HURRICANE HILARY BUMPS INTO US

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay / Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 11-18, 2023

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  Before the storm, it was up to the mid-to-upper 90’s and humid.  Has gotten just a tad cooler since the storm arrived, but humidity is higher and the air is very heavy and wet.  Forecast keeps changing.  Maybe 1-2 days of rain expected, but more worried about the winds from Hilary.  It will be in the 20 mph range here…enough to keep us off the water, but outside, I hear it’s blowing triple digits.

WATER:  The bay is calm, but outside it’s a washing machine you don’t want to be in.  Had some folks in a sailboat tell me they had 20-25 foot swells.

FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK:  Dorado and more dorado.  One tuna hooked and lost.  One billfish hooked and lost.  Most likely a big striped marlin.  Smaller roosterfish, jacks, bonito, rockfish inside.

LAS ARENAS FISHING:  More variety of species, but not as many dorado.  However, some of the larger dorado were coming up here.

LA PAZ FISHING:  Dorado are as close as the tankers anchored in the bay!

NOTE:  Saying it over and over.  Our best part of the fishing season is also the time when we could see storms.  Usually NOT a big issue, but you need to purchase trip insurance.  Storms are part of fishing and there’s no refunds for weather-related cancelations, but the trip insurance will also help cover cancelled or delayed airline flight/ hotel rooms/ activities, etc.

MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG (LACK OF) PICTURES and the REST of the STORY…

Hilary’s angry eye moving up!

Jimmy Williams knows how to pose with a big dorado!

Captain Armando was out with Andrew Fernandez at Bahia Muertos.

Daniel Bovee rocked a couple of nice mahi as well. Daniel visits us several times a year.

Well…the fishing continued reall good…until it wasn’t.

And it has nothing to do with the fish leaving or anything like that.

It’s THAT time of year and little storm “Hilary” turned into a Category 3 tempest with 165 mph winds, rain and big seas.  The good news is that it’s NOT hitting us directly.  It’s not punching us right in the nose.  However, it has long arms and those arms are giving us a nice glancing shove.

It’s enough that we’re getting rain and wind and unfortunately is shutting down the fishing for anywhere from 1-3 days depending on how fast this storm moves through and whether the La Paz Port Captain allows any boats to go out.

It can’t be avoided.  It’s just part of this wacky-weather that’s all over the place these days although tropical storms are not unusual down here especially this time of year.  It’s our best fishing, but also the greatest chance of a storm.   You just never know.

Actually Hilary appears to be headed right towards S.California which might get a taste of a real hurricane.

At time time I’m writing this, Hilary is several hundred miles to the south of us, but is already generating winds up to 140 mph and up to 20 foot seas into the Sea of Cortez.  Definitely not the kind of weather we want to be out in.

But, before that, we still had that great dorado bite going on that we’ve been experiencing for the last 3 months.  The best dorado fishing that I can remember in 30 years.   Still lots of 5-15 pound biters with an unusual amount of bigger 30-50 pound bulls.  I only hope that after this weather passes, things will be back on track.

I have to apologize because if you know me and you’ve been reading my reports these 30-something years, you know that I always have a ton of photos.

Well…I don’t know what happened, but we’ve been having power outtages down here lately and somehow the flash drive where I stored this week’s photos got ERASED!   Dangit, am so sorry and there’s not enough time to round up all the photos again.   Many apologies.  I guess for once, you’ll just have to see the few photos this week and also take my word for it that we WERE INDEED still catching dorado before the storm hit.

We’ll just have to see what’s on the other side of Hilary!

That’s my story!

Jonathan