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Archive for the ‘Chad Schearer’ Category

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Sept. 20-27, 2015

Angela marlin tags 9-15

Our own Tailhunter Poster Girl, Angela Farrell, from Oceanside CA  did it again this past week. The story is very special. She had just spread her dad’s ashes out at Muertos Bay when she got hit on 30 pound test and a mini Whopper Stopper rod. She battled the fish for 90 minutes…estimated 250-pound blue marlin. Her daddy was watching! It could not be released and the meat was donated to feed the pueblo. Husband Tim and Captain Moncho with the assist! (Tim drank beer while she battled!)

wahoo shane summerhays 9-15 tags

Shane Summerhays from Utah has the great face on for this picture almost like he’s saying “WAHOO!” which is exactly what he’s got in hand with a nice fish he took just off the rocks near Punta Perrico. He actually hooked two wahoo that day.

sharon john virgin dorado jorge 9-15 tags

Good way to start the trip for our Montana amigos, Sharon and John Virgin from Montana with Captain Jorge on the beach at Muertos with 4 of their 7 dorado. Some of the nicer-sized dorado for the week! Nice to see they’re getting a big bigger!

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We get some of our nicest folks from Utah and we were happy to welcome two of our newest Utah friends, Keith and Brenda Sargent. They had a double-hook up on sailfish with both of them pulling on fish at the same time! The majority of the meat was donated to the pueblo.

 

Carl Lange pargo mulato tags 9-15

Amigo Carl Lange from Bakersfield CA put the wood to this much-prized good eating barred pargo. The trophy-sized fish is tough to get out’ve the rocks!

Trudy Groves bonito tags raul 9-15

Check out the size of the bonito Captain Raul is holding for Trudy Grove, another of our fun Utah folk. While not especially good eating, the big members of the tuna family have been beating up on our anglers fishing out’ve La Paz Bay.

Aaron Hasson tags dorado 9-15

He’s been fishing with us since he was 9 and now he’s all graduated from college and living in Arizona. Aaron Hasson knows how to fish too! He’s with one of the bigger bull dorado of the week and poses with Captain Jorge.

Rick Connell tags dorado 9-15

I have an affinity for goofy fishing photos like Rick Connell standing in the warm clear waters of Balandra with a couple of his dorado mugging for the camera. Thanks, Rick!

flyrod bonito shane summerhays 9-15 tags

He took some time to pull out the flyrod and had some fun with dorado and bonito! Shane Summerhays got pulled around by this tough bonito while fishing near Punta Arenas with us.

carl lange jack crevalle tags 9-15

There’s a reason, the Mexican name for jack crevalle is “TORO.” It means “BULL” and when you get a jack crevalle on your line, it’s a tough fighter. Carl Lange shows off a sturdy guy. Great fighter but poor eating so they get released .

Josh Swanson dorado tags 9-15

First timer with us from Oregon, Josh Swanson, got the better of this nice bull dorado posing on the beach at Muertos. He took this guy on live bait.

Shawna Blackburn tags dorado 9-15

It’s not just the first fish she’s ever caught…it’s the first fish she’s ever held! Ewwwww! Good sport, Shawna Blackburn with her first one!

Kathy Van de Venter armando tags 9-15 pargo

Whoa! Big barred pargo and an assist from Captain Armando for Kathy Vande Vender who caught this not far outside of Bahia de los Muertos. Great eating!

Clarence Cooper : John Sanchez dorado tags 9-15

Our two new amigos from Washington, Clarence Cooper and John Sanchez with some of their dorado caught just inside of La Paz Bay. The bay can be pretty thick with dorado some days!

Dave Enge Josh Swanson sailfish tags 9-15

Dave Enge from Oregon brought his grandson, Joshua, down for a week of fishing and was rewarded with a nice sailfish their 2nd day out. They donated much of the meat when the fish could not be released. They also had a good week on dorado and other species as well.

TRUDY GROVES TOES

You gotta love it! Trudy Grove got her toes all dolled-up in style for her La Paz trip with a roosterfish and a dorado!

NUTTY  WEEK OF FISHING – SUPER MOON – ECLIPSE – GREAT WEATHER – WHAT A MIX!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 20-27, 2015

It was a mixed week of fishing and difficult to pinpoint why some fisher folks did well one day and poorly the next or why Las Arenas would be better than La Paz then the next day La Paz would be better than Las Arenas.  It was really the luck of the draw.  Same with the weather.  Early in the week, the weather was quite tropical with lots of humidity and always the chance or rain and wind interrupting the day or putting a damper on the fishing.  As the week went on, the weather got to be incredible with some of the prettiest days in weeks, but the fishing seemed to diminish somewhat.  One day good.  Next day so-so.  One boat goes crazy and next boat struggles to get one fish.

I’m not a big believer in the full moon thing and how it adversely affects fishing unless a number of other factors are involved.  However, as the week went on, it got closer to the “super full moon”  (larger and closer than normal) combined with an eclipse.  Water levels were much higher and lower than normal plus currents and tides were higher and lower than normal.  Could have been the reason for the hot/cold fishing.

LAS ARENAS/  BAHIA de LOS MUERTOS

Fishing out of Bahia de los Muertos was “anemic.”  Just like I said above, it differed from panga to panga.  It differed from day-to-day.   The early part of the week the weather was difficult with sunshine then abrupt rain showers and wind.  As the week went on, the weather looked like it was off a “postcard.”

But, it was really a matter of luck with the fishing.  One day, we’d get marlin and sailfish, dorado, pargo, cabrilla and roosters as well as other species.  All our clients would want to fish there the next day.  That next day…it was like someone turned off the spigot.  Guys would work hard to get 2 or 3 fish.  Some skunked.  No real change in conditions.  Just the fish changed their attitudes.  The following day, the fish would blow up great again.

One note…more billfish and larger dorado on this side (still not saying much since a “big dorado this year is 12 pounds), but a few weeks ago, all the dorado were less than 5 pounds!

LA PAZ

There were a few off-days or off-boats.  However, overall, if you wanted to put fish in the cooler and get bent,  this was the side to fish.  The fish are not big.  They are tiny by our standards.  The “small fish” this time of year should be 15-20 pounds.  This year, most of the fish are under 10 pounds.  But, there’s alot of them.  And they are close…literally you can find fish right in La Paz Bay.

In front of the Pemex station north of the city, only minutes from the city, there’s been a big tanker sitting out there that’s holding all kinds of dorado.  About a mile out of Balandra again, there’s another big spot of dorado.  Some days, all the small dorado you can catch-and-release.  We had some boats this week get 20-30 fish releasing most of them.  The folks fishing light tackle are having a blast.

FISHING LICENSES

As of this past week, the Mexican government will not print out any more fishing licenses for authorized dealers like Tailhunters to sell.  Therefore, everyone MUST purchase their fishing licenses online.  Here’s the link:  www.bajasursportfishing.com

I know, it’s crazy, we don’t have any other options.

