POST TROPICAL STORM ILEANA

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 14-21, 2024

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN REPORT

WEATHER: Had Tropical Storm Ileana came and crashed into S.Baja bringing rain and big seas except to La Paz where we had some drizzle and dark clouds (thankfully that’s all), but it was enough for the port captain to shut down all fishing for 2 days. Since then, it’s been sunny, but cool and breezy.

WATER:  Water was not as bad as usual after a storm. Readings of 83-86 on the surface and mostly good patches of blue.

SPECIES HOOKED THIS WEEK:   Dorado, prickly pear, bonito, jack crevalle, snapper, cabrilla, sailfish, striped marlin, blue marlin, amberjack, wahoo, rainbow runner, snapper, sierra

FISHING SCALE 1-10:   Was 4 and got to a 6

MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

There sure haven’t been many wahoo this year, but Jim Bailey from San Diego with Captain Pancho boated this fatty at the south end of Cerralvo Island. They also had another biter, but it straightened the hook on the Rapala!

Richard Smith and Ron Gray hooked this striper on light tackle and tag-teamed it to the boat for almost 2 hours. The fish could not be released.

A great start for Mike Ingster and Glenn Tochibana with a table full of dorado and some of the first tuna we’ve seen all season.

Scott and Darin Stromberg from Utah had a successful day (and week) fishing out’ve Bahia Muertos. Dorado and football tuna!

Steve poses with his striper on the beach at Bahia Muertos. They released a sailfish, but this one could not be released.

Shane Nielsen and Gary Sears took home a nice load of dorado over several days fishing with us.

Two of the sweetest folks ever! From Texas, Debbie and Randy Moe get a hand from Captain Jorge with some dorado from their first day on the water.

Darrell Chang and Bobby Hara squeezed two days of fishing in with us and always good to see them down here. 2nd day they rocked the dorado school plus a couple of pompano.

This is more like it! Brothers-in-law, Jim Bailey and Adam Florence found a better grade of prickly pear at the north end of Cerralvo Island.

Debbie will tell everyone within earshot that she caught all the dorado even tho’ she was fishing with husband Randy!

Voronika Sharikova and Amanda Davies visiting us from home in Yosemite put some dorado fillets in the cooler to go with their other fish.

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Tropical Storm Ileana bumped into Baja earlier in the week and created all kinds of havoc. It never developed into a full-blown hurricane, but it was enough.

Many areas got flooded. There were mudslides and road closures. The airports got shut down and flights got cancelled.

In La Paz, the government had the National Guard ready. They had the Red Cross ready to go. they had the. CFE power company trucks ready to handle power outages.

Then…nothing happened!

Clouds got dark. Seas got a bit stormy. But, there wasn’t even enough rain to get the ground wet! It was a complete non-event. A huge inconvenience for some but a disaster for fishing, only insofar as the Port Captain shut down La Paz Bay to all boat traffic in and out. So for two days as we waited for the storm to actually smack into us, NO ONE COULD GET OUT FISHING!

Understandably, it could have been worse. We’re grateful that it wasn’t worse. We get it that out’ve caution, boating gets shut down. People lose their lives out there on the water and just because it looks calm inside the bay…outside it could be a washing machine!

But, it’s just hard to justify to fishermen why we couldn’t go out when it wasn’t really raining and from inside the bay it didn’t look that rough.

So, Ileana came and went and regretfully, some guys lost days of fishing. That’s why I constantly warn our guests to purchase trip insurance.

After the storm passed on, it’s always difficult to tell how the fishing will be. Prior to Ileana, we had some of the best fishing of the season. Not great, but compared to the rest of the summer, fishing was pretty darned good.

But after a storm, waters could be colder. Waters could be dirtier. It could be rough. There are lots of variables.

However, because we didn’t get much rain, the waters didn’t get hit too hard. Fishing started slow, but with each progressive day, it seemed to get a little better.

It has been windy and cool, however. In fact, we’re all commenting this is the coldest September any of us can remember. In fact, instead of the beginning of fall, it feels like the beginning of winter down here. We have all been wearing jackets in the mornings!

But, the fishing did improve progressively.

Dorado came back nicely. Some 5-10 pound schoolie fish mostly, with some occasional fish in the 20 pound class. Some days they were here and there. Other times, anglers got into a school and it was one-stop shopping!

Additionally, we got some surprises.

Tuna showed up! We haven’t had much prickly pear in 2 or 3 seasons. Definitely we got more tuna this week than any time of the year. Nothing spectacular, but football-sized 5-10 pounders came up around Cerralvo Island and south towards Punta Pescadero. It seemed like a morning bite then the fish were gone so you had to jump on it pretty early. Some of the larger fish went 20 pounds or so.

As well, we kinda got our first wahoo of the season after nothing all year. Fish running 20-30 pounds were hit at the south end of Cerralvo with out half the fish getting off or biting through lines and lures.

Add in lots of bonito, needlefish, jack crevalle and even some marlin and sailfish and it was a surprisingly good end of the week those last few days!

Some roosterfish are still around and we’re getting some cold-water species as well as amberjack, sierra, rainbow runners, pompano and trevally.

This whole year has been unpredictable, but we hope it continues to get better before the northern winds start up!

That’s my story!

Jonathan