La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of July 11-17, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Bennett Clegg always does well on the light tackle. This pretty bull dorado he caught while fishing with Captain Joel is no exception.
Ken Smith had just one day to squeeze in to try to catch his bucket-list rooster. He and Captain Armando rocked this big one and several others. All released.
That’s some good eating! Scott Pitts put this nice cabrilla in the fish box.
With Captain Rogelio our first-timer Utah amigos, Morgan Robinson and her dad, Cody just off Espirito Santo Island.
Tim Weaver is usually wearing black robes and has a gavel in his hand as a judge from Arkansas. This time he’s got himself a nice roosterfish. One of several all released.
I love this photo and we love this amiga…sheer joy! Toni Brown and Captain Alfredo with a fresh dorado on the gaff!
She’s been with us for years and always does well with her favorite Captain Pancho. Dolores Ehlers with another roosterfish. Photo and release!
Scott Dull squeezed in a quick drive down from Loreto to fish one day with us and ended with a sucessful catch of pargo, cabrilla and triggerfish to drive back up north.
Morgan Robinson with her first roosterfish off Bahia Muertos. Photo and release.
I THINK this is Greg Wetherbee behind the mask! He worked his flyrod for five days and caught a number of species including this slugger jack crevalle.
Pro fishing guide, John Daly, was a first-time visitor with us and shows off his first roosterfish outside of Suenos for a photo and release.
Now, here’s a nice photo! Colorful bull dorado caught by young Drake Rowland from Texas.
Ben Rodriguez, another of our first-timers this week, shows off a first-day catch off the reef with triggers cabrilla, big pargo and snapper .Ben is from San Diego.
Tim had himself a pretty active week with lots of species including this dog-tooth snapper. He did release alot of fish too!
Always a pleasure to have Mark Brown visit us. Last year, they had to cancel, but he was back this week and fished with Captain Alfredo taking this fat roosterfish north of La Paz. The fish was released .
I’ve known Ray Laney for years and he brought his son, Daniel, down for his high school graduation. They had to work hard for their fish, but the last day finally turned on with some nice dorado. Ray is from Oxnard CA
Dave Elliott and Bill Cogdall are two more of our new amigos who had to cancel last year, but came back this year for 3 days on the water with us. Great guys and glad to have them finally make it. They did pretty good on the dorado!
Cindy Weaver with her first rooster! Captain Armando lends a hand and helps with the release afterwards.
This photo is just too special. John Carser and his wife, Carol from Huntington Beach CA brought grandson Patrick to La Paz. Patrick is from Rhode Island and spending the summer with grandma and grandpa. This was his first time saltwater fishing and this was his first dorado! He did it! But, check the great facial expression! Grandpa John is all smiles.
His first marlin plus on live bait…on light tackle…and from a panga in shallow water! Tim Weave with his first striper…caught and released.
Hard to tell, but I think this is Mark Buddy behind the mask showing off one of several roosterfish he took on the fly while fishing the whole week with us . He got a number of species on the flyrod. All fish were released.
One of the best guys around…long time amigo from Denver, John Ehlers with his favorite Captain Pancho. John’s got another rooster to put back in the water as soon as he takes the photo.
Alicia Clegg from the East Bay of San Francisco can fish! She does so well every year. She’s got another dorado for the box!
Captain Rogelio poses with one of our new Utah friends, Stephanie Robinson and a nice dorado on the gaff.
Sam Sybesma from Bellflower is another of our good amigos who has been fishing with us for years. He brought down his son, Micah, this year. I think Micah caught bigger fish than dad!
Lots of first-timer roosterfish. Captain Armando with Teal Smith and her first gallo!
Late season rainbow runner caught by Crystal Bernhart outside of Bahia Muertos. Great eating fish we usually catch in the springtime months.
When you’re hot, you’re hot. Tim with another rooster for a photo and release!
Dan Hibma was visiting us for the first time from S. California and it looks like he’s got a nice dorado ready for the box.
It wasn’t a spectacular week of fishing to be honest. There weren’t alot of big trophy fish caught.
But, it was good steady summer fun fishing! Except for a few slack times, overall, everyone caught fish. There was plenty of action to go around.
Sometimes when it’s all big fish, especially for families, kids or first timers, big fish can be a tough fight. And often a big disappointment when they break off. With the fish we had this week, it was just pretty good steady fun fishing.
There might be the occasion off day, but most of our anglers fish several days. The good days usually made up for the slower days and the bite produced a good mix of dorado, billfish, lots of small to medium roosterfish, jack crevalle, big bonito, pargo, snapper, cabrilla and even some late season amberjack and rainbow runners.
The dorado have definitely slowed from the wild bite of a few weeks ago, but fish are still out there holding especially under the sargasso paddies. There were two days when there were lots of fish all around, but they just wouldn’t bite. It was frustrating. We figured it was just because the tides were especially slack and the fish simply weren’t feeding. That applied to the dorado as well as other species. The currents picked up and they fish started biting again.
Marlin have tapered as well. I think that has alot to do with the current, but also there has been so much traffic on the fishing grounds that the marlin have gotten lock-jawed. The marlin have been so thick over the last month that everyone and their brother, especially locals have been pounding the waters for the billfish. Hopefully, the bite comes back.
