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!
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