La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 30, 2018-Jan. 6, 2019
Mexican Minute Video Report
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN WEEK AT A GLANCE
Weather – Started a bit rough and windy but got better as the week went on. Mostly sunny with daytime temps in the 70’s. Some isolated showers. Coming week almost a duplicate.
Waters – Seem to be getting cooler and cloudier, but there’s still some warm patches holding warm water species like dorado and tuna.
Fishing – Quite a surprise. As the weather got better, so did the fishing. Ended up with some really great inshore action with quite a variety of unusual catches with both warm and cold water species!
Fish Caught this week: (cold water species) yellowtail, cabrilla, pargo, snapper, sierra. (Warm water species) dorado, tuna (hooked), wahoo (hooked), roosterfish, bonito, jack crevalle, triggerfish
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
All the way from Alaska, Mic Ward boats one of the first yellowtail of the season that bit a trolled Rapala. Mic was staying at Bahia Muertos near La Paz at Rancho Costa Resort.
Dorado in January right off the Punta Perrico rocks! That’s amigo, Gary Wagner who owns the Giggling Marlin Bar in Cabo and Rancho Costa Resort.
Lew Cox from San Diego just wanted to get away for some sunshine and had one day to fish and got a bit of variety for the fish box including sierra, dorado and bonito.
Steve Green has himself a dandy cabrilla caught just outside of Bahia Muertos. Steve is from chilly Wyoming and was staying at the Rancho Costa Resort.
Great shot. Great fish! First yellowtail bite of the season! Gary got this forkie trolling a Rapala X-Rap 40 deep diver.
Windier weather at the beginning of the week (and the year) put fishing on the slow side, but as the week went on, conditions improved and a nice variety of fish showed up especially for our anglers fishing in and around Muertos Bay.
In fact, the bite was surprising for the incredible mixed bag of both warm and cold water species.
Warm water species included dorado and smaller roosterfish as well as bonito and jack crevalle. Cold water fish, more common to this type of year included our first yellowtail of the season plus cabrilla, snapper, pargo, and sierra. Live bait is a bit difficult, but the fish showed no hesitation biting jigs, lures and trolled Rapalas.
None of the fish were far offshore…often within casting distance of the beach or rocks.
Nothing really big, but for many folks just down to find some sunshine and not really caring too much about what was biting, it was great action. Often you just never knew what was going to bite and at times the bite was full-speed. Anglers working light tackle really had a hoot.
Gray whales are starting to show up and the vanguard of the migration are moving in. Whale watching season should be good and we’ll start running trips in about 2 weeks.
The whales have been more than cooperative to come visit with the boaters!
TAILHUNTER 2019 ROAD TOUR
Here we go! Jill and Jonathan are on the road again! For over 2 decades we spend the first 3 months of the year in the gypsy caravan covering over 15,000 miles and all the big fishing and hunting shows in the Western U.S. It’s a great opportunity to see old friends and meet new amigos!
This week, Jill and I will be in our booth at the Denver Convention Center for the International Sportsmens Expo! It runs from Thursday to Sunday (January 10-13th) and it’s an incredible fun event for the whole family!
There will be hundreds of fishing and hunting outfitters from Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Africa and just about every other location on the globe. Tons of gear and new equipment. RV’s and camping. Off-road and boating. It’s all there.
We’ll be in our booth for the entire 4 days. Come by and say hi and let’s talk about fishing in La Paz . Dates are filling so let’s get you set up!
Enough stuff for 3 months on the road! Me, Jilly and Catlyn! Driving through Texas on our way to Denver this week!
God bless TEXAS!
Here’s more info plus how to get tickets. Click this link!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 21-28, 2018
Mexican Minute Video Fishing Report
Short Attention Span Week-At-A-Glance
Weather – No shortage of sunshine. It’s really pleasant to be in town right now . Daytime temps in the mid-80’s with a breeze. Nights in the low 70’s. However, not always great to be on the water as Hurricane Willa (hundreds of miles to the south) didn’t mess with us, it did send up some huge swells and strong wind that caused us to shut down our Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing for 2 days. Then, increasing northern winds have made it difficult at time fishing out’ve La Paz. (Also makes it tough to find bait!). The seasons are changing.
Water – The increasing winds are lowering the water temperatures and the water is getting more green although there’s still some great blue water around . It’s all in transition.
Fishing – Maybe it was a combination of variables. Erratic winds. A full moon. Big swells. All of it contributed to a tougher week of fishing. I’ve seen worse. But I have also seen better. We had to work hard to get fish sometimes. Moreso than normal. More cooler water species showing up. Fewer blue-water fish around. Also, the ability to find and catch bait is affected by the weather. Harder to catch bait means harder to catch fish.
Caught This Week – tuna, wahoo, dorado, jack crevalle, lots of bonito, needlefish, roosterfish, pargo liso, cabrilla, triggerfish, dog-tooth snapper, pompano, palometa.
Outlook for Coming Week – Probably alot more of the same. Off-season imminent.
The Big Picture and the Rest of the Story…
Our Montana friend, Darrel Zauner, hooked into a few of these beasts, but finally got a big dog-tooth to the boat!
Gary Pilkington has been visiting us for years and it was good to see him finally get his first wahoo!
