Tailhunter Fish Report

Six wahoo in two hours? Chris Cribbs (on the right) from Arcadia CA comes down twice a year to fish with the Tailhunter Fleet and Captain Jorge (middle). He usually doesn't even plan to take home any fish! But this time he brought first timer amigo, Mark Phelps (also from Arcadia on the left) and had to re-think their plan about bringing home fish after getting 6 big wahoo off the south-end of Cerralvo Island. The reason you don't see the 6th fish...a big sealion grabbed the entire wahoo just before they were about to gaff it and tore it right off. They were using dark Rapalas slow trolled behind the boat.

Three more fish? Second day...Mark Phelps, Captain Jorge, Chris Cribbs got three more wahoo! What a week for wahoo! These were all BIG fish too!

Donna Drucker and John "JD" Drucker are from Redondo Beach CA and visit La Paz 2 or 3 times a year. On this trip, Donna not only got her first tuna, but also got 2 wahoo. The couple got several wahoo over 4 days of fishing as well as tuna and dorado and released two marlin. Pretty good week!

Corey Fujita from Los Angeles got in the water off Las Arenas for a little freediving spearfishing. He had no idea what he was in for but said "the wahoo were so thick!" He nailed two of the big fish...his first time getting wahoo...and said he could have gotten more but missed 4 other shots! Check out the photos below! Spearfishing in Mexico is real "diving" as not air tanks are allowed. This is real X-sport stuff. Imagine shooting a fish that can take off in bursts of 70 mph (fastest fish in the ocean!) and all you have is a single breath of air. Freedivers are incredible athletes. Corey is also a dentist too!

Not a bad day! He laughingly said he misssed a few shots, but this is still a day pump your fist for two incredible wahoo for Corey Fujita on the speargun!

Just so you didn't think it was all tuna and wahoo, the dorado were a really nice grade this week and seemed to have gotten bigger. Sed Roldan from Hacienda Hts. put two day on the water and slammed full ice chests of tuna and dorado like this one off Punta Gorda with Captain Archangel

Happy fella! Bob Dominguez got yanked around for several days fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet on nice fat tuna like this one!

Dorado and pargo to top off the day! Fillets on the grill for dinner. There weren't alot of dorado, but the ones we got were a nice size generally speaking and in the box with wahoo and tuna we were catching, it made for a great mix of fish and fishing action!

Fresh ones! Bakersfield in the house! Ken Gragg holds up a couple of his dorado and Maxx Garris fins a nice yellowfin tuna.

Nice to have a first timer down get his first tuna. Mike Kellogg came down with his dad and fished with Captain Jorge showing off a Punta Perrico yellowfin tuna!

Our boy, Jarrett Pfost, from San Diego started off the day right with a nice tuna out of the tuna hole south of Cerralvo Island when a big sealion showed up in the middle of the fleet and not only shut down the tuna and wahoo bite but was taking fish right off the hooks! It was one of our slower days of the week unfortunately. The sealion did not have many fans that day.

Yea...my windblown lifeguard hat looks stupid, but even I got into the bite this week. During a slow period, I started throwing a blue/chrome heavy iron on 30 pound test just to pass the time on some kick-butt bonito and see what I could generate to get the bite turned on again. I saw some big shapes cross under the boat and let fly about a short 30 yards. I let it sink then started a fast-retrieve yo-yo action and WHAM! The rod went double bendo and I knew it wasn't a bonito! It turned into this nice fast yellowfin tuna! The jig is still hanging below the fish. I think it was a Tady or Sumo iron. Maybe a AA. Not sure. I just grabbed something shiny out've the tackle box really fast. Jigging is a good way to get fish going that are hunkering down deep that might not want to come up on the surface to eat bait. Many avid jig fishermen will tell you that the fast-moving jig often gets the largest fish of the day. You may not catch the most, but you often catch the larger fish.

It's always a good day when the fish bite! Maxx Garris from Bakersfield CA and Ken Mitchell from Scottsdale, AZ do a little happy camera mugging on the beach with their tuna.

This is the right kind! San Diegan Mark Atkisson, nailed this 40 pounder just outside Muertos Bay. There weren't alot of tuna this week as dorado crashed the party, but most of the tuna this week were fat body slugs that bent anglers and rods! The body of fish seemed to move around. One day, up the coast a bit; next time just inshore. Average size of these fish were 30-50 pounds.

