DORADO FINALLY JOIN THE PARTY!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 31-Aug. 8, 2025

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  Won’t lie.  It’s HOT and  STEAMY and sunny.  Even for us who live here, it seems intensely more hot even tho’ the temp say it’s a normal 98.  The real feel is about 104 or so.  Folks getting sick every day because they are not hydrating!

WATER:  Mostly warm and blue!  Getting readings of about 82 to as high as 86 on the outside.

FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK:. Roosterfish, dorado, striped marlin, sailfish, bonito, jack crevalle, pargo liso, barred pargo, needlefish (big ones), snapper, triggerfish, cabrilla

LAS ARENAS FISHING:  More variety with dorado, roosters, jacks, bonito, pargo, cabrilla.

LA PAZ FISHING:. Mostly dorado with some marlin biters.  A few roosters and cabrilla .

FISHING ON A SCALE of 10 (10 is best):  6-7

THE MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO FISHING REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Cody Crawford from Florida on his first visit with us had a nice week of pretty solid fishing including some big bulls like this one, but check out the pargo liso as well as the fat triggerfish! Fishing with Captain Pancho 3 days.

There was a time when Noah Stark was alot smaller than his dad, Chris and myself. Now, he’s starting high school! Good first day of dorado and tuna!

Brian Pierce with a great rack of dorado and football tuna plus I see a snapper and a pargo liso on the table as well.

It’s been over a decade since Wade Ralston from Washington was with us. He’s usually on the Columbia River guiding, but came down and couldn’t be more enthusiastic, especially using his custom-made rods of his own. Check out the nice roosterfish on the flyrod!  It was released.

Somewhere behind this big roosterfish is a big fella! That’s Oscar Alba somewhere behind that big comb. The fish was released after the photo. I think Juan behind him has a fish on as well!

Nice shot! Crystalynn Lilly with Captain Joel’s thumbs-up! First time visit for Crystalynn. She had quite a week!

The man behind the mask is Captain Gerardo with the barred pargo. But Takashi Rutherford and and dad, Keith, have the dorado in hand and on the table!

Thad Loomis all smiles right off the beach with another rooster for the photo and release!

Sweetest gal, Mandy Caron from Boise ID with Captain Rogelio and another nice cabrilla for the box! Mandy and the family were last with us 13 years ago!

Takashi and his bull dorado make for a great photo! Super colors!

This photo should be framed. Jesus Morales with a big rooster! Photo’d and released after the pose!

Oscar and Juan…they won’t tell us who actually caught the marlin while fishing with Captain Julio. The fish could not be released. First marlin for one or both of them!

Arcie Propster was able to get her son Austin down for a quick trip and he landed a number of dorado like this. They live in Redondo Beach CA

Cody again…with another big bull, some triggerfish, a pargo liso and several more dorado!  Fishing with Captain Pancho

Captain Armando checks out Danny and Rusty’s dorado on the beach at Muertos!

Gaby Donnell from Oregon is just a joy everytime she comes down. She seems to have a knack every year for pargo liso no matter what time of year. Captain Pancho helps with the pose.

Roger McCracken has been fishing with us over 20 years but the last few George Hatziyiannis has been joining him. We’ve had some good times over the year. Both are from the Portland area.

Great first day for Nick Brown who brought his family down with him this time fishing with Captain Hugo. Great rack of dorado!

Wade Ralston was really happy with this dorado on his light tackle custom rod!

Crystalynn with another dorado for the freezer to take home!

Oscar poses with a legit bull dorado fishing just outside Muertos Bay where the dorado bite has started to turn on finally .

I think this is Noah Stark behind the bandana with another nice bull dorado. He only had 2 days to fish and put some nice meat in the box fishing with dad, Chris.

A prehistoric monsters needlefish! Keith Rutherford is 6’4″ and this needlefish is still taller! Most needlefish are about 2′ long or so! Captain Gerardo said it was the biggest needlefish he had ever seen in his life fishing these waters.

Check the flat ocean! Thad Loomis with first day bull dorado!

Good way to start the morning for Mike McFeely. A nice roosterfish bite for some quick action and releases.

She had a good week! Crystalynn with a fresh one on the gaff to take home to Washington.

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Sorry this is a few days late.  Good excuses…

1.  We lost electricity and wifi for about 2 1/2 days (see explanation below)
2. We had a storm come through and I didn’t know if it was going to be sprinkles or a full blown crusher and I wanted to have the latest and best info (turned out to be about an hour thunderstorm…that’s it!)

