La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Aug. 25-Sept. 1, 2019

September 2, 2019 by riplipboy

AT LAST…DORADO-LANDIA!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 25-Sept. 1, 2019

MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Great colorful fish and photo! Captain Victor had Chris Wilber on board when he pulled on this pretty bull dorado! Dorado bites really took off this past week.

Our Kansas amigo, Adam Florence, brought another great group to see us this past week. Here he is with Captain Pancho and some of their dorado at Muertos Bay. More on the cutting table too!

That’s a PIG! Darrell “Gomer” Oleson drove all the way from Salt Lake City UT area in two days to get in some fishing with us and his last day was able to drag this huge dog-tooth snapper out’ve the rocks!

Two of the nicest new folks this week, Dan Adams and Kim Howard with a good day of dorado on the cleaning board.

Yup…the tuna picked up a little bit stronger this week as well. Chris and Mike Wilber show off two chunky YFT’s!

Now, this is a great shot! Fly guys seem to like to put their rods in their mouth, but can’t blame them when your other two hands have fish! Marie and Joe Fanelli had to cancel last year when a hurricane got in the way but were able to come down this year and spend time with us. Fun fun folks and Joe has an operation in the Amazon for peacock bass so we want to go see him! They got these dorado on the fly as well as a small tuna fishing north of La Paz!

Finally! A big roosterfish for Brent “Mountain Dew” Racker and Captain Pancho. Good shot after a good fight. The fish was released. Brent also got a huge rare milkfish and I only wish we had a better photo to post up! Brent is from Utah.

Talk about variety! This is what I mean. Take a look at Bobby and Stacy Florence’s board and you’ll see dorado, snapper, pargo, a rainbow runner and a palometa!

Captain Jorge with two of our besties! Verda Boyd from the bay area has been coming to see us sometimes 3 times a year for many years. She’s teamed up with Pam Bolles who has run the Baja Big Fish Company up in Loreto for almost 25 years and is a well-known flyfishing expert. Two great amigas of Tailhunter.

A heavy lift, but a big smile from Dan Bovee who always seems to nail a big guy on every trip. He took this big dog-tooth just outside of Bahia Muertos and is a load to lift up for the camera. Dan is from Orange Co.

Two funny guys from San Diego, Tom Rose and Doug Ladderbush with some of their first-day catch.

Doing like a boss…nice rack of dorado for Lynn. Not a bad day at all!

It’a been about 12 years since Glenn Delmendo last came to see us but he picked up right where he left off and started the trip with a nice bull dorado!

Hard to believe these big pargo liso (mullet snapper) are still around. Normally they are a cold water fish that we only catch in the early spring. Incredible tough fighters, Riley Florence, from Kansas posts up with Captain Pancho.

Good start to vacation with a hefty table of tuna, dorado and pompano for Andrew Fernandez and Tony Smith.

Two of our newest amigos, Dale and Pete got into some nice dorado as well for their first time fishing with Tailhunters. They did quite well over 3 days!

Could not have had two nicer folks visiting us this week for the first time, but Ron and Sherry Cady from Colorado pose up with some of their dorado from their first day on the water at Bahia Muertos.

Captain Armando with two of our long-time Tailhunter amigos, Terry Biggs and Rich Keogh and a nice rack of mahi.

Arizona on board with two more of our good amigos for many years, Wade Gomes and Bill Moore who fished 3 days with us and got in on the dorado bite that kicked up a notch this week! Check more fish on the fish board at the bottom of the photo.

Captain Pancho gives a well-deserved thumbs-up for Darrel Oleson and his roosterfish. Darell had quite a day on the water with a variety of fish. This one was released.

LeaEila Oleson visited us for the first time, and as you can tell, got right into it with Captain Fili and the dorado bite.

Football season started? Chris Wilber with a football-sized yellowfin tuna.

Double Gomers! Darrell Oleson and son Young Darrell on their first day on the water. First time down for the younger Gomer.

Bill Young from Northern California had to cancel his trip last year when a hurricane got in the way. But he made it back this year and poses with some dorado and a yellowfin tuna on the beach at Bahia Muertos.

Captain Pancho photo-bombing Riley and his dorado! Great shot!

Great colors! That’s Terry Biggs with Captain Armando just off the sand there at Punta Arenas! Don’t have to go far to catch fish!

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The week had a as many ups-downs and sideways as a Disneyland ride. The short version of the week was that it was the best dorado bite of the season as the fish finally seemed to hit their summer stride and the mahi finally woke up.

