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FLASH UPDATE TUNA BITE! La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of May 29-June 5, 2011

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Cerralvo Island Fishing, Chad Schearer, dorado, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, pargo, roosterfish, sea of cortez, Shoot Straight TV, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail on June 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

FLASH UPDATE - We got a few flurries of big tuna being lost, but finally, the fish came up and bit big time late...all out at the 88 spot. Big fish in the 80-200 pound class like this estimated 150 pounder that Roger Thompson got. We had two clients bust off on fish and another that lost a rod and reel (Penn International) that went overboard when he got tired and changed hands right when the fish surged during a 2-hour battle. No telling how long the fish will stay, but some big boys on the growl! Will keep you posted!

It's really hard to pose correctly for a good photo when a big fresh ticked-off bull dorado comes aboard on the gaff and is whacking you in the gut, crotch and kneecaps, but this big bull by Jon Luker of Arroyo Grande shows off one of the big dorado we got this week with dorado action heating up just-in-time for the summer bite with some 20-40 pound fish already in the mix! Jon is one of our best long-time amigos and he got this fish just north of La Paz where sargasso weeds and schools of mahi are starting to build up!

Sometimes they even let my rusty Baja bones in the pangas! It was another great week of roosterfishing! Check out this nice pez gallo that Walker Schearer nailed on light tackle just off the little cliffs outside of Bahia de Los Muertos. The 10-year-old caught many of his first and largest fish over the week including dorado, roosters, jacks and many others! Pretty good for a Montana kid on his first trip to Mexico!

Vince Acosta got his "personal best" largest dorado ever fishing with us and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. The Pacific Beach angler was fishing near Espiritu Santo Island north of La Paz with his buddy, Jude Martinez (see photo below) when they ran into the big schools.

When you use a PINK reel and wear wild checkered shorts like Mike Davis, how can I not post your photo in the weekly report? LOL...Despite warming waters and air temps, we're still getting some yellowtail here and there. Mike got this one fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet just out of Bahia de Los Muertos!

Nice way to start the morning with barred pargo in the boat for Jeff Marston caught out of Muertos Bay fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Barred pargo have been a nice bottom species for us the last few weeks.

A mess 'o' pargo and cabrilla (seabass) meat is what Mike O'Neil and Joe Jacobs got going for them with this nice catch of barred pargo they nailed fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Wish Mike had looked up! Both are from the San Diego area.

There was a rumor that they had to wake Jude Martinez up when this big dorado bit as he was snoozing! But he did get it to the boat and that's what counted. It was a pretty solid week of dorado fishing especially for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

We were all this age! When you are 8-years-old every fish is worthy of a big smile and "show-and-tell." Wyatt Schearer came to visit us from Montana where he actually has a trout pond on the family property and knows how to fish, but couldn't be prouder of this nice yellowtail he got in Pilots Cove! He pulled on it like a veteran!

One nice surprise the last week or two has been the appearance of pompano...members of the jack family related to roosterfish, jack, crevalle, yellowtail and amberjack...these great eating fish are fun to catch and we've been finding them on the dropoffs next to sandy areas of the beach or rocks. Chip Chandler of San Diego holds up one he got out of Las Arenas.

This past week or so, many clients have been catching either personal best "largest" fish or personal best "first time ever" fish. Chad Shearer, the popular host of the outdoor show "Shoot Straight" http://www.shootstraightTV.com put down his rifles and bow to come visit us getting 19 different species in 3 days fishing many on the flyrod and light tackle including this rooster which was revived and released.

DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH COME ON STRONG TO START SUMMER BITE!

La Paz/Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 29 to June 5, 2011

FLASH UPDATE:

After I had posted up the fishing report we got all kinds of late reportr that I couldn’t get in on time. The big boy tuna finally came up on us out at the 88 spot outside of Cerralvo Island. These are BIG fish up to 200 pounds and several guys had long battles only to lose fish . Others broke rods and reels. Others just quit realizing they were overmatched. Some of these fish are being fought for 1-3 hours! We’ll keep you posted! Exciting stuff and never sure how long this will last!

_____________________________

And now back to your regular fishing programing…read on!!!!

No doubt! Unless something drastic happens, I’d say
we’ve turned the corner and dorado season is finally here. It’s about
time. Air temperatures have been warm enough for several weeks, but it
took awhile for the waters to catch up. A little over a week ago, they
edged over the 80 degree mark and like throwing a switch, fish that were only
mildly interested like marlin, sailfish, wahoo and especially the dorado
finally woke up!

Although the bite hasn’t been wide-open, it can be!

Several times our boats got into big schools of dorado with
non-stop action and other times, boats hit a fish here and a fish there and at
the end of the day…wow…uh…hey, Joe…we have a stack of fish in the
box! Occasionally, there’s some slower moments and only a few are caught
but overall, this is looking really optimistic as we roll into June and the
summer bite. The nice thing too, is that we’re getting some nice quality
fish mixed in as well!

Last season we had a good dorado bite, no doubt. But
so many of the fish were punk 5-10 pounders…all year! Sure, there were
some bigger fish, but a “big” fish last year was 20 pounds instead of
the big 30-40 pound bulls that we are used to hooking. But this year so
far, in just the last 2 weeks, we’ve already gotten more 20-40 pound fish than
I remember all last year! The bigger fish are getting taken more by our
La Paz fleet than our Las Arenas fleet as there appears to be a better
concentration of bait and floating sargasso weeds north and east of La
Paz. But, our Las Arenas boats are getting dorado too.

Actually, quite a mix of fish.

Our La Paz fleet is getting more dorado and collateral
hookups on big cabrilla , pargo, roosterfish, marlin and sails.

Our Las Arenas fleet is getting more of a “buffet”
with catches of dorado mixed with barred pargo, smaller cabrilla, the
occasional tuna and roosterfish and wahoo.

There’s some BIG roosterfish out there right now. It
seems every week we’re getting (and releasing) roosters in the 50-80 pound category…many
after incredble battles on light tackle. There’s several spots that have
been very productive with most fish in the 10-30 pound class and almost all of
them getting released.

