THE MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT FOR THE WEEK
WEEK AT A GLANCE (1-10 being best)
Fishing: 5 (respectably OK at best. Last week it was a 1 or 2!)
Catching: 3 (some of the biggest fish still getting away…wahoo/ marlin/ dorado/roosterfish/ pargo)
Variety: 8 ( incredible variety possible: dorado, tuna, wahoo, blue marlin, sailfish, striped marlin, roosterfish, barred pargo, dog-tooth snapper, jack crevalle, sierra, bonito, cabrilla, palometa, pompano, red snapper, yellow snapper, triggerfish all hooked this week)
Weather: 7 (hot and sunny in the mid-90’s with evening and afternoon breezes)
Water: 4 (still messed up from last week’s red tide and cold upwellings, but improved over last week’s 2)
As a reward for finishing his first year at Texas A&M University with good grades, Quinn Mattson from Austin TX got to come down with his dad to fish with Tailhunter Sportfishing, and over two days latched onto 10 huge rooster fish at Las Arenas getting 5 to the panga for photos including this monster. Notice the great squint as he holds the rooster for a photo in very tired arms! All fish were released. He was fishing with Captain Arcangel.
Jed Hinkle, state senator from Montana, on his first trip to Mexico and first time fishing with Tailhunter Sportfishing in La Paz hooked and released 5 of these big rooster fish in a day right off the rocks and beach at Las Arenas east of La Paz all on live ladyfish in shallow water.
I”m sorry we didn’t get Chris Layne his marlin, but his first day started out with a nice rack of dorado north of La Paz fishing with his wife Anna!
Lisa Hernandez from Orange Co. saved the day with this big rooster she cradles in her arms just off the rocks at Punta Perrico east of La Paz. The fish was released.
Cathy Corda, a regular visitor yearly to fish with Tailhunter Sportfishing in La Paz with her favorite captain Pancho, poses with her wahoo she caught just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos on a deep running Rapala.
Yes, some football tuna popped up . Nick Ferguson on the beach in front of the Rancho Costa Hotel in Bahia de los Muertos.
Big smiles from Captain Pancho and Kimiko Inoue and a trophy cabrilla that ended up partially prepared at Tailhunter Restaurant as delicious sashime! She and husband Keith also got some tuna as well.
These two had the best week of fishing! Duane and son, Quinn with a pair of the larger dorado they caught with Captain Rogelio and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet over near Las Cruces.
She’s the best! Michele Conklin, our amiga, from Washington fished hard when fishing was tough and pulled out this nice big snapper!
Last week, for some reason, this great roostefish photo of Randy Kuntz didn’t post and it’s a beauty of a fish. Big smiles and a strong release! Well done, Randy!
Good start for long-time friend, Steve Duran (left) and Zainul Abedin (right) both from the Los Angeles area with a dorado and two awesome-eating barred pargo.
Montana in the house with Captain Gerardo once again and a great photo and big rooster for Kyndall Hinkle on her first time visiting us! She got several of these and released them all!
Captain Arcangel with Duane Mattson from Texas with one of several nice roosters he battled and released!
Alot of dog-tooth snapper for Mike Feign from Colorado! Wow. Thanks to Gary Wagner owner of Rancho Costa there in Bahia de los Muertos for the photo of Mike.
Lisee Ferguson from Colorado with Gary Wagner and a pretty barred pargo ready for dinner at Rancho Costa!
Yes! The roosters are big! Mark Buchanan and Lisa Hernandez pose with another big rooster before letting it go. The rocks of Punta Perico right behind them. These fish are in shallow water!
Tony from Montebello CA and Juan Licon from Carson CA with a nice pair of Muertos Bay dorado to pack home!
Check out the great variety of inshore fish from Kyndall and Jed Hinkle from Montana. Yellow snapper…cabrilla…palometa…triggerfish…pompano all in the mix and all great-eating! Jed and Kyndall came to visit from Montana.
