It would be easy to get excited about this chunky yellowfin tuna that our amigo, Jeff Sakuda, caught, but it was a solo fish in a year when the tuna never really showed up. In fact, Jeff was trolling for wahoo when this fish hit south of Cerralvo Island.
Popular Captain Pancho bundled up against the winds, helps Aaron Foxworthy of San Francisco show off a really good looking bull dorado. That’s El Sargento and La Ventana in the background. Aaron was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
Someone in the back poster bombs Capt. Victor who poses with Ken Mitchell from Medford OR and Ken Gragg from Bakersfield CA showing off some of their dorado taken just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos early in the week.
First-timers to fishing La Paz, Mike and Donna Madrid fished 3 days with Capt. Pancho and did some rod-bending on dorado like these fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
Light tackle pro bass fisherman from Washington, Mike Whitlow, hung tough during some rough days fishing and still ended up with some nice dorado like these especially fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Don Buss hoists a couple of dorado next to Captain Pancho on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
From Mt. Vernon, WA, on their first visit to us in La Paz, Dave and Melissa Burton did some nice fishing for dorado on their first day with our Las Arenas fleet.
Great shot of a nice dorado on light tackle landed by Ed Vander Veer (Sorry Mike and Ed) fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Note the “tiger markings” on the bull dorado.
SEASONS CHANGING AND GETTING COOLER SLOWS FISHING!
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 21-28, 2012
The week started off strongly with some of the best dorado fishing in weeks for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets. In fact, we had quantity as well as quality good fishing. Good numbers of fish mixed with great size and fish between 15 and 35 pounds made for some great action and happy anglers.
However, as the week went on, it seems to be clear that our seasons are changing. Within just a few days, it seemed like summer just disappeared. Normally, we don’t see these changes until a few weeks later in November but this seems characteristic of the strange season we have experienced this year. At least, sometimes the change is more gradual. This past week, it was like someone threw a switch.
Late in the week the dorado bite diminished by half. The water temps dropped by 5 degrees. The winds increased to kick up whitecaps and changed to being northern winds. We started seeing more pargo, cabrilla and sierra in the counts which are normally all cold water fish. It seems like the shadows are longer and it’s definitely cooler. Suddenly, there’s no humidity in the air. If you’re on shore, the conditions are incredible for hanging out at the pool or on the beach. If you’re from somewhere that’s cold where it’s already raining or snowing these conditions seem like paradise under the swaying palm trees.
If you’re here to catch fish, it’s maddening. Conditions vary from day to day The bait changes from day to day. The bite is as variable and enemic as the weather. One day good. Two days slow. One day calm. Three days windy.
I don’t know how much longer the dorado will be around as they are warm-water fish. But they’re still biting. We also had a decent week of sailfish and striped marlin as well as some roosterfish and some inshore rock fish. Plenty of bonito.
Mike Whitlow and dad, Bobby, (Kennewick WA) stand amidst a “pretty good day of fishing.” They didn’t catch ALL these fish, but did pretty well. Actually, the fish are the lineup of 6 of our La Paz pangas that afternoon. The fishing started out slow because of Hurricane Paul, but as the week went on the dorado came charging back!
Great colors on this fresh bull taken north of La Paz by Ed Vander Veer on light tackle. This nice quality fish that Ed’s holding was pretty typical of the better sizes this past week plus many larger!
First timer from San Francisco, Steve Pinedo, got caught the first day and stalled by the hurricane and almost didn’t make it! But he got back in a good way with some outstanding dorado fishing including this hefty bull with Captain Marcos his first day of fishing.
From Clackamas, Oregon…fishing partners Todd Carver and Don Hines stacked some good fish later in the week after a slow start, but made up for it with some nice quality fish like these dorado while posed at Balandra Beach.
Trophy sailfish for Mary Heilman Vander Veer, our amiga from Washington. Mary will fish anytime…any place even in the rough weather we had before and just after the hurricane. She got her first sailfish here with our La Paz fleet after battling it on light tackle. Attempts to release the fish were unsuccessful and the fish was donated. Nicely done.
We had amigos from all over this week! From Arizona, Darrell LaMoure gets a hand from John Osborne on their first trip with us in La Paz. That has to be the shortest fattest bull dorado I’ve seen all season! It’s a trophy fish!
Al Yetter has already made two trips to see us this year and is working on dates for 2013. From Colorado, Al never seemed to stop laughing. Great colors on this hot bull dorado taken out of Las Arenas. Captain Pancho looks on!
Birthday fish for first timer, Craig Brown and Bob Layco, who came to see us from Washington. They also had to wait a day or two for the storms to pass, but got into the fish their last day and pulled on some good dorado like these two north of La Paz!
Charger fan in the house! Mike Shaw holds up one of his big dorado he caught while visiting us from San Diego on his first outting with Tailhunter. This fish was taken on live bait with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Kenny Cambell hold up one of his Las Arenas dorado. Both our Tailhunter fleets had good showing this week after the storm passed. Las ARenas seemed to have more fish and La Paz had the larger fish!
This beautiful pargo mulatto (barred pargo) caught by Don Hines from Oregon ended up serving 13 people at our Tailhunter Restaurant that night! He was fishing with Captain Rogelio striking a pose in the background.
Lots of great amigos from Washington and Oregon these past few weeks including Erick Johnson fishing with Captain Alfredo putting this hefty bull dorado in the box near Espirito Santo Island.
Great time for light tackle! Bill Leech, all the way from Florida kept his spinning gear handy and took a nice dorado in the shallows!
