THAT TIME of  YEAR…HERE COME THE WINTER WINDS and WAVES

La Paz- Las Arenas/Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 31-Nov.10, 2023

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER – Mostly sunny, but the season has changed for sure.  Temps have gotten cooler and the winds from the north have started and blown consistently now. So less fishermen and more windsurfers and kiteboarders.

WATER –  Still taking time to recover after getting messed up and dirty from Hurricane Norma, but it’s better for sure.  It’s just not going to be what it was since the northern winds have kicked in now and waters are colder and greener now not to mention rougher and choppier.  Expect there will be some port closures at times because it’s too rough.  No boat traffic allowed at all in or out.

SPECIES CAUGHT –  More inshore stuff now because we simply can’t get to some areas now because of the sea conditions.  So more pargo, jacks, snapper, cabrilla bonito.  A few dorado still holding as well as some late season billfish.  Finding live bait is an issue with the rough seas now.

THE MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Tony Morales was out on one of the calmer days and found a legit dorado in some blue water.

Despite cooling and rougher waters, there are still some patches of warmer blue water holding school-sized dorado although finding live bait has been an issue. The dorado seem willing to bite dead bait; frozen bait or chunks of bonito.

It’s been a little hard to launch our boats since Hurricane Norma 2 weeks ago. This is what’s left of the small boat docks where we keep our pangas. That’s Captain Raul with the baseball hat “supervising” some of the clean-up. The launch ramp was also destroyed. What you can’t see are the boats sunk beneath the surface. Fortunately, our captains pulled their boats out’ve the water before the big storm hit.

More tough times.  This is Marina Palmira about a week ago.  All of the marinas in La Paz took substantial damage from Hurricane Norma and 6 vessels burned in this inferno caused by an electrical fire.  Probably it did not help that with so many sunken and damaged boats, there was alot of flammable debris, gas, solvents, etc. floating in the waters.

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Not really alot to tell you about.

To be honest, there hasn’t been that much activity on the water for several reasons.

First is that we were still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Norma which did extensive damage to the marinas making it hard to launch any boats plus the storm really tore up the waters after 3 days of pounding .  Waters were not just cold, but extremely dirty and filled with debris.

As well, the seasons have turned.  The northern winds have started blasting making it not only rougher to be out, but also more difficult just to get out’ve the bay or to find baits.  It also keeps the waters cooler so we’re not seeing the warm water species now like the dorado, tuna, wahoo, etc.

Instead, we’re looking at more inshore species like the cabrilla, sierra, pompano, jack crevalle and bonito.  There are still a few dorado holding here and there, but these are the exception. But, they are still legit 10-15 pound fish.

I expect with the winds blowing consistently, waters will only get colder and rougher which they do during out winters making it not only difficult to fish, but also snorkel, scuba and other water activities except kiteboarding and windsurfing which becomes world-class during the winter months.

Live bait is also an issue.  With the rougher seas, the bait areas are getting pounded by the seas making it difficult to get to or find the bait.  Also, since there are fewer fishermen on the water, the bait guys just don’t go out as often if there’s no one to buy their bait.

If you do plan to fish, get in touch with us about a week ahead of time.  Be flexible on your dates and I can check the forecast to see which dates might be better to go out.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Just wanted to give a shout-out to everyone in our Tailhunter Nation for all the e-mails, texts, phone calls and cards wishing me well from my surgery.

The fishing report is a bit (alot ) later than normal this time because I had full knee replacement surgery more almost 2 weeks ago.  My left knee finally wore out after years of sports (football, wrestling, running) then 30 years down here carrying ice chests, luggage, scuba tanks and running up and down 3 sets of stairs at our Tailhunter Restaurant.

I needed an equipment “upgrade.”

The docs say the surgery went well and I’m grinding through the post-surgical physical therapy (ouch!) and following all the doctors orders.  As I type this Jill has me propped up with ice wrapped around my swollen left knee.  She’s been taking stellar care of me.  Couldn’t do this without her.  Thankful also for the half-dozen “happy drugs” the give me for the pain!  But, I’ve been groggy or just out’ve it much of the time so that’s why the report is tardy!

I’m supposed to be down 4-6 weeks, but I’m pushing to be up well before then!  I just wanted to tell ya’ll thank you for much for all the good thoughts, prayers and wishes!  I’ll be better and faster on the other side of this!

That’s my story!

Jonathan