

Quantity of Fish – If you fish La Paz, you can get lots of dorado.  If you fish Las Arenas, fewer fish, but bigger fish.

Forecast – For coming week weather looks good.  Nothing special forecast except sun! But winds getting stronger.

Jonathan’s Attitude – Great!  It’s been a long season and we’re coming to end of our 21st season.  And fish are still biting!

THE BIG PICTURE FULL EDITION FISHING REPORT

Bruce McFadden is the sales director at the famous Peregine Lodge in Canada and had just one day to fish on a quick visit to us in La Paz. With his wife Leticia and Captain Pancho, they tied into Bruce’s first marlin that he fought for 40 minutes before it got off. (they were going to release it) Then, they got this sailfish but were unable to let it go and generously donated the meat to the pueblo.

Our good amigo, Paul Nagata from San Francisco, with a chunky tuna he caught earlier in the week off Las Arenas on dead squid.

Really great first-timer with us, Scott Evans, tied into this yellowfin tuna and is all smiles and thumbs with Captain Jorge.

LATE SEASON STILL HOLDING BLUE WATER FISH

La Paz- Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 30-Nov. 6, 2016

Conditions couldn’t have been nicer this past week for weather and water although it’s obvious that everything is changing as we move through the late fall and towards winter.  The sun is out and you really couldn’t ask for nicer days in the high 80’s with cooler nights in the low 70’s and high 60’s.  (Us locals are wearing sweatshirts and even some jackets now!).  Water is getting a little cooler too.  All part of the cycle. 

Moreso, you can tell we’ve pretty much come to the end of our regular season.  

We’ve been rolling full steam since the end of March with as many as 20-50 anglers per day for 7 days-per-week.  Now, we’re down to about less than 10 per week and that will continue to taper.  From November to March, we might see only a handful as winds get stronger from the north; the waters get a bit rougher; and the “glamour” fish go elsewhere.  There will still be fish to catch, but the majority will be inshore species and cooler water species like pargo, cabrilla, rainbow runners and sierra.  That doesn’t mean fishing is bad.  Just different and surely not to discount some of our cooler water “beasts” like amberjack and yellowtail that can still yank you right outta your socks! 

So…to be more specific…we didn’t really fish too much with our La Paz fleet.  Winds are already coming from the north and making it bumpy and most of our anglers might do one or two days, and catch a cooler of small dorado between 5-10 pounds, but then want to chase the larger species.

So most of our fishing has been with our Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fleet.  

There’s some larger dorado there.  The wahoo are still hanging around and surprisingly some marlin and sailfish pretty late in the season.  There were two blue marlin hooked this week and several stripers and at least one-sailfish.  

No tuna for once, but there are several factors that might play into that:

1.  The tuna might have started moving out after about 2 months of them being around. 

2.  We did see some tuna, but moving fast on the surface and headed elsewhere and too fast to get on them

3.  Not as many anglers out there from our fleet or any fleet to really pinpoint where the fish might be.  (It’s alot easier when a number of pangas are on the water)

4.  The few anglers we had this week wanted to spend most of their time chasing other species. 

I guess we’ll see how it goes this week! 

Some of the other species we got were rainbow runners, pargo, cabrilla and small bonito. 

18th ANNUAL LOS CABOS TUNA JACKPOT TOURNAMENT

Team “Tu Corazon” from Los Barriles had the biggest tuna of the tournament with a fish that pulled at 298 pounds. It was worth over $100 thousand dollars, but was not the biggest money winner of the tournament. It did win for biggest fish of the tournament and biggest fish of the first day.

There were lots of fish in the 80-150 pound class that were caught by the 169 teams, but were never weighed because they would not have qualified since we had alot of 180-200 pounders and 8 fish over 200 pounds. These were beasts that were taking 3-4 hours to pull aboard.

Lots of big wahoo were caught both days. The two winning wahoo were 53 and 52 pounds respectively and were worth more than $60 thousand dollars each.

There were a record breaking 169 teams involved from all over the world and all over the U.S. and Mexico. Lots of teams from California, Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. We had one team from Luxembourg and we’ve had teams from Japan and Russia competing. Good to see so many local teams and also teams from Mexico City as well.  There was a record payout for the tournament of almost $800 thousand dollars.

Mark Rayor’s boat the “Vaquera” briefly held the money lead with this 251-pound yellowfin. This was the largest tournament in Mexico history and the largest tuna tournament in the world.

The teams from Texas are always colorful! “It’s not fuschia…that’s too big a word in Texas…It’s PINK!” they told us!

On the last day with only minutes to go before the scales closed, Team Reel Quest literally destroyed the field when they backed into the docks with 5 huge yellowfin tuna parked up against their transom weighing between 150 and 274 pounds. No one had seen anything like it and the huge crowd was cheering! Their 274 and another fish of 251 were the 2nd and 3rd largest fish of the tournament. Largest was a 298 caught the first day.

Team Reel Quest’s fish of 274 pounds wasn’t the largest fish of the tournament, but it was the largest of the 2nd day and it swept all the jackpot categories and resulted in the highest payout ever in the history of the tournament of almost $400 thousand dollars.

Jill and spent this last week working at the Western Outdoor News 18th Annual Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot Tournament in Cabo San Lucas.   It’s always fun and great to see so many good friends every year.

This year had the largest field ever with 168 teams and 621 anglers from around the world.   Lots of teams from the Western U.S including California, Alaska, Oregon, Arizona, Washington and Idaho.  Plus so many teams from Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Florida.  I met anglers from Russia, Japan and even one team from Luxembourg in Europe…a first!  (And their first time ever in Cabo or Mexico!).

Mexico also had a great representation with a huge number of teams from Cabo San Lucas, Los Barriles and La Paz plus teams from Mexico City and Puerta Vallarta as well.  As you can imagine, these local “experts” all did well!

The field made this the largest tuna tournament in the world…and the largest tournament in Mexico.  We had a record purse of almost $800 thousand dollars plus raised almost $40 thousand in charity funds for dental work for kids in Los Cabos.

Thanks to everyone who made it the best tournament ever.  What a great time with great friends!

That’s our story!

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

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