MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT FOR WEEK OF SEPT. 17-24, 2017
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Weather – Fortunately, Tropical Storm Norma veered out to sea at the last minute. Great sunny weather all week, but some strong winds late in the week. Mid-90’s to mid-70’s.
Water – Blue and warm. Windy areas less clear, but 84 degree surface temps.
Fishing – OK for dorado on the La Paz side, but really good tuna biters on the Las Arenas side. Blue marlin surprised us this week.
Catching – Pretty good. The size of the fish 10-30 pounds is ideal for most folks so once they get the hang of it not many fish lost. Biggest problem might be anglers too tired from battling some of these tuna!
THE BIG PICTURE REPORT
The “right kind” for Dr. Art. Flippin from Colorado who put another nice yellowfin tuna in the panga with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The fish was caught just at the mouth of Bahia de Los Muertos which you can see n the background.
Captain Armando with Austin Herron (from Texas, of course!) and Sam Smith from Arizona on their first day of fishing with a couple of handfuls of yellowfin tuna.
Ben Kirk caught alot of fish this week, but none larger than the big blue marlin he hung while fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet around Espirito Santo Island at the Charro Bank. They were not able to release the fish. Ben also caught a load of tuna and dorado during the week and is from Colorado.
Our amigos from Lynden , Washington, Fred and Lisa Cruz had a banner week of tuna fishing with us.
Check out how close to shore the tuna schools were located! Esteban Ramiro poses with one of his yellowfin headed for the cooler!
Like fishing in a lake! This is our Captain Adolfo with our amiga, Kate McElroy fishing with us for the first time. With yellowfin tuna in hand, check out the flat waters and proximity to the beach for this bluewater fish! Kate is from Oregon.
We love having our long-time, amiga, Katie Olson, come to visit us. She loves fishing with our Captain Boli and our La Paz fleet and shows off some of her dorado ready to get cleaned and packed up! She now lives up in Bishop CA with husband, John.
Big smiles for Jay Curtis from Utah on his first trip visiting us as he holds of two of his tuna on the beach there at Muertos Bay.
Last day of fishing at the end of the day, Fred Cruz from Washington finally got the big roosterfish he was chasing while fishing with Captain Gerardo. After the photos, the big fish was released.
One of the best eating fish we have, the barred pargo (pargo mulatto) is not only colorful, but a tough fighter in the rocks but Esteban was able to yank this guy up!
More good Colorado, amigos! Connie and Art Petz with Captain Armando and a batch of yellowfin tuna and a trigger fish. They got 8 tuna in the box.
Just to show you some variety, Ben and Shawn Kirk got a limit of tuna, then topped it with some dorado and a big barred pargo with Captain Jorge.
Flat waters and schooling dorado are perfect to throw the flyrod and Austin Herron took this feisty bull on a 9wt and a Deceiver pattern at the mouth of Bahia de los Muertos.
By the time this photos was taken, Oregon amigo, Frank McElroy had been catching tuna all week and having a blast in the flat waters close to shore at Punta Perrico.
Our Northern Cal visitor for the first time, Kelly Hufford was spearfishing and shows off a barred pargo and parrotfish.
Usually, we catch these great eating pompano in the sprintime, but Fred Cruz added this to a big batch of tuna to top things off.
Great shot! Art Flippin with another yellowfin tuna, this one just off the sandy beach at Punta Arenas.
If you look carefully at this colorful shot of Kate and Frank McElroy holding some of their tuna and dorado, you can see how close we are to the launch ramp at Bahia de los Muertos. As the week progressed, the fish schools moved right into the bay.
TUNA ROLL BACK AFTER “STORM” – BLUE MARLIN ROLL IN!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay fishing report for Week of Sept. 17-24, 2017
We were a little nervous about how the fishing was going to be this week after the “scare” that Tropical Storm Norma gave us to start the week. To re-cap, Norma had us right in the crosshairs for several days as it approached the Baja Peninsula, and given the devastation that Tropical Storm Natalia did earlier in the month, there was a lot of anxiety.