The week started kind of so-so. Not bad. Just not real consistent. Some of this. Some of that. Just a mix-match-hodgepodge of species.

Then, Tuesday we got hammered by an unexpected storm that was not on the radar. We call them “Toritos” (baby bulls) because they come out’ve nowhere generated by the huge amounts of heat off the ocean and lots of water vapor in the air (humidity is easily in the 60-70% range). It hit TUESDAY morning with a fury that had thunder shaking glass window panes like being in a bass drum and so much close lighting you could easily have read a book as streak after streak ripped through the sky right overhead and some bolt even hitting the water!

Turn up the sound and listen to this…This is when it was starting to “diminish!” The flashes are lightning and I was hiding under an alcove. The lighting was so close, the static electricty had the hair on my arms standing up!

The thing is, I had several dozen people ready to climb into boats that morning and as the storm passed overhead with such turbulence the rain started to come down as well, not sure what to do except wait it out. These things usually pass fairly quickly, but while you’re in it, it feels like you should be running for cover! But, we waited and despite the nervousness of all of us and what it would do to the fishing, we got everyone out…and it turned out to be the best dorado day of the year.

And it continued pretty solid all week.

Jay taking some shots of some nice bull dorado

Some boats did better than others then things would reverse the next day, but overall, it was pretty hard NOT to catch a dorado. The fish are scattered all over and a dull day could suddenly turn into a feeding frenzy if you hit the right spot with dorado crashing all around. Some fish were literally caught within 10 yards of the beach!

Most of the fish were respectable 10-15 pounders, but some 20’s were mixed in and a few 30-pounders were taken and larger fish lost . The only thing that diminished the bite was that once the word got out, traffic on the “honey holes” sometimes had the fish running for cover and the bite would slow until the crowds drifted to other spots.

Add to the dorado a nice smattering of yellowfin tuna that ran 10-25 pounds; some 40-60 pound roosterfish and a few wahoo (lost) plus plenty of bonito and it made for a pretty decent day of action most days for most folks. For a good number of anglers, especially some of the new-comers, they lost a lot of fish until they got the hang of it so often, numbers would be down when they got to the beach, but then find out they lost a half-dozen fish or more!

We also got into big-time dog-tooth snapper (cubera snapper) that were 30-50 pounders in the shallow rocks; pargo, cabrilla, the occasional amberjack and even rainbow runners plus a surprising showing of cold-water sierra and it was hard NOT to head home with some fish in the coolers.

BAHIA MAGDALENA TRIP

We had 6 of our amigos spend 2 days with our Bahia Magdalena folks fishing inside the mangroves as well as outside on the ridge. They had two productive days with about a dozen different species of fish in the coolers including tuna, sierra, pargo, snapper, cabrilla, halibut, triggerfish, snook and corvina.

Ready for a good day fishing the mangroves of Bahia Magdalena with Captain Rigo. It was pretty misty and drizzly sometimes but the fishing was productive.

Good table of grouper, pargo, cabrilla, snapper, triggerfish and halibut for Rich, Terry, Captain Rigo, Ed and Matt.

Rich Keogh with a nice snook on the gaff.

A darned good day! 14 tuna and 14 big sierra for Jay, Ed and Matt. Lots of fish cleaning coming up!

Pop another beer, Ed! Another day and another pile of fish!

YELLOW STICKY NOTES FROM THE TACKLE BOX

PLASTIC BAN – If you’re coming down, La Paz has just enacted a plastic ban. So, if you go to the market or convenience store, be prepared to buy one of those fabric bags or bring your own or bring a box. No more plastic. That includes doggie containers from restaurants and “Red Solo” cups for drinks!

TRIP INSURANCE – Don’t forget to purchase some inexpensive trip insurance if you’re visiting us or anywhere else in Baja. It’s the best time of the year for fishing now and the busiest, but also there can be occasional unexpected storms. There’s no refunds for weather-related cancelations. It’s part of fishing. So, cheap trip insurance will help cover canceled airlines, hotels, activities or other unforseen occurances. https://www.insuremytrip.com/

BOOKINGS for 2020 – We’re getting alot of bookings for 2020 already and some dates are filing up. Folks are going home from trips this year and immediately giving us dates for next year. If you are thinking about it and especially if you have a favorite room or captain, get in touch with us. We were pretty much sold out for 2019 by March so let us know! We do still have a spot here and there for the rest of this season, but let us know! Go to the website at www.tailhunter.com Or write us directly at Jonathan@tailhunter.com

That’s our story!