La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Feb. 26-March 9, 2023
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Nice catch of yellowtail for Paul Le Claire and his amigo who found a little window between winds to hook these tasty forktails.
There’s lots of good eating on the table as Gary Wagner, who owns the Rancho Costa Resort poses with Mauricio and his son and a whole mess of sierra.
Attorney General of Kansas, Kris Korbach with Gary and some unseasonable dorado caught outside of Bahia Muertos. There must be some warmer water around!
I’m sorry for not posting up sooner. I know the report is later than normal, but we’re still on the road and I’ve been a bit under the weather plus losing my voice!
But, again, not really a whole lot to report.
The wind really dictate what’s going on and as I’ve heard so often this season, this is the “coldest and windiest” winter anyone can remember. It very much mirrors what’s been going on for the entire west coast and much of the country with crazy cold, winds, snow, rain and more.
Not much of anyone on the water and many of the days, it’s so rough the port captain shuts down the port to all boating traffic.
The key is to find the small windows between the winds to get out on the water. If you pick the right day, there’s quite a variety of species willing to bite.
Colder water species like yellowtail, amberjack, sierra, pargo, cabrilla and snapper have been available over the reefs and rocks. Some warmer water species like dorado have surprised us. Live and dead bait is best, but casting lures have also been productive.
It does look like the yellowtail bite is starting to heat up. Hot spots at the north end of Cerralvo Island as well as the south and east side of the island have been productive as well as parts off the rocks near Punta Perrico and Punta Arenas. Some jags of the fish have also been hit around Espirito Santo Island as well. The trick is finding those times when the wind isn’t blowing.
Some nice hog-size fish are getting taken and there have been schools of big breezing 100+ pound tuna that were moving too fast to jump on.
MAGDALENA BAY REPORT
We had Jim Gibson and his sons, Dan and Patrick out at Mag Bay with us for several days of whale watching and 2 days of fishing the mangroves.
Although the winds got to them, they had lots of whales in the bay coming up to their panga!
For their two days of fishing, they had plenty of action. According to Jim:
“We caught Black Snook, Corvina, Pompano, Red Snapper, Yellowtail Snapper, Dog Snapper, Triggerfish, Broomtail Grouper, Spotted Bay Bass, Cabrilla (Spotted Cabrilla, I think), Pacific Porgy, various Grunts, Barred Pargo, and a pretty good sized Scorpionfish. And a couple of octopus, maybe some other species I’ve forgotten. And we got rocked by at least one huge grouper when Rigo took us outside the Bay to fish a favorite rock pile of his. We were under-gunned for that experience!”
TAILHUNTER ROAD TOUR
To anyone that came out to the Orange Co. Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa CA last week for the Pacific Coast Sportfishing Show, you had quite a treat with a super-great show with hundreds of vendors and sold-out crowds every day at the fairgrounds.
Thank you so everyone who came by and it was so great to see so many old friends and Tailhunter Nation after several years of no shows in S.California. We had a great time and we’re looking forward to seeing you in La Paz this year. Thanks for you reservations.
Now onto…Bakersfield!
We’ll be at the Kern Co. Fairgrounds from March 11-13 from Friday to Sunday. Great fun for the whole family. In addition to the fishing halls, they will also have a hunting hall with guns and ammo plus the fairgrounds will be covered with RV’s and boats as well as great activities like the tractor pull and custom car exhibits. Hope to see you there!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 8-15, 2023
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Not much to report from La Paz. I wish I did!
A good portion of the week, the port captain shut things down for the port because the winds made it too precarious to be out on the water. So, that meant no boat traffic coming or going. Pretty hard to fish or do much else when you can’t get on a boat. Even after the port was opened, most operators and outfitters in town had already cancelled scheduled trips not knowing when the port captain would open things up again. So, unless you were a windsurfer or kite boarder, you really didn’t have many options except sit by your hotel pool with a cold one.
We don’t usually have many bookings between November and April because of the rough weather, but the few we had this week all had to be cancelled because of the winds.
THE PARTY IS BACK!
For the first time in years, they’re bringing back the the La Paz Carnaval!
It’s going to be a mega-party lasting until next Tuesday with food, rides, parades, concerts and the biggest street fair of the year. After being shut down for covid, the town is ready to bust out for carnaval.
The parades go right by our Tailhunter Restaurant and having multiple stories, we have a great grandstand to the fun on the street!
If you’re in town this week, come by and come down to enjoy th festivities!
GREAT TO BE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AGAIN!
After a month of shows in snow, winds, ice, rain and hail, it’s nice to be back in Southern California again and see the beach and put on the shorts and flip-flops!
