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La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Aug. 5-12, 2018

August 12, 2018 by riplipboy

HURRICANE JOHN CRASHES PARTY

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug 5-12, 2018

Mexican Minute Video Report

Week at a Glance

Weather – We had Hurricane John that bounced in and bounced out. Some flooding, but honestly nothing serious as it headed out towards the Pacific, but enough that we had a few days of winds, rain and waves. Enough to cause a nuisance and shut down fishing for 2 days. But, even after it technically went it’s way the days in the aftermath still were cloudy…some rain…some thunder and lightning and winds. Very unpredictable and erratic.

Water – Did not take as bad a hit as after other storms where the water is very turned over and dirty. Since there wasn’t torrential rain, there wasn’t enough run-off to dirty the water. Waters relatively blue and clear at 83 degrees.

Fishing – Week started pretty well with big tuna, and dorado. Then the storm hit and you always wonder what it will do to the fishing. How long will the fish take to recover. Surprisingly, the fish were fair good to us. Not great, but not as bad as other times. We still had action although we had to work harder for them, but everyone caught fish. Surprised to see cooler water fish like pargo and pompano showing up. Are waters getting colder already? We usually don’t see these fish except in late winter and spring!

Catching – Still losing the majority of those big tuna; a couple of wahoo bites; and more dorado than we should! But that’s fishing! Everyone took home meat that wanted meat.

The Big Picture and the Rest of the Story…

Big tuna for Laura Hernandez and Mark Buchanan from San Diego who battled the big fish just off Punta Arenas. The fish were measured at about 50-55 pounds each.

A good reason NOT to be out fishing! Waterspout off Cerralvo Island during the storm! (Taken from the beach!) . Thanks for the shot, Rusty Cain!

Little vide of the beginning of Hurricane John.

Even after the hurricane “left” we still had localized and intermittent shower and thunderstorms all week. Pretty shot! Thanks, Mark Buchanan!

The fishing rabbi from Portland Oregon, our amigo, Sheldon Donnell used to have a temple in Orange Co, but retired to Portland and often came to fish in La Paz with Tailhunter Sportfishing. He got this nice bull just off the rocks near Punta Arenas.

One of our favorite all-time families! Diego and Kelly Sanchez from Loveland, Colorado brought granddaughter, Selena down who had a great time fishing. Here’s one day’s fun of tuna, dorado, triggerfish and pargo! Plus they released jack crevalle and bonito.

Bryan Forward from Carlsbad wasn’t fishing for roosterfish just north of La Paz, but while fishing in a dorado school with Captain Rogelio from the Tailhunter Fleet, this big boy popped up and chewed his bait and the battle was on. The fish was released.

I think one day, Al Sandstrom will probably move down here. He just has too good a time fishing! Dorado in hand caught with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.

Skies are still cloudy but the smiles are real! Captain Jorge with Mark Hawkins and Harry Hsu posed with 3 of their 5 yellowfin on the beach at Muertos.

That’s alot of mahi mahi for Mark Buchanan and wife, Laura Hernandez from San Diego. Always in the fish!

He’s a little tired! Tony Smith has 4 big tuna on the table. First time down here and he had a good time.

Lee Carlson with Captain Moncho of the Tailhunter Fleet is from Denver. He hooked this roosterfish not far off the beach near Punta Perrico near La Paz and fought it for over an hour on light tackle and said “The fish did me in!”

The best is when someone catches their first fish ever! Rob Forward of Carlsbad and Captain Rogelio with his first dorado!

So crazy unusual to be catching pargo liso because normally, they are cooler water fish we catch from Feb. to April! But, Shelly Donnell got this one off the rocks at Punta Perrico. Great eating! Tough fighter too!

Hope came to visit us from Idaho for the first time and got her first dorado showing here on the beach at Balandra! Great to have her down!

Colorado friends since college, these two have been Tailhunter amigos for many years. Always smiling, Frank Kunze and Lee Carlson with a pretty good day out’ve Muertos Bay of tuna and dorado.

This one weighed out at over 52 pounds for Laura Hernandez. These are beast fish! Check out how close she is to the beach at Punta Arenas!

Football-sized yellowfin tuna showed up later in the week that were alot of fun and surely easier than the 60 pounders earlier in the week. San Diego boys in the house!

Captain Gerardo photo-bombs a dorado photo of Cal Lambert from Colorado trying to pose with one of several nice dorado caught just before the storm hit!

Harry Hsu and John Land with Captain Jorge and a nice haul of dorado and triggerfish.

Alex Moser from San Diego and his amigos with a big 50 pounder that took over an hour to land!

Laura has a knack for getting big fish! Nice bull dorado off Las Arenas Point!

We had a strange and crazy week. Things were going pretty nicely and then out’ve nowhere, what looked like a week of intermittent showers and occasional rain suddenly got a name and turned into “Hurricane John!” It got us scrambling!

These things are un-predictable and although it was only a “Category One” storm, we’ve seen them do some erratic things over the years and while the storm path didn’t have John barreling directly into us, it was going to glance off the southern tip of Baja and bounce out pretty hard.

The storm warnings went out and the clouds, wind and rain came in. Thunder, lightning and even water spouts! Some flights got diverted and although we never got the heavy hit, it was enough to have the Port Captain shut down the port and ban all boat traffic. Big waves and strong winds didn’t help.

Of course, that meant cancelations; no fishing; and lots of schedule juggling. It’s too bad because fishing had been pretty good.

Then the storm left. Sort of.

The port opened, but for several days, we didn’t know if the port captain would change his mind and shut things down again. So there were days when we had everyone ready, but also telling them they might have to head back to their rooms if the port captain shut things down again.

Because while “John” moved off, it never really completely left and almost each day, we had threats of wind, rain and big seas and occasional thundershowers and left everyone wondering what the next day would be like and days when we went fishing and still got wet.

Fortunately, the waters didn’t take too hard a hit from the storm and fishing the rest of the week was a lot better than I thought it would be although it still was not quite as good as it had been.

Everyone still got fish!

At Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay for our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, the big tuna were still around although a bit pickier. However, smaller fun football sized 10-20 pounders showed up right off Punta Arenas not far from the lighthouse. Also, decent dorado up to about 25 pounds rounded things out and surprisingly we got pompano and nice big pargo liso snapper that usually we only catch in the springtime. It makes me wonder if cooler waters are already moving in! Several roosterfish also hooked and released in the 30-50 pound category.

For our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, dorado were centerstage again. Most of the fish were 5 to 20 pounders, but if you find the right spot, it could be crazy frenzied fishing. Most days, the boats got limits or near limits although some days the bite didn’t take off until late in the day. If boats left too early they sometimes missed the bite.

So, overall, not too bad given the weather. It could have been a lot worse!

TAILHUNTER OUTREACH – GRACIAS!

Diego Jimenez and his family from Loveland CO

Wes Perkins and Roger Hall from Oregon

Matt Chase, Terry Biggs, Mitch Embry and Rich Keogh

I’m sorry I don’t have ALL the photos of everyone who brought donations or school supplies, clothes, shoes, hygiene and other needed items for our Tailhunter Outreach Program. But, e are so grateful for the generosity. This year alone, we’ve collected over 1000 pounds of much-needed items that we distribute to the community. Some of the photos above are just from the last week and all of this went to the school and orphanage in Los Planes near Las Arenas. With school starting this week, the supplies and clothes were much appreciated!

Tailhunter Tribe rocks! Thank you all!

That’s our story!