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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of June 12-19, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Family Outing with three generations of the Whittlesey guys including grandpa Norman (tuna and pargo); grandson Mike (striped marlin); Dad Craig (wahoo) and grandson Dan with another wahoo. The guys from Pullman Washington spent the past week fishing with us and had this great day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The bite reflected the improved fishing towards the end of the week.

Ed Johnson from S.California got into the nice jag of Cerralvo Island on the south side that went off this past week. It was his first trip and his panga got 3 wahoo and lost another. They also got dorado. The wahoo were eating trolled deep running dark colored lures early in the morning.

Making his first trip to La Paz from Colorado, Jim Schmid had an eventful week with all the different species he encountered (see account below) including this La Paz dorado as more dorado moved into the area with some larger fish like Jim's.

Leif Dover from Atlanta GA spent a week with us targeting "only big fish" and spending the time to only use larger baits and fishing larger tackle. It paid off with this beast dog-tooth cubera snapper with Captain Adolfo looking on.

Big roosterfish are still around in what has turned out to be an excellent roosterfish season. Check out Scott Damron's big fish he caught and released south of Muertos Bay.

Not a bad day at all. Early the week, the dorado bite was tough as winds pushed things around, but Cindi and Jim Schmid from Colorado still managed 4 nice mahi. As the week went on, winds diminished and dorado got more cooperative.

It's not big...but it's big news and a great catch, especially for a first timer like Mike Whittlesey from Washington who got this tuna near Cerralvo Island trolling for wahoo. Tuna keep popping up, but not staying so we have to keep an eye on this!

Captured in mid-flight during the battle, Jim Schmid's sailfish goes vertical. The fish broke off at the boat after a long fight and was "the fish of a lifetime" according to Jim. They were fishing north of La Paz with Captain Raul and our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.

SLOW START OF THE WEEK ENDS IN HIGHER NOTES BY THE END!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 12-19, 2010

The week started slow and scratchy with some really tough fishing.  Winds again kept blowing erratically not only turning waters off-color, but also scattering bait and generally putting lock-jaw on the fishing.  There were times early-on when even the bonito seemed dis-interested in biting and basically, we all struggled with both our Las Arenas and our La Paz fleet.  How bad?  Well, imagine getting excited about BIG triggerfish!  Well…not quite that bad, but we sure had to work hard for the  roosters, pargo, cabrilla and inshore fish that we got.

Then, just about to throw up my hands and kick sand and boom!  The winds stopped for a few days…

And the fish bit! 

We suddenly found dorado, wahoo, some marlin and sailfish…even some tuna bit!  What a difference a day or two makes!  Roosterfish kept coming on.  Dorado up to 30 pounds.  Every day there were a few billfish hooked (lost or released).  For a few days, it seemed every boat fishing south of Cerralvo Island hooked a wahoo…not necessarily put it in the boat, but they were getting bit and several boats each day did put a wahoo in the pangas. 

As of the time I’m writing this, winds have stayed relatively calm and the waters are getting clearer.  Our biggest challenge is the live bait now.  The winds have beat up the bait so badly over the last few months and thrashing all the usual bait spots that the bait is scattered and takes a long time to get.

For our La Paz fleet, they’re doing OK, but it’s taking almost 2-3 hours to find enough bait or waiting for the bait guys to catch enough to sell.  Once they get the bait, it’s fine.  For our Las Arenas fleet, as has been the case for about 3 months, the bait is all the way up the east side of Cerralvo Island.  Rather than spend the time going all the way up then coming all the way back, our captains are using the time to troll around the south end of the island for wahoo and waiting for the bait guys to come back from getting bait and then buying it. 

Alot of the anglers can’t understand why it takes so long or why we don’t do something else.  You gotta understand, it’s pretty hard to fish without bait unless you want to troll around all day.  It’s not like we can wave a magic wand and make bait suddenly appear or get easier to catch.  The weird weather patterns have just made this a tougher season so far to get bait.  Once you get the bait, there’s fish to be caught.  It’s just trying everyone’s patience a bit more than normal.

FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT

Thank you to Jim Schmid for this!

“While the fishing was a little tougher than we hoped for, in 4 days we managed to catch 9 different species, 61 fish total, brought home a cooler full of filets, and still had extra fish to give away to Captain Raul and some of the hotel staff.  I really wanted at least one BIG TROPHY FISH, and my wish was fulfilled on the last hour of the last day, when we hooked a very large sailfish.  I spotted the fish behind our boat, and Capt. Raul made two quick hand thrown casts to place the sardine in the path of the fish, which cooperated by eating it.  Cindy graciously offered me the opportunity to fight the fish (hooked on her rod), and 40 minutes later, we brought it to boatside.  Unfortunately, when Raul grabbed the 30 # line and tried to get ahold of the fish’s bill, it thrashed and the line snapped.  We were going to release it, anyway, but it would have been nice to get some better photos (Cindy got a good one of it jumping, attached here)  Oh well, we will always have the memory of that huge fish jumping out of the water, over and over…a total of TEN TIMES!  Raul said it was a “Very big one” and estimated the weight at 70kg.! 