HURRICANE PAUL BRUSHES BY BUT FISHING RECOVERS FAST WITH DORADO CHARGING BACK!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 14-21, 2012
What a crazy week! It started off well, but then a surprise hit as we were winged by the edge of Tropical Storm Paul that turned into “HURRICANE PAUL!” Fortunately, we dodged the big bullet unlike our fellow cities to the north like Loreto ,but in La Paz we were still hit with winds and 2 days of rain that were enough to cancel our pangas and keep our clients hotel-bound for a day-or-two!
Believe me, that’s as tough on us as it is on our clients to have to stay indoors during their vacation!
But we started out again by Wednesday and with each passing day, conditions improved. In fact, they got better fast! I was amazed at how fast the muddy cloudy waters cleaned up. Faster than normal, which I’m sure had something to do with the improved bite.
Also the hurricane like winds did take a few days to diminish and we did have a few queasy souls out there the first few days after the storm (but some admitted it was abetted by too much tequila consumption the night before!). But, again ,with each passing day the weather, water and winds improved. In fact, since the storm, we’ve had some of the prettiest days in a long time. Just brilliant blue. The surrounding hills and mountains also could not be greener or more vibrant with flowers, grass and trees going full turbo…and the wild cows eating like it’s a free buffet line! But, we’ve had more rain in the last month than we’ve had in 5 years combined!
As for the fishing, as I mentioned, we started the week well. It’s been a pattern all year. We get going well then a storm comes along and changes the fishing landscape.
However, the dorado fishing by the end of the week was going solidly . This is for our La Paz as well as our Las Arenas fleet! Not only did we have good number with limits being common, but also, the quality of the fish has been much improved. We’ve probably gotten a better ratio of bulls and fish in the 20-40 pound class than we’ve had all year.
The fish have moved around quite a bit, but with a little patience, we’re finding the fish. You just have to be patient. Some of the clients have admitted that they were getting discouraged when they had not had a bite by 11 or 12 noon, but then all of a sudden the rods went off and it was crazy nuts until the fish box was full! The late bite has been a common pattern. So, just hang in there!
In addition to the dorado, every day we’re getting marlin and sailfish hook ups with most fish being released plus nice roosterfish are still working as well up to about 40 pounds. A few giant trophy pargo and cabrilla also being caught! Unfortunately, no tuna but giant squid seem to keep popping up every few days.
It was a good week for dorado fishing and this nice bull with the great colors was put in the boat by Nash Johnson from Washington with Captain Adolfo. Dorado were hot for both of our Tailhunter fleets this week.
Our La Paz fleet and our Las Arenas fleet were into dorado all week, with excellent weather most of the time. Our amiga, Donna Drucker, who visits us every year was with husband, John, and Captain Joel when she took this nice bull north of the city.
He’s usually running road construction operations in Boise, ID, but Steve Walker got down to see us on his first La Paz trip and had a tussle with this feisty jack crevalle (“toro”).
Long time Tailhunter amigos, Byron Shovlain and George Bonner, spent 3 days fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and Capt. Archangel and filled the box with some nice dorado like these!
Alaska amigo, Rod Brown, extended 3 extra days and it paid off in extra days of fishing and this fat wahoo he got on a purple Yo-Zuri.
Two of the nicest folks…Stephanie and Kelly Mizuno…always spend time with us each year from Sacramento CA. They also got into some great dorado fishing with both of our fleets. “She outfished me 5 – to -1, ” said Kelly!
From S. Dakota, Deneen and Mark Clausen, were on their first trip and grand-slammed some great variety one day with dorado, roosterfish, cabrilla, pargo, giant squid and bonito. Captain Jorge helps with the photo.
Captain Jorge again…poses with a nice roosterfish off Bahia de Los Muertos. The fish was released. This is typical of the rooster sizes we were hitting this week.
Steve Snead from Boise, ID, started slow but finished in full turbo mode with the dorado fishing after spending the whole week with us. Great shot of a bull dorado taken north of La Paz.
Seems like we get more and more great folks from the state of Idaho! Paul Wakagawa and Mark Echeverria (sorry ’bout that, Mark!) were a hoot on their first visit and show off a pair of their dorado on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos.
Nate and dad, Erick Johnson, show off a great day fishing. Check out the dorado, but also the cool “mini-wahoo!”
Utah in the house! From Salt Lake City, Lee and Jeanette Gillman pose with one of their roosterfish caught off Punta Perico. They released the fish.
Captain Rogelio tries to photo bomb Bobby Sherling holding her dorado she caught with our La Paz fleet north of town and shown here on the beach at Balandra.
Although it’s not going to hit us directly, we’re keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Paul which is going to still bring some thunder showers and strong winds Monday/ Tuesday/ Wednesday. Just when I thought all the rain was done for the year…
DORADO CRASH THE BITE AS FISH PILE UP IN THE BOXES!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 7-14, 2012
With almost perfect weather and a perfect moon, the week still started so-so, but gradually got better and better as the week went along with both our Las Arenas and our La Paz fleets pretty much firing on all cylinders and the dorado bending rods on both sides.
Not much to say! The photos tell it all. It was a pretty solid good week for fishing!
Our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet really hit it’s stride with some of the most consistent fishing we’ve had all season there after the first few months of the season were really slow. Sure, there were the occasional times when this panga or that panga had some off-fishing but for the most part, it was all-around great fishing for a variety of species all well that just got better as the week went on.
