FISHING OK MOSTLY – CRAZY COOL WEATHER

IS BACK!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for June 3-9, 2022

FISHING IN A NUTSHELL

Scale of 1-10 (10 being best):  6 at best.

Temps:  Cold windy mornings in the high 50’s to low 60’s with rough water but then gets hot into mid-90’s by late morning and seas flatten.  Sweatshirt not a bad idea.

Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet – Most variety of fish.  More fish per rod.  Seems like a little of everything.  Pargo, dog-tooth snapper, yellowt snapper, rainbow runner, roosterfish, bonito, jack crevalle, amberjack, yellowtail, pompano, trevally, sierra, cabrilla and a tease of wahoo and tuna

Tailhunter La Paz Fleet – Fewer but bigger fish.  Mosty 20-40 pound yellowtail and some larger amberjack.  Smattering of bonito and jacks.  Maybe some of the best yellowtail fishing in years.

MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

That’s a hog yellowtail! OINK! Rich Pope puts another big boy in the boat. Great shot!

The Mexican name of the amberjack is “Pez Fuerte” (The strong fish) for good reason. These bruisers can be over 100 pounds and are related to the yellowtail and roosterfish. Corey Fujita tugged this one up on the El Baja Seamount north of Espirito Santo Island. Check the yo yo jig still dangling from the fish’s mouth!

One tuna! Every now and then, we get a reminder that tuna should be here, but aren’t! Mark Malloy and Captain Ramiro pose with a yellowfin on the beach at Muertos.

I think this roosterfish was a personal best for Mike Muehl from San Diego. His buddy Bob lends a hand (Bob’s photos are below). Mike was able to release the big roosterfish.

Our first marlin of the season! He’s 5-years-old, but Owen Fujita actually pulled on this fish (with a little help from dad)! Note the marlin is missing it’s top bill! They donate the meat to folks at Aguamarga.

John Lowdermilk says it was his best day fishing here after putting the hurt on this big dog-tooth snapper. John is from Denver.

Captain Gerardo has alot of fish cleaning to do. Dave and Rachel Johnson had quite a bit of action by the looks of their table where I see golden trevally (palometa), rainbow runner, cabrilla, pompano, snapper and pargo.

Tiffany Floyd from Idaho is just a joy whenever she visits. Great pose with Captain Armando and a big roosterfish she caught off Bahia Muertos and released.

This lady loves fishing! Dee Dee Pope gets a hand on the gaff from Captain Alfredo and another big-shouldered yellowtail for the box.

Captain Arcangel with our long-time amigo, Doug Oclassen for a quick photo and roosterfish release.

Bob Francy has a big roosterfish to lift after a good battle so he can get it back in the water. I think Bob said this was his personal best rooster.

These folks were sure fun! Jim Caskey with Jeri and Gerald Damge from Colorado started their fishing week with a variety including cabrilla, rainbow runner, white bonito and snapper.

Good shot and a good fish for Rick Baer fishing north of La Paz where the yellowtail have been hanging out.

OH yea! Our roosterfish “poster boy” Steve Bryan cradles another big rooster for the photo so he can get it back in the water. Steve must have caught more than 8 of these big sluggers and released them all.

Not many dorado have shown up so far this year with the waters staying cold, but Dan Northrop got one of the larger models to bite a live bait while fishing with Captain Pancho

Bill Johnson with John Lowdermilk “We wore our arms out!” with a great rack of fish. Big amberjack, dog-tooth snapper, yellow snapper, cabrilla, yellowtail and rainbow runner on the day. This doesn’t show all the fish they released either!

Three generations of Fujitas! Robert, Owen (grandson) and Corey (son) with a couple of Cerralvo Island roosterfish for the photo then released.

It’s hard to lift a big fish after the battle, but Al Beilstein does his best with this big roosterfish for a quick photo then release!

Captain Adolfo with Bob Lederer from Massachusetts and a hefty yellowtail for the fish box taken off Las Arenas.

Every reason for the smile and the thumb’s-up as Rich puts another big yellowtail aboard. As I recall, this as his 2nd of the day.

Corey Fujita had to get a little height to photo this big bull dorado he caught north of Espirito Santo Island.

Great colors! Great smile. Nice fish for Grant Checa from Colorado and a nice barred pargo to take home!

Captain Gerardo and Jacob Pulsifer with a nice photo-and-release roosterfish. Jacob was another of our Colorado first-time anglers who visited this past week.

It was another week of anemic weather for us here in the La Paz area. We have had unseasonably cool weather and water this year. It has been reflected in mostly cold-water species being caught which normally are not hear this later in the year.

Two weeks ago, temperatures soared and I was sure we had turned the corner into summer-time conditions. We also saw more warmer water species like dorado start to bite. It was encouraging!

However, this past week, temperatures dropped again. Winds picked up, especially in the mornings that had our skippers and even clients reaching for sweatshirts and jackets. Waters had been clear and blue and instead got murkier and greener with the erratic change in weather.

So, we were back with the cooler water species. It wasn’t bad fishing at all. It was just unusual fishing for this time of year, but there was plenty of action with a huge variety of species.

However, it seemed to change from day-to-day and boat-to-boat.  One day Las Arenas is better.  The next day La Paz is better.   One boat gets a great bite.  The boat next to it can’t buy a fish.  Some days the fish came easy but the next day we had to work harder to find fish or get them to bite.   For most of our anglers fishing several days, however, it usually evened out and everyone went home with fish.

Big yellowtail continued to bite on live mackerel for our clients fishing out’ve La Paz in the bay or out towards the island of Espírito Santo to the north. This is maybe the best yellowtail season we have ever had.  Boats were averaging 1-3 fish per boat, but losing 3, 4 or more fish! Some occasional dorado and big cabrilla and bonito were also caught, but the focus was on the bigger yellowtail and occasionally, some bigger amberjack the cousin to the yellowtail.

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, it seemed like there were a dozen species caught every day. We just never knew.

In addition to some continued great action on big roosterfish up to 70 pounds, we also caught rainbow runners, cabrilla, snapper, several species of pargo, sierra, jack crevalle, pompano, golden trevally, bonito, and amberjack among others.

ADIOS y VAYA CON DIOS  AMIGO

When you’ve been doing this down here for almost 3 decades, we are blessed to have been part of so many special moments and to have known so many special amigos…part of our Tailhunter Tribe.

Sometimes, when we live and work here daily, we forget how special this place is, however.  To many of our friends, this is their happy spot.  It’s a place where they made so many memories with their own friends and families.

Over time, it’s invariable that we bid adios to more and more of our long-time Tailhunter Family.  It’s an even more important honor when they want their ashes spread or a memorial done on our waters.

This past week, we said good-bye to Glenn Oclassen.  Family and friends gathered in Bahia Muertos to place a wreath and cast individual roses in the water for him.

Glenn was one of my first customers who brought his family and friends to fish with us back in the 90’s.  He had a long history in Baja even before Tailhunters and it was always a joy to be around him and his smile every year.  I was honored to have been his friend and blessed with his memory.

Adios, my friend.  Be with the angels and we’ll see you again sometime on the waters!

That’s my story!

Jonathan