FISH BACK ON BITE WHEN WINDS DIMINISH THIS WEEK!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 21-28, 2023

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  Daytime in the low 80’s and nights in the mid-60’s.  For about the first time in weeks, the winds did not blow and we had almost perfect weather which was reflected in the fishing.

WATER:  Without the winds kicking everyone and everything, waters settled down and were relatively flat.  Given the fish that were caught, there are obviously still warm and cooler spots of water.

LIVE BAIT:  Still and issue and tough to come across so dead and frozen bait or trolling is what we’re doing, but still working well.

FISH HOOKED:  Tuna, roosterfish, dorado, sailfish, jack crevalle, bonito, sierra, pargo (mullet snapper), pargo mulato (barred pargo), cabrilla, sierra, yellowtail, amberjack.

NOTES:  About 2 months late, but enough whalesharks finally arrived in La Paz Bay (8 of them) to open the season to swimming with them with licensed guides.  Not sure how long the season will stay open depends on how many animals stick around.  They’re not on anyone’s schedule!

MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Gary and Miles Wagner at Gary’s Rancho Costa in Bahia Muertos. Wow, hard to believe bulls like this massive dorados are biting in November, but great catch!

Tailhunter’s own Jorge Romero, got a “kitchen pass” for a few days fishing from his lovely wife, Sandra, so he got out on the water. He was told to get some meat into the freezer. Nice load of dorado!

Wow! Roosterfish in November. Sydney Wagner hooked this pretty gallo in Bahia Muertos and released it. Rooster season is normally, April to July or so! Check the flat waters!

Yup! Even yellowfin tuna this week. Jim Nichols is all smiles. Jim is from Colorado.

Jorge getting his Santa Claus beard in gear for the holidays with another bull dorado for the box.

Our buddy, Jimmy Williams, got out and fished the north end of Cerralvo Island for Thanksgiving and pulled several big dorado up like this beauty. Jimmy is about 6’2″ so you can gauge the size of this bull!

Jorge got out another day. Went south out’ve Muertos and struck out so he headed to the south end of Cerralvo Island looking for wahoo. No wahoo, but two nice tuna and a bunch of dorado plus white bonito on the troll and using dead bait.

Miguel Campos from Puerta Vallarta comes over for quick winter trips to La Paz. Nice YFT!

MIguel with another dorado to get into the ice chest!

Cold water fish, but delicious especially for ceviche. Gary has himself a nice sierra.

Jim Nichols with another surprise roosterfish. Caught and released!

Hope ya’ll had a great Thanksgiving and the holidays are off to a good start!

Well…what a difference a few days make!

For about the first time in about 5 weeks, Mother Nature cut us some slack and those fierce northern winds gave us a break for about 7 days.  They’re scheduled to be coming back but in the meantime, it was a great time to be on the water!

Not many folks fishing this time of year, but many of our friends or even our captains got out with their friends and families to take advantage of the great conditions.  Hopefully, to put some fish in the freezers for the holidays.

Normally, this time of year because of the weather, the catch is mostly inshore species like pargo, cabrilla and snapper.   However, this past week, it was about as good as we’ve had since mid-October!

Schools of dorado came up hungry for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets with decent-sized school-fish running about 10-15 pounds, but also larger fish up to 40 pounds.  Additionally, tuna up to maybe 30 pounds were hitting at the north and south ends of Cerralvo Island and there were some rumors of a wahoo or two breaking off as well as billfish!

Inshore, yes, cabrilla, snapper, jack crevalle, sierra, white bonito, pacific bonito and two kinds of pargo were biting, but the big surprise were the roosterfish in the 10-40 pound size being caught and released.  Normally, our roosterfish season runs about April to early July!

And, the pargo that we hooked were the pargo liso (mullet snapper) that get up to 20-40 pounds and usually don’t show up until the spring that made it into the fish boxes!

Some amberjack were also hooked and the commercial pangeros reported some yellowtail were hooked as well.

Still not much in the way of live bait because of the turbulent waters and also, if there’s not many fishermen, it’s economically a waste of time for the commercial bait guys to go out.  So, most fishermen either trolled or made good use of dead or frozen bait like ballyhoo, frozen sardines or chunked bonito.

Enjoy it while we can!  Winds predicted to start up again!

WHALE SHARK SEASON FINALLY OPENS

After waiting many weeks, authorities finally opened the popular swimming with the whaleshark season.   Normally, the season runs October to April in the Bay of La Paz.

However, that’s dependent on water conditions…if it’s too rough and windy ,it’s hard to find the animals in the shallow waters.   And it’s also dependent on how many animals are around.

At last count, there were 8-10 whalesharks in the bay.

The problem is that so many folks want to get in the water and so many operators from all over Baja sell and oversell tickets and trips.  Many are unlicensed.

Only 6 persons are allowed in the water for each individual animal and only for a limited amount of time.  For the safety and wellbeing of the animal.  Plus, having too many boats in the water scares the animals away.

If dozens of people are booked to get in the water on a given day and there are only 3 or 4 animals, most folks will never get in the water or their trips will get cancelled.  Even if you get in a boat, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get in the water because there is a rotation of people.  And it’s not like the animals are on a schedule or in a cage like at the zoo so there’s no guarantees.  You take your chances.

So before you book, check with us or another licensed operator.

RESERVATIONS FOR 2024

Our spots are booking fast for the coming year as we come off an incredible season this past year . Reservations are coming in daily so get in touch with me personally:

Jonathan@tailhunter.com

We’ll get you set up!  Let me know so you don’t miss out on your favorite captains or hotel rooms.  Or, if you’re brand new, write me and we can tell you all about our services that we’ve offered here in La Paz almost 30 years now!  We’re great for experienced as well as first-timers; families; friends; kids…something for everyone!

We’ll customize a complete fishing/ hotel/ activity package for you!

http://www.tailhunter.com

That’s my story!

Jonathan