La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 16-23, 2020
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Our amiga, Donna Thompson, who aced some nice yellowtail using live mackerel on the east side of Cerralvo Island.
Winter winds and chilly breezes pretty much domininated the past week. Although not really much of anyone fishing during the winter months, we had a few folks scheduled to go out this week fishing as well as whale watching over on the Pacific side all set and ready to go. However, we had to either cancel because it was too rough or re-schedule.
Had to cancel trips this week because of the winds!
Most were folks in town for a few days and not hardcore anglers. They were just looking for a day on the water and wanted to give fishing a try. Not many were too upset about staying onshore rather than braving the waves or else they had other days to re-schedule.
A few anglers did find a few small windows of opportunity to fish between bouts of wind. If you had mackerel or got lucky on a trolled Rapala, the eastern side of Cerralvo Island was holding some nice forktail yellows. These yellowtail ran about 10-25 pounds, but that can be a long run over there and you gotta scoot really fast if the winds kick up.
Also, a few schoolie-side dorado were hit here-and-there which could produce some nice surface action with fish about 10 pounds or so. As well, a few snapper and pargo pretty much round out the scant moments of fishing.
Town has been packed for Carnaval which runs from Feb. 20-26th with pretty much a good portion of the waterfront closed down with booths, rides, fireworks, parades and huge concert stages every single day. So, it’s pretty lively in town this week.
Parades every day! Food, fireworks, concerts and more!
Best place to watch the parade on the waterfront is from our 3 story Tailhunter Restaurant.!
Thanks to Jay Statman for this video clip of one of the parades!
TAILHUNTER CALENDAR
Our next show will be the 76th Annual Fred Hall Fishing and Boating Show at the Long Beach Convention Center Mar. 4-8. This is the BIG ONE! 5 days of madness and fun! Here’s a link for more info:
The night before the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach we have a get together on Tuesday Night Mar. 4th to celebrate my birthday! It’s at the iconic Joe Jost’s Bar in Long Beach that’s been there since 1924! Come have a beer; eat a sausage sandwich, a pickled egg, an egg-salad sandwich and lots of peanuts! Nothing formal. Just friends and some fun!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 9-16, 2020
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Just a great photo! They got blown off the first day but hung in there and went out despite waves and strong winds (check out Jan’s hair and Art’s hoodie). However, first-timer Jan Paisley and Art Flippin from Colorado went out dragging a Rapala hoping something would bite and this big 70-pound yellowfin tuna chomped the line! They were just off Punta Arenas with Cerralvo Island in the background. Surprise catch for this time of year!
Our good amigos, Donna and Roger Thompson from La Ventana found some mackerel on the east side of Cerralvo Island and hung some nice yellowtail before the macks disappeared and the winds came back up.
Colorful dorado just outside Punta Perrico for Jan. The fish was taken to our Tailhunter Restaurant to be cooked up!
Escaping -30 degree weather up in Alberta, Canada, Sheri Maitland found sunshine and a school of dorado like this one just inside La Paz Bay on one of the calmer days.
Unusual fish for this time of year because dorado are warm water fish, Brad Bowdon got this bull fishing out’ve La Paz. Brad’s from Canada.
That’s a tasty barred pargo for first-timer, Jan Paisley from Colorado with a big smile!
It looks a bit choppy out there and chilly, but Stu Maitland has a firm gaff in this nice dorado.
It was a weird unusual, but not unusual week, if that makes sense. Yes, it was typically windy as if often the case this time of year and “cold” on top of it (by Mexico standards!). Locals were bundled up while tourists visiting La Paz for sunshine were walking around in shorts and t-shirts.
However, as far as the wind was concerned, it blew hard some areas some days and less so in other areas. And, of course, it affected the fishing. Some folks fishing one area pretty much got blown off the water or had to cancel trips. Others found some decent windows to get lines wet, even if only temporarily before winds shifted and the waves just got too rough and choppy.
Fortunately, this time of the year, there aren’t that many folks fishing.
However, for the few folks out that were able to get on the water…even for a short time, there were some decent catches.
