FISHING STILL PICKY ALTHOUGH NO STORM THIS PAST WEEK (FOR ONCE)
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Oct. 19-27, 2o27
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT
WEATHER: For once we didn’t have an impending storm on our shoulders. Weather sunny and pretty pleasant mostly, but still some hot days and pleasant evenings. But northern winds are starting to blow too and will become more consistent as the year rolls towards December. Daytime temps in the low to mid-90’s
WATER: Thankfully, not as hot as it was during August to most of October when it was in the 90’s. Now in the lower to mid-80’s. If it’s windy the ocean will kick up white caps. Other days calm until the winds start to blow.
FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK: Don’t be fooled by the variety. Fishing was tough. Sailfish, dorado, tuna, barred pargo, snapper, cabrilla, bonito, jack crevalle, dog-tooth snapper.
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Mostly reef and rock fish for Marty Sering and John Grigsby, but all great eating plus a lone dorado along with the barred pargo and snapper.
Brent Hoshizaki came to visit from Canada and finally got to catch his first dorado after 2 tough days looking for them.
Captain Moncho helps a happy Wayne Riner on his first visit from Washington state with his first sailfish.
Two of our bestest amigos who visit us usually 2x a year and love fishing the rocks with Captain Pancho. They spent several days landing cabrilla, barred pargo, snapper and triggerfish.
Captain Pancho with our amigo, Leif Dover. They hooked the nice sail then spent 10 minutes pushing it back and forth to re-oxiginate the fish for a good release!
A big chunk of meat! Our amigos, Marty Sering and John Grigsby were with Captain Victor for 3 days and their last day got topped by this big dog-tooth cubera snapper.
Well…where do I start?
On the good side, this is about the first time I can remember in a many many weeks (or months) when we didn’t have an impendingly ominous storm on us or headed our way. We’ve had the whole gamut and pretty much almost gone through the whole alphabet of named storms. More than 20 storms recorded in the Pacific setting a record for the most turbulence in recorded history.
(Just for the record we’ve hit the letter “V” for storm names now and “Vance” is just to the south, but not predicted to both La Paz too much. But, I could be wrong…none of these storms has acted as predicted!)
So, air temps were a pleasant sunny 85 degrees on the average and water temps dropped finally after being in the 90’s for much of the last few months and chasing all the fish away. Temps have dropped into the low to mid-80’s.
On the bad side, it still hasn’t done a whole lot for our fishing. It’s still hit-or-miss and we’re struggling to be perfectly honest. Yes, there are fish to catch finally with some surprise varieties, but we’re working hard to find the fish or getting them to bite.
We suddenly have sailfish in the water. There’s a few scattered tuna here-and-there around Cerralvo Island. Every-now-and-then we find a small dorado or two.
There are some nice cubers (dog-tooth) snapper in the rocks along with triggerfish, barred pargo and cabrilla. A few bonito and jack crevalle also.
And that’s about it. It’s embarrassing. Usually, this time of year there’s 100% more action, but these last few months it’s been a desert made of water. Some boats get nothing. Some boats are lucky to have a fish or two or three. And that’s it.
Also, you can feel the season changing. The northern winds are starting up. Not yet full-time, but often by afternoons, they are blowing and sometimes gusting and kicking up white caps in the bay. Once they start up and blow consistently, the entire complexion of the air, water and fishing will change again often making it difficult to even get out fishing.
Just saying. Just being honest about expectations.
We’ll keep you posted.
BOOK IN THE WORKS
I could use a big favor…
I’ve had so many of you encouraging me to do this.
It’s been a project that has stopped and started and stopped and started for 4 years now.
After all these years and hundreds of stories and columns, I’m putting the finishing touches on what I hope to be my first book. It’s a compilation of over 20 years of writing. Lots of short stories and quick reads.
Many of you have written to me over the years commenting about my articles and I’m asking for a favor.
