THINGS “GUARDEDLY” BETTER!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 29-Sept. 5, 2024

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  Cooler than normal, but with the high humidity, it’s still warm and I’ve had some folks go down this week because they didn’t listen and didn’t hydrate!  Highs in the upper 90’s and nightime in the upper 70’s

WATER:  More blue water than we’ve seen in over a month.  That cold green stuff has diminished and surface temps are in the mid-80’s now.   It has stabilized the fishing somewhat and improved somewhat although still not where it should be.  But definitely better!

SPECIES HOOKED THIS WEEK:  Dorado, roosterfish, marlin, bonito, jack crevalle, pompano, snapper, pargo, cabrilla, triggerfish, rainbow runner

FISHING SCALE of 1:10:  4

MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY

First-timers from Oregon, great to have Chet Sater, wife Lisa and son Tanner with us. A pretty good day on the dorado bite plus one pargo added in! Captain Gerardo in the background with the photobomb!

Biggest dorado in a long time! Captain Pancho helps out Darrell Statin on a trophy bull he took on light tackle.

On their anniversary! Eric Killen is a big-game outfitters in Alabama and had been pursuing roosterfish on his bucket list. With wife Mary, he actually caught and released TWO nice roosters on their anniversary!

Our newlywed! I’ve known Emily Duncan since she was about 5 years old and she’s fished with us often. She brought new husband Matt who has never fished this year and broke him in. Her dad, Bob looks like he’s taking one of the dorado with him someplace! Bob has been my friend some 30 years!

Dan McKinley with the right kind! A beautiful bull on the light gear! Dan visits us every year from Washington.

Mike and Krista Zayak run sportboats out’ve San Diego and know how to fish. They had just one day on the water and made the most of it with a nice load of dorado and pargo.

Captain Jorge give Liz and Tony Taylor a hand posing with a trophy bull dorado and has a few others to clean on the cutting table!

Another day…more dorado! Tanner and mom, Liz, with a nice batch on the table headed for the freezer and back to Oregon.

Happy guy! Eric Killen with another catch-and-release rooster. Unusual to still have roosterfish around, but we have no problem with it. It’s been a wacky year for fishing!

A good day for Dan and Darrell!

Carrie McKinley with her biggest of the day. She took time off as a flight attendant to come visit us for the week with her family.

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I won’t kid you.

Fishing is not where it should be by any stretch compared to what it usually is this time of year.

But, in all honesty, it definitely showed some better signs this past week since the last week or weeks of reports!  And any improvement is sure better than what we had!

The biggest thing to mention is that the water conditions have vastly improved.  For over a month, we’ve been plagued by cold, dirty, green waters that come from down deep and from the south.  Normally, waters should be blue clear and warm!

We would have green water mixed with blue waters.  Warm water on top and cold water below.  Blue water would change to green water and vice versa in a matter of hours!  We were running and burning gas all over the ocean just looking for the better spots.  At one point our pangas were running 10-20 miles out looking for the blue waters!  Unheard of!

However, even that was no guarantee.  Where were the dorado and other blue-water species we normally hit this time of year.  Instead, we were catching cold water species like yellowtail, amberjack, rainbow runners, pompano and trevally that we usually stop seeing in May or early June.  Maybe the occasional dorado.  But that was it.

I think the fish were as confused as us!

Well, over the last 8-10 days, waters have changed remarkably.  Surface temps are hitting 83-86 degrees.  There’s more blue water to be found and less erratic conditions.

Consequently, not surprisingly  the bite has improved somewhat!  More dorado showing.  A few more limits of fish that we have not seen in weeks!  Some nicer bulls in the 20-40 pound class as well.

That doesn’t mean we have completely turned around, but it’s encouraging as long as the waters continue to improve and there are no big weather changes (like storms or hurricanes to jack things up!).

We’re still hunting and pecking for the right spots.  The fishing can still be spotty and some boats will get fish and others really struggle.  One days the fish are on.  Next day not so much.  If you do find fish, you might only have one or two shots at the good stuff.  If you miss or break off or come unbuttoned that might be your last shot of the day!

Also, I think the fish are just coming around.  Sometimes when we find the right spot, we can see there are fish there, but they just won’t eat!  But, at least we’re SEEING fish now.  Before, we couldn’t even find fish!

What has improved really is the CHANCE of getting into the good stuff!

In prior weeks, your CHANCES were not good.  This last week, we had some nice bright spots.  Not only dorado, but a few billfish, roosterfish (should not be around this time of year!), lots of bonito and some of the inshore stuff for pargo and cabrilla can be wide open!

We’ll just keep our fingers crossed and hope things improve!

That’s my story!

Jonathan