Tailhunter Fish Report

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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Aug. 11-18, 2014

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, baja sur, Baja Vacations, bonito, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island, Cerralvo Island Fishing, charters, dog tooth snapper, dorado, east cape, el sargento, espirito, espirito santo island, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing reports, fishing tackle, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing trips, fishing video, fishing videos, flyfishing, freediving, grouper, holidays, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, la ventana, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, light tackle, mahi mahi, marlin, mexican, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, robalo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra, sierra mackeral, snapper, snook, spearfishing, sportfishing packages, squid, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, vacations, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged bahia de los muertos. bahia de los suenos, baja, Baja sur, billfish, bonito, cabo san lucas, charters, dorado, east cape, el sargento, fish, fishing, fishing reports, flyfishing, freediving, isla cerralvo, isla espirito santo, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, live bait, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo snapper, pompano, rainbow runner, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, snapper, spearfishing, sportfishing, tailhunter international, techniques, tips, tours, trips, trolling, tuna, vacations, video, videos, wahoo, yellowtail on August 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Yes…some big tuna showed up but few taken! The fish were 50-100 pounders, but after long battles, there wasn’t much to show for it as the grumpy fish bent rods and backs. However, our good amiga, Debbie White from Oregon, who fishes with us every year and often puts the guys to shame stuck this plug yellowfin tuna estimated at 60 pounds. She did it in 30 minutes on 30 pound test with some good skippering by Captain Pancho with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The fish are pretty far outside of Cerralvo Island.

Another one who put the big boys to shame this week was 8-year-old Grayson (“G-man”) Richmond from Colorado. Over 4 days fishing he put a couple of dozen dorado and other species in the boat WITHOUT HELP and he did it on conventional tackle…light 15 pound spinning gear…and on the flyrod! With his big smile, he impressed everyone from our captains to our drivers and us as well. About the only help he needed all week was to hold up the fish for photos like this one with dad Bill Richmond.

big dorado russ and rogelio small tags 8-13-proc

No, Captain Rogelio from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet is not trying to eat this hefty bull dorado! He and angler Russ Blount were wrestling with the big fish trying to keep it still for the photo as it had already smacked them several times! Russ had a great week with us and is from Oregon.

She likes pickle juice with her tequila shots and fishing in warm waters! Shawn Kirk from Denver, Colorado was on her first visit to us in La Paz and shows off one of several nice dorado she caught north of La Paz.

dorado bill flyrod beach tags small 8-13-proc

“Bonefish” Bill Richmond spent 4 days whacking dorado with us, but on this particular day after climbing off the panga, he was casting his flyrod from shore and caught and released this nice dorado JUST A FEW YARDS OFF THE BEACH! People can never believe when we tell them we don’t have to go far for our fish! This is a great catch….even moreso on the flyrod!

The ladies really put on a show this week! Another of our first-timers…Diane Kunze came with husband Frank who fished with us last year who just retired. The two of the were with us for the week and Diane had fun with dorado like this one and Captain Adolfo from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

There’s good number of marlin and sailfish right now and the fact that we’re using big baits most days entices more bites than normal. Fortunately, most fish are getting released. Don White from Oregon visits us several times a year here at Tailhunters and always does well. He tangled with several blue marlin that broke lines and caught and released this hefty striper off Cerralvo Island on light tackle. Captain Pancho with all the smiles.

Coach Joey Fuschetti has been fishing with Tailhunter since the beginning…almost 18 years. Joey has a knack for lots of fish and big fish. He also has few “secrets” that he swears by like chumming with fresh papaya! (Yes…he does!) It seems to work. He had chunks of papaya out there when this big colorful bull hit!

Just had to post up another photo of our new favorite poster kid…Grayson “G-Man” Richmond smiling big time with Captain Rogelio after putting another big dorado in the boat on light tackle!

First-time visitor to La Paz, Ben Kirk had some banner fishing with us all the way from Denver. Here, he stands on the beach at Balandra posing with 2 of several nice bull dorado he caught or La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.

DORADO HOLD CENTER STAGE FOR ANGLERS

La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 11-18, 2013

No doubt this is dorado season in full-color and full-turbo right now and we’re grateful because the mahi provide all the things you want out’ve a sportfish…eager to bite…swarming schools…great colorful action…can be big and mean…and taste great on the table!

Although our Tailhunter La Paz fleet had the better and most solid catches all week of dorado, our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet also provided steady action. Both sides had fish that were generally schoolie-sized in the 10-15 pound class, with some larger bulls in the 25-30 pound class and the largest fish of the week around 40-ish pounds.

The bigger issue has been the bait situation that seems to change from week-to-week. Las Arenas is having another year with a scarcity of sardines so we’re doing well with caballitos, mackerel, zebra fish, ballyhoo and, chunks of giant squid that we started catching about 2 weeks ago (that also make great eating as well!).

One of the good things about the bite at Las Arenas is that the fish are closer now. In previous weeks the schools have ranged pretty far (relatively speaking for us!) for what we are used to. The last week or so the fish are inshore or as close as the nearby commercial buoy lines.

Even for our La Paz fleet, there were schools of dorado as far out as the channel to San Francisquito as well as the Charo Bank, but as close as even finding some schools of dorado right in the bay…right outside Balandra which is a stone’s throw north of town better know for a place to go swimming than for fishing! However, breaking schools of dorado were located under bait balls right there just outside Balandra.

As for the La Paz bait, the situation has been a bit better than with Las Arenas. Most days we have sardines to purchase from the bait guys. Plus going out as early as we do with our fleet, we’re often able to jig up some mackerel and caballitos before the sun comes up. Then, after getting some sardines some quick trolling for bonito enables us to hit the fishing spots with 2 or 3 or 4 different kinds of bait for the day!

In terms of other species, we got a steady number of sailfish and striped marlin hookups with both our fleets with all fish either being busted off or released (bravo!). There’s still a few big roosterfish around but it’s late in the season for them, but the largest was in the 50-pound class. No wahoo this week, but didn’t really have too many of our anglers devoting time to the wahoo and the few that did, came up with nothing.

However, we did hook some nice tuna. Everyone wants a big tuna! But you have to be careful for what you ask for. Out’ve Las Arenas, there’s been a rise of the giant squid that I had mentioned before. When the squid come up from the deep trenches, often the tuna come up as well. Sure enough, we had some of the bigger tuna with some muscle show up.

Like I said, everyone wants a tuna, but a 40 or 60 pound tuna isn’t 2 or 3 times stronger than a 20 pound tuna! Guys battled some big models between 40 and 100 pounds this week for an hour or more and came back saying, “Never ever ever again do I want a big tuna!” There were stories of handing the rods back and forth between anglers and guys having their backs seize up on them as well as shaky-arm syndrome in the heat! And then BLINK!….losing the fish!!! It’s a long way and a long fight to lose a fish. Great experience, but we warn ’em that it’s a home run hit and you better pull your socks up tight and high. Tuna show no quarter. The few fish we did get in were 50’s and 60 pounders…but very few compared to the number of hookups.

Weather wise…geeze…the air is heavy!!! I can’t believe some guys are fishing in long pants! Bring a big hat. The sun beats down and this week it was also humid with some quick summer showers that were refreshingly welcome. But sunscreen…t-shirt…shorts…flip-flops is the uniform of the day!

