IT’S A DORADO WORLD…and a few TUNA…and some RAIN
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug 19-25, 2025
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT
WEATHER – Very very hot. Easily 5-10 degrees hotter than normal and the humidity really pushed things into triple digits some days! Some tropical rain and thundershowers here and there. It’s that time of year!
WATER – We’re getting readings anywhere from 82-26 on the surface. Bathwater. It’s mostly pretty blue like a post card!
FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK: Dorado, tuna, (1) wahoo, marlin, sailfish, barred pargo, cabrilla, triggerfish, bonito, jack crevalle, roosterfish, pompano, trevally, needlefish
FISHING on a SCALE of 1-10 (10 is best): 7-8
THE MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
First time with Tailhunter Patrick Towle had some great fun with the dorado bite.
They ran pretty far off Cerralvo Island, but it turned out to be worth it with Captain Gerardo! Bob Cowan with Jeff Loh blew up the tuna school. Jeff also got his first roosterfish finally (released) and this was his first tuna after many years of fishing with us…but no one told him he had to eat the heart ❤️ of his first tuna like all of us did! (wink wink!) 😜
From Colorado, our long-time bestie John Ehlers and his wife Dolores have fished with us for several decades! First day with Captain Pancho produced some nice dorado and a barred pargo.
Thanks to our amigo, Jimmy Williams, for this great dorado shut underwater! Incredible colors.
Gina Wullkotte from Arizona fished 3 days with us. His first visit to La Paz and racked some excellent mahi to take home!
Dolores has a knack for these barred pargo! With Captain Pancho! She hooked a sailfish and fought it for an hour and released it as well, but no photos because they wanted to get it back in the water ASAP! BRAVO!
Bob, Jeff and Taryn…day 1 of 3 started out pretty good on the dorado bite!
Chad Legg had just one day to squeeze in for fishing so he was out with Captain Joel and they filled a nice box of dorado!
Two of our newest sweetest folks from Colorado, Joy and Mark Cook fished with Captain Armando for 3 days!
We need to call him “DOCTOR” Justin Vickery now as he just finished his residency and is now a full-fledged Doctor! Much to celebrate like this dorado that matches his shirt!
She’s studying to eventually be a surgeon, but Jazminne Legg from Washington took time off and was just having way too much fun down here! Dorado, tacos and tequila…she had everyone laughing!
Tony and Steve! On the beach after a good day on the water with dorado, pargo, cabrilla and triggerfish!
Taryn and dad, Ed (“Beaver”) Mitoma have been fishing with us for decades and she finally got her first tuna. They ran outside Cerralvo Island to hit the spot. Long run and gamble that paid off!
I think this is Ken Pak behind the mask, but he’s obviously happy with the day’s catch! He’s from Salem OR!
Jim McCarthy has some fresh mahi meat for the freezer posing on the beach at Bahia Muertos.
Creston Carroll was fishing with us for the first time this week and shows off one of his dorado catches.
Andrew with a nice rack of mahi that needs to get into the freezer! Some nice bulls there!
Gino with another good one for the box!
Ken Pak seems pretty excited about his dorado! He was fishing with his brother, John. Both from Oregon.
Steve Dantonio is another of our first-timers that happened to be down this week and he took home some nice mahi fillets as well this week!
It wouldn’t be a fishing season if our dear amigo, John Ehlers from Aurora CO, didn’t come down to fish with Captain Pancho for a few days! John has probably fished with us for 20 years or so!
Justin with a hefty bull for the fish box and dinner plate. He was fishing with his dad, Jeff, who just re-located from Texas to La Paz.
Pat Towle put some legit mahi in the boat! Check these out!
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Not a bad week at all! In fact, I think we just had possibly the best week of the summer in terms of action. Not alot of species, but just in terms of fun fishing with good action, this past week was pretty nice. I won’t say it was crazy wide open but everyone caught fish. Everyone got bent. Everyone took him fish that wanted to take home fish.
Can’t ask for more than that.
The dorado bite finally turned into what we’ve been waiting for all summer. The majority of the catch were the mahi. Lots of school-sized fish in the 8-15 pound class with some larger ones also hitting the box and larger ones also breaking away!
Tons of little punk-sized ones too and some of the boats were releasing them like crazy and couldn’t keep the little guys away from the hooked baits as dorado are voracious eaters! But, this bodes well. the little 12-inches will be 2 or 3 times the size in a month since their growth rate is so accelerated by all the eating!
Both of our fleets got into fish each day with the fish either free-swimming individuals or you could run into a honey hole and hit a nice school with non-stop action and multiple rods going off. But, the bottom line is that it’s not terribly hard to eventually run into these fish. There are some fish five minutes in front of the hotels if that’s as far as you wanted to go right under the tankers anchored in the bay.
With water temps in the low to mid-80’s these are ideal conditions for the dorado and it’s nice to finally have them wake up and join the party. We’ve seen the schools for months. They just weren’t interested in biting full speed, but thankfully, someone threw the switch and turned them on.
Other than the dorado, there really isn’t much other variety. Either because the water is now too warm or folks are just concentrating more on the dorado because their easy and fun. So, just a few pargo and cabrilla and snapper were in the mix. Also a few billfish hook-ups and we did have one wahoo that got hooked and close to the boat, but busted off.
The big surprise was the nice jag of yellowfin tuna off Cerralvo Island! It’s a bit of a run in the pangas to the spot but the few clients that took the gamble smacked into a nice batch of feeders that were running with the dolphin.
These were nice quality fish…bigger than the football-sizes…in the 10-15 pound category and tore up some tackle, especially for first timers who had some fun tangling with these hard-chargers.
Don’t know if they’ll stick around, but even if they do, the spot where the school is located is a bit of a run. If they are there, great. If not, then by the time you run all the way back, it could be too late to try fishing for anything else. It’s definitely a swing for the fences and hitting a home run or nothing. But, for our anglers that already have fish in the freezers, it’s worth a shot!
Roosterfish are still around if you want to get one off your bucket list. Mostly smaller sizes beetween 3-15 pounds, but great fun especially on lighter tackle.
Other than that…some weather advice…
It’s exceptionally hot and humid! This has been the hottest summer I can remember in my 30 years down here. The temps are easily 5-10 degrees hotter than normal and with the humidity, it is easily tipping triple digit temps during the day.
So STAY HYDRATED and stay covered with a hat, long sleeves and sunscreen.
ALSO, we recommend all the time very strongly that you purchase trip insurance. With the heat, these are the tropics and thundershowers are common. It can rain for an hour or it can rain for 5 minutes. It can rain in one part of the city and by dry in another part or rain in one part of the ocean ,but not on the beach! Just don’t be surprised. We have not had to cancel any trips yet, but it’s always a possibility. We definitely won’t send you out if it’s too rough or with a rod in your hand and lightning in the sky!
FISHING in 2026
We are already getting quite a few bookings for next year and we’re taking reservations! Especially for folks who want a favorite captain or hotel or want to target a certain species of fish like roosterfish, pargo or dorado! Some dates are filling up pretty fast.
Reach out to me directly and we’ll get you set up: tailhunterfishinglapaz@gmail.com
That’s our story!
Jonathan & Jilly
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
Tailhunter Fish Report 