Oh…and we’re still getting a few stray yellowtail too!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

It’s actually a mixture of the last week-and-a-half, but hope you enjoy it. I’m working with some new cameras and editing program so bear with me and we’ll work out the bugs. Still…I think it’s not bad for a first effort with the new gear! Got some nice footage for you to check out including some underwater shots too! Just click the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hks6bWSXYI

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

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

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

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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of May 22-29, 2011

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Cerralvo Island Fishing, Chad Schearer, dorado, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, pargo, roosterfish, sea of cortez, Shoot Straight TV, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged bahia de los suenos, baja fishing, baja mexico, cerralvo island fishing, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Paz fishing, la ventana fishing, light tackle fishing, mexico fishing, mexico fishing report, muertos bay fishing, panga fishing, sea of cortez fishing, southern baja fishing, sportfishing packages, tailhunter international on May 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

It was finally a week where the dorado decided to join the party and just-in-time for Chad Schearer's TV show "Shoot Straight" and his family to show up with the cameras. http://www.shootstraightTV.com Chad is the TV host of the program and usually travels the world with either a bow or muzzle-load rifle, but is quite a celebrity with the flyrod as well. He filmed all week with us and one of his sponsors is Cabela's Outdoor Stores. They wanted him to test out their new 6-piece travel flyrod that looked so thin and light a trout would've broken the 10 wt stick! Chad's intent was to get a big roosterfish on it, but when a big dorado charged through, it was GAME ON! Chad battled this monster 40-pound rooster on the light flygear for 1 hour and 45 minutes! He had never gotten a dorado before and this was a personal best...and all in front of the cameras!

Wahoooo! We finally got one to the boat. For weeks, I've been saying the conditions are right and Roger Thompson finally nailed one on a rapala at the north end of Cerralvo Island. He said te day was going slow (note the tuna boat in the back!) but he usually comes through and this 60 pound class speedster topped the day!

It was a stellar week for roosters for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets with fish up to 80 pounds. Sheldon "Doc" Schearer is a minister and sherrif's officer from Montana and this 60 pound rooster was a personal best. It ate a live sardine in about 10 feet of water near the Las Arenas lighthouse and took 1/2 an hour to battle. The fish was released. In fact, they caught 6 that day and all but one fish were put back in the water.

Tailhunter's own Jilly Roldan got into the nice dorado bite late this week posing with San Diego's Joe Jacobs in the blue waters of Balandra Bay north of La Paz. They also got roosterfish and small yellowtail, but ran into a spot of dorado that blew up on them and they lost count of the fish with double and triple hookups!

Tihs is the first week that dorado bit consistently. Not surprisingly, the waters edged over 80 degrees too and the winds calmed down. hmmmm...funny how that works! But the week started slowly, but by mid-week the counts were going up with mostly smaller fish in the 5-10 pound category, but as the week went on, there were more 20-40 pound fish in the counts and hardly anything prettier than a lit up mahi on the hook like this one taken off Espiritu Santo Island this week.

Even last season we didn't see many bull dorado over 20 pounds, but this week we had some fish in the 30, 40 and one that may well have been over 50 pounds! Jill got this one on the NE corner of Espiritu Santo Island just off the drop-off on live bait. Captain Joel holds it up for the photo! The waters are holding various spots of fish but they're scattered in all the usual places with many holding under building schools of sargasso weeds floating on the surface!

Even tho' waters kicked into "summer mode," there were still some "cooler water" fish around like this decent yellowtail held by Lisa Chandler of La Mesa CA. We actually took a few of these YT's this week.

Even when the fish weren't biting it seemed there were often schools of dolphin blasting through...wherever dolphin go! It was not unusual to see half the fleet suddenly stop what they were doing to follow the schools! This one was between Cerralvo and Espiritu Santo Island.

For alot of our clients and friends this week, it was their first time tangling with roosterfish and underlines why La Paz waters are called the "roosterfish capital of the world." Joe Jacobs from San Diego took this nice one in Pilot's Cove north of La Paz and released it.

The roosters were biting for BOTH our Tailhunter La Paz and Tailhunter Las Arenas fleets. Captain Jorge with our Las Arenas fleet helps Marsha Schearer pose with this slug rooster caught in shallow water just outside Bahia de Los Muertos.

SLOW START TO WEEK CRANKS UP WITH DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH!

Las Arenas/ La Paz Fishing Report for Week of May 22-29, 2011

Amazing what a difference a week can make. Take away a
full moon; strong winds; green water; and inconsistent water
temperatures…little things like that…and WHAM…THE FISH BITE! In
fact, water temps hit 80+ for the first time this year and it was a 180 degree
turn from the strange fishing last week. In fact, it was a pretty decent
week of fishing!

It didn’t start out like that! At the beginning, it was scratch fishing at
best. I was pretty worried. But…the conditions changed!

Hey, for the first time, dorado bit consistently with nice
patches of sargasso weed building up in the surrounding channels and while many
of the fish were firecracker punks in the 5-10 pound class, there were still
some nicer fish running in the 20-40 pound class (and even one or two that sure looked like 50-pound-class dorado) that really got folks
excited. In fact, we had Chad Schearer, nationally known host of the
outdoor TV show “Shoot Straight” filming the entire week (www.shootstraightTV.com) with us and
Chad, who had never flyfished Baja before and came to tie on a big roosterfish,
instead threw a pattern at boiling bonito and a huge 40-pound class
dorado bit his 10wt rod and it was “fish on!” And epic battle
lasted almost 2 hours as the fish bulldogged down on the light line but finally
Chad got the fish to the boat and was almost speechless in front of the
cameras!

As well, we got into some incredible roosterfish
action. Some stops with both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets resulted in
double and triple roosterfish hookups. Fish ranged from 10 to as large as
80-pounds this week with some incredible battles on light tackle, flyrods and
spinning gear when anglers fishing for smaller “fun” fish instead got
blown up on larger world-class roosters that almost brought some anglers to
their knees on the smaller gear.