Lots of “firsts” this week like this good-looking roosterfish caught by Mike Hanson from Grants’ Pass, Oregon while fishing with Captain Gerardo. The fish is alot bigger than it looks. Both Mike and Captain Gerardo are abut 6’3″ tall! The fish was released.
Outdoor writer, lecturer, author and TV show host, Scott Haugen finally came to visit us from his home in Oregon and put the hurt on this sizeable wahoo using a purple Rapala.
Some good eats here! Two different kinds of pargo caught by Tanner Millspaugh and his dad, Travis, from Washington state.
Two of our new favorite amigos, Debbie Arvin and Lynn Murphy from Colorado, with Captain Armando and some pretty yellowfin tuna.
Great colors on Chris Aiellos, dorado that he caught fishing with our La Paz fleet
A solid day to sea-the-least! Mike and dad Gary Pilkington with a rack of tuna, a dorado plus a wahoo! Grand slam!
First-time visitor from Colorado, in rough water, Don Vanzo got a legit bull dorado on the gaff.
That’s the right kind! John Morgenstern all the way from South Dakota got another tuna into the panga and a great photo!
HI Paula! Well done, amiga! Nice bull dorado!
Alaska in the house! John Daley with Captain Moncho and alot of tuna meat headed to the freezers.
Just too pretty of a photo. This is Jae Shin from Alaska with a roosterfish on the flyrod in Bahia Muertos.
Here’s Jae’s roosterfish caught on the flyrod . Great fun on such light tackle! The rooster was released. That’s Bahia Muertos water.
She’s an author and lecturer and teaches classes in outdoor cooking! Tiffany Haugen poses great with a wahoo in the blue waters near Punta Arenas.
Robbie Boyd and his dad, Bill, and Captain Jorge display a pretty pargo liso an a couple of yellowfin tuna on the beach at Muertos Bay.
He looks grim, but Brian is actually a nice guy with two handfuls of dorado and tuna caught with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
You’re kidding! Greg Garrison and Nic Huff sport THREE big wahoo from a day of fishing right off the rocks at Punta Arenas.
Celebrating Lollie Milano’s retirement, Dana Milano came down for the week and got themselves some nice yellowfin going on ice.
Stan Andre gives a little kiss to his dorado he got while fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Brian’s got another dorado to add to the box! Despite some slow spots, he and his amigos took a nice load of fish home!
Gary Wagner loves light tackle and took this feisty rooster in the shallows in front of his place at Bahia Muertos. The fish was released.
Scott Haugen knows how to pose with a fish…like this colorful dorado.
Nic had never fished before but scored a number of highly covered wahoo!
I think that’s Brian behind the mask with another dorado.
Tough fish to pull out’ve the rocks, but Scott Haugen did the trick after 5 of them got the best of him and broke him off.
Table full ‘o’ tuna for Mike and Kirsten Hanson from Oregon!
Great shot of Mike Pilkington’s first wahoo. Caught with Captain Pancho driving the rig. Nice fish, Mike!
They don’t have many mahi mahi in S. Dakota which is where John Morgenstern will be taking these fillets!
First dorado for Ms. Tiffany. She is such a gamer!
It was a hit-or-miss week of fishing as the warm water season winds down and cooler conditions move in. We often had to work a lot harder for our fish this past week than we’ve been used to during the season but everyone got fish. It just wasn’t as easy or as plentiful in some cases.
It was erratic. One boat would find fish and a boat next to them would struggle. We’d look for tuna and only find dorado. We’d chase dorado and get dog-tooth snapper. A boat trying to pargo or cabrilla would hook a wahoo! Just no rhyme or reason. One day our Las Arenas fleet would be hot and the next day our La Paz fleet would have the hot bite!
A lot of it had to do with the weather. Winds are blowing stronger and coming from all directions at different times of the day. It’s cooling off the water temps. It’s clouding up the water. It’s making bait harder and harder to find as waves crash into the shallow areas disturbing the bait schools.
The big hurricane Willa that hammered far south of us, did not do us any damage. The sun burned brightly every day. But it did throw up some big wave and southerly winds that forced us to cancel two days of fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. As the winds increase from the north, I imagine there will be more days that are tough to fish as the season diminishes.
However, there was a good jag of wahoo this week. Some boats got multiple strikes and landed several.
The tuna were a little more scarce, but little spots of tuna popped up if you could jump on them fast enough. The schools were very often busting water, but were hesitant to eat or would only eat quickly and move on so you only had a small window to get in on the bite. The full moon might have had something to do with that.
Again, we had unusually huge dog-tooth snapper and pargo liso come up off the shallows busting rods (really!) and 150-pound test. We got about 1 out’ve every 8 or 9 hook-ups on these tough fish.
Dorado are still around. Mostly in the 10-15 pound class.
ON a PERSONAL NOTE…
This is been an emotional roller-coaster week. Earlier in the week, my dad passed away. He was 91-years-young.
Many of you knew him. He loved to fish. He loved reading this fishing report. Thankfully to Jill, she jammed a ticket back to Los Angeles in my hand on a “gut feeling” and told me to get back to see him NOW and she kicked me outta La Paz.
I got to spend a few hours with him and hold him for a bit and after spending most of the night with him told him I’d be back in the morning to have breakfast with him. Little did I know that would be the last. The next morning, he took a breath and let go and slipped quietly and peacefully away.
