A WEIRDLY GOOD WEEK…I THINK!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Bahia Muertos / Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of June 16-23, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
One of several marlin hooked and either broke off or released by Bernie Cooks from Reno NV. This one was a big blue that broke off at the boat on light tackle. Dozens were hooked this week and most were either released or broke off. Very few were kept.
First-time visitor, Jim Price from the Riverside CA area with a huge bull dorado on the beach at Bahia Muertos.
Yup! Those are the first real tuna of the season taken on the backside of Cerralvo Island chasing the porpoise schools. Captain Jorge with long-time Tailhunter amigo, Steve Ritz and new amigo, Owen Cruz.
Every year, same time year-after-year, Kelly Jimenez from Loveland CO hits big fish with captain Pancho like this hefty roosterfish she caught and released out’ve Bahia Muertos.
Yea! Finally some wahoo on the deck! Chris Garden from Arizona staying a Rancho Costa shows off the speedster taken on that purple Rapala.
What a trip he had! Jaxon Adams from Utah with his dad, Jeff, had a long battle on this striped marlin while fishing with our La Paz fleet.
Matt Cooley from S. Africa really wanted to catch a roosterfish and had only one day to do it. Check out this beauty that Captain Gerardo estimated over 80 pounds. Matt struggles to heft it for the photo before releasing it.
This is a MONSTER!!! Huge bull dorado for Owen Cruz. Not just his first time to La Paz but also his first time fishing on the ocean and on his FIRST day he hits the jackpot.
Tim and Gavin Corcoran rocked this nice wahoo out’ve Bahia Muertos from Gary Wagner’s place at Rancho Costa.
Lynn Starnes is a great angler and a heckuva a professional photographer. Most of the marlin photos in this week’s report are all here fantastic shots. Here she is with a rooster of her own with Captain Jorge before a quick release.
Young Noah Stark gets help from mom, dad and Captain Rogelio on this thick marlin. He also released another one. Nicely done! The meat was donated.
Captain Jorge gives a thumbs-up for the rooster photo with Bernie Cooks cradling this nice fish. The fish was released.
Check the head on this big bull dorado! Kelly was fishing with Captain Chito when she put the wood to this trophy mahi.
Matt Brown from Philadelphia give Sean Gill from Colorado on his big striped marlin he caught fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. They donated much of the fish.
Has to be one of the best photos of the week. Early morning dorado for first timer amigo, Chuck Gibson fishing with Captain Jorge how has a great smile for the catch. This needs to be framed.
Heidn Bahr only had one day to squeeze in for fishing, but with Captain Arcangel, he put her onto this marlin that resulted in a long long battle.
First-timer and first-day luck for Jaxon Adams who gets a hand from his dad on this big-headed bull dorado.
Table full of football tuna ready to get cleaned and a good photo with Jim Price who got in on the early tuna bite this week.
The rough windy ocean doesn’t deter Rhonda Hoyt with the big smiles for hooking this dorado north of La Paz.
Just a crazy beautiful photo! Stephanie Stark with son, Noah and Captain Pancho off the cliffs with a pretty rooster ready for release.
He always gets into the fish, Dr. Santiago Morales has an ice chest full of tuna fillets to bring home.
Scott and A.J. Dworak with Captain Armando show off some of their first-day tuna. The boys are from Colorado.
Great sample of some of the variety available right now. Kelly and Diego with dorado, triggerfish, pargo, snapper and cabrilla.
Jeff has a dorado for the camera to start the day and great colors ready to release.
In some ways the fishing this past week was not as good as it had been. There were alot fewer fish caught. But, what we lacked in quantity, was more than set off by the quality of the fish we caught. Maybe our anglers didn’t catch as many fish, but the fish they did catch were bigger.
I have to be honest, it was kind of a weird and erratic week. It wasn’t a great week. There was some great fishing. It wasn’t a bad week. But, there was some bad fishing. It was up-and-down and it was sideways. Bottom line, everyone caught fish. But, it was all over the place!
Alot had to do with winds that blew strong and cold in the mornings…and sometimes into the afternoons. Where did these winds come from? Totally unpredictable. We found ourselves wearing jackets in the morning. But, the winds really played a factor in clouding up the water and also blowing apart the big sargasso weed patches that were holding all those dorado for weeks.
All that great dorado action we’ve had for about 3 weeks dissipated somewhat. Definitely not as many dorado hit this week. However, the size and quality of the fish we hooked were some of the largest fish I have seen in decades. We had fish that were well over the 40-45 pound mark with some larger fish lost. A few of the bulls had heads that were easily 12-18 inches across and put up spectacular fights.
We even had tuna finally show up under the porpoise schools way on the outside. Football-sized fish of 10-15 pounds were running with the schools outside of Cerralvo Island, but on several days, our anglers fished them until they ran out’ve bait and the fish foaming and wanting more! This is really the first time we’ve had tuna in almost 3 years. Perhaps it also has something to do with the appearance of schools of tuna 6” squid we’re finding in the waters and in the bellies of the fish.
Roosterfish were as small as 15-20 pounds. But in many cases, especially if larger baits were used were 70-90 pounders! Almost all fish were released.
MARLIN!
The most remarkable even of the week were the marlin that finally decided to bite.
Again, I think alot of the great fishing this year had to do with the fact that Covid protocols kept all activities of the water this year so the fish had time to grow. Bait was unmolested. There was almost zero traffic on the water.
Brent Gaddis from San Diego .
So, for the first time in many years, we have had a wild billfish bite this past week. I am not kidding if I tell you that we maybe had 30-50 marlin biters this past week! Unheard of!
On several days, our pangas were hooking or getting bit by 1-5 marlin or sailfish per day! Whether they wanted a marlin or not, the marlin were literally swimming around the pangas sometimes. Folks who weren’t interested in hooking a marlin told me they drove the boat away from the spots and the marlin still followed them.
Diego Jimenez from Colorado
Marty Sering from Oregon
Others, fishing lighter tackle for dorado or other species suddenly found themselves on a long-battle…some lasting well over an hour…on these billfish. A number of first-timers got the thrill of a lifetime hooking several billfish on long struggles . On several occasions, there were double and triple hook-ups on marlin or folks would be hooked on a smaller dorado or bonito only to have a huge marlin eat the hooked fish! Exciting stuff!
FYI…probably 90% of all the billfish either broke off or were released. The photos shown in this week’s report represent only a tiny fraction of the fish hooked and in many cases, the anglers shown had already released other fish before finally running into a fish that could NOT be released. Much of the marlin meat was donated to folks that needed food.
Other species this week included, amberjack, snapper, pargo, cabrilla, bonito, skipjack, pompano and jack crevalle.
That’s my story!
Jonathan & Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter Sportfishing
www.tailhunter.com
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