If you’re coming down, it’s been warm! High 90’s to low 100’s with humidity.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of July 2-9, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
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NOTE: MARLIN and SAILFISH PHOTOS! Folks…before you send me e-mails or post up hate messages, please take notice that there are ALOT of billfish photos in this report. These represent perhaps 5% of the billfish that our fishing fleet hooked this past week. There are THAT many billfish out there. Some days, the waters are thick with billfish. Many times our anglers are NOT trying to catch billfish. But the billfish are biting. The vast majority of the fish that we hook are released by our anglers or (being big fish), they break off or get unhooked). In many cases, the billfish you see here were unable to be released or, after the photo was taken, the fish were indeed returned to the water. In many cases, when the fish was not or could not be released, the meat was donated to local folks who were very grateful for the meat. But, that being said, anglers are entitled to keep a billfish if they did want to keep one and we are very stringent about never exceeding the billfish limits.
One guy who loves to fish light tackle is our amigo, Bennett Clegg from the East Bay Area of San Francisco. Nice fat roosterfish. A quick photo and a good release!
Speaking of releasing fish, Mark Bonsack from Washington is one of our frequent amigos and a solid angler. He and Captain Pancho release a blue marlin that Pancho estimated went between 250 and 300 pounds.
Our own! Had a great week of fishing. Our son, Jarrett Pfost from Lakeside CA and his wife, Diana, with a big boy bull dorado she hooked and fought north of La Paz with Captain Chito.
Our Utah amigo, Monte Aldridge, made a last minute trip to come visit us and shows off one of 3 marlin he hooked and released while fishing with Captain Armando.
Texas in the house! Big smile from young Drake Rowland with a feisty roosterfish. The fish was released.
That’s a great eating mess o’ fish! Cathy and Dave Boos with a cleaning table full of dorado, snapper, cabrilla, pargo and triggerfish!
Impressively done! Patrick-Ewick-Chouinard from New Jersey is 11-years-old and battled this big bull dorado all by himself. Posing here on the beach with Captain Adolfo! He later hooked a marlin as well.
Our boy, Jarrett put this colorful bull on the deck. Check the colors! Jarrett caught this dorado off a string of sargasso paddies between North Cerralvo Island and Punta Gorda.
Won’t find a sweeter lady than Dolores Ehlers who loves fishing with Captain Pancho. Dolores is from Colorado and has fished with us for years.
Captain Gerardo poses with our good friends, John and Arla Washington from Carson City NV who put a marlin, some cabrilla, snapper and pargo fillets in the box. Most of the meat was donated.
Captain Armando and Jonathan Strain visiting us for the first time on a trip that was delayed from last year because of Covid, but made up for with numerous marlin over 3 days of fishing including this thick one. Almost all the marlin were released.
More good Utah friends, brothers John and Bic Lesser with Captain Jorge and John’s first marlin plus some snapper on the table. First time trip for John and Bic.
Alicia Clegg is one of the best roosterfish anglers we see here every year and this gal can fish! Another rooster in the boat for a quick photo before release.
Cathy Boos so wanted a billfish! Well, she hooked two on this particular day and fought this one close to two hours. The fish could not be released. Dave helps with the photo.
Captain Pancho with a smiling Jas and her first roosterfish. First-time ever fishing! The rooster was released.
What a beast! Phil has himself a monster pompano.
Keith Hemstreet from Washington State had been thwarted on several trips to hook a roosterfish. Well, his first was a dandy! Captain Pancho estimated the fish to be about 80 pounds and was released.
Steve Strain had a marlin magnet in his back pocket! Everytime he put a hook in the water, the marlin couldn’t help themselves. With Captain Joel around Espirito Santo Island. Steve’s birthday trip!
Silas Bartlet visiting us from Texas has himself a nice roosterfish off the rocks for a quick photo and release.
One of the rare days that we could get out far to where we’ve seen tuna about 15-18 miles offshore, Mark Bonsack and Keith Hemstreet found all the football tuna the could handle. Actually, ran out’ve bait! After this, the days got too windy to go out there.
Hi Diana! Great smile to go with the great fish! Another roosterfish catch-and-release!
Captain Gerardo with Cody Robinson and his first marlin. Cody donated the fish. His first time with us!
Mark always does well with us and always wears the same lucky shirt every year. I think it’s the camo pattern that does it. He’s also a pretty good fisherman! The rooster was released.
Now here’s a nice variety catch! Monte and Captain Armando with dorado, big fat triggerfish, pargo and cabrilla are definitely going into the ice chest.
Another successful CPR! Catch. Photo. Release. My guy, Jarrett Pfost.
You would think Spiderman took a day off and went fishing, but that’s Monte Aldridge under there with another marlin for a quick photo and release. Tough to see from this angle, but I almost thought this might be a short-billed spearfish or white marlin, but just speculating.
It’s Mark’s camo shirt. That’s the secret. Dorado going back to Washington with him.
Anytime a big storm blows through, I’m always a bit tenuous about the bite in the aftermath. About 2 weeks ago, Tropical Storm Enrique tracked through La Paz with enough wind and rain to cause the port captain to shut things down and keep boats off the water.
Post-storm, you just don’t know how the waters are affected.
Heavy rain waters cause run-off into the ocean which produces dirty cloudy water. High winds can further stir things up and enough wind can cause cold water up-wellings from deeper water at worst and create bumps post-storm wave action at best. Winds can also change currents and disturb the bait stocks.
There’s alot of variables. Any one can significantly affect the bite. Any combination of those variables could completely crush the bite.
Prior to the storm, we had an incredible marlin bite going full speed. Dorado were voracious. Roosterfish were hungry and huge.
So, with some trepidation, we got our boats back on the water.
Surprisingly, the conditions didn’t take that long to start producing again. With each passing day after the departure of the storm, conditions improved and not surprisingly so did the bite.