Sorry, no tuna, but the dorado sure came to play with consistent 10-25 pound fish and on a few days, there were easy and early limits with dorado pandemonium hitting the fleet with double and triple hook ups ripping the anglers. But, on top of the dorado, by the end of the week we were also getting bent by giant squid, jack crevalle, roosterfish, some wahoo, a few marlin and sailfish, pargo, cabrilla, sierra and lots of bonito. This made for a lot of tired arms and backs by the end of the day and mostly some big grins and smiles!
For our La Paz fleet, not as many dorado as Las Arenas, but what it lacked in quantity made up for in quality. The La Paz dorado were generally larger with some fish in the 30 pound class hitting the fish boxes.
You can tell it’s getting cooler and the seasons are starting to change a bit. Breezes are starting to blow and the shadows are longer. Waters are getting cooler as well. A bit early this year. It will be interesting to see what happens to the fishing in the next few weeks. This week is supposed to be pretty windy with a good chance of rain showers here and there. As I write this Sunday night, we’re watching Tropical Storm Paul that’s going to give us a little brush so we’ll have to see how that plays out. Click the link for more info:
Rod Brown is our good amigo from Wrangell, AK. He’s already made two trips to see us this year and was one of the guys who was able to post up a nice wahoo in what has been the best wahoo week in two years! Captain Jorge helps with the photo.
Captain Gerardo lends a hand to Jeanette and “Big Jimmy” Lee Gilman from Utah. First timers to fish with us, they won the trip by guessing how many bobbers were in the ice chest photo below when they came to the ISE Sportsmans show in Salt Lake City, UT last March! Talk about beginner’s luck…they got 5 nice dorado, a wahoo AND….two roosterfish that went 40-50 pounds! And outstanding day for anyone!
Lee Gillman in the photo above attended the Salt Lake City International Sportsmens Show in March and correctly guessed that there were 1934 bobbers in the marine ice chest above and won a 5 day/ 4 nights/ 2 days fishing trip with Tailhunter here in La Paz.
Hank Gonzalez and Captain Lorenzo flank happy angler, Robert “Blue” Nuss with his personal best bull dorado he caught out of Bahia de Los Muertos.
It was a pretty good week for sailfish! Chris Pallemaerts from Washington gets his buddy Josh to give him a hand with this big sailfish he caught fishing our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of the city. They attempted to release the fish but were unable to revive it after it swallowed the hook. They donated the fish.
Our amigo, Charlie Gibson from Northern California, is here on his 2nd trip to La Paz this year and shows off one of his dorado he caught fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of the city.
Talk about a great day! Joe Hussin barely had a line in the water off Punta Perrico when he got his first wahoo! Then, in the next hour, he caught 2 more of the nice ‘hoo’s! Three wahoo in an hour! Best of the year so far.
We had quite a few of our amigos who were on their 2nd trip of the year to La Paz to visit us including Leif Dover who lives in Atlanta GA and “commutes” to Hong Kong, China for work! Leif crossed “sailfish” off his bucket list with his first ever sailfish fishing with Captain Pancho off Las Arenas. The fish was released.
It’s always great when the kids get their first fish! Check out the two dorado that Julian Valdez caught out of Bahia de Los Muertos! Felicidades, amigo!
Bob Solee from the Portland, Oregon area was actually on his 3rd trip of the year with us and always does well. Bob holds up one of his La Paz dorado. Bob make some incredible custom fishing rods! Check them out at http://www.bandbcustomrods.com/
Curt Desjardins from Temecula CA was fishing with us for the first time and pulled this beautiful bull dorado while fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
FISHING ATTEMPTS TO REBOUND AFTER LAST WEEK’S STORMS WITH WAHOO DORADO BILLFISH!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept 30 to Oct. 7, 2012
A week after we were hit with a hurricane, an earthquake and and floods from a tropical storm, things got back a little more to normal this past week. Temperatures and skies could not have been prettier. Definitely spectacular postcard-pretty weather. However, the waters are taking a little longer to get back on track as runoff from the big rains cooled some areas of water or made it greener or murkier.
But, as the week went on it steadily got better although fishing still did not get up to where it usually is this time of year. The biggest danger was just fishing 1 days. You COULD be the one or two boats that didn’t do well while the rest of the fleet was hooking fish. Every day, about 80 percent of the boats did OK to good and a few just couldn’t get on the bite. So, if you only fished one day, you did stand the chance of getting only a fish or two.
On the other hand, fortunately, most of our clients are here fishing 2, 3, 4 or more days and by the end of the trip, even with a slow day or two, they left with an ice chest of fillets and good Kodak moments!
There was no shortage of variety that’s for sure. I think things are changing. Of course, we had the usual dorado bite where probably 70 percent of this week’s bite were dorado. Fish ranged in the 10-15 pound class, but there were larger fish up to 40 pounds well. The problem was that there was no rhyme or reason as to where the fish would bite or why they would bite one day and not the next. One “hot” captain would just smoke the fish and the next day that same captain could not get a single biter! Or vise versa. A captain on a slump would suddenly be the king of the beach the next day.
But, in addition to the dorado, we also saw our best week of wahoo. Get this. Some of the wahoo were smaller than big sierra! I have NEVER seen some wahoo so small. They were like miniature wahoo. I’ had never seen 5 pound wahoo! So, don’t get too excited. But there were also some 20-30 pounders as well. Again, like before, some of our pangas would hit the wahoo off Punta Perico and then the next day everyone would go to that spot and they would get skunked. It was hit or miss, but given we’ve not had any wahoo for 2 seasons, we got more wahoo this week than in the past 2 years combined.
There were also some other good biters as well. Roosterfish are still prowling the shallows near the beaches and we got and released roosters in the 5-50 pound class all on live bait. Larger baits produced larger fish! There were also pargo, sierra, jack crevalle, lots of bonito and a stray tuna or two.
