WEATHER FINALLY CHANGING TO HOT

(FISHING NOT QUITE YET)

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Bahia Muertos/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 18-24, 2022

MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

George Hatziyiannis from Oregon was on his first visit to us and was great to have him visit and also get his first dorado!

Sara Kirkpatrick and Dave Baker from Houston TX could not have been happier tangling with their first marlin that they hooked fishing outside La Paz Bay. Dave said he has his smoker ready. The fish could not be released.  Surprisingly, it’s only our 3rd marlin of the season.  Hopefully, more soon!

OH yea! Two thumbs up for sure from Kevin Beehn, our long-time amigo, currently living in the Lake Tahoe area of California. Talk about a rack of fish variety, I see amberjack, sierra, yellowtail, pompano and cabrilla ready for cleaning and good eating!

Two of our Tailhunter friends that have been with us close to 25 years. With a pair of nice yellowtail, Louis Mogabgab and Roger McCracken got the ‘tails on live mackerel.

Captain Alfredo gives Dave Williamson a hand posing with his big bull dorado. Dave is a hoot and visits from Waco, TX. he wanted a dorado this trip!

Ms Michele! She always catches fish. Michele Conklin has fished with us for years and has a nice cabrilla after her first day fishing. This lady can fish!

Captain Pancho with Shelton Donnell who visits us every year from the Portland OR area. Shelton was able to release the fish. He’s coming back to see us again in about a month! I think we’ve been friends almost 30 years.

Two of our favorite rascals, Larry Chastain and Steve Ritz got a mess of fish to clean! Wow…tons of rainbow runners and some trophy cabrilla!

Captain Alfredo helps Roger with a nice-sized roosterfish right off Punta Perrico near Bahia Muertos. Roger was able to release the fish.

Big smiles from Shelton and his yellowtail that took a live mackerel near Espirito Santo Island.

Captain Archangel looks on as Dylan Hitner holds up a pretty rooster she caught just off the rocks in shallow water. Great shot and a good release as well.

First timer, Sylvia Conklin with Captain Armando and a sizeable rainbow runner. She also put a nice amberjack in the box as well.

His first roosterfish after years of fishing in La Paz, Kevin took a good shot and was able to let the fish swim off strong.

Texas in the house! Dave Williamson and Dave Baker had a full day of action with dorado, cabrilla, rainbow runners, amberjack and even a hawkfish to take home.

This past week seemed to be the first week that it finally felt like some semblance of summer.  It was actually hot with air temps hitting the high 90’s and even the low 100’s.

It hasn’t been like that all season where we’ve had cold waters and cooler temps than normal that have definitely defined and given us an erratic and much different fishing season than normal.

This is the first week that the jackets and sweatshirts came off.  But, have we turned the corner?  I don’t want to jinx things, but I can only hope.  The cooler weather we’ve had has meant rougher water; more winds; greener seas and an unpredictable fishing bite.

With the warmer water this past week, seas seemed flatter.  The winds really tapered off.  But, I’m not sure that it has meant the fishing was better.

For the past 3 months, we’ve mostly been fishing cold water species like pargo, cabrilla, snapper, jacks, pompano, trevally and others.  We’ve had a spectacular yellowtail season unlike any I have ever seen in almost 30 years down here with fish into the 30 pound class.  All of these are cold water species that should have been long gone by April or so.   Instead, we’re still catching them here into the summer.

However, with the waters warming, we’re seeing more dorado although it’s a far cry from what we should be catching when normally by this time of year, dorado should be 70% of the catch.  We also are seeing more billfish including striped marlin and our first sailfish of the season.  However, again, it’s just a smidgen of what we would normally be catching.

In the meantime, we are still catching the cooler water species mentioned above including sierra; rainbow runners (more than I have ever seen);  white bonito (again more than I have ever seen) and roosterfish are still around although not as many of the larger 50 to 80 pounders we’ve caught the last few months.

In all honesty, I can’t say the fishing has improved.  It is still unpredictable.  It is still erratic.  One boat catches fish and the boat right next to it can’t buy a bite.  One day, the fish bite and the next, everyone has to work extra hard just to hook a single fish.   When the fish do bite, there’s no telling what the boats will come back with.

I think we just have to wait and see and hope that the waters continue to warm bringing in more dorado, billfish as well as hopefully wahoo and tuna.  Fingers crossed.

That’s my story!

Jonathan