Dorado in the 20-40 pound class were not as numerous and had gotten scattered, but were definitely around. Big roosterfish continued to prowl the shallows with fish up to 80 pounds although most were safely 20-40 pounders. Plenty big on light tackle.
Marlin were frenzied at times with pangas getting numerous hook-ups. Stripers up to 120 pounds; sailfish mixed in up to 80 pounds and even some sizable blues up to 300 pounds readily picked up live bait, dead bait and lures.
Inshore action remained steady with snapper, huachinango, pargo and cabrilla with a good dose of triggerfish mixed in. Big bonito and jack crevalle were fun feisty pests.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 24- July 1, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Enrique was the first big storm of the season. It started as a hurricane, but thankfully petered to a tropical storm by the time it hit La Paz.
Enrique did alot more damage to the south of us along mainland Mexico. By the time it hit La Paz it was alot milder.
By the time Enrique hit La Paz it had lost of of it’s force, but enough to bring several days of strong winds.
…and enough rain to get things wet and lose electrical power in La Paz for a few hours.
We launch our Las Arenas boats in Bahia Muertos / Suenos and this is what it normally looks like 99% of the time.
This is what Bahia Muertos looked like several days this week as a result of Enrique.
Our Utah amigo, Jason Kocherans makes a great photo of this great roosterfish caught just off the beach at Las Arenas. The Arenas lighthouse is in the distance. The fish was released.
Captain Victor with Brian Tippie with his uncle Ron Tippie who came all the way from Illinois and started their fishing week with a trio of bull dorado.
Our long-time Tailhunter amigo, Terry Biggs from northern California with a nice cabrilla to put in the fish box.
Great shot and a colorful bull dorado for Dave Martin who always seems to get a trophy fish every time he visits us from Utah.
Jason has another rooster off the surf. Great colors! The fish was released.
Dave Martin has another big boy rooster in the boat taken with live bait before the photo and release.
The week started well-enough.
We were catching fish. The marlin were still blowing up nicely to the point of being bothersome. Big roosterfish were still prowling the beach. Our pangas were coming back daily with some nice dorado mixed with pargo, cabrilla, jacks, triggers, bonito and other species.
It was going pretty well.
Until Enrique showed up on the radar down the coast. We watched it slowly make its way up the coast. Initially, it started as a Category 1 hurricane. It did a bit of battering the mainland Mexico coast to the south of us with flooding, rains, high seas and big winds.
With each day it moved closer to us from the south. Some predictions had it missing us. Others had our directly in its path. By the time it reached us mid-week, it had lost much of it’s force and had diminished to a tropical storm.
Ultimately, it wasn’t too bad. We had to cancel the fishing for 3 days as big waves, gusting winds and intermittent rain hit us. But no real damage or flooding. It was just enough to keep everyone indoors and the boats on trailers or on the beach. We were lucky. We’ve seen what big hurricanes can do over the years.
However, we don’t know what the after-effects will be. At the time of this writing, we’re just getting back on the water. Normally, it takes a few days for the waters to settle down again. It takes a few days for the water to clear up. It takes a few days for the fish to get back on track. It all depends on how much the winds and water-run-off affected the water.
We’ll just have to see. The week looks like we could still be in for a bit of wind on the backside of the storm.
By the way, not as many…in fact NONE…no marlin photos this week compared to the previous week. There’s several reasons for that. The marlin were biting pretty crazy again, but for one, pretty much all the fish got released and just no one really took photos. Or, the marlin broke off and no one took photos! But, we definitely had marlin swimming around again this week…at least before the storm came through.
PEZ GRINGO GROUP
This group of our amigos has been coming to see us for about 20 years. All the do is fish hard for roosterfish. And they DO know how to fish ’em. This year, only 3 of them made the trip. Donnie Willson, Ron Burgess and Dave Lester. All of them are from Temecula CA.
Several years ago, they caught and released one rooster that many observers theorized would have broken the 114-pound world record.
This year…
Over 4 days, they caught AND RELEASED 16 roosterfish. Three guys…
In other years, they have caught more roosters. However, as they told me, they told me they have never caught so many BIG roosterfish. Check out the photos of some of their fish. I think their smallest fish were in the 40-pound class. Their largest…maybe around the 100-pound mark.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 8-15, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Maybe the biggest dorado so far of the season for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet as the dorado are slowly making their way south. Captain Jorge with John McVay and a good-looking bull mahi on the beach at Muertos.
Captain Luis gives Denise Randall with another trophy dorado in that hot spot in the channel between Cerralvo Island and Las Cruces where the sargasso weeds have been building up.
Lucien Sanders from Idaho is our new poster kid for Tailhunter. Every time he comes down he catches the biggest fish and takes the best photos like this pretty bull with Captain Gerardo out’ve Bahia Muertos.
You can almost hear this big roosterfish roar as Sean Barnett from New Hampshire on his first trip to visit us caught and released this big fella just off the beach at Punta Arenas.
Just an incredible fish. An incredible photo. Dr. Jim Good from Denver CO with the understandable smiles.
Dean Kalmbach wanted a roosterfish for 10 years and finally got one and cradles this one for the photo before releasing it.
Elizabeth Vasquez had only one day to fish but was able to get into some of that dorado bite in the channel fishing with Captain Raul.
Our newest fun guy is Rich England who came all the way from Massachusetts. We lost count of his roosterfish catch-and-release record, but here’s a sample of one of them he hooked right in the shallows off Punta Arenas Beach.
One of our newest Tailhunter Tribe members is Cesar Garcia making the most of just squeezing in a single day of fishing with a pretty bull dorado.
