THE STRUGGLE IS REAL!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 5-12, 2024

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN REPORT

WEATHER:  Cooler than normal but the humidity is way up.  Had a crazy “torito” blow in (baby hurricane) that comes out’ve nowhere and it dropped about 15 minutes of rain on us as well as some big swells.

WATER:  Crazy water.  Warm blue water patches.  Cold water patches that are dirty green and dark.  Surface temps are 85 in the blue water and in the 70’s in the green water.  Moving and changing daily!

SPECIES HOOKED THIS WEEK:  Yellowtail,  dorado, jack crevalle, bonito, rainbow runners, pompano, trevally, pargo, sailfish, marlin, roosterfish, baby tuna, amberjack, sierra

NOTE:  Very un-predicatable and unseasonable bite

MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Captain Gerardo helps Steve Guidi with the gaff and a photo op wit this legit bull dorado.

Ray Cabales always has funny photos for us whenever he fishes, but this big rooster was a battle. Ray says his arms were pretty sore after the fight. Captain Pancho helps out. The fish was released.

Another weird thing for the fishing season! Gwyn Bailey wit a barracuda!! I’ve only seen barracuda caught about 3 times in 30 years. I have only seen a school of the one time while scuba diving. And never one this big! Good eating!

1..2..3…LIFT for the photo! Tony Smith hefts a gorgeous mossback yellowtail for the camera.

Good friend, Andrew Fernandez with a sailfish for a photo and release. He told me they actually had a double hook-up as his buddy Steve had a big dorado on the line at the same time. (see the first photo above!).

Mac Costas…pretty roosterfish right off the Las Arenas beach. He did release the fish. Jonathan Dille with the photobomb shaka!

Jeanne always looks like she’s ready to bite the fish back! She’s got a nice bull dorado for the camera pose!

Marcus Yoo just retired as a Lt. Colonel in the army and visits us each year. He’s in shape! But this big roosterfish was all he could handle and he could not lift it for the photo. Several estimates put this at well over 100 pounds and he needed an assist from Captain Victor to release it. He also caught and released another 30 pound class rooster.

Another strange fish we shouldn’t be catching right now. A rainbow runner related to yellowtail caught by Tom Hunt from Arizona.

Pretty shot with the blue water of La Paz Bay. John and Gwyn Bailey with a quad of yellowtail for the fish box.

Ray is ready for some yellowtail sashime and poke. He had some back at our Tailhunter Restaurant and I made up several good batches of rice to go along with it. He had big smiles!

YEOW!!! First day roosterfish TOAD for Jonathan Dille from Arizona!!! Definite trophy and they caught two that day and released them both.

Kind of a cute photo that I just had to include. Stephanie Worley fished with her husband James and really really worked hard for all their fish…and they know how to fish! But, got this dorado one of their days.

This is what we are SUPPOSED to be catching right now, but dorado are few and hard to come by, but Tom Hunt and Jack Sellers found these 2 pairs outside of La Paz Bay towards Espirito Santo Island

There was one day when all our boats went hunting for yellowtail and dorado and pretty much struggled all day hunting and pecking. John and Gwyn decided to head to the rocks and fish the rockfish and had a banner day on pargo, cabrilla, snapper and more!

Maybe the most frameable photo of the week. Leo Albers fishing with us for the first time with one of his big yellowtail! Normally , he’s fishing ling cod up the California coast .

Roger “Fluffy” McCracken has been a good friend over 25 years. He’s living in Portland now and always good to see him . Nice dorado, Roger!

One of the bigger dorado of the week. Mac hung this one off Las Arenas. We should be thick into these right now, but it’s been a crazy unusual season.

One of the funnest guys to be around…Chris Burgin…our friend from Texas will keep you laughing. He’s got an exceptionally large jack crevalle on is lap. Tough fighters. Basically, they are like roosterfish without the mohawk fin on their heads.

Andrew threw iron all day for the yellowtail but finally slammed this guy on the jig. That’s alot of work, but he enjoys the artificials.

OK…Is Jeanne angry at this yellowtail or does she really want a some incredibly fresh sashime? I love this lady. She cracks me up all the time. And she knows how to fish and have fun whenever she and Ray come to visit.

