MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK of JUNE 25-July 2, 2017
WEEK AT A GLANCE (Scale of 1-10 being best)
Weather – 7 (sunny and warm low 90’s / humid at times/ some breezes)
Water – 2 (some places dropped of cold / other places got warm and algae bloom started – see red tide below)
Fishing – 2 (at best)
Catching – 2 (when fishing is bad to begin with PLUS you lose fish…that hurts!!)
THE BIG PICTURE FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK
Victor Higerada from Texas with one of the larger dorado of the week and Captain Jorge.
Washington in the house and always smiles when Michele Conklin visits us. She can fish too! She took this hefty yellow snapper on a rough day out’ve Las Arenas.
The start of summer vacation for Micah Sybesma who came down with his dad and took this nicer dorado fishing north from La Paz.
Our good buddy, Rex Smith, who has been with us so many years looks a bit tired and that’s because he is! He battled this big roosterfish and couldn’t lift it for the photo! He did, however, get it back into the water and honestly, told me he was just trying to keep the fish still so it wouldn’t beat itself up so he could release it. Well done!
Sam Sybesma in the center with a nice group shot. Sam has fished with us many time but for John Slager, Geoff Wilkinson, Micah Sybesma and AJ Wilkinson, their first dorado! Nice shot!
The Basadre guys got themselves a nice handful of fish with some nice cabrilla and a jack crevalle! They’re from Long Beach. It’s Felix and his son, David!
Darrell Manginelli and Rob Bogartz started off their week with a couple of dorado.
A hat trick mix of fish for Captain Jorge in the center with an amberjack. Victor Higerada on the left has a football yellowfin tuna and Ed Martinez on the right has a dorado.
Double dorado! Micah on the right and AJ on the left with their first dorado ever!
A fish to match the outfit! It was great having Jeff Swift and his family fishing with us. He’s got a dorado on the gaff just off the island.
Jack crevalle might not be great eating, but they are tough fighers and here in Mexico they are called “Toros.” That’s Spanish for “bull” which is a good name. Darrell Manginelli had his hands full with this big jack!
FISHING FALLS APART
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 25-July 2, 2017
Just when I thought we had turned the corner and the season was “ON!” And being so high on the fishing a week ago, we got slapped back this week with some of the worst fishing I have ever seen. Fishing literally went into the tank. The waters turned into the Sahara desert in terms of life!
It was a combination of a number of things. And what a crazy mix and just a bad combination of weather conditions.
Hurricane Dora way way way to the south of us that skirted far down and quickly went out west to the Pacific. It didn’t bring rain. It didn’t bring clouds. The skies remained sunny and hot. In fact, humidity got up to 80% one morning when I was putting out the boats. But, what it did bring was upwelling and swells of cold water that dropped water temperatures 5-10 degrees! Not only did the waters turn from blue to green, but I think the fish were just in shock like when your hot water turns off in the shower or your neighbor flushes the head and you get a jolt of cold water. The fish went lockjaw.
Hurricane Dora this past week way to the south of us, but it pushed some colder upwellings towards us that affected the fishing.
On top of that we had several days of winds that gusted here…but not there…and there…but not here. One place flat as a pond but several miles away white-capping waves that again, didn’t do much for clearing up the water.
(We’re told pretty much all of Southern Baja from La Paz to the East Cape to Cabo were hurting this week for fishing…not just us!. We were getting calls and e-mails from folks in the other areas asking if our fishing was any better because they wanted to come up to fish.)
This is what red tide looks like and the algae bloom goes off and gets so thick it’s like a soup. Algae blooms deplete the water o oxygen.
Algae soup!
The biggest issue was a red tide that really put the slammer on everything. This result from…of all things…warm water that sets off a massive algae bloom that gets so out-of-hand and so thick that waters can looks “red” or “rusty” in places but surely cloudy and filmy and dirty. In fact, local restaurants are warned not to use local shellfish during a red-tide and for fishing, the algae bloom chokes the oxygen out’ve the water and in some cases like shallow bays kills off marine life.
So, fish just disappeared. We busted our butts and clients worked hard, but limits of dorado went down to looking for a single dorado bite. Fish we saw, weren’t interested in eating. Or, the waters were just empty.
We got a dorado here and there. We lost the occasional wahoo. Pargo and and cabrilla and triggerfish were still in the rocks if that’s what you wanted. A few jack crevalle and rooster fish. But that was it!
Hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, we’ll have swung around again. Things change fast. The thing with the algae blooms is that the warm water that creates will suddenly kill it off as the temperatures continue to climb. Then, the waters turn blue. Fingers crossed.
TAILHUNTER OUTREACH
Thank for the big hearts guys! Donations last week went to the Care for Kids Program. This week, thanks to Geoff Wilkinson and Sam Sybesma for their donations and also, Felix Basadre and his sons Dave and Tony who hauled down two full ice chests of clothes that will go to the women’s shelter. (I’m sorry I didn’t get your photos!) Muchas gracias, guys!
Have a great week everyone!
That’s my story!
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
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