I never imagined the remotest chance of catching a big sailfish.  I know very little about sailfish, but am guessing a person could make many trips out trying to catch one of this caliber.  I certainly feel I was very fortunate to have the chance to fight a fish like this and very lucky to get the fish in, on fairly light gear.  It will very likely be my “fish of a lifetime”. “

By the way, wherever you’re celebrating it, Happy Father’s Day everyone!  God bless all the dads out there.

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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Las Arenas/ La Paz Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of June 6-13, 2010

Posted in fish report on June 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

One of our bestest amigos, Doug Oclassen from Boulder, Colorado comes at least once or twice a year to La Paz for at least a decade to fish with us. Even when it's flat calm, he gets really seasick, but never ever lets it stop him from fishing hard and often nailing the biggest fish on the beach like this 35-pound class dorado he got on live bait fishing off Las Arenas beach...our largest dorado of the week. He kept this fish, but released all his other fish during the week including big roosterfish.

  

Russ Ing had to cancel twice before finally making it down to fish with us and within 30 minutes of putting his line into the water on his first day, nailed this choice wahoo fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

  

It's June and we still have such a crazy mix of fish because conditions are cooler than normal as shown by the dorado and barred pargo here. One is an inshore rock fish. The other is a bluewater migratory pelagic species!

  

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Click this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onCsjzj52ZM  

ANGLERS WORK HARD FOR THEIR FISH THIS WEEK AS WIND CONTINUES TO PESTER LOCAL WATERS!

   

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 6-13, 2010

   

A sporadic scratchy week of fishing down here.  It’s like we can’t get summer kick-started!  Every time it starts to get warm, the winds come up again and cool things down and stir up the waters and the bait.  In fact, it’s blown up some really green water down deep that’s turned the surface water off-color.  It’s amazing but a day after the winds stop, it changes again and the fish come to eat.  Then, the winds come up and the fish are all over, but just don’t want to eat.  Don’t get me wrong. It’s beautiful to be in La Paz right now…not too hot.  Not too cold.  Great vacation weather.  It’s just that out on the water the winds make it bumpy and it’s not the best deal for fishing.  

Still, we got a few nice fish here and there.  For our La Paz fleet, the dorado continue to be the main target, but, depending on conditions, the boats slam the fish or struggle through a picky bite.  One day differs from the next.  Most of the fish have been coming in the channel between the peninsula and Cerralvo Island around Punta Coyote and Las Cruces.  Live bait works best as well as strips of fresh bonito for the larger fish, but what we’d really like to see are patches of sargasso weed which are great fish attractants.  The problem is that when the winds blow, it blows all the weed patched apart.  When it all clumps up, it not only offers great protection to bait fish which get the dorado going, but the flying fish also lay their eggs in them and dorado love flying fish and the young.  

We did finally get a few billfish at the end of the week that we’ll have to keep an eye on. We hooked some sailfish and marlin that were all released and one tuna as well that came out’ve the blue and even one yellowtail…go figure.  But no trends to speak of quite yet.  We’ll keep you posted.  

For our Las Arenas fleet, we’ve finally moved all the boats over from Bahia de Los Muertos to the beach by the lighthouse.  Again, because of the winds, most of the fishing has been around the island or inshore for roosterfish between 10 and 40 pounds; pompano, jack  crevalle, porgy and lots of bonito.  Over the rocks and reefs, the cooler waters are still keeping the big pargo close to shore with most big ones being lost in the rocks.  There have been some dorado taken and some marlin here and there, but most still don’t want to eat.  

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 May 30 to June 5, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tagged , , , on June 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

"Tuna Tony" Frustacia was on his first trip down to La Paz and his first time ocean-fishing coming from Utah and landed this big 50 pound class tuna. He was fishing with live bait near Cerralvo Island where several others were hooked and lost with Tony being the only one who managed to put his fish in the boat. Even more incredible was that he was using a rental rod and 30 pound test and battled the beast for over an hour! (Check out the video clip of the week)

Our buddy, Don White, proudly holds up a personal best dog-tooth-snapper (cubera snapper or pargo perro) just offshore while fishing with Captain Pancho. That's Cerralvo Island in the background and Don, who came down from Oregon and spent the better part of two weeks with us, got the big dog using a live sardine.

Given it's already June, dorado were a little harder to come by especially earlier in the week, but Chris Spagnoli from northern California holds up one of several he took while fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of town around Las Cruces.