I had to get back to La Paz and three days later…talk about the circle of life, we welcomed Hannah James Reid our 2nd grandchild to our daughter Jessie Reid and Brian Reid. Whoo-hoooo!!!
The circle of life keeps rolling!
Just wanted to reach out to thank the hundreds of you that sent condolences to both Jill and I and also all of you sending congratulations. We do not pass through life alone. Glad to be on the path with so many of you. God bless!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 1-7, 2018
The Mexican Minute Video Fishing Report
Short Attention Span Week at a Glance
Weather – Definitely cooler although water still warm. In the mornings, the water at 86 or 87 degrees is warmer than the air! Daytime temps down to about 92 now. Humidity has thankfully dropped. Quite comfortable. However, more winds and breezes especially from the north which is indicative of the changing season and coming winter…perhaps earlier than we would like. Winds make it harder to fish. We even had a little mini-hurricane by Cerralvo Island that we call “toritos” (little bull) that popped up and then left complete with waterspouts, wind, waves, thunder and lightning.
Water – Still warm and blue but the presence of so many cool-water species like the pargo, pompano, palometa are indicative of cooler water moving in.
Fishing – Incredible numbers of species for this time of year. Normally, it’s dominated by the warm water species like tuna, dorado, wahoo and billfish. But, right now, in addition to those we also have cabrilla, pompano, several types of pargo, jack crevalle, several species of bonito and more.
Outlook for Coming Week – Continued cooler. Might get a spot of rain. Winds increasing
The Big Picture and the Rest of the Story…
Our amigo, Rob Chambers, had himself quite a day doing the hat trick at Las Arenas with 3 exotic species. He started the day nailing this wahoo on a purple rapala (still hanging from the mouth); then he nailed a nice bull dorado (photo below) the caught and released a roosterfish off the Punta Perico rocks! Scroll down for the rest of the photos!
Walt Menda from Sacramento comes down every year and always hangs the big fish fish. This one was with Captain Jorge and he and the fish battled for 2 long hours on light tackle.
Taking a quick week off from Germany where he serves in the U.S. Army, Marcus Yoo was just outside of Bahia Muertos when he took this colorful bull dorado.
That’s alot of meat! Ira Stephens from Washington and Mike Purcell from New York with Captain Jorge show off some nice tuna plus a bonus HUGE pargo liso (mullet snapper)
First-timer, Bryan Loh, from Newport Beach with Captain Gerardo put the hurt on this pretty wahoo using a dark X-Rap Rapala.
Hector and “Aguachile” Henry do it again with a couple of fat La Paz Bay yellowfin tuna.
Our La Paz Fleet really kicked out some nice catches this week. Check out the deck spread of tuna and dorado caught by Curt and Debbie Keller from Utah. First-visit to us!
Two funny guys! Captain Armando with our bud, John Gibbs and a colorful barred pargo.
Now that’s some variety! Marcus with yellowfin tuna, barred pargo, cubera snapper (pargo perro) and triggerfish . Great eating!
Mark Bonsack and Brad Sleder slipped in a quick two-day trip that produced this wahoo.
There was no shortage of tuna for our La Paz Fleet this week which usually relies on the dorado bite! But Captain Chito and Dave Wakabayashi rolled up some nice yellowfin off Espirito Santo Island.
Alex Dombrowski from Washington started off his fishing week with a bang…dorado, barred pargo and pompano for the fish box.
Wow…that’s alot of meat! A big pargo liso to go with tuna and a mess of pompano for Walt Menda and Lloyd Okimura from Sacramento!
Our best amigo, Jorge Romero, took a day off from driving all over Baja and took the biggest tuna of the day!
We had fun with these two! Great visit for the first time from Travis Woodard and Craig Wood and their wahoo.
Another of many trips in the book over the years from Delando Pegan who fished with our La Paz fleet and poses with tuna and dorado (more fish on the stern!). He owns Relik Winery in Oregon and is opening up his new B & B as well.
Jerry Kvaternik from Washington finally made it down to see us after many years! That’s a yellowfin tuna he’s goofing with!
Hard to believe all the pompano we caught this week. I don’t recall ever seeing this many caught. Normally a spring-time fish. Even then we never caught this many! John Gibbs does the honors. Great eating!
1-2-3…LIFT!!! That’s Curt Keller, trying to take a photo with his big roosterfish so he could released it. Captain Victor tries to help!
Nice shot. Powerful fish! Yellowfin tuna for Marcus.
Love that grin, Mike Jacobson! First-time visit with us, he got into the tuna and dorado!
Jae Park and Mike Kingsmore with Captain Ramiro and a nice wahoo. They also caught tuna and dorado over the 3 days of fishing.
Worth the smile after a good day fishing for Bill Bigelman from Washington with wahoo, cabrilla, tuna and dorado on the cutting table!
As good a picture as you might find. Nice bull dorado, Rob Chambers!
Lots of palometa this week which is highly unusual! Great eating fish related to jack crevalle, pompano, roosterfish and yellowtai.
That’s gonna be on a sashime plate! Andrew Bowman back for another year going home with tuna and dorado.
