FULL MOON and ECLIPSE FISHING?
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report Week of May 23-31, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Troy Kuzminsky really wanted a roosterfish! Just off the rocks he pulled this beauty. The fish was released! Troy is from Washington!
First-timer Dave Bundy fishing with our Arizona amigo, Rick Kasper found the dorado schools north of La Paz around Punta Coyote.
Maybe a new IGFA World Record for Gama Morales! Officially weighed on a certified scale at Tailhunter at 46-pounds besting the current 2007 record of 45 pounds. See more information below! Taken in the same area…south end of Cerralvo Island.
Lots of “beasty” fish, lately! Wow. This hog dog-tooth snapper was caught by Clayton Cersonsky from Austin TX on live bait outside of Bahia Muertos. That’s Gary Wagner owner of Rancho Costa there in the bay.
A pretty picture! Colorado in the house with a pair of legit dorado caught north of La Paz. That’s Dr. Giani Checa and his amigo Dan Le.
I’m sure he can think of some great things to do with this nice cabrilla! Professional chef Preston Hix was visiting us for the first time from Florida.
You won’t find much dorado in Montana! Ken Miller has a beauty for this picture. Great photo, Ken!
Celebrating his graduation from Texas A & M in Wildlife, Quinn Mattson was with us 4 years ago after graduating from high school. Nice rack of fish with Captain Arcangel…pargo, cabrilla, snapper and pompano!
Fire Captain Mark Ferreira took some days off for his first visit to La Paz and shows off his first roosterfish caught and released near Punta Arenas.
This gal can fish! Always has big fish! Taylor Murphey from Lakewood CA has a nice early season wahoo. Cerralvo Island in the background!
This is Ted! He’s a funny guy and caught a bunch of roosterfish on spinning gear and had a blast. All fish released.
First day variety for Ricky Bacon and Pat Talbott at Bahia Muertos.
The right kind! They’re still around…the tough pargo liso! Duane Mattson from Texas with a big grin over a big fish!
We got so many good folks from Montana like Chuck Hinkle here who took this pretty bull dorado off Espirito Santo Island.
Lorena always has a great smile with her fish! Just off the rocks south of Bahia Muertos. Catch-and-release roosterfish!
One of the prettiest photos of the week. Our good amigo, Mike Schoder from Alaska…on the flyrod! His last day fishing and down to only 4 baits to chum got this awesome bull to take his fly! They ate a bunch of it at our Tailhunter Restaurant that night!
Captain Rogelio strains to lift the marlin on the gaff caught by Ron Baughman even though wife, Valerie gets in the photo! Great Colorado folks who had a spectacular fishing week (see more below). This fish was hooked on 30 pound test and swallowed the hook.
I’m gonna make William our new poster-child for Tailhunter. He never fails to take great photos with his fish like this rooster he hooked just off the surfline near Punta Arenas (in the background). The fish was released.
Great colors and big smile form Kyndall Hinkle who got in a few days fishing with us from Montana while Captain Raul looks on!
Flat waters and hungry fish like this bull dorado make for a great day. John Hamilton had alot of fun over 3 days. I think that’s Captain Boli’s hands…lending a hand for the good photo.
Great fun fish…rooster poses with Pat Talbott for a photos before getting returned to the water.
Matt Talbott is a tall fella and this dorado he caught outside La Paz Bay is almost as long!
Here we go…dorado make for some great colorful shots! Duane Mattson and Quinn Matson found the schools!
Another one on the flyrod! Another long-time Alaska amigo, John Daley rocked this rooster on the fly before releasing it.
I count five different species on the cutting table including pompano, a rainbow runner, cabrilla, snapper and pargo! Chuck Hinkle from Montana with son Jed who is actually a Montana State Senator!
Thumbs-up from Captain Joel with Steve Dietrich who make a last minute trip with friends when one of the party didn’t have a current passport.
Dr. Giani Checa has all the right colors and outfit for fishing roosterfish with Captain Jorge. Giani wins the best-dressed for the week! It’s a good look to go with a good roosterfish!
Jerry Hill…fun amigo! He’s got another dorado for the box! Really enjoyed him and his amigo, Johnny Hamilton. On their first trips to visit with us!