Overall, just a great week with additional species that
included some big cabrilla, jack crevalle, barred pargo, striped marlin (hooked
and lost and released); sailfish (hooked and lost and released), pompano,
bonito, barracuda and even some very very late yellowtail in the 10-15 pound
class. We even got a huge 9-foot mako
shark that ate a small dorado hooked by one of our amigos. They got it to the boat and wisely decided to
cut it loose!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

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

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 May 15-22, 2011

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dorado, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, pargo, roosterfish, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail on May 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This is a "pig" of a yellowfin tuna! Scott Shiminesky from Pacific City in Oregon was up at the north end of Cerralvo Island with Captain Pancho. They had already run out've live bait and decided to drop back a big mackerel-pattern Bomber lure. They had just gotten it into the water when the freight train hit. "I almost burned the hell outta my thumb!" But after a 30 minute fight got the fish to the boat and it weighed out at 72-pounds. His amigo, Larry Parnell got a 30 pounder as well. The tuna continue to tease. Everyone gets excited then the fish disappear! But, still a great fish!

FRESH ONE! Are there many shots prettier than this? Tuna...game over! Forty pounder coming to the gaff. At the end of the week a flurry of nice-sized YFT's showed up on the radar!

Roger Thompson is an excellent fisherman and if there's fish to be found, he's usually in the thick of it. Like I write below, the winds died and the fish came to play like this 42-pound yellowfin tuna. (See Roger's account below). I had to post up this photo because Roger is usually incredibly photogenic with his fish, but here he's in pain lifting up this fat fish!

The benefits of having TWO fleets! After two slow days at Las Arenas, we suggested that Kevin Blakely and his son Kevin and brother, Kim, (not shown) fish with our La Paz fleet and Captain Chito. Wow...what a difference a day makes! See his comments below.

The last few weeks have been some of the most consistently great weeks for BIG cabrilla that I have seen in awhile especially around Espiritu Santo Island. Look at this fat slug cabrilla that Donna Thompson is holding up! She was fishing with Capt. Chito.

First time visitor to La Paz, Bryan Graybill, got into the cabrilla bite with four of these trophy cabrilla landed.

All the way from Billings, Montana for his first rooster, Jess Landers escaped the snow and fished with Captain Juan and got this nice rooster. Roosterfishing has actually been a good fallback even when the other fishing has been off. Even if not good eating and most getting released, they're a blast to hook and fight!

Our buddy Rick Hosmer from S. California had another banner trip down here. He comes several times a year and had one day where they had non-stop action on these great eating barred pargo that are tough as any fish to horse outta the rocks near Las Arenas.

From Texas, Kevin Blakely holds up one of several yellowtail off the north end of Cerralvo Island north of La Paz. Captain Chito is hooked up at the stern. That's the sealion colony in the background.

Another of our regular die-hard good amigos who comes several times a year is Al Tesoro. He hung in there durring the tougher times this week but did get some pargo like this nice dog-tooth with Captain Yofo.

WEEK STARTS AND ENDS STRONG BUT SEVERAL DAYS MID-WEEK STRUGGLED!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 15-22, 2011

It’s hard to describe the week. Started strong…then mid-week, it hit a bump….but then finished on a high note!

The week started strong for fishing then as the full moon came up and the winds increased…well…it got pretty stinky as far as fishing is concerned. That one-two punch of high winds and the full moon has really been a kick-in-the-pants the last two times it happened. Normally, any one thing isn’t bad, but double-barrels doesn’t help. The wind especially turns the water over not to mention making it hard to find bait which is kind of a good thing to have.

Early in the week to start out…wow! Some smokin’ good fishing, especially if you fished with our La Paz fleet. Big amberjack that ranged from 40-100 pounds (big cousins to yellowtail). We got into some good yellowtail…maybe not as big as previous weeks…but 20-25 pound fish are still banner catches! We also hit big snapper. Big pargo as well plus trophy-sized cabrilla. Guys could fill their ice chests in one day. We thought it was finally going to be wide-open from here on out. Take a look at this week’s big tuna!!! (We got pretty excited about that!)

When things were working…everything worked. Trolled feathers. Live bait. Dead bait. Rapalas. Yo-yo iron. All clicked! Oh…and we had small squid floating on the surface as well creating some real foamers when the fish went off.

But then the winds came back up. Fishing went back down!

Just when we thought we were finally done with the winds, we got spanked. …late in the week, both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets really had to scratch out some fish. Some yellowtail, some pargo, a few cabrilla and lots of bonito. That was almost it. Three days of frustration and bumpy rides!

However, as I’m writing this at the end of the week…THE WINDS CALMED DOWN. Gorgeous weather came back. Seas laid down! Today, we got our first decent dorado bite of the season with our Las Arenas fleet. Nothing big, but fish to 10 pounds came swarming to the boats with double and triple hookups! Plus some big roosters in the 30-50 pound class. Additionally, take a look at some of the tuna we got…30-40 pound YFT’s!

Four our La Paz fleet…again, what a difference when the wind isn’t blowing! We got dorado, marlin, roosterfish, yellowtail and amberjack! A complete 180 degree turnaround. It’s all about the wind. Hope the winds hold off and the fish stay ready to chew!

Kevin Blakely from Texas (photos above) put it together pretty well:

“We had a great trip.

First day was very slow. the second day we caught a few roosters, but nothing really to take home

so we decided to go to the LaPaz side. Thank you for making that happen, as you can see we slammed it.

we caught over 25 fish – 10 Bonito, 4 Amberjack, 7 Yellow tail, 4 Triggerfish, and 2 Cabrilla

Kevin, my son caught a 50lb and a 40lb Amberjack, again he pulled in the biggest fish of the group

I caught 2 massive Yellowtail – a 35lb and 25 lb. My brother Kim, caught a 30lb Yellowtail.

My 35lb Yellow was caught on a blue and white jig

most of the fish were caught with squid that (Captain) Chito caught for us.”

Roger Thompson (tuna photo above):

“We went fishin’ out at 88 … looking for dorado with not one fish seen after 4 hours of buoy hopping. However, we finally found lots of tuna hanging out with the dolphin. There were birds crashing the water where the tuna crashing on bait. We couldn’t get them to bite on live sardinas. They would crash on the chum, but no bites, even with fluorocarbon. We pulled blue mackerel pattern rapalas and they went on the chew!. The biggest was 45.6 pounds on the digital. We caught 5 fish in a matter of an hour and a half. Then it was 2:00 and we were still an hour out, so it was an awesome ending to what was shaping up to be one of those days you don’t talk much about.”

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
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 May 9-15, 2011

This was a week when the ladies sure shone! Donna Thompson didn't catch ALL these fish, but she sure put some numbers in the box fishing with her husband out've La Paz. Look closely and you'll see yellowtail, amberjack, cabrilla and others...pretty much the whole gamut of species that bit this week.