I’m kindly soliciting comments from you to include in the book. Basically, if you have something nice to say about my writing, I’d really appreciate a few sentences or a comment from you about it that I can submit to my editor for consideration. Just drop me an e-mail to: jonathan@tailhunter.com. Muchas gracias!
That’s my 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
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
FISHING BETTER BUT RECORD YEAR OF STORMS CONTINUES
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 10-18, 2026
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN REPORT
WEATHER: We spent another week on storm watch feeling the after-effects of Rachel and the impending arrival of Simon followed by Trudy. None of them actually hit at the end-of-the-day, but we felt their effects from winds, big waves and rough seas. It has definitely gotten cooler.
WATER: After several months of incredible 90+ degree water that turned the ocean into a desert the seas dropped precipitously into the low to mid-80’s. Some rough seas attached to the passing hurricans.
FISH HOOKED BY US THIS WEEK: Sailfish, tuna, dorado, dog-tooth snapper, triggerfish, bonito, jack crevalle, roosterfish, sierra,
FISHING SCALE (10 being best): 3 (it’s been a 1 or 2 for the last 6 -8 weeks!)
THE MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
It has been a crazy year. This graphic doesn’t include Trudy that headed our way this week. At least half-a-dozen of these storms affected us in just the last 2 months.
Hurricane Simon was originally slated to hit us, but dissipated and fell apart just before arriving but still hit us with strong winds and rain to the south.
Hurricane Trudy was directly below Simon and promised to be even larger than Hurricane Simon and there was some possibility for awhile of the two hurricanes joining up. We eventually did get some rain and wind. But it shut down the port for a few days eliminating fishing.
One of the better days this past week! Old Tailhunter friends of ours from Pendleton OR, Dave Lindell and Leonard Post are pretty happy with two sizeable tuna and some tasty barred pargo and triggerfish on their last day.
We love having these two guys here! Wade Ralston is a well-known guide on the Columbia River and has been with us several times and brought buddy Wayne Riner for his first trip. It was a dreary tough week of fishing, but these guys hung in there and Wayne did get his dream sailfish!
Daniel Bovee comes down several times a year from S.California and always seems to put trophy fish in the boat when fishing with Captain Pancho. Check out the big dog-tooth snapper!
Mike from Florida was staying with Gary Wagner at his Rancho Costa in Bahia Muertos when he caught ad released this nice roosterfish. Surprising to see a rooster this late in the season!
Dana and Lolly Milano from Clovis CA, have been with us many times fishing and diving, but we haven’t seen them in a few years. It was tough fishing ,but they finally hit some dorado fishing with Captain Boli and Lolly was quick to point out that her fish was bigger than Dana’s.
Another unusual fish that we usually see in the springtime is a pompano. Great tasting and they can get quite large. Grayson is from Indiana and was staying at Rancho Costa.
I don’t know where all the sailfish came from all of a sudden, but we hooked more sails in the last 2 weeks than all year. Darrell with Captain Moncho. The fish was released. Darrell was also at Rancho Costa this week.
Mike Schoder and John Daley are always fun when they visit from Alaska. They had some fun on the flyrods with Captain Moncho, but hit this colorful bull on conventional tackle. Enough for a good dinner at Tailhunter.
Captain Armando with Dave Lindell again and yet another sailfish. Dave let this one go which was great!
We’ve known Emily since she was about 5 years old ,but she was more excited than husband Matt who hooked this sailfish while fishing with Captain Boli.
A few legit yellowfin tuna popped up here and there! Daniel Bovee got this their first day past Cerralvo Island.
Here’s some good-eating fish! A highly -prized dog-tooth snapper caught by Mike of Bahia Muertos
Reason to smile! These barred pargo are tough to pull outta the rocks, but great eating. Dave Lindell takes the pose! A good day with several in the boat.
After 5 days trying to find fish, Wade and Wayne with Captain Chito went all the way to Las Cruces and found a willing school of dorado finally!
Love this shot of Captain Armando with Dave Lindell and his yellowfin tuna.
Bucket list sailfish for Dana on board with Captain Boli after fishing with us for many seasons.
