La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of June 23-30, 2019

July 1, 2019 by riplipboy

ROOSTER-FEST WEEK!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 23-30, 2019

MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY….

Dave Lester from Temecula CA with another beast roosterfish for the camera before putting it back in the water. Dave and his 3 buddies estimate they hooked and released 31 roosterfish over 4 days.

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What beast is this? DJ Bovee from San Diego fishes with us several times a year and hooked this massive bull dorado, the likes of which we have not seen in years!

Enzo Moreno is just 11-years-old from San Antonio, Texas. He caught and fought a marlin all by himself; he caught numerous other species including dorado and put this hefty yellowtail in the box as well.

Zach Smith had an eventful 2 days of fishing with us. His first day he hooked this pretty striped marlin. The fish could not be released and Zach donated all the meat to the local folks who welcomed the fresh fish

Our fun amigos for many years who always do well, Tim and Angela Farrell from Oceanside, CA with their favorite Captain Moncho and a handful of tough-fighting pargo liso and yellow snapper!

Pretty as could be. Joe has another pretty roosterfish to the boat to photo and release. The roosters were sure thick this week.

This might be my favorite photo of the week. Nina Moreno and Captain Rogelio mug for the camera with Espirito Santo island right behind them just a stone’s throw away.

Big fish…big mouth! The kind that can inhale a 12-inch-long bait! Ron Burgess gets a hand from Captain Moncho. Fish was released.

That’s a handful of pargo liso for Dave Gee from San Francisco who grimaces to hold the stout fish for the camera. Great eating meat!

From Florida, our long-time amigo, Al Burgess needs to take a seat after battling this 100 + pound yellowfin tuna off Cerralvo Island for almost 2 hours!

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Kim Hunt and Gabe Lao are doing their best to subdue this feisty rooster so they can take a photo and release it, but the rooster is having none of that and smacks them all over the place. Great effort by Kim and Gabe who caught 4 roosters this day.

Shaka sign from Captain Luis and Cathy Boos from Washington posing with one of her La Paz dorado.

Tom Hoey and Terry Hawk with the right kind of dorado! They hooked this legit pair off Muertos Bay. Some of the largest dorado of the season!

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This is a great photo. It’s not often over the 2 decades that we’ve gotten Captain Arcangel to smile, but we got him here with Jonah Voigstberger from Bakersfield and her first rooster. Caught and released.

No shortage of fun and crazy fishing when the schools of jack crevalle move in like this one caught by Alise Ferguson from Colorado Springs CO. Las Arenas Beach and lighthouse nearby.

Victor with some tasty pargo lisos.

Nothing like starting off your day with a trophy catch of a roosterfish right off the bat for Joe and quickly released.

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Zach Smith and Captain Fili give Nick Tovar (right) a hand posing with his sailfish on the beach at Bahia Muertos. Nick was not able to release the fish and donated all the meat to local families.

These fish might not look big, but hit and fight like freight trains. Kent holds up a colorful pargo liso he managed to pull from the rocks.

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An incredible shot! Off Cerralvo Island, Captain Moncho poses with one roosterfish while Ron Burgess already has another big rooster on the line!

Alot of good eating and variety on the fish cleaning table including big triggerfish, pargo, yellow snapper and cabrilla (seabass) for Jonah and John Voigtsberger.

Captain Gerardo with the thumbs-up photo bomb of Dave Boos and his roosterfish.

From Kentucky, Chase Wallis staying at Bahia Muertos in the Rancho Costa Resort got himself and big striped marlin after a good battle. He donated all of the meat to the local families when the fish could not be revived.

I love photos that are different and kooky like Nick and his big amberjack while he sports the cool beard and mustache face garb!

Fishing with us for years, Terry Hawk, has caught and released quite a few roosterfish with us.

Two great guys. Dave “Splash” Lopez and nephew Nick Gatelein from Los Angeles wit two pretty dog-tooth snapper.

Yes, pompano are still biting and yes, they are the largest I have ever seen down here in our waters in 25 years. Zach Smith has this one under control and released it.

Good amigo and owner of Rancho Costa Resort in Bahia Suenos, Gary Wagner with his son, Jason took this long roosterfish just outside of the bay. The fish was released.

The parade of weird and unusual fish continues. We’ve had milkfish…blue treval;y and now an island trevally. Another member of the diverse jack family. In 25 years, I’ve never seen one down here and neither had any of our captains.

I want to say it was really a great week of fishing. But, I can’t. So many times, I thought we were right on the verge of it, but then it got crazy again. For sure, we had some spectacular fishing and maybe one of the best if not the best fishing of the season.