Nothing wrong with Bob Larson’s catch on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos! Tuna and dorado for ready to fillet!
Henry and Hector again! Barred pargo and an upside-down tuna!
Gary Okimoto on his first trip to La Paz with Lloyd Okimura who comes every year! Gary had a good time! Check out the first-day catch of tuna from Muertos Bay!
Armando and Choo…posing with their tuna. Big boy yellowfin!
Good form! Marcus Yoo on the stick has another La Paz tuna!
Jerry has another yellowfin! Washington in the house this week.
Good day for Rob Chambers! Just off the rocks at Punta Perico with a pretty roosterfish. Caught and released. Rob’s first trip to visit us.
Mike Kingsmore and Jae Park with another fat tuna on the beach.
The seasons are noticeably changing. This past week temperatures seemed to have come down a good 5 degrees with daytime temps now in the low 90’s and the humidity has thankfully also eased up a bit. But the surest indicator is that the north winds that blow during out winter off-season months have started to pick up which will surely continue the cooling trend.
The fishing, not so co-incidentally, also seemed to take a bit of a change as well.
Yellowfin tuna that we’ve had all year, but especially the last 2 months took a bit of a slow-down. They’re still here and we caught quite a few, but not as many. Most were in the 10-30 pound class with a few 40-60 pounders. There were some 100+ pounders hooked at the south end of Cerralvo Island, but all of those fish were lost. Still, we had to work a lot harder to find the tuna this past week whereas in other weeks, the tuna were voracious. Some days, some pangas did not get any tuna at all which have been our bread-and-butter fish most of the season…at least for our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet.
However, remarkably, the bite was far better for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet which usually relies on a stead dorado bite to bend rods and fill fish boxes. However, this past week, the tuna bite was actually much more solid and dependable with 25-40 pound yellowfin taking up perhaps 50% of the catch. Whereas in normal years, we see only a handful of tuna for the La Paz fleet, this past week, our pangas were getting 2-10 yellowfin per panga per day!
Another indicator of the changing season is the variety of fish we’ve been catching the last two weeks.
Usually, this time of year warm water species like tuna and dorado dominate the fish counts.
However, in the last two weeks, we’ve gotten more wahoo which are normally late October fish. Also, some of those big dog-tooth / cubera snapper and mullet snapper/ pargo lisos that we normally only see in the cooler spring-time months of March through May. In addition a lot of palometa and pompano were also caught which are also spring-time fish .
We’ll have to keep an eye out for it and see if this is an on-going trend. Or just a slight anomaly. You would have thought with the dark moon this past week the fishing would have been a little stronger. Some boats some days actually really struggled while pangas right next to them were bent all day. Then, it would reverse the next day. But, overall, everyone got fish to bring home.
BIG HEARTS!
Jim Gatti arranged with the Sacramento Chapter of Safari Club International to have his 5 couples bring down a huge load of school supplies, sports equipment and hygiene items this past week. On top of it all, they donated money to our scholarship fund and brought enough to send 2 kids to school for two years with breakfast, books, uniforms and transportation!
Long-time Tailhunter amigos, Brad Baker and Jim Adair hauled down school supplies and tooth brushes.
Over the years, these guys have brought us not only lots of laughs and grins, but lots of donations for our Outreach Program. This week they hauled down several ice chests of new shoes, school supplies, clothes, hygiene products, and sports equipment.
As our season winds down to the last few weeks we need to give a shout-out to all of our Tailhunter Tribe who brought down thousand of pounds of donation items to our Tailhunter Outreach Program which over the past decade has distributed several tons of items to a local orphanage, a Womens Shelter, a Senior Citizen home and an under-served local neighborhood.
This past week even more great items were brought down and we appreciate everyone who found a little extra space in their ice chests and suitcases to stuff some stuff in there for our La Paz amigos. Regretfully, we don’t have photos of everyone who brought donations, but you know who you are and we’re grateful. This stuff changes lives!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 16-23, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE WEEKLY VIDEO REPORT
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN WEEK-AT-A-GLANCE
Weather – It was getting pretty crummy and snotty even before the storm hit us late Tuesday when it started raining and didn’t stop until late Wednesday. So it wasn’t real great at the beginning of the week weather-wise although the fish bit right up to the wind, waves and rain started crashing on our heads.
It wasn’t a hurricane, but it rained or drizzled or misted for over 24 hours. The Port Captain closed down all boat traffic on Wednesday so we couldn’t fish at all.
Temperatures have dropped to the mid-90’s, but humidity is still up. I measure 92% on morning at 5 a.m. and 88% humidity one night at midnight! STICKY! LOL
Water – I’m never sure how the waters will be after a storm as it can really be messed up. It was choppy and rough before the storm hit. After the storm, it was a little off, but not as bad as it might have been. Fish were still hungry
FISHING – Tuna still center-stage from footballs up to 100 pounders. They bit right up to the storm. After the storm, they took about a day or two to get up to speed again, but then it picked up again.
Biggest surprise was all the tuna that showed up just outside of La Paz Bay where the fish foamed. So, we had tuna hitting at both Las Arenas/ Muertos as well as La Paz!
CATCHING – Everyone who wanted fish to bring home had fish. But most of the larger tuna busted off…and busted up some of our anglers who ended up with sore backs, shoulders and arms!
