WEATHER and DAILY RAIN DICTATING THE FISHING
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Aug. 25-Sept. 4, 2026
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN REPORT
WEATHER: Erratic and unpredictable . Hot and humid. Had a stretch there were the temps (with the heat index) had us at 125-137 degrees some days. It got cooler a bit, but temps are still 110 with the humidity. Rain almost daily in the afternoons. Sometime torrential and violent, but not lasting long.
WATER: Warm!! VERY WARM! Have never seen water that’s 90-95 degrees on the surface! Some days can be rough if the winds are blowing and other days flat. Later in the day when the rains come so do the winds and rough ocean, but by then we’re off the water.
FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK: Dorado, tuna (2), roosterfish, jack crevalle, bonito, barred pargo, cabrilla.
THE MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Clark Henderson from Washington with grandpa Jim Borruso from Northern California got a mess of schoolie dorado and a nice yellowfin tuna.
From Ohio, Don Vargo (r) has fished with us several times this year already but brough brother Mike this time and they started with some trophy barred pargo and dorado for the freezers!
Darrell Atkinson and Captain Armando with a reason to celebrate this yellowfin tuna!
Justin, Jeff, Travis and Wyatt Bennett with dorado, triggerifsh and pargo on the cutting table.
John and Anne Scurr from New Zealand released this pretty rooster. Surprisingly, there are still some big roosters around!
Clark, Joel and Mark were with Captain Gerado for first time fishing with us. They released a bunch too.
First time visiting from Utah on her birthday…Amanda and Rick Saunders. They released a bunch of dorado.
THE STORMS!!!! Most of these photos and video below were after a single storm and only after about an hour of rain! It has been raining almost every afternoon somewhere in the area! Not everywhere, but somewhere in the La Paz area or surrounding waters!
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I’m not sure where or how to start this fishing report this time.
Normally, it’s easier to just tell you about the fishing, but these days, it’s impossible to talk about one and not the other. Normally, this time of year, I can just do a straight-ahead report because the weather is just generally consistently sunny and hot.
But, this year…and specifically, this last month, it is anything but consistent.
This is a SUPER EL NINO year…maybe the more record-breaking since they started charting these weather patterns. In an an El Nino year, waters tend to be warmer than normal this side of the Pacific basin.
Well, this year , we’re seeing water temps in the 90-95 degree range! That’s incredibly 8-10 degrees warmer than normal! In 30 years, I’ve never seen that happen. Likewise, the air temps are ridiculous.
We’ve had consisten 110 degree temps, but…here’s the kicker…
With the warm ocean and the warm air, the ocean is rapidly evaporating and two things are happening.
One…the humidity is almost unbelieveable. And it’s increasing the heat index. Consequently, with the heat index (like wind chill factor in the winter), we’re getting real-time tempertures at 119…122…126…130…133…we even had one day at 137 degrees! I didn’t think that was possible. You’re sweating in the shade!
Secondly, with all the evaporation an moisture in the air, the day starts out clear blue. By-mid afternoon, the sky has sucked up all this moisture and the sky is suddenly filled with black clouds.
It has to drop somewhere so it dumps right on us…and by us, I mean the whole state…or the city! So, every afternoon, it is raining somewhere over the local city area or ocean. It could be one spot, but not another. It could rain for 15 minutes or an hour. The ocean could be flat or churned into a cauldron!
And some of theses storms…even if it only rains for an hour…can be violent little hurricanes or typhoons and thunderstorms resulting in horrendous flooding…landslides…toppled buildings…roofs destroyed…
And this is happening daily. Places like Cabo facing directly into the ocean are really getting pummeled and La Paz has had it’s share of damage as well.
And hour later, the water has run off and the sun comes back out. The storm has moved somewher else and the ground dries up with steam coming off the ground in the heat…until the next day.
All of this has drastically changed the fishing.
Normally, this is prime time for our season. And this year has been one for the record books in terms of big fish and species .
But with the water so hot, there is very little oxygen in the upper reaches of the water column. Bigger fish have literally disappeared. Gone to deeper cooler waters for oxygen. What we’re getting these days are mostly school-sized 5-10 pound dorado.
And there’s a good abundance of them. The smaller fish don’t need the same level of oxygen as the larger models. So, 95% of the catch has been these smaller fun dorado. Everyone is catching them. We’re releasing a ton of these little fellas as well and in 2 months, they’ll be 15-20 pound fish with the growth rate of dorado. But for now…it is what is it is. Everyone is catching fish…but all smaller sized dorado.
We did hit a couple of 30 pound tuna for the first time in a month. There are still some large roosterfish surprisingly around in the 40-50 pound class as well as bonito and jacks. Some pompano, trevally plus pargo, triggerfish and cabrilla. We’ve seen some billfish feeding on the smaller dorado but didn’t hook any this past week. And that’s about it! I think even the rock fish have hunkered down into deeper cooler waters for more oxygen!
Like I said, everyone is still catching fish and the storms are in the afternoon when all the fishermen are generally already back.
Hurricane Marie grew to a Category 2 blow but fortunately headed out to the Pacific and up the coast. Baja is under the edge of that. Although the eye missed us, the arms of rain caught us.
That being said, the forecast predicts rain and heat pretty much every day coming up. Plus we just dodged two hurricanes…Karina and Marie. I would not be surprised if we or two come up on us before the season ends in October. Fingers crossed and make sure you buy your trip insurance!
That’s my story!
Jonathan
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 