From Thursday to Sunday, we’ll be in our booth at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego right on the beach for the Bart Hall Fishing and Boating Show. You may remember these as the Fred Hall Shows. After a 3 year-hiatus, the shows are back and we’re excited to be back for the first of 4 shows in Southern Cal. So, come out and say hi and let’s set you up for visiting us in La Paz in 2023!
That’s our story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter Sportfishing www.tailhunter.comMexico Office:
Tailhunter Sportfishing
755 Paseo Obregon
La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address:
Tailhunter Sportfishing
P.O. Box 159
Hewitt TX. 76643Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
La Paz – las ARenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 1-7, 2023
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
It’s sounding like a broken record lately, but often, it’s important to report what is NOT happening so folks get the whole picture.
Basically, fishing was NOT happening this past week, but it has not really been happening for weeks as winds kept things rough and blustery as often happens between November and April. It’s off-season specifically for that reason. It’s too rough to be out unless you’re a windsurfer or kiteboarder.
However, this past week even witnessed rainfall as well on-and-off for two days.
Just being honest. I tell everyone before they book with us this time of year that weather can be “iffy.” We had folks interested in fishing and others who were hoping to get out diving and snorkeling. In all situations, when we saw the weather forecasts, we told them it was not going to happen.
This coming week doesn’t look much better. Although there’s no rain in the extended forecast, as of this writing, the port captain has shut down all boat traffic until further notice . That means no boat traffic is allowed in or out of the harbor because of the winds.
Hopefully, things will calm down a bit soon because we do know that there’s fish to be caught. That includes dorado, sierra, jacks, yellowtail, pargo, snapper, cabrilla and even some wahoo. However, as long as there are storms happening north of the border, it will have an effect on the weather down in our areas.
WHALESHARK SEASON CANCELLED
Swimming with the whalesharks will have to wait this year. Normally, the season runs October to April. However, because of lack of animals, the season wasn’t even opened until December.
Normally, the animals are hanging out in the shallow waters of La Paz Bay. However, because there are so few whalesharks, the remainder of the whaleshark season has been suspended until further notice.
THANK YOU SALT LAKE CITY!
Good to see old friends and meet new ones at the Western Hunt Show. Our amigos here are all celebrating the fact that all of them will be coming to see us this June!
Thank you to everyone who came to visit us at the massive Western Hunting Expo in downtown Salt Lake City. Wow! What a great show and so great to chat with so many of you. Estimates that almost 50,000 attendees came to the show over 4 days! Just incredible. Here we are re-packing our booth.
We are now on the road having left the snows of Salt Lake City and headed towards S. California for the Bart Hall Fishing & Boating Show in San Diego at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
After a 3 year hiatus, the Hall Shows are back and everyone is excited. This will be the first of 3 shows in S.California and we hope to see you there!
So, we’re brushing off the snow and headed to sunny So. Cal!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Jan. 15-22, 2023
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Local La Paz amigos out’ve Bahia Muertos with a great day catch of cabrilla, sierra, bonito and even a couple of dorado!
Fernando was out with our Captain Pancho and was able to get across the channel to the south side of Cerralvo Island and got this hefty slugger yellowfin tuna on dead sardines.
As storms battered much of the U.S. this week, especially the west coast, it also had an effect on Baja and for us in La Paz. For most of the week it was cold and windy so fishing opportunities were limited which is pretty typical for this time of year.
Most of the folks who were out are locals who have flexible schedules and can pick-and-choose which days or even what hours are best for diminished winds.
Not surprisingly, there are fish to be caught.
If you can make your way across the rough channel to the south end of Cerralvo Island, there has been a little jag of 50-100 pound tuna. Nothing wide open, but a few have been hooked, especially by commercial panga fishermen. But, it can be a really rough ride out there especially with the winds roaring down the channel.
Not surprisingly, however, there is a nice mix of fish closer inside including sierra, jacks, cabrilla, snapper and even some dorado which is surprising and leads me to believe there’s still some warm water patches around. Bait is not a problem and jigs and lures are working effectively also.
THANK YOU RENO!
Thanks to everyone who came to visit us at our booth in Reno, Nevada last week for the Wild Sheep Foundation Show at the Reno/Sparks Convention Center. It was great fun and great chatting with lots of old and new amigos and glad many of you signed up to come down.
It was also fun (for us, but maybe not for alot of others) to get snow. Living in Mexico, it’s quite a novelty to get snow, but know that last week wasn’t fun for many of our friends especially in California with all the rain and snow.
This is the view from our hotel room as the snow started to fall about 2 hours into a 2 day storm in Reno.