Debbie White swore she would only fish one day and ended up with 3 days on the water and almost outfished her husband Don each day. She's shown here in a great photo with Captain Victor and her prized roosterfish just inside of Muertos Bay before releasing it.

Kristiana Frustacia from Utah says she's coming back soon after her first trip to La Paz and is all smiled holding this nice barred pargo caught fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet.

Captain Adolfo looks over the shoulder of Phil Catlin from Idianapolis, Indiana holding up one of the larger female dorado we've taken recently with Cerralvo Island in the background.

A spur-of-the-moment trip for Phil Pfifer and his wife, Gail, paid off in some nice fishing for these first timers from Utah. Our amigos were more used to cactching planted trout but had a blast with some nice varieties of pargo and reef fish and "about 40 bonito" according to Captain Armando that left them with tired arms and big grins!

For those who don't believe it's possible to pull a really monster dog-tooth out of the rocks, here's proof. If you've ever battled pargo, you know how frustrating it can be to get even a smaller fish out even though the fish are in shallow water. Well, here's a monster although in all honesty, it was taken on a handline by a commercial captain, but the picture was too cool to pass up.

VIDEO CLIP FOR THE WEEK

Click this link for some of the week’s catches:   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KAK_ey5KZM

SUMMER STILL ON HOLD AS WINDS KEEP FISHING WATERS COOL BUT ROOSTERFISH AND SMALLER DORADO PROVIDE BEST ACTION

 

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 30- June 6, 2010

 

It wasn’t the greatest week for fishing.  It wasn’t bad, but given it’s already June, conditions were less than stellar.  Folks caught fish, but it was more like fishing in late April or early May as erratic winds persisted on-and-off throughout the week changing the water temperatures; moving the bait around; and changing the bite.  Not to mention that there were a ton of boats out all week fishing both Las Arenas and La Paz areas due to several local tournaments and just alot of anglers in town.

But, there were still some very good catches!

The winds put a damper on the dorado fishing for our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.  Boats averaged about 4-6 dorado each and most were in the smaller 5-10 pound category…really small for the time of year.  However, captains told me that the recent onslaught of winds made it not only choppy out there, but the bait got harder to find and some of the waters got cooler green.  Still, picking around here and there, at the end of the day, most had at least a few fillets for the bucket.  Occasionally, a boat would get into the wild school and go nuts, but this past week it was fewer and far between. 

 We’ll have to see what happens to this wind.  For us down here, it seems to be a reflection of what’s going on up the western coast of the U.S. which is still getting some really wacky cool and cold weather.  It seems that whenever that happens we get the winds.  In town, it’s as awesome as can be.  Perfect 85 degree beach weather and perfect for kicking-back on the sand or in some little cafe with chips and salsa and a cold one.  But for fishing, it’s just not as good as we should be seeing.

Our Las Arenas fleet did much better.  There weren’t many blue water species to speak of, but we did hit a little spot of good-grade tuna off Cerralvo Island of 25-50 pound fish.  It was brief but exciting.  Teasers really.  No idea if this will be a consistent bite.  However, inshore, the roosterfish continue to be stars. 

 Although not good eating, nothing is quite as fun as these jacks with the funny fin ripping into the baits!  Fish from 10-60 pounds give anglers quite a range of possibilities when they’re working the beaches and the exotic species is quite a prize for any angler.  Our flyfishers and light tackle anglers are especially having fun.

Also, the big pargo continue to bite, tease and frustrate.  With the waters staying cooler than normal, the big red fish are hanging close to shore and guys will tell you of multiple bites that they just can’t stop.  We did get a few in the 25-40 pound class that anyone will tell you are trophies, but larger fish just can’t seem to be stopped!  Check out some of the photos this week and imagine stopping some of these fish in only a few feet of water before the get into the rocks.

Hopefully, the winds slow down soon!

Have a great week!

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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FULL MOON STRONG CURRENTS AND ERRATIC WINDS WHAMMY FISHING EFFORTS DESPITE SOME NICE CATCHES La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 23-30, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tagged , , , on May 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

  

Sean Tennis is a long way from Watertown, S. Dakota, but made it pay off fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and this beast of a roosterfish estimated in the 60-pound-class. In trying to hoist the fish up for a quick photo before releasing it, the fish smacked our burly Captain Archangel so hard it nearly knocked him out of the panga and hit him with enough force to smash the wind out've him. Sean and his amigo, Dan Clift, got a number of roosters of varying sizes this day. It's been great rooster fishing the last few weeks.

First timers to La Paz Joe Valenzuela and Danna Hill from Anaheim CA, got big fish-of-the-day kudos by pulling this trophy dog-tooth snapper out of the rocks near Bahia de Los Muertos. The big pargo are still around in the shallows

We haven't seen yellowtail in about 3 weeks since waters got warmer, but Bob Blodgett from the San Francisco Bay area got this 30 pound class jurel fishing with Capt. Ramiro out of Muertos Bay and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet in very windy conditions.