LATE SEASON SPECIAL

As we wind down our season, we’ve got a few limited openings left between Oct. 10 and 31st and we’re offering some quick get-away prices:

We customize all trips so if you want to change something or add in snorkeling, SCUBA, extra nights or fishing, we can do it as long as we have availabilities.  Check these out:

5 days/ 4 nights ocean front hotel/ 3 days panga fishing – $899 per person double occupancy

8 days/ 7 nights ocean-front hotel / 5 days fishing- $1589  per person double occupancy

4 days/ 3 nights ocean-front hotel/ 2 days fishing – $725 per person double occupancy

These prices are all based on availabilities and are cash/ check prices.  Credit cards subject to 3% processing fee

By the way, the new road from Cabo should be opening up any day now which would mean the travel from Cabo to La Paz will now only be about 1 hour 40 minutes intead of 3 1/2 hours!

BIG THANK YOU to “PACK FOR A PURPOSE” AMIGOS AND AMIGAS

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These two have been Tailhunter family members for years. Aaron Hasson started fishing with us when he was about 9 -years-old and his dad, Al was bringing him down. The two hauled down a full load of school supplies, sports equipment and bags of clothes for our charities!

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Best amigas, Trudy Grove and Kathy Terbu and their respective families packed up a bunch of great supplies for our kids! Thanks, ladies! Muchas gracias for the big hearts!

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Sharon Virgin and her team at Keller Williams Realty in Great Falls MT put together all kinds of good stuff that’s going to the underprivileged kids as well as some great stuff for the ladies at the battered womens’ shelter here in La Paz. Muchas gracias more than you know!

Thanks to all our friends this week who found a little extra space in their luggage to bring down much needed school supplies in our “PACK FOR A PURPOSE” program to help underprivileged school kids, orphanages and the battered women’s shelter in La Paz!  You all rock.  Thanks for the big generous hearts!

 That’s our story

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

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La Paz – Las Arenas/Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Sept. 13-20, 2015

carl lange tags pargo 9-15

Carl Lange visits us at least once a year and he had a pretty remarkable week of fishing with us and hooked a number of species, but perhaps none as spectacular as this big dog-tooth with Captain Pancho just outside the corner at Muertos Bay.

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They’re finally getting bigger at Bahia de Los Muertos and Las Arenas. First time fishing with at Tailhunter, Rick Murray from Idaho, shows off a nice bull.

ken amberjack tags 9-15

Another one of those fish we normally don’t catch when the waters are so warm is the amberjack and Ken Gragg, our Bakersfield  CA amigo put the stop on this good-eating member of the jack family.

Jeff Herringer and Craig Yoder tags 9-15 marlin

It was a pretty decent week for billfish! Jeff Herringer and Craig Yoder were fishing with Captain Moncho and the Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. They actually had two on. Released one , but not able to let this one go.

Lee Hance tags 9-15

Larry Hance was alot of fun to have visiting us from Denver. His very first day out, he hit a home run with a fish he had always wanted with this big roosterfish that has Captain Victor grunting for the photo. The fish was released.

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Danny Kadota from San Pedro CA is an excellent fisherman and good amigo of Tailhunters. He’s got the knack for good fishing and shows off another of those crazy species we’re getting…a pargo liso..mullet snapper. We normally get these in the springtime!

Wiley rooster tags 9-15

Wiley Smith from Mill Valley mugs for the camera while holding his big roosterfish on the backside of Cerralvo Island. The fish was released.

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Captain Armando with Frank and Anthony Micknak who boated this marlin just outside of Bahia de los Muertos along with some dorado. The fish was not able to be released.

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These guys were alot of fun and good to have them down to fish with us for the first time. They took a mess of dorado over several days of fishing…Don Kaiser, Chris Evans and Dave Gilette on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos.

Tammy platt tags rooster 9-15

All the way from Minnesota! Tammy Platt with Captain Victor and her first rooster…in fact…her first fish! The rooster was released.

rooster carl lange tags 9-15

Carl Lange has fished with us many times over the years, but it wasn’t until he got this rooster and let it swim, that I found out it was his first and he had never gotten a rooster before in all those years!

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Oregon in the house! It’s always good to see Ken Mitchell fishing with us from Portland. Fishing with Captain Gerardo, here’s one of his dorado for the day.

CRAZY WEATHER AND VARIETY MARK THE WEEK

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 13-20, 2015

It’s been a strange kind of week for fishing in La Paz waters.  It’s like everything is mixed up and it’s impossible to put your finger on it.  Everyone caught fish, but it was crazy knowing what was going to bite.  The weather was un-predictable as well.  We make jokes about the weatherman being always wrong, but from one day-to-the-next the weather varied or even from one spot to another.  Blazing sun…clouds…humidity…wind…flat seas…rough seas…rain…lightning…thundershowers…thunder and lightning (with no rain!)…could all be experienced IN THE SAME DAY!   It has been THAT kind of year and this past week just epitomized everything because as variable as the weather, the fishing was a perfect reflection of it as well.  Variety every day as the weather dictated where, when and how we fished!

LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS

There were several days when we just couldn’t fish the area because of impending storms that sometimes happened.  Sometimes never did materialize.  However, insofar as we watch the weather every day…several times a day…sometimes there would be nothing on the radar and the weather would chase our fishermen back to shore early. Other times, we would err on the side of caution and not sent out any boats and make our guys fish with our La Paz fleet.  And then we would find out no storm ever happened!   It’s just the way it is right now.  I’m glad we have our two fleets to be flexible enough to move our fishermen around and put them where the best bite could be found and usually the better weather!

Surely, if you were looking for variety, Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay had it.  Our anglers this week got some yellowtail and amberjack (to 60 pounds)…normally cold water fish. We got dog-tooth snapper (pargo perros), cabrilla, pargo liso (mullet snapper) and pargo mulatto (barred pargo) up to 40 pounds!  Again, normally cooler water fish.  Really crazy because the water is about 90 degrees right now.   We even got some sierra which we don’t see until about December!

On top of those species, we had some marlin and sailfish, bonito, jack crevalle, skipjack, rooster fish and even a big tuna hooked!  Nothing in abundance, but kind of a “sampler plate” if you will… of about a dozen species that are common to the area, but normally at different times of the year  About the only thing we didn’t hook was a wahoo!

Also, the last two or three weeks, with more bait in the area and the buoys offshore attracting more fish, more dorado have been showing.  Nothing big, but with maybe normally sized fish about 10 pounds, it’s encouraging that after a year of a dearth of dorado, the fish are showing in better numbers every week. It’s about time.

LA PAZ

Again, with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, this is where we put folks that want to put fish in the ice chest.  All year, it’s been the hot spot for dorado.  Again, nothing big.  Our “small fish” this time of year, should be 20 pounders.  However, this El Nino has really racked us.  This year, a “big fish” is 15 pounds.  Tons of smaller fish.  It’s like a nursery out there in some spots.  All the 5-8 pounders you can get!  Great for kids, families, first-timers and everyone is having a blast. Our light tackle and flyfishermen are really enjoying it.

The hot spot, as the week went on was right in front of Balandra Bay about a mile.  That’s a 5 minute boat ride off the beach, at most.  There were  few days when the anglers caught-and-released as many as 20-50 dorado per panga! “We’d each have a dorado on.  There would be two other rods hooked up and the captain would be handing us another rod with a dorado on it!  And while we were fighting fish, there would be schools of dorado flashing around the boat and jumping all around!”  said one of our anglers.   “Craziest dorado fishing I have ever seen, “ said another.  “They are almost fighting each other to get at a bare hook tossed in the water!”