Bob Thoma said he didn't care that we hadn't caught alot of wahoo lately. He went anyway and trolled the south end of Cerralvo Island and got rewarded with a slam by this 29-pound 'hoo that ate a dark rapala.

This is just such an incredible shot it's almost a painting. Check out the colors and composition taken by Rod Brown from Alaska, who visits us every year. He used to teach high school photography. Notice the streaming sunshine over the angler's shoulder and the intense bend of the rod. For those of you who have ever been on a big fish, sometimes, there's nothing to do but hold onto your socks and gut-it-out-hour-after-hour. Even the captain can't help you. Captain Jorge can do nothing but watch. When a big tuna is bulldogging you straight-up-and-down, you can't chase the fish with the boat! You can't touch the drag or do much of anything except "man-up" and slug it out. Great shot. This turned out to be a 50 pound yellowfin tuna fought for more than an hour-and-a-half. Angler, Jeff Brown is from Minnesota. Just him and the fish. You start thinking about the knot you tied. . . and why you didn't put new line on the reel. . . and why you didn't do a few more excercises. . . or why you didn't bring more water. . . or the cheap hooks you bought because you wanted to save a few pennies...crazy things go through your head!

Epic bite! Dave Dave Gora and John Ellis from Dana Pt. CA went ballistic on a pack of tuna and dorado in Ventana Bay near La Paz. (Check out the video this week that Dave made!). These were heavy-big-bodied fish that came to terrorize. It's amazing how one day, there's nothing and the following day, the tuna are literally eating the paint off the boat.

Despite all the tuna photos you see from this week, the better fishing was actually for dorado! Most days, the dorado were 80 percent of the catch. Two of the nicer fish are shown here taken by Doug Ingalls and Tom McRae from San Diego. Both fish were close to 20 pounders.

It's been a great late season for pargo and this trophy 30-pound dog tooth snapper (pargo perro) has some incredible colors. Jerry Morgan hefts the fish in Muertos Bay and caught the fish in the rocks just off the bay.

San Francisco resident, Shannon Aurand and Captain Jorge pose with one of the larger dorado taken this week. It has been a great year for dorado, but so many of the fish have been on the smaller side with about 15 pounds being one of the larger fish. However, this past week, there were more fish like Shannon's up to about 40 pounds which is an encouraging sign since many anglers are releasing the fast-growing smaller fish.

They get tuna where Grant Darby lives up in Washington, but not this close to shore and you don't get to wear shorts and t-shirts! This size tuna was more typical of many of the yellowfin around this week. Grant went home with a full chest of dorado and tuna.

This beast of a dorado is remarkable not only for it's size, but the fact that Josh Vertel from Philadelphia took it on a flyrod south of Muertos Bay. It broke his rod. "(Captain) Adolpho and I had a really good day on the water, with my first flyrod caught dorado, including 2 nice bulls. We also nailed a fat bonito, which is fun (and tiring). Flies were white sardina pattern. No tuna, but the dorado were a blast. Seeing them endlessly zipping around the boat was such a trip. I had never seen anything like it. Too cool...That bull was a MONSTER (guide said "mas de cuarenta libras..forty pounts"). He looks big next to me, and I am 6"4 and weigh 200. Broke my 12 weight (flyrod), and I had to handline him to the boat after that..."

Roger Van Steenkiste from Arizona is "80-something" years young! He visits us usually twice a year and outfishes most everyone else when he is on the water. Twenty-two years ago, he fished with our Captain Victor and enjoys his twice-yearly re-unions with Victor who heads our Las Arenas fleet. Roger had just put his line into the water outside of Muertos Bay when this 45-pound class yellowfin ripped him! There weren't many tuna this week, but some of the ones we got were a nice grade.

THE BANANA CURSE! San Pedro CA resident Steve Tomota has fished in La Paz before but brought his buddy Thom Jordan with him this time. Just before they got on the water, Thom was caught eating bananas! He was warned about the banana curse and ate not one...but he ate THREE bananas before getting on the boat! Thom said the curse was silly. Well, Steve hooked this nice wahoo off the south side of Cerralvo Island. Thom hooked two other wahoo and LOST BOTH of them strangely...both bit right through wire leader...very unusual and he is now a big believer in leaving bananas at home! Thom's been a good sport about the ribbing and re-bounded with better luck the next 3 days.

