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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Aug. 22-29, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, 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, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, pargo, roosterfish, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international on August 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Light tackle big roosterfish for Caryn Aizawa from Pasadena CA. Captain Pancho put her on the fish near Muertos Bay just offshore. Caryn had a great 2 days of fishing taking roosters, tuna, dorado, and other species. The big roosters are still prowling the shallow waters off the beach. The big fish was released.

He came all the way from Vermont to get into the bite, but Ed Martinez nailed some great fish this week. He shows off a 70 pounder he took fishing with Capt. Jorge just off Las Arenas. Ed got another big tuna that day about the same size and his cousin dropped another big fish, but a bad back got the best of him in the middle of the fight. Ed also got several wahoo as well. The big tuna are still prowling and fresh dead squid chunks are still working, but most big fish are lost.

Tak Okamoto is "80-something-years-old" and he looks tired. But that's because he spent almost 90 minutes in the Baja sun putting the wood to this 39-pound-yellowfin as well as several other tuna. Tak is from Gardena CA

Oh to be 10-years-old again! You remember what that was like! Alex here from Sacramento holds up his first tuna on his first-time-fishing trip where he claims he "caught all the fish!"

Ron Lopez and Captain Adolfo ("Yofo") blew up the fish over 3 days. First day, Ron spanked the tuna. 2nd day he got more tuna and wahoo. Third day, Ron fought a marlin estimated at 350 pounds for the better part of the day only to have it bust off at the boat. (He was going to release it anyway). Then on the way back to the beach he dropped back a Rapala and got this wahoo!

Some guys come for years and make numerous trips trying to catch a big pargo. Luis Cardenas from Los Angeles comes down for the first time and on his first day on the water rips this huge dog tooth snapper. I can't believe we still have these big pargo running around here. Normally, pargo season is in the spring.

Just so you know we're still getting dorado...absolutely yes! Not alot of big dorado, but yes, there's dorado to be caught. Most fish are 10-20 pounders. Jack Kruse has a gaff in a decent bull. Most of the dorado fishing has been with our La Paz fleet. Our Las Arenas fleet is getting dorado as well as tuna, roosters, wahoo and other varieties.

Dave Rose from Colorado helps out his amigo, Jack Garcia from San Bernardino CA who was on his first trip to La Paz. This dorado was caught just off the beach near Punta Perrico.

Ernie Correa from S.California was also lucky enough to stick it to a big dog-tooth this week where first-timers outdid the veterans when it came to pulling on pargo. These fish are in really shallow waters right and willing to crash the surface when chummed with either live bait or dead bait.

On the flyrod! Mark Aizawa has come several times trying to get at least one dorado on his flyrod and finally succeeded on getting this one to hit his pattern and was kept for dinner. I get asked often how come I don't post up more flyfishing photos. It's not that we don't get flyfishers. It's that most of the catch gets released so unless the shot is taken on the panga, there's no fish to photograph on the beach! I personally rarely get on one of our pangas with flyfishers since with all the gear and all the lines shooting all over the place, there's no room for two flyfishers, me and the captain without me getting in the way. Plus, I'm a real hack on the flyrod anway. I stink. I play golf better than I flyfish! It's a real art.

For dorado fishing, ninety percent of our catch with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet has been on dorado. Karen Kruse from Sacramento poses at Balandra Beach for photos and fish cleaning with two of her limits of dorado.

This is the whacked fish story of the week. Take a look at this 45 pound fish and our Captain Armando. . For several weeks we've been telling people how close the big fish are to shore. No one believes us. Captain Armando was running his panga up onto the sand, he was trailing a chunk of big squid. Now...a bunch of clients saw this...suddenly a big tuna comes greyhounding out of the water chasing after the panga! The big fish was so intent on getting the squid and so hungry, the crazy thing charged right up onto the sand where a bunch of captains and clients tackled it like a fumbled football at the Super Bowl. Here's Captain Armando with the proof. Everyone was talking about the crazy tuna! This tuna was only about 20 yards off the beach when it got fired up and turned on the jets! That's Cerralvo Island in the background. Flat as a lake out here! As I heard the story again from several sources, some of the guys thought they saw a big marlin just off shore that appeared to be feading so maybe this tuna was just trying to get out of the feeding zone!

HURRICANE FRANK PETERS AFFECTS FISHING WITH WAVES AND WIND BUT NO RAIN AND MOSTLY A FAIRLY SOLID WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 22-29, 2010

It’s the end of summer and town is almost empty as folks head back to school and higher humidity even keeps the locals indoors until late at night when the sun goes down and the breezes cool things down. However, there’s still alot of fishermen coming down and except for a few day when Hurricane Frank threatened, it was a pretty good week of fishing. Some guys had spectacular weeks of fishing. For others it was little scratchy depending on what you wanted to catch.

The hurricane popped up about mid-week about 600 km south of La Paz and kept us all glued to the news and our computers. It eventually petered out, but not before disrupting the fishing for a day or two with large swells and winds. We still caught fish but it was far off the kind of fishing we’d been having.

Except for that glitch, it was pretty good fishing. Wahoo continued to be a bonus at the north and south ends of Cerralvo Island. Using big chunks of giant squid, tuna between 10 and 80 pounds could be caught within yards of the beach. Marauding schools of free-swimming dorado could pop up at any time or be found in the current lines or around the buoys in a number of spots. Big roosters were in the surf and trophy pargo kept boiling. Great variety!

Live bait is still an issue for our Las Arenas fleet, but relatively speaking the fresh giant squid we’re using works just fine! Chunking the squid has produced almost all the fish you see here in the report with no complaints! The only part that’s a pain-in-the-crack, is catching the darned things. These critters can be up to 70 pounds and catching them 1000 feet down. It’s not exactly like pulling up a dead weight…these things will fight all the way up and it’s crazy starting your day dripping sweat in the Baja sun…I mean it’s fun…but this is just to catch bait! If someone offers to sell it to you…jump on it!

About the only things that aren’t eating the sqiud are the wahoo. Several days the wahoo were thick enough on the surface that guys said they were freeswimming around the pangas, but wouldn’t take any baits. Wahoo are a bit like cats. If you have a ball just sitting on the carpet, the cat isn’t interested. If you ROLL the ball past the cat, it attacks. Wahoo seem to be the same way.

It’s that time of year when tropical rain storms can come up at any time. Nothing big. But, it’s not unusual to get a few minutes of rain a day or enough to mess up your windshield of your car. It’s warm and usually doesn’t affect the fishing. But, we keep an eye on it every day.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
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:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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 for Week of Aug. 15-22, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tagged baja fishing, baja mexico, cerralvo island fishing, darren hanson, jonathan roldan, La Paz fishing, la ventana fishing, las arenas fishing, light tackle fishing, mexico fishing, mexico fishing report, muertos bay, panga fishing, southern baja fishing, sportfishing packages, tailhunter international on August 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It's like they were just waiting and feeling ignored. The last few weeks everyone was so excited about the tuna and dorado fishing that no one went to chase the wahoo. Then, about 2 weeks ago, a few of our guys took a shot and scored big time. Since then, we're getting daily hits at both the north and south end of Cerralvo Island with fish between 20 and 50 pounds coming up on dark Rapalas and other trolled wahoo rigs. Paul Nagata had a spectacular week with tuna, dorado, pargo, roosterfish and his first wahoo shown here.

Al Cutler from Whitter CA holds up his "new best friend" a big yellowfin tuna cradled in his arm. Great shot! They had some of the "best tuna fishing ever" over three days fishing with our two fleets. The tuna varying in sizes from 5 pound peanuts to fish over 100 pounds continue to roll through our area.