It was a good solid week on so many levels.
There continues to be an incredible amount of variety of species being caught as more warm water species move in like dorado, marlin, wahoo and tuna however, cooler water species like yellowtail, amberjack, pompano, and sierra continue to linger and are willing to bite.
I believe I counted 18 different species of fish caught this week.
Just as I think the waters have sufficiently warmed and we shouldn’t be catching the cooler water fish, species like the yellowtail, sierra, pompano and pargo continue to pop up. However, the clearest indication of the warming season is the big uptick in the dorado.
The bite started to kick in about mid-May. The fish had been in the area, but just weren’t quite ready to bite. This week, the area around Espirito Santo Island and in the channel between the north end of Cerralvo Island and Las Cruces/ Punta Gorda were filled with sargasso weed floating around. This produced excellent cover for baitfish like the flying fish and drew in hungry schools of dorado.
Using live bait, the dorado are normally smallish this time of year with a 10-pounder being typical. However, like so many other species we are finding in 2021, the dorado this year are healthy legit 15-25 pound fish with some larger 30-pound class fix mixed in . It has been a long time since we’ve seen this kind of abundance and size to our dorado. I think , like many other fish we are seeing, keeping everyone off the water last year because of Covid, really had an effect on letting these fish grow!
In addition, other warm water species also made their presence known. We got our first tuna this week of about 25 pounds and other fish were seen in the area but not quite ready to bite. We got our first marlin around Espirito Santo Island this week plus our first wahoo of the season all are warm-water indicators.
There’s still plenty of roosterfish around, but the size has diminished from the 80-100 pound bruisers we have been seeing. Most are in the 10-30 pound class right now. Alot of that has to do with their food source changing. The big fish like the large 12-18” ladyfish (sabalo), but the sabalo seems to have moved on and taken the larger sluggers with them, so we’re using the smaller sardines and that likely has much to do with the smaller fish.
The eclipse and full moon were a bit strange. Normally, a full moon doesn’t seem to affect us too badly. I was really worried about the lunar eclipse which was really something to see at 5 a.m. in the morning when we were launching our boats in the dark!
The eclipse had zero affect on the bite from what I could tell.
Not so the full moon which was a “blood full moon” and one of the largest of the year. The big luna really had a dramatic effect on the tides and currents and for about two days the fish just didn’t want to bite. We really had to work hard for the fish. However, as the moon diminished, the bite seemed to jump right back to where it had been.
One very remarkable note:
We might have a new IGFA all-tackle record!
Gama Morales with his big boy pargo liso (mullet snapper) that hit 46 pounds…one better than the current IGFA record of 45 pounds in 2007. Both caught at the south end of Cerralvo Island.
Gama Morales was trolling at the south end of Cerralvo Island near La Paz with a live caballito through a school of feeding bonito in about 60’ of water when he hung a huge pargo liso (mullet snapper). We brought the fish to our certified IGFA scale at Tailhunter and the fish weighed in at 46-pounds!
Yup! Our Tailhunter certified scale reads it right…46 POUNDS!!!!
We had to figure a place to hang and weigh such a big fish. So, we did it right in front of our taco window on the sidewalk at our Tailhunte Restaurant on the La Paz Malecon. It drew quite a crowd.
We needed help to lift it up, but now that all the official stuff is done and the crowds have left, Gama needs help to take it down! He said it would feed alot of folks!
The current record was set in 2007 again at Cerralvo Island with a fish that weighed 45-pounds. We will be submitting an application to the IGFA for a new all-tackle record. We’re pretty excited.
AND YES WE ALSO FISHED MAGDALENA BAY!
Captain Rigo took Valerie and Ron Baughman from Colorado for 2 days to fish the mangroves inside the bay for some shallow water light tackle action and they caught and released numerous species and fish. The grouper fishing was especially productive!
Leaving the docks in the morning.
First day!!! Wow…grouper, pargo, cabrilla, halibut!
Ron has a pargo for the fish box.
Tasty hard-fighting grouper pulled out from the mangrove roots and bushes (background) in the shallow waters of Mag Bay.
That’s my story!
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
Tailhunter Fish Report 