Windy conditions this week made outside fishing less than ideal and dorado fishing a bit tougher, but Dr. Desmond Sjauwfoekloy from Orange Co. CA got this nice one fishing north of La Paz around Espiritu Santo Island.

It's been a good season so-far for barred pargo and with erratic winds keeping alot of the action close to shore, the pargo fishing helped fill out the ice chests. Mark Bianchi fishing La Paz for his first time holds up two of his pargo standing on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos

Nice trophy cabrilla (seabass) held up by Alex Voget who was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. It's been a nice year for big cabrilla like this one and a great catch for Alex. They took it back to their hotel and tossed the filets on the barbecue!

After 4 days of winds and scratchy fishing, Bill Burris finally got into a nice dorado bite and holds up one of his limits of fish he got later in the week.

Popular Captain Joel with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet poses next to Dr. Bruce Beckford from Colorado holding up a pair of their dorado they picked up fishing north of La Paz around the island.

She's an optometrist from Orange Co, but Stephanie Sjauwfoekloy had no trouble seeing this nice roosterfish caught just offshore from Muertos Bay with Captain Armando lending a hand.

It's been a nice few weeks for the slugger dog-tooth snapper like this big boy held onto by Captain Victor and happy angler Ray Victorino.

It's a BIG fish, but not THAT big! Sean Tennis is goofing with the camera by holding his fish really really really close to the camera to make it look larger. However, it is still a BIG pargo in his hands.

A long way from New Mexico, Dan Clift was fishing around Espiritu Santo Island with Captain Chito and holds up a nice bull dorado. Winds this past week seemed to have scattered the dorado schools.

  

FULL MOON STRONG CURRENTS AND ERRATIC WINDS WHAMMY FISHING EFFORTS DESPITE SOME NICE CATCHES

   

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 23-30, 2010

   

I’m don’t normally make a big deal of the full moon, but it seemed to definitely have an effect this past week.  Actually, it was the triple-whammy that made it hard.  A full moon coupled with big tides/currents accompanied by strong erratic winds really made for some scratchy fishing.  Our anglers gamely hung in, but sometimes it wasn’t pretty and, although everyone got fish, some days were better than others and some anglers did better than others.  Not much to do about the full moon, but to get winds so  strong this late in the season is pretty uncommon.   

That being said, roosterfish at least continued their power charge along the beaches.  For the last month or so, roosterfish have come on strong with some anglers getting either their first roosters or some of their largest roosters.  School-sized fish in the 5-10 pound class were great fun for guys fishing light tackle, but some hog-sized pez gallo up to 60 pounds were also taken that just broke a few anglers who didn’t know what they were in for!  Roosters in the more manageable 30-40 pound class weren’t  uncommon.  

Dorado were still the primary catch for our La Paz fleet, but bigger seas generated by the stronger winds scattered the bite and caused our captains to really have to scour for a pick bite.  There were a few fish in the 20-30 pound class, but those were the exception.  Most of the fish were schoolie 5-10 pound fish.  The bite has spread out a bit more, however. Previously, the fish were concentrated around Espiritu Santo Island, but we picked up more fish in the channel between Las Cruces/ Punta Coyote and the north end of Cerralvo Island.  

As for other species, we did get a surprise yellowtail.  A surprise insofar that we’ve not seen much in the way of yellowtail for almost two weeks.  There were a few lazy marlin hooked/snagged that quickly broke off, but the inshore fishing for species like pargo and cabrilla and even some sierra made up the bulk of what came back in the ice chests this week.  

GOODBYE to another LA PAZ ICON

   

For generations, the Centro Commercial Market  “C.C.C.”  has been a headquarters for groceries and other purchases and especially for gringos and tourists.  It was really the first big super market in town long before Walmart, Sam’s Club and other big box stores arrived.  As of this past week,  it was purchased by a big mainland Mexico chain and many of the employees lost their jobs.  Many of them had decades of employment.  Like Hotel Los Arcos, Carlos and Charlie’s Restaurant  and several other iconic landmarks in La Paz, another one is gone.   

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.htmTailhunter 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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DORADO GO OFF FOR LA PAZ ANGLERS WHILE ROOSTERS AND BIG PARGO TANGLE WITH LAS ARENAS ANGLERS! Report for week of May 16-23, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tagged , , , , on May 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

What a great way to spend your honeymoon fishing in Baja! Chanpen Suwannate (now Blackard) spent her honeymoon with us fishing and got this nice dorado fishing with Captain Armando and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

Great week again for roosterfish! The exotic fish have been solid now for several weeks with fish between 5 and 50 pounds along the beach areas. John "JD" Drucker from Redondo Beach comes down twiced a year and has had some great trips and had a banner week and shows off a nice rooster he released. He also got a number of wahoo (see below!)

