FOR ONCE FISHING PRETTY SOLID – DORADO LIGHT IT UP!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 22-30, 2024
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT
WEATHER: Cooler than normal for this time of year. But, weather is still erratic. Mostly sunny, but some days cooler than others and some days more humid than others. Would still suggest you bring a light windbreaker or similar along. Mostly daytime temps in the low 90’s. Had one day where big waves and strong winds came from the south and we had to cancel fishing at Las Arenas. Next day it was fine.
WATER: Mostly clear and blue. Just the way we like it. Surface temps are a nice 80-84 degrees, but cooler water moving in as some cold water species are already starting to show.
FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK: Dorado, tuna, wahoo, roostefish, sailfish, striped marlin, blue marlin, snapper, cabrilla, snapper, sierra, amberjack rainbow runner, pompano, trevally, bonito, triggerfish, wahoo.
SCALE of 1-10: Fishing was a 7 most of this week. Had one day that was about a 3. (Best of the year)
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
David Paganucci…first time fishing with us. First day on the water he catches the holy grail of fish. Nice wahoo!
Nat Hargett and Pete Walker from Washington. Always great to have them visiting. Good rack of fish to start your week!
The Okizaki Brothers from Orange Co. Danny and Gary caught FOUR wahoo in two days and thought it was “no big” and why all the fuss? They didn’t know how prized the wahoo are. They also caught dorado and prickly pear as well during the week.
Oh yea! Check the size of this golden bull heard. Captain Alfredo and Mike Ingster with the thumbs-up!
Michael Novotny had himself quite a fun week. He got his first wahoo among several other species! Just south of Cerralvo Island.
Good first day for Dave Lindell from Pendlton OR and son, Ben from Portland. Four dorado and 3 tuna is a good start. Dave also hooked and released a sailfish!
Another first for Michael Novotny’s week…a roosterfish! Not supposed to be around this time of year, but this fish didn’t know that. Michael took the quick photo and released it!
Kim Stuart, Ken Cereghino and Tom Tews with Captain Hugo (blue shirt) and a good day of dorado out’ve Las Arenas!
Dan Lewis, Brian Linn and Michael Murray with a heck of a load of fish! I see prickly pear, dorado and a big amberjack in Dan’s hand! Great day!
Captain Victor helps Mike Broadbend and Ryan Gonzalez with their catch wahoo, tuna and dorado. Again, two first timers hit a wahoo home run!
Captain Gerardo photosbombs, Fred Cowan and his wahoo. Once again, a first timer gets a wahoo. A big smile for the camera!
A solid first day for sure! Frank Cheng and Larry Lundberg have some tuna and dorado that needs to get cleaned and into the freezers!
Mark Bonsack from Washington fishes 2-3 times a year with us and never fails to hook some kind of beast! This past week he and his buddy Brad hooked 4 of these on live whole bonito, but only got one big dog-tooth snapper to the boat. These are tough tough fish!
One of their four wahoo in two days!
Brendan Gann and Fred Cowan with Captain Jorge. Nice day of golden and prickly pear.
MIke Ingster is all smiles with his wahoo!
That’s the way! Bill Bigelman has some dordo fillets to bring home!
Captain Jorge with Steve Carroll and Dave Massey (I hope!) Hard to tell with everyone wearing sunglasses! But, nice rack of fish!
High school chums, Dave Massey and Scott Hall with some mahi to take home.
Bill Dixon from Tampa Bay, FLA and Bob Dixon from Washington had a good first day on the dorado schools!
Mike Shaw and Carlos Sanabria with Captain Moncho. This was Carlos’ 2nd trip this year with us.
I don’t remember if this is Jim Bovee’s 3rd or 4th visit to us this year, but always great to have him and he loves fishing with Captains Boli and Pancho. Boli put Jim on this nice bull outside La Paz Bay.
Steve Manney and Howard Bellows from Washington State posing with their catch of dorado.
Love my Washington friends…Andy Hall and Dana Murray (well, he’s also in Arizona these days) with Captan Armando. I think that’s a yellowtail on the table as well
Brad Gann has a good looking golden bull caught off Espirito Santo Island.
Captain Pancho with Jim Bailey from San Diego and our old friend, Adam Florence from…everywhere…he’s retired now and travels around the country in his RV!
Captain Victor gives Dave Lindell a hand with his sailfish! Dave is from Pendleton OR and this sail is larger than normal! They released the fish too! Well done!