Out at the island and around some of the other areas, north of town, we hooked (and lost) a few striped marlin and released two sailfish this week on light tackle.  Huge big bonito are really busting up some of the clients too!  Same areas are holding big schools of jack crevalle and there’s some smaller rooster fish on the long beaches.

 That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

Read Full Post »

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Sept. 6-13, 2015

Leif amberjack tags 9-15

Leif Dover from Atlanta GA is our frequent amigo and frequently on our fishing reports as he fishes hardcore for a whole week every time. It paid off again with this big boy amberjack off Punta Perrico. Crazy fish because most of our ambers are caught in cooler water in the springtime. Great eating!

roger yellowtail tags 9-15

Another fish that we usually only find in the cooler waters of the winter and spring are the yellowtail, but if someone is gonna get one, Roger Thompson is probably the guy. Using blue and white jigs and bait, they hooked 5 and got 2 to the boat. He tells me if they had more bait, they would have gotten more. The area off the Las Arenas lighthouse is still the hotspot where the water drops off deep.

STAUFFER rooster 9-15 tags

Carol Hathaway Stauffer from Washington was visiting us for the first time and had herself quite a week. First dorado. First bonito. First time swimming with whalesharks and then, this fat roosterfish caught with Captain Victor and then released!

Donna tags amberjack 9-15

Don’t ever bet against Donna Thompson. She’ll probably always outfish you! She was working that deep water off Cerralvo Island and put the hurt on this great eating amberjack.

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One day there were these guys on the beach selling mustaches! So, Kevin Todd, our Texas amigo did some goofing for us and posed with his amberjack on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos! Or maybe he as hoping his boss wouldn’t see the photos and recognize he wasn’t at work!

Leif rooster tags 9-15

Pretty good week for roosterfish! Not as many around these days, as it’s late in the season for the exotic fish, but the ones that are around are good quality. Just like Leif Dover’s nice fish here (released). With all the rain lately, check out how green the hills are!

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More dorado this past week. Decent steady dorado catches like Bob Pattersons fish here.

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From Delta, Utah, Rick Wagstaff shows off one of his nice dorado.

STEADY FISHING WITH VARIETY OF SPECIES

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 6-13, 2015

Except for one day when it was “too calm”, we had pretty steady fishing all around.  Pretty typical of this time of year.  In addition to “too calm” (having a little current and breeze is important to get the fish to feed.  Too calm and they get lethargic. )  We did have some afternoon showers and frankly much of the week was overcast too, but hot and muggy.

Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay

On the days we fished there, everyone caught fish.  There was one day when everyone caught limits or near limits of dorado, but had to rush back to the beach a tad early when one of our tropical rainstorms came rushing in.  But it didn’t affect the fishing.  And the next day, we didn’t send any pangas out there because the waters were turned over and the road to the beach was a mud track. (So we sent everyone to fish La Paz and they all caught dorado anyway!).  But other than that, the dorado were fairly cooperative and a steady bite as the area gets more active than it has been this past summer.

Commercial guys got the occasional tuna, but none of the sport boats seemed to find them.  However, we did find the rooster fish willing to go.  Some nice ones again i the 20-50 pound class and we had anglers this week with light tackle and bass rods and throwing top-water lures so they had a hoot plus there were jack crevalle and bonito close to shore as well.

Update:  Just as I was writing this (Sunday) our Las Arenas boats had to come back early and get off the water when weather came up on them unexpectedly.  One of those quick tropical storms.  La Paz weather stayed good although some rain and breeze also hit and they kep fishing.

La Paz

Still our go-to spot.  If you want action and you want to catch a fish, you can spend almost all day on some of the areas holding dink 5-10 pound dorado.  The larger ones are more scarce, but they’re out there.  We lost a number of larger fish this week.  Hopefully, we’ll see more of them.

We also hit a few sailfish (released) , jack crevalle, big bonito and some smaller rooster fish.  Interestingly, also hooked a few sierra as well which is strange since they are cooler water fish that we normally catch in the winter.  Maybe it means the waters are cooling.  Again, it seem everyday there’s a possibility of afternoon rainstorms that come and go.

HIGH FIVE’S

Bud and Lisa wagner 9-15

Bud and Lisa Wagner with an ice chest full of school supplies!

Jeff Stauffer

Quite a stash. Thanks for Jeff and Carol Stauffer for the thoughtfulness! Not only school supplies but much needed hygiene things like toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, deodorant and other things that will probably go to the battered women’s shelter.

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My good friend since 1st grade, Jim Weitkamp and his fiance Valerie Reyna brought us some great stuff for the kids.

Thanks to all our amigos who brought stuff down for our “Pack for a Purpose” program benefitting needy schoolkids as well as our battered women’s shelter.  Muchas gracias also to amigos who didn’t get their photos taken, but also brought much needed supplies including Ken Gragg and Carl Lange.

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

Read Full Post »

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Aug 31-Sept. 6, 2015

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Yes! There’s some tuna out there. Rick Wagstaff from Delta UT, on his first day out fishing with us wrestled this tuna on light tackle for almost an hour at the south end of Cerralvo Island. Rich was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet from Muertos Bay. He also got a limit of dorado as well.

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Bob Patterson from Los Angeles and his son, Travis from Sacramento had a good week of fishing, but on their last day the bite was off. Not much happening. But then they were headed back in and decided to put all 4 trolling feathers out and ended up getting a big 40-pound class wahoo! Captain Pancho here with them. They also got a few dorado, but the rest of the week limited on dorado.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

You gotta check out this great video from Larry Barnard of Los Angeles CA who was recently with us.  He did a great editing job of some big roosterfish hookups with some super underwater clips as well.  Good job, Larry!

EVERYONE CATCHING!

La Paz / Las Arenas (Muertos Bay) Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 31-Sept. 6, 2015

A good solid week of fishing as the kids here in La Paz head back to school and the town quiets down.  A little cooler this past week, not quite so muggy with some brief afternoon thundershowers but otherwise sunny and warm skies and water.  Everyone who wanted fish got fish…a good thing!

Las Arenas/ Bahia de los Muertos

It’s been awhile since I’ve lead our reports with Las Arenas/ Bahia de los Muertos.  Regretfully, our traditional hot spot has had an off-year with lack of bait leading to spotty fishing or southern storms making for rough waters for our pangas and clients.

However, things are really turning around…happy to say.

Two things.  We’re finally getting some bait showing up. Sardines…our lifeblood for fishing are being found.  Plus, we also getting some mackerel, caballitos and ladyfish (for the roosters).

Secondly, about 2 weeks ago, the sportfishing captains put several dozen buoys just offshore to act as fish attractants.  Just to try to get things going.

It appears to be working.  Every one of our boats this week took limits or near limits of dorado.  School-sized, but nonetheless great action with the largest fish running about 15 pounds and others breaking off.  The fish are being found at the buoy and lighthouse.  There was really only one “off-day”  when the fish didn’t bite well and that was because it was “too calm.”  Yes, there is such a thing.