Another good day where the ladies rocked! Sylvia Lynn was fishing for her first time ever. She and husband, Jeff, visited La Paz for the first time for their 27th Anniversary and she caught the "biggest and most" of the fish including yellowtail, ambjerjack and snapper although Jeff did get his biggest amberjack (see below).

Probably one of the most colorful photos of the week given Mike Lee's shorts and the nice yellowtail he caught north of La Paz. Mike and his dad fished both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets and in the back is pictured Espiritu Santo Island.

He only had one day to fish, but made the most of it. Jeff Lynn shows off a personal best amberjack he caught working "yo yo" iron "until my arms fell off" getting yellowtail and snapper as well.

La Paz fishing was definitely better than Las Arenas fishing, but Las Arenas definitely had some highlights especially for fishing barred pargo if you check out the catch by Rick Hosmer, Captain Mundo and Jorger Romero (who took the photo).

It was a dynamite week for these big cousins to yellowtail. Amberjack were big hightlights of this week up to 80 pounds. Roger Thompson stuck this big boy north of La Paz.

Dr. Desmond Sjauwfoekloy always does well. In addition to some nice yellowtail this week he also took home some nice slabs of barred pargo. Fishing iron was the ticket. "Cranked as fast as you can!"

Oregonians Scott Shimenesky and Jason Boykin pose on the beach Bahia de Los Muertos with a nice day of barred pargo.

Tony and sons, Mike Lee spent 3 days fishing with us this past week and got several great varieties of fishing but really did nicely on the yellowtail. Both are from Valencia.

BIG AMBERJACK 50-100 POUNDERS PLUS YELLOWTAIL and BARRED PARGO SHOWCASE the WEEK

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for week of May 8-15, 2011

This was week was another wacky week and another week that I appreciated that we have two full-time fleets working. For whatever reason…dirty water…too much bait in the water…bad luck…bad current…our LasArenas fishing continues to be scratchy at best. There’s some good action to be had, no doubt. If you fished this past week with my Las Arenas fleet, you got into cabrilla, some decent pargo, roosterfish, lots of bonito, jack crevalle and snapper. Good action, and fun, but just not alot to get excited about to be honest. That’s the way fishing is. By the time you are reading this, it might have changed and gone off the charts! Sort of “minor league” fishing. Get bent. Get a little sun. Catch a few fish for dinner.

Normally, this time of year, the better fishing is with our Las Arenas fleet, but not so for the past two or three weeks.

If you wanted QUALITY..that’s why I’m glad we have both fleets. We were able to switch many of our clients over to fish with our La Paz fleet. And that’s where you fished if you wanted to put some fat fish in the boat and fat fish in your ice chest.

In an unusual late-season bite 20-40 pound yellowtail again got active with fish eating sardines, larger baits like caballitos and yo-yo iron in scrambled egg and blue/white patterns. (“You just gotta wind that reel handle as fast as you can! If you slow down or your arm ain’t hurting you won’t get bit!” said one of our anglers. ) Also, there were alot of spots of smaller 12-inch squid floating on which the yellowtail were foaming and crashing so we were netting the squid for additional bait. Sending one down with a sliding egg-sinker would almost guarantee a bite. For many of our anglers this week they got their first or largest yellowtail ever. Some of our captains told us of larger fish up to 50 pounds breaking off as these are really horses when hooked!

As well, we continued to get some big amberjack, pargo and cabrilla as well. Some of the amberjack this week…no kidding…40, 50, 80 and 100 pound beasts! Some of the slabs of fillets were like hamhocks! Plus, we lots some fish that were larger. This could all switch around really fast again, but again, that’s why we have the two fleets going full -time to make these adjustments as needed!

We’ve got more sargasso weeds building all the time so if temperatures keep warming I would be surprised if we didn’t start seeing some dorado real soon!

FLASH – Just as I went to post this up, we have reports of several big 50-70 pound tuna caught by our Las Arenas fishing fleet! Will keep you posted!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

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Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com
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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 1-8, 2011

Oh-oh! Now what? After a slow week of fishing, the bite north of La Paz fired up and anglers like first-timer Erik Rose from Arcadia CA had the dilemma of wondering what to do with all the fillets they had to bring home. Seen on the beach are yellowtail, triggerfish, amberjack, cabrilla and snapper.Unbridled joy outta Keith Brownfield who came down from Washington just to catch a roosterfish and, although it was rough early in the week, he got a 30 pounder his first day. He followed it up the next day with this 40 pound fish taken near Espiritu Santo Island. He couldn't have been happier! All the roosters were released.

Unbridled joy outta Keith Brownfield who came down from Washington just to catch a roosterfish and, although it was rough early in the week, he got a 30 pounder his first day. He followed it up the next day with this 40 pound fish taken near Espiritu Santo Island. He couldn't have been happier! All the roosters were released.

It was a great week to kick into amberjack...the bigger tastier cousin to yellowtail. Dave Rose made a banzai run driving from Denver CO, to get in on the fishing. He does this several times a year and was rewarded with this trophy 50-pound class amberjack. Balandra Bay in the background and Captain Chito.

From San Francisco, Wade Ichimura was able to get into that late week bite north of La Paz where he got into some nice yellowtail, pargo and cabrilla on live bait and yo-yo iron.Fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet was difficult this week. Scratchy at best as winds, waves and cloudy water made fishing less-than-ideal. However, amigas like our "cookie queen" (she always brings us cookies from Oregon) put some nice jack crevalle and this good amberjack in the box.

A beautiful Baja Golden Group for Chris Pallemaerts that he took fishing near Espirito Santo Island. In almost 16 years here in La Paz, I've only seen about 1/2 dozen of these beautiful fish taken. Great eating.

Bill Redalen, all the way from Pittsburgh PA, on his first Baja trip holds up another one of the nice amberjack taken this week. That's Bahia de Los Muertos in the background.We had some colorful fish this week! Gilber Jue from the Bay Area poses with a red pargo (huachinango) taken with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Great eating rock fish and highly prized by the markets and restaurants in La Paz.