Jonathan
Compared to the previous several weeks of reports, it looks like we’ve had much better fishing! There’s certainly alot more photos of some good-looking fish.
But, it’s deceptive.
There’s alot going on here.
For one, I’ve been harping how the waters have been HOT since August. This Super El Nino ocean condition heated the waters to 90-94 degrees! And the fish disappeared. I mean, for the last 2 months or so, the ocean pretty much turned into a desert! Other than smallish dorado here and there, we were virtually catching NOTHING!
Experts theorize that the waters had gotten so warm that the ocean simply had no oxygen for the fish. They either left or went way way way DEEP! I’m told the warm water column was not simply on the surface, but extended far deeper than ever. So, the fish moved off or way down to colder water.
Then, an amazing thing happened about 2 weeks ago. Possibly related to the continued parade of storms that have marched our way….NOLO…POLO…MARIA…RACHEL…SIMON…TRUDY….I can’t remember them all or the order. However, over just a few days, the water temps dropped!
And they dropped rapidly. Almost overnight, we went from 93 to 88…then to 85. Then to 82 degrees.
And and amazing thing happened!
We started to get fish biting again.
Suddenly we started to hook sailfish. Even some tuna popped up. There was a wahoo hooked. Some schools of dorado showed up. Even pargo, dog-tooth snapper, and bonito that had all been pretty much absent for months!
Nothing spectacular, but compared to the previous months, at least there was something biting and at least anglers had some hope and some chance of hooking SOMETHING!
It was by no means good fishing by any stretch. Some boats got nothing. Others really had to work at it. Some days there was action, but nothing to keep. And then some days, because of the storms, it was simply really rough waters and difficult to fish. It was difficult to find live bait. Conditions have not been ideal. The port was again closed for several days. The beaches got scoured of sand so it became difficult or impossible to launch boats.
One day, one of the commercial pangas got flipped by a big wave sideways. It resulted in a broken arm and a busted head for the two local occupants, but it could have been worse.
As I write this, we’re just seeing Hurricane Trudy fall apart just to the south of us after preparing for a Category 3 storm. But, like other previously, Trudy is blowing apart. So man of these storms bounced off us then went up the coast affecting Northern Baja and even Southern California.
On top of all this, we have the northern winds starting to blow and soon, they’l start blowing consistently and will blow through the winter months. It’s created quite a turbulent ocean. We have big waves from the south generated by storms smacking against erratic wind gusts from the north.
The season, sadly is ending on a big whimper. What a year. We don’t need another storm or another Super El Nino!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 2-9, 2027
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT
WEATHER: What day of the week is it? What time of day? It changes so rapidly sometimes by the hour. When the sun is out it’s hot…very hot and very humid. If storm clouds are passing it’s cloudy. Simple as that. Stay hydrated. Folks getting heat sick all the time. We keep dodging these major storms.
WATER: Related to the weather. If there’s a storm around and the wind is blowing, it can be choppy. It not, it can be flat. It can be different 100 yards away
FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK: Dorado / bonito/ barracuda/ triggerfish/ jacks
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
One storm after another like marching soldiers. Toughest September and October we have had in more than 30 years. This is the one we’re watching now. Simon is moving north towards us . It appears it might miss us as it heads into the Sea of Cortez, but none of these storms has followed predictions
John Daley is one of our good amigos from Alaska visiting us again and put down the flyrod while fishing with Captain Moncho and was able to put one of the nicer dorado of the week on board.
Just a great photo of young Wyatt Cileau bent on another dorado. Great form! The struggle is real!
Starting young! Owen Cileau has himself a nice little bull for the camera. Captain Rogelio looking on.
Kayla Lespade had a banner trip this week. The looks pretty happy with this brace of dorado, but the night before, Josh Stoll proposed to her and she said YES!
We had a tough tough week of cancelations because of the weather, but first-timers, Tom and Leah Contryman finally got out on their last day with Captain Joel and got into some action. They were incredibly patient and kept smiling during those frustrating days of no fishing .