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST OF THE STORY…
With Captain Jorge, Dave, Tony and dad, Felix Basadre from Long Beach pulled this hefty dog-tooth snapper out’ve the rocks! Great catch!
Chris Hutto…yes, you made the fishing report, Bro! From Colorado, Chris got in on the tuna explosion just outside La Paz Bay that surprised everyone and resulted in this 60-pound class yellowfin!
Captain Armando cranks out another big tuna with Steve and Ivy Carey. Check out the all the other fish on the table too! They’re from Marysville CA near Sacramento.
That’s a big rooster! Dennis Wenholz and Captain Pancho were just off the rocks near Punta Perico when Dennis whacked this 80-pound class roosterfish. They fish swam off strong after being released!
That’s the right kind! Dan Lewis from Lancaster started off his week right with this power rocket yellowfin tuna that he fought for almost an hour on light tackle just off the beach.
Our newest Washington friends, Clint and Gloria Carey (married over 50 years and still fishing buddies!) and some of their fat yellowfin.
With ominous storm clouds brewing in the background that would shut us down early in the week, John Ehlers (visits us several times a year) watches Dennis Wenholz with another tuna!
Andrew Suedkamp from Denver pulled out his flyrod the first day and whacked about a half-dozen species including this feisty bonito! Andrew brought his whole gang of 16 from Ground Engineering Consultants for 3 days on the water. Great group!
A double handful of dorado just before the storm hits for Art Sanchez from Victorville CA. They got in 3 good days of fishing before the weather arrived.
Two fun amigos from Oregon! Back to visit us is Marty Sering who came along with buddy, Mat Large with two of their tuna from Punta Arenas.
Elvin “EL” Momon was great fun to have visit us this week on his first fishing trip to La Paz and poses here with two of his yellowfin tuna.
Great colors on Ivy Carey’s bull dorado just at the mouth of Muertos Bay. Headed for dinner at Tailhunter Restaurant.
Phil Rachal has known us since way back in the day, almost 20 years ago and his first day knocked out these quality yellowfin tuna. He’s from W. Sacramento CA.
Nothing wrong with this tuna! Great colors and a smile from Mir Wong from San Diego.
I love this photo!! It’s kinda self-explanatory! John Ehlers and Dennis Wenholz having a ball!
Ivy Carey looks a bit tired after battling this yellowfin tuna just a few hundred yards off the point. Posing here with Captain Armando.
Big smiles . Captain Jorge and Clint Carey from Washington with 4 nice models of tuna!
Good shot! Good tuna. Craig Wong from San Diego with another YFT!
Colorado in the house! Tuna and dorado for Joe Zorack and Aaron Klingsworth.
Captain Gerardo shows give Debbie Omstead a hand with her big yellowfin tuna. Dave Sealy looks on. They’re from Alaska and even Dave noted how rough the waters got before the storm hit us.
Good way to start the week for Brian Hudson and Andrew Suedkamp and some football yellowfin!
Good-bye summer and hello to the fall!
What a week!
We’ve had an excellent bite for the last few weeks, especially on tuna so when the forecast said we might have a “little rain” we expected that usual afternoon localized showers of short duration or the occasional little thunder and lightning cloudburst.
What we got instead wasn’t a hurricane or anything that dramatic. But we got almost 2 days of wetness that included heavy rain or drizzle that just never stopped! We have had hurricanes in the past with lashing torrential rain that might last 4 of 5 hours…and then it’s done!
But at one point this week it rained for about 27 hours! We were telling our Oregon and Washington clients that they brought their weather from the Pacific Northwest down here. We also had some strong gusts of wind and some big seas to go along with it!
It didn’t do us any favors for fishing although the desert has exploded with green everywhere and flowers are in full bloom!
Even as the storm approached the fish kept biting, but then well…it became just too rough and the port captain even shut down all boat traffic and that was it for us . We had to keep everyone on shore for a day. No fishing.
That always worries me because you never know what a storm will do to the waters and the fishing. Will the waters be dirty? Will there be a lot of runoff? Will there be a lot of debris in the water? What about water temps and bait? Lots of variables!
Well, we hit the water on Thursday and while fishing wasn’t up to par, we still got into fish. Much better than I anticipated. By Friday, we were back on our game for the most part. With each passing day away from the storm, the tuna came back harder. The dorado were more willing to bite. Just overall better fishing.
The tuna bite has generally been mostly with our Taihunter Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fleet all season. Fish between 10 and 100 pounds have been the general rule and it’s been very very good for about a month. Mixed with dorado, pargo, cabrilla and a few other species, it’s been solid.
But the big surprise this week was with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet!
Out’ve La Paz Bay, most of the fishing is dorado fishing. Probably 90% of the catch is dorado. It’s the “honey hole” for mahi mahi! Well, this season we’ve little jags of tuna here and there. Pretty surprising all by itself and a nice bonus. But, this past week, we had entire areas bust loose with boiling, foaming tuna! Fish between 20 and 60 pound just blasting out’ve the water and slamming every bait tossed in the water! Friday this past week was especially explosive! In 23 years down here ,I’ve never seen so many tuna!
Hope it continues. We might get s’more showers this week, but nothing major like this last week where the first 3 days of the week were pretty much in the dumps because of weather.