Here’s a guy who loves to fish! Oh yea! Huge big smiles for the big fish for Scott Randall with Captain Armando. The big dorado was released.
No shortage of color in this photos with two colorful dorado caught by Chao and Jacob Sanders from idaho. I think that’s their daughter taking a nap next to them.
This is a great photo. Double doubles for father-son Sean and Nick Barnett who double-teamed this pair of roosterfish and posted the great photo . Both fish released. They came all the way from New Hampshire.
Jim again in the gallery with yet another dorado! He caught alot of dorado and released most of them or gave them away.
Another of our avid lady anglers, Julia Kalmbach, has a feisty jack crevalle on hand before releasing it to torment someone else at a later date. These fish can fight!
What a great photo of a fresh blue dorado posed by young Lucien Sanders.
Katie Sgro squeezed in a day of fishing on one of the days that happened to be among the roughest of the week but still managed a good box of dorado to take home for hanging in there.
Steve Seeley gets the best beard-of-the-week award as he takes a photo with one of several roosterfish he was able to catch-and-release.
Another fish on the deck for Nino. On one of the roughest days in a long time, Nino stayed out and the day produced some good fish.
When the fish are on the chew, it can be lots of fun for the whole family.
Denise with another fish to add to the totals although this rooster was released. Captain Armando helps with the photo.
Emily and her dad Jason had a fun day on the water.
It was another good week of solid fishing with lots of action for the most part. . Until it wasn’t so good. There were a couple bumps here and there where maybe one panga did poorly or an area just didn’t produce.
There were also two days late in the week where we had a freak wind storm with winds from the south AND the west crashing and we actually were unable to launch any boats at all. The subsequent days, the water remained somewhat turbid and green from the winds and it took a bit to get the fishing back on track with some really slow days for awhile.
Also, some folks swung for the fences and spent their day chasing more elusive species like tuna, marlin or wahoo that didn’t show up.
However, everyone who chased what was there going on, got plenty of fish. Mostly. Most of the time. It was a bit of a weird week. Frankly, most of the fishing photos you see in this week’s gallery were caught earlier in the week.
Straight up, our La Paz fishing was far better. If you wanted to load up the ice chest, the dorado continue to be more than accommodating. You just have to find the right spot. There’s alot of floating sargasso out there (kelp paddies), but not every spot is holding fish.
The sargasso attracts sardines and other baitfish, especially flying fish that are laying their eggs and for the dorado, it’s like a floating buffet. If you hit the right spot, it can be non-stop action. Some of the “paddies” hold the younger 5-10 pound fish. Many anglers are tossing them back. But other paddies hold 15-30 pound and larger dorado that are really putting the wood to some of the anglers and a good many large fish are getting lost, but still lots of fun.
Our Las Arenas fishing is finally starting to see a few dorado as the sargasso moves south but mostly the bite for our fleet there has been a variety of fish including jack crevalle, snapper, pargo, cabrilla, bonito, amberjack, yellowtail, pompano, yellow jacks. Some days have been better than others. Roosterfish between 10 and 50 pound are still prowling the beaches with some larger. !
We have also had a couple of big striped and blue marlin come up on the lines that I’m told were 150-400 pound fish that hit baits, but the hooks didn’t stick. As the week progressed, we saw more and more marlin cruising the surface or half-heartedly attaching baits and lures. They’re in that sleepy state when they’re just getting acclimated to the warmer water and not really feeding to the frustration of many anglers. However, within the next week or two, I would bet the billfish start going off.
FLIGHTS!
Don’t forget that there are now direct flights on American Airlines for the first time in a decade direct from the U.S. to La Paz from Phoenix and from Dallas on selected days of the week! This will last through summer. Hopefully, longer if it stays popular. Many of our clients have booked on these flights. They’re great and saves that 3 hour drive from Cabo! Don’t miss out!
Get in touch with us and we’ll put together a complete hotel/ fishing package for you! Lots of dates are filled or filling fast! We’re looking forward to seeing you this year!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 1-7, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Dave Lindell has visited us many times over the years and always finds a good fish or two, like this nice roosterfish he caught and released with Captain Armando outside of Bahia Muertos. Dave is from Pendleton, Oregon.
Just a great shot! Big bulls in the hands of our San Diego amigos. Ryan Brock, John Stone and Jeff Correia ran into a nice school of dorado north of La Paz. There were more fish in the box.
Coral Hart always insists she catches more and bigger fish than husband, Jeremy.
We still have some nice grade pompano hanging out in our waters. John Stone is taking this one home.
Captain Jorge has a thumbs-up for Darren Robinson’s snapper that’s going to get added to the fish box for the day.
Dr. James Good from Denver just has too much fun! This particular day he hooked over 20 dorado and released most of them, but this huge bull is coming back to the freezer.
This is as good a photo as it gets. This is Baja. Just a pretty shot of our amigo from Denver, John Lowdermilk and his roosterfish. Fish was released.
Her biggest fish, gets a hand from Captain Alfredo for the photo. Tricia Kidman from Salt Lake City is all smiles.
Pound-for-pound maybe the toughest fighting fish we have down here, especially when they are horse-sized like this bonito caught by Darren Robinson.
One lonely tuna caught at the south end of Cerralvo Island got us all excited. Other fish were seen, but weren’t interested. Frankly, I think the fish was attracted to Bill Johnson’ great fishing shirt! Bill is another of our amigos from Denver.
A graduation trip after he just finished up at Texas A & M and starts work this summer, Quinn Mattson has double fisted dorado in hand .
Yes, marlin have started to show up finally. Tim Dummler with a pretty catch-and-release of this billfish.