Sacramento visitors Adolfo Cisnero and Kurt "I have another joke for you" Vorpagel show off a great mix of fish taken with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet from Muertos Bay. They're holding a dorado (and lost several others!) and have a mix of pargo, cabrilla and sierra at their feet as well which is very typical of the type of fishing right now as waters transition between cool and warm.

He has a horseshoe hidden somewhere! Guys come down here trying to hook just one wahooo in their lifetime! John Drucker hooked 6 of these over two days with three busting off but putting three into the boat. Captain Victor strains to help him for the photo op!

These sierra are normally cold-water fish, yet even though waters are getting warmer, we're getting sierra in fairly decent numbers and most of them are pretty nice-sized like this one being shown off by Ryan Blackard. He got married and came down the next day for his honeymoon to go fishing with his new wife! That's Punta Perrico in the background.

Bill "Pancho" Evans enjoyed himself so much fishing down here, he moved here last year and has become quite a hot stick with the fishing especially taking trophy pargo like this excellent dog-tooth snapper!

Some nice pargo stuck into the fish boxes this week! Yes, the big red fish are still in the shallows! Jim Brignall from Arizona holds up a nice doggie.

DORADO GO OFF FOR LA PAZ ANGLERS WHILE ROOSTERS AND BIG PARGO TANGLE WITH LAS ARENAS ANGLERS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 16-23, 2010

 

We had a full solid week of great weather.  It was the kind of weather you put on postcards.  But fishing has been like night and day between our Las Arenas and La Paz fleet.  It’s so different between what we’re catching around Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay and south Cerralvo Island compared to what our other fleet is catching around Espirito Santo Island and the waters north of La Paz!

Basically, al week, I’ve been telling our anglers, if you want variety of species, fish with our Las Arenas fleet.  For inshore fishing, you just can’t beat it with a dead needlefish!  Big pargo, cabrilla, snapper and even still some sierra and rainbow runners are in the rocky areas mixing it up with the “beach species” like pompano, jack crevalle (big ones!) and roosterfish. 

For one thing, if you’ve ever wanted a roosterfish, the stellar bite on the pez gallos has been in full swing for our Las Arenas fleet and boats fishing that area.  It’s two-sides of the spectrum.  You can get into a school of the 5-10 pounders and have a blast or go for the home run and try to nail one of the 30-60 pound beasts prowling the sandy spots.  For the last 3 or 4 weeks these big guys have been showing up and powering their way onto live bait, flies and even lures.  And, they get bigger! 

The world record was taken on this beach at 114 pounds and over the years, we’ve had fish approach that size.  I’ve personally seen fish close to the 100 pound mark (we will never know since we released them, but even the captains verified the sizes) but it’s pretty hard to fathom fish that large swimming around in sometimes only a few feet of water.

Anyway, the problem with fishing with our Las Arenas fleet is that this past week, other than bonito or the occasional dorado (very occasional) there was very little surface bite!  Very few dorado; no tuna to speak of and although we saw billfish, they were about as interested  in biting  as  cat wanting to attend a dog show. 

Contrast that with our La Paz fleet that fished north of La Paz and found dorado consistently almost every day.  Most days there were limits or near limits on all our boats.  Many of the fish were about 10 pounders and many were released, but there were still some 30-40 pound bulls in the box that really tore up some of our first-timers!  As an aside, we also got more of those big cabrilla and some pargo mulatto.

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 from Tailhunter International for Week of May 9-16, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, Uncategorized on May 16, 2010| 1 Comment »

 

Orange Co, CA resident Jeff Marston actually had two on the boat when he and his wife, Jodie, got ripped almost simultaneously by tuna that suddenly popped up outside of Cerralvo Island with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Jodie couldn't lift her 50 pound-class tuna and Jeff couldn't lift BOTH fish for this photo. Both did their fish on light tackle and 30 pound test and live bait!

The capricious wahoo gods surely smiled on John "JD" Drucker from Redondo Beach CA. In two days of fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, John got 2 wahoo the first day and had 1 or 2 others bite off. The next day, he got this big fat skinny 'hoo and had another one short bite! He was using a dark magnum rapala slow trolled at the south end of Cerralvo Island with Captain Victor

It was a great week for roosterfish! There’s a reason they call this the “roosterfish capital of the world.” Steve Greanias and his brother George show off 2 of the 7 they hooked and released just south of Bahia de Los Muertos with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. They are just in front of Boca de Alamo. The fish this week went 10-50 pounds!

  

Dorado fishing slowed a tad this past week with winds moving the fish around, but Dee Dee Pope from Livermore CA holds up one with Captain Jorge just off Punta Perrico

  

George Greanias, on a short leave as a Captain in the Army, came down to get some lines wet and pulled out one of the elusive dog-tooth snapper that beat us up so often! This is just outside of Muertos Bay and George was fishing live sardines.