Additionally, it was a good week for sailfish and marlin with several being hooked each day and most released.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter International Website: www.tailhunter-international.com Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine CA 91903-1149
Phones: from USA : 626-638-3383 from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
A rare and treasured fish…at least this year! There’s been a dearth of wahoo caught this year. Only a handful have shown all season when we should be really getting into them! But Harry Hsu got this 30-pound class ‘hoo fishing with our Las Arenas fleet just south of Cerralvo Island.
Triple generation “man-cation” for Larry Bodle from Huntington Beach, his son, Ernie, and dad Jim. They blasted a nice day of dorado with us as they pose on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
San Diego in the house! Alex Trasvina (closest to the camera) gets in the line up with dad, and cousins after a solid dorado day at Las Arenas. One of their boats had limits before 11 a.m. and were back on the beach goofing for roosterfish.
Bill Hsu from Diamond Bar CA had a successful 3 days fishing with us as we had better activity than we’ve had in a long time with our Las Arenas fleet. Bill took this nice dorado on bait.
Earlier in the week, we still had lingering clouds and rain, but the dorado still cooperated. This is our son-in-law Brian Reid celebrating his birthday with us, our daughter, Jessie from Las Vegas and that’s Scottie Roughgarden from Hollywood CA playing around in the back!
People often forget that while everyone is a bit offshore chasing the “glamour” gamefish like dorado, inshore offers some great fishing. Stan Yung and his daughter Shantel spent several days working the reefs and rocks and went home with a mess of cabrilla and yellow snapper which are incredibly delicious eating! Stan was on his first trip with us and is from Glendale CA.
Gloria Paymani is a producer from Hollywood and is one of our newest fun Tailhunter amigas! She busted several days of fish and tied into this HUGE bonito that she says ran her around for “20 minutes” before she got it to the boat with a hand from smiling Capt. Alfredo with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Colorado has been well-represented this year and this week was no different. Laura and Rob Duerr from Denver rocked the boat with a load of dorado and yellow snapper and pargo this past week and pose on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
Ron Koslowski is probably wondering “How did a trigger fish end up in the fish box with all these dorado?” Fishing with Captain Pancho he and his wife stacked the panga fish box with a load of dorado to take home to Colorado.
LAST MINUTE ADDITION! Just as I was publishing this fishing report (Sunday night), Ernie Bodle and Scott Sylvester sent in their photo from Sunday’s great dorado bite! I had to get it into the report. Ernie got this nice wahoo and took the family jackpot (there were 7 of them fishing) plus Scott nailed the big bull dorado!
POST FULL MOON ANGLERS WORK HARDER FOR FISH BUT LAS ARENAS AREA WAKING UP FINALLY!
La Paz -Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 2-8, 2012
It would seem that our bite during the full moon was a lot better than our bite AFTER the full moon this past week. While there were definitely some high spots for fishing this week and some good catches, I would have to say that fishing was only spotty to good during this past week. I’m not sure whether to blame it on the after-effects of last week’s rains; clouded water in some spots; or what. I really can’t put my finger on it as there really doesn’t seem to be much different this week than last week when we had numerous afternoon showers. But, the bite definitely wasn’t as good.
Dorado were our main species again this week. Every day a few boats got into them nicely for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets. A few boats would find the right spots and get bent nicely but then other boats would scratch and scratch. The next day, it would be just the opposite. The “hot boat” or the “hot spot” would get cold and a different boat; set of anglers; or area would turn out to be the hot area. No real rhyme or reason that even our captains could discern.
Las Arenas did better than it has been. That was encouraging. Much more dorado with some nice schoolie fish. Las Arenas all year has literally been slower than slow except for roosterfish. But this week we got into some decent dorado, roosterfish plus even a (surprise) wahoo! Pargo were also a good fallback with pargo mulatto (barred pargo) and yellow snapper filling some coolers.
La Paz was OK. Steady, but as mentioned, hit-or-miss. Dorado ranged from smaller 10 pounders to some 25 pounders. A few larger ones got away. We also had a few sailfish show up in the bites with all fish released.
Hopefully, this week is just a bump in the road and we’ll be back on track by the time you’re reading this!
By the way…not sure how much of a difference it made, but some of our guys brought fresh frozen squid with them this week and swore it made a difference on the dorado so…if anyone wants to bring FRESH frozen squid (not the stuff you buy at the bait store), it wouldn’t hurt.
NEW ADDRESS
Tailhunter International has moved it’s U.S. address. While Jill and I still live full-time down here in La Paz, our U.S. office is:
TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL
3566 Quail View St.
Spring Valley, CA 91977
or
TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL
P.O. Box 1149
Alpine CA 91903-1149
TWITTER AND FACEBOOK
Don’t forget, if you need a bigger dose of our fishing and other things from down here in La Paz, you can follow me personally (Jonathan Roldan) on Facebook and Twitter then “like” TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL SPORTIFISHING and “like” TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL (the restaurant/bar).
Have a great week! This coming week is going to be crazy…MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY is like New Year’s Eve and Spring Break and 4th of July all rolled into one on the 15th/ 16th of this week!
We’re not in Kansas anymore! Ready to click your ruby heels like in the Wizard of Oz? Another afternoon tropical storm headed our way complete with booming thunder and lightning. 30 minutes of rain the afternoons has really given La Paz a tropical feel and fortunately, by the time these roll in and lash us in the late afternoon, all our fisherman are usually in and watching the storm move across the bay from under the protection of our Tailhunter Restaurant with a cold beer in hand and fish stories to talk about! Looks like it’s going to be like this for the next week or so.