Visiting us for the first time from Florida where he’s a professional chef, Preston Hix got into the dorado bite north of La Paz.
Another of our new Tailhunter amigos visiting for the first time, Brent Wischnack had a great few days with us and gets a quick photo with Captain Joel and a pair of nice dorado.
All the way from Massachusetts, Rich England’s day produced alot of action including several catch-and-release roosterfish like this one!
Alway fun. He never has a bad day, Rick Kasper (right) with amigo, Steve Shaolin, pose with 4 of their dorado headed to the freezers.
David Mkrtychev got his first roosterfish this trip fishing just outside of Bahia Muertos. The fish was released.
A tough fish to pull out’ve the rocks, John Stone adds this nice pargo to the fish box.
Alex Golubev has two more dorado to bring back to shore after fishing in the channel between Las Cruces and Cerralvo Island.
Steve Seeley’s first day and first trip to see us produced 5 roosterfish. All were released.
Gary Wagner has a knack for hitting big cabrilla out’ve the rocks and reefs around his place at Rancho Costa in Bahia Muertos.
Texas in the house! Duane and Quinn Mattson have some meat to take home!
Overall, the fishing just got one week better than last week and that week was one of the best period of fishing we have had in a long time. With great sunny weather and water’s continuing to warm and clear up, the schools of dorado around Espirito Santo Island and in the channel between the peninsula and the northern part of Cerralvo Island continued to be the main focus.
The dorado bite is producing some of the biggest and most plentiful dorado we have seen in years. Alot of that probably has much to do with the lack of fishing all last year during the pandemic. Fish this time of year are normally averaging about 10 pounds. This year, most fish are 20-40 pounders.
Sometimes, the bite starts slow and it takes a bit to find the right spot or right school. Some boats might do better than others on any given day. However, overall, limits or near limits of dorado are typical.
In addition to the dorado, numerous other species continue to help bed rods and produce alot of variety. Most encouraging are the marlin that we’re starting to see in our waters plus a smattering of tuna and wahoo.
Onto that, add in roosterfish between 10 and 50 pounds near the shores (all released); some huge bonito; jack crevalle, pargo, amberjack, the occasional yellowtail and sierra, pompano, trevally, rainbow runner, grouper and snapper and folks are getting plenty of action.
This week, American Airlines initiated the first direct flights into La Paz from the U.S from Dallas and Phoenix. These flights will continue until the beginning of September. This is the first time in almost a decade that we have direct flights from the U.S. to La Paz.
Note: Michael Wilson, if you read this, please e-mail me: Jonathan@tailhunter.com. Send me your e-mail address.
La Paz- Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of May 7-14, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
The BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Nice 1 day catch that doesn’t include all the roosterfish and jack crevalle they released, but left to right holding pompano, yellow trevally, snapper and pargo are Sy Thomas (Thousand Oaks CA), Brian and Kelly Bowman (Payson AZ) and Rick Kasper (Arizona/ Wyoming/ Texas/ California).
Yes, this is a massive pargo liso! See more about this fish below. Scroll down!
Another incredible week for these beautiful pompano. Maybe the best pompano bite I can remember! Just off the Punta Arenas lighthouse sands, Roger Thompson holds up a whopper!
Jordan Curet right off the rocks, she and her husband caught and released 6 roosterfish in a single day.
Todd Hembry was fishing north of La Paz around Espirito Santo Island with Captain Boli when this huge cabrilla bent his rod!
Roger again…wahoo again! Finally, the wahoo started biting this week. That’s Cerralvo Island in the backgroun and Roger has a knack for these speedsters!
Bryce Gordon with one of several nice roosterfish he caught and released this particular day just outside of Bahia Muertos.
Captain Jorge with Sy Thomas and Rick Kasper and a trio of tasty pompano.
Early season dorado and one of the first of the year for us with Todd Hembry caught just outside of La Paz Bay.
Bryce and Jordan Gorgon with a double double of nice pompano.
No shortage of action when the jack crevalle schools move into the shallow. Our amigo, Gary Wagner from Rancho Costa.
The man in the mask, Bryce Gordon, with another rooster for a quick photo and release.
No doubt, I can officially say the seasons are changing. Generally warmer sunnier weather with gentler kinder winds (most of the time!) herald that we’re finally moving out from the colder harsher winter conditions to an actual spring-time season.
The best indication of that are the water conditions understandably coupled with a change in the complexion of the fishing.
Although we still got occasional days of brutal winds, for the most part now, they are the anomaly rather than the norm. Waters are warming and in many areas changing from the cloudier-colder greenish gray to clearer blue waters.
After maybe the most spectacular yellowtail season in decades, colder water fish like the yellowtail are diminishing along with other cooler-water species like sierra and amberjack, although there’s still no shortage of a host of other winter-ish species like snapper, pargo-liso, barred pargo and some huge cabrilla/ grouper. If you like shallow-water fishing you can bend rods all day over the rocks fishing for these great fun fish.
However, more and bigger roosterfish have moved in. Fish in the 20-60 pound class can now be found along the shallow sandy beaches as well as near the rocky drop-offs near cliffs and around both Espirito Santo Island and Cerralvo Island. We had one day where 3 of our pangas totaled 18 roosters caught and released on a single day.
However, other members of that same jack-family like the roosterfish have been abundant as well to add to the species list. Big schools of slugger jack crevalle are cruising the inshore channels with fish up to 15 pounds but the biggest surprise has been the huge African pompano that have shown up.