Folks, especially first timers, tell me all the time they are worried about the big waves and rough seas and I tell them that the Sea of Cortez is often like a big lake.  Plus to get fish, we don’t have to go out very far and we’re also not trolling for fish a zillion miles offshore.  Well, one day this week the water was like glass.  Literally.  Wonderful day on the water.  Just flat flat flat.

And the fish were really stubborn!

You see, you want just a little current.  You want just a little breeze.  It stirs up the water.  It moves bait and nutrients.  It gets the gamefish going.  It’s like a hot muggy day on the porch.  The last thing you want to do is move. Too hot to eat.  Too humid to think or want to do anything.  Same with the fish.  That day the fish just weren’t real active.  But, fortunately, that was only one day.

But in other days…

The lighthouse has also been the site of some deepwater yellowtail and trophy cabrilla and some amberjack as well.  Surely a hotspot this past week.  We’ve also been getting rooster fish and billfish hookups in the same area.

The bigger news was that tuna have moved into the area.  The East Cape just to the south of us encountered the tuna schools a few weeks ago and we were hoping the fish would be moving up.  This past week, we did get into a few that ran about 40-50 pounds.  A great grade of fish and about the size that most anglers can handle!  The commercial guys got into a few more so we’re keeping an eye on that and got our fingers crossed.

La Paz

Again, just like in previous weeks, this is our go-to spot!  If you only have one day to fish, or you want a sure thing, you can’t miss with the dorado just straight on in the bay and just outside. Limits are pretty typical and some days the pangas are back by 1 p.m. (which means they stopped fishing before noon!).  This has especially been great for first-timers, families and couples and kids.  Everyone has fun.  With the dorado, there’s also tough larger bonito, jack crevalle, smaller rooster fish plus shots at billfish.

THANK YOU!

Thank you this week to Bud and Lisa Wagner who are fishing with us for the first time, but still brought down for our “Pack for a Purpose” kids with a whole bunch of great school supplies.  Thanks for the big hearts, amigos!

 

Bud and Lisa wagner 9-15

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

http://www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

Read Full Post »

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Aug. 16-23, 2015

Esteban jurel tags 8-15

Well…YES! As a matter of fact we DO have yellowtail. Only problem is that they’re NOT supposed to be here. Our waters are about 90 degrees right now! We get our yellowtail in the winter and spring when the waters are COLD! Never in August! Our amigo Esteban Romero hooked 3. Two got unbuttoned, but he put this 30-pound class slug into the panga using a live mackerel fished down deep! Also, something we never have to do is fish deep!

Kit Luu tags wahoo 8-15

His first trip to La Paz turned out to be banner for Kit Luu of Monterey Park CA. He got his first roosterfish. He caught dorado. And, while he was jigging a Mega Bait, he hooked onto this nice wahoo…his first! Captain Victor looks on!

Rooster Jason Christofferson 8-15 tags

Another of our anglers on his first trip to visit us, Jason Christofferson from Las Vegas was with Captain Pancho when he latched into this trophy roosterfish off Las Arenas. Great photo and the fish was released.

Ken Chau dorado 8-15

Happy Birthday to Ken Chau! Ken is from Rosemead CA and on his birthday, he shows off a few of his fish…a nice dorado and one of the fat bonito we’ve got north of La Paz.

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San Francisco in the house. Paul Nagata is our good amigo who has been visiting us for years put the hurt on a nice rooster fishing with our popular Captain Jorge. The fish was released.

vong mekdara tags rooster 8-15

Big fat rooster! Vong Mekdara from Monterey Park CA went out with rain clouds threatening from Bahia de los Muertos with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and hauled in this huge rooster! The big guy was released.

Kit Luu and Kerry Lam tags 8-15

The dorado are finally getting a bit bigger! Three weeks ago, this would’ve been the biggest dorado of the week! Kit Luu and Kerry Lam put a number of dorado into the boat fishing out’ve La Paz.

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Scott Harvey from Del Mar CA brought his son, Andrew, down for the week to do some fishing and got into the fish himself including this roosterfish he was able to photo and let swim away strong!

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It has been a good year for billfish this year, especially with so many bonito and small dorado in the areas serving as food. This is a photo of Paul Nagata’s sailfish as it was being released after a good battle. Paul was fishing north of La Paz Bay.

STEADY FISHING MIXED WITH AFTERNOON THUNDERSHOWERS!

La Paz – Las Arenas/Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 16-23, 2015

The week was a typical August kind of fishing week for us!  Everyone caught fish and most of it was dorado which is about right for this time of year.  Also, it was a week of tropical thunderstorms.  No hurricanes, but afternoon showers that would bring torrential rains (usually after everyone was done fishing…but sometimes not) that flooded streets in a flash but then quickly ran off and the sun came blazing out again.  Those of our fishermen that occasionally got caught out there told us they got drenched, but it was warm “like a shower.”  Or, they could see the columns of rain falling straight down from the sky and simply drove around it.  It would rain hard in one spot, but a mile away barely a drizzle!   There were some pretty spectacular thunder and lightning shows, however, and the thunder was like “being inside of a trash can and kids whacking it with baseball bats,” said another of our anglers.    This coming week, however, shows no rain in sight.

LAS ARENAS/ BAHIA de LOS MUERTOS

This has been our “grab bag” area all season.  Just crazy fishing.  Never know what you’re gonna catch!  About the ONLY consistent biter all season has been big rooster fish.  And these are all 30-50 pound fish!  Many of our anglers are getting their “first-ever” rooster fish and all of them have been trophy-sized fish.  There have even been larger fish, but they’ve busted off with estimates of fish going up to 90 pounds breaking off.

The bad thing is that roosters are bad eating.  They don’t help bring any fillets home in the ice chests!  The good thing is that all the roosters are getting released.

Pretty much, if you didn’t get a rooster, there wasn’t much else and that’s too bad because traditionally the Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay area has been a big old fish trap for all kinds of species and action.  So, beyond catching roosters, that was it.  We’d have our clients fishing in La Paz where there was alot more action.

However, this past week, we got some welcome surprises.  The biggest was that we caught some yellowtail in the deep water right of the Las Arenas lighthouse.  One of those rare occasions when you put on some weight and dropped a live or dead mackerel down 80-200 feet!  (Like fishing in Loreto where the yellowtail hunker down deep!) . But the mackerel were the key.  Guys were scouring the stores in La Paz looking for mackies!  Frozen worked just fine.   The real surprise is that yellowtail are cold water fish!  We get them in the cold water months of February to May.  In 20 years here, I’ve not ever seen any yellowtail caught in the summer!  No one is complaining, however.  These fish have been legit 20-30 pounders!

The other surprise is finding out there’s still  wahoo in the area.  We hooked and dropped a few this week and put a few in the tank as well.  After the phenomenal May and June wahoo bonanza we had this year, it just shut off after that.  So, good to know the speedy fish are still around.  Good-sized 20-30 pounders all on jigs or slow-trolled Rapalas!