We had quite a few "first timers" this week including Richard Jacques from England with a fish he said "is by far the biggest fish I've ever caught" holding up a La Paz yellowtail that was so big, it didn't fit into the picture!He says he has the "Baja Bug" after his first trip here to La Paz, but who can blame Eric Rose, as he holds a freshly gaffed yelllowtail. It's a thick heavy fish! Most of the yellowtail this week were in the 25-40 pound class.

Fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet was difficult this week. Scratchy at best as winds, waves and cloudy water made fishing less-than-ideal. However, amigas like our "cookie queen" (she always brings us cookies from Oregon) put some nice jack crevalle and this good amberjack in the box.

We had some colorful fish this week! Gilber Jue from the Bay Area poses with a red pargo (huachinango) taken with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Great eating rock fish and highly prized by the markets and restaurants in La Paz.

He says he has the "Baja Bug" after his first trip here to La Paz, but who can blame Erik Rose, as he holds a freshly gaffed yelllowtail. It's a thick heavy fish! Most of the yellowtail this week were in the 25-40 pound class.

SLOW WEEK FINALLY KICKS IN WHEN WINDS SLOW DOWN PRODUCING YELLOWTAIL AND AMBERJACK

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 1-8, 2011

The early part of the week was as picky and scratch as could be imagined. I mean…well…it sucked! (for lack of a better word). Winds were strong enough to generate big swells that actually threw waves on the La Paz waterfront and got cars wet and turned the fishing grounds green and dirty. Pretty frustrating fishing. We got some bonito and some small pargo (lost some big pargo) and some really nice roosters …but no one really keeps roosters and smaller fish were getting released. So the counts weren’t very encouraging and coolers looked slack. Not much you could do except shrug and hope for better. Credit to our anglers who hung in there!

I mean…honestly…for those of you who have been reading my fishing reports all these years…before Thursday…I HAD ONE PHOTO for the entire week to post in the fishing report! It was THAT SLOW!!!

But then Thursday rolled up and winds started calming and waters went flat!

We stopped most of our anglers from fishing Las Arenas and switched them over to fish our La Paz fleet instead and WE FOUND FISH!!!

We thought they were gone, but BIG YELLOWTAIL, PARGO and CABRILLA bent rods and came to chew on baits and iron. Big fish lost. Big fish caught. Even some big amberjack too! Empty ice chests started to fill and we started to see the smiles again. For alot of our anglers, spending the last day fishing La Paz meant an 11th hour reprieve after several tough days fishing, meant going home with a successful trip to battle some larger fish!

It seems that as long as the winds stay down, we’ll be OK. Very encouraging stuff! Also, more sargasso weeds building so that could be a harbinger for dorado showing up soon! This week looks like it might be a repeat of last week. The forecast shows stronger winds early in the week tapering off as the week goes on. Will keep you posted!

That’s our story

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of April 23-30, 2011

Posted in Bahia de Los Muertos, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dorado, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, pargo, roosterfish, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna on May 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Monica Beehn from San Francisco has fished our waters here in La Paz often and usually shows the rest of us how it's done like with this trophy-sized cabrilla she holds up in front of Captain Archangel and eat a live sardine near Bahia de Los Muertos.It would be hard to find a guy who is such an enthusiastic angler as Rich Jones who visits us all the way from Utah. I'm glad he got into the tail-end of our great yellowtail bite we've had the last two months. There are still a few YT around up to about 40 pounds, but they're picky now as the waters warm. Rich got this north of La Paz.

It would be hard to find a more enthusiastic angler than Utah fisherman, Rich Jones. He's always on fire for fishing! Glad he got into the tail-end of our great yellowtail bite with this nice forktail he got north of town. There's still a few around up to 40 pounds, but as the waters get warmer we're seeing fewer of the big jacks.Big kisses from our amiga, Lisa Cruz, from Washington who outdid so many of the frustrated veteran anglers by nailing this fat pargo liso on her first try fishing with our Tailhunter fleet of Las Arenas.Mitch Chavira is our San Diego amigo who always rips fish down here, but even he admitted it was "scratchy" compared to other trips. Still, he hung tough and put several nice yellowtail aboard with Captain Juan.

Mike and Mike ("Mike Squared") show off a pretty typical catch with our Las Arenas fleet right now...smaller yellowtail (great eating size!) and pargo! They brought the fillets over to our Tailhunter Restaurant on the malecon for a big cook-up!

Our San Diego amigo, Mitch Chavira makes several trips a year here to La Paz with his son, Cole, and has had many an epic trip, but admitted that it was a bit "scratchy" this past week and they had to work hard for their fish but they still managed several nice yellowtail.

It was a good week for roosterfish for both of our Tailhunter Fleets. The only problem is that I don't have many good photos this week since most of them get released! (which is a good thing!). But the roosters have been 10-50 pounders!A young sealion from the sealion colony north of La Paz checks us out. With waters warming, it's a great time for diving and snorkeling in La Paz. A visit to the sealion colony is always a kick. (See the video clip below)

A MIXED BAG OF FISHING TO FINISH OUT THE MONTH !

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 23-30, 2011

It was an interesting week of fishing in La Paz waters. It surely seems like summer already with air temperatures already in the mid to upper 90’s and water temperatures not far behind. To put it mildly, I think fish are confused…and so are the anglers! No one know what to make of the early season temperature spikes. The cold water fish like the yellowtail seem to have gone to deeper water. The warm water fish like marlin, sailfish and dorado are acting like the curtain came up too early on showtime! They’re not sure if they are quite ready to bite!

So, bottom line, we’re getting alot of different varieties of fish. No species in overwhelming numbers and every day seems different. Some days it’s better for roosters. Other days, it’s a pargo day. Another day, it’s a smattering of this and that with each panga coming back with a different story about what they caught.

For our Las Arenas fleet, we go into roosterfish up to 40 pounds…pargo up to 24 pounds (with many lost to the rocks)…cabrilla…a few dorado…some sailfish hooked up and quite a few bonito. There’s still some firecracker yellowtail around as well in the 10-12 pound class. Although not good eating, the roosterfish have really been fun this week and a welcome biter when other fish aren’t really going off.

For our La Paz fleet, it appears that we’re about done with the fantastic yellowtail bite of March and April. It has been replaced with pargo, roosters (some big boys too!) and big cabrilla with lots of marlin and sailfish cruising around and seemingly on the verge of biting. In fact, may be by the time you’re reading this, they will be on a full-blown chew. I’m seeing quite a bit of sargasso weed floating in the channel plus sardines and flying fish in abundance. All the conditions seem like they’re coming together!

