MEXICAN MINUTE MINI-VIDEO FISHING REPORT for WEEK of May 21-28, 2017
WEEK at a GLANCE (1-10)
Weather – 8 (what an improvement although still some wind!) But sunny and great!
Fishing – 6 (better than it has been all season, but lots of room to get better)
Catching – 5 (only because we lost so many darned good fish!)
Quality of Fish – 7 (Wahoo / big roosters / big cabrilla and pargo/ lost marlin and tuna)
Bait – 1 (Las Arenas almost non-existent) . 4 (La Paz not bad but not great)
THE BIG PICTURE AND REPORT
Largest pargo liso of the season and one of the largest we’ve seen in a long time for Oregon amigo, Cody Johnson and Captain Pancho.
Captain Armando went out with Dwayne and Debbie Petenaude from the San Diego Anglers Fishing Club that’s here with us this week and put this beast wahoo in the boat!
Scott Damron from Oregon was the un-questioned roosterfish king of the week with 5 or 6 huge roosterfish (I lost count!) taken that averaged 60-80 pounds! All released like this big boy with a hand from Captain Pancho.
From Huntington Beach CA, first-timer with Tailhunter Sportfishing Mark Garrity and his wahoo with Captain Gerardo.
Great mix of eating fish for Dave Codding from Idaho and Captain Armando including big triggerfish, a dorado and some nice pargo.
Our good amigo, Tom Mullican from Idaho finally put a wahoo in the box after getting bit off or losing several during the week. With Captain Jorge!
Another huge roosterfish for the Damron family! Dale Damron used to be a charter captain in Oregon and is all smiles with Captain Pancho for another catch-and-release giant roosterfish.
Paul Markowitz had only one day to fish with us, but hit a homerun with this wahoo. Paul is from Idaho.
Kyle Monsrud really wanted to get a roosterfish and got this beauty fishing out of Las Arenas with our Tailhunter fleet. Kyle is from Portland and released the fish.
Gorgeous bull dorado for Mark Garrity of Huntington Beach CA. One of our largest dorado so far. We are seeing more and more dorado this season! He was fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleeet north of town.
Good eating meat with this trophy cabrilla taken by Kirk Petre from Colorado who pulled this nice fish outta the rocks north of La Paz.
Captain Arcangel with the Duffy boys from New York with quite a variety including red snapper, dorado and wahoo.
Deanna Damron with Captain Adolfo had just hooked and fought a huge roosterfish but came up short, but right after, hooked this big old barred pargo.
Kyle and Holli Monsrud from Portland with a handful including a big bull dorado and a huge jack crevalle while fishing with our La Paz fleet.
Another nice wahoo on the first try! New York in the house!
Is this a big needlefish or what? Captain Adolfo gives Deanne Damron a hand with this monster!
Well-done Kyle! A good week for some big dorado like Kyle’s bull here.
WINDS LAY DOWN AND FISH WAKE UP!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of May 21-28, 2017
What a difference a week makes and what a difference in the fishing when the winds give us a break! For weeks, we’ve been lamenting the winds and how it affected the fishing, but we finally got the winds to dial-it-back for the most part and although fishing wasn’t WFO, or even great, it was 500% better than it has been with lots of variety and big fish. I think this week I saw over a dozen different species caught including wahoo, tuna, marlin, roosterfish, several species of pargo, cabrilla, jack crevalle, pompano, sierra, several species of bonito, triggerfish, snapper and more! You just never knew what you were going to hook up!
LAS ARENAS TAILHUNTER FLEET
Usually, this is the area where we get the most action and the most variety, but that just wasn’t the case this past week. This is where the bigger fish were hanging out! We must have lost 4 out’ve every 5 wahoo hooked up. Early in the week, I don’t think we landed a single wahoo and it wasn’t until later in the week when the guys started putting some ‘hoo into the pangas and not losing so many. In their defense, these are fast powerful fish with sharp teeth, but it would have been nice to land a few more!
We also got some huge roosterfish. The average rooster ran about 60 pounds this week with a number of fish in the 80 pound class. These were beasts and you had to catch the big foot-long ladyfish to use for bait. There’s a reason we’re called the roosterfish capital of the world.
We also hooked some striped marlin and rounded things out with bonito, triggerfish and some jack crevalle, reef fish and dorado. One of our guys had on a 50-pound tuna lost at color after about a 30 minute battle as well!
This was the best fishing we’ve seen in the area all year. Nothing spectacular by our standards, but any improvement was welcome. It can only get better. We did have one day where the winds blew our folks all over the place but they still caught fish. But, mostly this is bigger fish we’re seeing. So, you either get big fish and hit home run, or you don’t do so well. There’s not a lot of “in-between” action right now. If you chase roosterfish or wahoo or marlin, if you get one, you’re a hero. But you could also be one of the boats that gets goose-egged.
The biggest issue is bait. For all intents and purposes, there’s no live bait to be had so we’re using dead bait. We are selling bags of fresh frozen mackerel in the mornings and some of the guys are bringing fresh dead squid as well.
Fly fishing is a non-issue. We’ve had a handful of flyfishers this season, but they’ve done OK because they were also willing to use conventional gear and have some fun. Some of the fly fishing only outfitters in town are really hurting. If you’re coming with a flyrod, be ready to use conventional gear and you’ll have a good time. Bring the flyrod just-in-case the opportunity presents itself, but not only has it been pretty breezy to throw the rod, but also with no live bait to chum with, it’s hard to get the fish to come up.
Conditions are improving so have our fingers crossed and like I said, this was the best consistent bite we’ve seen.
LA PAZ TAILHUNTER FLEET
Normally, this is where the larger fish are found and the variety is over at Las Arenas. It’s been just the opposite this past week with fishing steadily improving as the week went on!
We got into some nicer dorado…in fact, some of the nicest dorado we’ve seen in two seasons. Plus there were big cabrilla, pargo, triggerfish and snapper to be had as well. Really some nice action and just like at Las Arenas, regretfully so many big fish lost, especially in the rocks. I think we lost about 60% of the hookups to inexperience of to rocks. But, still fun.
My captains are telling me the conditions are looking great. There were places where dorado and marlin were jumping everywhere, but just weren’t ready to chew quite yet. There’s sargasso weed building up everywhere which is a great sign for more dorado. They say it’s just about ready to bust loose if the water temps edge up just a degree or two more!
Hopefully soon!
That’s our story!
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
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