Another one of our Texas amigos. Shane Burgin fits the stereotype “good old boy” Texan to the letter! Always has something fun going on or to say. Got his biggest rooster ever with Captain Pancho for the photo and release.

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Where do I start?

I think I could write a book about this season.  Each week things get a little more strange.

We are still hunting and pecking for fish.  Some days some boats get fish.  Other boats, same spot, same bait, same conditions…it changes again.

It’s like the rest of the world. Mexico is not immune to the weird conditions unlike anything I have ever seen in 30 years working in La Paz.

No day  is alike.

We have hot humid days when the sun blazes and the humidity can be anywhere from 50-80%.  But we have cooler cloudy days.

Or hot cloudy days

Or chilly mornings.

Or ho days followed by chilly night.

We have days when the ocean is flat and then later that day or the next day it’s all roiled up with big waves, swells and chop.

There are days when we got baby hurricanes ( “toritos”) that last a few hours and blow boats off the water in one area but in other areas, there isn’t a cloud in the sky (Cabo got flooded), but we only got a few minutes of heavy rain.

We have spots of clear blue water and right next to it, cold dirty dark water. We have areas where this is cold water on top and warm water below and other areas where the warm water is on top and there’s colder water below.

We have days when there’s so much live bait.  The next day, we really have to scratch to find any.

We also have tons of sharks in the water.  You name it and it’s probably swimming around. Little ones.  Big ones.  Dark ones,…about the only kind we haven’t seen is the big white fella.  But that doesn’t mean he’s not around.  One day at Muertos Bay, right in the shallows where alot of little roosterfish and tiny sardines were bunched up a 12′ tiger was swimming in about 3′ of water right where our boats were pulling in.

And everything changes from day-to-day.

So, the fish are about as confused as we are.

We should be nailing dorado, tuna, wahoo, billfish…

Instead we’re having trouble finding them.  Even in the blue water at times,  fish that should be there aren’t there!   Believe it or not, there are some days when even the bonito and jack crevalle don’t bite and even (gasp!) the needlefish aren’t around.

We’re catching a few blue water fish, but literally just a smattering.  There were days last year where we caught more dorado in one day than we are catching in a whole week right now.

Instead, we’re getting pargo, cabrilla, jack crevalle, snapper, pompano, rainbow runners and amberjack.  These are all cooler water fish that we catch in the spring and disappear mostly around June.

These species DID taper off.  But now they are back!

Same with roosterfish.  We usually don’t see many of those big boys after June. But (thankfully) we have big 30-100+pound fish around once again.  Where did they go and why are they back.  Some days, I am so grateful we have the roosters around because they are “bucket list fish” and when other species are hard to find, the roosters put big smiles on faces as they bend rods.

Another thing…

We just had the best yellowtail bite I have seen in 30 years.  Normally, we have a so-so yellowtail area around La Paz.  If you really want yellowtail head north to Loreto and Mulege which are famous for their yellowtail. We get a few days in the springtime here and there, but that’s kind of it.  It’s OK, but not great.  But again, these are a colder water fish.

And they are NEVER here in the summer and for sure not in August!

Well, this past week, we had 3 days when yellowtail were literally foaming on the surface and boiling on the baits.  Boats were hooking up to a dozen of these bruiser 20-40 pound fish.  Many getting lost and broken off, but the fish were slamming lines.  Then, I sent everyone there the 4th day to get in on the bite and …ZILCH!  We had 8 boats get 2 fish!

My captains said the waters and currents had changed and they also had trouble finding live bait.

The next day, the fish were back. So was the bait.  Waters had changed again!

Another strange one…little itty-bitty yellowfin tuna.  This is the right time for them, but I’ve never seen little mini-yellowfin tuna like this.  They are about 10″ long!

So, I give up trying to guess.  Come down and fish and it will be what it will be!

Captains are really pushing hard to find fish and running long distances looking for favorable conditions.  Staying out extra long sometimes as well.  Clients have been gems and also being patient and hanging with the program with smiles during the tough hunting days.

Some boats get hot and the boat right next to them can’t buy a bite.  Hot spots go cold for fishing the next day and cold spots suddenly produce fish the next day.

Just being honest.  It is what it is right now.

That’s my story!

Jonathan