Steve Uretsky and Moise Hendeles from Los Angeles made a last-minute spur-of-the-moment trip to see us and show off their first day catch of tuna and dorado at Las Arenas.

Dave Rose powered all the way down in his truck driving from Denver in two days to get in a some fishing with us when he heard the tuna were biting and was rewarded with some great yellowfin action including this thick YFT taken near the Arenas lighthouse on chunks of squid.

Just a great shot. Young Alex Kruse came fishing for the first time and got out with his family including dad, Tim. Alex struggles to lift one of his dorado he caught fishing north of La Paz with dad and in two days, "I caught all the fish!" he says.

Surprising for this time of year but big pargo have been ripping up tackle and anglers. Normally, we get most of our pargo fishing in during the spring time months, but cooler-than-normal water temps have kept fish like this pargo liso held by Randy Lyons and Captain Pancho as well as yellowtail and cabrilla on the feed in shallow waters.

Pargo and yellowtail in August? You bet! Not very typical, but John Pastorello holds up the proof.

Headed for the sashime plate! Fresh one for Paul Nagata from San Francisco holding one of several nice tuna he took during the week. This one filled up the cooler all by itself. Chunks of fresh giant squid continues to be the hot bait.

Jack Garcia almost canceled his trip when he got a new job back in San Bernardin CA, but was able to put it off as this would be his first trip to La Paz. It paid off. He shows off a nice bull dorado with fresh colors.

Oh-oh...it's that time of year again. It's feeling tropical with occasional showers now and then. Dark ominous clouds looking north off Las Arenas Beach towards Cerralvo Island. While our boats were out, a quick little storm hit that forced all the fleets to pull their boats back to the beach. We figured the storm would pass. All the other fleets called it a day and left the beach. We kept our folks waiting in the vans. In an hour the sun came back out blazing and we shoved off again to find the fishing grounds completely deserted...except for us! We blew up the fish that day! The tuna came hungry and often! Some of the anglers spent the downtime shore fishing or swimming in the warm downpour.

ANGLERS BEND RODS ON TUNA NOW SHOWING UP FOR BOTH LAS ARENAS AND TAILHUNTER FLEETS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 15-22, 2010

Other than a ripping little thundershower one day that chased everyone off the water for about an hour (and then we all went right back out to catch fish), we had some great catches and another solid week of fishing. Again, waters are cooler than normal for the season so it’s providing us with an incredible variety of fish.

Our normal warm water species are around such as dorado, billfish, wahoo, roosters and tuna, but it’s also providing some outstanding and surprising catches of amberjack, pargo, cabrilla and even yellowtail.

Tuna continue to be centerstage for most of our Las Arenas anglers who are seeing some of the best tuna fishing we’ve had all year and maybe in a long time. Smaller football-class tuna from 10-25 pounds are close to shore near the lighthouse and south towards Muertos Bay in waters that are incredibly shallow. As one angler said, “It was crazy. I got hit by a 40 pound fish and instead of going down like a normal tuna, the thing zinged off about 100 yards of line straight out. Then I realized we were only in about 20 feet of water! I could see the bottom. The tuna had nowhere to go!”

Indeed limits or near limits of the football tuna were available most days. But the big boys are still around and providing the most drama.

Again, we don’t have much in the way of live sardines, but we’re catching and also buying chunks of live squid and chumming the waters The tuna are coming to feed and when some of them show up, it’s even scaring some of the anglers.

“We were at the south end of Cerralvo Island on the high spot and were tired of fishing for the smaller tuna close to shore,” said one of our anglers. “We started tossing chunks of squid into the current and suddenly there were swirls that were half-the-size of the panga! Then big splashes and the back of a yellowfin about 150 pounds came right up next to the boat and inhaled a piece of squid. You could look down and see fish that looked even bigger! Out-of-the water, backs of big tuna were rising with that big sickle yellowfin sticking out. We’re not stupid. I knew we were not up to fish like that. We went back to look for dorado!”

Quite a number of anglers tangled with the larger models with battles lasting 1, 2, and even 3 hours and most of the fish breaking the lines and hearts! Most of the fish actually making it to the beach were the 50-80 pound fish.

“We fought one fish for 3 hours and passed the rod between 4 anglers and two different pangas. The 60 pound line just snapped!” One disappointed fisherman said. That was their whole day and they came back with only 2 small dorado for the day.

Dorado have been evening out the catches. However, not many big mahi. A “large” dorado right now would only be about 20 pounds. I don’t know where the big bull are, but there’s plenty of 10-15 pounders running around right now in various spots. They are also eating squid and chunks of bonito.

For our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, dorado have been 90 percent of the catch. The fish are holding in various places but the bite has normally been later in the morning or early afternoon so fishermen need to be a bit patient. If you can find a big patch of floating weeds all the better. Something to keep an eye on is that in the channel later in the week, 20 pound-class yellowfin tuna showed up which was a nice topper for a day of dorado fishing.

Other species we’re watching:

Yellowtail – every other day someone hooks a hog…20-40 pound fish only about 30-40 feet down near the reefs.

Roosterfish – big beasts can be seen prowling the sandy beaches. Several large fish were hooked and lost this week. One captain estimated one fish at about 80 pounds hooked in about 5 feet of water

Wahoo – No one had been fishing for them until about a week or so ago because everyone was concentrating on tuna. Then at both the north and south end of Cerralvo Island, trolled lures started hooking wahoo between 20 and 50 pounds. One angler hooked 4 and two came unbuttoned, but the fish have definitely been there. Dark trolling sub-surface lures are best that run deep.

That’s our story. Have a great week!

Jonathan and Jill

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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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 Aug. 8-15, 2010

We haven't caught wahoo for several weeks, but that was because everyone was focused on the tuna and dorado! Randy Lyons took one day off from fishing the other species to troll around the south end of Cerralvo Island and came up with 3 'hoo! All were taken on dark rapalas. Randy, from Elk Grove CA and his amigo, Dick Winslow, had a stellar week with some of the best catches of the week. See the other photos of them below.

Yes...there are still some nice-sized tuna around playing among the 15 pound footballs. Many anglers are either getting beat up or busting off their fish or simply getting spooled by beasts they never see except for a smoke trail from their reels. This 60-pound class tuna by Cathy Corda didn't get away. She's trying to lift it on the beach at Las Arenas. The big tuna re readily eating chunked squid.

I believe that I will have to revise my predictions about the best time to fish for pargo. In the past few weeks, we've had some of the BEST and LARGEST pargo fishing that I can remember. Captain Pancho really tore it up this week with Dick Winslow who got his first tuna (sea below) as well as his first pargo which included several like this one in the 30-40 pound class. This one is a pargo liso (mullet snapper). The fish were boiling on chummed squid.

James Henning (blue shirt) brought 10 of his Denver amigos and kneels amid some of their catch of tuna and dorado. Over three days the guys limited or near limited on tuna, dorado, pargo, cabrilla and snapper.

There were some really nice fish caught this week and some surprising catches even for old-time returning amigos like Joey Fuschetti from Orange Co. CA who holds up a 50-pound amberjack. Joey has an unusual method of fishing that he swears by. He chops up bits of papaya when he fishes and chums with it first. We all think he's nuts. The captains just shake their heads. However, it's hard to argue with success. Joey always catches fish and often some of the largest fish of the day.

Like I said, above, it's been a crazy season for pargo and some of the biggest have been caught the last few weeks. Here's our good, amigo, Randy Lyons again with a big dog-tooth snapper taken near Cerralvo Island. Randy had several large ones during the week and said there was one that literally dragged him with from one end of the boat to the other with his heels dug into the deck and the drag completely buttoned down on a 2-speed reel and the fish was still moving! It eventually broke off in the rocks on 50 pound test. He said that chunks of squid tossed into the water got the fish boiling to the surface except once when spearfishers dove right into their spot and chased the fish away.

