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Archive for the ‘dog tooth snapper’ Category

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

Higi guys dorado 7-13 tags mini

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

tuna dorad marlin steve robert 7-13 tags

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

Allen Clarence Josh dorado big tags 7-13

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

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

becky csutoras tags dorado 7-13

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

Dorado Sybesma 7-13 tags

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

big dorado will klem 7-13 tags mini

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

rooster allen burgess tags 7-13

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

Esteban dorado tags xl 7-13

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

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

dorado  mini grande jimmy csutoras tags 7-13

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

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But, there were some great surprises…

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

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

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

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

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

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

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

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

dorado becky and jimmy csutoras tags 7-13

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

George Higi III wahoo dorado tags 7-13

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

rooster bill lewis tags 7-13

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

Hosmer dorado tuna 7-13 tags

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

Kris Jo Biddle dorado tags 7-13

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

Esteban wahoo 7-13 tags

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

Becky Marlin 7-13 tags

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

Jimmy csustoras tags marlin 7-13

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

Sierra Exif JPEG

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

rooster chuck banning 7-13

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

HOsmer dorado broken rod 7-13

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hopefully, thing will only improve!

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

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

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

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

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

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

Sherman McDonell tags dorado 6-13

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

Sierra Exif JPEG

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

Cole tags rooster 6-13

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

dorado armando shelly tags 6-13

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

dorado luke brownlee tags 6-13

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

dorado Jo Biddle tags 7-13

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

Herrera rooster 6-13 tags

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

mitch chavira tags 6-13 dorado

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

burgess dog tooth pargo tagsd 6-13

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

Sierra Exif JPEG

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

Jason Takayoshi tags dorado 6-13

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

Kris jack crevalle tags 6-13

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

McCLELLAND marie tags dorado 6-13

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

Darryl Herrera rooster 6-13 tags

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

Charlie dorado tags 6-13

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

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

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

ERRATIC WEEK OF FISHING IS TOUGHEST OF SEASON

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

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

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

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

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

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

So…that was it in a nutshell.

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

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

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

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

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

The fish is just asking to get lost!!!

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

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

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

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

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

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

Read Full Post »

P1000837 ron rooster tags 6-13

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

Ron Rooster 3 tags 6-13

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

Taylor Murphey tags dorado flex 6-13

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

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

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

Dave Lester tags amberjack 6-13

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

Jeannine Stenzel dorado tags 6-13

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

Rooster Al Janc tags 6-13

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

Dorado whitlow 2 6-13 tags

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

dog tooth pancho tags 6-13

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

dorado nancy lerch 6-13 tags

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

Ryan and Ed Vander Veer tags dorado 6-13

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

tuna grande tags 6-13

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

Jerry Pederson dorado Boli 6-13 tags

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

dorado Bob Benjamin  tags 6-13

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

dorado xavier lerch tags 6-13

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

aeromexico (1)

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

Big yellowtail roger 6-13 tags

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

VIDEO of the WEEK!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 MEXICO FLUBS FISHING LICENSES!

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 AERO MEXICO NOW DIRECT TO LA PAZ!

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

That’s our story!  Have a great week!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

http://www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

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

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

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