Our next show is a BIG ONE. One of the largest we will have this year. It’s the
WESTERN HUNT & CONSERVATION SHOW
Feb. 2-5
SALT PALACE CONVENTION CENTER
SALT LAKE CITY UT
This is a view of only about 1/3 of the show floor
It’s our only show in Utah this year, but it’s massive and if you’re anywhere near the area, you can spend all 3 days in the show and still never see all the hunting, fish, camping, RV’s and more. We’ll be in our booth all 3 days to talk about coming to La Paz. Just look for the booth that has a bunch of our Tailhunter Nation friends hanging out there!
We’re filling up really fast so let us know if you want to come visit us this year to come fishing!
That’s our story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter Sportfishing www.tailhunter.comMexico Office:
Tailhunter Sportfishing
755 Paseo Obregon
La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address:
Tailhunter Sportfishing
P.O. Box 159
Hewitt TX. 76643Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 3-9, 2022
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Our very own, Jorge Romero who managers Tailhunter’s Tecolote Transportation Company took a day off to get out on the water and by all counts, he sure had a nice day on the dorado schools. He said not much of anyone else was on the water.
Eduardo Gomez, who works for Mattel Toys in Mexico, came out with his wife and caught a limit of dorado. All on live bait.
Since it’s off-season and not much of anyone fishing, Jorge took another day off to get out on the water and racked this pretty bull dorado just south of Bahia Muertos. Jorge also said he had two wahoo bite him off and briefly had a marlin on the line as well.
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Another typical windy rough week on the water, but that’s to be expected this time of the year. Town is surprisingly quiet as well. Normally, alot more tourists and snowbirds are around, but I’m hearing and seeing around the city and from businesses that it’s amazingly sedate this year. Certainly alot fewer than expected or normal for the holiday season.
Fishermen are few or non-existent as this time of year can be particularly rough and difficult to be on the water. About the only ones fishing are locals who have the luxury of being able to pick-and-choose the calmer days to give fishing a try. Even then, some of them are telling me it can get pretty rough even though the sun is out.
However, there are fish to be caught. Friends have caught good numbers of cold-water fish like sierra and small amberjack and yellowtail along with reef fish like pargo, snapper and cabrilla.
Nevertheless, there’s an unusual number of dorado still hanging out if you can find the warm patches of water. I’ve even heard of an occasional wahoo or marlin getting hooked. Crazy that they are still around with the waters cooling off and turning greener. These are warm water fish and normally, we would have seen the last of them back in November.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 22-29, 2022
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
What a smile! Sue Cross from Santa Cruz has been waiting for awhile to come visit us again and she got right back into it with some fun on the dorado grounds and this nice bull! (Thanks again for the empanadas, Sue!)
Jim Bailey from San Diego on a first-time visit didn’t do so bad with the dorado at Bahia Muertos! Good day!
Good to have Adam Florence from Kansas back to visit us. He was out with Captain Pancho and hooked this sailfish on light tackle and a spinning reel outfit! Even moreso…they were able to release the fish which swam away strongly! Well done!
First day for Sal Pamiza from S. Carolina with our son-in-law from Hewitt TX, Brian Reid and a good start on the fishing week including a rare blue tiger dorado on the end of the table.
Brent Ritchie and Tom Brewer have some mahi meat on the table to have cleaned up for them!
Thanks, Chris Bedsaul for the awesome underwater dorado shot!
Captain Rogelio gives young Ryder Jensen a hand with his bull dorado to take a photo! Ryder had a couple of fun days with us.
Wayne Vanzandt and Mike Jennings rocked it for 3 days with the dorado producing some good quality fishing with Captain Victor.
Great new Tailhunter amigos, Julie Hansen with sons Marcus and Alex had fun with the mahi schools.
Nothing wrong tangling with some of our feisty bonito that will pull you outta your socks! Ryan Jensen with Captain Rogelio and another catch-and-release!
Some awesome sierra caught by Michelle Rahn and Sue Cross who had enough dorado from the first day and decided to fish for something else! Sierra are a sure sign that waters are cooling off. Delicious eating fish too!
Jim and Brenda Bovee with their favorite Captain Pancho.
The Haltons…Belle, Brian and Liz squeezed in one day of fishing and did well with dorado to take and have cooked up in town.
Mike with Captain Jorge and some good color on the deck!
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Straight up…fishing was pretty good…when we could go out.
About half the day this week were bumpy and rough and windy and probably would have been best to not fish, but folks still wanted to get out. One day the wind forecasts were so strong, the La Paz port captain shut down all boat traffic preventing anyone from going out.
One day our boats pretty much got blown off the water after a brave effort to catch fish. I think we had 8 pangas out that day. They came back with 4 fish total for all those fishermen. This is what it looked like at Bahia Muertos where we launch.
