La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 15-22, 2023
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
This past week was pretty typical late fall type conditions. Lots of sunshine for the snowbirds with temps in the low 80’s to high 70’s and cool evening conditions in the mid-60’s. Some days really nice and others blustery and windy. Seems like each week the air temps are getting a tad cooler and the waters are getting just a bit greener as they cool off as well.
Honestly, not many folks in town as this is the lull before the holidays. I expect that to change this coming week with Thanksgiving coming up. So, not many tourists in town. It’s actually a very peaceful time.
There are even fewer folks interested in fishing. Just a few walk-in’s now and then. Not in town specifically to fish, but just looking for a day on the water. Unfortunately, the couple of bookings we had, were cancelled due to windy conditions on those particular days. Some folks don’t have very flexible schedules so we warn folks if the particular day they want to go out doesn’t look good. Or looks like it might get blown out.
Captain Armando got out with Miguel Campos and found a nice bit of dorado that wanted to chew on one of the least windy days. Miguel is from Puerto Vallarta.
On the other hand, the few days that conditions were amenable, there are still fish biting, although it’s mostly locals from La Paz in the boats.
There’s a few dorado here and there. As well, there were a few hookups on wahoo and billfish. However, most of the catch is turning towards cooler water species with cabrilla, snapper, rainbow runners, sierra and jacks. Most of this is inshore fishing. We even found small yellowtail under the tankers anchored in the bay.
Sydney Wagner with big smiles and a big cabrilla that I’m sure went to the dinner table at her dad, Gary Wagner’s place there at Bahia Muertos at Rancho Costa just south of La Paz.
With the rougher waters, it’s getting more difficult to find live bait, but that’s one of the variables with fishing this time of year. The coming week for Thanksgiving is looking like there will be strong winds from the north pretty much all week.
WINTER WHALE WATCHING NOW BOOKING
The annual migration of the gray whales to Bahia Magdalena will be coming soon and prime time to see them is mid- February to late March. This is the largest migration of animals in the world and this is a great opportunity to get about as close as you can imagine for a trip of a lifetime.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 7-14, 2022
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST OF THE STORY…
More and more of these rainbow runners showing up in the counts as waters get cooler. These are cousin to the yellowtail and Sidney Wagner caught this one just off Punta Perrico around from her dad’s place at Bahia Muertos.
Finally got a chance to get out with Jilly for just a few hours and we found some nice dorado under a couple of buoys in the channel in front of Cerralvo Island. You can tell the waters are getting colder and greener.
These four guys rocked it! Captain Gaby from Las Cruces was out with Marshall Hydorn, John Clayton and Carter Mack at the north end of Las Cruces dragging some Marauders and hit the hat trick of wahoo…3 nice ones on board. Gaby with the bonito!
JIlly with Captain Joel got the biggest dorado of the day on a live sardine. She totaled up 4 dorado and 3 cabrilla on the day.
Gary Wagner at his place at Rancho Costa in Bahia Muertos was able to get out one day and took this late season bull dorado!
_____________________
This is that big lull before the holidays. Town is pretty quiet. The folks that are here are mostly tourists and snowbirds looking for some sunshine. Not much of anyone here that is specifically here to fish.
If someone does want to fish, they are usually walk-in folks just looking for a day on the water. Nothing hard-core. Most of the savvy fisher-folk have left as the 2022 fishing season winds down.
The winter winds have started blowing from the north making a fish trip an exercise in trying to figure out which days the winds won’t blow you off the water. Two weeks ago, we had three days of the week that were too blustery. This past week, there were two days. As I write this, it appears that maybe 5 days will be quite windy.
Some of those days, you can probably get out and we would fish you in some of the more protected in-shore areas. But, if the wind is really howling, there’s a good chance the port captain will shut down all boat traffic departing or arriving.
There are still some dorado around. Most of the are the fun smaller 5-12 pounders with some occasional big toad bulls still lurking. One thing nice is that you could just go to the big tankers anchored in La Paz Bay and find some schools without having to go out too far.