After every afternoon storm, usually a spectacular sunset over La Paz Bay. Here, one of our captains wades ashore through the shallows with our client’s fish catch of the day.
Great Happy Birthday for Pastor Mike Ray who strikes a candid pose with a load of doradof on the beach at Muertos Bay. Pastor Mike’s congregation gave Mike and his wife, Verna, a fishing trip to La Paz where they got dorado and roosterfish after a full week of fishing!
Cute pose from our daughter, Jessie Ried of North Las Vegas, with Captain Rogelio with one of 4 dorado she got this day fishing around Espirito Santo Island.
I haven’t posted many roostefish photos lately because the dorado bite has been so strong, but yes the roosters are still biting. We’ve had one of the best roosterfish seasons in memory. Mike Lutz is a pilot of Delta Air and he stopped by for a few days of fishing and got 4 nice roosters this day all released!
Talk about the “hat trick…” Jack Lutz had the choice of a day of snorkeling or one last day of fishing. He opted for the fishing and took 30 minutes to bring this nice sailfish to the boat fishing north of La Paz. Jack hat-tricked his trip with dorado, roosterfish and sailfish…all prized La Paz gamefish.
VIDEO of the WEEK
We have been featured by the La Paz Board of Tourism in their video series of promotional tourism materials. Filmed by our amigo, Luke Inman, take a look. It gives a really nice overall idea of fishing here in La Paz. Many of our Tailhunter regulars might see themselves in the video clip:
You can also click this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zCTF0LcN8M&feature=plcp
DODGE A HURRICANE BUT AFTERNOON TROPICAL RAINS DON’T SLOW DORADO…TOO MUCH!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 26 to Sept. 2, 2012
It was a very “tropical” kind of week. Almost like clockwork every day we had tropical thundershowers about 3 -4 p.m. Some of them were real gully-washers. In 30 minutes of rain, the streets could turn into rivers in downtown La Paz or cause some serious flash flooding in the arroyos. But, it could rain in one spot then 200 yards away be completely dry. Or it would look like the mother-of-all-storms was approaching and turn into nothing more than some drizzle…or nothing at all.
Still, it’s better than having a full blown hurricane and usually by late afternoon, all our boats are in and the clients are sitting under a palapa able to watch the lightning and hear the thunder with a cold one in their hands! The predictions for this week call for more of the same with varying predictions of rain all week. Basically, even when there were some showers while the guys were fishing, as long as the winds didn’t whip up we could still fish and, in fact, many of the guys fishing enjoyed the cooling showers. Like I said, they never lasted long and as soon as they were over, ofte the sun came back out blazing!
As far as fishing was concerned, it wasn’t off-the-charts or up to normal fishing standards for this time of year. But, we were still able to fish and there were some decent to very good fishing days. Dorado were our bread-and-butter fish for both of our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets with larger fish being caught by our La Paz fleet, but more variety and roosterfish bolstering the catch for our Las Arenas anglers.
The dorado were averaging about 15-20 pounds on the high-side, but every day we had fish in the 30 pound class and many larger that got away. Roosters were under 30 pounds, but there were some good schools of them. As well, we had some decent hook up on sailfish and striped marlin this week as well.
I know everyone want to know where the tuna are, but so far, nothing showing up, but this is prime time for tuna so we have our fingers crossed. Same for wahoo. They’re just kinda scarce this season.
Tailhunter Captain Victor goofs with Gerry Acosta and Victor Gildelmontes who got into the nice bite of football tuna late in the week of Cerralvo Island. The guys got into the bite but ran out’ve beer and came back to shore. Then, they went back out and caught more fish! All the tuna were fun 8-12 pounders, but the first school-sized fish we’ve seen all season.
Mario Salazar and Luis Arandia started hooking tuna when this nice sailfish bit while fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Attempts to release the sail weren’t successful and the meat was donated. The guys also got some nice dorado while fishing several days with us.
Our long time amigo, Victor Ochoa with Captain Jorge. This is one of the great stories. Several years ago, Victor was fishing with us and Capt. Jorge was running the panga. As the day went on, they realized they were COUSINS! Victor’s mother had moved to California but was the cousin to Capt. Jorge’s mother! So, the two guys are related and always fish well together plus have a good time showing off one of their larger dorado of the trip.
Pam Sharp rocked her day with this trophy roosterfish that was released while she was fishing off the Ventana-Cerralvo area with Capt. Fabio. Great fish and super shot. (Thanks Hawk!)
We have sure had some good fishermen from New Mexico this season! Darren Hanson flew his own plane down and spent several days on the water with us. He took this huge bull north of La Paz near Espiritu Santo Island.
Our buddy, James “Hawk” Davis, took this incredible shot of Pam Sharp’s marlin doing the dance as it’s close to the panga. You can see her special “pink lure” on the line as the fish does it’s thing. Great shot and Pam also released the big fish.
Jim Lipkowski wanted one day to get a shot at getitng a roosterfish and successfully got this nice pez gallo of Las Arenas.
Nice buffet…yellowfin tuna…a pargo…even a small mako shark as Captain Archangel with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet poses with Don Slaiman.
TUNA SHOW UP AT LAS ARENAS WHILE DORADO CONTINUE FULL MOON FEEDING!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 29 to Aug. 5, 2012
Despite the full moon, it wasn’t a bad week of fishing at all! The past few months, the full moon has actually been our better fishing. However, while the fishing seemed to slow just a tad, it was still pretty steady enough to fill some ice chests and keep anglers happy.