LA PAZ

Dorado dorado dorado!  We’ve had them since springtime, but they’ve been so dinky, it’s ridiculous. But, they’ve bee a blessing because they’ve provided so much action.  But, just way smaller than what we should have been getting.  I mean, seriously…if you want to catch 12-inch dorado, there are some spots where you can park the panga all day and have a blast on light tackle catching-and-releasing as fast as you can go.

Slowly, however, the fish have gotten bigger.  Just not very fast.  This past week, better quality 15-30 pounders started showing up to the point where  the fishermen were tossing back smaller fish.  With the afternoon rains popping up, on some days, it was nice to get a limit of fish and be back to town by noon or 1 with a good load of fillets for the cooler.

For other species, still big bonito around…some smaller rooster fish…and we did get a few marlin and sailfish hooked and released this week.

A LITTLE WET

As I said at the beginning, we have some occasional thundershowers lately.  I rains…it floods…then it dries up!  Fairly typical sometimes.  We call them “toritos”  (little bulls) that roll in and quickly roll out.  But the flash flooding can be dramatic.  Thanks to Clima La Paz for the photos.  Take a look.  If you’ve been to La Paz, you might recognize some of the photos.  (Like the malecon!)

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DOWNTOWN LA PAZ

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THE MALECON…WHERE THE RUNOFF MEETS THE BAY!

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JUST HAD TO TRY IT!

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NOT RECOMMENDED BY THE MANUAL. DOWNTOWN LA PAZ.

 That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

Read Full Post »

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Sportfishing for Week of Aug. 9-16, 2015

yellowtail jorge tags 8-15

WHAT??? No, I didn’t poach this photo! We actually got yellowtail this week at the Las Arenas lighthouse and Jorge Romero, our good amigo, rocked 3 of them fishing deep using dead mackerel with fish up to 30 pounds. In 20 years here, I have NEVER seen yellowtail here. These fish are cold water fish we find in March to May! Crazy El Nino!

Paul dorado tags 8-15

They’re finally getting a bit bigger! La Paz Bay and north towards Espirto Santo Island has been our “go-to” spot for dorado this season, but the fish have been smaller than normal. Finally getting some in the 15-25 pound category. San Francisco amigo, Paul Nagata with another bull for the box.

Taylor Marino 8-15 tags

Before she heads back to college in Colorado, Taylor Marino and Captain Victor teamed up for some nice big roosters caught and released just off the beach near Muertos. All on bait.

rooster andrew harvey tags 8-15

The kids are alright! The youngsters had some great stories to tell when they get back to school this week. Andrew Harvey has to be back in school next week for 8th grade, but he had a great time fishing all week getting in some great fishing including catching and releasing this big roosterfish.  Andrew lives in Del Mar, CA.

Mike Jordan Steve Hartsook dorado tags 8-15

Long-time amigos of Tailhunter Michael Jordan from Santa Barbara and Steve Hartsook from Brentwood CA, hold a couple of their good fishing day for dorado as the rain approaches behind! It got a little wet for awhile!

dorado scott harvey tags 8-15

San Diego angler Scott Harvey brought the family down for the week and wanted to “hit the dorado hard.” He did pretty good with some of the larger dorado we’ve seen in awhile this season! Pretty colors here! Matches his shirt.

rooster Haley Marino 8-15 tags

She’s 15-years-old from Colorado and has a big smile to go along with the big rooster! Haley Marino got into the fish her dad and sister catching and releasing several big roosters.

dorado andrew harvey tags 8-15

It’s hard to pose when a big dorado won’t cooperate and keep still! Andrew Harvey wanted to catch his first dorado and did that and more this week fishing with both of our Tailhunter La Paz and Tailhunter Las Arenas fleets.

 

YELLOWTAIL IN AUGUST?  ROOSTERS AND DORADO STILL CENTER STAGE!

La Paz – Las Arenas/Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 9-16, 2015

Summer dog days.  Hot and humid with fishing action pretty consistent. Some quick summer showers.   Just like in previous weeks, the rooster fish are the main attraction for the Las Arenas/ Bahia de los Muertos fishermen and dorado are keeping folks busy with our La Paz fleet.  It’s sunny and hot with humid clouds and tropical conditions.  Might be some thundershowers coming this week with a little storm out over the Pacific causing some momentary downpours, but not much wind showing.  Good thing.  Everyone going home with fish who wants fish!

Las Arenas/  Muertos Bay

It’s still living up to it’s nickname as the “Roosterfish Capital of the World.”   Our “smallest” roosters this week were 25-30 pound fish.  The largest were in the 40-50 pound class.  They’re not good to eat so everyone is releasing them, but sure are having fun with these big guys close to shore almost in the surf.  The ticket is getting the big sabalo (lady fish) or liso (mullet)for bait.

For other species, we had a surprise of yellowtail…yes yellowtail pop up!  Yellowtail are cold water fish. We see them in the later winter and early spring.  We haven’t had a yellowtail since May!  The commercial guys and a few pangas hit the 25-pounders off the lighthouse late in the week.  Crazy stuff.  The trick was having mackerel and the fish are off the ledge holding in deeper colder water. And the mackerel were not easy to come by.  But that’s been the trouble all season with the Las Arenas area.  If bait were easy and around,  we’d be catching all kinds of stuff in the area.  As it is, all the bait has been around the La Paz area.

A few dorado and cabrilla rounded things out.  Oh…and we also hooked our first wahoo in awhile too!

La Paz

If you’re not catching a limit or near limit or double limit of dorado these past few weeks, something’s wrong.  Many days our pangas are coming back early with tired anglers.  In all honesty, the fish are much smaller than they have been in previous years, but there’s still good action.  Even after limits guys are sometimes catching another 5-10 or more fish and releasing just for fun or going after other species like billfish or inshore pargo, cabrilla or rooster fish.

The dorado have been dinky…admittedly…but this is the first week we’re seeing more 10-20 pounders or larger which is encouraging.  So, the quality of the fish seems to be improving.  It seems most of the summer we were stuck in the “nursery” of 5 pound fish!

Anyway, there’s marlin and sailfish for those who want to give it a try  and the majority of bites are right around the areas where the small dorado are hanging out since the billfish will eat the small dorado.  There’s also some big schools of huge 20 pound jack crevalle that are tearing up the anglers plus big bonito.

GOOD GUY SHOUTS

NAGATA

Our good friend, Paul Nagata, from San Francisco brought down two full coolers of stuff for our “Pack for a Purpose” program. Filled with sporting goods, balls, air pumps, crayons, flash cards, bags of pencils and other school supplies for the kids. Thanks, Paul!

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

Read Full Post »

La Paz – Las Arenas / Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of AUGUST 2-9, 2015

rooster double 8-15 Pitts tags

Scott Pitts is a pro fishing guide from Oregon and he and his wife, Sara, came down specifically to jump on some roosters! This particular day, they caught and released big fish including this great double hook-up!

Ken Chaplin dorado tags 8-15

Lots of Oregon amigos lately! Ken Chaplin is a hunting outfitter and did good on the roosters and dorado like this really colorful bull dorado!

PITTS marlin 8-15 tags

Big smiles with Captain Joel and Scott Pitts for a big striped marlin they caught north of La Paz Bay and released.

Dustin tags rooster 8-15

The man behind the mask is our Seattle amigo, Dustin Chaplin, with another big fat roosterfish. Caught and released several nice ones.