There’s some wahoo at the north end of Cerralvo Island, but for the most part, the weather is cooling and so are the waters with blue waters starting to turn green and cloudy. Consequently, more cooler-water species are moving in.
This includes, sierra, rainbow runners, pargo, cabrilla, jacks and even a few amberjack and yellowtail. These will become more predominant as the waters continue to cool off.
Mostly, live bait (sardines) and cut bait (stripped bonito) have been the most effective attractants, but as waters get rougher, it’s harder to find the sardines. Also, the bait guys will be more reluctant to go find bait to sell if there aren’t many folks fishing.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Bay for Week of Oct. 30-Nov. 6, 2022
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST OF THE STORY…
Not the best time to be out on the water in a panga! (turn up the sound)
Brent Ritchie has a big smile for his early morning dorado hook-up.
Our own, Brian Reid from Hewitt, Texas hit a school or dorado right out in front of the city where the big tankers sit at anchor and had a limit in about 45 minutes.
Sal Pamiza, first-timer with us from S. Carolina is our good family amigo and gets a hand from Captain Pancho with one of his first-ever fish!
Tom Brewer was able to squeeze in 3 days of fishing over a week by picking out days when the winds were down and scored good fishing for several species during his days on the water.
I wish I could say there’s alot going on and alot to tell you about, but the straight-up honest report is that as I’m writing this report, the port has been closed now for two days shutting down all boat traffic because of the fierce winds. It will probably be shut down tomorrow as well for the better part of the day.
These are the northern winds that start up about this time of year and will blow erratically now through April or May. That’s why we say that November to April is our off-season and there’s honestly not many folks on the water except windsurfers and kite-boarders who love these crazy northern winds.
In the past 2 weeks, in fact, we’ve had 2-3 days each week where the winds blew us off the water or we had to cancel the few fishing trips we still had booked. Most of our regulars understand that it’s pretty much the end of the season so we don’t have that many anglers anyway.
You can probably tell by the fact that I don’t have many fish photos to post!
Fortunately for the few we’ve had and could get out, we are still finding some dorado around with most fish in the 10-pound range but also many more cooler-water species as the ocean temperatures start to drop off. That includes sierra, jacks, pompano, trevally, rainbow runners and even a few yellowtail. But, I think we are about the end of the blue water/ warm water species for the season.
Thankfully, for the dorado, even when it’s been blustery outside and tough to go too far from shore, dorado have been close. In La Paz Bay, in fact, there’s been a nice jag of schoolie-sized dorado right under the big tankers anchored in the bay. I was able to get out one day this week and we caught a limit in about 45 minutes which was great as the winds came up later.
With the winds, it’s also getting more difficult to get live bait with waves crashing the shallow areas where the bait guys usually net the sardines.
2023 BOOKINGS FILLING UP FAST
We’re getting heavy bookings already for 2023 and some dates are already filled or filling pretty fast. Don’t miss out on the upcoming season! We don’t want to miss you either! Here’s a sample package just for our fishing report readers for May and June next year:
Sample Special Package: 5 days/ 4 nights ocean-front hotel / 3 days panga fishing
Ocean-front rooms (2 per room)
Panga (2 per panga)
Skipper
Tackle
Ice
Fish cleaning
Breakfast, lunches, soft drinks and water on fishing days
All taxes
Does not include: tips, alcohol, other meals, bait (from the baitman), licenses (available online: http://www.sportfishingbcs.gob.mx/), commercial fish packing (available from our store)
Rates: Starting at $1399 per person x 2 (double occupancy)
Deposits: Min. $300 pre-payment per person non-refundable/ non-transferable
Balance: Due no later than 45 days prior to arrival
Payments: Cash or check / credit cards or payment apps 4% processing fee
Also available: / Scuba/ snorkeling/ whale sharks / more nights/ more fishing/ day trips / airport ground transfers
Based on availability and cannot be attached to any other specials or discounts
Deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable
Applies to Hotel La Concha (beach outside of town) or Hotel Waterfront (at the marina)
Upgrades to rooms and options for other hotels are available
Package price is good only if made before the end of the year
Tailhunter Fish Report 