The dorado bite north of La Paz continued. Some days were better than others and some of our pangas did better than others but overall, if you fished a few days, you were going to get some nice limits of dorado that averaged about 15 pounds, but no unusual to have others in the 20-45 pound class as well. As far as I can remember this week, we had a lot of pangas out and I think pretty much everyone had shots at some of the bigger boys. Some of them caught them and some well…got away! That’s why they’re BIG! But there was some great action. The biggest factor seemed to be the wind. Some days were a little breezy and those days made finding the dorado a bit harder. The less wind…the better the dorado bite seemed to be.
The nicest surprise was the tuna boil that took place late in the week off Cerralvo Island. In spots between the island and the 88 spot to the east there were some nice boils of tuna going off. Nothing big, but for some pangas all the football sized 8-15 pounders they could handle! At the time of this writing, I don’t know if this is a fluke or the start of some nice tuna shots, but at least at the end of the week things sure looked promising. Some of the commercial guys who were out as far as 25-35 miles said there were some spots of larger fish in the 30-50 pound category.
But for our Las Arenas fleet, even if they didn’t fish for tuna, it remains the spot for roosterfish. Boy, did we have some nice roosterfish going this week. Several of the fish were in the 40-65 pound class plus a good number in the 20-30 pound class. It continues to be one of the best roosterfish seasons in a long time.
Also, quite few marlin and sailfish around still. We’re not specifically targeting them, but we hooked a number just while fishing for dorado or other species. Most were released.
Yes! Even we get to fish now and then and it was great to get on the water with Jilly for an epic day of non-stop dorado fishing where we hooked and released over 40 fish before noon! Great week of dorado fishing even with the full moon! Here, Jill ducks behind Captain Joel with another bull dorado that was thrashing around wildly before Joel released the fish!
The ladies were on fire this week! Especially alot of first timers like Sylva Ourghoulian from Pasadena CA who came with our long-time amigo and her new husband Avo. Avo is a great fisherman and wanted to have a good experience for Sylva. She got limits of dorado each day plus some nice roosterfish!
Like I said, the ladies were rocking this week! From Sacramento, another first-timer, Becky Csotoras, was just off the Las Arenas lighthouse when she caught and released this nice roosterfish. She and her dad also got into the dorado bite this week as well.
Every time he comes down, Fred Sontag, from St. Louis MO says, “This is the best trip ever!” Four days of hot dorado, roosterfish and marlin fishing resulted in lots of fillets headed back to the midwest including this trophy big-headed bull dorado taken near Espirito Santo Island.
Our long time friend from Colorado, Doug Oclassen got his son, Andrew out with us for a day and off Las Arenas pulled in some nice roosterfish like this one. It’s turning into thee best roosterfish season in memory. Pretty much 99 percent of all the roosters like this one are getting released. Great job, guys! Andy is looking alot like dad these days!
Not many of these in Montana! Phil Matteson said he got “everything on his bucket list” on this trip to La Paz, his first! Dorado, roosterfish and this marlin shown with Captain Boli holding on!
Rex Smith has been visiting us for years. Our amigo did three days fishing with our La Paz fleet and had limits of dorado like this one every day. Rex is from the Phoenix AZ area and is posing here at Balandra Beach north of La Paz.
Big smiles for another of our ladies who had a good trip. From Utah, Kim Woodard, shows off another nice bull dorado that jumped on the line. Kim and her family had good results on dorado and roostefish over several days of fishing with us!
Fishing with grandpa, John Ehlers, from Colorado, 14-year-old Cheyenne says she cannot get enough of the ocean and was on her first trip ever to La Paz! Posing here with our popular Captain Pancho with our Las Arenas fleet, she’s holding one of several big roosterfish she caught and released. She also did several days of banner dorado fishing with grandpa, John!
One of the larger striped marlin of the week, Mike Sontag, has visited us a number of times and finally got his billfish. From North Carolina, Mike’s fish was estimated at about 150 pounds. The billfish have really gotten up to speed this past week even with the full moon and about 90 percent have been released. Mike’s panga hooked two others that got away.
More big smiles to go with a big dorado! The ladies were pulling hard on the fish all week and Karen Matteson from Montana was no exception. Nice dorado…big roosterfish…pargo…a real good trip and nice to have fun folks from Montana. I think Montana people just bring good fishing with them! Nicely done, Karen!
Dustyn Woodard is 17-years-old, and had a great trip sticking a bunch of big roosters with Captain Gerardo and releasing them all. He and his family, from Utah, also popped some great dorado. This was Dustyn’s first trip to see us.
Northern Cal resident, Jimmy Csutoras, saw an article in the S.F. Chronicle about Tailhunter and booked a trip with us. He got dorado and roosters and also got one of the only pargo we’ve seen in awhile! He got several of these nice barred pargo. That’s Punta Arenas in the background and they were very close to the beach!
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Check out this underwater clip in slo-motion of a wild dorado hooked (then released)! Turn up the sound. If you can’t see the embedded video clip, click the youtube link!
FULL MOON PRODUCES BEST DORADO BITE OF THE SEASON!
La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-8, 2012
What’s the big deal about the full moon? I keep telling people it really doesn’t seem to make much difference down here. As a matter of fact, we just had the best dorado week of the season in the full moon. At times, folks were catching and releasing fish as fast as they could go! Somedays the bite was later in the day but other our anglers were full of fish by breakfast time! Once it started it could be pandemonium with double and triple hook ups. Some of our clients told us they released dozens of dorado each day.