 

NICE WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 2-9, 2015

I think this looks like the summer pattern for the season.  Maybe in a few weeks it will change, but for now, it appears that the fishing reports are getting pretty consistent.  Hot humid weather with occasional afternoon showers.  Great beach days and fishing fairly solid for three main species…rooster fish…dorado…and billfish.

LAS ARENAS

Still earning it’s nickname as the “Roosterfish Capital of the World.”  If you’re targeting rooster fish, it’s been an excellent season for them.  Some days are better than others, but overall, if pez gallos are on your bucket list and you have a day or two, you’ve got a good shot at taking in a trophy.  There’s some fun little dinky-guys in Bahia de Los Suenos running a 1-3 pounds that are a hoot on light tackle and flyrods.

Then…there are the beasty boyz!

The rest of the fish are tackle busters.  The “smaller ones” are 25-30 pounds.  The larger ones are up to 60 pounds.  And they get larger!  We have caught them over 100 pounds through the years and some big guys have been lost.  The world record 114-pounder was taken in this area.

The key is having either sabalo (ladyfish) or caballito (jacks) for bait.  On the days when it was a little too windy or bumpy to get the baits, those were the days when the rooster bite was off.  But, if you have the baits in the tanks, then you’d better buckle in.  The fish surprise alot of people to find fish this size literally just a few yards off the beach in shallow water.  The baits themselves can be as big as 12 inches.  So, anything that can put a 12-inch bait in it’s mouth is gonna be big!

Beyond that, some billfish getting hooked and a few school dorado and cabrilla.

LA PAZ

Fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, the dorado have been the highlight.  There’s several spots north of La Paz Bay that are holding lots of fish.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that so many of the fish are 5 pounders.  Ready to eat anything you throw at them and there’s plenty of action.  There’s larger ones hanging out up to about 20 pounds, but the little “doraditos” are so plentiful, the larger ones don’t get the chance.  However, I will say that more of the bigger fish came up later in the week and it was a marked improvement!

Still, we’re hooking some larger ones each week and the smaller ones are providing lots of fun action so everyone gets bent.

For other species, with so many little dorado around, the billfish are feeding in the same areas on the small dorado so we’re hooking marlin and sails in the same areas as the dorado.  Big bonito also that pull like freight trains.

Inshore, the waters are getting almost too warm, but there’s still some pargo and cabrilla along the rocks as well as smaller rooster fish.

 GOOD HEART SHOUT OUTS!

High-five’s to this week’s big hearts who brought down stuff in their empty bags and ice chests for Jill’s “Pack for a Purpose” program to benefit needy kids here in La Paz!

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Just-in-time for the school year for kids that can’t get supplies, John Christofferson, who runs a huge barbecue catering biz in Las Vegas showed up with some great stuff for Jill’s Pack for a Purpose Charity.

 

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The Chacon Family (Rich, Hector, Lauren and friend Izzy) can give anyone a lesson in how to cram a ton of stuff into small places! Every year, they bring down clothes, supplies, school materials and so much more for the kids!

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He’s got a sly smile, but a big heart…Paul Zech with son, Mike, from Oregon come to see us every year and pose with Jill and a big load of things for the kids! Thanks, guys!

That’s our story!  Have a great week!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

Read Full Post »

La Paz – Las Arenas / Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 19-26, 2015

 

Gary Boote New Zealand rooster 7-15 tags

Making the most of just enough time to squeeze in a day of fishing, Gary Boote from New Zealand landed this hug fat roosterfish then released it. Big roosters have been great all week. e

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From Washington, Kyler Whitlow got a great graduation present before heading to college next month. He came down with long-time amigo, Mike Whitlow, Kyler’s stepdad who also happens to be a pro-bass fisherman. They had a great week and we enjoyed them both!

Larry Barnard rooster 7-15 tags

Something to crow about! Big rooster for Larry Barnard from El Segundo CA who rocked this big rooster and did C.P.R. on it (catch…photo…release). Nicely done. He got several.

Rebecca Jennings dorado 7-15 tags

You gotta love Rebecca Jennings’ facial expression as Captain Luis hoist the biggest dorado of the week for her! The big mahi was estimated between 35-40 pounds. Rebecca visits us every year from Arkansas.

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I know this is a BIG fish because Chris Barnard is a BIG GUY! Flat seas…sunshine…and big roosters! A good day. Caught and released!

Ralston Wendy dorado tags 7-15

This amiga can hang with the best of them! Wendy Ralston from Washington fished hard all week and out-fished many of the guys. Check out this nice mahi from La Paz.

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Our “TEAM PROFESSOR.” Two of our favorites have been visiting us for years. Professor Mark Marcus now lives in Tennessee and Professor Llew Williams now calls Florida home. They got a nice rack of dorado and a pargo fishing out’ve Bahia de Los Muertos.

Rooster michael majors 7-15 tags

This is a great shot of Captain Archangel having a laugh with Mike Majors and Mike’s big roosterfish. Mike’s from Arkansas and he released this nice gallo.

Ungaro family John, Nicholas John Raul dorado tags 7-15

Nothing like starting ’em early and these school-sized dorado are perfect for the family! John Ungaro from San Pedro CA had two days on the water and shows off some of their dorado with boys Nicholas and younger John Raul.

pargo wade and raul tags 7-15

Don’t let the size fool you. Pargo are some of the toughest fish to nail out’ve the rocks and they get much bigger, but even tougher on light tackle and Wade Ralston from Washington is a light tackle specialist. I think he must have gotten about 10 different species all week on light tackle and is shown here with Captain Raul.

Boli and John tags 7-15

I might have to frame this photo! I don’t have many photos of popular Captain Boli giving off a good belly-laugh but he and our amigo, John Olson recently retired from a career with Disney, got into a school of small jacks and roosters and had themselves a ball.

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Tough kid! Aristotle Chang from Vancouver, Canada got a 450 pound marlin last year with his dad. Nothing quite so big this year, but he had fun with dorado and big bonito.

Katie tags dorado 7-15

Katie Olson with another dorado and a picture-postcard photo after a day of fishing with out Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Always good to have her and husband, John, visiting us.

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I promised Alex Trasvina that I would post his photo with Mario Ayala from Chula Vista CA on this week’s report with their dorado. So…there you go, Alex! Thanks!!!

No hurricanes!

Our buddy, Alex Trasvina from San Diego (white shirt in front) always brings a fun group of guys every year, but last year they showed up just as a hurricane broke on our heads and we all had to come back and cancel all the fishing. But this year…all went smooth so we toasted a bunch of beer in the Tailhunter store!

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Shout outs to Mike and Diane Shyrock from Washington who came down with a bunch of great stuff for the kids and Jill’s “Pack for a Purpose” program. Thanks to you both for the big hearts!

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I’ve known Ken Chaplin from Oregon for many years as Ken is a S. African hunting outfitter. He got to finally bring his son, Dustin, down to get some fishing in but packed a few ice chests with clothes, school supplies and sporting goods for the kids! Wow!

 

BIG ROOSTERS and DORADO BEND RODS!