However, the fishing is still all mixed up and unpredictable. Many folks caught the fish of a lifetime; or their largest; or their first or the most they have ever caught and that was great.

Gabe Lao, Elk Grove CA Roosterfish off the beach. Released.

But, there was just no getting a handle on what was biting . One day the bite was in one spot and the next, it was shut down. Clear blue water one day become green dirty water with current the next day. One panga rips up the fish and the boat next to it can’t get a bite. It was that kind of week.

I’m not sure where to start so let me break it out with our two different fleets. The fact that we have two fleets fishing two different areas often made the difference between having a good day or a so-so day!

For our La Paz Tailhunter Fleet

The week started well. This is where we’ve been getting yellowtail, amberjack, pargo and cabrilla and snapper. Plus lots of great eating white bonito. Really weird because these are all coldwater fish, except for the bonito! And it’s already 100 degrees and the end of June and beginning of July. For example yellowtail are a fish we usually don’t see much of after April or so!

However ,yellowtail between 15-25 pounds have been biting now for almost 3 weeks. By far our La Paz fishing north of town has been the most solid fishing most of the month.

If you wanted to just have a solid day of fun and action, this is where I had you fish. I could really depend on it doing well and everyone having fun.

Espirito Santo Island. Sy’s first dorado experience was a good one.

No, that’s not Richard Branson, but Rick Kasper has been on many TV shows and had his own hunting show for many years. He’s an old hand at fishing with us down here.

The weird thing, however, is that almost in the same spots where we were hooking the cold water fish, we were also hooking dorado which are warm water fish! The dorado ran 10-25 pounds and these are the kinds of fish we should be hooking this time of year. But with the presence of both fish, this means there’s a thermocline in the water column with warm waters about 81 degrees at the surface, but below that is a very chilly thermocline holding colder waters. This was confirmed by our scuba divers who ran into the colder water about 20-40 feet down.

Very unusual! But, like I said, everyone catching fish.

Until about mid-week. The fishing really died down. My captains told me cold green water with lots of current and strong winds kicked the bite to the curb. However, as the week went on…the bite came back little by little as temperatures rose again (we set a record 107 degrees Saturday) and waters calmed with dorado and other species once again getting active.

Nina hooks another one!

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet…

The week was mostly slow. But let me clarify.

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Jack crevalle “Toro” Captain Fili and Zach Smith

There were fish biting! No doubt. There were lots of those cool white bonito. And pargo, jack crevalle, cabrilla and amberjack and (Needlefish…yuk).

Dave and a pretty and big yellow snapper.

But, the big pargo liso were schooling! These huge mullet snapper are 10-30 pounds and are really difficult fish in the shallow waters, but these fish are normally schooling in these big groups in the colder waters of March and April.

Among the toughest and most difficult fish in our waters, pargo liso frustrate many an angler and frustrate strong men. However, Tim and Angela Farrell with Captain Moncho yanked these bad boys out’ve the rocks.

All of a sudden, here they are. The thing with them is that they are tough tough tough to catch. I have often told folks that if you get 10 hookups and get 2 or 3 to the boat, it’s about par.

So, folks were coming back saying what a tough day they had. Then, I’d find out they really hooked 6, 8, 10 pargo but busted them all off! That’s GOOD fishing…but bad CATCHING!

Pargo liso for Joe! Great eating.

Similarly, we had some tuna biting…and these were all 100+ pound beasts! 1 and 2 hour battles ended up with broken lines. In one case, our guys had the fish right next to the boat ready to stick the gaff after an epic battle and suddenly a huge shark rolls up and in two bites completely wipes out the fish!

Striped marlin waiting to be carted off to local homes.

Oh…and marlin and sailfish caught too finally although a couple of nice fish broke off. Best billfish bite of the season!

But the best part of the week…(drumroll)…ROOSTERFEST!!!

Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay is known as the “Roosterfish Capital of the World.” World record roosterfish up to 150 pounds have been caught on this beach area.

Well, this week, I’ve never seen the roosters go off like they did. I estimate almost 100 roosters were hooked and released between 5 and 70 pounders!

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Captain Armando and Dave Lester in the Baja sunrise with an early big roosterfish released.

On a single day alone, our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet had 8 pangas on the water and got 35 roosterfish! That’s unheard of! One of our boats caught and released at least 10 fish. This doesn’t even include the fish that were lost or broke off!

From Denver, Adam Tarowoski got his first roosterfish this week. Fish was released.

Then, at the end of the week, another surprise. We have not had many dorado caught this year around the Las Arenas area. Most of the fish have been around La Paz. Other than an occasional dink fish, not much to speak of.