STILL NO FISHING LICENSES TO SELL so you have to purchase them online until the Mexican Government can print more up for the whole country. Ask us if you need assistance! But here is the link: https://www2.ebajacalifornia.gob.mx/Pesca/

Just remember to click the American flag to get English and also that the amounts are in PESOS! So don’t have a panic attack when you see the amounts. Just divide by 11 or 12 and you’ll see the prices in reasonable dollars.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website:

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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Tailhunter International for Week of Aug. 4-11, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, baja sur, Baja Vacations, bonito, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island, Cerralvo Island Fishing, charters, dog tooth snapper, dorado, east cape, el sargento, espirito, espirito santo island, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing reports, fishing tackle, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing trips, fishing video, fishing videos, flyfishing, freediving, grouper, holidays, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, la ventana, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, light tackle, mahi mahi, marlin, mexican, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, robalo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra, sierra mackeral, snapper, snook, spearfishing, sportfishing packages, squid, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, vacations, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged amberjack, bahia de los muertos, bahia de los suenos, baja, Baja sur, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dorado, east cape, el sargento, Espirito Santo Island, fish, fishing, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing video, flyfishing, freediving, holidays, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, live bait, los barriles, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, packages, panga, pargo, pompano, punta arenas, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra, snapper, spearfishing, sportfishing, tailhunter international, tuna, vacations, wahoo, yellowtail on August 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Joey Fuschetti and Kent Hawkins from Orange Co. California had a great 2 days fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. They got big racks of dorado, plus sailfish and pargo as well. They’re on the sand here in Balandra Bay. Joey has been fishing with Tailhunters now for 18 years! Joey has been in the fishing report for many years but says he has NEVER been the first picture! So…here you go, Joey! Thanks , guys!

From Ogden UT, Marcus Yoo, only had time to come down and squeeze in two quick days of fishing but made the most of it with 2 big days of dorado fishing and big bulls like this one…his personal best…that he caught off Las Arenas.

Finally had the big squid show up this week and there’s nothing like starting the day out pulling these bad boys up from the deep to use for bait (or saving for eating!). The dorado and tuna both love them. Big grin from Russ Blount visiting us from Oregon holding up another big beast. The squid are just off Las Arenas.

First time in Mexico. First time fishing. First fish ever…a trophy bull dorado! The smile says it all. Maricris Bugutan gets a hand from Captain Adolfo from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet in posing with her trophy bull dorado.

Our good amigo, Craig Corda, has visited us many times from his farm in the Imperial Valley CA and always seems to do well. He shows off one of his dorado with the classic pose and grin on the panga fishing off Las Arenas.

This is a big fish and you can tell because Russ Blount is also a big guy! This bull dorado was one of several he caught along with a marlin his first day fishing with us this week.

Not sure she wants to touch it! Maricris laughs at another big squid hauled aboard! This one ended up cooked up with garlic at our Tailhunter Restaurant that night for dinner!

Captain Chito poses with my long-time friend and fishing buddy, Bob “Tio” Horton from Palm Springs CA The fish were caught around Espirito Santo Island and Las Cruces on a late-day bite.

Yes…I still get out! (Thanks, Jilly) I’m showing off this bull mahi on the beach at Balandra Bay after a great day of dorado fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet We got limits that day.

One of the best highlights of the week! Paul and Mike Zech from Sacramento CA like the street-cart hot dogs we serve at our Tailhunter Restaurant and showed up with these funny shirts! Just had to take a photo!

DORADO HELP WEEK FINISH FAST!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of August 4-11, 2013

The fishing week started out OK, then got kinda picky but everyone still got fish. It was just one of those weeks where a boat would get 1 or 2 fish and the next boat got 4 or 5 fish for no rhyme or reason or you would go fishing and put 1 in the boat…then an hour later another fish…two hours later 2 fish….2 hours later 1 fish…and the day would go on like that. And you would think, “Geeze…fishing is slow!” Then you would look in the fish box or get back on the beach and realize you had nearly a limit of fish!

It might have had something to do with some strange cooler and greener water that just shows up mid-week. We didn’t have any storms. There was no strong winds. There was nothing that would tip-the-hand to show why patches of great blue water suddenly went dry on us! Conditions were otherwise great…flat glassy seas…brilliant Baja sunshine…decent bait…patches of sargasso…but strangely very reluctant or absent fish. You really had to work it hard to find them.

I made it out one day and we got a limit of nice dorado, but we must’ve put 50 miles on the panga going up, back out, in, around…we covered a lot of water. By 1 p.m. we had only 3 fish in the box. But, as our captains often do, our fleet hung out there and at 3 p.m.-4 p.m. the fish started feeding! And we put another 5 nice-sized dorado in the box that topped out the day.

That is one big difference for us…especially for our La Paz fleet. We’re out on the water at 6 a.m. and getting live bait. We see some of the other fleets…some of them…not even getting out on the water until 7 or 8 a.m. when the sun is already up blazing and you can’t get bait that late. Then, they’re back on the beach at 1 or 2 a.m. when our guys are still out there pushing to keep finding fish. It really makes a difference when the fishing is picky. And it often means the difference between 1 or 2 fish and a limit of fish…having live bait and staying out the extra time!

But, the nice thing too is that as the week went on, we got a great charge of fish at the end of the week.

Our La Paz fleet started finding better spots of dorado in the 10-20 pound class with some larger bulls to 30 pounds. Using the bait we catch…caballitos, mackerel…then some sardines as well as fresh-caught bonito, we have several options most days for offering different baits to the fish. The larger baits, I think, also are the reason we get more sailfish and marlin hook ups as we did this week with all fish being released.

For our Las Arenas fleet, it was also scratchy early-on with just a few dorado per boat, but pretty much all of them decent to monster bulls. So, what we lacked in quality, we made up for in quantity. However, later in the week the fish turned it up a notch and we not only got into dorado, but also had some wahoo hookups, some billfish hook ups and even a big 60 pound tuna found way outside.

The difference at Las Arenas, I believe, were the giant squid that finally came up out’ve the deep trenches. We started catching these beasts, which not only make for great eating, but cut up in chunks are good for chumming up dorado around the buoys and chunking for tuna. Hopefully, they’ll stick around. Historically, when the big squid come up from the deep, the tuna often follow them up as well!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website:

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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

http://apps.bcs.gob.mx/finanzas/finaweb/fonmar/

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 28 to Aug. 4, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dog tooth snapper, dorado, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, freediving, grouper, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, mahi mahi, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, panga, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, robalo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra mackeral, snook, spearfishing, sportfishing packages, squid, tailhunter, tailhunter international, triple tail, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged bahia de los muertos, bahia de los suenos, baja, Baja sur, bonito, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dorado, east cape, el sargento, espirito, Espirito Santo Island, fish, fishing, fishing blog, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing trips, fishing video, flyfishing, freediving, holidays, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, mahi mahi, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra, snapper, spearfishing, squid, tailhunter international, triple tail, tuna, vacations, wahoo, yellowtail on August 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

Yes, Ziggy! You finally made the first photo in the fishing report! Our amigo, Ziggy Haspod from Santa Barbara spanked the nice dorado all week fishing with Captain Boli and our La Paz fleet with limits every day including this sweet bull dorado.

Best wahoo season in my memory in years! There’s still wahoo on the high spots around Cerralvo Island. Darryl and Kathy Pietek pose with Captain Armando and one of 2 skinnies they hooked. They lost another one that busted the Rapala off. The Pieteks are from Loma Rica CA.

Sometimes, when you don’t try so hard, good things come to you! Mario Salazar from the Los Angeles area was on a billfish frenzy the 3 days he fished with our Las Arenas fleet. I think the final count was 8 marlin and sailfish in 3 days. I lost count. He was fishing with our Captain Archangel with our Tailhunter Fleet. This was a release so you get the great photo of him fighting the fish! Most of the billfish we’re hooking these days are all getting released.

Richard Sellers came to visit us all the way from Australia to do some freediving and spearfishing. It started slow but by his last day he said, he had dorado and marlin swimming around him like he had never seen before. He did get this nice bull dorado and also another “mystery fish” none of us had ever seen before. Scroll down to the last photo in the report!

Big smile from Steve Heune from Modesto CA was on his first fishing trip with us. As per my report this week, his first day, he fished with our Las Arenas fleet and they ran into one of those days when the fish were lockjawed. We switched them for their 2nd day to fish with our La Paz fleet and they stuffed the fish box with a limit of dorado!

