La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 22-29, 2018
Mexican Minute Weekly Video Report
Week at a Glance
Weather – Picture-perfect most of the week. Highs in the hi-80’s to lo-90’s. Got windier later in the week
Water – Blue and warming
Bait – Tough to get for our Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay guys better on the La Paz side for sardines
Fishing – Lots of variety. Warm and cold water species still around. I thnk I counted about 14 different species caught this week not including junk fish! Fishing was picky and scratchy however but got better as the week went on (and the winds got stronger and we moved towards the full moon!) . Crazy!
Catching – Lost alot of nice fish in the rocks. Lost wahoo. Lost tuna. Lost yellowtail. That’s why these are bigger fish!
THE BIG PICTURE
Chris Cribbs has been fishing with Captain Jorge of the Tailhunter Fleet for years and came down with buddy Matt McSweeney from San Gabriel CA. They rocked the hat trick with a big tuna, cabrilla and a fat barred pargo. The tuna, surprisingly was caught while they were inshore trying to catch rooster fish in shallow water!
Good start to their week of fishing for Jason and Rebecca Coxsey from the San Diego area with a boatload of action with great snapper plus some white and black bonito chargers.
It’s a wonder! Our good friends for so many years, Angela and Tim Farrell from Oceanside CA got some great food quality fish with some nice cabrilla and pargo. They have caught some big with with us over the years!
From Utah, Jackie Cole, her first time fishing and visiting La Paz with some late season sierra plus white bonito and cabrilla.
Angela with another fatty cabrilla to add to her list of big fish she’s caught here with Tailhunter and her favorite Captain Moncho!
Finally got a dorado in the boat for Captain Armando with Rebecca and Jason from San Diego to add to the collection of white bonito, snapper and cabrilla!
Captain Jorge with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet poses with one of the better dorado of the week caught by Chris Cribbs.
The rest of the story…
Crazy sport, this fishing thing. I’ve been whining for weeks about how the winds have detrimentally affected the fishing down here. It’s been a long agonizing first 5 months of the year!
Well, this week, we had some of the nicest weather I’ve seen all season. We’ve had some nice days in the past, but it was never consistent. But, this week, beautiful sunshine…blue waters…calm seas. Not too hot. Not too breezy. Barely a trace of humidity. If, you asked me to predict, I’d have said it was perfect fishing weather.
But, it wasn’t. It was scratchy. It was picky. Frustratingly difficult most of the week. With the good weather. A few fish here. A few fish there. And our captains and anglers had to work pretty hard to find them too!
And then, as the week went on…it started getting breezier and breezier. Oh no. Not again. This can’t get any worse!
But, heck…the fishing got better when the winds blew a bit! And not only that, we had a full moon coming up on us as well that I thought for sure was gonna just crush us in a double whammy! But, as I said, the fishing actually got better! Not great, by any stretch, but it surely improved!
At Las Arenas, we found a few tuna. A few yellowtail. Some barred pargo. Some red snapper. Some yellow snapper. A few dorado and Sierra. Some nice horse-sized cabrilla too! Even had wahoo bite (off). Plus lots of good action on both Pacific and those tasty white bonito. All pretty much late in the week!
For our La Paz fleet, the same thing. Better as the week went on. Lots of inshore pargo and cabrilla that guys had a hoot with trying to keep them outta the rocks plus some sizable cabrilla, pompano and dorado as well. We also saw schools of breezing tuna that just need a kick to get to bite!
So, go figure. Full moon plus wind meant better fishing this week! I give up!
LA PAZ SUNSET THIS WEEK
Told ya the weather has been incredible. The kind of weather the La Paz Board of Tourism brags about and they make postcards with. Thought I’d share a little video of one of the sunsets from our Tailhunter Restaurant. Turn up the sound!
FOODIES PUT THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR for THIS WEEK!
Coming this week to La Paz!
If you’re coming to La Paz this week, on Friday, May 4th the 8th Annual Gastronomica (“TASTE OF LA PAZ”) Food Festival will be taking place. It’s an incredible event we have every year with more than 150 restaurants and food vendors participating.
It’s all you can eat and drink from the best restaurants in La Paz plus some from Cabo, Todos Santos, the East Cape and Cabo! Plus lots of great live music. It goes from 7 p;m to midnight and it’s right on the beach and one of the largest city events of the year.