Blue water and fresh tuna for Tom Moon and Tony Toven off Las Arenas beach! The two caught tuna ranging from 10 pounders up to 63 pounds. Both are from the Los Angeles area.

This is what it looks like to have been on a fish for 4 hours...a 250 pound marlin on light tackle for Craig Corda. Check out the story below!

Initially, Dick Winslow didn't have any wire on his Rapala that morning, but Captain Pancho suggested putting some light wire leader on just-in-case. It did the trick. Dick got this wahoo and the sharp teeth of the wahoo shredded the lure plus the plastic sheath protecting the wire leaving the fish barely on by a thread. Straight mono would never have held.

Our La Paz fleet continues to consistently kick out dorado...about 90 percent of the catch for our fleet on the side with fish ranging from 5-20 pounds on the average. We're waiting for the larger bulls to show. Much of the time, the bite seems later in the day so we caution anglers to be patient and give the captain time to get the fish going. Our boats have been staying out extra long...sometimes not coming back until after 4 p.m. to find the fish. Joey and Bob hold up a couple of typical La Paz dorado.

WAHOO TUNA DORADO AND BIG PARGO RIP ANGLERS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 8-15, 2010

A pretty good week here. What did you want to catch? It seemed like there were opportunities for everything from marlin to roostefish and from pargo to tuna and dorado! Such a great variety.

For our La Paz boats, the dorado bite continued fairly solidly. Perhaps there were too few big fish compared to last week, but limits or near limits were the rule rather than the exception for our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet. Most of the fish were 5-15 pounds. A larger La Paz dorado might go maybe 20 pounds. But there were also some jags of pargo, cabrilla and sailfish and marlin.

The most variety were for our anglers fishing out of Las Arenas. Our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet had it’s share of dorado up to 30 pounds. However, it was the other species that poked their heads up that continued to keep rods bent and anglers fired up!

For instance, there were good numbers of football tuna running 5-20 pounds, but every day or so, some guys tangled with the big gorillas that either beat the anglers or busted up the gear! No giant giant fish put in the boat, but several 40-70 pound yellowfin tuna were landed. As well, we saw several 20-40 pound yellowtail…that’s right YELLOWTAIL (in August) make it into the fish boxes.

As well, roosterfish and some huge pargo were also landed. Just like the yellowtail, we normally don’t see these big monster pargo this time of year, but it’s a screwy year. We’re seeing some of the best and largest pargo fishing of the year the last few weeks. The funny thing is that like the yellowfin tuna and the yellowtail, we’re catching these guys on big chunks of fresh giant squid! We’ve not had much live bait so we’re catching or buying giant squid in the morning and then chunking for the big fish! And they’re eating it!

Also, for several weeks no one has caught any wahoo. It’s not because they’re not here. It’s because no one has been fishing for them. The tuna bite has been so good that no one wants to veer off and take a shot. Well, several guys went after them and it was like the wahoo were just waiting and feeling ignored. The fish were on the usual spots at the south end of Cerralvo Island and jumped all over the dark Rapalas.

FIRST PERSON STORY

CATCH & RELEASE Marlin by Cathy and Craig Corda…sorry no photos…Cathy almost got pulled overboard!

“Another wild time at Las Arenas beach – while fishing for tuna at the sweet spot in front of the beach houses, south of El Faro ~ my wife Cathy, our guide Aldolfo and myself unexpectedly hooked up to a marlin- WHAM! the battle was on, taking out line very fast, about a 1/2 hr. into it we had the marlin close to the panga. WOW bigger then we expected ~ 250 lb. blue, on a 40 lb. line, with a Penn Senator reel.

As Aldolfo put the gaff into its back it woke up and off it went with Aldolfo hanging on for all he had and the marlin was splashing everything and everyone, Aldolfo’s feet left the pangas deck, I caught his shirt tale and pulled him back in before he went for a swim.

Marlin takes off with our only gaff in its back, for about another 1/2 hr. we kept the marlin on the side of the panga, calling for anyone to come with another gaff. Finally, we got the bait guys to come over, all they had was a harpoon, so they pulled up next to us with the marlin between both pangas and tried to harpoon it a few times but this only pissed the marlin off more, finally it turned and burned, broke the line. I was really relieved to get back to fishing for tuna, dorado and pargo all which were ranging in the 30 to 60 lb. range.
So this was a true “Catch and Release”. Side note ~ Aldolfo’s gaff floated to the surface and he got it back.”

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Here’s some video footage from the week taken on the beach. Click this…some good stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llNsWm7xNLs

SOME WEEKLY FISHING HUMOR

I get sent all kinds of funny stories and video clips. This week, there were two that were excellent and I just wanted to share then with you.

The first is called “Adolph’s Bad Day.” For those of you who own boats, this will be especially good…

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81057766/

This one is all about fish leaping in the boat! The cameraman laughing is the best part!

http://www.purplepug.com/Videos/Asian-Carp-Wabash-River-August/13187983_T9fdj#957217611_fEWWb

Have a great week. That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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 Aug. 1-7, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tagged jonathan roldan, la paz, La Paz fishing, la ventana fishing, las arenas fishing, light tackle fishing, mexico fishing, muertos bay, panga fishing, sea of cortez, tailhunter, tailhunter international on August 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Tony Toven from Los Angeles had gotten enough "football tuna" and asked Captain Pancho to try for one of the bigger models. He hooked up on a big chunk of fresh squid over the trench off Las Arenas and was in for a big fight. By the time they got it to gaff, the fish had towed the panga into shallow water (see the photo below). The fish weighed in at 63 pounds (on a scale). Tuna continued to crash this past week for our anglers!

This is what a 63 pound tuna looks like at gaff next to the panga. Note the color of the water. The fish had towed the panga all the way back to shore into water that was only a few feet deep!

If you ever wanted to see what a world-class roosterfish looks like, Dave Lester from Temecula and Captain Jorge hold up a beast pez gallo just off the beach. These are the types of fish that made the Las Arenas famous. This 70 -pound class fish was one of several that he took on a special trap-hook setup using a big live bait slow trolled in the shallow water. This is the same area where the world-record 114 pound roostefish was caught...twice the size of this trophy. Dave released every one of his roosters!

Northern Cal residents Dave Tyree and Steve Artis did some serious damage to the fish population over 5 days of fishing using light rods and tackle. Here's a load of yellowfin tuna like the kind that kept crashing all week in various spots. Most fish have been in the 10-25 pound class but other larger fish continue to prowl and frustrate anglers after long battles.

Big smiles and a big fish for 12-year-old Jared Esquival from Hacienda Heights CA on his first trip with his family to fish our area. The dorado are getting bigger every month and are schooling up in various areas eating live bait, slow trolled stripped bait and chunked fresh bait.

Hard to believe, but yes, we're getting yellowtail in August. That just means there's gotta be some cold water down there mixing it up. Yellowtai are normally around for us in February to May...sometimes into June, but it's I can't remember ever catching yellowtail this deep into the summer. Joe Bishop put the hurt on this big hamachi fork-tail using a big piece of dead sqiud.

Family shot! Love this photo...From left Flower, Jorge Sr., little Mia and Jorge, Jr. Grijalva...then Vicki and her son Jared Esquival all on a family vacation and standing at Las Arenas beach. They plugged two boats with tuna and dorado over two days and had a marlin get away as well.