Might be my favorite photo of the week. It’s all about smiles. Dane Fuller pulling on his first marlin ever. Dane’s from Childress, Texas and was on his first trip to La Paz where he got his first marlin, and first dorado…and biggest dorado. Just a great Kodak moment in Baja. It’s not about fish in the box, it’s about smiles on the face and good times with amigos.

One of our favorites guys…Donnie “Coach” Rea from Ventura CA always does well fishing with us. He’s showing off another big bull he got this week fishing with our Captain Marcos and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

That’s alot of mahi! A thirty-pound-class dorado for Mike Figley from Arizona that he caught north of La Paz. There’s some nice big bulls around right now.

Lance Heune from Modesto CA holds the gaff on a day when he put a nice limit of dorado on the boat in short order fishing north of La Paz around Espirito Santo Island.

Late breaking news…just as I was putting together the fishing report Sunday night, our pangas hit giant Humboldt squid off Las Arenas. They made great bait for the dorado (and great eating!) and usually means that if they stay around, often the tuna rise up out’ve the trenches and follow them up! Hope they stick around. Captain Archangel hangs one of the big squirmers here!

Our Australian amigo, Richard Sellers (photo above with the dorado) shot this while spearfishing. He called it a “triple tail” but none of my captains or anyone we knew had ever seen one. In almost 30 years fishing and diving here in Baja, I’d never seen one or heard of one so we ran to the books and internet. There are very few mentions of photos of them in Baja but folks from the Atlantic and Caribbean know all about them where they are much more common and, in Australia, of course! At first, I thought I knew what it is. But, it looked like a cross mutant between a pargo and cabrilla! The triple tail was good eating!

LAS ARENAS FISHING PICKY BUT OUR LA PAZ BOATS FIND GOOD ACTION ALL WEEK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 28 to Aug. 4, 2013

It was a pretty decent week of fishing. Not the greatest, but not bad either. Let me explain…

I have to say that I’m thankful we have our two fleets with one of them in La Paz and one of them at Las Arenas. It gives our clients some choices about where to fish and we can also move them if necessary to get them the best conditions or to find fish.

As sometimes happens, weather or fishing dictates that sometimes one side will be better than the other. It happens. Normally, this time of year both our fleets are bendo and deep into all manners of fish.

However this past week, Las Arenas really sorta dropped off the fishing map. Not one was it rougher from some long distance storms to the south that brought in some chop and swell, but there was a lack of bait. Additionally, the better fishing was either outside at the buoys or all the way out at the 88 spot.

One the good side, the buoys held some decent dorado and the 88 produced more of those monster bull dorado and a number of hooks ups on striped marlin, sailfish and even a few big blues (all billfish either released or broke off). But that’s a long way to run and if it was one of those bumpy days and you were one of the pangas that scratched, it’s a long long day.

Las Arenas just wasn’t happening. The captains worked hard and busted humps looking for fish or trolling, but it was just one of those weeks.

But, like I said, thankfully, we had our La Paz fleet. So, folks would try a day or two at Las Arenas then we’d have them switch over to our La Paz fleet.

And everyone got fish! Limits or near limits of dorado from punk-sized schoolies to 30-plus pound bull mahi as well as some stripers and sailfish and even a few sharks hooked up. The fish were well north so it was a bit of a ride and the bite was often late…well past 1 p.m. So, often I had to tell our clients, just be patient and let the captain fish. Don’t jump the gun. Sure enough…the late bite came in and there would be the feeding frenzy!

Sometimes our pangas weren’t coming back until 4 or 5 p.m., but that’s because our captains were working it hard. We go out at 6 a.m. often several hours before the other fleets and my guys are willing to stay the extra hours to wait for the bite when other fleets are coming back at 1:30 or 2 p.m. It made a difference and all of our clients this week still went home with full ice chests!

Bait as tough for our La Paz fleet as well, but going out extra early, we’re able to jig up some mackerel and caballitos then go look for some sardines. Then go hook a few small bonito. By the time you hit the fishing grounds, you’ve got 2 or 3 different types of bait aboard and gives you an edge. Add in some trolling and now you’re cooking with gas! But, as I said, we just had to tell folks “be patient.” Our captains are all working hard to find the fish. And we found them. It was just later than normal!

MORE ON MEXICAN FISHING LICENSES

A few weeks ago, we started telling you about the big SNAFU with Mexico not printing out enough fishing licenses for the whole country. Big Oops! They’re trying to find a KINKO’s to handle it, but in the meantime, everyone is scrambling.

Baja still does not have any printed fishing licenses to sell. They keep telling us “in a few weeks” but we’ve been hearing that for awhile. In the meantime, the only way to have fishing licenses is still to purchase them online or find a tackle store there in the U.S. that sells them over-the-counter or online (some will mail them to you). However, for southern Baja, they now have their own website to sell them that works pretty well. Here’s the link:

Just remember that the amounts are in pesos so divide the number by about 11 or 12 and you won’t have a heart attack!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website:

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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

https://www2.ebajacalifornia.gob.mx/Pesca/

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 21-28, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dog tooth snapper, dorado, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, freediving, grouper, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, panga, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, robalo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra mackeral, snook, spearfishing, sportfishing packages, squid, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged amberjack, bahia de los muertos, bahia de los suenos, baja, billfish, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dog tooth snapper, dorado, east cape, el sargento, Espirito Santo Island, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing video, flyfishing, freediving, holidays, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, live bait, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra, spearfishing, sportfishing, tackle tips, tailhunter international, trips, tuna, vacations, wahoo, yellowtail on July 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It was a banner week for wahoo fishing this past week as we are in one of the best wahoo seasons in recent years. Kirk Rose and son Ben with Captain Armando just had one day of fishing to squeeze in with us and had never fished the area before and came up with the mega hat trick of three trophy wahoo fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet off Cerralvo Island

On vacation from college at St. John’s University in New York, Marcos Holguin had two days of double wahoo fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

Mike Figley spent the week with us fishing 4 days with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. This was his 2nd trip with us and I had just been telling him how strong tuna can be. He goes out the next day and tangles with this nice yellowfin that kept him bent for almost 90 minutes! He’s a believer now. He also got some great dorado fishing in! Mike’s from Arizona.

Jorge Romero, our La Paz amigo, only had 2 hours to get in some fishing so he jumped on one of our pangas and between 9 and 11 a.m. he put 3 nice bull dorado in the box fishing north of La Paz. He was trolling some small hoochies behind the boat because he left so late there was no more live bait left.

This trio had some fun! Tom Heaslet from Oregon along with Kathy and Darryl Pietak from the San Francisco Bay area, got 2 nice wahoo off Cerralvo Island. They also fished 2 days with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and plugged the panga with dorado each day.

Dan Fuller from Childress, Texas, had a great week with us for his first visit with Tailhunters. He got his first dorado. He got his biggest dorado. He got his first billfish! He’s here with big smiles…a big bull dorado…and Captain Rogelio from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

This might be my favorite photo of the week. Big smiles from Bob and his son Bo Heinke from the Los Angeles area showing off big bull dorado on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

Steve Holguin visits us each year but missed last year. He made up for it with two days of nice wahoo like this one from his first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

These two amigos had 4 of the best days fishing…they got dorado, sailfish, marlin and several other species. Rex Smith from Arizona and Mike Sontag from N. Carolina had not shortage of big bull dorado like these two on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos.

Group shot! Mike Figley, Bo Cullwell and Dane Fuller fished four days and on their fourth day had one of those wild banner dorado days that was a complete frenzy and will make for good story-telling filling 3 pangas with limits in short order and multiple hook-ups. They’re starting to unload one of the pangas here on the beach at Balandra Bay.

