La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for May 31-June 9, 2024
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT
WEATHER: Mostly 79-99 degrees, but we had some cool breezy mornings surprisingly. To me they were COLD! But it warmed quickly. Wouldn’t hurt to have a light sweatshirt or light windbreaker you can take off later. Day times are pretty warm.
WATER: Getting bluer, but still some cold spots down deeper holding the yellowtail and other cool water species. The days it was really windy was alot rougher than normal for this time of year.
SPECIES HOOKED THIS WEEK: Yellowtail/ pargo mulato/ dog tooth snapper (cubera snapper)/ pargo liso/ cabrilla/ amberjack/ sierra/ bonito/ jack crevalle/ sailfish/ marlin/ dorado/ wahoo/ sierra/ grouper/ pompano/ trevally/ roosterdfish
NOTES:
Lots of variety. Some days better than others. Some boats doing better than others. But most folks fish several days and other days make up for it usually. Big issue with having to run pretty far for bait for our Las Arenas boats. All the way to the east side of Cerralvo. Takes a bit. PITA! The flyfishers take about 3-4 times the amount of bait as the conventional fishers.
FISHING SCALE 1-10: 6.5
THE MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…(biggest fishing gallery ever!)
Whoa!!! Just sheer joy and a boat tipping to one side with the weight of this huge roosterfish caught by Eric Stowe and a thumb’s up from Captain Jorge. The fish was released and was one of 2 caught by Eric that day!
Captain Boli helps my old classmate and business buddy John Benson from Virginia with 2 of his 4 yellowtail on the day. Pretty shot!
The man behind the mask is our amigo, Dwight Ortmann, with his first rooster for a quick photo and release.
Captain Pancho is all smiles with Mike Jennings from Washington who took 5 chunky roosterfish caught and released on the day!
Ahhh…always a pleasure to have Ms. Sue Cross visits us. No matter what, she’s always smiling and having run. Here’s a dorado for the fish box!
First timer and new amigo, Kelly Moore added one more day of fishing because everyone else in his group had caught a rooster except him! It paid off! He caught and released several!
Two of our newest Tailhunter amigos! Emma Hart and Casey Petersen from San Diego took several nice yellowtail with our La Paz fleet like these. Casey admits that Emma outfished him!
Diego Jimenez has been visiting us for about 20 years now! Always fun and making sure everyone has fun. Captain Jorge always enjoys fishing with Diego…especially when they catch fish!
Barred pargo ready for the chiller and a tasty dinner for Sue!
San Diego Eric Riggs had to cancel his trip last October when a hurricane hit us but came back this past week with his family and took home some yellowtail fillets back to S.Cal.
Gene Simon from Fallbrook CA has been hanging with us for about 2 weeks now and has taken a variety of species like this barred pargo of Cerralvo Island.
Captain Julio put Bill Stuart on a day of dorado like this nice mahi. Bill came to visit us all the way from Georgia!
Another happy Utah amigo, Blaine Larsen hoists a chunky yellowtail for the camera!
Big mossback yellowtail! North of La Paz, the bite has been strong. Just ask Damon Harvey from Alaska. Always great to have him down to visit. He had quite a week!
Another of our Alaska Tailhunter Tribe members! Jeff Pralle is one of the best hunting guides and bush pilots up there (he’ll take you hunting big giant bears) but he’s also a super flyfisher. He had a spectacular week on numerous species including lots of roosterfish and jacks like this right off the beach. All released.
Scott and son, Jack Stuart from Georgia with an ice fish table of trevally and snapper headed for the freezer!
Tough tough fish, but Emma Hart put the wood to it and got this yellowtail aboard with Captain Boli. One of 4 on the day.
Happy gal, Laurie Moore from Utah with a fat yellowtail posed for the camera!
One of our better dorado for the early season in the hands of Mark Stuart from San Diego who found a nice jag of mahi north of the city near Espirito Santo Island.
Jack has his first roosterfish off Bahia Muertos! The fish was released!
Eric Stowe with another first this week. Captain Jorge put him on a nice bull dorado.
Kevin and Michelle Stratton from Utah got quite a variety for the fish box. I see yello snapper, cabrilla, rainbow runner, barred pargo, trevally and triggerfish. All great tasty eating!
Laurie Moore has herself a quick photo with her rooster and Captain Jorge before releasing the fish!
From Pennsylvania, Jeff Norman on his first trip to La Paz with a legit yellowtail north of La Paz.
I believe, Jeff got about 8 of these on the flyrod. Another pretty fish and all released!