Most of the dorado fishing was north of La Paz and was found in a nice wedge from the Las Cruces/ Gordo area then up to the east side of Espirito Santo Island and up to the Charo Bank. There’s a nice current line of sargasso weeds holding fish all up and down that area. There’s lots of voracious 10-15 pounders all along that area that are almost fighting each other to get to the hooks but there’s also some nicer 20-50 pound bruisers mixed in as well. In the last 2 weeks, it’s like someone threw a switch!
On Friday, Jill and I snuck out for a “quick day of fishing.” What we ran into was one of our all-time best days on the water in 16 years of living here. We ran into that line of sargasso weed along the east side of Espirito Santo Island. Just on a lark we did not follow the rest of the fleet that morning which had gone south to check out the Las Cruces area where the dorado had been biting fairly steadily.
Our first bait immediately got slammed…as did our 2nd and 3rd…by 8 a.m. we had caught and released almost 20 dorado! By 10 a.m. we had over 30 fish hooked and released. And we were still the only ones fishing the area! By 10:30 we were joined by the rest of the fleet and everyone hooked up! There were dorado everywhere. Under the boat, it looked like a fish pond! There were dorado darting in and out of the weed line and current break. Dorado were jumping following flying fish and one flying fish smacked Jill on the arm followed by a dorado that was chasing the bait that blew up in her face and narrowly missed her.
By 11 that morning we stopped counting at 40 dorado caught and released! By this time we had switched to complete circle hooks and were also using all kinds of goofy lures that were in the tackle box! Our last 3 fish were caught by us just dangling BARE HOOKS in the water and watching dorado come out from under the boat and 1…2…3…SLAM! HOOK UP! BARE HOOKS!
As we pulled off the spot at 11:30 so we could back to the office, dorado were still jumping all around the boat as if yelling, “FEED ME! “ Way fun day. Of course not every boat did that well, but more often than not all the pangas this week fishing La Paz came back with limits. And if not, a quick query would tell you that they lost quite a few fish!
In that same area, especially with all the smaller punk dorado around, marlin and sailfish have also moved in to the area and are actively feeding. We had quite a few hooked, lost and released this week with most in the 100-120 pound class.
Around Las Arenas, our fleet there continues to do well on the roosterfish. If you’ve ever wanted to check a roosterfish off your “bucket list, ” this has been the year for it. Roosters in the 20-50 pound class have not been uncommon and they’re very close to the beaches where you can visually cast to them and watch the pick up! Pretty exciting stuff to watch those huge dorsal fins cut through the water! Las Arenas also produced some marlin and sailfish for us this week as well as pargo.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
It’s been a long time since we had a nice dorado bite as we waited for waters to clear up and get warmer! It’s about time! Dorado finally kicked it into gear! Our buddy, Len Atkinson from the Sacramento CA area hasn’t visited us in a few seasons but good to have him back as he and Captain Marcos try not to get their shins slapped by a struggling big bull dorado!
TUNA? Yes! Mary Wehner always seems to do well. She and husband, Dave, went just east of Cerralvo Island with Captain Victor and found a couple of big dorado as well as this nice slugger yellowfin tuna! Everything just seemed to finally get better about mid-week!
Early in the week, with waters still on the chilly side, we had another run of nice yellowtail around Espirito Santo Island. Check out this trophy held by Joel Ofrancia who visited us from Washington to get some sun, fishing and diving. He caught 5 of these beauties!
Talk about a fishing vacation! Larry Watkins from Los Angeles decided to go “all in” and spend two whole weeks with us to get get ONE ROOSTERFISH! Well, he picked a good time because the roosterfish were tearing it up and he got this this colorful rooster just off Cerralvo Island. Some days the boats averaged 4-8 roosters per day in the 20-60 pound class. Almost all fish, including this one were released.
Tbis is Gerda Siewart from Anaheim CA with Captain Gerardo of our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Gerda had never been fishing before. She was also nervous because she just had surgery last week. But she went out anyway…and had a blast! She says she’s hooked. First day 7 roosterfish. 2nd day 5 roosterfish. 3rd day big yellowtail and cabrilla. 4th day a box full of dorado. She just let the captains fish and said, “Let’s have some fun!” She’s never stopped smiling the whole time! This was the only rooster she couldn’t release.
Cameron Hutcheson from Orange Co, CA is another of our clients who had a great time on their first trip…roosterfish…yellowtail…dorado! All of them were on their list they were hoping to catch. Cam holds up a big bull dorado he caught north of La Paz!
It’s a long way from Michigan to La Paz! But check out this trophy bull dorado that Jim de Boer holds on the beach at Balandra. It was great to finally see some of the larger models decide to bite and we’re happy that Jim came all this way and was able to get into quality fish. He also got his first roosterfish as well!
I gottta hand it to Mike Harvey who lives in Montana. This guy busted his butt all week trying to get a roosterfish…even fishing from the beaches at night. He finally got one on his third day. In fact, he got several plus got a nice load of dorado as well when the bite turned on mid-week. Mike’s posing with this sizeable rooster right off the lighthouse at Las Arenas. Mike’s already got reservations to come back in September “when the fish are bigger!”
Marlin finally got a bit more active as well this week. We’ve been seeing them for week turn up their noses at us. Guy Petree and his buddy Oscar hold up a fish they got north of La Paz. They released the marlin after the photo. Guy is coming back later this week for more fishing!
The man behind the fish is Brian Hutcheson! He’s from Cote de Caza CA and on his first day popped this nice rooster off of Cerralvo Island. First time fishing with us, he had a banner 3 days of fishing.
Monster yellowtail for Dr. Norm Harris who gets a hand from Captain “Fettucine” Alfredo off Espiritu Santo Island. Great catch! Doc is from Santa Ana CA
BEST WEEK OF FISHING TO KICK INTO SUMMER! IT’S ABOUT TIME!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 17-24, 2012
It was like night and day in the difference between fishing early compared to later in the week. For 2 months, I kept saying that all we needed was a little kick in water temperature and the tough fishing would improve. Well, the water temps went up by 2 degrees this week into the low 80’s.
By the same token…it was THE BEST WEEK of the SEASON on so many levels! Still not quite up to standards, but what a difference in this week compared to the last few months! We still need to get better, but just take a look at the variety of species in the photos!
It was like someone threw light switch! The first day of summer…June 22nd…everything changed!
Early in the week, with waters still a bit chilly, our bite consisted of a very good roosterfish bite with fish between 20 and 60 pounds. Great fun but not very good eating. As well we had a pretty sweet bite of 20-40 pound yellowtail off the west end of Espiritu Santo Island. That was good for a few days and we had some fun.
But about mid-week waters started warming. We were seeing more marlin. We started seeing breezing schools of dorado. Everyone was excited. Just one problem…they wouldn’t eat. Not even remotely interested in biting! So frustrating to see so many dorado and they just had no interest in biting.
Then, about Thursday the water temps kicked up a notch. The dirty green cold water started to dissipate and BOOM! Dorado started slamming! It was like someone threw a swtich. Some of the dorado were real punk squirt fish, but others were in the 20-40 pound class and larger fish were lost. As well, marlin started to jump into the act as well as sailfish and each day we hooked, lost , caught and released several.
Not everyone caught fish everyday. Some boats did great some days then not so good the next. Also anglers lost a lot of fish as well. However, for those who fished a few days, there were definitely fish to catch and opportunities to put fish in the boat compared to what it’s been lately. All very encouraging!
Hope this is something we can finally count on. The bite has been a long time coming after a really slow spring bite.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
A late…really late burst of fish on Sunday gave us some hope that things are turning around after what many are saying is the toughest fishing in many years in Baja…not just La Paz…IN BAJA! But on Sunday, our amigo, John McVay got two nice dorado off Las Arenas at the start of his week-long fishing!
A big high-five to Gerda Siewart! This was her FIRST DAY fishing..ever! Except for fishing off a pier. She was a bit nervous being in a panga, but on top of it all, she just had surgery last week and was ready to head for shore if things got a bit uncomfortable for her. However, on the contrary, she said she had the “best day ever!” With the help of Captain Gerardo, she put 7 roosters on the hook plus a jack crevalle and an amberjack releasing all but 3 fish. Roosters are biting! Good job, Gerda!
OK…go figure! It’s mid-June and waters are still cold enough that we’re getting yellowtail around Espiritu Santo Island. Amy Lenhart from Idaho shows off one of their many fish. It’s crazy…many days of nothing then the yellowtail start biting!
When you’re 8 and 10 years old and on your first Baja fishing trip with dad, every fish is a monster, especially when you bait your own hook; put it in the water; and reel the fish in all by yourself like 8-year-old Sean and 10-year-old A.J. Rose from Colorado.
One upside to the colder dark water and one of the reasons for the dark green water is the algea bloom going off, but that means whale sharks are back! These gentle giants are incredible creatures and one of the highlights of visiting La Paz is a swim with a “fish” that can be 10-50 feet long! Don’t worry…they eat plankton but are true members of the shark family and a highlight of any visit to get in the water with them. Thanks for Bob and Becky Solee, our Oregon, amigos who had whale sharks swimming around their fishing panga!
Nice bull for Troy Lenhart who was on his first La Paz trip with us and took this bull dorado north of La Paz where some fingers of warm water seem to have finally moved in!
The latest water temperature chart from http://www.terrafin.com shows that waters are finally getting back up there into the 80 degree range, but still unseasonably cooler than normal. We need more of the yellow and orange colors around the La Paz area, but as recently as last week, we had only cold blue colors!
TOUGH WEEK OF FISHING PUNCTUATED BY A PROMISING TURNAROUND SUNDAY!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Week of June 11-17, 2012
Not much to tell you about. It wasn’t that great a week of fishing. Honest. Early in the week we still had that nice snap of yellowtail of solid 20-50 pound fish off Espiritu Santo Island. But the cold waters that seemed to have brought the fish in then started getting warm like it should be in the first place. That colder water was replaced by warmer water and well…there went the yellowtail replaced by sporadic dorado, roosterfish, marlin and cabrilla fishing. But it was hard scratchy fishing for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleet. You gotta work at it. You have to have your “A” game or be pretty lucky and if you do run into fish, you might not get a second chance if you miss the fish! That’s the way it was this last week. It might help also, if folks come to fish for what’s here rather than fishing for what’s not biting. But, everyone is trying so many different things, it’s just such a crazy non-bite! Hopefully, as we get away from the big full moon and other things, fishing will kick in again.
BUT WAIT!!!
I’m writing this SUNDAY evening. AND WE HAD A PRETTY DECENT DAY TODAY! It wasn’t all-out-nuts, but maybe the best bite in over a week! Our Las Arenas pangas ran into some scattered decent dorado, roosterfish, marlin and amberjack! Our La Paz guys…wow…bigger dorado up to 40 pounds, marlin plus…(get this) yellowtail up to 25 pounds!
Captains that were struggling to get nibbles were grinning today. Are things changing? I sure hope so. Best dorado day of the year so far! Fingers crossed that by the time you’re reading this we’ll be on the upswing!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
Tailhunter Fish Report 