The wahoo made a brief appearance this week again dodging our best efforts. You have to be willing to commit the time and know that if you get a goose-egg, you probably are too late to do much other fishing. Our buen amigo Jorge Romero didn't even start fishing until 9 a.m. and had two of these scooter wahoo by noon and quit when the winds came up. He was trolling an orange/black Yo-Zuri you can see in the photo.

This has been an unusual year for exceptionally large cabrilla (Mexican seabass). This is Nic Bomicino of Woodland Hills with a 15 lb Cabrilla pulled from 8 ft of water on 60lb full drag on a slow trolled Cabillito. Had another bigger one bust off right after this one.

Another fat cabrilla in the panga for Jamie Smith of Malibu who fished north of La Paz with us.

Normally, Travis Barker is a canine police officer in the San Francisco Bay Area, but took the week to make his first trip to La Paz and got his first dorado which happened to be a nice female.

  

Like I said, roosterfishing the last week or so has really ramped up into prime time! Check out this beautiful pez gallo taken by our amigo Larry Parnell from Oregon with the help of Captain Pancho. The fish was taken just south of Bahia de Los Muertos and was released. They released several others that day as well.

Nice pair! Our amigo Gary Evans from Orange Co. CA went straight to the heavy artillery using 80 pound test and slow trolling a big ladyfish in the shallows to nail these two big dog tooth snapper (pargo perros). Even with the big guns, others were lost that couldn't be stopped.

This school-sized rooster has been alot of fun all week for guys with light tackle. This one by Richard Pope was actually caught with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of town. It could not be released.

This lady is way too fun...Lucy Shimenesky from Oregon hangs with the guys and has a great time. She's holding a nice schoolie-sized dorado. If you wanted to really focus on the dorado, the schools north of La Paz were pretty hungry all week except the days when the winds blew.

 WEEKLY VIDEO CLIP:

Check out the tuna and wahoo!  Althoug the voice-over says 45 pounds we learned the scale was about 7 pounds off.  Click this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-2PtCHlPHA

FULL RANGE OF FISH KEEP ANGLERS BUSY…MOST OF THE TIME!

 

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 9-16, 2010

It was another of those weeks when we ran the full spectrum from one end of the week to the other going from “so-so fishing” to” pretty-darn-good fishing” by the end of the week and some “Not-too-bad-fishing” thrown in the middle! 

 There’s just so much variation in the weather; water conditions; wind; and consequently the bite reflects that as well.   One day up.  One day down.  One day the fish are close.  One day way outside.  The bait is easy one day and hard the next.  One day it’s crazy wahoo.  The next day nothing but needlefish.  One day everyone catches dorado and the next day it’s nothing but bonito!  So crazy.  In the middle of all that, some hit the jackpot and nail big time tuna or their first wahoo or even 3 wahoo in a row or huge roosterfish while other boats are out there scratching!

 All I can say is…come fish!  It is what it is!  If you put in time on the water and at least kick in more than a single day of fishing, you’ll get fish.  If you fish only one day, that might be the one day of the week when the fishing just isn’t happening!  But it’s rarely bad for TWO days!  I just wish when people ask me what’s biting, I can tell them something more definitive than just shrugging my shoulders with a dumb-ss look and tell them, “I don’t know, but we’re catching fish!” 

This kind of fishing really isn’t that unusual for this time of year.  The seasons are in transition as are the waters.   It’s not really winter.  It’s not really spring.  It’s not quite summer.  There’s cool water.  There’s warm water.  There’s cold water fish still around and there’s warm water fish around too. 

Nothing in abundance, but at the end of the day, there’s so much variety in the boxes.  Just today, I counted 17 different varieties of fish taken or caught and released!  Check it out…tuna (up to 50 pounds) , wahoo (up to 60 pounds) , dorado, 3 types of pargo,  3 species of bonito, cabrilla, sierra, jack crevalle, marlin, sailfish, pompano, roosterfish, rainbow runner (not to mention the junk fish like triggers, skipjack, trumpets, needlefish that were tossed away) plus several speciesl lost…amberjack, and dog tooth snapper to name a few!  That’s JUST ONE DAY’s CATCH! 

I guess the best thing to do is let the photos above do the talking!  Check out the photos and the variety!

That’s our story!

Have an excellent week!

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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May 9, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, Uncategorized on May 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

 
Late in the week, bruiser-sized 40-60 pound tuna showed up literally yards off Punta Perrico point. Dee Dee Pope, on her first trip to La Paz and first day fishing fought this big guy over an hour on light 30 pound test and a mini-Whopper Stopper rod. “The first run blazed 300 yards of line off the reel right down to the spool!” she said. Her husband, Rick, had another fish for 15 minutes before busting off. A number of fish were lost by anglers. Others INTENTIONALLY broke off their fish after long battles and realizing they they were way over-matched out out-gunned!