SLOW START PICKS UP STEAM AS FULL MOON RECEDES

La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report For Week of July 21-28, 2013

The week started slow…picked up some steam…then sort of evened out as the week went on. It took us a bit to recover from last week’s full moon with sporadic fishing, but some good catches of billfish for both our Tailhunter La Paz and Tailhunter Las Arenas fleets as well as some big dorado and even a few nice spots of 20-50 pound tuna that showed up north of La Paz. As with previous weeks, although there might not have been a lot of fish, the quality of the fish gave many of our anglers personal bests in terms of their biggest fish ever caught or, for many, their first billfish caught and released. It still wasn’t spectacular good fishing.

Then, the week suddenly turned on a switch and boom! We had dorado going nuts for our La Paz boats where it was virtually one-stop shopping once the spots were located and dorado came crashing to the pangas with multiple hook-ups and our captains plugging the pangas within an hour of frenzied fishing and tired anglers coming back with frayed lines and big smiles plus ice chests full of fillets!

As well, we had a big-time flurry of wahoo and billfish late in the week for our Las Arenas fleets as well with some of our pangas getting 1-3 wahoo hookups per day and just as many sailfish or marlin. Overall, the fishing for our La Paz fleet was better for sheer numbers while our Las Arenas fleet produced the trophy fish.

Some fishing suggestions if you’re headed down:

Bait has been hit or miss lately. We’re doing a little more trolling than we’re used to. Our folks are doing fine with what we have and use down here, in fact, most clients bring absolutely nothing with them. However, if you’re coming down and want to fine-tune things a bit, I would suggest:

Some small trolling feathers. Not many. Surely two…a light one and a dark one with at least 60-80 pound leader
Little plastic “hoochie” skirts have been on fire. We use them to sometimes catch bonito for bait, but the bigger dorado and tuna have really shown a liking for them the last two weeks
If the tuna are around, plain unpainted cedar plugs have resulted in some nice tuna catches as was as enticing some of the larger dorado and another plus is that the bonito don’t seem to like them
If wahoo are around or you want to chase them, Yo-Zuri Magnum lures or Rapala Magnum CD’s in black/purple or black/silver/white have been hot. If you can or know how or can get your tackle store to do it, wire them up and take the treble hooks off and replace with single Siwash hook
Hook sizes for the varying types of bait we are using…#1, 1/0, 3/0 and 5/0 hooks. Not circle hooks. “J” style hooks
Flurocarbon leader in 30, 40 and 60 pound test. No spectra

FISHING LICENSES

The Mexican government at CONAPESCA keeps telling us, “maybe in a few weeks” they will have printed fishing licenses again. I guess that will happen when it happens. However, for the foreseeable few weeks, the only way to get your fishing licenses to fish down here is to purchase them online before you come down. The government did not print enough licenses for the year for the whole of Mexico so until the situation is remedied, you must purchase fishing licenses online.

Here is the link:

Click the American flag and it will be in English
You want to purchase the fishing license for the “FEDERAL ZONE.”
Do not be alarmed at the price…it’s in pesos!!! So just divide by 11 or 12 and that’s the rate in dollars and it will show up on your credit card statement in dollars.
If it’s slow or doesn’t work at first, try again later. With this announcement, everyone in the whole of Mexico has to purchase their licenses online.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website:

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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 14-21, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dog tooth snapper, dorado, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, freediving, grouper, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, panga, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, robalo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra mackeral, snook, spearfishing, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged 88, amberjack, bahia de los muertos, bahia de los suenos, baja, bay of dreams, billfish, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dorado, el bajo, el sargento, Espirito Santo Island, fish, fishing, fishing guides, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing trips, fishing vacations, fishing video, flyfishing, free diving, holidays, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, la paz, la paz hotels, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, light tackle fishing, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra, spearfishing, sportfishing, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin, yellowtail on July 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Nice way to start out a trip! All the way from North Carolina, Mike Sontag, visits us each year, but had an incredible week fishing with us starting right off the bat with several of these huge bull dorado that were all in the 40-50 pound class outside of Cerralvo Island.

Rex Smith has been an amigo of Tailhunters for years and has caught pretty much everything in our waters, but wahoo always eluded him until this past week when he put the wood to this nice ‘hoo off the south end of Cerralvo Island in the background. Rex is from Arizona.

Hard to find someone more fun than Alison Nagatani. It was a little rough out of Las Arenas their first day fishing but she was still got this nice bull dorado…her largest ever. Shortly after this, she accidentally fell in the water and came up laughing. She got her first billfish this week as well.

First-timer from Washington State, Colleen Russ, had a great week of fishing with big dorado and quite a few billfish like this one posed with Captain Victor from the Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. This one could not be revived and was donated. Colleen was just hoping to catch “one big fish” during the week!

From Delano CA, John Wessner was game. Even fishing with a recovering broken wrist, he did great on big dorado and billfish this week. He’s shown here with one he got north of La Paz fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

For weeks we’ve seen signs of big tuna off Cerralvo Island although hooking them has been difficult. David Vicino from Cancun MX, didn’t wait for the to come up…he went down and speared this big 180 pound yellowfin! Thanks to Tim Hatler, our amigo at Palapas Ventana for the photo. Yes…the beasts are there! For those of you not familiar with spearfishing in our waters, all of it is done by freediving…no tanks allowed. All breath-holding in whatever you can carry in your lungs!

On a well-deserved break from the Air Force, Pat Russ will be heading to officer’s candidate school when he gets back to Washington but he came down for 10 days of fishing and diving and poses with another colorful bull dorado and big grins!

Jess Escobedo from Los Angeles had never been salt-water fishing. He had never even taken a vacation in his whole life. So, it was great to have him visit Tailhunter this past week here in La Paz where he got his first dorado and billfish like this one caught near Espirito Santo Island. Check the video clip below of Jess fighting his first marlin!

Clarence Foster and his big hat pose with Allen Burgess and one of their big bulls on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. Both of our amigos are from Kansas and spent a week fishing with us.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

From our amigo, Charles Belnavis, who owns Kelp Fishing Clothing and Shogun Tatoo in Pasadena CA (he’s the best of the best for inking all of us up in the fishing industry!) http://shoguntattoo.com/

He shared this fun clip of himsel and Jess Escobedo (pictured above) getting lit up by a nice billfish! At one point, there’s a double hook-up going! Turn up the sound! This is some fun video and not very long!

BIG DORADO BILLFISH

TUNA HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-21, 2013

The week had some highs and lows, but overall, many more high spots than low spots with a solid week of fishing. We even had a little rain come in on us, but it was mostly just a little bump in the overall bite.

Again, it was a big of big fish mostly. It’s been like that the last few weeks. It’s almost like all the fish ate steroids or something. The dorado, especially for our Las Arenas fleet tended to be 30 pound line busters or bigger. It was not unusual to see fish on the beach that bottomed out our 50-pound scale! That fills up an ice chest really fast with a fillet from even a single fish. I had one panga go out and on it’s first day get 6 fish that were all around 50 pounds and they still had 3 more days to fish!

But, the size of some of these fish has been quite a story. However, the showing of billfish has also been remarkable. I’ve not seen this many marlin in our waters in many years. As one of our anglers this week said, “I had 4…5…6 billfish swimming around the boat all the time when I’m trying to catch dorado. It was really funny because we would move the boat away and they would either swim after us or would show up again! They were like pigeons waiting to be fed. My first day, I caught and released three and that was enough!”

Most of the billfish, whether marlin or sailfish, fortunately are being released by the anglers so that’s been very gratifying. Other times, the anglers go through great effort trying to revive tired fish and it’s only the rare billfish that’s being kept. Mostly because there was no other option.

However, one fish that is NOT getting released is the wahoo. Like the marlin, the wahoo bite has been far better than we have ever seen in years. The wahoo are mostly lurking on the usual high spots around Cerralvo Island and trolling early with big lures has been the most effective. The biggest hinderance can sometimes be that there’s far too much traffic out there with boats zig zagging all over the spots. But…ni modo…that’s just the way it is when the bite is hot…especially for wahoo! So, the earlier you get to the spots the better the chances!