It was a good week for the larger roosters. Dave Wilson caught and released this fish just off the Punta Perrico rocks.

Back in the sunshine! Amigo Ron Burgess recently re-located from Brianshead Utah where he ran a ski resort back to S.California closer to his Baja fishing and shows off a nice barred pargo.

SUMMERTIME BLAST CONTINUES WITH TUNA AND DORADO BENDING RODS!

Las Arenas/ La Paz Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 1-7, 2010

It was almost like the “old days” around here this past week. It was like the days you read about in the magazines. Lots of guys didn’t know what to do with all the fish they caught.

Their biggest “problem” was realizing that even after giving away fish and releasing fish when it came time to fly home, their ice chests were WAY too heavy! It was a good problem and one that most just laughed about and chatted about having to have a quick weekend barbecue to get rid of all the excess fish that wouldn’t fit in the home freezers.

Honestly, for both our Tailhunter La Paz and our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, that bite that started during the full moon just flared bigger!

Our Tailhunter La Paz fleet keep rolling up on the dorado schools. Most of the fish continue to be about 10-15 pounds, but there were many other fish into the 20-30 pound class and a few larger too that were lost. Fish were found in a scattered area, but often the bite would be slower until later then big schools would be located and it would blow into a dorado rodeo.

“We trolled and drifted for hours without much except big bonito and needlefish. Then, all of a sudden, we found the biggest line of sargasso weed and even before we got there, you could tell it was alive! There were flying fish around it and birds diving on it and a sea turtle swimming through it and all kinds of nervous water!” said one of our anglers. “We threw some sardines and chunked bonito at it and the whole thing exploded with dorado! We had triple instant hookups that went on for a good hour until we said no more. We released at least half the fish we hooked.”

That was pretty typical for many of our La Paz anglers. One boat decided they had enough dorado and asked our captain to head for the rocks to look for other species and got a box load of pargo, cabrilla, roosters and jacks as well.

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, it was crazy as ever. The bad news was that there was very little live bait in the way of sardines so the guys laughingly had to start each day pulling up giant squid from deep deep down. It’s quite a chore and in no time guys are drenched in sweat!

The good news however, was that EVERYTHING was eating the squid…tuna, big yellowtail, pargo, dorado and even marlin were all hooked on squid chunks this week.

The tuna bite changed, but no one complained. The previous weeks BIG BIG tuna were not uncommon, but some of the fish were so big that many anglers would come back blanked after fighting the sluggers for up to 3 hours. After awhile, that stops being fun.

Instead this week, much more manageable football tuna between 10 and 25 pounders were the norm and many anglers got daily limits of tuna to mix up with dorado and other species such as pargo and roosterfish. We had a number of kids fishing with us this week and this size of tuna was ideal for the youngsters to get into.

One of the largest fish of the week was a 40 pound beast of a yellowtail taken by 10-year-old Jorge Grijalva of Hacienda Heights. It was Jorge’s first time fishing and he took the fish on 30 pound test. Unfortunately, he also busted dad’s custom-wrapped Calstar rod on the fish! Dad was still pretty proud.

If you check out the photos above, you’ll also see photos of a big time tuna and roosterfish. No telling how long this bite will last. I’m growing to expect the “unexpected” the way this season has been!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 24 to Aug. 1, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tagged baja fishing, darren hanson, Dave Castanon, Doug idsinga, jonathan roldan, La Paz fishing, light tackle fishing, Marcos Holguin, Mark Holguin, panga fishing, sea of cortez, tailhunter, tailhunter international on August 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

FULL MOON GRAND SLAM for 17-year-old Marcos Holguin and 13-year-old Ricardo Gil del Montes, Jr. from Los Angeles. Captain Jorge helps out with the nice pargo (dog tooth snapper), yellowfin tuna and nice yellowtail caught while fishing with with chunked squid and our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. It was a good week for the opportunity to catch multiple high-grade sport species despite fears of the full moon. Highly unusual to find big pargo and yellowtail in these warmer months!

It's incredible that we are getting yellowtail of this quality in July. Normally, we only get these in the cooler months of February to May, but LAPD detective Mark Holguin holds a nice pair. Note the two other tails at his feet! The fish are in shallow water near shore and have averaged 15-35 pounds this week.

Even better than a grand slam (3 sport species) is a Grand Slam plus One! Northern Cal residents, Dave Tyree and Steve Artis hold up a yellowfin tuna, a yellowtail, a dorado and a barred pargo...all prized catches. They fished 5 days and encountered similar results each day.

Some of those bruiser yellowfin tuna are still around! New Mexico angler Darren Hanson holds the gaff on a fatty taken off Las Arenas. The fish were in-close most days and showed an affinity for chunks of giant squid which meant starting the day pulling up 50 pound squid from 1200 feet down...a workout!

S.Cal resident Gina Fowlkes and husband Mitch brought the family for a week of fishing and shows off a days catch with a nice mix of dorado and yellowfin tuna

Yellowtail trio on the beach for Victor, Ricardo Jr, and Ricardo Sr. Gil de Montes. Keeping it in the family.

Mahi for the coolers! Long time amigo, Dave Castanon and son Brent from La Verne CA is and fire captain and is often chasing brushfires this time of year, but got down for a quick week of fishing and started off with two good-sized dorado!

Juan Martinez says he catches all the fish...all the time! He holds up one of the yellowfin tuna caught this week near Punta Arenas.

Mean slugger tuna up to 60 pounds like this one held by Dougie Idsinga continued to battle and frustrate our anglers often taking up to 2 hours to boat them. Many larger fish were lost. That's Cerralvo Island in the background. Some of the fish were hooked within casting distance of shore or could be seen swimming in the shallows.

Marcos Holguin's dog-tooth snapper is the first picture in the report, but a solo shot was worth posting again because it's such a great fish! Surprisingly, we've got a good pargo bite going on with dog-tooth snapper, mullet snapper and barred pargo all biting!

Ernie (on the left) had some reservations fishing with newbie rookie Rick (on the left) and joking told him so. But, as you can see from the two mugging for the camera, they did just fine.

Despite all the other "glamour" species showing up these days, our bread-and-butter fish for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas Fleets continues to be the dorado which are scattered over a wide area with more sargasso weeds stacking up in the channel. Steve Artis holds up a nice bull.

NO FULL MOON BLUES! FISH BITE STRONG!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 24 to Aug. 1, 2010

In all my years here, I can remember very few times when it was possible to catch a “grand slam” of fish and where there was so much quality in the water. So much for the full moon! I was worried, but as it turns out, this has been one of the better fishing weeks of the season in terms of variety as well as quality.

When we speak of a “grand slam” it’s the fishing equivalent of taking at least three sportfishing species the same day. This week on several occasions, we had anglers nail big tuna, big yellowtail plus a marlin or a big dorado or big pargo or roosterfish all in the same day…sometimes in the same hour!

The weirdest thing is that we’re well into the thick of summer. Tuna, dorado and marlin are typical this time of year, but we’re having one of the best runs of yellowtail…a fish we normally catch in the COLDER water months of February to May…slamming baits right now!

The fish are a nice grade too. Tuna in the 40-60 pound class are not uncommon and there have been fish much much larger lost. Yellowtail are 20-40 pounds. Pargo are 10-40 pounds. Roosters up to 70 pounds were caught this week!

The best shot at this variety was with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The fish are not very far either.

One of the guys said, “We’re so close to shore we’re fishing for rooster fish one moment then the next just a few more yards out…we’re fishing for tuna!:

One big tuna bit just offshore and they fought it for two hours. By the time they got the fish to the boat, the boat was literally on the beach as the fish had towed the boat around and was now only in about 10 feet of water!