Air temps are cooling. Most day only in the mid-90’s. However, the humidity has been incredible! One morning at 5 a.m. when we were sending out our fishermen it was 92% humidity. One evening at midnight it was 88% humidity!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug 5-12, 2018
Mexican Minute Video Report
Week at a Glance
Weather – We had Hurricane John that bounced in and bounced out. Some flooding, but honestly nothing serious as it headed out towards the Pacific, but enough that we had a few days of winds, rain and waves. Enough to cause a nuisance and shut down fishing for 2 days. But, even after it technically went it’s way the days in the aftermath still were cloudy…some rain…some thunder and lightning and winds. Very unpredictable and erratic.
Water – Did not take as bad a hit as after other storms where the water is very turned over and dirty. Since there wasn’t torrential rain, there wasn’t enough run-off to dirty the water. Waters relatively blue and clear at 83 degrees.
Fishing – Week started pretty well with big tuna, and dorado. Then the storm hit and you always wonder what it will do to the fishing. How long will the fish take to recover. Surprisingly, the fish were fair good to us. Not great, but not as bad as other times. We still had action although we had to work harder for them, but everyone caught fish. Surprised to see cooler water fish like pargo and pompano showing up. Are waters getting colder already? We usually don’t see these fish except in late winter and spring!
Catching – Still losing the majority of those big tuna; a couple of wahoo bites; and more dorado than we should! But that’s fishing! Everyone took home meat that wanted meat.
The Big Picture and the Rest of the Story…
Big tuna for Laura Hernandez and Mark Buchanan from San Diego who battled the big fish just off Punta Arenas. The fish were measured at about 50-55 pounds each.
A good reason NOT to be out fishing! Waterspout off Cerralvo Island during the storm! (Taken from the beach!) . Thanks for the shot, Rusty Cain!
Little vide of the beginning of Hurricane John.
Even after the hurricane “left” we still had localized and intermittent shower and thunderstorms all week. Pretty shot! Thanks, Mark Buchanan!
The fishing rabbi from Portland Oregon, our amigo, Sheldon Donnell used to have a temple in Orange Co, but retired to Portland and often came to fish in La Paz with Tailhunter Sportfishing. He got this nice bull just off the rocks near Punta Arenas.
One of our favorite all-time families! Diego and Kelly Sanchez from Loveland, Colorado brought granddaughter, Selena down who had a great time fishing. Here’s one day’s fun of tuna, dorado, triggerfish and pargo! Plus they released jack crevalle and bonito.
Bryan Forward from Carlsbad wasn’t fishing for roosterfish just north of La Paz, but while fishing in a dorado school with Captain Rogelio from the Tailhunter Fleet, this big boy popped up and chewed his bait and the battle was on. The fish was released.
I think one day, Al Sandstrom will probably move down here. He just has too good a time fishing! Dorado in hand caught with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.
Skies are still cloudy but the smiles are real! Captain Jorge with Mark Hawkins and Harry Hsu posed with 3 of their 5 yellowfin on the beach at Muertos.
That’s alot of mahi mahi for Mark Buchanan and wife, Laura Hernandez from San Diego. Always in the fish!
He’s a little tired! Tony Smith has 4 big tuna on the table. First time down here and he had a good time.
Lee Carlson with Captain Moncho of the Tailhunter Fleet is from Denver. He hooked this roosterfish not far off the beach near Punta Perrico near La Paz and fought it for over an hour on light tackle and said “The fish did me in!”
The best is when someone catches their first fish ever! Rob Forward of Carlsbad and Captain Rogelio with his first dorado!
So crazy unusual to be catching pargo liso because normally, they are cooler water fish we catch from Feb. to April! But, Shelly Donnell got this one off the rocks at Punta Perrico. Great eating! Tough fighter too!
Hope came to visit us from Idaho for the first time and got her first dorado showing here on the beach at Balandra! Great to have her down!
Colorado friends since college, these two have been Tailhunter amigos for many years. Always smiling, Frank Kunze and Lee Carlson with a pretty good day out’ve Muertos Bay of tuna and dorado.
This one weighed out at over 52 pounds for Laura Hernandez. These are beast fish! Check out how close she is to the beach at Punta Arenas!
Football-sized yellowfin tuna showed up later in the week that were alot of fun and surely easier than the 60 pounders earlier in the week. San Diego boys in the house!
Captain Gerardo photo-bombs a dorado photo of Cal Lambert from Colorado trying to pose with one of several nice dorado caught just before the storm hit!
Harry Hsu and John Land with Captain Jorge and a nice haul of dorado and triggerfish.
Alex Moser from San Diego and his amigos with a big 50 pounder that took over an hour to land!
Laura has a knack for getting big fish! Nice bull dorado off Las Arenas Point!
We had a strange and crazy week. Things were going pretty nicely and then out’ve nowhere, what looked like a week of intermittent showers and occasional rain suddenly got a name and turned into “Hurricane John!” It got us scrambling!
These things are un-predictable and although it was only a “Category One” storm, we’ve seen them do some erratic things over the years and while the storm path didn’t have John barreling directly into us, it was going to glance off the southern tip of Baja and bounce out pretty hard.