La Paz – Las Arenas (Muertos Bay) Fishing Report for Week of July 19-26, 2015

Another “go figure” week as fish defied general logic, but at least were co-operative.  The week also saw us watching another storm come and go (Leticia) that gave us a few rain showers and some wind, but that was it.  Everyone caught fish.  Everyone who wanted to bring home fish brought home fish.  Maybe not the species they wanted or the size they wanted, but everyone pretty much having fun and leaving with smiles and good memories…so all-in-all-a good week! Just wish the weather would make put it’s mind!  One day blazing sunshine.  Next day clouds.  Like I said, “Go figure.”

LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY

Bait continues to be a problem.  Quite honestly, unless you’re chasing billfish or bonito and maybe a few dorado, there’s not much else going on.  Of course, this could change any day!  That’s just the way it is here.

But…as we say here “Gracias a Dios!” (thank God!)…the rooster fish are here.  Man, the rooster fish have saved more than one fishing day or frankly, they have made an entire trip.  Our “smallest roosters” this week were 35 pounders.  Our larger ones were ticking the 70-pound range.  Lifetime trophy fish!  They are big and they are mean and most are getting released too.  Anything that can chow-down a 12-18 inch ladyfish as bait has GOT TO BE BIG!  There’s a reason they call this “Roosterfish Alley” and “Roosterfish Capital of the World.”

LA PAZ

Dorado are leading the charge.  Limits or near limits for most of our fishermen most days.  Some days coming back early. But good steady action.  Dorado seem to be getting bigger each week.  Fewer sinks and better 10-15 pounders (still small by our standards) but some larger 20-30 pounders getting hooked and occasionally brought in.  Billfish also around as well.  Inshore, some decent pargo and cabrilla fishing still available as well for those with the patience and hand-eye coordination to pull them outta the rocks!

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

Read Full Post »

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 12-19, 2015

rooster brett vitale gerardo 7-15 tags

Show -and-tell! When 15-year-old, Brett Vitale from San Diego goes back to school, he might have at least one pretty good story to tell! With Captain Gerardo, he tore it up with this big time roosterfish that he caught and released! Same day, his brother caught a 180 pound blue marlin.

Randy skedgel tags flyfish dorado 7-15

Flyrod grins for Randy Skedgel , who has citrus farms in Central California. Randy had a great week on the flyrod with dorado, roosterfish, cabrilla, pargo, and even a wahoo.

dorado white davis tags 7-15

San Luis Obispo in the house with 3 big dorado days for Bill White and Mark Davis holding up a pair of young bull dorado!

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Two of our long-time best amigos, Barry Wood and Mike Kelly, from Orange Co. California with some great eats! Barry is holding a prized pargo mulatto (barred pargo) and Mike is holding a bull dorado. Thanks to them as well for bringing a bunch of stuff for the kids and also some chocolate for Jill!!!

Andrea Reynolds 7-14 dorado rogelio tags

Andrea Reynolds from San Luis Obispo came for a week of diving with us, but took a few days for fishing and had a big smile with Captain Rogelio and another dorado in the boat.

Castanon tags dorado 7-15

Fire Captain Dave Castanon from La Verne CA has been fishing with us from the beginning! It’s always great to see him and his family. Dave has his fingers in the gills for a couple of nice dorado.

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Good week for marlin. Jose Lopez and his dad, Sal, hold up a striper they took off Las Arenas on a bait. The fish was not able to be released and they donated good chunks of meat.

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First timer, Dane Mrazek from the Sacrament CA area had himself a crazy week with limits or dorado every single day for 5 days! He’s got a nice pair here posing on the beach at Balandra!

HURRICANE DOLORES MISSES – BUT AFFECTS SOME OF THE FISHING!  (BUT NOT ALL!)

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 12-19, 2015

No doubt about it, an odd-sort of week for fishing.  Much of the week was spent watching the weather websites and satellite images wondering how Hurricane Dolores was going to unfold.  Or not.

You just never can tell.  Early on, it looked ominous as the storm developed and made it’s way north gathering power.  We cringed a bit as this was one of our busiest weeks with a full house of fishermen, divers and families.  Early predictions has as much as 4 days of rain coming down on us.  Sure we need the rain, but we surely don’t need it in hurricane force and surely not ruining vacations.  So, there was alot of trepidation and anxiety about it.

However, as the week went on, Dolores veered out and north.  Thankfully.  I’m sure up the Pacific Coast, surfers were ecstatic.

For us, it was a mixed bag.  We ended up with a few windy and bumpy days, especially for our Las Arenas anglers and then we had about 30 minutes of hard rain followed by some intermittent showers on Friday.  And that was it.  More or less.  Still beats a full-fledged hurricane!

LAS ARENAS/ BAHIA DE LOS MUERTOS

Really poor fishing this past week.  I think the epic historic wahoo bite of 2015 is officially dead and gone.  It’s been an incredible two months.  There’s still a few fish out there, but we only hooked one this week.  Bait has been an issue.  Once again, like last week, there’s big fish…or there’s nothing.  That meant some good action on marlin…blues…blacks and sailfish.  Or big rooster fish.  And that was pretty much it.  The rest of the catch was triggerfish and bonito and an occasional dorado.

By the latter part of the week, wind and waves generated by Hurricane Dolores to the south made it pretty rugged to fish.  It as pretty ugly. That didn’t help much.  Which is also why it’s a good thing we have two fleets…so we can move folks around to where conditions and fishing are better.

LA PAZ

There were a few rough days as Hurricane Dolores got closer, but for the most part, other than some bump and a little rain for less than an hour, this is where all the action was happening.  The nice thing about us having our two fleets is that when one side isn’t happening like the way Las Arenas was scratchy this week, we were able to move lots of our clients to our La Paz fleet and get into some good action.

Truthfully, still ALOT of smaller dorado…under 10 pounds.  But crazy good action mostly!  Some days catch and release as fast as you could go.  A few days some of the boats were back before lunch with limits of dorado and having released another limit or two.  Great light tackle stuff.  Also, some of the larger dorado started to mix in with some 15-30 pound bulls getting hooked. Fishing got better as the week went on.   Additionally, a few striped marlin and sails hooked every day as well as blue and hammerhead sharks plus a blue marlin as well.  Pargo, triggers, cabrilla and rooster fish inshore to give some variety.

NOTE:

Just a head’s up…no hurricanes on the radar, but early predictions are showing maybe some thundershowers mid-week!

GOOD GUY SHOUT OUTS!

Our “Pack for a Purpose” program keeps rolling along and has been such a success now for almost 2 years.  Another big shout-out on behalf of the Battered Women’s Shelter and the FANLAP orphanages to our generous amigos who filled up their empty coolers on the way down and brought much-needed things for Jill’s charities.  Hugs to all of you!

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Enough to start a school! Rebecca Jennings (Arkansas), Wade and Wendy Ralston (WA), our own Jilly, Mike and Kyler Whitlow (WA) and Mike Majors (Arkansas) standing with bags and bags of donations for the kids!

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Just retired from a zillion years working for Disney all over the world, John and Katie Olson paid to have a huge box of toys and other incredible goods shipped down with them to donate to Pack for a Purpose!