This past week, we had more pompano catches than I have ever seen. Usually, the fish are 5-9 pounders, but the past several weeks has produced fish up between 10-15 pounds with multiple hook-ups on some pangas. Mixed in are giant yellow trevally (palometa) as well which are also members of the jack family and also great eating.
Related to the warming waters, we’re also finally hooking up some wahoo and some schools of dorado have moved into the fishing counts as well. Hopefully more of both in the coming weeks as conditions improve!
WOULDA COULDA SHOULDA (WORLD RECORD?)
This past week, we had a pretty exciting catch. Popular Captain Pancho with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet was out with Dr. Jesus Velarde when this huge pargo liso (mullet snapper) bit his sardine. Now, MOST pargo we see are 5-10 pounders and they are TOUGH TOUGH fish to pull out’ve the rocks!
However, this fish was estimated by Pancho to be about 50 pounds!
After checking the photo, I went to the IGFA website to check the official world record. It turns out to have been Rolla Cornell’s big 45 pounder caught in 2007 in our area with our friend David Jones’ Fisherman’s Fleet. Take a look at the two fish and see if Pancho’s is larger. They’re pretty close!
Rolla Cornell’s 2007 world record mullet snapper of 45 pounds caught in our waters fishing with David Jones’ Fisherman’s Fleet.
Dr. Velarde’s fish…maybe not as long as the Cornell fish, but most folks seem to think it’s much thicker!
It’s too bad, but still an incredible catch. There have been so many records and near records taken out’ve our La Paz waters over the years. The world record roosterfish of 114 pounds is still in the books and personally, we’ve had 2 world records set by our anglers and maybe another 6 that would have been world records except we cut them up into fillets and then checked the photos and record books later! We DO have an IGFA scale at our offices.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 29-May 6, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Roosterfish are in and they’re BIG! Captain Gerardo is about 6’1″ so you can see how big the fish is by comparison. He was out with Joel Jirales and the fish was released.
Her first dorado is our first dorado! Tracy Chung from Oregon with Captain Armando caught her first dorado and it’s a a big one! It’s also our first dorado of the season as well indicating that warmer waters have started moving into the area.
Our good amigo, Ed Buchanan from San Diego, always has fish and a good fish pose too! Yellowtail on the gaff and Cerralvo Island in the background.
Marcus Yoo had 3 blown out days in a row with winds. His final day he made up for it with pargo, cabrilla, snapper, bonito, roosterfish, pompano and even this small blue marlin that ate a live bait and could not be released. Marcus donated the meat to the local folks.
Now THIS is alot of meat! A big fat cabrilla caught by John Chung near Espirito Santo Island is a tough fish to pull out of the rocks and a real trophy not to mention great eating!
An incredible week for big pompano. Check out this big boy caught by Marcus just outside of Bahia Muertos.
John Gillespie from Havasu City AZ is all smiles with this big roosterfish he caught just off the shallows near Punta Arenas. The fish was released.
Donna Thompson with her favorite Captain Hugo and another pompano taken off the south end of Cerralvo Island where they also hooked yellowtail and other species.
First day and first-time visitors Marilou and Todd Hembry with Captain Adolfo and a nice mix of cabrilla and a pargo liso held up by Captain Adolfo.
Lorena with a highly-prized huachinango snapper headed for the fillet table. We had lots of variety this week on the days when the wind let us out on the water.
Tracy Chung and Patty Killian took the day with Captain Armando to compete against their husbands and winning with a nice rack of snapper, cabrilla, big bonito and a hefty yellowtail.
Oh the pain! William Balazar from San Diego has a smiling grimace trying to pose with this big fat bonito.
Lots of variety for John Chung and Jeff Killian (thumbs up) with Captain Jorge with cabrilla, bonito snapper and pargo on the fish board!
Laurie Reynolds poses with a colorful barred pargo and a big smile of her own.
Marcus with another huge pompano just off the rocks.
Talk about a haul! Captain Gerardo has alot of cleaning to do! Check out all the pompano on his cleaning table!
It wasn’t bad fishing this week. There was almost NO fishing for a good part of the week!
We not only had a full moon with strong currents, but the winter winds came roaring back after giving us a few weeks of break. The wind didn’t just make it tough to be on the water. It was impossible to even get in the boats and onto the water early in the week. Even after winds cut back a little, our fishermen still didn’t want to go out. Couldn’t blame them!
It was THAT rough!
So, we pretty much had to cancel half the week because no one could get out. After the first few days, the wind dropped back “a little” but then, like I said, no one wanted to go out…understandably.
It was not only wind, but COLD!
Hopefully, the last vestige of winter before things start being more “spring-like.”
I thought we were well on our way. But this week gave us a dose of reality again.
However, at the end of the week, winds laid back down. The warm sun came out and the dirty blown-out waters settled down and the fishing kicked back into gear with LOTS of variety. This included barred pargo, pargo liso (mullet snapper), big sierra, snapper, some huge cabrilla (seabass), as well as some of the biggest bonito we’ve seen all season.
We also had a super bite of big pompano up to 15-18 pounds with boats catching multiple fish. They were mixed in with the jack crevalle and big bonito.
In addition, we still pulled on some 15-20 pound yellowtail and a number were lost. However, as the waters are warming up, the yellowtail bite is diminishing. Plus roosterfish running 30-60 pounds were biting off the beaches.
On top of that, we got our first marlin and dorado of the season which are indicative that hopefully spring conditions are finally emerging.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Bahia Muertos/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of April 21-28, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Not bad for one day. 2 nice yellowtail, a snapper and some white bonito.
Biggest rooster of the season so far. Right off the Perrico Rocks in shallow water. Gary with a nice catch-and-release.