The storm warnings went out and the clouds, wind and rain came in. Thunder, lightning and even water spouts! Some flights got diverted and although we never got the heavy hit, it was enough to have the Port Captain shut down the port and ban all boat traffic. Big waves and strong winds didn’t help.
Of course, that meant cancelations; no fishing; and lots of schedule juggling. It’s too bad because fishing had been pretty good.
Then the storm left. Sort of.
The port opened, but for several days, we didn’t know if the port captain would change his mind and shut things down again. So there were days when we had everyone ready, but also telling them they might have to head back to their rooms if the port captain shut things down again.
Because while “John” moved off, it never really completely left and almost each day, we had threats of wind, rain and big seas and occasional thundershowers and left everyone wondering what the next day would be like and days when we went fishing and still got wet.
Fortunately, the waters didn’t take too hard a hit from the storm and fishing the rest of the week was a lot better than I thought it would be although it still was not quite as good as it had been.
Everyone still got fish!
At Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay for our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, the big tuna were still around although a bit pickier. However, smaller fun football sized 10-20 pounders showed up right off Punta Arenas not far from the lighthouse. Also, decent dorado up to about 25 pounds rounded things out and surprisingly we got pompano and nice big pargo liso snapper that usually we only catch in the springtime. It makes me wonder if cooler waters are already moving in! Several roosterfish also hooked and released in the 30-50 pound category.
For our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, dorado were centerstage again. Most of the fish were 5 to 20 pounders, but if you find the right spot, it could be crazy frenzied fishing. Most days, the boats got limits or near limits although some days the bite didn’t take off until late in the day. If boats left too early they sometimes missed the bite.
So, overall, not too bad given the weather. It could have been a lot worse!
TAILHUNTER OUTREACH – GRACIAS!
Diego Jimenez and his family from Loveland CO
Wes Perkins and Roger Hall from Oregon
Matt Chase, Terry Biggs, Mitch Embry and Rich Keogh
I’m sorry I don’t have ALL the photos of everyone who brought donations or school supplies, clothes, shoes, hygiene and other needed items for our Tailhunter Outreach Program. But, e are so grateful for the generosity. This year alone, we’ve collected over 1000 pounds of much-needed items that we distribute to the community. Some of the photos above are just from the last week and all of this went to the school and orphanage in Los Planes near Las Arenas. With school starting this week, the supplies and clothes were much appreciated!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 8-15, 2018
Mexican Minute Video Report
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Weather – Hot and humid! Temps in upper 90’s during the day. Low 80’s at night. Bring shorts and don’t forget your hat and sunglasses and sunscreen. Warmer weather means better fishing! Before we whined about too much wind. Now some days we wish we had a breeze!
Water – In the 80’s, but last week water temps dropped from the mid-80’s to low 80’s and it seemed to affect the fish with the abrupt change. Cooler waters got a bit dirtier. Find the blue warmer water for the best bite and to locate fish. Got better as the waters cleared up later in the week.
Fishing – Dorado are 70% of the bite right now. More fish schooling up which is great and very typical of warm summer fishing. Seeing more marlin these days. Still tuna, roosterfish and wahoo around. But more folks targeting the mahi.
Catching – Alot easier to catch dorado than other species!
The Big Picture and the Rest of the Story…
Chance Wallis all the way from Kentucky was dragging live bait close to the rocks near Las Arenas when he got this big roosterfish to roll up on it. The fish was released.
Nice start to a fishing vacation for John Vondrak and his buddy, Kirk. A table full of dorado fillets!
Greg Garrison from San Diego always does well with the fish when he’s down fishing La Paz and took this speedy wahoo trolling a Rapala just outside of Bahia de los Muertos.
Hard to find a prettier photo than this! Nice wahoo for Gary Wagner, owner of the Rancho Costa in Muertos Bay and the famous Giggling Marlin bar in Cabo. Thanks for all the photos, Gary!
She didn’t have to go out far for this nice tuna. Sydney Wagner from Colorado Spring CO staying at Rancho Costa in Muertos Bay hung this nice tuna just around the corner relatively close to shore.
Captain Joel poses with Bennett Clegg’s big bull caught just off Espirito Santo Island north of La Paz…dorado-landia!
Matt Wallis has his hands full with this fat yellowfin tuna off Cerralvo Island.
On the flyrod, Tom Zelibor from Colorado got this nice dorado to his his pattern.
Matt and Jackson Duystschaever with their striped marlin with Gary Wagner at Rancho Costa. Muertos Bay in the background. The fish could not be released.
Jackson Duytschaever is all smiles with his roosterfish. Jackson is from Colorado and released the fish.
Another happy Colorado fisheman, Paul Milewski has a big tuna to hold up for his photo.
It was a decent week of fishing down here. Like seemingly everywhere else on the west coast, weather was hot, dry and humid although water temps took a bit of a dive for some reason dropping from 85 to 81 degrees and getting a little cloudier and greener.
Still…everyone caught fish. Not as many tuna or wahoo as the previous week, but the dorado bite seemed to fill the gaps with more dorado being caught each week. This is a typical summer pattern.
Y’know how in California people say, “It feels like earthquake weather” when it’s hot and humid and still? Down here, we say, “Feel like dorado weather.”