Staying at Dad’s place at Bahia Muertos Rancho Costa, Miles and Delanie got nice dorado in the boat. It’s deceptively a lot larger than it looks because Miles is about 6’7″ these days!
There’s some meat! Fred Cruz back in town with us and Captain Alfredo hoist a couple of trophy bull mahi!
Greg Garrisons from San Diego with his wahoo and flanked by Miles and Gary Wagner staying at Rancho Costa in Bahia Muertos.
Pat Sylvers from Sammamish WA with Scott Hall from N. Cal with a first day catch of dorado and even snuck in a snapper and I think I see a pompano back there too!
Thumbs-up from Captain Gerardo posing with Glenn Tochiban and a healthy load of dorado and yellowfin tuna!
Tom Tews (middle) from Colorado battled this bull mahi for 35 minutes on light tackle fishing with Captain Joel out’ve La Paz. Ken Cereghino and Kim Stuart lend a hand!
Brothers Gann…Brad and Roger…have some fillets to bring home after 1 day fishing! Tuna and dorado on the cleaning board!
Our friend and owner of Rancho Costa in Bahia Muertos has a knack for big snapper like this one. Probably ended up on the dinner table for guests that night. Great eating!
Whoa! Dorado and big snapper for Bill Bigelman and John Stendara! Captain Hugo has some fish cleaning to do!
Howard Bellows (can never get him to smile in the photos!) and Andy Hall who is always smiling with more gold to add to the freezers!
Fred and Lisa Cruz…first day back on the water produces some quality dorado outside La Paz Bay!
Fernando and Nina Delmendo with their favorite Captain Armando after their first day with a load of dorado!
___________________________________
I’m torn and conflicted!
Part of me wants to bang drums and blow trumpets and fill this report with superlatives about the fishing. After the pretty terrible year we’ve had so far…the worst and weirdest season in my 30 years down here…the fishing really turned around the last 3 weeks or so. It’s NOT 100%, but compared to what it’s been, I feel like having a parade!
On the other hand…
The other side of me wants to keep this on the QT downlow. I don’t wanna harp and scream too much. I don’t wanna jinx things. I don’t wanna tick off the fish gods and ruin everything!!!
I think you might understand how I feel. I’m a bit superstitious about stuff like this.
So, let me just lay the facts on you and tell you to look at all the photos above. It’s the LARGEST gallery of the season. It’s the most colorful gallery of the season. The photos tell the story and you can draw your own conclusions! LOL. I am just the messenger!
But, good or bad…this is the best fishing we have had all year.
We had one day of panic when strong winds and waves from the south blew us off the water and we had to cancel our Las Arenas boats, but it turned out to be a one-off. Fishing picked up right where it left off.
In short, it’s been a long time since I’ve used the word “limits.”
But, the dorado bite has been pretty darned solid. Fun-fish in the school-sized 5-15 pound class are sometimes bending rods and providing limits by early morning! Anglers are releasing a lot of fish! Plus there are some larger 20-40 pounders also getting hooked. The dorado has been great fun, especially for many of our first-timers, kids and families.
However, you add in lots of bonito, some snapper, cabrilla, jack crevalle, an occasional roosterfish, marlin or sailfish and there have been more grins and smiles than frowns every day.
Plus, we have caught more wahoo in the last 2 weeks than the lat 2 years combined. Not alot. And not everyday. They remain elusive. However, we’ve hooked about a dozen or so with a good number breaking off or biting through lines but maybe about 8 or 9 making it into the boats! Fish have been 15-40 pounders.
Tuna also showed up as well. Nothing big, but football-sized yellowfin in the 5-12 pound category have been fun. The only glitch is that they bite early and it’s been a little run to Punta Pescadero to jump on them quickly. Then, the fish stop chewing and you have to run all the way back to get into the dorado zones.
Bottom line, it’s not off-the-charts. Everyday some boats do better than others, but it all evens out by the end of the trip over several days. It’s still pretty darned nice compared to before and everyone is catching fish!
I also want to apologize that this week’s report is a bit late. I was already set and ready to publish a few days ago, but then that little storm popped up and changed the complexion of things. I wanted to wait and see what it would do to the bite so that I could give you the most accurate version of what’s happening!
That’s my story!
Jonathan
755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
US 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
Tailhunter Fish Report 
Leave a comment