SCHOOL DORADO & ROOSTERFISH WITH WEATHER BETTER…sort of…
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos for Week of Sept. 5-13, 2026
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT
WEATHER: Thankfully a good 10-20 degrees cooler than the last report. Daytime temps are mostly in the mid-90’s. Still getting rainstorms somewhere here and there in the afternoons.
WATER: Mostly calm when it’s not raining, but fishable. Problem is the water is over 90 degrees and that’s 10 degrees hotter than normal. Oxygen levels for the fish is better down in cooler waters.
FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK: baby dorado, roosterfish, 2 sailfish, 1 marlin, 2 tuna, 1 wahoo, bonito (lots of them), jacks, pompano, pargo, triggerfish
FISHING ON A SCALE of 1-10: 3
THE MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Kelley Burch and Michelle Zelvis from N. Carolina were visiting us for the first time for Michelle’s birthday. Day one proved productive with some dorado and a nice yellowfin tuna with Captain Victor in the background. Note the angry clouds building in the back!
Don Vargo from Ohio has fished with us twice this year and for several other years. I was suprised that he had never hooked a roosterfish, but he got one this time. The fatty was released before the rain came down later that day.
Just too happy! Kristin Lamb with one of her dorado is pretty pleased! Kristin just had one day to fish but called it the “best fishing day ever.” She’s from Colorado.
Matt Clark came over from Mexico City where he works for the U.S. Embassy as a Lt. Colonel in the army. He squeezed in two days on the flyrod and nailed this dandy catch-and-release roosterfish.
Wyatt Bennett from Washington State and his dad, Travis, who lives in Utah were together with us for a few days and show off one of their roosters for a photo and release.
Texas in the house! Good to have Pierce and Eddie Edwards back with us. They’re posing with 2 of the larger dorado of the week. They also released a sailfish and lost a wahoo that day that broke the line at the boat .
Captain Moncho put Kristin on one of the larger roosterfish of the week which made her pretty happy. Great photo! She did release the fish.
These bonito are incredibly strong! Hunter Hoshiko visiting to fish just one day from Greeley, CO ending up busting two flyrods fishing on bonito!
Matt with bonito and flyrod!
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I suppose relatively speaking we had a better week overall than the previous week.
1. It got cooler. We had temps in the 120’s and 130’s for several weeks, but it “cooled” off down to the mid-90’s most days.
2. We still got some heavy rains almost daily, but they mostly tapered off to afternoon thundershowers. A few of them were pretty stout affairs, but most came and went within an hour with only localized flooding and only in certain areas. All the rain was mostly in the afternoons when everyone was already off the water.
3. We never had to cancel any fishing trips. Everyone fished as scheduled.
With the mostly better weather, I would have to say that fishing was better.
But the bar wasn’t that high and the fishing wasn’t that great to begin with.
According to my captains, the biggest issue is that while the air temps have cooled off, the water temperatures rain incredibly high. We’re recording surface ocean temperatures between 90-94 degrees! That is simply unheard of and a good 10 or more degrees warmer than normal no doubt a result of the Super El Nino weather conditions being experienced this year resulting in abnormally warm waters around our side of the Pacific Ocean.
What we’re seeing is mostly only small dorado of less than 5 pounds in the water mixed with bonito and a few jacks.
…and that’s kind of it. And some days even catching the small dorado is mind-blowingly difficult.
Fortunately, the bonito are providing some rod-bending action, but some days, we’re averaging only 1-2 dorado per angler and these fish are about 18-24 inch babies we’re calling “Trodo” (trout-sized dorado).
Overall, some of the most difficult fishing I have ever seen in 30 years here. We did hook a few tuna and a few billfish and we lost a wahoo, but generally speaking the small dorado have been about it.
We theorize that the warm waters just don’t have enough oxygen for the larger fish which have gone to deeper and cooler waters where the oxygen is more plentiful. The smaller fish simply don’t require as much oxygen. Consequently, the larger fish we’ve hooked were only up on the surface to feed coming up from the deeper waters.
From what I’m hearing this same phenomenon is happening up and down the lower Baja regions and into the Sea of Cortez. I think it will stay like this unti the ocean cools off.
If there’s a golden lining, dorado are are among the fastest growing fish in the ocean and these like punk schoolie fish will gain 10 pounds each or more in the next few months.
We can only hope.
That’s our story!
Jonathan & Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter Sportfishing www.tailhunter.comMexico Office:
Tailhunter Sportfishing
755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter Sportfishing
8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178 La Mesa CA 91942
Tailhunter Fish Report 
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