FLASH NEWS!

Just as I’m writing this, I got a report of some wahoo at the south and north end of Cerralvo Island as well as some slugger yellowtail and some tuna that showed up on the north end! Plus squid floating as well with the commercial guys throwing nets on them! Will keep you posted. We’ll go do some recon!

VIDEO CLIPS OF THE WEEK

Fred and Lisa Cruz put this quick clip together for us of their first ever experience with dorado and pargo fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkmyv36qaQY

On Easter Sunday, we put down the rods for the day and were invited for a day of diving and snorkeling at the sealion colony at Isolotes north of La Paz. I’ve dove with the sealions numerous times over the years and they are always fun. Never the same twice and the young ones are always clowns. It’s a great day activity for a non-fishing day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrBBNw5KbKY

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
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“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 April 16-23, 2011

This trophy pargo bruised him, beat him and nearly pulled him out've the boat, but Al Jones got the last laugh (plus a big plate of grilled pargo at the Tailhunter Restaurant that night!) taking this bad boy out've the rocks just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos where the pargo continue to crash and shred and frustrate anglers.

: As the waters got warmer we had alot of billfish (sailfish and striped marlin) show up. As one person described it…”there were dozens and dozens just sitting on the surface.” Many weren’t willing to bite having gorged themselves during the full moon, but we did get some biters like this one that Rich Jones holds…his first striper and among three that he and his partner, Ron Hepner, hooked but got released. Rich got this one on 40 pound test and swallowed the hook.

: Not a bad first day for a first timer to La Paz, but Fred and Lisa Cruz from Washington put 4 of these nice YT’s in the boat (and a trigger fish) plus had a marlin come unbuttoned. Later in the week they got dorado and pargo (see the photo below).

: Blue water, white sand and a good day of fishing is a great combination here in La Paz. Felix Basadre and his dad fished 4 days with this this past week putting some nice yellowtail like this one in the boat .

: Being from Washington, Fred Cruz is more used to pulling on ling cod and salmon but got to feel the power of the big red pargo that are ripping lines near Punta Perico these days.

: It’s pretty hard not to have fun when this guy is around because he’s just so enthusiastic about his fishing and even when he’s not catching a fish, he never has a bad day! Rich Jones really works at his fishing and got one of our first nice dorado of the season out of Muertos Bay. He also got his first striped marlin ever as well.

: 85-years-YOUNG from Anaheim CA, Felix Basadre, Sr. can still pull fish and took some nice yellowtail this past week. The fish were more finicky this week and we had to work harder for them.

There weren't alot of them around this past week, but the yellowtail we got into were all quality fish like this one held by Ron Hepner at Balandra Beach taken on the El Bajo Seamount. Ron is from Salt Lake City UT.

FULL MOON WITH WIND PLUS WARMING WATER MAKE ANGLERS WORK FOR SOME GOOD FISH!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 16-23, 2011

With air temperatures now in the 90’s it’s looking like we’re transitioning out of our cool water fishing to our warm water fishing. Unfortunately, that means we’re probably at the tail end (no pun intended) of our fantastic yellowtail season we’ve had although I’m sure we’ll still get a few strays here and there. Looking at the Terrafin water charts, there’s warm water south of Cerralvo Island and then also just east of Espiritu Santo Island.

Interestingly, that’s where we’re seeing marlin and sailfish seeming by the dozens sunning themselves and, although some are biting I think if we kick it up just a degree or two more, it’s gonna bust out WFO. Let the full moon stuff pass and the water warm just a hair and BOOM! It’s gonna be billfish rodeo time! In fact, by the time you’re reading this, we might already be in it. We have had a few flurries and fortunately, most of the billfish are getting released, but a few have been taken and we’re seeing that their bellies are full of squid like the schools balling up on the east side of Cerralvo Island and I think with the full moon that just passed the squid were coming up from the deep and the marlin were “on the chew” all night long stuffing themselves! So…maybe we better get ready! When the buffet table gets taken away, the billfish might just come charging!

Oh…yea…we also had to deal with some big rolling swell…higher and lower tides from the full moon…some days of strong winds…plus the changing water temps mentioned above. By themselves, any one of two of those events would normally be no problem, but we got the multi-spanking whammy from mother nature and props to all our anglers this week for putting a great face on it and still coming away with some great fish!

As for other species, like I said, we’re seeing perhaps the last hurrah for the yellowtail, but other cooler water species like pargo (barred pargo/ dog-tooth snapper/ mullet snapper) are still rolling in the shallows frustrating anglers as thehy take anglers to the rocks time-after-time. Still, we did get a few nice ones this week…interestingly, the rookies did so much better than the veterans! As well, we also got into some nice fat cabrilla (Mexican seabass) some amberjack, nice roosterfish and maybe not surprisingly some decent-sized dorado given the warmer waters!

That’s our story! Hope everyone has a great Easter. God bless!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
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“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 April 9-16, 2011

Every reason to strike a pose when you nail a fish like this big yellowtail taken by Bob Robbins from Arizona fishing north of town at the El Bajo Seamount where yellowtail put on a world-class show this past week and were the highlight of a week that had its ups and downs.

John Bolton from San Luis Obispo CA has fished with us many times, but it was a first time for his amigo, Doug Fulp from Texas. The two of them got into that epic yellowtail bite north of town where they estimated they caught and released or lost close to 20 fish in just several hours!

Theres a reason they call the La Paz area, the "roosterfish capital of the world." This fish isnt quite as large as the world-record- roosterfish caught in La Paz at 114 pounds, but this is an incredible beast of a fish caught by our own Jilly Roldan of Tailhunter. (See the video clip below). Jill hooked the fish just south of Bahia de Los Muertos on a slow trolled live sardine and fought it for about 20 minutes in a spectacular battle on 40 pound test with the fish estimated at 30-35 kilos (70 pounds). Jill had an incredible day on the water getting her first pargo liso (mullet snapper); pargo pero (dog-tooth snapper) and this world-class roosterfish which is her personal best largest fish! Even better, she worked extensively to revive the fish and get it swimming away strongly! Not 5 minutes after releasing this fish, she hooked another that may have been even larger and it went "dorado" on her leaping completely out of the air which is unusual for roosters. The tough fish then went into the rocks (like a pargo) where Jill battled back and forth until the big rooster sawed finally sawed her off. Capt. Gerardo lends a hand.