Captain Julio gives Mike Schoder a thumbs-up on his dorado. Mike has been with us numerous times from Alaska and kept grinning through the week of tough fishing when even dorado like this were hard to come by.
Cynthia Cileau came down with her husband and 4 young boys and finally got a little fishing time in for herself posing with one of her dorado their last day here.
Not even sure where to start this report…
It has been one storm after another. Each one looking ominous. Each one a potential threat.
We’re watching the weather again!
SIMON might be turning into a hurricane by tomorrow but it’s still pretty far so the south but…it doesn’t look like it’s going outside this time to the Pacific like Maria…Polo or Rachel.
It’s coming up the Sea of Cortez so no telling if it will affect us or not. Maybe yes. Maybe no. The weather this year and last 4 weeks has been as erratic as any in history with this super El Niño.
Anyone’s guess…like all the 4 storms the last month. All depends on how big the “cone” is. Not a single storm since August has behaved like a regular storm or as predicted.
I can’t even remember all the names.
Maria came up and threatened…then went outside and up the coast and ended up battering S. California.
Then, Polo looked like it might turn into one of the largest hurricanes ever. We spent days sandbagging, storing waters, flashlight batteries, etc. and preparing for the worst. It was supposed to be a category 4 of 5 storm…the strongest on the ratings. It eventually only bumped us and went up the Pacific Coast and hit landful and mid-Baja and flattened and flooded areas like Lopez Mateos, Constituccion, Mulege, etc then crossed the Sea of Cortez and hammered mainland Mexico.
Then Rachel followed behind Polo. It never really hit us at all. It just sat there and created enough disturbances that locked us down. Big waves. Erratic winds. A smattering of rain. Then, it moved north like the others. Now it looks like it’s going to smash into northern Baja near Tijuana/ Ensenada and San Diego areas.
And now we’re looking at Simon. This one does not not look like it’s headed out to the Pacific or up the coast . It’s coming up the Sea of Cortez and anyone’s guess as to what it will eventually do or how it will affect us in La Paz. Bottom line is that I think it will bring us some big waves and wids.
So many storms everywhere in the northern hemisphere in the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico.
Here’s what all of this did to us.
Because of condition like big waves, strong winds and the port of La Paz being closed, we lost 9 straight days of fishing and couldn’t get out, stranding our fishermen in town. This is what the big waves did to the beach at Bahia Muertos where we launch the boats. It was scoured of all sand and left us a beach full or rocks that were impossible to launch from.
So…
Well we pretty much lost all our bookings for the last 2 weeks of September and almost all of October. Understandably with the erratic and unpredictable weather and repeated threat of storms, we encouraged our guests to think about postponement.
The threat of airport closures for arrival and departures or getting stuck here in town with the potential for loss of electricity, flooding, water, food, air-conditioning, sanitation isn’t very appealing to us or anyone. So, most of our guests postponed and thankfully have re-booked for later dates.
But, the other thing…the fishing.
Since August, the waters have been extremely hot. Not warm. HOT! Surface temps are in the low 90’s. The fish have virtually disappeared except for a smattering of 5-10 pound dorado and even those fish are hard to come by. A 15 pound fish right now is a trophy. There are a few other species around, but mostly it’s the small dorado. And that’s it. Scratchy fishing at best.
My theory is that the water has gotten too hot. There’s no oxygen in the hot water. Bigger fish requiring more oxygen have gone elsewhere or deep where the water is more oxygenated. The smaller fish don’t require as much as the larger fish. Simple as that.
And so, until conditions change with this super el nino situation, I think we’re going to see more of the same. In a few weeks the northern winds will start up like usual and then, it’s going to be too rough to fish through the winter.
To all our guests and friends who DID come down, thanks for being patient and I’m sorry about conditions. I wish I could wave a magic wand and change things. For everyone who had to postpone their trips, we’re as disappointed as you. Vacations are important but glad you’re going to come back at a later date. Turns out your decisions were probably good ones.
Cheers and blessings!