Las Arenas has been quite the surprise!

The bad news is that live bait has been very difficult to get for our pangas there. Sardines are not very plentiful. The good news is that there has been giant squid and chunks of giant squid have worked solidly all week. As long as they are around, certainly, the tuna seem to keep hanging out. But some days there are no squid!

The other problem with the giant squid is that…well…they’re giant! As one angler put it…”By 8 a.m. I’ve pulled 4 of these 50 pound squid up from as deep as 1200 feet! I’m covered in sweat. I need a beer. I just want to sit down. Instead, the captain takes a 3 pound chunk and sends it back down and I’m now bit by a 50 pound tuna that kicks my butt for another hour!” Another angler laughingly said, “I offered our captain an extra 20 bucks to do all the work to catch the squid for me! That’s too much work! The captain laughed and said I had to do it myself!”

Chunking the big squid and dropping bits in the water to drift then pinning a big slab on a huge hook has been the ticket. Or, a small weight and a strip of squid sent down nails the big pargo or yellowtail. Slow-trolled strips have been great on the dorado.

Our Tailhunter La Paz fleet has not been encountering as much variety, but there’s been no shortage of fish either. Dorado between 10 and 20 pounds have been the main target as patches of sargasso weeds normally found in the late spring are now popping up and holding fish. There have also been some jags of wahoo at the north end of Cerralvo Island as well.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 18-25, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tagged baja fishing, cerralvo island fishing, darren hanson, dave van velzer, greg covello, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Paz fishing, light tackle fishing, llew williams, mark marcus, micheal harkins, mike mccort, mike van velzer, panga fishing, sea of cortez, steve hanson, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tony adamich on July 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It was a great week for larger tuna and one of the best shots and stories of the week. Jared DiFiore (16) and his brother Joseph (14) came to La Paz from New Hampshire with their family hoping to catch "just one fish.. .any kind of a fish!" They had never done this before. Their first day they fished with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and got a limit of dorado and were thrilled. The next day, they went snorkeling and ended up swimming with sealions, a whaleshark and saw porpoise a blue whale and sea turles. Then, they decided to try the big tuna at Las Arenas. They figured they were finally up to going to the big leagues. They tied into this big ahi yellowfin tuna and tag-teamed it for almost 2 hours before getting it to the boat. That was it! No more. They asked the captain to take them back to the beach with big smiles!

Happy boy "Modelo" Dave Pollard from Upland CA holds up a fat yellowfin tuna he caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Dave "grand slammed"...actually he did better than that nailing tuna, dorado, marlin and pargo all on the same day.

A graduation present for 17 year-old Mike Harkins who also works as a deckhand on a Los Angeles sportboat. He's been fishing with us since he was about 2 feet high and always had a knack for big fish. Over 4 days, he got yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, dorado and this big pargo and several others fishing with his dad and using live bait with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. It's been a surprsing few weeks with cold water fish like pargo and yellowtail still around.

A long way to the ocean from New Mexico, but Steve Hanson (who invented the "Steve-O-rita" while he was here...Red Bull and silver tequila!) fished with his son, Darren, (holding the tail) and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and got this blue marlin estimated at 300 pounds. The meat was donated. They also got limits of dorado. It was a good week for both species.

Dave and Mike Van Velzer had a spectacular week after fishing 4 days with both of our Tailhunter fleets. They got a variety of dorado and some of the big yellowfin tuna like the ones they are holding here at Punta Arenas Beach.

It was a good week for the youngsters! Steve Kechichian is 16-years-old and pulled on numerous big tuna and dorado like this one he caught with Captain Victor. His best stories from Steve and his dad were the numerous multi-hookups they had and couldn't stop the fish or the fish going in two different directions and unable to chase them down.

Recently retired Greg Covello (left) knew exactly what he wanted to do with his free time...catch a big pargo so he came down with amigo, Alex Bastedo. They lost alot of fish ,but did manage to pull these two trophy pargo lisos out of the rocks.

It was a pretty good week for marlin! Captain Pancho helps our amigo, Tony Adamich with this nice striper caught near Cerralvo Island. Tony released the fish that day.

After you fight a big tuna for almost 2 hours, it's not so easy to lift it up when someone wants to take your picture! Mike McCort from New York did his best and we got the photo. These fish showed a big preference for big chunks of fresh squid for bait on huge 7/0 to 9/0 hooks!

This is just one more example of our screwy season! Normally, we see yellowtail in the cooler months and cooler waters of February to May. But it's JULY!! Alex Bastedo holds up a 10 pounder, but we got some in the 30-40 pound class this week that surprised everyone!

He really wanted to try to get a tuna on a flyrod, but Professor Mark Marcus from Knoxville, Tenn., put down the flyrod when he saw the sizes of the yellowfin tuna that showed up this week.

Varton Bagdasaryan is a professional chef in the Riverside area of California and was on his first trip to fish in La Paz waters. His first two fish of the day were a striped marlin and this big tuna. He immediately went back to the hotel and mixed up some sashime! This fish bit a big chunk of fresh squid off Las Arenas.

He came all the way from Florida and ended up tangling with one of our big tuna this week. Professor Llew Williams has been fishing with us for many many years and it's always great to have him down.

BIG TUNA GIANT SQUID HUNGRY DORADO PACE THE WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 18-25, 2010

Nothing else to describe it other than a solid week of fishing. Some really incredible fishing for some of our anglers who hit some monster fish and literally filled their coolers their first day then after it was gravy! Seriously…especially for our Las Arenas fleet, big tuna showed up in the 40-80 pound class that bent anglers for 1-2 hours each.

If you looked at the scores, some days, it might look like we didn’t do that well on the tuna, but if you talked to the anglers, they’ll tell you they fought and LOST 2, 3 or more fish and only got 1 to the boat. Totally spent and thrashed anglers and captains came back with stories of fish fought for as much as 3 hours and losing them and some speculation that some of the larger gorilla tuna were in the 100-200 pound class.

On several occasions, anglers fought a single fish for an hour or two and then told the captain, “No mas, take me back to the beach!” They came back and just sat and collapsed. And it was still morning!

As one angler said, “We got one fish on 60 pound test and the trolling rod and 4/0 two-speed reel. We almost got spooled on the first run and we fired up the panga! It was like being a cowboy trying to stand up and ride a panga over the waves and hang onto the tuna. We went almost FULL speed for 20 minutes chasing the fish and it finally popped! We never even saw it, but there were some other hugs boils in the area that looked like they were half the size of the 22 foot panga!”

No way to know if the tuna will hang out, but the key seems to be the giant squid in the morning. If the squid show up and the anglers can put some in the boat, these giant squid are as big as 60 pounds and a true workout right off the bat to grind them up from the deep.

Then, using heavy rigs and 7/0 and larger hooks we pin a 3 pound chunk on the hook and send it back down! Guys were telling us that just catching the squid was hard enough. “Man, each squid was a battle to get them to the surface. These were sea monsters and even before we started fishing, we were already tuckered out and looking in the ice chest for cold beers and it wasn’t even 8 a.m. yet!”

“The bite at times was almost instant!” said another of our anglers. “Literally, within seconds of drifting that chunk down, it was like a car came by and suddenly latched on! I’ve never had line spin off my reel so fast. Then it was like I was holding a refrigerator over the side of a building or something! I immediately started wishing these were smaller tuna!” He lost 5 fish before he boated his first tuna but ended up with 3 fish over 2 days with the smallest being 65 pounds.

Now…add to that a good smattering of dorado from 5-40 pounds; marlin; roosterfish and big pargo and our Las Arenas anglers really had a super week. But…hold on…

We also got yellowtail! These are fish that are COLD water fish and we generally catch them only in February to May. Several of our fishermen got into 10-40 pound mossback yellowtail! Go figure.