Also, we got into several nice spots of yellowfin tuna again this week. Like last week, they popped up for a few days and went crazy then moved off, but we had spots of tuna pop up for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets which was a real welcome surprise. Nothing big, but fun 10-20 pound footballs are a hoot good time. We saw some bigger 100+ pound guys moving through the areas real fast as well, but no one could get on them, but we know they are there!

Our biggest problem has been the lack of sardines for bait. We’re going through one of those times again when sardines are hard to get. But, at least for us, we’re able to jig up larger baits like mackerel, cocineros, caballitos, zebra fish, mullet and ladyfish! That might also have something to do with why we’re getting mostly big fish! It takes a big fish to eat a big bait!

If you’re coming down, a few tips…

1. If you’re bringing stuff, this is one of the few times when I’d recommend bringing a few feathers. All you need are two. A dark one and a light-colored one Also, if the tuna are around, the plain wooden cedar plugs have been deadly and the bonito tend to leave them alone.

2. Bring a sabiki or lucky Joe rig with about a 4 oz torpedo sinker

3. I wouldn’t be out there fishing with anything less than 40 pound test, although, if you’re a light tackle fan like many of our anglers, at least use 40 pound test leader or higher

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website:

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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 7-14, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dog tooth snapper, dorado, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, grouper, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, panga, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, robalo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra mackeral, snook, sportfishing packages, squid, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged amberjack, bahia, bahia de los suenos, baja, Baja sur, billfish, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dorado, el sargento, espirto santo island, fish, fishing, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing trips, fishing video, flyfishing, fubar cantina, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, live bait, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, muertos bay, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, snapper, sportfishing, sportfishing packages, tailhunter international, tailhunter restaurant, tours, tuna, vacations, wahoo, yellowtail on July 14, 2013| 2 Comments »

We were worried that fishing would be slow after the storm passed, but fishing jumped right back in. Showing off a day’s catch with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, George Higi, Will Klem, George Higi III and Will Klem Sr. strike a great pose with their dorado!

tuna dorad marlin steve robert 7-13 tags

Yes! Those are yellowfin tuna on the sand here with Steve Moratto and Rob Barton from Santa Rosa CA who squeezed in one-day of fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and had a super day with yellowfin tuna, dorado and a striped marlin that they tried to revive but were unsuccessful. The tuna popped up and were crashing for several days with all fish being about 10-20 pounders. It’s been awhile since the tuna have been this thick.

Allen Clarence Josh dorado big tags 7-13

I can’t get a straight answer from my Kansas amigos as to who actually caught this fish, but it’s a beauty. Allen, Clarence and Josh all posed with it and did some pretty good fishing over the week they were here.

From Diamond Bar CA, Bill Hsu has been a Tailhunter amigo for many years. But, everytime he comes down everyone else catches the wahoo except him. He made up for it with this one he caught with Captain Archangel off the south end of Cerralvo Island and also had another nice fish come unbuttoned.

“Happy Girl!” Becky Csutoras had the best fishing trip ever with big dorado and several marlin releases. Becky is an avid hunter and fisherperson and lives near Sacramento. Captain Joel from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet helps out!

Unfortunately, because of the storm, long-time Tailhunter amigo, Sam Sybesma, only got to fish one day, but made the most of it with some great dorado fishing out’ve La Paz. He was fishing with Jeff Klassen. Their video with Captain Chito is below all this week’s photos. Check it out!

He had the knack this past week for the big fish. Will Klem from El Segundo posted up a big bull dorado with Captain Armando from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet caught at the buoys.

He’s always got the big smile for his photos. Allen Burgess from Kansas caught and released this nice roosterfish while Captain Jorge drove the panga. They were fishing near the Arenas lighthouse.

Esteban Romero does his best vaquero cowboy look while standing with a nice bull dorado. Esteban is getting really good at getting into the fishing reports lately with some great fish. Several years ago, he didn’t even like fishing! Andale, amigo!

The photo isn’t very clear, but this is no doubt a big wahoo caught in the dim light of the early sunrise near Cerralvo Island by Stan Yung who was fishing with Captain Archangel. They hooked 3 wahoo this day but one got away.

dorado mini grande jimmy csutoras tags 7-13

Jimmy Csutoras and Captain Joel show off another of Jimmy’s big dorado for the week.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Jeff Klassen fishing with Sam Sybesma and Tailhunters’ Captain Chito, got this clip of them sticking a big bull:

STORM PASSES AND FISHING RECOVERS NICELY WITH BILLS DORADO WAHOO & TUNA!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 7-14, 2014

The week started nervously as we waited to see what Hurricane Erick would do and it’s aftermath. Up to then, fishing had been on the upswing and just our luck, Hurricane Erick sneaks up on us! Grrrr…

Well, as it turned out, the storm blow off the west side of of Baja and into the Pacific. Some of the southern areas got some rain and winds, but for the most part, here in La Paz, all we got were some clouds. However, the storm did send some really big swells and chop our way and in one of the rare occasions, we canceled one day of fishing.

It’s rare and we could have fished. But, we COULD have fished, but most of the fishermen had extra days to make up the day so there was no sense in sending out folks to be uncomfortable and get bounced around! It’s supposed to be fun right? And if they weren’t going to catch much fish, it seemed more logical to tell folks to hang at the pool and soak up some sunshine instead. So, that’s what everyone did.

But, the downside to that is we never know how it’s going to be AFTER a storm. I am always worried that the waters can be turned over and dirty or cold water moves in or the fish are just plain skittish!

Well, as it turned out, canceling the day was a good move!

The fish came back strong right out of the chute! We got right back into a pretty solid dorado bite for our Las Arenas and La Paz fleet with some nice 30-40 pound fish. La Paz had the better dorado bite out of the two areas with some nice patches of bull dorado. But, there were some hot spots out at the 88 east of Cerralvo and at the shark buoys off Las Arenas for the nicer bulls.

But, there were some great surprises…

Wahoo popped up on the south end of Cerralvo and we had some biters each day. Dark Rapalas and Yo-Zuris trolled over the high spots were the ticket but also strangely mackerel-colored patterns also worked.

Additionally, hey…we finally got tuna!!! Football tuna in the 10-20 pound class made for some great action not too far offshore Punta Perrico and Cerralvo Island. Some pangas took limits of the flashing footballs in short order. Several of our anglers said that slow trolling Cedar Plugs and dark feathers resulted in instant hook-ups. Hopefully, this bite is just the vanguard of us finally getting into a lengthy tuna bite as we didn’t have any tuna to speak-of, last season! Also, maybe the larger models will also show up!

The other fun even was the billfish. As one of our guys told me, “Jonathan, I’ve never seen anything like it! There were sailfish and marlin literally JUMPING out of the water around the panga!” There were several days here this past week where every one of our pangas hooked at least one billfish but somedays where some of the boats hooked 2-4 billfish! Most of the billfish were 60-120 pounds with some larger and almost all of them were released!

The fish are not very far offshore and I would recommend that anyone coming down bring some marlin feathers. One color that seems really hot is a green and yellow that looks like a small baby dorado because there’s a ton of baby dorado in the waters…little itty-bitty 10-inch dorado that are like candy for some of the larger fish and even the monster dorado are also chasing the babies! Food is food, I guess! But, if you want to troll, bring 2 dark colored feathers and 2 light colored lures.

