BUSY WEEK! ROOSTERFISH…BILLFISH…DORADO!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 20-27, 2020
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Every year, Kelly Jimenez from Colorado comes down with her family to visit us for years. Every year, it’s something new and better! This year, with Captain Jorge, check out the size of this huge roosterfish she battled outsid Bahia Muertos! The fish was released.

Captain Chito and Diego Jimenez are all smiles as Diego has been fishing with us for many years from Loveland CO and always wanted a sail. After releasing several marlin this week, this sail was kept and meat donated.

They hooked 4 big roosters this morning. Gary Wagner owner of the Rancho Costa in Bahia Muertos with friend, Rush Whitmarsh from San Diego with one of those 4 hefty roosters caught and released.

Jim Stahlman was with us all week an fishing with Captain Jorge. Jim is from Boise, ID and caught roosterfish, jacks, wahoo and on this day, his personal best dorado.

Gary Wagner with one in the boat to start the day. The roosters were on the chew this week close to shore . Gary released this one and others.

Giving some “sugar” to their dorado, the Morales sisters from California, Christina, Kimberly and Ruby on the beach at Bahia Muertos. Ruby also landed a sailfish that day.

Kelly and Diego Jimenez were on a roll this week releasing several marlin, numerous roosterfish, jacks and other species. They estimated they caught almost 20 different species. They caught this marlin and sailfish the same day with Captain Chito. The fish could not be released, but meat was gifted.

He fished hard all week and got wore out! But, 11-year-old, Roman Jimenez worked it and this was his largest jack crevalle of the week which he released.

Jesus Morales and Carlos Kanemoto with two dorado out’ve their box after a day of hitting the mahi at the buoys.

Right in front of the Punta Arenas lighthouse just off the beach, Rush and Gary with another roosterfish for a quick photo and release!

Jim Bovee from San Diego…pulling hard on a light rode with a marlin at the other end! Check the series of photos. That’s Espirito Santo Island in the background just north of La Paz. More photos below.

…and here it is! Great shot. Great battle ! Even better, Jim released the fish to fight another day!

Ruby Morales, holding the head, gets an assist from her sisters to pose with her sailfish. Ruby always does well. Last year she single-handed a huge yellowfin tuna.

Captain Pancho lends a hand to Kelly Jimenez and a fun little rooster right up in the shallows of Bahia Muertos. The fish was released. There’s alot of little jacks and roosters in the bay that are great for catch-and-release light tackle fun.

Immensely fun when you’re throwing a surface-popper like the one hanging out’ve the mouth of this jack crevalle caught by Rush Whitmore of San Diego. The fish was released.

Surely no shortage of action on these tough-fighting jack crevalle nicknamed “toros” by the Mexican fishermen which means “bull.” Diego Jimenez with the photo and fish!

Jim Stahlman from Idaho with one of two roosters caught and released just off the sands and surf at Punta Arenas.

Our Captain Gerardo stands behind Fernando Morales and pal, Jonathan Jackson and 3 of their dorado. They caught big fish limits early in the morning and were back on the beach and back to town long before anyone else!
A very good week overall. Some boats did better than others some days. Some spots were better than others. There was a little work involved in finding the fish. But for anyone who put in a couple of days on the water, you surely went home with a bunch of fish in the cooler; some to eat for dinner; and probably released alot of fish too.
I can’t believe how many species were hooked this week!
I think I counted almost 20 different species. They included dorado, tuna sailfish, marlin, roosterfish, jacks…we even hooked some sharks and (get this) salt-water catfish!
The week started out with an explosion of tuna for our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. I mean, the ocean just blew tuna out’ve the water and onto the rods and reels. Pretty much all you could want in the shallow waters off Punta Arenas and Bahia Muertos. You could see the tuna swimming under the boat and see the bottom as well. It was THAT shallow. Fish were nice-sized 10-20 pounders too.
Next day, everyone wanted the tuna again, but for the most part, that was the tuna show for the week, even though some tuna popped up here and there.
After that, dorado…some good grade legit 20-25 pounders moved in. So did big roosterfish between 10-80 pounds along the shoreline along with their jack crevalle cousins. Add in snapper, cabbrilla, pargo, triggerfish and bonito and there was no shortage of action most days with most boats. Our Las Arenas Fleet definitely had the better action but that doesn’t mean our La Paz fleet wasn’t working it.
North of town, the water just seemed a bit cooler…a bit off-color. It’s taking awhile to come around.
Honestly, with all this variety and the windy days we’re still getting, this is very much like spring-time fishing . Maybe May or June-style fishing. Plus, it’s not really as hot as I would expect for this time of year. The waters are still getting to the right spot . Even when fish weren’t biting, we were definitely seeing the fish…schools of them, but they weren’t necessarily on the chew. This was especially true of the dorado.
However, billfish really stepped up this week. Not all of them wanted to bite but we hooked more striped marlin and more sailfish this week than any week I can remember. We lost alot of them too because folks would be fishing for dorado or some other smaller species and instead a billfish would take a bite instead and well…off to the races. Usually the fish would win, but a couple of folks got their fish to the boats and most were released.
But, then again, there were marlin sometimes just sitting on the surface sunning. Not interested in feeding at tall. And that is very characteristic of spring-time behavior.
Hopefully, more and better coming up!
CORONAVIRUS UPDATES
Everything pretty much open or getting there! Still holding at “Orange Level 5” which means no more than 30% occupancy and masks are required. Lots of sanitation protocols in place everywhere. Town not very full, but more fishermen coming all the time. Beaches are still mostly closed, but plans to re-open maybe this week. Social distancing required, but there’s not enough people around to make it an issue.
All water activities like scuba, snorkeling, booze cruises, kayaking, etc. were re-opened this week.
FUBAR COCINA CANTINA
Tailhunter Sportfishing
Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter Sportfishing
8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863