Travis Barker (right) is a canine police officer in the San Francisco Bay area and with his amigo, Rich Pope, they got into a nice snap of good dorado with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. This was their first fishing trip to La Paz

Our Cabin Fever Classic produced a variety of fish including this nice cabrilla that Becky Solee got just off the rocks with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet

Stacy Amos from Los Angeles always does well and has a knack for pulling nice fish off the reefs like this nice barred pargo

Good to have our buddy, Jon Luker from Arroyo Grande CA back with us for the Cabin Fever Classic. He nailed this excellent dog-tooth snapper (Pargo Colorado) fishing with Captain Archangel on the first day.

Two of our favorite amigos, Tim and Angela "TPG" Farrell from Oceanside CA always lead the charge and laughs for our Cabin Fever Classic. Tim holds a snapper. Angela got this dorado and some big roosters they released.

Beth Sarachman Watts has been down several times but this time brought her new husband Dan Watts with her for hist first time and had a blast into a mutiple hook-up dorado bite fishing out of Muertos Bay with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet

Not much prettier than a fully lit dorado in our blue waters on the bite! Becky Solee took this great photo.

There were so many varieties of fish this week. Grant Darby is enjoying his recent retirement from Washington and got into some nice fish including this nice barred pargo.

This has certainly been a year for larger cabrilla (Mexican seabass) as shown by the one held up here at Muertos Bay Beach by Stan Nelson of Arroyo Grande CA

John Neitzel from Oregon wanted badly to catch his first dorado which isn't very likely in May, but the dorado just happened to show up!

As waters have warmed tremendously in the last week, we might be at the end of seeing any more sierra, but we got some monster sierra like the one held by Oregon amigo Scott Shimenesky. He also got a 35 and 50 pound class rooster this day which were released.

Steve Marabella is a twice-a-year regular amigo with us and had just lost a huge cabrilla to a sealion that left him only a head, but shortly after took this big pargo mulatto to save the day.Bob Solee from Oregon always does well taking dorado this early in the season with Captain Adolfo "Yofo" looking over his shoulder. Great colors on this fish.

Another of our great amigos from Oregon this week at the Cabin Fever Classic, Pearl Ireton was on her first trip to try out La Paz and has fun with this big snapper
Craig Braswell is just weeks from retiring from the Sacramento Fire Department, but is already playing hookey from work  and enjoying himself with fishing trips! Here he shows off a fat pargo mulatto he took north of La Paz

SLOW START TO WEEK KICKS IN LATE WHEN DORADO & TUNA SHOW UP!

  

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May  2-9, 2010

   

The week ran the gamut.  Early we had really terrible winds carry over from the week before where it was just impossible to go out without getting wet and beat up.  Even when we could go out, the bait was difficult to catch and you’d better have your jacket handy because it was COLD!  Just freaky weather…like the type alot of the country has been having!                

However, as the week went on, the conditions went 180.  It was like a Baja postcard.  Air temps a sunny 88 degrees.  Blue water.  Just a breeze!  The only problem…the fish hadn’t fully recovered and although the waters were clear, the fish just weren’t very cooperative and anglers really had to work for their fish with a picky bite at best.  That being said, there was still alot of variety in the water with the fish that were caught.                

Some big roosters helped temper things with anglers fishing our Las Arenas fleet.  There were some big schools of 5-10 pound fish that were just a blast, but some larger fish in the 30-50 pound class were also caught and released.  The bigger fish were eating both the sardines and the larger sabalo as baits.  As well, some nice pargo, cabrilla and a good number of sierra at least kept rods bent during the iffy bite and bonito, while not great eating were huge and could be counted on for some great sport…although that only lasts so long!  Some other varieties we got were pompano, jack crevalle, amberjack and several marlin were hooked and lost.                

The best news took place late in the week. With winds and conditions improving steadily, schools of 5-25 pound dorado moved in and provided an excellent rip on anglers with limits or near limits for both our Las Arenas and our La Paz Tailhunter fleets.  The fish would readily eat slow trolled baits, feathers and jigs.  No wahoo or yellowtail to speak of at all this past week so maybe we’re past yellowtail season now as waters appear to have warmed.  However, just at the end of the week some larger sized tuna cruised in.  We have been seeing these fish for awhile, but they were always outside and moving way too fast with the dolphin schools to get into them.  Still,  several 40-60 pounders were taken including one in the 50 pound class by Dee Dee Pope from San Francisco afrea fisihng with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet just 30 yards from shore on live bait.  She fought it for over an hour on light tackle.              