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website:

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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 1-7, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dog tooth snapper, dorado, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, panga, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, robalo, roosterfish, sea of cortez, sierra mackeral, snook, sportfishing packages, squid, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged ambjerjack, bahia de los muertos, bahia de los suenos, baja, Baja sur, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dog tooth snapper, dorado, el sargento, Espirito Santo Island, fish fishing, fishing outfitter, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing video, flyfishing, holidays, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, live bait, Mexican, Mexico, muertos bay, packages, panga, pargo, pompano, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, spearfishing, squid, striped marlin, tailhunter international, tours, tuna, vacation, wahoo, yellowfin, yellowtail on July 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

dorado becky and jimmy csutoras tags 7-13

She called it her “best fishing day ever!” Rebecca Csutoras is an avid hunter and angler and was on her 2nd trip with us and dad, Jimmy Csutoras, both from the Sacramento Area. She spent the week fishing with us, but on this particular day landed a box load of big bull dorado and also released two striped marlin. It’s been a much better week of fishing this week than last.

Oh the joy! George Higi III, from the San Diego CA area, man’s-up with a double lift of a big bull dorado and his first-ever wahoo taken near Cerralvo Island. George “grand slammed” in that he got 3 trophy game fish…the wahoo…the dorado…and also a striped marlin. This was his first time fishing with Tailhunters.

He came to get a roosterfish so he came to the “roosterfish capital of the world.” Bill Lewis from San Diego CA shows off a gorgeous pez gallo with Captain Pancho taken near Las Arenas. This fish was released.

Rick Hosmer and Randy Calvert had a week full of giant dorado averaging 40-50 pounds like the ones here with a chunky yellowfin tuna tossed in for variety. Rick said, “there’s some spots of 100-pound tuna out there at the 88 bank.” He’s with Captain Mundo here on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

They only had 1 day to fish having traveled from South Africa with just a brief stop in La Paz. So, Kris and Jo Biddle made the best of it with two trophy bull dorado which they brought to our Tailhunter Restaurant for a big cook-out. This was their first time fishing…ever!

It seem the wahoo are back! We had several nice hook-ups this week south of Cerralvo Island like this one held up by our amigo, Esteban Ramiro, who took this on a dark Rapala slow trolled off the bank.

Doing it right! Not only was this her first marlin, but Becky Csutoras got it back in the water and released this fish as well with the help of Captain Joel. They got this striper north of La Paz. She also got some nice bull dorado (see photo above). Dad released his first marlin as well. See the photo below!

Jimmy Csutoras from the Sacramento area was fishing with his daughter, Rebecca, and Captain Joel and both of them got striped marlin this day (see photo above). Jimmy and Rebecca both released their marlin, and during the week also released their 3rd marlin to swim and fight another day. This as Jimmy’s first marlin.

Family shot of the Whittlesey boys! Norm Whittlesey with grandsons, Daniel and David, all from Washington areas. They didn’t get alot of fish, but made up for it with all nice quality bull mahi.

Chuck Banning, like so many others, wanted his first roosterfish and got it done with Captain Adolfo and this great-looking rooster he caught near the Las Arenas light house and released. Chuck is from the San Diego area.

Not all battles end so well! Parting shot with Rick Hosmer who battled big dorado all week, but this one got him back by busting the tip off his new Shimano stick.

BIG FISH MORE VARIETY AS WEEK FISHING GETS BACK ON TRACK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-7, 2013

The week started somewhat shaky and with a lot of trepidation given how erratic fishing was last week with wind, cold water, an offshore storm and a historic full moon. But this, week ended up on a very optimistic note.

It seemed that with each day, conditions got better. Water got bluer. Waters got warmer. More bait areas started to show up. More sargasso weeds started to gather in the channels. Waters calmed down and the chop and swell mellowed out.

And sure enough…the fish decided to play. Not full chargers but we’ve had a very good week of fishing.

The dorado bite that has been so lacking hopefully turned a corner. Again, not many small or medium fish. Almost 90 percent of the fish were trophy 30-50 pound bulls. I’m not exaggerating. Several times we put all the fish on the beach on scales and NOTHING that came back was UNDER 40 pounds! These were all huge world-class mahi with those big heads and attitudes when hooked. I would say probably early in the week, most anglers weren’t used to the big boys and we lost 50% of the fish!

However as the week went on, we got better at it. Maybe 75% of the fish were making it to the boat. Again, not a lot of fish, but when you put 2-4 huge bulls in the boat and maybe lose another 2 or 3…that’s a helluva day of exhausting fishing.

Add to that the appearance of more marlin and sailfish to spice things up as well as flurries of 20-50 pound tuna and then roosters along the beach and for most folks that meant some tired arms and full ice chests! The marlin were almost all released and averaged about 100 pounds but we also hooked a few blues that were lost on light tackle. Roosters were very repectable 40-50 pounders on the high side and we also hooked a few 30-50 pound wahoo as well.

Hopefully, thing will only improve!

That’s our story. Hope you had a great 4th of July weekend!

P.S. At the time I’m writing this, we’re watching to see if Hurricane Erick will do anything. Probably nothing to us, but it might push up some big swells and chop from down south

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website:

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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of June 23-30, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dog tooth snapper, dorado, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, grouper, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, panga, pargo, pompano, roosterfish, sea of cortez, sierra mackeral, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged amberjack, bahia de los muertos, bahia de los suenos, baja, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dog-tooth, dorado, el sargento, Espirito Santo Island, family, fish, fishing, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing trips, fishing video, flyfishing, holidays, hotels, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, live bait, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, pompano, roosterfish, roosters, sailfish, scuba, sea of cortez, sierra, snapper, snorkeling, spearfishing, spinning gear, tackle, tailhunter international, tours, tuna, vacations, yellowtail on June 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

He looks a little tired for good reason! Sherman McDonell from Rock Springs, Wyoming had an epic week of fishing even tho’ fishing was way off. It’s hard to argue with big fish like this dorado and with Captain Armando and armed with a spinning rod and reel and 17-30 pound test, he went hand-to-hand with big dorado and roosters fighting fish for long battles of 30 minutes to over an hour and coming back a happy bloody mess each day and a big grin! I don’t think he got a single fish under 45 pounds all week. He calls La Paz his “happy place.” Big grins from Captain Armando.

Young Dan Whittlesey from Washington just graduated from high school and came down with dad and grandpa. He toughed-out a really rough week of scattered fishing but did get this incredible bull dorado with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and Captain Victor holding up the tail.

From San Diego, Cole Chavira has been fishing our waters several times a year every single year since he was about 6 years old. He usually outfishes everyone around him and has been on these pages a zillion times! No exception here with this big rooster he caught and released off Las Arenas lighthouse.

It’s tough when you only have two hands and two big floppy heavy bull dorado, but Captain Armando helps Shelly McDonell with her catch after an epic big fish day at Las Arenas where she battled each of these fish on light tackle and spinning gear almost 2 hours each. Shelly rocks. She hunts and she fishes like crazy.

It’s always good when first-timers do well and even moreso when fishing is not that good like it was this past week. But Luke Brownlee from Green River, Wyoming put the wood to several big-time bull dorado like this one and the help of Captain Jorge from our Tailhunter fleet at Las Arenas.

When you come all the way from S. Africa and you have never ever been fishing, you make a great funny face when you land the biggest and first fish of your life like Jo Biddle holding a trophy dorado on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos! Great shot!

Vegas in the house! Sandie Herrera really wanted a rooster and got hers here fishing off Las Arenas with Captain Pancho. The fish was released.

Great pose from Mitch Chavira, our San Diego amigo who was fishing north of La Paz when he stuck this dorado and got the great shot. There weren’t alot of fish this week and you really had to work it, but the fish that were hooked were generally all quality slugs!

Ron Burgess is our amigo who released that potential world record roosterfish last week. He fished with us the whole week and just was on fire! He also got his big dog-tooth snapper as well!

Norm Whittlesey has been fishing with us for many years. He hung in all week when fishing was really erratic but did manage this super dorado fishing with Captain Victor and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Check out the colors! I think I want to frame this photo!