For our La Paz fleet, they were hanging fish all week as well. With great weather, the dorado came to play. Most days, the boats got limits or near limits of dorado up to about 30 pounds with most fish in the 10-20 pound class. As well, several boats got into nice marlin including one 300 pound blue landed by Steve Hanson of New Mexico.

It’s been a screwy year, but this has certainly been one of the better weeks of the season!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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 for Week of July 11-18, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tagged baja mexico, jonathan roldan, La Paz fishing, light tackle fishing, mexico fishing, panga fishing, sea of cortez, tailhunter, tailhunter international on July 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

On and off throughout the week, flurries of 40-60 pound tuna showed up for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet which made things pretty exciting. Some bigger fish were hooked and lost too. Fish were just off the rocks at Punta Perrico and eating live bait as well as chunked squid. Dr. Desmond Sjaufoekloy from Orange Co. California plugged the boat two straight days with 8 nice fish as well as dorado and marlin!

Several big pargo were caught this week. Ray Laney, Sr. was a little upset when his son, Ray, Jr. got the first marlin of the trip, but dad more than made up for it with this huge dog tooth cubera snapper (pargo perro) he got off the rocks with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

Washington resident Ed Van der Veer fished with Captain Pancho and got one of the nicer female dorado which came on strong this week. Ed was fishing live bait and light tackle which made it even more fun on the panga.

Like I mentioned above, it was a week with some especially good-looking pargo on the beach. Our good amigo, Mark Martis, always seems to do well. Although fishing wasn't particularly good on this particular day, Mark still nailed this trophy pargo liso (mullet snapper ) fishing with our Captain Archangel.

Two great looking dorado fully lit! Ray Laney, Jr. and Ray, Sr. hold up a pair that they got fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet where dorado have been the mainstay of the catch with more of the larger fish finally starting to show up.

I don't usually post up marlin photos here in the fishing report, but I just had to pop this photo of one of our best amigos, Dave Berthold, holding his first marlin. Dave comes all the way from New Jersey ever single year. He gets the prize for determination plus being a helluva good guy. He has come 12 straight years in a row sometimes fishing every single day just to catch one single marlin! He has done things like promise the captain as much as 500 tip and one year even brought down a new XBox 360 plus games as part of the bonus for the captain if he could just catch one single marlin. Well, this year, he finally got his marlin fishing with Captain Chito and donated the fish.

Yes! The big squid are back! Plus this is just a great morning shot too! The squid are not here every day, but when they are, the tuna are lurking nearby as well. The squid are as big as 60 pounders and are mean and voracious! We are using chunks of the squid for the larger tuna.

Coral and Brad spent a week with us all the way from Durango, Colorado and fished a day with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet and Captain Chito. Holding up 4 of their dorado inside Balandra Bay they had a nice day. If you look at the bottom of the photo you'll se a big tail. Coral spent 90 minutes on a striped marlin as well!

This could be a pending world-record 70-pound wahoo shot by 14-year-old freediver Lucca Perretti on his very first dive...ever! More below. (FREEDIVING...no tanks...hold your breath like a fish!)

Not bad for 14 years old! Possible world record shot right-off-the-bat! See the story below!

TUNA AND DORADO HIGHLIGHT ANOTHER CRAZY WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 11-18, 2010

A mixed week of fishing here…again! Still having trouble getting a handle on the fishing conditions here as wind blow one day, but not the next. Waters are blue one day, but green the next. Tuna pop up one day then disappear the next. Dorado go crazy one day then the next day it’s giant squid that pop up! One day we can find sardines for bait and the next day they are hiding or have to use squid or caballitos. Never two identical days in a row! It’s a three-wing circus!

The good thing is that most of our clients are fishing several days and the fact that we have both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets allows us to adjust where our clients fish as dictated by the weather, fishing conditions, bait, and what’s biting.

For our Las Arenas anglers the up and down appearance of yellowfin tuna has been the most exciting part of the week. The fish aren’t there everyday, but it seems that when the giant squid are around, so are the tuna. But even with the tuna, their appearance is as erratic as their size. One day, it’s all 5-10 pound footballs. The next day, it seems like they gulped steroids and they’re 40-100 pound monsters that beat up everyone! The 40-50 pounders are manageable…maybe 10-30 minute fights. The larger fish…well, no one has landed any of the 100 pounders yet. Once the battle goes towards and hour-or-more, it seems that the battle leans more in favor of the fish as the anglers and the gear wear down in the hot sun. One mistake and it’s zingpowie…bye bye tuna!
Fortunately, for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets, other species like dorado, marlin and pargo, cabrilla and roosterfish fill in the gaps most days. The dorado are the most prolific and finally we’re at least seeing some larger fish in the 20-40 pound class. Slow trolling or drifting live sardines, caballitos or strips of fresh bonito are key.

If you’re coming down, bring big squid jigs just-in-case the squid are here. They are 20-80 pound beasts! Also bring an assortment of live bait hooks to accommodate the different types of bait that might be used.

FIRST PERSON STORY FROM A 14-YEAR-OLD SPEARFISHERMAN WITH PENDING WORLD RECORD!

Lucca Perretti from Los Angeles is 14 years old and the son of champion diver John Peretti (and former cage fighter). He came down here on his first free-diving trip. On his very first day…very first shot…he nails a 70 pound wahoo that may well be a new age-group world record! Here’s his story below. Keep in mind that in Mexico, spearfishers are NOT allowed to use tanks! This is all freediving…you bring only what you can carry in a single breath of air! Check this out:

“Right after the La Paz Blue Water Invitational Championships, my father, John, Dennis Haussler, three time national Spearfishing champion and I went diving on the north end of Cerralvo. I was using a prototype Sea Sniper, 2 bander. We were flashing and got into the wahoo, my father shot and lost one after being pulled around, and then landed a 60 pounder, Dennis shot and landed a 70 pounder with ease.

Dennis beckoned me into the water, we threw flashers for 5 minutes.

With Dennis on my left and my father on my right, a big wahoo inspected my flasher, at the time I did not realize the size of it. I lined up on him and he turned out to my right, as he was swimming away I shot and let him have it. I knew I could not horse him, so I let the buoys go and my father and I chased them. We swam for what seemed like half a mile, it took us 10 minutes to finally reach them, Dennis was already there. We were all very concerned as to whether the shot would hold, Dennis swam down to 100 feet to take a peek. I used my shark clip to bow and arrow the fish up. 30 feet from the surface, the wahoo started to rip out and we did not want to lose it because it was my first, so Dennis swam down and second shot it. I was a 70 pounder, skinnier than Dennis’ but mine was 8 inches longer. I was told that most spearos wait a lifetime to shoot a wahoo like this, I am so grateful.”

VOLARIS AIRLINES SURPRISE LA PAZ AIRLINE TICKET SALE!

We just found out of a big sale that Volaris Airlines is having. Round trip to La Paz from Tijuana is only about $120 bucks! They will pick you up in San Diego and bring you right to their terminal. Lots of our clients have been using this brand new airlines for the last two years and service has been great.

Check out their website: http://www.volaris.com.mx/ or write to us directly. My e-mail is riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

You MUST purchase tickets by July 20 and travel must be between Sept. 1 and Dec. 12th.

That’s our story! Have a great week.

Jonathan and Jilly

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

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La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 4-11, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tagged baja fishing, jonathan roldan, La Paz fishing, la ventana fishing, las arenas 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 July 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

First timer, Ed Vander Veer from Washington state was doing some light line fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and got a number of roosters over several days of fishing releasing them all including this nice pez gallo.