Its a good day ANYTIME you get one of these great fish outta the rocks! Gary Palese says it almost pulled him outve the boat twice and his fishing partner had to hold onto his shirt tails as he struggled to keep the fish out of the rocks fishing just several yards from the Perico cliffs. This dog tooth snapper (pargo perro) makes great eating!

Sometimes they even let me fish! I hooked 4 pargo this day just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos with fish crashing all around, but only managed to get this one pargo liso (mullet snapper) to the boat. Fish are tough and can humble anyone very quickly!

A FRESH ONE on the gaff! Gary Palese holds up on of the slugger yellowtail that exploded north of La Paz this week. The trick was having caballito or mackerel for bait although sardines and iron worked well also.

Dr. Desmond Sjauwfoekloy from Los Angeles makes last minute trips to us when he can get away from his busy schedule. Whenever he shows up it just seems the bite goes off for him and he nailed 8 big yellowtail this week like this one. I dont know if the fishing gets good because he shows up or he just shows up when the fishing is good, but he always does well!

Theres always something special about a first fish no matter the size. Its all about the smiles. Abby Oclassen from Colorado holds onto her very first fish...a sierra...caught fishing out of Bahia de Los Muertos.

CRAZY YELLOWTAIL FISHING NORTH OF LA PAZ BUT COULD THIS BE THE GRAND FINALE?

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of March 19-17, 2011

There’s good news and bad news. First, for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, things just went flat this past week. And I’m not talking about the water smoothing out. It was still a bit bumpy out there especially at the beginning of the week making it tough to get to Cerralvo Island and sometimes difficult to get sardines for bait. Waters also got warmer which meant the algae bloom went off making the waters green and dirty. None of this helped the bite except for pargo. And you’d hook 10 and “maybe” get 1 to the boat. That didn’t make for very good numbers of fillets to take home.

Now for the good news! I’m glad we have two fleets…one in Las Arenas and one in La Paz! We were able to switch many of our anglers to our La Paz pangas (where the fishing normally isn’t rolling full turbo just yet), but nonetheless was better than Las Arenas mainly because this past week we hammered some of the BEST yellowtail fishing in recent memories. It wasn’t just the numbers of yellowtail, but also the size of the fish and the ferocity of their bite that made this so exciting.

I don’t use the word “ferocity” very often but heading north to the El Bajo Seamount north of La Paz, the fish were FOAMING…yup…crashing the surface in displays we don’t often see. According to some of our anglers, they were in such numbers at times that they were fighting to get any bait thrown in the water. Double and triple hook-ups were the norm and the “smaller” fish were 25 pound class the the “larger” fish were in the 50-pound class (this is my captains talking…not the anglers! To fishermen EVERY fish is 50 pounds!). Getting the big baits early in the morning like the caballito and mackeral were the key and then chumming with sardines to get the yellowtail crashing and on the chew. Anglers just had to be patient at times as it’s not easy to get the larger boats as they have to jig the up in the bay before going out to the fishing grounds. You can’t just drive up to the bait man and order up a scoop or two!

Anyway, these fish were busting off 60 and 80 pound test at times, but normally 50 pound test with flurocarbon leaders worked well. Here’s the rub…I’m not sure how much time we have on these things! The way the Terrafin satellite images are showing the waters are warming up fast. To the south at Las Arenas it’s already happened. Once the waters get warmer, the yellowtail will shut down and I’m not sure what we’ll have after that. Maybe great. May it will hit a lull for a week or so until the waters keep rising and all the muck cleans up and the fish get acclimated and hungry again in which case it will be more blue water species rather than the yellowtail. But, that’s just my guess. Who knows?

For Las Arenas, as mentioned, the waters already have gone up a few notches. Fishing isn’t bad. It’s the ‘catching” that’s bad. When the pargo are rolling in the shallows stopping them is sometimes just ridiculous. I fished 3 days this week myself and broke off 8 fish and only got one 15 pounder to the boat. But there are 20 and 30 pound fish moving in the school and all of them are horses! But, there’s still sierra, some very good cabrilla and we also got some big roosters biting just south of Muertos Bay up to 70 pounds close to the cliffs. Check out the photos and attached video!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Click this link to our youtube video clip of some of this week’s fishing action including some pargo and the big roosterfish! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4S31HJffFU

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
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“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 April 3-10, 2011

In a strange early season showing, striped marlin in abundance showed up in La Paz waters giving anglers an unexpected bonus, especially just north of La Paz where one angler said, "They were thick and pesty. It seemed like dozens of marlin were seen every day!" Normally, we don't see stuff like this for about another few weeks or next month.

Our La Ventana buddy, recently from Long Beach, Roger Thompson was at it again. He was out with Captain Chito and had one of those banner days with limits of big yellowtail, a striped marlin, and huge cabrilla (see photos below).

Not bad for a first-time trip for Paul McBeth to La Paz. One day fishing...two striped marlin...5 yellowtail including this nice forktail on the gaff.

Perhaps even more prized than other gamefish for it's great eating...this trophy cabrilla (Mexican seabass) was taken by Roger Thompson who scaled it at 18 pounds!

This is just too pretty a picture not to post up. This is about a 140 pound striped marlin still underwater. It's a fat one if you check out the shoulders on this guy. If you've ever had one on the line, you can feel the power. Great shot! Thanks Roger!

Many of our readers wanted some samples of the artificials that we're using right now on some of these yellowtail when we're not using live bait. Across the bottom are samples of "iron"...basically what we call candybar type lures. Many companies make them but favorites include Tady, Ironman, Sumo, Salas, Raider and others. All of these are "heavy lures" and across the bottom from left to right are colors: scrambled egg (white, yellow, brown); blue and white; blue/ white; and dorado color (green, white, yellow). Also, above is a CD-18 size Rapala Magnum in green mackeral pattern that has also worked well slow trolled across the high spots and reefs. (Note the scratch, teeth and dried blood...these lures have all caught fish!)