Jimmy Williams spent the day spanking the big cabrilla at the north end of Cerralvo. He and his buddies came back with full fish boxes.
Just when I thought the yellowtail might have left…double ‘tails plus cabrilla, pargo and bonito.
Captain Jorge had a good day with the boys…Bonito, big sierra and a yellowtail. No shortage of action.
The right kind! Gary Wagner with a big dog-tooth snapper just outside of Bahia Muertos and his place at Rancho Costa.
Hard to beat a cold Modelo after a good day on the water of a fat yellowtail, some snapper and cabrilla.
Nancy Enright from Lemon Grove CA has a tasty pompano just off the rocks.
Geoff Wilkinson from Lakewood CA has a big yellowtail ready to slice up for sashime.
Captain Gerardo mugs with Gregg Wurtz on a first-time trip with us. Lots of meat on the fillet table with yellowtail, big bonito, snapper and some good-sized cabrilla.
Tough fish…fun guy! Johnny Enright battled this feisty jack crevalle just outside of Bahia Muertos.
Gary sure had a good week. Check out this big big big cabrilla!
Like the week before, things started slowly despite really excellent conditions with air temps in the low 80’s during the day and high 50’s at night with just daily breezes.
The early week bite mostly consisted of inshore species like cabrilla, pargo, sierra and snapper taken over the rocky areas and shallow structure.
However as the week went on the bite got stronger with yellowtail once again jumping into the picture and fish up to about 25 pounds taken on baits and yo-yo jigs around Cerralvo Island. Even some tuna popped up, but quickly disappeared and getting everyone excited.
In addition to the yellowtail, lots of huge white bonito blew up plus some larger roosterfish caught and released to add to fish boxes of big cabrilla and even some dog-tooth, barred and lisa pargo.
I was surprised with the yellowtail. It has been on-and-off for the last 2 weeks and I figured that the fish might have moved off to deeper water since the ocean appears to be warming and more bluewater species expected. But, it was great to have the fish back in the counts.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the full moon!
BUT WAIT…!!!
Just as I was about to publish this week’s fish report…an update!
WINTER decided to kick back . Holy cow. It got cold and windy again.
This is how it looked one day:
Gorgeous. Beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky. 85 degree sunshine.
TURN UP THE SOUND!
Then this is what happened the next day. Blew us off the water. Could not even fish. Could not even launch the boats! Winds came out’ve nowhere. They were not even on the weather advisories. It was like someone threw a switch:
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay / Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 13-20, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
A great first day for Sue and Bobby Stanley from the San Diego area on their first trip to La Paz with a nice yellowtail and some great action on some big boy cabrilla.
Johnny Enright from Lemon Grove CA shows off our first roosterfish of the season taken on a live bait near Bahia Muertos. The fish was released. Schools of roosters are now showing up in the shallows.
YEOW! This is a huge pompano…a member of the jack family like yellowtail, roosterfish and jack crevalle. Great eating! Captain Moncho handling the great pose.
Great way to start the day! First sardine in the water produced this big yellowtail for Nancy fishing out’ve Bahia Muertos with Captain Pancho.
Our Salt Lake City amigo, Robert Pettit with his favorite Captain Arcangel and a crazy variety of fish including two big yellowtail, cabrilla, white bonito and a big pargo as well.
Cabrilla, sierra and two kinds of pargo…a pargo liso (mullet snapper) and pargo perro (dog-tooth snapper) for John and Nancy on the cutting board.
Captain Blas with another yellowtail. This one taken near Espirito Santo Island.
Two of our new San Diego friends, Cindi Rice and Howard Cook have two huge sierra, some white bonito and some of those big cabrilla that went off last week.
Alla Cazier is all smiles with her thick yellowtail she hung north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island. Alla came to visit us from San Antonio, Texas.
The mornings were cool and jackets were recommended, but honestly, we could not have had better weather this week. By the time the sun came up, it broke into clear blue days that weren’t too hot and flat calm waters mostly. They were the kind of days to spend on the beach and the Chamber of Commerce loves to taut.
So, what happened to the fishing?
The better part of the week, for lack of a better word, it STUNK!
Compared to what we had in the previous weeks, it was almost like a liquid desert out there! I don’t know if this was the whole Sea of Cortez, but I even had guys from Loreto drive down because they said fishing up there was really slow. I had guys on the East Cape asking if our fishing was any better than down there because they were wondering if they should drive up and fish our waters instead.
Gotta be honest, but everyone really had to work hard for the few fish that were taken. That includes both our Las Arenas and our La Paz Fleet.
Sure, there were occasional flurries or some boat would get lucky and everyone around them would be getting blanked, but for the most part, it was less than stellar fishing we we picked through pargo, cabrilla, snapper, bonito and even some sierra. Some boats even struggled to catch a few bonito.
Then, it was like a switch was thrown the latter part of the week. In fact, most of the photos for this week’s fishing were from the last few days of the week.
Yellowtail bit again, maybe not as crazy as previous weeks, but alot better than earlier in the week. We got our first roosterfish of the season. Dog-tooth snapper and pargo liso bit. In addition to some hefty pargo, bonito and cabrilla, we got pompano, huge jack crevalle and some mega-sized sierra for quite a variety.
It saved our week for a number of anglers who had been having a tough time! (And lowered our own anxiety levels!)
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of March 21-27, 2021
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
The BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Great say to spend Spring Break…fishing! Miles Wagner from Colorado Springs CO, put this big mossback yellowtail in the boat off the back side of Cerralvo Island.
