TROPICAL STORMS KEEP BUMPING US

(BUT THE FISH STILL BITE!)

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 4-11, 2023

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  It’s that time of year.  Hot and muggy with day time temps in the high 90’s with lots of humidity (which is perfect fishing weather here).  However, it’s also that time when we get unexpected blasts of tropical storms that can last a few minutes to maybe an hour or so.  As long as it’s not a hurricane, we’re fine.  We just duck until it blows over.  But, this is also hurricane season.  Make sure you buy that trip insurance!

WATER: Despite all the turbulence from the few storms this week, water is still relatively blue and very fishable.  Not as clear as it could be, but has not affected the fishing too much.  Surface temps are the low 80’s.  Some rough days with the winds kicking in.

SPECIES CAUGHT THIS WEEK:  Dorado, tuna, sailfish, amberjack, rainbow runners, cabrilla, barred pargo, snapper, roosterfish.

LAS ARENAS : This is where the tuna are mixing it up with the dorado and a few roosterfish as well.  The most variety.

LA PAZ : Solid dorado bite.

MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Joni McKinley and her dad, Dan, started the week out right with a nice rack of yellowfin tuna. Dan brought the whole family down and are from Washington.

Wes Wiles had a heckuva fight on his hand when this big dorado bit. He battled it for over 30 minutes in bouncy seas, but finally boated the trophy bull almost as long as he is tall!

Captain Armando with our newest Tailhunter friends, Nina and Fernando Delmendo with some great yellowfin tuna meat for the ice chest.

Captain Jorge has his famous “thumbs-up” for our Montana amigos, Andy and Shani Malone, who plugged the fish box with a great catch of dorado.

My San Diego “bruddah” Ray Cabales at Bahia Muertos with a pair of YFT’s on the table!

Terry Larson and Billy Smith could not have had a better day with Captain Gerardo starting their fishing week with a mess of mahi to fillet and get into the freezer.

Paul Nagata always gets great fish and takes great photos whenever he visits us. Once again, a good fish and great shot of this yellowfin on the gaff.

Oh wow…Captain Victor gives Marty Sering and Kevin Lister a two-handed assist with some massive bull dorado! A good start to their fishing week.

Paul Holmund visiting us for the first time with his brother, Mark, both from Austin TX took home a nice load of fishing including dorado and tuna like these.

Nice trophy bull dorado! Greg Saubolle has been visiting us for several years and always great to see him. Nothing wrong with this legit big-headed mahi!

Don McKinley is always fun to have down from Washington. He got the biggest cabrilla of the week.

The two Larson brothers from Jordan Utah show off their catch of dorado and a lone yellowfin tuna on the beach at Bahia Muertos.

Carrie McKinley is our sweet amiga from Washington who brought her family down for the week to fish with us. Here’s one of those big bonito that folks really love to catch (because they fight so hard) or hate (because they fight so hard!).

In all the years, Ray and Jeanne Cabales from San Diego have been coming down, I can never get them to take a straight photo! I hope that never changes!

Nancy and John Quring from Sacramento went back with a great load of tuna and dorado. I think this was their 4th time with us.

Captain Pancho with Paul Nagata and a solid day of tuna fishing. You don’t see Greg Saubolle who also bent a rod but had to take the photo!

Our old amigo, John McVay from Lake Havasu AZ with his favorite Captain Jorge.

All the way from the U.K. our English amigos, Steve and Sarah Malone are with us all week and started off with a fun day with Captain Armando .

Big smiles from Carrie and another dorado in the box!

Tay Sering from Oregon celebrating somewhat of his bachelor party with his brother Spencer, didn’t get any tuna, but sure rocked the dorado .

______________________________

If you didn’t get any further than the “Short Attention Span Fishing Report” above or only looked at all the great photos, you really didn’t get the whole story of the fishing this past week.

For numbers and action, EVERYONE got fish.  Maybe an off-day here and there for one boat, but everyone got into the bite at some point and EVERYONE who wanted to take home fish or at least bring some back to our Tailhunter Restaurant for us to cook up got into it.

Tuna were a big draw for sure.  After 3 anemic seasons of tuna, we finally had a pretty good bite going just south of Bahia Muertos.  The boats that wanted to chase tuna put 1-5 tuna in the boat with a nice grade of 15-30 pound fish.  Some larger ones were also reportedly fought and lost!

The thing with the tuna is that it was a swing for the fence.  You had to get your live bait and then you had to motor south along the shoreline as fast as you could to get to the spot. The bite didn’t last long.

If you were too late, you could miss the bite completely.  If you hung a fish or two and fought them, sometimes by the time you boated the fish or lost it, the school had moved on.  In that case, sometimes it was too hard and too far to go chase other species.

But, we definitely have tuna and it’s been a long time since I’ve said that.  Have no idea how long they’ll stick around!

The other bite with the spotlight remains with the dorado.  The dorado bite the past 4 months has been nothing short of outstanding.  Here-and-there an off day, but overall, it was not unusual to put limits in the boat before the morning hit mid-way then catch-and-release the rest of the day; go chase something else; or call it a day and come back to shore for lunch and the hotel pool.

Most of the fish are still running in that nice 10-15 pound school-size, but we continue to hang some great trophy dorado up to 40 pounds or so.

We also got a few billfish (finally) and to some degree a few rockfish like pargo, cabrilla and snapper with a few roosterfish thrown in for fun.

The part of the story you might have missed is these tropical storms that pop up from nowhere and really run us out and around.  This is that time of year for hurricanes (hopefully not) and these little blows that can last a few minutes and an hour or more before dissipating or moving off.

This is our prime time for fishing, so there’s nothing to do except roll with the punches that the weather throw at us.

They can bring thunder, lightning, and torrential winds and rains with heavy flooding.  Here’s a little video of Bahia Muertos where we launch the boats.  Waves here are usualy about 2 inches high!

(turn up the sound!)

One day, the La Paz port captain had to shut down all boat traffic in the bay so no one could fish. Another day, we started to fish and many of our boats got across the channel to Cerralvo Island under great conditions.

However, when they got there one of these storms rolled in and all the fleets had to hide on the lee side of the island away from the storm for several hours until the storm cleared out and the boats could get to the beach where we all launch,

(turn up the sound!)

So, just to be transparent about the weather.  This is NOT unusual for this time of year, but it seems the whole world is having wacky weather so just be advised.  Also, as per our numerous suggestions, do NOT come down without travel insurance.   Not only is the weather an issue, but with all the problems the airlines are having, we are seeing more flight changes and cancelations than ever before!

That’s our story!

Jonathan & Jilly