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Two of our best! Mike Kelly and Barry Wood, flank Jilly with a table load of school supplies they packed down as donations!

Oregon donation

Big hearts from Oregon standing with Jilly…Gary, Bob, Jo and Phil always come visit us and we’re grateful!

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Cheers! Two professors in the house! Mark Marcus (Tennessee) and Llew Williams (Florida) are retired college professors and long-time friends. Balls…hats…schools supplies and toys for the kids! Always great to seen them!

That’s our story!

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Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

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La Paz – Las Arenas / Muertos Bay Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of June 27-July 4, 2015

 

Chris Settevendemie wahoo tags archangel 7-15

WHOAAA! LAST MINUTE! Just when I was about to write off the awesome wahoo bite of the last 2 months as “over and done,” today Sunday, our guys found the wahoo again! Chris Settevendemie from Paso Robles CA and Captain Archangel might have had some special “help.” He was here at Bahia de los Muertos to spread dad’s ashes. Dad musta been riding along. Chris ripped 3 wahoo today!

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On his first visit here last year, Rusty Cain got caught in the middle of Hurricane Odile last September! He’s back and nailed this gorgeous wahoo today with his wife Caroline just when I thought there were no more wahoo! Great catch just before I put this report to press!

Rooster Clegg Alicia tags 7-15

Great roosterfish week and no one had a better one that Alecia and Bennett Clegg from Sacramento CA. In 3 days, they hooked and released 7 up to forty pounds and also lost another 7. Plus they got other fish too! (See below). They were having so much fun, the extended their vacation another 3 nights! Here’s Alecia with another big rooster and Captain Victor smiles on!

 

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Retired U.S. Army Sgt. and educator, Tom Rautert from Tucson AZ started his week out right with two of these big roosterfish off Cerralvo Island that tuckered him out a bit more than expected (in a good way!). That’s Cerralvo Island behind him. All fish were released!

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Despite the full moon, the marlin went pretty crazy this week. Most of the were released when possible. But, in some cases, they were so voracious they charged whatever baits were in the water or whatever lures were out there and fought each other to get at the offering…which also meant they were swallowing hooks and it made it harder to release. First timer from Utah, Dave Gasser had a great week including his first-time striper with Captain Armando!

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An armload of forty + pound amberjack for Scott Hillier who took this fatty outside of Bahia de Los Muertos with Captain Adolfo driving the boat.

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As mentioned above, it was a crazy week with marlin going voracious on the full moon! Diego and Kelly Jimenez from Loveland CO, had a double hookup simultaneously when trying to troll for wahoo! Both lines screaming in opposite directions! They got both to the boat, but both fish had swallowed the Rapalas with their treble hooks making release impossible. They donated the meat. With Captain Jorge.

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In addition to a banner week on roosterfish, Bennett Clegg also put a striper in the boat that couldn’t be released. That’s pretty touch to hold up a marlin like that!

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Not many wahoo this week, but Brent Hillier managed to get one landed! Nice fish for our amigo from Colorado!

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Just a beautiful photo of another rooster before it gets unhooked and released. Pretty water. Pretty fish! Thanks for the shot, Bennett!

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Beast mode! Another big rooster for Bennett…he got seven of them all released! Check out the flat waters!

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Yes, dorado have been biting, but hardly any for our Las Arenas boats. All the dorado have been school-sized fish with our La Paz fleet! Alecia holds up a pretty one. They got near limits.

Jimenez donation

Big shout out gracias to so many of our folks who keep bringing in supplies for our “Pack for a Purpose” program that Jill initiated whereby empty bags and ice chests are brought down but filled with stuff for the kids and families in need at shelters and orphanages. Diego and Kelly Jimenez brought down a bunch of school supplies and also a gorgeous mermaid painting for Jill and I. Big hearts!

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Sgt. Tom Rautert (ret.) always does it right. He stuff a suitcase full of kids stuff for our “Pack for a Purpose” program and our veteran poses with Jilly at Tailhunters! Thanks, Tom!

 

FULL MOON BUT ROOSTERFISH AND MARLIN REALLY LIGHT IT UP!

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 27-July 4, 2015

Depending on what you were fishing for and whether you were fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas or our La Paz fleet, it was a pretty good week of fishing.  Summer is definitely here with hot sunny skies and warm blue waters.  Summer vacation has started for the La Paz school kids so it’s a pretty festive time to be here because everyone is out right now!  And we also had a full moon that some think adversely affects the fishing.  Not this week!

LAS ARENAS

Usually, Las Arenas is where we send our clients to catch variety…get bent…have a little fun close to shore.  Everyone catches fish.  It’s a good area to start fishing on a fishing vacation.  There’s alot of species and lots of live bait to play with.  After fishing here and having some fun and putting some fish in the ice chests, then we go fish with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and look for bigger fish!

Well, this year, it seems just the opposite.

All the larger fish are at Las Arenas.  And there are no “small fish.” Because it’s mostly the larger fish, there are fewer fish.  You get one or two shots at at trophy and that might be it for the day.  Or one boat might have all the luck on a given day while the boat next to it might get some needlefish, triggers and a bonito.  You hit home runs or you strike out.

And that’s how it’s been.

But, the trophies are NICE!

This week the marlin woke up!  For many of our folks they got their first shots at billfish and there were several days where each of our pangas hooked at least one marlin.  Quite a few lost, but many others were caught and released. The problem is that it’s like the marlin woke up from a Rip Van Winkle Sleep!  They are voracious!  Guys have told me the marlin were everywhere and swimming around the pangas.  They are actually trying to get away from them.  The fish are charging just about any bait or lure in the water without hesitation and even fighting each other to get to a bait or lure.  The problem with that is they we found the fish are literally swallowing everything WHOLE!  That makes it tough to release when hooks and lures are so deep!  One of our guys even told me that his hat blew into the water and as it blew away a marlin swirled on it!

 Likewise, the rooster fish have been on fire!  Not uncommon to hit 2, 3, 4 or 5 roosters in the 20-50 pound class each day with all fish being released. It seems the full moon turned them on also.  Around Punta Arenas and on the south eastern side of Cerralvo there are some hot spots.   There’s also some wahoo still around and we’ve taken a few fat amberjack and pargo too.  However, I think our incredible epic wahoo bite that we enjoyed the last two months may have finally run it’s course!  It had to end sometime…darnit!  The past week or so only a smidgen of wahoo even biting.

HOLD EVERYTHING...just as I’m putting the finishing touches on my Sunday night fishing report, our Las Arenas boats come in from the day…AND THEY HAVE WAHOO!  One panga had THREE (See above photos).  One had another wahoo and another lost a wahoo.  So, maybe all is not lost!  WAHOO!

LA PAZ

Normally, this is the “big fish area” as mentioned above.  However, the last few weeks, this has turned into the “action zone.”  Dorado have finally come around nicely.  Lots of little fish, but some larger 15-20 pounders now showing up and not unusual to get limits or near limits daily.  Marlin and sails are in the same areas as the dorado since they are eating the smaller dorado plus quite a few sharks hooked as well.  Inshore, cabrilla and pargo and big snapper as well as rooster fish have made for some nice variety.

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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.”

Read Full Post »

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