That’s my story
Jonathan
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
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 23-Oct. 1, 2026
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT
WEATHER: Wow…one storm on the radar after another. Will they hit? Won’t they hit? Where are they going? Could be a weather apocolypse or just another thunderstorm. Weather has been all over the place. No one agrees. No one predicts. Wait-and-see all week and prepare for the worst. Polo just gave us a nudge after all the worry but crashed further north, but two more possible events just below.
WATER: Flat and calm or churned up like a washing machine. It seems to change by the hour. Port has been closed for 4 days. So no one in-or-out of the bay (legally) and we have not fished for almost a week becuase of it or because of conditions.
FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK: When last we fished, it had actually gotten better. Big dog-tooth snapper. Lots of dorado including some larger school sized fish. A little jag of 30-40 pound yellowfin tuna.
THE MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Hurricane Polo was a Category 5 storm before hit started heading north towards us. It eventually only brushed us, but devastated areas of Baja several hundred miles to the north. Possibly 2 more storms to the south that we are watching intently.
Hurricane Polo looked pretty ominous. We all have PTSD from Hurricane Odile in 2014 that hit us as a Category 3 event and was the strongest storm in Baja history and flattened large parts of our area .
Hurricane Polo rumbled towards us at a Category 5! That’s the strongest and highest storm rating. We prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. We stored batteries, flashlights, taped windows, stored water, got the sandbags ready, etc.
We lost pretty much the entire week of fishing reservations. Hotels emptied out. Restaurants were empty. Streets were largely devoid of traffic. I heard the airport were full of folks trying to leave the area as well.
None of the multiple websites we were watching could agree on Polo’s path or ferocity. We watched and waited.
When it finally hit, we got about 3 days of really strong winds and big seas, but nothing more than a scattering of rain. That was it!
Definitely NOT fishable and the La Paz Port has been closed for days so we have not fished in over a week.
Even though Polo did not hit us directly and maybe some folks could have come down, the big worry was possibly getting stuck down here without power, water, electricity, food, etc. if Polo came on strong. When Odile hit, we were out for more than 2 weeks.
Polo did eventually hit landfall several hundred miles to the north about mid-Baja and really caused alot of flooding, evacuations, destroyed homes along it’s path around Constitucion, Lopez Mateos, Mulege, Loreto then hitting the mainland around Hermosillo. Parts of main Highway 1 simply got washed away. Re-building is going to take a long time.
The big problem now is that as of this writing, the port remains closed here in La Paz. At Las Arenas and Bahia Muertos where we launch our boats the beach has been scoured down to rocks and big waves have continued to hit along with strong winds.
Also, we’re watching possibly TWO MORE STORMS to the south. Rachel is currently a hurricane/ tropical storm and there is another one south of Rachel we are watching. We are hoping they dissipate or follow a path out to the Pacific. Again…we just don’t know!
Fishing…
Not many photos, but we had several fishermen that were already here when the warnings started coming and decided to stick it out and fly out before things really got bad. They actually had some of the best fishing we have had on 2 months. One set of brothers from California and a father and son from Canada. They had all fished with us before. Check out the photos…
Danny Ozakazi with one of his big dog-tooth snapper. He was fishing with Captain Gerardo
Gerry Eichhorn visited us from Canada and they were with Captain Victor before the seas got rough and got into a trio of tuna!
Everyone’s favorite, Captain Joel got Gary Ozazaki one of the larger dorado we’ve seen in awhile.
Vern Eichhorn with Captain Boli hit dorado schools for 2 days.
Vern with Captain Victor and another yellowfin!
A beast! Danny couldn’t believe how strong these fish were. Captain Gerardo helps out with the photo pose.
Nice variety for Danny and Garry… dog-tooth snapper, a barred pargo and some big triggerfish. All great eating.
Vern and his dad, Gerry, told me they lost a couple of these big snapper until they started using trap hook set-ups. Powerful fish!
That’s our story and we’ll do our best to keep you updated! We’re keeping the sandbags and flashlights handy and within reach.