So that’s my story…

Let’s talk fishing!

Well, it finally happened.

The dorado finally showed up.  They’re only about 2 or 3 months behind schedule. Normally, we would have seen dorado schools by late May or early June.  This year, despite ticklers here and there where we got excited about seeing fish that then petered out, the expected mahi bite just never quite materialized.

Last year was late as well, but that was because the waters stayed cold until August.  Heck, we were still catching some cold-water yellowtail and amberjack into August last year.

This year?  Go figure.  The waters got warm like usual.  But the dorado just never came.  Actually, they’ve been around.  We’ve seen them.  But, they wouldn’t eat.  Not interested.  They would just turn and swim away from baits and lures.

Just one more strange thing to add to our experience.

But in the last week or so, the dorado finally seem to have woken up.   I hope I don’t jinx things by talking about it.

The bite is not full-speed WFO the way it normally is.  However, there’s enough of a bite that maybe 70% of our catch this past period are mahi.  Both our Las Arenas and our La Paz fleets are into the fish.

But, like I said, it’s not wide open.  One boat might hit the school and come back with limits.  The next boat might only get 2 or 3 fish total.  One boat might pick pick pick all day for fish and come back full .  Another boat might get bit and that’s the only bite of the day.  Or, a boat might find a sweet school and BAM…they are slammed one-stop shopping and they’re done.

It’s not consistent.

But, overall, most folks are fishing numerous days with us and they’re all catching fish.  An off-day is off-set by a good day and everyone has fish to take home.

The dorado are mostly school-sized fish up to about 15 pounds.  Fun for everyone.  Ready to bite.  Great for first-timers or on light tackle for the veteran anglers.  Some larger fish up to maybe 30 pounds are around as well and some larger fish have been lost.

We’re still getting roosterfish which has been steady.

Easily this is the best roosterfish season I’ve had in 30 years.  We’re not seeing the big pig roosters now as the formal roosterfish season normally tapers in July . We’re still getting the occasional 40-50 pounder, but have not seen the bigger 70-100 pounders in several weeks.  Most of the fish are fun 5-30 pound fish all getting released.  Easy to catch and release a handful pretty much any day of the week right off the beach between Los Alamos and Ventana/ Sargento  Beaches.

I thought we’d be deep in billfish by now.  Normally, we are, but it’s only the occasional striper, blue or sailfish these days . Maybe 1 or 2 biters per week and most seem to quickly be lost or broken off.  I will say that every time I’ve sent anglers out who specifically want a billfish, they get skunked.  The billfish seem to always get hooked by folks who are rookies or while trying to catch something else.

Other than that, no wahoo, but there have been a smattering of yellowfin tuna footballs, but nothing to get excited about.  There are still  some pargo liso around (mullet snapper) which is also surprsing because they are cold-water fish and surface water temps right now are anywhere from 82 up to 86 degrees.

Speaking of heat…folks…the heat is intense.  Even us locals are commenting that it’s hotter than a grill these days. Don’t know what it is.  The thermometer says 95, but the real feel is about 105!

I’ve had guests getting sick almost every day from heat and lack of hydration.  You gotta stay hydrated and folks don’t listen.  The sun sucks moisture right out’ve you like a sponge.

Folks are feeling light-headed, cramping, stomach aches, head-aches, the runs…they think it’s the flu or a bug or food poisoning.  99% of the time, it’s the heat.  I jack them with some electrolytes and and a banana for potassium and BOOM…almost instant recovery.

However, folks are cancelling trips because they’re not taking care!

Bring some electrolyte powder packs with you. Cover up.  Drink lots of water even tho’ you’re not peeing it out.

The heat has been so intense, the there have been rolling blackouts around the city because of the high AC usage.  At our Tailhunter Restaurant, we lost 2 1/2 days of no water, power, lights, no wifi no phones or A/C. Our office got up 110 degrees INSIDE.

Lastly, I warn all of our guests to not come down here without purchasing trip insurance.  This is just the thing to cover missed trips because of getting sick.  Moreso, this is storm season.  Tropical storms come and go.  We just had one the other day.  Fortunately, it was in the afternoon when everyone was done fishing.  But, these can pop up anytime.

We hope they don’t turn into hurricanes, but even the 2 or 3 hour thunderstorm can mess up plans.  So, once again, DO NOT COME DOWN WITHOUT PURCHASING trip insurance!  There’s no refunds for weather-related cancelations.  Unfortunately, it just so happens that the best fishing time of the year also happens to be the best time to get a storm now and then!

That’s our story!