One of the larger dorado of the week! Christine Rinaldi came to see us again all the way from New Jersey and spent more than a week fishing with us and took this nice bull not far off the Las Arenas lighthouse. It was an up-and-down week for dorado fishing with fish sometimes hungry and other times completely ignoring baits.

Earlier in the week, there was a fairly nice dorado bite with our Las Arenas fleet that got chillier when colder waters moved in, but our Arizona amigo Mike Guest did put this female in the box!

There was some good sporadic tuna fishing throughout the week although anglers really had to work hard to find the fish which popped up in varios places around Cerralvo Island, but were often elusive. Mary Heilman shows off one football yellowfin on the gaff fishing with Captain Pancho using live sardines.

Now THIS is a roosterfish...the kind that made Las Arenas famous! Dave Wehner really wanted to catch a rooster on light tackle. He had no idea, that a 60-pound class fish would inhale his little sardine while he was using 15 pound test and a little bass casting stick! Dave fought this fish for 90 minutes before getting it aboard for a quick photo and releasing it. Despite what it looks like, Dave said the fish swam away strongly!

Once a year, Kansas hunting guide, Don Snyder on the right gets to put on shorts and flip flops (although he gets to keep his cowboy hat) and comes to hang out with us in La Paz. He brought his buddy, Tom Carey from Colorado. (Tom...you dance great!). They're holding up some of their yellowfun tuna catch here standing at Las Arenas beach.

Everything is good when the fish are biting. Mike Whitlow (on the right) fishes professional bass tournaments and came down with his bud, Ed Vander Veer and did alot of light tackle fishing. Sometimes they really had to work hard to get the fish to bite during a week when fish were sometimes less than cooperative, but here, they hold up two nice dorado they picked up off Las Arenas.

Marlin jumping off the stern of a panga (see the photo below for the story)!

A blue marlin first for Mary Wehner looking none-the-worse for wear and tear as she's assisted by Captain Pancho with a blue estimated at 150 pounds. That's the fish in the picture above leaping off the stern! Mary hooked this fish just after her husband fought the big rooster two photos above. Bravo to Mary, she released the fish unharmed!

One of the best guys for posing with a fish, San Diego resident Mitch Chavira always gets fish whenever he comes down several times a year. He's hoisting a nice yellowfin tuna still lit up.

SOME DAYS BETTER THAN OTHERS AS ANGLERS WORK HARD BUT GET NICE TUNA, DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 11, 2010

A mixed week here for fishing. Weather and fishing were both as mercurial as the air temperature at times as the wacky unpredictable fishing season continued. The upside is that most of our folks who fished a few days all ended up with somes good fishing, but in between several good days, a really puzzling bad day could be had just as easily.

One day, the dorado or the tuna are jumping out’ve the waters and into the boat. Marlin are all over. The next day, that same panga in the same area doing the exact same thing would have a problem even getting a bonito or a needlefish to rise to a bait. Similarly, beautiful blue sunny waters one day would turn to windy chop the next and all of us would be shivering in sweatshirts and windbreakers. Go figure.

Overall, it wasn’t the best of weeks. Everyone had fish by the end, but some days it was like pulling teeth. It’s been a strange season and we seem to be about a month behind where we should be.

As well, bait continued to be an issue some days. One day it’s easily found. The next day, it would take hours.

However, like I said, if you fished at least a few days, the end result was a pretty nice stack of fish fillets! You just had to weather the slow periods. Hats off to our angler who were here this past week. Even during the tough times, they kept laughing and working it and in most cases it paid off.

For our La Paz Tailhunter fleet, dorado were mostly in the spotlight with fish being found in several area, most notably around Punta Mejia and the Las Cruces areas between Cerralvo Island and the Peninsula. Most fish were in the 10-20 pound class. We’re still seeing quite a few marlin as well. Almost all of them have been stripers in the 100-130 pound category. There were also some good spots of pargo, cabrill and amberjack.

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, lots of variety continued. Spots of tuna seemed to follow the big squid up from the trenches. (The squid have been as large as 60 pounders!). Tuna have likewise been as big as 60-100 pounders with several large ones hooked and lost. Our largest this week that made it into the panga was about 60 pounds. Most, however were football tuna in the 5-15 pound class and they really seemed to like eating chunks of dead squid (not surprisingly) or else the really really pin-head sized sardines.

For other species around Las Arenas, dorado keep breezing through and at least a few boats find the erratic schools with fish up to about 25 pounds. Roosterfish are in a spot near Boca de Alamo south of Muertos Bay and big pargo and cabrilla are still hanging out in the rocks.

FACEBOOK UPDATES

By the way, if you’d like to get your fishing report fix more often than every week, I post up daily fishing reports often with photos and video clips 4 or 5 times a week if you get on face book and put JONATHAN ROLDAN on as a friend.

Also, if you’d like to keep up with the crazy fun at our Tailhunter Restaurant/Bar, get on facebook and become a FAN. Easy to join.

Have a great week!

That’s our story…

Jonathan and Jill

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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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 for Week of June 26-July 4, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tagged baja mexico, cerralvo island fishing, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Paz fishing, la ventana fishing, muertos bay fishing, panga fishing, sea of cortez fishing, tailhunter, tailhunter international on July 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Yellowfin tuna popped up for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet with some fish in the 60-200 pound class that really chewed up anglers and spit them out, but some nice "football" sized fish in the 10-30 pound class like this one held by our amigo, Jorge Romero and assisted by Capt. Jaibo, did show up in flashes throughout the week.

Looks like big roosterfish season is here. We're not seeing so many smaller fish anymore. Most of the roosters we got this week were like this hog of a fish caught and released by BARBARA KENTSLER from Utah (Sorry for the mistake Barbara and thanks Aubrey for catching my error!) with Capt. Jorge near Las Arenas.

There are still a surprising number of pargo around. Check out the flat seas behind Randy Forestiere holding this nice pargo liso just off Muertos Bay.

I wish our friend, Rich Sawaske, and Capt. Adolfo had looked up into the camera, but they have their eyes riveted on this beautiful dorado Rich got on a live sardine just off Punta Arenas. Check out the flat ocean. They were only a few hundred yards offshore.

The water is still cold enough that we're still getting sierra which are normally cold water fish. Captain Romero holds a big one! Great eating fish.

MARLIN TUNA DORADO WAKE UP TO START SUMMER!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 26- to July 4, 2010

It was all going along really well. Then the winds came up again…at least for our La Paz fleet. It was like April all over again as the week came to a close, but before that, fishing had been really great.

For the better part of the week both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets have been doing really well. I mean, when was the last time someone said, “There are too many marlin!”

However, that’s what I heard more than once this past week, especially for our anglers fishing with our Las Arenas fleet. Over the last two weeks, all those lazy striped marlin and sailfish that have been sunning themselves on the surface waiting for the waters to warm finally woke up and came to the party. It’s about time!

Here’s some of the comments from the week:

“We had 8 marlin just swimming ’round and ’round the panga!”

“Those pesky marlin were as thick and dumb as dorado and I don’t want to catch marlin. I want to catch dorado, but the marlin chased the dorado away!”

“We hooked and released 5 marlin before 10 a.m. and then got the heck out’ve there so we could try to catch something like pargo to put in the ice chest!”

“I’ve never had a triple marlin hookup on a panga before and we were only about 200 yards from the shore!”

Fortunately, most of the marlin are getting broken off or released, and it’s especially great to see so many first timers letting their fish go…especially the youngsters tying into their first billfish.