You’ll find food from the different regions of Mexico and Baja; Italian; American; Japanese; Chinese; bakeries; pastries; the culinary schoools, the hotel restaurants; the caterers; as well as tequila, wine and beer vendors and distributors as well.
Cost is about $40 per ticket for all-you-can-eat. We’ll be there with Tailhunter Restaurant samples!
THANK YOU!
Norm and Jackie Cole from Utah brought dow a case of kids toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss and other great dental hygiene things that went out to the orphanage at Los Planes!
Our season is on and already, we’re floored by the generosity of our Tailhunter tribe members who have already delivered more than 200 pounds of clothes, shoes, hygiene items and school items that we distribute to various charities! Cheers and gracias to all of you!
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay/ Magdalena Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 15-22, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE FISHING REPORT
WEEK at a GLANCE
Weather – Much more stable and winds backed off. But, this coming week, we could have some winds back again.
Water – Warming. Surface temps in the mid-70’s now.
Fishing – Always responds to less wind. Week started slow, but as the week went on, fishing got better with both inshore and a smattering of offshore species as well.
Catching – Lost more fish than we should have! Especially, the larger fish and those in the rocks. But, that’s why they are big fish!
THE BIG PICTURE REPORT
You just never know! Dragging a small Rapala over the rocks for cabrilla and pargo a huge dog-tooth ripped Gama Flores from Palm Desert CA and he managed to keep it out’ve the reef! Gama comes down with buddy Ray Salanga from Carson CA one or two times a year to fish with us.
Enjoying the sunshine and a bit of fishing too! Happy Steve and Becca Freimark from Edmonds WA show off some nice snapper and bonito.
Red snapper and cabrilla on the beach posing with Gama Flores.
Sorry I didn’t have more photos this week! Folks either didn’t take any…forgot their cameras or cell phones…or didn’t want their photos taken!
Anyway…
The winds dropped off and gave us a bit of a break this past week after several weeks of strong breezes. The abatement of wind produced a decent mix of fish that ran the gamut from inshore species to bluewater breezers. Not a lot of any one type of fish, but the mix is pretty typical of this time of year when cooler water species like yellowtail, sierra and amberjack are moving out, but lingering. Warmer water species like dorado and wahoo, may have never left from last year, but are getting more active and following the warmer currents and food sources.
For inshore species this week, we tallied up quite a nice bite on snapper and pargo including barred pargo and dog-tooth as well as a few mullet snapper (pargo liso). We also got into more of those tasty white bonito, jack crevalle and a few pompano.
Bluewater species that showed up including some 10-20 pound yellowfin tuna and some free-swimming dorado. They’re not really schooling up, but seem to be hitting solo or in smaller schools. Bait works best.
BAHIA MAGDALENA REPORT
Jorge Romero pulled this dog-tooth out’ve the mangoves and roots on a live sardine.
A couple of pargo headed to the grill that I got out’ve a deep hole that was right up against the bank and holding fish. We lost larger fish to all the roots and structure down there.
Jilly and Rigo pose with a pargo and snook!
Yay…not huge, but my first snook (robalo). Can’t wait to try it on the table. Supposed to be excellent!
Jorge with one of a number of corbina that were voraciously feeding in the shallows.
We got several types of croaker too!
First one in the box for Jilly
The box is getting full . And we lost quite a few fish and released alot of fish too! The majority of the fish was donated.
Jill and I with Jorge Romero ran our own personal exporatory trip out to Bahia Magdalena (Mag Bay) this past week and what a trip we had. Three hours from La Paz, Mag Bay boats a length of over 50 miles and hundreds of miles of shoreline that encompasses countless lagoons, estuaries, mangroves, sand dunes, sand bars and islands.
And best of all…almost no one there. It’s remote. It’s rustic. It’s the boonies. This is not Club Med land. There’s no swimming pools or health spas. There’s no craft beer or fancy restaurants. It’s dusty and largely unspoiled. It’s not for tourists.
Little fishing pueblos are spotted here and there. Hard-working blue-collar fishermen and their families. All making a living in one way-shape or form from the sea…for generations.
And, it’s an incredible area and an unbelievable ecosystem. Birdlife…wildlife…lobster…shrimp…clams…oysters…and so many varieties of fish!
I lost count, but I believe we caught about 17 different varieties of fish that included snook, several species of pargo, seabass, corvina, croaker, and more. They told me fishing was “slow” because of the strong currents, but it was the best inshore, light tackle fishing I have ever had in Baja! And this is just the inshore stuff.
I’ve fished offshore and there’s bountiful grounds for wahoo, tuna, dorado, marlin, yellowtail and grouper. That will be on our next trip. If you’re interested, get in touch with us! We’ll set up the transportation, hotel, meals and fishing!
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay / Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 8-15, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE La Paz Fishing Report
WEEK at a GLANCE
Weather – Sunny and super with highs mid-80’s, but cool enough for a light sweatshirt in the mornings and evenings
Wind – CURSED! Storm in the U.S. = winds in Baja. They were back again. Maybe only 2 days this week not windy. One day winds were gusting 20-25 knots and the port captain shut everything down in La Paz. No boats in or out . Fortunately, we have our Las Arenas fleet and our folks were able to fish, but it was still a difficult effort.
Water – Warming, but with the winds, there were strong currents and big rollers at time. Even crashing surf here in La Paz Bay which is highly unusual. On the days the wind was not blowing the waters were really turned up and cloudy from the winds.
Fishing – Dictated by the winds. Better fishing on days when it was less windy. Hard to get bait also when it’s windy.
Catching – Nice variety. Some tuna, dorado, yellowtail, several species of pargo and snapper, cabrilla and some hefty white bonito.
LAST MINUTE FLASH – Just as we were going to post this report and too late to make changes, we had a great dorado bite take off. Go figure! Will have more in next week’s report.
THE BIG PICTURE
Not sure how much longer there will be yellowtail in the water with waters getting warmer, but this forktail didn’t know that and got hammered by Chuck Toeniskoetter.
Chuck Toeniskoetter and son, Adam, from Los Gatos CA try to come down to La Paz at least once a year to fish and did relatively well despite tough conditions while fishing, once again, with the Tailhunter Fleet. This one day rack of fish shows an incredible variety including yellowfin tuna, a big yellowtail, a nice cabrilla, white bonito, pargo mulatto and a red snapper.
Captain Victor with a big cabrilla and some great reef fish including pargo liso, barred pargo and huachinango.
You remember the thrill? Big bonito for 12-year-old Nick Genovese with Captain Armando. He also had a big tuna on for awhile.
Sweet yellowfin tuna for Adam Toeniskoetter.
Couldn’t be any nicer folks! Steve Friemark with a handful of tasty white bonito and Captain Jorge on the beach at Muertos.
Just when we thought it might be mellowing out, those winds came back and hit us again this week. In fact, one day the northerns were so bad, there were surfable breakers in our normally calm La Paz Bay and the port captain closed the port for any boats leaving. As one person described it, it’s like winter all over the Northern hemisphere being like an angry boyfriend or girlfriend who stomps out’ve the room then comes back and says, “And One More Thing!!!” Blah blah blah…
Basically, as long as storms keep showing up in the U.S., it’s going to affect things in Baja and the Sea of Cortez!
So, it wasn’t the greatest week for fishing.
There was some variety, but not much for quantity although some days there was some great action on some pig bonito. Not only good fighters, but these are “white bonito.” (Bonito Diente). They have teeth, but also have some incredible great white meat for table fare. Most folks would not be able to tell it from tuna.
In addition, we did have some 15-30 pound yellowfin tuna show up around Cerralvo Island and some larger that were lost after long battles. But, the issue is getting across the channel to the island. If there’s wind and rollers happening then getting across to the island (and to get sardines) is pretty futile.
But, inshore offered alternatives like several species of pargo including pargo mulatto (barred pargo); pargo liso (mullett snapper); cubera snapper (pargo perro/ dog-tooth snapper) as well as red and yellow snapper (huachinango). We also got some action off cabrilla (seabass) and some decent triggerfish and jack crevalle.
Honestly, however, not the best fishing and kudos to our anglers who hung in there and grinned through it all the kept smiling. But, one reason, not many folks are fishing this early in the season.
BUT WAIT…Just as I was posting this up but too late to make changes, we had dorado go off in La Paz Bay! Go figure . I’ll have more on that in the next report!
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
Tailhunter Fish Report 