Jason Takayoshi was down on his first trip with us. His experience was typical of how our fishing has been this past week. His first day fishing out’ve Las Arenas, they got goosed-egged. Totally skunked. Not even a bite! And Jason is an experienced angler! But, he kept up the smiles. Next day..his last chance…he fished with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and ended up high-boat for the fleet with some big dorado as well and amberjack and multiple hook ups including fish on the iron. He’s posing with two of the big dorado here on the beach at Balandra north of La Paz.

Talk about a “gamer.” Kris Brownlee gets the award this week. Wow…rough water and seasick and she still hung in there and was not going to be deterred from fishing and kept smiling the whole time during the whole week! It was her first time to visit us in La Paz and she got some nice fish pulling on her like this hefty jack crevalle she caught and released with Captain Jorge.

Marie McClelland from Park City UT was another of our visitors on her first trip fishing with us and outfished lots of the regulars! She took this bull dorado north of La Paz fishing with Captain Alfredo.

Here’s a big boy rooster! Darryl Herrera and Captain Pancho hold up the kind of rooster that made our area famous! They caught this guy just off the beach at Las Arenas (you can see the sand in the background) and released it to fight another day. Darryl is from Las Vegas.

Charlie Detrick came down to see us from Washington and although he didn’t fare well his first day, he smoked the rods on some nice dorado the 2nd day like this sweet slug of a dorado he’s holding on the beach at Balandra!

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Almost world-record rooster…Here’s a really well-produced video clip of Ron Burgess’ roosterfish he caught last week that might have been a new IGFA record. We will never know because he sportingly released it to fight another day! It’s not a long clip and well worth watching! Dave Lester, his amigo did a great job on it!

ERRATIC WEEK OF FISHING IS TOUGHEST OF SEASON

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 23-30, 2013

This past week might have been the toughest fishing week of the season. It was a difficult week on so many levels with erratic fishing and conditions that just seemed to make no sense.

We can only attribute it to a collision of the “perfect storm” of variables that all came crashing in on us…

1. Colder than normal waters brought on by late season winds turning waters murky and green. Sometimes the winds almost like “winter winds” and the waters are so green you can’t see through it. On the surface the water can be 80 degrees, but a few feet down it’s 65! We can often see fish all over, but they are just not interested in eating!

2. The “super moon.” Normally, the full moon is not a big concern for us. But, this past week, they billed it as the “SUPER MOON.” It was the largest, biggest, fullest full moon of several years. Resultingly we had incredibly low tides and strong currents. Combined with everything else, it hit us hard.

3. Hurricane COSME…it didn’t hit us and fortunately veered hundreds of miles off-shore. However, it did bring some big swell and waves from the south as well as some evening showers. This contributed to rough water conditions for a few days as well as adding more muck to the over-turned ocean that was already in bad shape.

So…that was it in a nutshell.

On a more pragmatic level, it meant lots of our amigos had some disappointing days fishing. Rough waters and no fish. Flat seas and green water. Seeing fish that didn’t want to bite. Unusual long runs to find blue water. YIKES!!!

This is the time of year when we should be and normally are slamming fish. Instead we were scrambling to find good water and fish that were interested in coming to the party.

On the upside, the fish were were hooking were BIG! Take a look at the photos! We didn’t catch many fish, but the fish were beasts! Big roosters and even bigger dorado were the rule rather than the exception. Roosters were routinely 30-50 pounds. Dorado…wow…few of them were SMALLER than 40 pounds. There were a few days where there wasn’t a dorado smaller than 45 pounds on the beach.

That created some problems of it’s own. There’s a reason fish get BIG! That’s because they are smart and tough. If we had CAUGHT as many fish as we hooked it would have surely been a better week. I mean, hey…when you come down and the biggest fish you might have caught in your life is a bass or a steelhead or a rainbow trout and suddenly you’re hooked up to the biggest fish of your life and you’re sweating and you’re now on a fish for 30 minutes…then 45 minutes…then an hour or more…in the hot sun…and you pull a little too hard…or your button down the drag…or you backlash the reel…

A 40 or 50-pound fish is not twice as strong as a 20 pound fish. It’s EXPONENTIALLY stronger! It’s a beast that EATS 20-pound fish for breakfast and takes it personally against you that you stuck a hook in his mouth! They are mean and they are pissed off and they growl. It’s not like they’re gonna let you you just pull them into the boat!

The fish is just asking to get lost!!!

Even many of our most veteran anglers were losing these big fish. And after you fight a fish that long, it’s often too late and you’ve drifted too far to find another hook-up. You get one chance at a huge fish and if that opportunity is lost…whether by angler error or simple bad luck…that’s it! You come back with nothing! We had folks fishing 1, 2, 3 days in a row with that kind of luck. Hooking several fish a day and losing the fish. Not much can be said. That’s just the way fishing was this past week.

The majority of the fish were big dorado and roosterfish, but we did have some amberjack, good numbers of jack crevalle, some marlin and sailfish (lost) and surprisingly a number of sharks pop up (and off!). Some of our catch might also have been a function of the bait we were using. Because of the conditions, bait did become a problem…especially finding sardines along the shallows. So, we used mackerel, ladyfish, small bonito, ballyhoo, small tuna, mullet and zebra fish as bait which were all effective.

Hopefully, better things this coming week even as you are reading this! As I write , conditions seem to be improving!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website:

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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueV0ov9mAxY

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of June 17-23, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dog tooth snapper, dorado, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, grouper, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, panga, pargo, pompano, roosterfish, sea of cortez, sierra mackeral, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged amberjack, bahia de los muertos, bahia de los suenos, baja, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dog tooth snapper, dorado, el sargento, Espirito Santo Island, fish, fishing, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing trips, fishing updates, fishing video, grouper, holidays, IGFA, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, live bait, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of corrtez, sierra, tailhunter international, vacations, wahoo, world records, yellowfin, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail on June 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

We will never know! Salute to Ron Burgess of Temecula CA. This fish might have been a new world record roosterfish! But he released this fish knowing it was a big boy plus he and his amigos released 28 other huge roosters! This fish might have broken the IGFA record 114 pounder set in 1960. Estimated weight by captains were 120-140 pounds. It took at least 45 minutes on 40 pound test and three guys to lift it in the panga and 3 to release it where it swam away “still pissed off!”

Another view of the big rooster just put in the boat. There were few photos as they wanted to get the fish back into the water as quickly as possible. Plus Ron couldn’t hold the massive fish up high enough to photo! Captain Loreto Green helps out. The fish was caught just off Punta Perico in shallow water using a big ladyfish for bait. Full story below.

Love the pose and attitude! She’s had a great vacation catching dorado and wahoo this week, but Taylor Murphey from Lakewood CA show some game with her big bull dorado taken near Cerralvo Island. Uncle Roger holds up the fish with smiles!

Bob Jennessee and Kirt Schlander tags 6-13 dorado-proc

Kurt Schlander lends a hand to his amigo, first timer, Bob Jennessee and another big bull dorado from Las Arenas. Kurt has been with us several times. All the dorado were big this week. Not many, but they were big models!

One signal that the waters are still chillier than normal is that we’re still getting amberjack like this big toad fish that Dave Lester holds up! These are the big cousins to yellowtail. Great eating and can go over 100 pounds. We had one several weeks ago that might have just been short of the 155 pound world record.

“Did I really catch this?” Couldn’t be a cuter photo of our amiga, Jeanine Stenzel, from Nor. Cal who got into several ice sized dorado fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. She’s holding the fish on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. Great colors!

Al Janc was fishing close to shore and got into it with another monster pez gallo roosterfish. I can’t remember a better rooster season than this one . Fish was released.

Mike Whitlow is a professional bass fisherman and specializes in using light tackle everytime he visits us from Washington. Mike got this fish north of La Paz. Fresh out’ve the water, the colors are incredible!

We got some really nice pargo this week like this hefty pargo…dog tooth snapper pulled out’ve the rocks near Las Arenas. Captain Pancho with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet does the honors on the beach.