Some boats did better than others and some days were better than others. However, for most of our anglers fishing multiple days, the could count on getting bit.
The secret is finding the right spot. There’s a lot of fish, but the fish are not everywhere. Locating the right current line (warmer water); or bluer water was key. But also finding structure like floating and clumping sargasso weed on the surface could make the difference.
In addition to the dorado, there’s still some chunky tuna around. The smller fish are 40 pounders. Not many folks looking for roosterfish, but they’re along the shores and good sized between 40 and 70 pounds .
Wahoo are still hanging out as well, but we’re losing more than we’re catching and we also saw more hookups on striped marlin this week than any other week with most fish either busting off or getting released.
La Paz- Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 17-24, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Weather – High 80’s low 90’s and mostly sunny. Had some tropical afternoon clouds and a few raindrops fell but just very nice as it blew through. The afternoon corumuel tradewinds cool things down nicely. Still a bit breezy out there during the fishing day
Water – Got a bit cooler after last week’s storm, but little-by-little, the warming waters are burning off the algae bloom. Find the blue water and you have a better chance of finding fish. Cooler waters are green and a bit dirty so get away from it.
Fishing – Las Arenas holds the bigger fish…and seemingly not a whole lot else. La Paz fish aren’t so big, bit there’s alot more fish so alot more action.
Catching – See above! Bigger fish are harder to catch. Hence losing more fish too!
THE BIG PICTURE and REST of THE STORY…
Mark Brown, from Vernal UT, had traveled the world for 5 years trying to get a roosterfish going to places like Costa Rica, Panama and various parts of Mexico unsuccessfully. He thought he’d give it a try with Tailhunter in La Paz and only had one day. And it was after Hurricane Bud had blown through. Waters were dirty and turned over. And they were only able to catch one single ladyfish for bait. But it was enough! With his wife, Toni, they got this dandy pez gallo just outside of Bahia de los Muertos estimated between 50-60 pounds. The fish was released.
Zach Smith was up at the north end of Cerralvo Island and got one fish for the whole day, but it was one of the nicer tuna of the week. It’s a fat one. It’s a bit of a run to the north, but if you get one of these fish, it’s well worth it.
Dave Frausto from Sacramento has been a good amigo for many years and made a last-minute trip to fish with us for a few days. With Captain Adolfo, he scored a nice wahoo and topped with with a tasty amberjack as well.
On vacation from Sequim, Washington, Kim Tomajko, got the big fish of the family their first day on the water with a nice bull dorado fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Big smiles for Toni Brown who brought this nice yellowfin back to the beach and headed for poke and sashime at our Tailhunter Restaurant. She’s from Utah, but lived in Hawaii and knows her tuna!
First time in Mexico. First time in La Paz and first time fishing for Dani who put this dorado on the boat as her first. Zach Smith helps with the fish and photo! The also got other dorado and a nice mix of pargo and cabrilla.
Speedy ‘hoo for Janc, who poses with his wahoo while staying out at Muertos Bay at Gary Wagner’s Rancho Costa Hotel.
Captain Raul helps Alicia Tomajko give a kiss to her big bull dorado.
It takes two hands on these hefty yellowfin right now. Mark Brown pulled this guy out near Espirito Santo Island fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Just off the rocks at Espirito Santo Island, Zach got another nice dorado using live bait.
It was an OK fishing week for the most part down here. I’m a little disappointed that it’s taking longer for the waters to bounce back after last week’s Tropical Storm BUD came through. Fishing had been pretty decent prior to the storm and initially just after the blow, I had been pretty optimistic. It looked like conditions had re-bounded.
But, not quite as fast as we had wanted or thought.
Waters around Muertos Bay, Punta Arenas and Cerralvo Island still aren’t quite back. My Tailhunter captains are telling me the water is still a bit cloudy and turned over and it’s been reflected in the fishing. There just hasn’t been a lot going on. The main issue is the bait. It’s been difficult at best to get consistent bait.
On top of that, with nagging winds post storm Bud, the waters are slow coming back up to snuff. There have still been some nice grade tuna hanging out as well as some billfish, dorado and wahoo. But, you either get a big fish or nothing. It’s home runs or a strike out.
One boat finds bait. The next one struggles. One boat finds fish. The one right next to it can’t get anything to chew.
Our best and most consistent fishing has been with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.
Maybe not so many big fish, but in terms of action…in terms of funner fishing…in terms of variety, fishing with our La Paz fleet has been much less erratic.
It’s not surprising for one of our pangas to come back with a half-dozen species of fish that included dorado between 10 and 30 pounds; some smaller yellowtail and amberjack; several species of pargo; several species of snapper; and some nice cabrilla. Add in action with jack crevalle, skipjack, white and common bonito and it makes for a nice day on the water. PLUS, bait is much easier to find or buy!
MUCHAS GRACIAS!
To all our good folks who brought more donations for our various charities down here. In just the last two weeks alone, we’ve collected more than 100 pounds of goods to add to our already growing pile. The Tomajko family below and also thanks to Dan Armstrong, John Tepley, Rob Baird and Rocky Schneider who brought stuff, but I did not have a chance to take their photos!
The Tomajko family (and Jill’s hand) holding some great stuff for the kid’s orphanage at Las Arenas including school supplies and boxes of toothbrushes and more!
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