WEEKLY  VIDEO CLIPS

  VIDEO 1:  Click this for some highlights from the beach and shots of this week’s fish:         

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eguR8BryxM      

VIDEO 2:  Our Tailhunter Restaurant and Bar had it’s Cabin Fever Classic Taco Fiesta and the first of it’s live Blues Band nights!  A great time as Bluz Explozion kicked out the jams:    

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw-yJi0uanw&feature=channel   

That’s our story! Have a great week and God Bless for a Happy Mother’s Day! 

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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FISHING DIFFICULT AS WINDS RIP LA PAZ WATERS

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter on May 1, 2010| 6 Comments »

Big Shoulder Yellowtail for Kwame Satterfield Fills Ice Chest With One Fish

  

PHOTO 1:  Big yellowtail like Kwame’s phat fish were still hunkered north of La Paz around the island and would readily bite the big baits…when the we could get them and the winds weren’t causing folks to change their fishing days.  Kwame came for big pargo, but surely did not complain about getting this huge hamachi!
Actor Rick Kasper Holds Up His Big Cabrilla

   

PHOTO 2:  Rick Kasper surely knows his way in front of a camera lens and poses pretty-like-a-postcard with this big-time cabrilla.  Rick took 10 days to hang with us away from shooting his TV hunting show in Wyoming  http://www.rawhidecreekranches.com/  You may have also seen him regularly on shows like CSI, Cold Case, Vigilante and Law and Order too.  Having never caught a cabrilla, he had no idea he had a trophy fish until he started showing everyone the photo.  He got this big toad on live bait at the cliffs at Partida on the west side of Espiritu Santo Island north of La Paz.    

First Time for Sy Thomas Produces First Dorado

  

PHOTO 3:  Sy Thomas from Thousand Oaks braved it out despite strong winds on his first fishing trip with us and the fish gods were kind with his first dorado and several other fish he had never caught!  He said he also caught, “the biggest needlefish in the world!”  Dorado continue to bite in small groups and singles north of town in an area where sargasso weed has been floating around. The fish aren’t big, but you can catch a limit or two.  Many are getting released.  They’ll hit sardines or about anything trolled.      

Dorado Bite Early This Year North of La Paz

   

 PHOTO 4:  By popular demand after last week’s photo, I got alot of e-mails asking for more pictures of dorado.  So, here you go.  Another boring dorado picture and a beach!   

LA PAZ/ LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR WEEK OF APRIL 25-May 2, 2010

After last week’s bite, this past week had to be considered fairly scratch fishing.  In fact, two days we didn’t even send anyone out because the winds were too strong and it would have been nuts to go out.  Even if we did, bait would have been difficult to find.   Even on the days when we did fish, it was fairly breezy but fortunately calmed down enough to fish.   

    

Still, when we did get out, we did get into some biters.  The most surprising bite continues to be the dorado…albeit small to medium fish in the 5-15 pound category that have shown up unseasonably early.  They are right off the west end of Espiritu Santo Island not far off Ballena where birds, bait and bits of sargasso weed are floating around.   It’s not uncommon to get a limit or two of the fish.  Fortunately, quite a few of our fisherfolk are tossing back the small ones.  Using sardines or trolling small feathers produces bites.  You don’t get big schools of the fish, but you pick up 1-3 fish at every stop or else dink dink dink all day long then realize at the end you have a fairly nice box of dorado on ice.   

    

In those same areas, we’re seeing more marlin.  They are probably feeding on the smaller dorado as well as schools of swarming bonito.  However, they marlin aren’t really biting.  If they are eating the dorado and bonito then they’re just sitting on the surface sunning and we throw everything on them but dynamite and can’t seem to get them very interested.  Give it a degree or two warm in the waters and hopefully, they’ll get the urge to chew.   

    

We are still getting a few yellowtail, but it wasn’t banner like it was last week. Still, the fish are nice trophy-sized fish in the 30-50 pound class sluggers that like the larger mackeral and caballito baits.   

    

For our Las Arenas fleet, it was hit-or-miss.  Again, the bait and ability to get bait were the biggest factors. Add that to the wind factors and those are two big variables. .  That coupled with luck and ability since the majority of the bite focused on the pargo and cabrilla.  The pargo are right up in the rocks and either you gotta be lucky or good to get the fish.  Being early before the rest of the fleet comes over doesn’t hurt either.     

    

The rest of the bite there focused on sierra, snapper, jacks, pompano, bonito and roosterfish.     

    

ON FACEBOOK 

Don’t forget if you ever need your daily La Paz fishing fix sooner than every weekend, you can get on FACEBOOK and look up JONATHAN ROLDAN and “be my friend” and I pop up little bits and pieces of fishing fairly daily with photos and little video clips.  FACEBOOK doesn’t allow too much elaboration, but it’s a little extra for you.  Also, if you become a fan of TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL you can see daily activities happening at the Tailhunter Bar too.  By the way, we’re #1 on Trip Advisor Restaurants in La Paz.   

Have a great week!   

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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