For our anglers fishing the Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Cerralvo Island areas, there were the occasispeonal dorado and we even got a surprising chunky tuna that ran about 70 pounds taken on a trolled Rapala. On the East side of Cerralvo Island, there was a quick jag of yellowtail that ran 15-25 pounds, especially if you got into the live mackerel that temporarily schooled up.
Inshore, pargo, cabrilla and jack crevalle provided some fun entertainment.
For our anglers that were able to get out of the Bay and head north towards Espirito Santo Island, some yellowtail were also found, but it was pretty rough getting out there. Fortunately, there were some school-sized dorado just inside the bay that could be caught with most fish going about 10 pounds. But, it was stil pretty rough out there.
And more…BAHIA MAGDALENA!
A table full of great fillets coming up including pargo, snapper, corvina and grouper for our amiga Verda Boyd after her first day fishing the mangroves.
Another nice pargo in the boat caught by Natalie Nazareno. You can see the mangroves in the background.
We sent some anglers out with our Bahia Magdalena outfit. It was also too windy to fish outside the bay and work the ridge for yellowtail and grouper. However, inshore among the mangroves in the shallows, the fishing was spectacular. They got almost a dozen species! These included grouper, several species of pargo, snapper and seabass as well as corvina all on light tackle.
Jorge Romero, sporting his Santa beard, pulled this grouper out’ve the tangle of mangrove roots.
Tim Zimmer with a hard fighting pargo that ate a hooked shrimp.
All by herself! Bella Nazareno hooked and fought all of her fish by herself including this fat pargo!
One day…lots of variety!
Captain Rigo poses with Verda and another pargo for the cooler!
Also, the whales have been late arrivals for the whalewatching season, but more whales are finally showing up in Bahia Magdalena not far from where we’re fishing these days. Let us. know and we can set you up with a great whalewatching trip.
ROAD TOUR TAILHUNTER 2020 – THANK YOU SALT LAKE CITY!
Just finished the Western Hunt and Conservation Show at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. It was 4 crazy days of madness and fun! We just wanted to give a shout-out to all our Utah folks for the great hospitality and all the Tailhunter Nation members who came out to see us! We had some of the best days of any of the 5 shows we’ve done this year. Reservations to come fish with us in 2020 were off-the-charts and we’re looking forward to all the visits! Thanks to everyone!
Next up…the grand-daddy show of the West Coast… It’s the 74th Annual Fred Hall Fishing and Boating Show at the Long Beach Convention Center March 4-8! Come see us. Click the link below!
If you’re headed to La Paz, don’t forget that Carnival starts Feb. 21 and goes through the 26th with lots of parades, fireworks, food and major partying! The Tailhunter Restaurant on the Malecon is a great place to catch all the parades!
That’s our story! Hope you had a super Valentine’s Day!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 2-9, 2020
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
The Big Picture and the Rest of the Story…
The Torp family got a few dorado and a sierra before having to come in.
It was not only windy this week, but unseasonably cold as an unusual cold snap had pretty much everyone shivering and grabbing extra blankets! Of course, it’s all relative because tourist visiting from Canada, Alaska and other northern areas thought it was crazy to call 50-degree-weather “cold!”
However, for us, that’s pretty chilly and the week started out with heavy rains too that caused some localized flooding. On the backside of that storm is when the winds came up.
We did have some folks still insist on fishing despite our warnings and they were confined to fishing close to shore or having to get off the water early because of the weather and waves. Catches included some school-sized dorado but also sierra, bonito, jacks and cabrilla. It’s hard to find live bait when the weather is so inclement so at times we had to supplement with frozen bait and trolling inshore with small lures.
WHALES and WHALESHARKS!
Whalewatching is in full swing right now through about mid-March for our tours we’re taking out at Bahia Magdalena. Ask us for details on getting up close to these great animals. An experience for the whole family!
The “baby” whalesharks are right in La Paz Bay in shallow water!
Although it might not be the best time to fish and although windy conditions sometimes affect things, this is prime time to swim with the whalesharks right in La Paz Bay just out front of the Malecon or to book one of our whalewatching trips on the Pacific side over at Magdalena Bay. If you’d like a trip of a lifetime being with some incredible creatures, get in touch with us. Space is limited! http://www.tailhunter.com. Or e-mail me at Jonathan@tailhunter.com
MOVING ONTO SALT LAKE CITY
A big shout-out to all the Tailhunter Nation in the Portland and Oregon areas that showed us such a great time this past week at the Pacific Northwest Sportsmans Show where we spent 5 giant days in our booth visting and talking about fishing in La Paz! Tons of sign ups to come fish with us in 2020. We love coming out here ever year.
You just never know who’s gonna show up at these shows.
By the time you’re reading this, Jill and I will be back in “Ariel” our Tailhuter-Mobile rocking down the highway and headed to Salt Lake City for one of the largest hunting shows in the United States. Folks come from all over the world to visit and check out some of the almost 1000 exhibits and vendors. The show runs Feb. 13-16 (Thursday to Sunday) at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City downtown.
Check out this video clip from last year’s 2019 show:
Hope to see you there if you are anywhere near the area!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Jan. 26- Feb. 2, 2020
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST OF THE STORY…
Colorful dorado for Captain Jorge giving Jen Martinez a hand with the gaff.
Mike and Jen Martinez from Washington had just one day to squeeze in fishing and they picked a day when the winds lay flat and a few dorado put some bend in the rods.
As expected, we had the typical winter wind, chill and waves. That’s to be expected this time of year, when not many folks are fishing or even on the water.
However, we had a few windows of opportunity, especially earlier in the week when winds laid down enough for us to get some folks out to get some lines wet. In fact, we had folks fishing with our Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fleet and, for the first time of the year, with our La Paz Fleet. Still a bit chilly, but at least the wind diminished enough to head out!
Captain Boli pulls out with Sherry and Stu Maitland from Canada. Note the flat waters!
Surprisingly, despite it being winter, we got into some decent dorado biters. These are WARM water fish! But, here it is, the end of January and some 8-15 pound schoolies were on the chew. In fact, our La Paz boats found some nice jags of fish near the mouth of the bay where the water was warmer and loaded on limits in about an hour!
WHAT? Dorado in January? And limits just inside the bay? Wow!
This was total bonus fishing because many of the folks fishing were first-timers and visiting from chillier areas of the U.S. and Canada.
In addition, there were some nice schools of bonito to keep rods bent including some of the tasty blue and white bonito. Plus, there were catches of cabrilla, snapper, pargo and jack crevalle to round out the fish boxes.
Scott and Lynn Pichette are usually in negative freezing weather this time of the year in Canada where they run a hunting guide service. But, they were able to catch some warm sunshine and even some fish while fishing both La Paz (dorado) and Las Arenas/ Muertos where they hooked some white/blue bonito and a cabrilla.
Other than fishing, most of the action on the water are folks coming to town to either swim with the whalesharks or to do whalewatching as the whales are just starting to arrive up at Bahia Magdalena.
The grey whales have just started showing up in Bahia Magdalena. Ask us about day and overnight trips!
Whalesharks are now in the bay in the shallow water just a few hundred yards from the malecon. We’re running trips to go swim with the whalesharks now. Ask us about this incredible adventure!
TAILHUNTER 2020 ROAD TOUR TAKES US TO PORTLAND
We’ve been on the road now over a month and had some incredible fun shows in Denver…Sacramento…and Seattle (Puyallup). And now, by the time you’re reading this, we’ll be in Portland, Oregon for one of the largest shows on the West Coast.
The Pacific Northwest Sportsmans Show will be at the Portland Expo Center Feb. 5-9 (Wednesday to Thurday) for a huge outdoor show featuring exhibitors from all over the world with great stuff for the whole family including fishing, hunting, travel, boating, canoeing, kayaking, flyfishing, equipment, off-road, RV’s and more!
Come by and let’s set up your 2020 La Paz Fishing Vaction. We’re filling fast! Don’t wait!
Tailhunter Fish Report 