However, in addition to the billfish, we got quite a variety of other species, especially around the south end of Cerralvo Island and Las Arenas. More and larger dorado showed up although there’s still quite a few dinks, but we saw some fish caught in the 20-25 pound category. As well, we’re not seeing as many roosterfish, but some really hefty big boys were caught and released up to about the 60-70 pound category as well as pargo and cabrilla.

More exciting than that, however, was that some large squid popped up south of Arenas and usually when that happens there’s tuna that come up out’ve the deep trench. Sure enough, we got into some 20-60 pound fish and several larger tuna in the 100+ pound category were hooked and lost after long long battles. There were even some fish estimated at 200 pounds that literally gobbled up anglers and spit them out.

There weren’t alot of tuna, but enough to get everyone excited and to see some of the larger fish pop up as well really jacked up the interest. Only problem was that many anglers were outgunned or not experienced enough to tackle these bigger gorilla tuna or, in some cases, I heard of at least 2 anglers simply cutting themselves off when they realized what they were tied onto!

If you can, imagine holding a 200 pound weight over the side of a 50-story building in a strong wind and you’re attached to that weight with a little tiny piece of string and a rod and reel! How many hours can you hold that?

FIRST PERSON!

Dave Gora and his family from Dana Pt. CA were down this week and Dave does some incredible video clips! He put this together for us from fishing two days with our Las Arenas fleet and Captain Victor. One of the best video clips I’ve ever seen down here. Great underwater footage too! Thanks, Dave! Click this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkkqUUb4wws

Will keep an eye out. Have a great 4th of July holiday!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of June 20-27, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tagged jonathan roldan, la paz, light tackle fishing, panga fishing, sea of cortez, sea of cortez fishing, tailhunter international on June 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Spencer Sawaske from Northern California had a pretty good day. First, he released a marlin, then got this monster dorado fishing off Cerralvo Island on the south side and also near the Arenas lighthouse. Better dorado and marlin fishing were the highlight during a full-moon week.

Retired NFL linebacker and football coach...and one of Tailhunter's best amigos, Donnie Rea, shows off one of the nicer dorado taken this week with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of La Paz. Although bait continued to be slow to find, most boats did some pretty decent dorado fishing. Coach Rea was fishing with Captain Marcos.

Despite rapidly warming waters, pargo continue to be hungry and equally frustrating busting off lots of anglers. This one didn't get away. In fact, according to our amigo Dave Wehner who has been fishing with us 8 years, this big barred pargo came up and ate an entire slow trolled bonito Dave was using for bait! Later in the week, Dave nailed a 65 pound roosterfish on his itty-bitty bass rod that he fought for 90 minutes! His wife Mary then hooked up on a 150 pound blue marlin! Both fish were released!

Some nice tuna poked their heads up this week...albeit too briefly. Just enough to tease everyone . It seems everytime we get a glimpse of giant squid coming up from the deep trenches, we got some tuna following them up! We actually had a few 100 pounders hooked and lost, but this was one 50-pounder that Garden Grove amigo, Jonathan Navarro, caught near the Las Arenas lighthouse fishing with Captain Victor.

Retired firefighter Ed Basurto from Sacramento holds up one of the better bull dorado we got this week while fishing off Las Arenas near Cerralvo Island.

Rex Smith from Arizona and Fred Sontag from Arkansas and their other brothers Mike and John, had a nice day north of La Paz fishing with the Tailhunter La Paz Fleet. They released a marlin and sailfish.

Captain Armando with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet helps pose a nice dorado for Dan who had never fished before but ended up with a handful as well as a marlin on his first outing. He outfished most of his buddies and said it was because he wore his lucky wristwatch.

Grand slam for Mal Young and dad, Bob. It was a delayed high-school graduation present that Mal waited 2 years for, but it resulted in a striped marlin plus this trio that shows some of the variety...a roosterfish, a pargo liso and a dorado!

It's summer, but we're still getting some colder water fish like this sierra held by Fred Sontag from Arkanasas.

This was probably our best week so far for striped marlin. This great shot was taken by Jonathan Navarro from Los Angeles as his dad battled the fish off Cerralvo Island

Fresh one! Rich Navarro hoists a summer-time bull dorado that bit a live sardine.

SUMMERTIME CONDITIONS PROMPT DORADO AND MARLIN TO WAKE UP!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 20-27, 2010

Things are definitely changing here finally. Winds have laid down quite a bit. Waters and air temps are getting noticeably warmer too. It finally feels like summer. Waters are high 70’s to low 80’s Daytime temps are high 90’s to low 100’s, but there’s still a nice breeze most times. Our anglers are telling us it’s one of the most pleasant June’s they’ve ever experienced here.

Co-incidentally, fishing has seemingly turned the corner as well. While not wide open, the warmer conditions finally brought in more of the top-water species. For sure, it finally kick-started all the marlin and sailfish that have been lazing around our waters for two months. “We had 8 swimming around our panga at one time!” said one of our anglers. It was not unusual to hook 1 or 2 this week. Many fish broke- off on the lighter tackle, but it’s gratifying to see so many anglers…especially first timers…releasing their billfish! Bravo! Our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet has been seeing most of the billfish action.

As well, there’s been a smattering of tuna in the 60-100 pound class as it seems the big Humboldt squid have come up to the surface from their trenches and that usually brings the big tuna with them. There weren’t many tuna, but here and there, they popped up and tore into a few of our pangas leaving anglers battered and bruised and, more often than not, with nothing to show after long battles where the fish broke off or got unbuttoned.

Also, we’re seeing many more dorado all around La Paz waters, but even moreso, we’re finally seeing bigger 20-40 pound bulls instead of the little punks we’ve been dealing with since April. Every day several fish in the 25-30 pound class have been taken at various spots. Check out the photos this week! Lots of dorado shots!

Bait is the biggest issue. We’re getting bait, but it just takes time to find it or wait for the bait guys to find it so they can sell it to us. Once you have the bait, the fish can be found. The fish are here…no doubt. Hopefully, that will change but we’ll keep an eye out for it. We’ve been using mostly sardines, but a few cocineros and even some big squid has been working or stripped out bonito for slow trolling the larger dorado.

FIRST PERSON REPORT

Thanks to Mike Sontag from Arizona for putting this one together!

“The fishing the week of June 25th was phenomenal. Besides having my fishing partner extraordinaire (Rex) with us, I was blessed with being able to spend quality time with my 2 brothers (both from the midwest).

The first 2 days launched out of Los Arenas with my brother tying into a beautiful marlin within an hour of being on the water. The fight was on with the fish showing us his size and attitude with a series of surface crashing launches and acrobatics. The fish won out after a 10 minute fight, but not without leaving a lifetime impression on my brother and me since I was able to watch the silly smirk on my brothers face for the durations of the hookup (I believe it s permanent as it still hasn’t left his face).

Not to be outdone, within another 30 minutes I had a sailfish on the business end of the rod while my brother provided commentary and helpful hints since he was now experienced at this sort of thing. The sail was a thing of beauty and after about 25 minutes was brought up next to the boat. Our masterful Captain Ramiro estimated it’s weight at about 40-45 Kg (90-100lbs). We performed CPR (catch, photograph, release) and let it go for another day.

The rest of our day as well as the same for Rex and my other brother was rounded out with a multi-species bad of pargo, trigger, sierra, dorado, amberjack, bonita, plus several roosterfish sightings.

The cream on top of this trip was day 3 out of LaPaz with limits of dorado for both our boats. All I can say is my two brothers will never be the same when it comes to fishing experiences of a lifetime. As with our previous visits – the professional hospitality and friendliness of yourTailhunter operation and the fishing captains are second to none.”

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

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

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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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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