La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of July 15-22, 2018

July 23, 2018 by riplipboy

FUNKY WEATHER PRODUCES ERRATIC FISHING

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 15-22, 2018

MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT

WEEK AT A GLANCE

Weather – Sunny and muggy most days. High 80’s to low 90’s. Other days it was just muggy and gray and heavy! Humidity on those days was way high. One day we even had tropical thunderstorms with lighting and wind that came up out’ve nowhere. When it was sunny, the fishing was better. When it wasn’t sunny, fishing wasn’t so good, especially earlier in the week.

Water – Warm and mostly blue in the low 80’s on the surface. But it’s still incumbent on the fishermen to find the warmer and bluer water where it tends to be clearer and more likely to hold fish.

Fishing – It was tougher earlier in the week when we had clouds and even some rain. Waters were mostly fishable but the fish just didn’t want to bite even tho’ we could see them boiling and jumping. Got better later in the week as skies cleared.

Catching – Wish we could have boated some of those big tuna we lost. But, they are big fish for a reason.

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Elementary school-teacher from the San Diego Area, Traci Valade caught her first tuna and it was a dandy 50 pounder she handled all by herself off Cerralvo Island fishing with Tailhunter Sportfishing. Husband John Valade helps, however, with the photo opportunity.

Big smile from Grant Jensen from Woodland WA and a pretty bull dorado not far from Punta Arenas.

Wow! Thank you, Gary Wagner for this great shot of about a 60-pound rooster being released and headed back down from the surface!

2. Michele Conklin from Washington fishes every year with Tailhunter Sportfishing in La Paz and knows how to pose with her fish. She caught several larger dorado plus had a big tuna on the line as well while fishing from Bahia Muertos with live baits.

All the way from Corpus Christi, Texas, Rafael Rios fishes every year with Tailhunter Sportfishing and was trying to get one big tuna. After 2 days of struggling, his last day, he finally tied into this big yellowfin while fishing with Captain Gerardo. Estimated size was 60 + pounds.

What an incredible photo and yes, these are the true colors of what I like to call a “Tiger Blue Dorado.” No such thing but that’s what I personally call it when we get one of these gorgeous fish! Dave Conklin, our Washington amigo, caught this one just outside of Muertos Bay fishing with Captain Jorge.

ou’ve heard of a “photo bomb.” How about a “photo bum?” Craig Corda has a funny way of getting into the photo with Cathy Corda by facing his “bum” at the camera! Great shot! Nicely done, Craig! Good day fishing!

It’s almost bigger than her! Ann Zelibor and her big roosterfish while staying in Muertos Bay at Gary Wagner’s Rancho Costa. The fish was released.

San Diego in the house with Mike and dad, Bob Stasiak and a nice pair of bulls caught north of La Paz.

Our amiga for so many years and so many visit here, Cathy Corda holds onto a bull dorado she caught just outside of Bahia de los Muertos.

You remember that first one! Colin Huston wanted so badly to catch a dorado! Here is at the Costa Baja Marina with his prize. Colin caught about a dozen different species of fish over 2 days for his first salt-water experience.

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Check out all the colors! This dorado looks like it’s part of a Monet painting! Rafael Rios and Captain Jorge.

The week was marked by erratic fishing that pretty much co-incided with the up-and-down weather patterns we got. It really was all about the weather. Even us locals were commenting that the weather was strange.

Several days, it was cloudy and oppressively humid. In many areas and heavy stillness sat on everything where there wasn’t even a breeze. The waters were so flat that you could not tell where the grey ocean ended and the grey sky began. It seemed like there wasn’t even any current. And the fish just didn’t want to bite. It was really picky.

Strangely in other areas, the grey skies brought thunder, lightning and even heavy localized rain that drove fishermen to seek cover back on shore especially at Las Arenas and toward the East Cape…while back in La Paz, it was calm and gray. But, again, the fishing bite was stingy even when we could fish. And the rough conditions affected fishing by turning over the water; bringing cooler waters up from the deep and scattering the all-important schools of bait.

So, fishing, especially early in the week was a hit-or-miss proposition. Fish were caught, but the bite was definitely off. Crazily, many of our anglers saw tuna…they saw dorado…they saw marlin…but the fish would refuse to bite even though the fish were chasing and breaking and seemingly feeding. They didn’t want anything attached to a hook. They didn’t want anything dragged behind a boat either.

Mid-week, the weather cleared and bright sunshine returned. And the fishing picked up noticeably.

Tuna at Cerralvo Island between 40 and 60 pounds finally decided to eat hooked baits although they were somewhat line shy and preferred very light leaders. That didn’t bode too well for long battles, but at least there were hook-ups! Dorado decided to tear it up as well as wahoo and roosterfish. It was a complete turn-around.

Then, late in the week the clouds returned but this time with winds! And the bite tapered off again. Everyone still got fish and there was action to be found, but we really had to work hard to find fish and get them to bite.

THANK YOU SAN DIEGO ANGLERS FISHING CLUB

Jilly and I wanted to take a special shout-out to our friends in the San Diego Anglers Fishing Club. They heard that during the recent fires in San Diego that our home had burned down.

There were many who sustained losses, but we were thankfully not among them. We don’t have a home in San Diego nor do we live there, but an area where Jill used to live was devastated.

The San Diego Anglers reached out and held a collection at their monthly meeting and collected $700 for us!

To our fish brothers and sisters, we are touched beyond words! We know you do alot of work for charity and the community so hopefully, the funds can be used towards that or possibly to the many folks who actually suffered losses from the fires.

You’re the best!

That’s our story!