BIG TUNA MOVE OFF AND SCHOOL DORADO MOVE IN

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 7-15, 2026

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  Cooler than previous weeks but still hot and humid. Getting very tropical. Seems like every afternoon, there’s a chance of some localized rain.

WATER:  It’s warm.  Very warm.  But, if the winds come up, can be choppy.

FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK:  Tuna, dorado, striped marlin, roosterfish, bonito, jack crevalle, triggerfish, pargo, snapper.

THE MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO FISHING REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Here it comes…another afternoon cloud-build up and some rain. Could be a shower. Could be a full-blown downpour . Never lasts long, but flooding possible.

It can be raining pretty violently “over there” but not “over here!” But you never know. Thunder and lighting not unusual. Then, it all blows over.

Michael and Nancy Novotny with Captain Hugo got in to the football tuna.

Jarod Lucas with dad, Chris, had quite a first-outing with us here in La Paz. He got quite a variety including this striped marlin. The fish could not be released.

Brother, Ray Cabales…always a character cradling a hard-fighting jack crevalle.

Emily and Hunter Sater tangled with one of the larger-model tuna earlier in the week before the school moved off.

Adam with his son, Levi, found some of the schoolie dorado that have moved in.

Konrad “the Mad Hatter” with amigo, Micheal are always fun to have visit us. Got a nice striper to the boat with Captain Julio. They could not release the fish.

Cathy Corda was back with us and always fun when fishing with Captain Pancho. Nice tasty barred pargo on the gaff.

Jarod even got a thresher shark! Lots of sharks in the water this year.

Captain Moncho got this fat yellowfin to bite a rod with Chet and Lisa Sater aboard! Tough fish!

John Scurr came all the way from New Zealand where he and wife, Anne, have operated a hunting operation for over 30 years. He really wanted a roosterfish, but got two of them fishing with Captain Pancho. The fish were released and were hefty 70-80 pound class fish. So surprising to find the big roosters still in our waters this late i the season .

Chet and Hunter put a nice batch of dorado on the fish cleaning table!

____________________________________________________Mother Nature just keeps throwing curve balls our way all season.

It seems that every week or so, something unpredictable or unusual happens to the fishing. Maybe the weather…or the water…or thefish themselves.

There’s just no knowing or predicting.

All season, we’ve had some of the biggest tuna…the biggest dorado…the biggest wahoo…the most billfish that I’ve seen in our waters for more than 30 years that we’ve run Tailhunter.  These have been big trophy fish that have busted rods and broken hearts, but made for some incredible catches.

Nothing lasts forever, but sometimes things are so good you take things for granted.

I figured the big fish would be here all season.  I depended on them being around.

…and then POOF…they weren’t!

They disappeared.

The big tuna schools moved 30-40 miles outside.  Way too far for chase and with the waters getting roughed-up by the passing of Hurricane Genevieve (it passed us, but didn’t hit us), it just made it too hard to get out there and even boats that made it that far…the fish were scratchy and got picky.

We did get a jag of little fun football tuna.  These are fun great fish and I was happy to see these 10-15 pounders.  They are alot more fun than spending 1-2 hours on a single fish that wants to break you in half.

But then the little football tuna disappeared!

Same with the big dorado. These 30-50 pound bests just vanished.

They were replaced by school-sized 5-10 pound dorado . Occasionally, we’d get a 15-20 pound fish, but the waters north of La Paz and towards Las Cruces suddenly filled with schools of hungry smaller fish.

Our boats were getting…1, 2 or 3 limits!  Releasing many many fish after getting into some voracious bites.  Nothing wrong with these fish.  It’s alot of fun where, instead of hooking one giant fish, everyone gets fish-after-fish and there’s continuous action and everyone gets to pull on fish. But, a big big change from what we’ve had the last 4 months of the season.

As well, it’s mid-August and we’re still getting big roosterfish when, by all standards they should be gone.  But, for folks who still want to chase them, the roosters we caught and released this week were legit 50-80 pound fish.

It has been a weird year.  Expect anything!

Oh…and things are getting pretty tropical.  Not unusual these days to get some afternoon showers! Usually blows over pretty quickly, but some of the downpours can be pretty hard.  Everything floods then flows off.  Usually, we’re all off the water by then.

That’s my story!

Jonathan