First yellowtail for Sue! She admitted that yellowtail did NOT pull like northern California rockfish. Yellowtail pull ALOT harder. She had fun!
Big smile, blue water and a tough jack crevalle right off the beach in the hands of April Leviere visiting us from Pittsburgh PA. The fish was released.
Another hog rooster catch-and-release for Eric Stowe! Not bad for a first day and first trip! Captain Jorge ducks!
April and Jeff…a pretty good first day on the dorado off Bahia Muertos!
Al “chicken ” Hed…with Mike Jennings. These guys swear it’s a rooster head that they wear for luck when fishing for roosterfish! But, I think it’s a chicken head and they caught and released 5 big roosters!
We had a good week on trevally (palometa) which are great eating members of the jack family. Michelle Stratton with one in the shallows off Punta Arenas.
Maybe the biggest dorado of the week and a big smile from Al Hed.
This is is ALOT bigger than it looks and Damon battled this stud roosterfish on a fly rod! The fish was released.
Casey Petersen used to play pro baseball for the Mexican national team. He should frame this photo of him and the roosterfish. The fish was released.
Jeff got himself a rooster too! Quick photo then back in the water!
Just off the cliffs of Punta Perico, Bill Stuart got himself a rooster too! it smacked a live sardine and was released.
Another flyrod roosterfish and a great photo with Jeff Pralle! Quickly back in the water too!
Gene Simon and Captain Hugo with Gene’s first rooster also released off Punta Arenas.
Love this lady…Edie Ortmann is always fun to have visit us and she enjoys fishing with Captain Alfredo. Nice tough jack crevalle. Espirito Santo Island in the background.
The marlin bite is a little late, but starting to heat up. John Benson and Captain Gerardo with a fat striper that John battled for almost an hour. He donated the meat and was not able to release it.
Captain Armando got the Smith boys off to a great first day with jacks, dorado, a barred pargo and snapper.
Newest Idaho friends…Robbyn and Greg Browne with an Espirito Santo yellowtail.
Back in town! Jan Sommer fishing with Captain Armando. CPR on a pretty rooster! Fast photo. and release off Cerralvo Island.
Good fish, photo and smile from Chris Sommer. The rooster was released.
Michelle’s first rooster too! Strong release after the photo.
Jed Atherley visiting us for the first time with a tasty trevally.
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FORWARD:
Just a little note to ya’ll. Am dedicating this fish report to my wife, Jilly. Most of you know her or have known her for many many years. You all see me, but she’s the motor that keeps things running and allows me to be out front all the time with everyone A little favor if you could keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Will fill you in later. Thanks so much!
So…here we go now…
THE FISHING REPORT
Just by looking at the biggest fishing gallery I have ever done, you’d think it’s been pretty spectacular since the last report! To be honest, I have MORE photos this week, but just could not fit them all in!!! I think there’s almost 50 photos this week!
A good problem to have!
By all stretches, it looks like a super week. There were some indeed some increcredible catches, but there were also some surprising down days too. There were some boats each day that didn’t do as well as others.
It’s fishing, right?
Fortunately, most of our folks fish numerous days, and if there was a slow day here or there, other days made up for it. But, to be honest, it’s like sports. Not every play was a touchdown or homerun!
Once again, there were so many species hooked and every day seemed different and each boat could have completely different catches.
For our La Paz Tailhunter Fleet, the spotlight was mostly on the big yellowtail with some occasional jags of dorado. It seemed that for every fish caught, there were two or three fish lost to break-offs…either to bigger yellowtail, big amberjack or even grouper!
For variety, our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet was the run to the buffet table…
Just look at the photos from this week above!
Yellowtail…pargo liso…barred pargo…cubera snapper…rainbow runner…dorado…yellowtail…amberjack…pompano…trevally…jack crevalle…bonito…roosterfish (5-100 pounders!)…some wahoo…and increasing biters on sailfish and marlin!
The big issues this week were the winds that came up from the south a few days. Made it not only cold and chilly, but also made for a bumpy ocean.
For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, live sardines are available, but it’s a long run to the east side of Cerralvo Island to find the bait to use for fishing, but you gotta do what you gotta do. But, to be up-front, it can be an hour or more to get the live sardines from the bait guys.
PARTING SHOT
Fishing is about having fun. Mike Jennings called Al “chicken” Hed is a “180-pound catch-and-release! ” Can’t take this stuff too seriously! If you can’t goof off; talk smack; laugh at yourself, you’re not doing it right!
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing!”
That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter Sportfishing www.tailhunter.comMexico Office:
Tailhunter Sportfishing
755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter Sportfishing
8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178 La Mesa CA 91942
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
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