APRIL ROLLS IN WITH SOME UNUSUAL FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 2-10, 2011

Except for some occasional strong winds that seem to diminish every week. We’re into some great fishing weather with sunny skies and days in the mid-70’s. Water temps, however, are really variable which might account for the really mixed fishing. Not bad fishing…just “mixed fishing!”

How else to explain catching yellowtail (cold water fish) in the same spots as marlin and dorado (warm water fish)? What we figure is that the surface temps are warming faster as we get to the spring time conditions. The warmer water at the top has the blue water species while down deep, it’s still chilly which is where the yellowtail are hanging out. In fact, I know for a fact it’s warmer on the top because the water vis has gone-to-poop. It was great blue for a bit, but as is customary this time of year, when it hits a certain temperature, the algae bloom kicks in so the waters gets green and cloudy. Not always the best for diving or fishing but it’s a temporary thing. The water keeps getting warmer then WHAM…it hits a certain gradient and all of a sudden all the algae dies and disappears. And the waters turn blue again.

As far as the fishing, it’s not been as great as it was a week or two ago, but certainly not bad. The anglers who went-with-the-flow did pretty well. Yellowtail still bit and we put some nice 20-40 pound fish in the boat mostly around the high spots and the island reefs but also the seamounts in deeper water. Nice grades of moss-back fish! In those same spots, the pargo are schooling up (if you can get through the schools of bonito) and we got some nice cabrilla as well. But, the pargo are really frustrating…as many folks know. If the yellowtail aren’t biting then and the wind is blowing, you’re relegated to chasing the crazy pargo. They bite, but they kick your butt too! Most fish are lost and that makes for a long day! Along the beaches, schools of small roosters and jacks kicked in which is great on a small spinning reel.

The real surprise are the marlin, especially north of town. As one angler said, “It felt like there were hundreds out there!” Some fish are still pretty lethargic…so much so that one of our captains said he accidentally ran over two of them that were just sunning themselves. He felt “bump bump” both times and saw the marlin skittering away. Just not interested in baits, lure or anything

Then, you run into another group of stripers and they almost fight each other to get to the bait. We’re encouraging catch-and-release and most of the caught fish are getting let go. But, for us to even be seeing marlin this early willing to bite is pretty great! Normally, I would never suggest to anyone about coming in April to get a marlin! But, that’s fishing!

That’s our story

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

.
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 Mar. 27-April 2, 2011

Big smiles for Ken Gragg who landed this yellowtail fishing the El Bajo Seamount north of La Paz. The yellows are still there, but warming waters may change that as we saw more dorado and even marlin show up in the fish counts this week!

Someone has some fillets to bring home. That's Carl Lange and Gary Bray posing on the sands at Mogote with 8 yellowtail they caught north of La Paz. Sardines and iron still working!

Sometimes everyone is chasing the "trophy" fish that folks forget about all the other great species to catch like this excellent cabrilla (Mexican seabass) that Carl Lange got.

Not bad,young lady!... for first time fishing for Brady Davison getting a hand with his big yellowtail from Capt. Hugo out of Muertos Bay.

Gary Wagner knows he's got hamachi on the grill tonite with some yellowtail! Note the flat waters of Muertos!

YELLOWTAIL MIX IT UP WITH MARLIN AND DORADO…IN MARCH!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of March 27-April 2, 2011

I’m not sure how to characterize the week of fishing. It was a good week of fishing. Everyone caught fish. The yellowtail bite has been fantastic, but some folks who wanted yellowtail caught other fish. People who wanted “other species” got yellowtail! So, there was just the “hint” of disappointment here and there!

Look… Everyone caught fish, but there’s so much variety out there right now that some guys wanted one species and caught others and vice versa! I think the waters are warming and the bad news is, this may shut down the fantastic yellowtail bite we’ve had, but the good news is, we’ll be into the surface blue water species like dorado, billfish, tuna and wahoo before long. The other bad side is that when we hit a certain water temp level the algae bloom kicks off. Waters get cloudy. Good for our divers because that’s when we get whalesharks, but sometimes, not the best for fishing, at least for surface species. Then, the waters go up a degree or two and BOOM…just like that the water clear to blue and the fish blow up again! We’ll have to wait and see.

This week, we did get into more of that trophy-grade yellowtail. These are those really nice 30-40 pound moss-back-golden-silver slugger fish that just hammer you when they bite! They were still in the usual areas like El Bajo north of Espirito Santo Island and in various places around Cerralvo Island and Punta Perico. In those same areas, we also got bit by pargo, cabrilla and amberjack with some nice shoreline action along the beaches by sierra, pompano, jack crevalle and roosterfish. No shortage of bonito around either!

The problem was (if you can call it that) is lots of anglers are here to nail the rock species like the yellowtail and pargo and cabrilla. So, what do you do when dorado or billfish bite? Well, that’s exactly what happened this week. It’s still barely out of March and we had several hookups on striped marlin and well as dorado that really surprised the anglers as well as the captains. Again, that just leads me to believe that waters might be warming up faster than normal!

We’ll have to keep an eye out for that as well as reports of sargasso weed already starting to build up in the channel which become haven for the dorado plus reports again of tuna at the north end of Cerralvo Island.

C’MON MAN!

One problem we did have was that so many boats from the East Cape to the south of us by 60 miles were running all the way up our area to fish. That made for alot of traffic a few days. One day, it was reported that as many as 50 boats were on the water (between cruisers, private boats, commercial pangas, sportfishing pangas) ! Sheesh. C’mon.

Our little pangas and a lots of cruisers jumping on our fishing spots. Love the guys down there and wave at them all the time on the water, but some of their captains will drop right on our fishing spots even where commercial guys are just trying to eck out a meager living and the big cruisers with their thumping engines will just shut down the bite. Lose-lose for everyone. It’s not everyone…just a few rude captains.

Or, on more than one occasion, I’ve seen the big cruisers just thoughtlessly criss-cross back and forth right in our panga chumlines. It’s just a few idiots, but it doesn’t make for good relations. I did hear of one set of commercial pangeros going at it with one cabron cruiser and started throwing things at them this week. It’s a big ocean. There’s more than one spot to fish. We’re there at 6 a.m. and the cruisers show up at 8 or 9 and will just jump right on our spots. Shuts down the bite for everyone. Bad ju-ju. Bad form. I have seen rude bahavior from panga captains too. Plenty of room for everyone. Just all have to be aware and courteous to each other.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

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