Lucky sunglasses for Captain Adolfo and Nancy Lerch with another big-time trophy dorado and big smiles. This was one of several.

Ryan and Ed Vander Veer tags dorado 6-13

Father, Ed Vander Veer from Washington and son, Ryan show off a great pair of bull dorado standing in the waters at Balandra Bay having fished north of La Paz where some waters are finally turning blue and sargasso patches are finally producing some dorado like these!

Everyone keeps asking if there’s tuna . Well, no one has really caught any yet this season but this slug 178 pounder was taken this week off the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island by one of the commercial captains. So, I guess there’s at least one tuna out there. However, following days produced nothing. But still exciting!

Our Captain Boli makes a funny face helping first-timer visitor, Jerry Pederson, from Washington with a nice mahi taken near Espirito Santo Island. We’re hopeful that the dorado bite continues to get better . The fish are having a late start this season.

Here’s another trophy mahi that Bob Benjamin caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Bob was visiting us for the first time and has big grins.

Making a great fashion statement…cool hat…cigar…billowing guide shirt! Total GQ! Xavier Lerch has a huge bull mahi dorado he caught with out Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet on one of the days where nothing was smaller than 30 pounds.

Hooray! La Paz finally has direct flights again from Los Angeles! This past week, Aero Mexico started flights from LAX to La Paz and will be flying on Sundays and Thursdays. We have not had direct flights for months!

Usually our amigo, Roger Thompson is a virtual poster child on the Tailhunter fishing report with big fish after big fish, but this is too funny! Everyone keeps asking if there are still yellowtail around. Well…uh…yea…LOL…Roger caught this guy all the way out on the 88! Great parting shot!

VIDEO of the WEEK!

Here is some video footage of our good amigo, Roy Stenzel’s first marlin that he caught this week. It’s great! Roy sent it to me and said, “Excuse me if at the end I squeal like a little girl!” The enthusiasm sure comes through. Proudly, hat’s off…he also released the fish! It’s short and fun. Take a look!

BIG WEEK FOR FEW FISH BUT BIG FISH INCLUDING AN ALMOST WORLD RECORD ROOSTERFISH!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 17-23, 2013

What a week of fishing! In all honesty, it was not a great week of fishing. Rather, it was a week of great fish! So many large fish this week. It was literally quality over quantity. We didn’t get a lot of fish, but the fish we got were really something to see including one fish that could have been a world record but we’ll never know!

The big rooster fish was caught by Ron Burgess of Temecula CA. Ron and his group of 4 fished 5 days and boated 28 rooster fish with nothing smaller than 50 pounds. Many of the fish were 70-90 pounds plus some hefty amberjack and dog tooth snapper. They released every single one of their rooster fish so bravo to them! Just an outstanding trip.

But, Ron’s fish was something to see. Ron battled the huge rooster right off the rocks near Punta Perico next to the famous Las Arenas lighthouse which is arguably part of the “roosterfish capital of the world” which extends down to the East Cape area as well. Las Arenas produced the world record 114-pounder in 1960 and Ron’s fish was estimated by several of our captains at “55-65 kilos” which would have bested the IGFA record by 10-20 pounds!

We will never know! Tailhunters has a certified IGFA scale, but Ron and his guys like true sportsmen released all of their huge rooster fish! Ron fought the fish for “better than 45 minutes” on 40 pound test using an 18-inch ladyfish for live bait. “I was a head shaker the whole time!”

It took three of them to heft the big fish as gently as possible into the panga and they tried to lip-gaff the fish with as little harm to the fish as possible. They got it in the boat; took some quick photos (which is why the photos aren’t that great and also because Ron simply could not lift the fish!) and then it took 3 of them to get it back in the water where it , “swam off strongly still pissed off” said Ron!

Ron said laughingly, “I was exhausted and beat up, but I picked up another bait and tossed it in and figured I’d rest, but another huge rooster grabbed it and I was hooked up again! What an idiot!”

This is the 2nd monster fish from our area that might have been an IGFA consideration as an amberjack estimated at 135 pounds caught by Kevin Takatani was taken just a few week ago but was cut up before it could be weighed. The IGFA record is 155 pounds. We’ll never know! But the legendary waters of La Paz and Las Arenas keep kicking out some super fish!

For the rest of the fishing, it was truthfully, hit-or-miss. Some pangas would do well while others nearby didn’t fare so well. Waters are still very turned over with warm water on the surface, but colder green water not too far below the surface. However, the fish that were caught were generally the larger models. Dorado “averaged” 20 to 40 pounds. Pargo “averaged” 30 pounds. Cabrilla “averaged 10 pounds.” Sure there were smaller fish, but overall, the fish were really bigger or pretty much nothing!

We did have some wahoo and marlin and sailfish hook-ups but overall, the warm water season is really taking it’s time to get going! Normally by this time of year, we are well into the billfish and dorado. Not so this year!

Part of the problem also is that the winds keep jumping up and pushing that cold water up and around and disturbing the water conditions. By now the winds should be long gone. It seems like things are getting better with more blue water showing up but too early to commit at this time.

But, bottom line, we’re having the best roostefish season in my 20 years here! For the last two months, La Paz had certainly been living up to it’s reputation for rooster fish. More fish and bigger roosters than we’ve ever seen!

MEXICO FLUBS FISHING LICENSES!

If you had not already heard, Mexico’s CONAPESCA committed a huge SNAFU! They failed to print out enough fishing licenses for the country and for vendors like Tailhunters to sell to their clients! That’s literally ha-zillions of licenses and lost revenue not to mention another shot-in-the-foot to the sportfishing and tourism industry making one more obstacle to come fishing!

Whereas normally, you could walk into our shop or office or most offices of outfitters in Mexico and purchase the blue tags, now one must go on line and struggle with the CONAPESCA website that often crashes and is highly unreliable. That, of course assumes that you have internet and have a printer so you can print it out! Many people still are not internet savvy or do not have online access or printers!

But, with patience, the system DOES work! Here is the link below plus a video describing how to do it:

You can purchase the online and it is important that you buy them before coming down. Here is the website: https://www2.ebajacalifornia.gob.mx/Pesca/

Click the American flag and it will be in English
You want to purchase the fishing license for the “FEDERAL ZONE.”
Do not be alarmed at the price…it’s in pesos!!! So just divide by 11 or 12 and that’s the rate in dollars and it will show up on your credit card statement in dollars.
If it’s slow or doesn’t work at first, try again later. With this announcement, everyone in southern Baja has to purchase their licenses this way!
Make sure you forward this to everyone in your party who is coming down or purchase the fishing licenses for them.

We found another option to the ridiculous frustration of trying to purchase fishing licenses online through the idiotic CONAPESCA Mexico website that keeps crashing!

My friend Tom Ward has a huge tackle shop in Orange Co. California and he has a stock of Mexican licenses on hand and sells them! He mails them back to your regular mail but processes them the same day he gets the request:

Here’s the info: http://www.thelongfin.com/mexican-fishing-license.html. Their phone is: 714-538-8010.

You can also get them from CONAPESCA San Diego, but must send a cashier’s check. They also process the same day. Here’s the link: http://www.conapescasandiego.org/. Their phone number is: 619-233-4324

So, unlike the Mexican CONAPESCA site, at least there’s a phone number to talk to someone who speaks English! Nuts that it is easier to purchase fishing licenses in someplace like California than in Mexico.

Landing in places like San Diego as well as many other local tackle stores, especially if you are in S. California have the licenses for sale or over the phone!

Hope that helps!!! Sorry for the craziness. We’re as frustrated as everyone else!

AERO MEXICO NOW DIRECT TO LA PAZ!

We also wanted to welcome Aero Mexico to La Paz. We finally have a new airline servicing our city! After many anticipated months, Aero Mexico started flying Sundays and Thursdays direct to La Paz from Los Angeles. Great for all of us!

That’s our story! Have a great week!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: