La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 12-19, 2018
Mexican Minute Video Report
Week at a Glance
Weather – Warm and sunny. Highs all week high 90’s. Nightime dropping to high 70’s. Pretty humid. Not unusual to get some electrical and thunderstorms and showers here and there. Nothing lasts long or affected the fishing .
Water – Blue with surface temps high 80’s. Great snorkeling and diving time. Some thermoclines down 30′-40′ much chillier by 5-8 degrees.
Fishing – More football-sized tuna showing up in the 10-15 pound class, but big bruisers still around. Dorado are 80% of the catch, but the bite is often later in the day for the dorado.
Catching – The bigger the fish, the more we lose. Lost some wahoo and billfish this week. So, no photos, but the fish are there!
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST OF THE STORY…
Eric Hill visiting us for the first tim from Colorado rocked it with a hefty yellowfin tuna off Punta Arenas .
After you’ve been fighting a big fish in the hot sun for a long time, it’s kinda hard to lift it for a photo as Jules found out in this photo. Punta Arenas and Cerralvo Island in the distance.
I couldn’t get a photo of Donovan Ackerman and his big dorado, but I do have a photo of the big dorado with Captain Ramiro on the beach at Muertos Bay.
Laura Hernandez with another fat fat yellowfin just off the beach at Arenas. Laura is from San Diego.
Amigo, Roger McCracken from Oregon was fishing with Shelly Donnell north of La Paz when they had a good day on the dorado and even a football tuna.
The right kind! Nice football tuna double-fisted by Mark Buchanan from San Diego.
We had more of a fairly typical summer fishing week these past few days. Temperatures in the high 90’s with night temps in the high 70’s. Days start often with clouds then the Baja sun busts through giving way to stronger breezes and the return of clouds in the afternoons and even some thundershowers that cool off the evenings.
Waters have settled and are mostly blue and holding some pretty decent fish!
We still have those larger model tuna off Punta Arenas that seem to average about 40-50 pounds and have really been tough dogged sport these past few weeks and schooling a lot of anglers in how powerful these fish can be. Especially, when success tips in favor of the fish since they are mostly eating light 25-40 pound test which really puts a strain in the angler and his gear. We sure lose a lot of them.
However, this past week, we saw fewer of the larger fish and more football tuna seemed to have taken up station. These fish are much much more manageable to most angler since these footballs are 10-20 pounders. They’ll pull hard, but at least they don’t kill you!
Rounding out the box, there’s some nicer 10-30 pound dorado that have moved in. Most surprising are the pargo, pompano and some other cooler water species we normally do not see this time of year with the waters so warm. Maybe the waters are already cooling?
For our La Paz Tailhunte fleet, the bay and around the islands north of town, dorado are still the mainstay with limits or near limits most days. The problems is about finding the spots. It seems the concentrations of fish move around, but once located, it can be crazy off-the-chart fishing.
Just a heads-up that the best bite is later in the day or afternoon so be patient. The fish are more willing to feed sometimes just about the time much of the fleet is heading back in. But, our Tailhunter pangas have been staying out a bit later to take advantage of the later bite .
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug 5-12, 2018
Mexican Minute Video Report
Week at a Glance
Weather – We had Hurricane John that bounced in and bounced out. Some flooding, but honestly nothing serious as it headed out towards the Pacific, but enough that we had a few days of winds, rain and waves. Enough to cause a nuisance and shut down fishing for 2 days. But, even after it technically went it’s way the days in the aftermath still were cloudy…some rain…some thunder and lightning and winds. Very unpredictable and erratic.
Water – Did not take as bad a hit as after other storms where the water is very turned over and dirty. Since there wasn’t torrential rain, there wasn’t enough run-off to dirty the water. Waters relatively blue and clear at 83 degrees.
Fishing – Week started pretty well with big tuna, and dorado. Then the storm hit and you always wonder what it will do to the fishing. How long will the fish take to recover. Surprisingly, the fish were fair good to us. Not great, but not as bad as other times. We still had action although we had to work harder for them, but everyone caught fish. Surprised to see cooler water fish like pargo and pompano showing up. Are waters getting colder already? We usually don’t see these fish except in late winter and spring!
Catching – Still losing the majority of those big tuna; a couple of wahoo bites; and more dorado than we should! But that’s fishing! Everyone took home meat that wanted meat.
The Big Picture and the Rest of the Story…
Big tuna for Laura Hernandez and Mark Buchanan from San Diego who battled the big fish just off Punta Arenas. The fish were measured at about 50-55 pounds each.
A good reason NOT to be out fishing! Waterspout off Cerralvo Island during the storm! (Taken from the beach!) . Thanks for the shot, Rusty Cain!
Little vide of the beginning of Hurricane John.
Even after the hurricane “left” we still had localized and intermittent shower and thunderstorms all week. Pretty shot! Thanks, Mark Buchanan!
The fishing rabbi from Portland Oregon, our amigo, Sheldon Donnell used to have a temple in Orange Co, but retired to Portland and often came to fish in La Paz with Tailhunter Sportfishing. He got this nice bull just off the rocks near Punta Arenas.
One of our favorite all-time families! Diego and Kelly Sanchez from Loveland, Colorado brought granddaughter, Selena down who had a great time fishing. Here’s one day’s fun of tuna, dorado, triggerfish and pargo! Plus they released jack crevalle and bonito.
Bryan Forward from Carlsbad wasn’t fishing for roosterfish just north of La Paz, but while fishing in a dorado school with Captain Rogelio from the Tailhunter Fleet, this big boy popped up and chewed his bait and the battle was on. The fish was released.
I think one day, Al Sandstrom will probably move down here. He just has too good a time fishing! Dorado in hand caught with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.
Skies are still cloudy but the smiles are real! Captain Jorge with Mark Hawkins and Harry Hsu posed with 3 of their 5 yellowfin on the beach at Muertos.
That’s alot of mahi mahi for Mark Buchanan and wife, Laura Hernandez from San Diego. Always in the fish!
He’s a little tired! Tony Smith has 4 big tuna on the table. First time down here and he had a good time.
Lee Carlson with Captain Moncho of the Tailhunter Fleet is from Denver. He hooked this roosterfish not far off the beach near Punta Perrico near La Paz and fought it for over an hour on light tackle and said “The fish did me in!”
The best is when someone catches their first fish ever! Rob Forward of Carlsbad and Captain Rogelio with his first dorado!
So crazy unusual to be catching pargo liso because normally, they are cooler water fish we catch from Feb. to April! But, Shelly Donnell got this one off the rocks at Punta Perrico. Great eating! Tough fighter too!
Hope came to visit us from Idaho for the first time and got her first dorado showing here on the beach at Balandra! Great to have her down!
Colorado friends since college, these two have been Tailhunter amigos for many years. Always smiling, Frank Kunze and Lee Carlson with a pretty good day out’ve Muertos Bay of tuna and dorado.
This one weighed out at over 52 pounds for Laura Hernandez. These are beast fish! Check out how close she is to the beach at Punta Arenas!
Football-sized yellowfin tuna showed up later in the week that were alot of fun and surely easier than the 60 pounders earlier in the week. San Diego boys in the house!
Captain Gerardo photo-bombs a dorado photo of Cal Lambert from Colorado trying to pose with one of several nice dorado caught just before the storm hit!
Harry Hsu and John Land with Captain Jorge and a nice haul of dorado and triggerfish.
Alex Moser from San Diego and his amigos with a big 50 pounder that took over an hour to land!
Laura has a knack for getting big fish! Nice bull dorado off Las Arenas Point!
We had a strange and crazy week. Things were going pretty nicely and then out’ve nowhere, what looked like a week of intermittent showers and occasional rain suddenly got a name and turned into “Hurricane John!” It got us scrambling!
These things are un-predictable and although it was only a “Category One” storm, we’ve seen them do some erratic things over the years and while the storm path didn’t have John barreling directly into us, it was going to glance off the southern tip of Baja and bounce out pretty hard.
The storm warnings went out and the clouds, wind and rain came in. Thunder, lightning and even water spouts! Some flights got diverted and although we never got the heavy hit, it was enough to have the Port Captain shut down the port and ban all boat traffic. Big waves and strong winds didn’t help.
Of course, that meant cancelations; no fishing; and lots of schedule juggling. It’s too bad because fishing had been pretty good.
Then the storm left. Sort of.
The port opened, but for several days, we didn’t know if the port captain would change his mind and shut things down again. So there were days when we had everyone ready, but also telling them they might have to head back to their rooms if the port captain shut things down again.
Because while “John” moved off, it never really completely left and almost each day, we had threats of wind, rain and big seas and occasional thundershowers and left everyone wondering what the next day would be like and days when we went fishing and still got wet.
Fortunately, the waters didn’t take too hard a hit from the storm and fishing the rest of the week was a lot better than I thought it would be although it still was not quite as good as it had been.
Everyone still got fish!
At Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay for our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, the big tuna were still around although a bit pickier. However, smaller fun football sized 10-20 pounders showed up right off Punta Arenas not far from the lighthouse. Also, decent dorado up to about 25 pounds rounded things out and surprisingly we got pompano and nice big pargo liso snapper that usually we only catch in the springtime. It makes me wonder if cooler waters are already moving in! Several roosterfish also hooked and released in the 30-50 pound category.
For our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, dorado were centerstage again. Most of the fish were 5 to 20 pounders, but if you find the right spot, it could be crazy frenzied fishing. Most days, the boats got limits or near limits although some days the bite didn’t take off until late in the day. If boats left too early they sometimes missed the bite.
So, overall, not too bad given the weather. It could have been a lot worse!
TAILHUNTER OUTREACH – GRACIAS!
Diego Jimenez and his family from Loveland CO
Wes Perkins and Roger Hall from Oregon
Matt Chase, Terry Biggs, Mitch Embry and Rich Keogh
I’m sorry I don’t have ALL the photos of everyone who brought donations or school supplies, clothes, shoes, hygiene and other needed items for our Tailhunter Outreach Program. But, e are so grateful for the generosity. This year alone, we’ve collected over 1000 pounds of much-needed items that we distribute to the community. Some of the photos above are just from the last week and all of this went to the school and orphanage in Los Planes near Las Arenas. With school starting this week, the supplies and clothes were much appreciated!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 28-Aug. 5, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT FOR THE WEEK
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Weather – Hot hot hot. Even us locals think so. Dangit…stay hydrated! Beer is fun, but doesn’t count. With the humidity you have to keep knocking back the waters or you’ll get sick. On the other hand…hot weather = best fishing!
But, weather will change this week. Intermittent rain, thundershowers and lightning predicted on-and-off all week. Not sure what that will do to the fishing. Weather reports change several times a day. Not sure when or how hard it will rain or what days.
Water – Pretty blue. Surface temperatures are perfect for swimming, SCUBA and snorkeling! It’s about 80-83 degrees on top!
Fishing – Everyone caught fish! If not big tuna then great on the dorado. The tuna continue to be big and we’re losing most of the big fish. But dorado have been making up for it just to have fun.
Catching – Losing 70% of the big tuna. That’s why they’re big. They are gorillas and make strong men cry!
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST OF THE STORY…
Rhett Riley and his grandfather, Herb Preszler from the Sacramento Area, tied into several big tuna off Cerralvo Island near La Paz on live bait with Tailhunter Sportfishing. They each hooked and fought a fish over an hour before lines broke then re-baited and tied into these two nice sluggers and fought then well over another hour before getting them into the pangas.
From Oroville CA, our amigo, Terry Biggs has made numerous trips to fish La Paz with Tailhunter Sportfishing. He had never caught a big tuna. He hooked one fish and fought it almost 2 hours before it broke off then hooked this big one estimated by Captain Armando as being in the 70-80 pound class. He was using only 40 pound test. Terry works for the railroad and is about 6’2 and 275 pounds and he wrestled this tuna almost 90 minutes and “it whupped me pretty bad.
One of our favorite new amigos, Matt Chase, was just great to have down this week! Even when he lost fish, we was like a kid in a candy store! He did get a nice batch of dorado, however. Here with Captain Boli on the beach.
If he looks a bit disheveled, Mitch Embry from Texas has a little help and a smile from Captain Armando lifting up this tough tuna he fought in the hot sun off Cerralvo Island.
Schoolie dorado for the Bartas who were staying with Gary Wagner at Rancho Costa in Muertos Bay.
Rhett Riley started out a good week of tuna fishing with this plug of a yellowfin tuna.
Another dorado in the boat is a nice bull north of La Paz near Espirto Santo Island for Terry Biggs.
Well-deserved handshakes for Wes Perkins and Roger Hall who fished with Captain Victor and took a box of dorado and a big yellowfin. Our good amigos are from the Portland OR area and have visited us for many seasons.
First timer amigo, Mark Durham, poses on the beach at Muertos with another fat tuna.
Captain Jorge does the honors on a nice dorado with Rich Keough and Mitch Embry. Note all the other dorado on the cutting table in the foreground .
It was a pretty decent week of fishing. Everyone who wanted fish caught fish. Can’t argue with that. Some boats did better than others on any given day, but that’s fishing. If you fished several days like most of our folks then you might have one slow day, but the others surely made up for it.
At Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay, the big tuna off Cerralvo Island were again, the name of the game. These 40-80 pound gorillas are made more formidable by the fact that they’re eating relatively light lines (as tuna will sometimes do). So, using 25-40 pound test line can turn into quite a battle and most of these fights are at least an hour to almost 2 hours in the hot Baja sun!
For some, the strain is just a little too much for the angler or the tackle and beast fish that have non-stop motors. We are losing about 70% of these fish for those reasons. One day, we hooked 10 fish and only 2 got boated. It is what it is. Everyone wants a shot at these homerun fish, but if you don’t knock it over the fence, there’s a good chance you won’t get any other chances at another or for other species because it’s already too late in the day. But the challenge is there and very compelling. . .and fun!
It’s hard to know if there’s other species around the area because everyone is chasing the tuna, but we did hoo up some dorado and billfish. Roosterfish have been scarce this year. But, again, hard to know because not many folks have been chasing them.
Fortunately, if the tuna aren’t going, we do have our other fleet out’ve La Paz and the dorado have been lighting it up . Most days there’s limits or near limits of fish running 10-20 pound and some larger. If you hit the right spot and find the school, it can be utter madness as fish crash all around and every rod is bent. You fill the box quickly!
Other times, you get 1 here…2 there…1 here…and a longer, but still productive day.
Weather advisory…looks like intermittent and localized thundershowers with lightning are predicted most of the week. Not a hurricane. Just tropical stuff. Not sure how that will affect fishing, but we’ll be watching. It could rain one spot, but not another. It could rain at night or afternoon. The reports change daily. Hopefully, the port captain doesn’t shut thing down.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of May 27-June 3, 2018
Mexican Minute Video Report
Week at a Glance
Weather – Getting WARMER! Most days in the high-90’s. Nights in the high-70’s. Definitely some days you can feel the humidity creeping up. But mostly pretty pleasant. Still windy some days, but not as harsh. Nice afternoon Corumuel breeze cools down the time nicely!
Water – As weather gets warmer the algae is burning off and waters are getting dramatically bluer. Less winds mean calmer waters too. Pretty stuff. Our SCUBA and snorkelers are having a blast.
Fishing – Better every week. Still not full speed. Some slow spots and bumps. But everyone catching fish if you’re here a few days assuming you might have a slow day here and there. Las Arenas has fewer fish and slower action, but larger trophies. La Paz fishing has more fish, but smaller. Better action.
Catching – Lost some really nice wahoo, tuna and roosters this week that would have really made this week’s report explode. But, big fish are tougher fish!
The Big Picture and the Rest of the Story…
Nineteen-year-old Mia Pettey from Orange CO, California came down with her dad, John Pettey, well-known goldsmith and jeweler to the Southern California fishing industry as a high school graduation present to do some SCUBA and fishing in La Paz with Tailhunter. She was slow-trolling a bait just north of La Paz when this big rooster fish rolled up behind the boat and hammered the bait. We estimate it in the 60-70 pound class and she said, “It kicked my butt!” She released the fish.
Tom DeLeon from Los Angeles came down to La Paz to fish with Tailhunter Sportfishing specifically to knock a rooster fish off his bucket list. He got this beast north of Punta Arenas on a live bait on a double hook-up. This fish was released and estimated over 65-70 pounds.
Laura Hernandez from San Diego always does well in our area and was fishing outside of Bahia de los Muertos with her husband Mark when she landed this nice wahoo, one of two she caught that day.
Quality dorado for Captain Jorge and our long-time amigos, Doug Oclassen and dad, Glenn Oclassen. Doug is from Colorado near Denver and dad’s in the San Francisco Bay area. Good size on these bulls!
Good first day for Stan Andre who picked up this nice wahoo not far outside of Bahia de los Muertos.
That’s a legi bull dorado for Terry Hawk. Usually, this quality of dorado don’t show up until later in the summer and the fall but the fish seem to be here already although not in huge numbers…yet!
Jim Bovee from San Diego gave his wife a trip to La Paz for Christmas and their last day she put wood to this thick yellowfin tuna fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet north of the city . Jim will be back in August and again in October!
Easy to see why they are called “dog-tooth” snapper. Hard to catch and pull from the rocks, but Doug Oclassen got this one into the boat not far off the Punta Perrico rocks.
Hefty bull dorado headed for the grill for Diane Deleon from Los Angeles. She two of these big guys this day. Scroll down for her other fish!
Rhonda McGavern is from Northern California, but they spend a good part of the year at their place in Loreto and drove down to La Paz for a little change-of-pace. The did the number on a fat yellowfin tuna and this dorado as she poses on the beach at Muertos Bay.
Like a boss! John Stone from San Diego had himself a good several days with our Tailhunter Fleet! He poses here with one of his bull dorado.
Another big rooster for Tom Deleon from Los Angeles. Part of a double hook-up on live bait he came specifically to get a rooster. This one regretfully could not be released and the meat was donated.
Good buddy Randy Forestiere had several days of fun on light tackle hooking great cabrilla and pargo like this pargo mulatto north of La Paz.
Still some cooler water fish hanging out! Captain Armando put his folks on this amberjack, but also jack crevalle and dorado.
These two guys are making a habit of nice roosterfish over the years. Stan Andre and Terry Hawk with a slugger rooster near Cerralvo Island. They got several and all were released.
John Mc Lucas from the S.F. Bay area has been fishing with us for years and loves the light tackle inshore stuff. Check out the variety he has including yellow snapper, china maru (hawkfish), cabrilla and pargo liso (mullet snapper). All great-eating fish!
Happy fella with a fish! Long-time Tailhunter Tribe member, Bill Lee with another cabrilla from up-tight in the rocks where they hang out. He loves the light tackle battles!
That’s alot of fish! Diane Deleon poses with a heck of a bull dorado she caught with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet fishing around Espirito Santo Island.
Couple of great eating trophy fish for Terry Hawk including a big cabrilla and a yellow snapper. All highly-prized.
Early morning biter! Another dorado for San Diego, John Stone!
Another big wahoo in the boat for Laura Hernandez and Mark Buchanan from San Diego!
Right in the bay! Jeff Correia from San Diego hooked this mahi with the city still in view behind him!
It’s getting warmer down here. The waters are getting bluer and the fishing is getting more consistent. Still not great fishing, but there is some pretty good fishing to be had with some speed bumps here and there. Still some funky water conditions around. Still the occasional bout of wind and waves. But, overall, the improvement every week is noticeable in conditions and consequently the fishing.
Not as many big fish this week, but some fun fishing nonetheless.
For our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet at Muertos Bay, it was like last week. Not a lot of fish, but quantity was trumped by quality. The fish we caught were generally larger and fiestier models. Larger rooserfish were running 30-80 pounds. Wahoo are still around in the 20-50 pound class. The dorado came in as small as 8 pounders, but some nice bulls in the 20-30 pound class as well. A few smattering of 20-30 pound tuna as well. Plus, mix in a few nice pargo, cabrilla, jack crevalle, bonito and even some holdover cold-water species like amberjack and sierra.
The thing is, you got a home run fish more-or-less or it was really scratchy and slow. Few fish, but the fish were generally larger. One boat could hit money and the boat next to it could blank. Or with these larger fish, you get hooked, but the fish (being larger and tougher) busts off. That’s not bad fishing. That’s just unlucky “catching” and part of the sport.
For straight action and fun, the better fishing was with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet. Not as many BIG fish as Las Arenas. But for just a day of action and getting bent, this past week the action around the islands north of town were a lot more entertaining. In addition to great action on snapper, several species of pargo and some real fat cabrilla, toss in some occasional tuna, some big rooster fish and some 10-25 pound dorado and you have the makings of a fun day and some great fillets for the cooler.
Alot of the algae that’s lining the beach is now starting to burn off leaving behind it warmer blue waters so expectations are high for better fishing as we head towards summer.
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La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of May 13-20, 2018
Mexican Minute Video Report
Week at a Glance
Weather – Best weather we’ve had of the season. Still some wind here and there and mornings are chilly and breezy, but the sun busts out later and it’s in the high 80’s most days. Nights are comfortable.
Water – Water getting warmer but there’s still currents and some green and brown water around, but clearing up and getting better.
Fishing – Still alot of variety with warm and cold water fish still mixed up and fishing changing daily and from place to place. Some days better than others.
Catching – Some big tuna, roosterfish and dorado lost and the pargo and cabrilla took alot of folks into the rocks!
THE BIG PICTURE AND REST OF THE STORY…
Doctor Desmond Sjauwfoekloy from Los Angeles, is a heart specialist and literally ran out’ve surgery…jumped on a plane…fished a few days and jumped back on a plane and right back to the hospital. In the meantime, he put tuna, dorado and this slugger rooster fish in the panga fishing with Tailhunter Sportfishing in La Paz. The rooster was released.
Captain Armando with a hefty 40-pound class yellowfin tuna that gave Jordan Schmidt quite a workout. Two other larger fish were lost!
We normally don’t see quality dorado like this until a bit later in the year, but they’re already here just around the La Paz Bay. Nice pose by Blake Warren!
Best week of the year, so far, for roosterfish. Nice fish for Josh Hobgood from San Clemente. His first rooster ever and was fishing with the Tailhunter Fleet out’ve Bahia de los Muertos using live bait. The fish was released.
I’m not sure the yellowfin have ever left since last year! They keep popping up just off the rocks in relatively shallow water like this one here caught by Desmond.
Peter Holland is spending several months traveling on a motorcycle from Australia and had just one day to fish! He hit it out’ve the park fishing with our La Paz fleet taking several great species including this fat yellowtail that ended up as sashime and poke at our Tailhunter Restaurant
Not sure what our Captain Victor has in the bottle…maybe salad dressing? Or marinade? Homemade maple syrup? But Randy Choate, our Idaho amigo has himself a nice bull dorado.
Western Outdoor News Editor Blake Warren from Capistrano Beach CA came down from some RNR vacation time in La Paz and got his biggest rooster fishing with the Tailhunter Fleet using a live lady fish for bait. The fish was released.
As pretty a picture as you’ll see of a fully-lit dorado with great colors! Gorgeous fish for Desmond just off Espirito Santo Island.
That’s a fun day of action fishing and a great expression and pose to go with it! Blake Warren has himself a mess of snapper, pargo and seabass headed home to Orange Co.
Shakedown cruise for our amiga, Sandra Wellborn and the first fish caught on her new cruiser “The Harmony.”
Conditions are improving with every week, but we’re still getting some jags of winds and off-color water as we move into warmer conditions. However, overall, it was maybe the best weather of the season with mostly great sunny days and generally flat seas.
It wasn’t a great week of fishing, but wasn’t bad either. As we transition into more pelagic warm-water species, there’s a lot of variety in the water. Cooler water species like yellowtail and amberjack seem to still be lingering around and we got some up to about 20 pounds. Other cooler-water species like pargo, snapper and cabrilla also made for some great action.
However, the presence of more species like tuna, wahoo, dorado and billfish are evident of the changing conditions. There’s not a lot of blue water stuff yet, but we’re getting a few here and there and seemingly more with each passing week. Also more big-time rooster fish are showing up as well in the 40-60 pound class.
The biggest issues is that fish are everywhere! But the problem is that they are not everywhere ALL THE TIME! Conditions can be so erratic that what’s biting one day doesn’t necessarily mean they will bite the next day. Or, one fishing hot spot can suddenly go cold as fast as the currents change and the water colors change. Or, a spot that’s great for pargo, will turn into a jack crevalle spot the next day or conversely one of our boats will be bent on fish while a boat a few yards away can’t get a single chew! It’s ever-changing and changing daily and hourly!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 22-29, 2018
Mexican Minute Weekly Video Report
Week at a Glance
Weather – Picture-perfect most of the week. Highs in the hi-80’s to lo-90’s. Got windier later in the week
Water – Blue and warming
Bait – Tough to get for our Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay guys better on the La Paz side for sardines
Fishing – Lots of variety. Warm and cold water species still around. I thnk I counted about 14 different species caught this week not including junk fish! Fishing was picky and scratchy however but got better as the week went on (and the winds got stronger and we moved towards the full moon!) . Crazy!
Catching – Lost alot of nice fish in the rocks. Lost wahoo. Lost tuna. Lost yellowtail. That’s why these are bigger fish!
THE BIG PICTURE
Chris Cribbs has been fishing with Captain Jorge of the Tailhunter Fleet for years and came down with buddy Matt McSweeney from San Gabriel CA. They rocked the hat trick with a big tuna, cabrilla and a fat barred pargo. The tuna, surprisingly was caught while they were inshore trying to catch rooster fish in shallow water!
Good start to their week of fishing for Jason and Rebecca Coxsey from the San Diego area with a boatload of action with great snapper plus some white and black bonito chargers.
It’s a wonder! Our good friends for so many years, Angela and Tim Farrell from Oceanside CA got some great food quality fish with some nice cabrilla and pargo. They have caught some big with with us over the years!
From Utah, Jackie Cole, her first time fishing and visiting La Paz with some late season sierra plus white bonito and cabrilla.
Angela with another fatty cabrilla to add to her list of big fish she’s caught here with Tailhunter and her favorite Captain Moncho!
Finally got a dorado in the boat for Captain Armando with Rebecca and Jason from San Diego to add to the collection of white bonito, snapper and cabrilla!
Captain Jorge with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet poses with one of the better dorado of the week caught by Chris Cribbs.
The rest of the story…
Crazy sport, this fishing thing. I’ve been whining for weeks about how the winds have detrimentally affected the fishing down here. It’s been a long agonizing first 5 months of the year!
Well, this week, we had some of the nicest weather I’ve seen all season. We’ve had some nice days in the past, but it was never consistent. But, this week, beautiful sunshine…blue waters…calm seas. Not too hot. Not too breezy. Barely a trace of humidity. If, you asked me to predict, I’d have said it was perfect fishing weather.
But, it wasn’t. It was scratchy. It was picky. Frustratingly difficult most of the week. With the good weather. A few fish here. A few fish there. And our captains and anglers had to work pretty hard to find them too!
And then, as the week went on…it started getting breezier and breezier. Oh no. Not again. This can’t get any worse!
But, heck…the fishing got better when the winds blew a bit! And not only that, we had a full moon coming up on us as well that I thought for sure was gonna just crush us in a double whammy! But, as I said, the fishing actually got better! Not great, by any stretch, but it surely improved!
At Las Arenas, we found a few tuna. A few yellowtail. Some barred pargo. Some red snapper. Some yellow snapper. A few dorado and Sierra. Some nice horse-sized cabrilla too! Even had wahoo bite (off). Plus lots of good action on both Pacific and those tasty white bonito. All pretty much late in the week!
For our La Paz fleet, the same thing. Better as the week went on. Lots of inshore pargo and cabrilla that guys had a hoot with trying to keep them outta the rocks plus some sizable cabrilla, pompano and dorado as well. We also saw schools of breezing tuna that just need a kick to get to bite!
So, go figure. Full moon plus wind meant better fishing this week! I give up!
LA PAZ SUNSET THIS WEEK
Told ya the weather has been incredible. The kind of weather the La Paz Board of Tourism brags about and they make postcards with. Thought I’d share a little video of one of the sunsets from our Tailhunter Restaurant. Turn up the sound!
FOODIES PUT THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR for THIS WEEK!
Coming this week to La Paz!
If you’re coming to La Paz this week, on Friday, May 4th the 8th Annual Gastronomica (“TASTE OF LA PAZ”) Food Festival will be taking place. It’s an incredible event we have every year with more than 150 restaurants and food vendors participating.
It’s all you can eat and drink from the best restaurants in La Paz plus some from Cabo, Todos Santos, the East Cape and Cabo! Plus lots of great live music. It goes from 7 p;m to midnight and it’s right on the beach and one of the largest city events of the year.
You’ll find food from the different regions of Mexico and Baja; Italian; American; Japanese; Chinese; bakeries; pastries; the culinary schoools, the hotel restaurants; the caterers; as well as tequila, wine and beer vendors and distributors as well.
Cost is about $40 per ticket for all-you-can-eat. We’ll be there with Tailhunter Restaurant samples!
THANK YOU!
Norm and Jackie Cole from Utah brought dow a case of kids toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss and other great dental hygiene things that went out to the orphanage at Los Planes!
Our season is on and already, we’re floored by the generosity of our Tailhunter tribe members who have already delivered more than 200 pounds of clothes, shoes, hygiene items and school items that we distribute to various charities! Cheers and gracias to all of you!
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay/ Mag Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 1-8, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
WEEK at A GLANCE
Water – Warming and better and flatter this past week. Coming week maybe not so much.
Weather – Mid 80’s now. Bring the sunscreen. Breezy at times, especially the afternoons
Fishing – Much better . Alot of vareity as warm water fish move in and mix with colder water fish
Catching – Lost alot of larger fish!
THE BIG PICTURE
Whoa! Just off the rocks, Jeff Brown and his son, Cole, were with Captain Joel Martinez from the Tailhunter Fleet in La Paz catching smaller snapper, pargo and cabrilla when this big grouper gulped Jeff’s live bait in shallow water and they were able to winch it away from the rocks! Jeff and Cole are from Minnesota and come down every year to La Paz for sunshine and fishing!
Steve and son, Ben Fox from Huntington Beach were visting La Paz for the first time and got into some of those Cerralvo Island yellowfin tuna their first day on live bait.
Good amigo from Wrangell, Alaska, Rod Brown comes down every year for about 10 days of fishing and got a variety of fish again this year. He took yellowtail, snapper, pargo, cabrilla, jacks, tuna and bonito among others while fishing north around Espirito Santo Island.
First-timer with a big smile, Cole Brown, and a real colorful dorado among several he caught fishing with our La Paz fleet.
Love how he fishes! Light tackle and top-water jigs! Miles Wagner from Colorado Springs with one of his nice dorado fishing out’ve Muertos Bay/ Las Arenas.
This kind of fishing is a hoot! Like tackle right up in the rocks for cabrilla, snapper and pargo. All great eating and these are tough fish on light or heavier tackle. Larger fish all lost in the rocks! Cole and dad, Jeff Brown, with Captain Joel.
Anyone who asks me about getting bluewater fish and not believing that the fish can be caught close to shore, take a look at the rocks just behind Jeff and Cole Brown holding a legit yellowfin tuna. Yup…just a few yards off the island!
OVERALL…
Looks like the weather is clearing up just in time for the season to kick off with alot more of our fishermen now arriving in La Paz. There’s still some wind on tap for this coming week and indeed we had some this past week, but overall, a big improvement in not only the weather, but the fishing, catching, and variety! Each week seems to get a little better as things warm up! It’s all about the winds. If the winds are gone, there’s fish starting to bite.
All signs are encouraging as just to the south of us along the East Cape, things are already starting to go off with the fishing so those conditions are moving north towards us!
LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY/ SUENOS BAY
It’s not crazy good…yet! But the fishing is more like May fishing with lots of different variety in the water. Inshore, pargo liso (mullet snapper), pargo per (dog-tooth snapper) and pargo mulatto (barred pargo) are biting along with several types of snapper, jack crevalle, bonito and cabrilla.
In the deeper water but not far off, dorado are around between 5 and 20 pounds although not in great numbers plus yellowtail up to 25 pounds. Plus we found some tuna over at nearby Cerralvo Island although, again, not in great numbers. Some wahoo were seen, but didn’t bite and commercial guys said billfish look like they’re moving into the area.
LA PAZ
For the first time all year, we had some consistent fishing for our La Paz Fleet. Normally, with the winds blowing in from the north, it’s just often too rough to even get out’ve the bay or, when you get to the spots, it’s hard to fish the areas.
However, with some pretty good post-Easter conditions, I was blown away by the variety of species that ended up on the hook! We didn’t find quantity of fish, but the variety was remarkable especially for inshore species. This included several species of pargo, snapper, cabrilla, grouper, jacks and bonito. As well, we hooked some yellowtail up to about 20 pounds and even got a tuna about 50 yards from the rocks!
BAHIA MAGDALENA
Ben Fox from Huntington Beach CA shows off a nice snook he caught light tackle fishing inside the shallow waters of Bahia Magdalena with Tailhunter Sportfishing. He and his dad caught snook, snapper, pargo, cabrilla and other species using live shrimp and spinning gear.
He’s our guy! Jorge Romero with a nice snook (robabo) taken just outside the treeline in the flats off Bahia Magdalena using live shrimp.
That’s quite a box of pargo and snapper!
Almost all the fish was donated to the local church to clean and distribute.
Some video of the kind of fishing they were doing
We had anglers fishing our inshore waters with light tackle again and they scored great. Using live shrimp for bait, they rocked snook, cabrilla, corvina and several kinds of snapper working in the shallow waters and in the eddys and backbays and sandbars among the trees.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay and Mag Bay Report for Week of March 25-April 1, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT for the WEEK
PAST WEEK AT A GLANCE
Water – Not bad. Getting warmer. Still stronger currents than we’d like
Temps – Mid 80’s day time. Pleasant nights. Still really windy about 1/2 the days
Fishing – I’d give it a 4 on a scale of 10, but 4 is better than it’s been. Alot of variety and good fish signs
Catching– I’d give it a 4 also. Could be alot better. And I think it will get better as things get warmer and water and wind settles down more and more.
What Got Caught – Dorado, yellowtail, jack crevalle, bonito, yellow snapper, red snapper, pargo liso, pargo perro, barred bargo, triggerfish, bonito,, cabrilla, palometa, pompano, corbina
THE REST OF THE STORY
Our amigo for many years, Mitch Chavira has been fishing La Paz almost as long as we’ve been there. He knows his stuff and knows his way around throwing iron too. He jigged up this toad cabrilla off Espirito Santo Island.
Gary and Miles Wagner from Colorado Springs, Colorado fished inside the mangroves of Bahia Magdalena on a day Gary said, “The winds outside were blowing 40K!” and did great on the corvina and palometa on light tackle!
Two of the best fishermen, Mitch and Charlie “Stix” McGee from San Diego working just inside of La Paz Bay put the wood to some of those nice dorado that have shown up.
All the way from Germany, Claude Demith got himself some great eating variety…dorado…dog tooth snapper (cubera)…big triggerfish…and cabrilla!
Dan Miyake with Captain Pancho and a nice Muertos Bay yellowtail. Waters are warming so not sure how long we’ll see these YT’s around.
The right kind! Mitch looking good with one of those tough forkies. Yellowtail out’ve La Paz.
Guys from Colorado always know how to pose creatively with fish! Gary Wagner again with a palometa from Mag Bay!
Just in time for Spring Break / Semana Santa and Easter, the winds kinda gave us a bit of a break this week. There were still some really windy days, but at least there were some windows of opportunity. Definitely, more folks in town for vacation. More fishermen on the water and for sure…the beaches are just jammed.
Normally, our beaches are pretty empty, but during Semana Santa, it looks like Woodstock! Makes you wonder where everyone is the rest of the time? I mean, on some beaches, there’s not a square inch of empty space and in Mexico, the beaches are public so you can pretty much camp and picnic anywhere and anytime. Afterwards, it makes for quite a clean-up as you might imagine. At least, it’s once a year and everyone is having a good time.
Anyway, for fishing, the fish are there! If the windows of opportunity are open and the waters are fishable, the bite is there to be had! It’s far from wide-open, but fishing is alot better than might be expected with alot of variety possible.
LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY
It’s evident that the waters are changing. We have quite a bit of transition going on with both warm and cold water fish occupying the same water space! I’m surprised that this early in the year, we have some dorado, tuna and billfish around. Normally, we don’t see those until maybe a month or more from now. Not alot of these species, but any day holds its possibilities.
Likewise, there are still cold water species around as well. Cabrilla, snapper and Sierra were caught this week as well as several species of pargo (dog-tooth/ cubera snapper and barred pargo). Plus, add in the usual jack crevalle and lots of bonito on top of things and, you’re not quite sure what’s gonna bite.
Every day is not good. Every boat is not catching fish. I want to be honest about it. But there’s fish there and the signs are encouraging. It was one of the better weeks in awhile. We’re using a combination of live bait, dead bait, jigs and Rapalas for the days.
LA PAZ
With the wind having backed down a bit this past week…with no guarantees of next week…we had some boats finally able to get out. Again, just like at Muertos/ Las Arenas, there was a combination of cold and surprisingly warm water fish. A few yellowtail and pargo around but maybe we’re not going to see much of a yellowtail season this year because the waters are getting warm quick as evidenced by a few tuna popping up plus there seems to be dorado right in La Paz Bay! We don’t usually see mahi mahi in the bay until much later in the year. The ones we’re seeing now are legit 10-20 pound fish! Plus, there’s sardines around too. All good signs!
GASTRONIMICA LA PAZ 2018 – MAY 4
The 2018 La Paz Gastronomica Food Festival will be held May 4 once again on the beach in La Paz. If you’ve never been to it the massively fun food festival draws thousand of visitors and over 100 restaurants, hotels and culinary schools from La Paz as well as Todos Santos and Cabo San Lucas.
For one ticket price, you get to eat and sample all kinds of great regional Mexican foods…all you can eat…shrimps, clams, oysters, roasted pig, all types of tacos, moles, Italian food, Chinese, Thai, desserts ,baked goods…everyone has a booth. And so do the wine, tequila and beer distributors as well so it’s all the tequila, wine an cerveza you can handle as well.
Great music, bands and entertainment and it goes well past midnight and just an incredible event. Each year, Tailhunter Restaurant also has a booth among the “seafood row” vendors! Last year, we had our famous Hawaiian poke!
Tailhunters is putting together event packages with hotel, festival tickets, plus the usual great activities of fishing, diving, snorkeling and more! If you’re already booked with us during these dates and want to attend the event, we’ll be selling tickets. Contact me directly at: Jonathan@tailhunter.com
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
La Paz- Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of March 18-25, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT for WEEK of March 18-25, 2018
THE REST OF THE STORY…
Jorge Romero with one of the rare quality fish picked up the whole week and has a nice yellowtail in hand he caught with sardines. He also said there were quite a few bonito, but overall no one was getting too much of anything, Nice shirt!
There were few bright spots for fishing this past week as it was mostly a windy, cloudy rough time. It’s fairly common during the winter months which is why we don’t have many folks fishing during these months. We had one or two days at most that were somewhat fishable and even then, it was picky fishing at best. Some snapper…some pargo…a few cabrilla…and a few yellowtail were about it. Oh, and alot of bonito for some grateful action. And that was the whole enchilada for the week. Fortunately, not many anglers. However, with spring break and Easter on it’s way, things are going to start getting crowded and we can only hope the weather and winds drop back a notch or two. Early predictions so far look a bit iffy. Just being honest.
TAILHUNTER 2018 ROAD TOUR COMES TO AN END!
After almost 4 months on the road and a journey that started back in December and took us through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, California, Washington and Oregon…we come to the end of the road.
Jilly wrapped things up a the Fred Hall Show in San Diego. I was out in the Phoenix, Arizona area with the International Sportsmans Expo. Both shows were super and good to see so many Tailhunter tribe members and new amigos!
Its been another epic road tour after 23 years and we are so grateful to everyone who took the time to come see us all of the hunting and fishing shows. It was great and we appreciate all the smiles and hospitality. God bless you all!
To those of you who signed up to come visit us this year fishing in La Paz, let’s get going! We’re gonna have a great season and we’re looking forward to seeing you down with us. We have to unpack the van and the cat and then saddle up and get home to La Paz right after Easter. So, we’ll see you down there! Thanks again.
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT for WEEK of Jan. 21-28 2018
THE BIG PICTURE FISHING REPORT
Nice plug yellowfin tuna for Dave Distel of Arizona. Pretty unusual to get a bonus fish like this in the winter!
Dave Distel again with one of the firecracker yellowtail that’s come up close to shore. That’s Captain Victor grinning in the background.
Happy Birthday to Mike Distel of Huntington Beach CA celebrating at our Tailhunter Restaurant with fresh cooked fish that he and his son caught!
WINDS HAMPER FISHING
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Jan. 21-28, 2018
Still not too many folks fishing. It’s been pretty windy from the north as is pretty typical for this time of year and it’s the January slump when there’s just not that many folks in town either! It’s actually a nice time to be in La Paz. It’s sunny and relatively warm for the snow birds with day time temps in the high 70’s compared to where they’re escaping from. It’s just not necessarily the best time to be in the water.
However, we did get some folks out for a few days for some scratchy mixed bag fishing. Again ,the winds weren’t exactly our friends. However… Inshore, there’s snapper, bonito, pargo, seabass and good schools of jack crevalle. There should be more sierra around, but it hasn’t been consistent. One day, they swarm and the next day, they can’t be found.
The more quality fishing has been some firecracker 10 pound yellowtail around and also some surprising 20-pound class tuna in Muertos Bay. Maybe still hanging out from last fall! One of our captains saw some free swimming wahoo as well, but they moved off.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE – Highlights Tailhunter Sportfishing!
Award-winning write Tom Steinstra of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a feature article in the Sunday Edition of the Outdoor Section. Check it out! Click the link below to see the article!
We had a way fun time and a great show for the five days of at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup just south of Seattle! The Washington Sportsmans Show was super as always!
Great to see so many friends and Tailhunter Tribe members and also we’re looking forward to visits from everyone who booked trips to come see us and fish in La Paz in 2018. Thanks for all the hospitality, Washington…and the rain too! It just would’t be Washington without the rain! We love it! We live in a desert in Baja so it’s nice to see so much green!
Jilly and I will be splitting up now…
In two weeks, I will man the booth at the Northwest Sportsmans Show in Portland, Oregon at the Expo Center right next to the Columbia River. Jill will fly out to the huge Western Hunt Expo at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City! I’ll post up more details next week. We’re looking forward to seeing all our amigos!
Jilly and I working the booth at the Washington State Fairgrounds!
Good buddy and pro-fisherman Mike Whitlow from Washington who sets up trips for awesome bass fishing in Mexico at El Salto Lake and also in Brazil for big peacock bass.
A rough crowd of ne’er-do-wells! Ken and Lisa Chapman who book big game hunting in South Africa join Jilly and I in the booth!
Dave and Michele Conklin have visited us many times in La Paz! Good to see them on their homegrounds in Washington!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR Top 5 – Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Tailhunter Fish Report 