A great start for our long-time amigo, Darrell Manginelli, who started his 3 days of fishing with a spectacular day of 5 big yellowtail and a huge cabrilla. one yellowtail was caught on a sardine, but other fish fell for butterfly jigs.
Checking out a trophy catch! Campbell Grage has his hands full with a big-time barred pargo taken off the reef in shallow water. Check how calm the ocean is!
These two characters always get fish! Our Tailhunter amigo, Jimmy Williams and Bill McCarthy came back with 3 yellowtail and a big snapper using bait at the north end of Cerralvo Island, but Jimmy told me the fish were thick and so many of the powerful fish they could not stop on 60-pound-test!
Great to see Mike O’Neill on the water. Our amigo was jigging with light tackle for yellowtail and snagged this 140-pound striped marlin instead! Game on! Mike battled the fish for over and hour on the light rig. You can see the jig attached to the reel. First marlin of the season. The fish was not able to be released and meat was donated.
Speaking of “characters” most of you know our awesome drivers, Jorge and Esteban Romero looking like twins now that Esteban has grown a beard! They got in on the yellowtail bite as well this week and took two big forkies plus a nice dog-tooth snapper, a fat cabrilla and a huachinango (not pictured) that I think they gave to Captain Armando.
Great photo of a smiling Captain Pancho with amigo, Gary Wagner, owner of the El Rancho Resort holding the gaff on this slug yellowtail.
What a great week! Simple as that.
The winds cut us some slack. We had anglers on the water. The fish bit. All the planets lined up and what a week it was!
With general calm waters most of the week, we had probably the best week of fishing in many months.
It was also the best week of yellowtail fishing of the season.
On top of that, I’d have to say this is the best yellowtail season we have had in many many years.
That’s alot of meat! Yellowtail and pargo for dinner right after a quick beach photo.
Straight up, I’ll tell you that La Paz is NOT a big-time yellowtail spot. Areas way north of us such as Loreto and Mulege are traditionally the hot spots for yellowtail further up the Sea of Cortez. We’re known more for tuna, dorado, roosterfish and marlin.
But, what to make of these last 3 months? Yellowtail in numbers we have not seen in many years! I mean, we get our share, but nothing like what we’re seeing these days! I have no idea how long it will last. It could be over by the time you read this. Maybe the full-moon coming up will blow it apart. But, we’re sure enjoying it RIGHT NOW!
With fish scattered in a number of hot spots, yellowtail from 10-40 pounds were schooling up and chomping live bait, trolled lures and yo-yo/ stick jigs. Fish were stacked up at the north end of Cerralvo Island. They were at the south end of Cerralvo Island. They were caught as close as the rocks right outside of Bahia Muertos between Punta Perrico and the Punta Arenas lighthouse. On top of that they also came up to foam around Espirito Santo Island for the first time this year.
The fish were generally around structure, but about half of the fish were breaking off either from sheer power or from taking lines back into the rocks. One angler told us, that even with 60-pound-test, he had trouble stopping a number of fish.
One more day to go! Darrell had 3 days of fishing. Day 1 produced 5 yellowtail and 1 cabrilla. This is day 2…with three yellowtail and limits of cabrilla for him and Captain Pancho. All caught trolling Rapalas.
On top of that, we had big cabrilla also in the area and taking the jigs, the live bait and the trolled Rapalas. Dog tooth snapper up to about 20 pounds were also bending rods plus big schools of tasty white hard-fighting bonito, jack crevalle and even the occasional dorado.
Matt, Gary, Campbell with some chunky bonito.
We also got our first marlin of the season when one of our amigos was jigging for yellowtail and snagged about a 140-pound striped marlin he ended up fighting over an hour on crazy light tackle.
All-in-all a solid week and maybe the start of a great fishing season.
YELLOWTAIL LURES
Darrell got this mossback yellowtail to swallow a lively sardine.
Just a head’s up on what these yellowtail have been eating. No telling how long this bite will last, but wanted to pass along some info. There are 3 main ways to catch them. Live bait such as sardines always get the fish to bite.
However, slow trolling diving lures over the rocky areas is also very effective for these yellows as well as pargo, cabrilla and even wahoo. Lures such as this purple/black Rapala Xrap 20 is an example but other companies make similar lures such as Yo-Zuri and others. The numbers such as “20” represent an approximation of how deep these lures will “dive” when trolled or retrieved. So, the example below will get down to about 20′. They also make an Xrap 10, 30, and 40.
Another deadly method involves using “yo-yo iron” or “yo-yo technique. ”
Lip-hook on a jig with a powerful yellowtail and Jorge Romero on the jig rod.
One of the most exciting moments in fishing big sportfish is having one take your jig and slam it right in the jaw! It’s an electrifying strike!
This requires using heavy lures and casting or free-spooling them to the bottom. Then rapidly winding them back towards the boat. But, then stopping. Letting the lure flutter back down. Then rapidly retrieving again in a “Z” type pattern back to the boat. It can be tiring, but incredibly effective as all kinds of sportfish will often viciously slam the lure as it flutters down or as soon as the retrieve takes place.
Here’s some samples:
A number of companies make similar lures like Salas, UFO, Sea Strike, Daiwa, Diamond Jigs, Raider Lures and so many others. My favorite colors include blue and white; chrome combinations; scrambled egg; zuchino or dorado color; all white.
Some of the jigs in my tackle box. Looking busted up because they’ve been beat up and eaten by fish many times!
These are all Shimano lures, but so many other companies make similar lures. I’m not paid by Shimano or Rapala or any other company and am only using these as an example.
Tailhunter Fish Report 