Fishing had really been great, but with Norma approaching and early winds increasing, the La Paz Port Captain shut down the port and hence all fishing and water activities were prohibited for several days. No one could go out and the winds kept increasing and started to churn things up.
Then, the storm just veered off after hitting us with just some strong winds. Not even any rain. Norma just turned left and headed out to sea of which we were obviously very grateful. But we had been off for three days stuck on land and we didn’t know if the fish would still be there or if the winds had changed the water and ergo the fishing!
Tailhunter La Paz Fleet
When we finally got back on the water, the dorado hadn’t moved! Thankfully, still out there north of the city. It wasn’t great fishing because I think the fish did indeed get their habitats a little stirred up, for example some of the sargasso weeds had been broken up, where the fish hang out, but more-or-less, if you found the spot, the dorado were there and willing to bite. They varied in size between 5 and 15 pounds with a few larger and some days and pangas differed from day-to-day, but overall, not bad fishing at all. One boat would do pretty good and a panga right next to it would have trouble hooking it. Stuff like that.
The biggest issue was that the winds seem to have driven off much of the live bait which was difficult to come by for the good part of the week. There’s obviously a direct correlation between the bait and the fishing so it might take a bit longer for the live bait school to get it together.
The nicest surprise was the fact that we got an incredible number of blue marlin hook-ups! After a season in which we’ve had the poorest billfish result in many years, we had more marlin hookups in one wee than we’ve had all year! There wasn’t a day this week when I think we didn’t have at least one big billfish hooked with most of them going 150-300 pounds. And most of them were un-intentional bites! Guys would be fishing for dorado and hook one up or dragging small lures to catch bonito for bait and hook a big blue! We haven’t seen a whole lot of small stripers or sails all year, but this is definitely turning into a blue marlin kind of year!
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY FLEET
After the storm sort of pass through, we let our Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Area sit and rest for awhile because this is where the winds hit hardest and waters were turned over quite a bit.
It started a little sticky but no doubt the tuna that were there before the storm were still there. It got a little better every day until it was pretty much up to full speed throttle. Football 10 pounders up to 25 pound yellowfin seemed to be in a nice line from the lighthouse at Punta Arenas then south through Muertos Bay and south again to Boca de Alamo. About a 3 mile stretch of fish. Best of all, the fish were literally 100-200 yards from the beach.
Later in the week, the sardine schools moved right into Muertos Bay and so did the tuna schools and we were catching both tuna and dorado as well as rooster fish right within sight of the boat ramp!
Our pangas were limiting early then chasing other species. On the days when there were fewer limits it might have been a direct correlation to the fact that larger fish were hitting that day and more fish lost. Overall, just some really nice fishing!
TAILHUNTER OUTREACH
Shout out to all our Tailhunter Tribe and Amigos who keep bringing us donations every single week for our charity adults and kids! I’ve been remiss in not posting all of your photos, but here’s some from this past week with a big “MUCHAS GRACIAS” plus many others that I didn’t get to take a photo of you…THANK YOU! More than you know!
Amigo, Gary Wagner, with a bunch of the orphanage kids with new shoes and some toys!
Dick and Lorna Gasser and Chad and Jonene Gasser from Utah had a whole tableful of clothese and school supplies.
Jilly with our amiga, Katie Olson, who hauled down two suitcases of women’s clothes that are headed to the La Paz Women’s shelter.
From Texas, our friends, Chris and Mica Lara had an ice chest crammed with school supplies
Marilyn and Roger Young from Missouri with Ben and Shawn Kirk from Colorado had school supplies and tons of those little shampoos, creams and soaps from hotel rooms that have a super need especially at the women’s shelter and the orphanage.
Santa Clause in the house! One of the nicest guys, Barry Strickland had a full box heavy with clothes and school supplies!
Too much fun whenever Dan and Lisa Hicks visit us and this time had all kinds of shoes and supplies and feminine hygiene products! You rock!
From Torrance CA, Don Vegter and Chelsea Roos brought clothes PLUS uniforms and a bag full of soccer balls for an entire team of kids!
That’s our story!
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
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