WHAAAT? BITE GRINDS TO A VIRTUAL HALT!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2023

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  Noticeably cooler.  Less humidity.  Lower temps.  MORE WIND.  I’m afraid that the season changed on us about a month earlier than normal.  The northern winds of winter have started too soon.  Not to mention, a HUGE FULL MOON that wouldn’t go away.  Hope it was just the full moon.

WATER:  It was like someone switched things off.  Waters went from blue to incredibly green and murky overnight.  Usually, it’s because the waters got colder. but this is weird because the waters got WARMER!  It’s almost like we had a secondary plankton bloom.  The fish decided not to bite.   Waters are HOT…86 degrees!

FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK:  Dorado (fewer). Sailfish (fewer).  Tuna (fewer).  Pompano. Bonito. Cabrilla. Snapper. Some roosters. Tough pickings!

TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS FLEET:  Like night and day.  It virtually shut off.  Bait disappeared.  Green dirty water that was so warm that it seemed like the fish all went deep and stayed there or decided not to bite.   Caught a few pompano, a few dorado, bonito.  A tuna or two and pargo.

TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET:  Went from super great to having boats coming back with almost nothing a few days.  Not even a bonito or needlefish.  Started to pick up again as the full moon waned and our captains found some rare patches of blue water.  But now northern winds are increasing making it tough to fish.

MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

This lady can fish! Lisa Hicks from Washington has been visiting us for years and despite tough fishing managed several nice dorado like this one fishing with Captain Victor, her favorite.

Wow! Another good-sized rooster caught when they SHOULD NOT BE HERE! Roosters are spring-time fish our long-time amigo, Jeff Sakuda with his favorite Captain Jorge got this beauty right off Punta Perrico. Jeff released the fish as well!

Our Denver amigo, Joe Hicks always bring his two boys, Hudson and Marco down as well as family friends. On the beach at Bahia Muertos with some of their catch. Joe is the one without the shirt!

There could not be a happier character than 88-year-old Raymond Ahner who lives in Yosemite. Love this gent and he said he wants to keep coming back until he has the record of being our oldest fisherman ever!

Tuna were few and far between this week, but Bob Pair got one. He’s been with us for many years!

Tammy Cousins from Oregon just wanted to catch “One dorado please!” She did better than that with Captain Luis, but this is a photo of her FIRST dorado!

Brothers-in-law, Adam Florence (Topeka KS) and Jim Bailey (San Diego CA) got some nice variety on the table including a barred pargo and dorado and a slug 68-pound yellowfin tuna that Jim battled dogggedly for over 90 minutes before getting it to the gaff!

When Al Jones comes down each year from his ranch in Idaho he’s always way fun. He wanted at least one tuna and got it fishing with Captain Gerardo.

Crazy to be catching pompano this time of year, but Hudson Hicks got this one. He’s headed off to college next year and has been visting us with his dad for several years.

Robert Peterson and a doardo on the gaff. Just a great photo . Suitable for framing! Great smile!

Whoa! When I first saw Robby Peterson’s fish it was so big, I thought it was a giant trevally (GT!). But it turns out to be a massive pompano! Great eating!

Andy Hall…our firefighter amigo who gets called to emergencies around the country visits us each year got himself one of the rare yellowfin tuna this week!

Pretty bull dorado for Marlene! She always fishes with Captain Pancho and had to work hard this week to even get this dorado. But, she never stopped smiling and fishing!

Marianne Sugawara has been fishing with Captain Jorge since…well…since before I had hair! LOL. Nice dorado, Ms. M! She filled the empty space in the chest this time with tamales to take home!

This is a super photo! Brian Guetz caught this good-looking roosterfish not far off Punta Arenas. Catch and release!

It’s our own photogenic Lisa Hicks showing off her barred pargo!

Neil Gansebom was with us this year and had a good day finding some blue water and dorado like this one north of La Paz outside the bay.

Jeff and Captain Jorge! Great shot and nice fat barred pargo for the ice chest!

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It was one of the strangest periods of weather and fishing that I can remember in almost 30 years down here.  It was also one of the ugliest.

In the span of a day, things changed from one of the best fishing seasons ever…to suddenly fish zombie-land…ZERO FISH!

I’ve never seen this happen.  My captains tell me they’ve never seen this happen.  The ocean turned into a liquid desert.  No birds.  No fish.  No bait.

Every now and then sure, a boat comes back and had a slow day.  Maybe they missed the bite.  Maybe they were just that one unlucky boat.  It happens.  But, usually, they tell me they still caught bonito or needlefish or a pelican or SOMETHING!

I actually had boats and anglers coming back telling me they didn’t catch or hook a thing!

It wasn’t like things just tapered off a bit or diminished.  It was like someone threw a switch!

What happened?

Well, almost overnight, waters went from blue to green and cloudy.  Usually that happens because the waters get cold.  This time the waters got HOT!  Waters were up to 86 degrees on the surface!

It was almost like there was a secondary plankton bloom.  Or maybe the waters were so hot there was a lack of oxygen.  There might be some creedence that.  When there was no fish on the surface, some of the captains tied on sinkers and hit dorado 200-300 feet .

Let me say that again…DORADO at 200-300′ down!  None of us have ever heard of that.  Dorado are surface fish and we don’t do deep water fishing like that anyway.

The other issue…a big one…the live bait disappeared!  If you got a handful of live bait, you were lucky.  We resorted to dead bait, frozen bait and even squid.

OH…by the way, we also have the biggest crazy full moon…ever!  And it stuck around the WHOLE week.  Did the full moon cause all this or is all of this because of the full moon?

All we can do is wait and see how fishing is once the full moon disappears.  I will say that things seemed to pick up a bit as the full moon dissipated.  I hope it continues because we still have a few more weeks to go of the regular season.

And that’s the other thing.  Usually, we can count on the weather to hold until at least the end of October or the beginning of November.  That’s when the northern winds start to blow.

And they usually keep blowing until April or May.  We stay off the water.  Only the windsurfers and kite boarders love it.  But that doesn’t usually start for a few more weeks.

Well…I gotta tell you…the northern winds seem like they already started.  Waters are getting rougher already.

Again, a big effect on the fishing.  Just a huge combination of alot of things:

1.  Big full moon
2. Dirty water
3. Hot water
4. No bait
5. Northern winds
6. Rougher water

That was just too many punches in the nose for our fishing.

So, we got a few dorado.  Some roosters.  Pompano and jacks and some bonito and pargo and not a whole lot more.  We can only hope that by the time you’re reading this we get back on track to some degree.

A big shout out to all our clients and friends and our captains who were on the water and visited us this week.  It was really tough fishing.  Our captains worked hard to find whatever they could find.  Our anglers all hung in there and also worked hard and stayed patient.  Not a single person complained or lost their smiles.  We were awfully grateful for that.  Cheers to all of you and hung tough!

Sorry this isn’t the usual glowing report, but gotta be honest.

Captain Luis turned a slow day into an outstanding day. He had his son, Dylan, with him and took the guys out to one of our deserted beach. He took some of their dorado and made sashime and ceviche then dove for some fresh clams to have with the guys as well! No bad days!

That’s my story!

Jonathan