First day on the water for Quinn Mattson turned out to be epic with one of several huge roosterfish he took just off the Punta Arenas lighthouse and released!
Gary Wagner, owner of Rancho Costa there in Bahia Suenos got out with his daughter, Sydney, on a successful day for gallos!
A visit from Canada and a tough jack crevalle for MacKay Spence and Captain Armando.
Captain Arcangel was on fire this week with the roosterfish. Here with Duane Mattson and another rooster for him! All fish released.
Kris Kobach from Kansas with Gary Wagner and another big catch-and-release roosterfish this week!
Just an amazing week of roosterfish! Jed Hinkle with a monster and captain Gerardo running the boat right off the rocks. Fish was released.
Nice smattering of yellowfin tuna this week. Quinn and his dad, Duane, got this one in addition to roosterfish.
Strangest story of the week…one of our La Paz fishing boats was out north of La Paz and found this pig swimming out in the middle of the ocean. The little guy was shivering when pulled aboard and no idea what or why he was doing way out there. He was brought back to shore and reportedly doing well. No…he was not made into carnitas and eaten!
NOT GREAT BUT FISHING REBOUNDS!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 2-9, 2017
It wasn’t great fishing. It was good at best, but “spectacular” compared to the previous week when cold waters from Hurricane Dora to the south pushed in and turned waters green and cold. Then warmer waters from the north set off a huge red tide algae bloom that not only turned waters the color of rust and wine but chokes oxygen out’ve the waters and shut down what had been a very promising bite.
(I barely had any photos two weeks ago!!!)
Bottom line for this past week was that fishing was definitely on the re-bound as waters recovered daily from nature’s quirks! But still some “bumps” in the fishing. Not back to status quo yet.
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS FLEET
The week started slow. Very slow. To some degree waters remained chillier than normal and relatively off-color as it re-bounded from the previous week.
But, the fish definitely woke up about mid-week led by some outstanding rooster fish. It wasn’t consistent, but some days we had 2, 3, 4 or more hookups per panga with big fish close to shore in shallow water and taking it out on many first-time anglers. The “smaller fish” were 30 pounders. The larger fish were in the 70-80 pound class and willing to hit live ladyfish. It all depended on getting the lady fish which were like gold. All fish were released.
The amount of variety was more akin to May or April fishing. When the fish finally got with the program, we had not only rooster fish, but dorado, barred pargo, yellow and red pargo (snapper), dog-tooth snapper, big cabrilla (seabass), jack crevalle, sierra, triggerfish, pompano, palometa, some wahoo, a few football tuna and even some marlin hooked! You just never knew what would hit. Some boats did better than others but compared to last week at least the fish gave it some effort to the relief of all of us! Still scratchy fishing to where it SHOULD be, but things improving.
Last minute note: As of writing this, an offshore storm on the Pacific side on Saturday shut down fishing at Las Arenas with big waves and winds and dropped fishing back down. Can’t win. Nature always comes out on top. Hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, it bounces back.
TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET
The red tide that shut down fishing a week ago it taking it’s time leaving us. The water was so choked with algea that some places almost looked like someone had poured red wine into the sea. You could put your hand into the ocean and not see your hand! That’s how bad it was and all that algae depletes the oxygen from the fish. The fish were lock-jawed all last week and it took awhile for them to get with the program this week.
Things got better as the week went on. Not great, but better. Waters turned blue again although still not up to speed. Fish activity increased as both dorado and marlin can easily be seen. The problem is that they didn’t alway bite or show much interest. However, as the week progressed, the dorado started to wake up. There were some nice flurries of 5-25 pound mahi-mahi and some full-on dorado rodeos with multiple rods bending. But one boat could be going full tilt and just a handful or yards away, another boat could be staring at limp rods. Same with the marlin. They’re showing up more and more but just not quite ready to go yet!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR Top 5 – Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Tailhunter Fish Report 
Leave a comment