There have been very few of the bigger dorado this year. Most have been less than 20 pounds so this 40 pound class beast caught by Stan Andre north of La Paz might just be the largest dorado of the year for our fleet. He was fishing with Captain Boli on "Little Sister."

It's a long way from Minnesota to Baja sunshine, but our good amigo, Jeff Brown makes it down every year. He's holding a 40 pound-class yellowfin tuna he fought on light tackle for about 45 minutes with his favorite Captain Jorge. The fish were right outside Muertos Bay.

Corona CA resident Mike Recchia was fortunate enough to get his live sardine through the voracious schools of bonito and got TWO nice yellowfin tuna just outside of Punta Perrico. That was a big problem this week...getting through the bonito so the big-boy tuna would have a chance!

Normally, she and her husband work on their dairy farm in Oregon, but made their first trip to fish with us. Sonja Zawadney has some great colors in this photo with a beautiful dorado taken very close to shore. Reports this week had dorado taken in just a few feet of water at times!

Nice start to a pretty good week for Dave Wakabayahsi from Sacramento CA. He got this big tuna plus added in a handful of dinner-sized dorado.

Reuben Mejia got into this nice tuna fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Not many tuna this week as weather and water conditions seemed to be changing but the few tuna caught were usually a pretty nice grade.

This is a quality bull dorad caught by Mark Zawadney from Oregon. He got this fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of La Paz which kicked out some better sized dorado this past week.

A good first day for Jeff Lepak and Greg Van Steenkiste who pulled up on a nice school of dorado that ended up as dinner at the Tailhunter Restaurant that night!

We had a little lapse earlier in the week when the larger tuna seemed to be scarce, but by later in the week the bigger boys had returned! This is quite a catch for our amigo, Jorge Romero and his brother, Esteban, who many of you know as our van drivers and great friends. They are also excellent fishermen. They used sardines at the south end of Cerralvo Island and got these nice tuna to go on the chew, but take a look at the nice rack of barred pargo on the beach as well. Banner day!

It's going to be tough to find a prettier roosterfish picture than this one! I told John Riddell that he needs to frame it! He got this 60 pound rooster as well as tuna and dorado on a single day fishing, but the capture of this rooster on his camera might be the best part! The fish was released. John also said he was on a couple of monster tuna that he just couldn't stop! "I had 3 tuna that broke the line. One was after fighting it for at least 30 minutes. I will be back soon!"

Nick Kasheshian probably could not have had a better first-time experience fishing in La Paz. He jumped all over the tuna and dorado and also added this 40-pound wahoo to the count as well on a dark rapala near Cerralvo Island which kicked out a few wahoo finally this week.

It was a big week for dorado, but not a great week for BIG dorado! Probably 65 percent of this week's catch was dorado, but most fish were 8-15 pounders with occasional 20-25 pounders. So many tiny dorado were released. However, John Cleary, was fishing with us for the first time and got this nice bull dorado off Las Arenas.

Ron Burgess makes the trek every year all the way from Kansas to come fish with us. He had another good trip and shows off a nice trophy roosterfish of Punta Arenas that was released.

It seems we had alot of first-timers who had a GREAT week! For Dave Quan, it wasn't just his first time to La Paz...it was his FIRST time FISHING! He got tuna, dorado and this great wahoo as well!

One of the most colorful of the pargo family...the barred pargo (aka pargo mulatto) seems to be actively feeding right now...if you can get them out of their hiding spots in the rocks and reefs! Great eating table fare too. Bruce Dodge got his first one and said it was a real tussle.

Emma came all the way from New Zealand to try for a roosterfish on a flyrod! Got it! ...and released it! Yay!

Sometimes the fish gods smile...especially when it comes to wahoo. You can come for years and not get anything. Then, one day, one of the speedsters grabs your lure and you're on! It turned to to be a nice week for wahoo. Captain Pancho and Ray Miklich (his 2nd trip this year!) hold up a nice wahoo. These are reportedly the fastest fish in the ocean capable of 70 mph bursts!

Once again, we got in some great tuna fishing for our La Paz anglers. Normally, the tuna bite has been only with our Las Arenas fleet. Our good amigo, Mike Luberto brought his son, Stephen with him this time and the two pose in Balandra bay with their dorado and tuna!

Like I said...alot of 1st timers this week who got into some great fishing including Joshua Hyland with a great spread of tuna and dorado he got fishing out with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.