Normally, what it looks like:
This is what we got in the video below. This is why all the windsurfers come to the area and love the coming months so much. These winds will only get stronger as winter arrives.
It rarely happens, because normally during the season it’s so calm, but we actually had some folks get seasick this past week which is unfortunate.
But with growing frequency, the winds will be increasing and why we consider November to April to be our off-season and why so few fishermen are out on the waters. (It’s why all the windsurfers and kiteboarders descend on our area in the winter). Plus, it’s getting cooler and our captains and I were actually wearing sweatshirts in the mornings.
However, on the days we did fish, the dorado are still biting nicely. Decent 5-20 pound fish were the average with limits or near limits most days. The fish are eating live baits, dead baits, chunked bonito strips and trolled feathers. The fish can be found in numerous places and often, not that far off the beach or shoreline or as close as the rocks and cliffs.
We still have a few billfish also being hooked as well as plenty of bonito, some jack crevalle, snapper and cabrilla. However, cooler water fish like sierra, pompano, trevally and rainbow runners are starting to show up in the counts with more frequency. I even heard that some of the commercial pangeros hung some yellowtail off the south end of Cerralvo Island.
So, warm water fishing is transitioning to cooler water fishing and species and we’re pretty much seeing the last of our fishing groups for the year now that the season is changing, but also as the holidays approach. More snowbirds coming to town looking for sunshine and not so much interested in being on the water.
BOOKINGS FOR 2023 – 30 years in La Paz!
Dates for 2023 filling faaaaast!
We are just coming off another banner year right now and we were booked up 3-6 months in advance. We had to turn many folks away or many of you were not able to get your favorite captain or hotel. We don’t want to miss you or have you disappointed.
Reservations are coming in daily and many folks left La Paz and went home and gave us dates for 2023 already. Don’t wait! Really!
We are NOT going to be able to do as many shows as we normally do. With the price of gas, it’s impossible to drive for 3 months and go 10-15,000 miles of driving so we have to cut down on the shows. So, don’t wait until show season to get in touch with us.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay / Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 7-13, 2022
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Hugo Rafael from Santa Ana was with Captain Pancho from the Tailhunter Fleet in La Paz and really just wanted to catch some inshore pargo and cabrilla for some dinner when he hooked this massive bull dorado. He was using a dead sardine for the rockfish and only had 25 pound test line. He battled the fish for about 30 minutes before landing it and when they put it on a handscale, it weighed out at 26 kilos (57 pounds). Hugo is only about 5’3” tall! He never did catch any rockfish, but had plenty of meat for dinner.
This is what you call a good fun day. Denver amigo, Joe Hicks with sons, Marco ad Hudson. A box of dorado plus a striped marlin that they all got to pull on.
Rusty Cain has been visiting us for years and was not gonna pass the rod of during his 4 hour battle on 25 pound test with this trophy sailfish. His hand was still cramping and shaking when he posed for this photo. Alot of the meat was donated.
Our long-time San Diego amigos, Byron Shovlain and George Bonner with their favorite captain Arcangel (managing a rare smile!) and some of their yellowfin tuna.
I”ve been waiting almost 3 years for Billy Bates from Idaho to finally make it down after Covid and other things forced cancelations. He finally made it with his son, Royal from San Diego, and they started the vacation with a nice rack of dorado and a legit yellowfin tuna. Two thumbs-up!
Sweetiest folks from Oregon on their 4th visit to us. This is Mari and Chris Bedsaul showing off their first-day catch at Ensenada Muertos.
Kentucky in the house! Doug Dickerson fished with us early this year and had time for two quick days this past week so he brought his son down for two days on the water before heading to Sammy Hagar’s birthday in Cabo.
Carson City, Nevada is where John and Arla Washington live and it’s such a pleasure seeing them each year. Could not be more fun and they pose here with a fat tuna and some good mahi on the cutting table.
Friends since kingergarten, Walt Menda and Dave Wakabayashi have been visiting us for years until Covid hit in 2020, but finally came to see us.
Buddy Middaugh and Mike Gistlink teamed up for a nice table of mahi!
Alan Martz has visited us for several years now with his dad and brother. He’s got another dorado for the box!
There you go! Nice bull dorado for Angelo Oliverio, Captain Jorge and Joe Malone. Outside the photo, there’s also a nice bunch of dorado on the cleaning table.
Austin Texas visiting us with Mark Trutna and Jason Hurst on their visit with us at Tailhunter.
Good start for Marco, Joe and Hudson on a 3 day outing with us from Denver. They rocked it for 3 days on the water.
Captain Julio in the mask with Billy and Royal Bates after a day fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
We had Chris Girard from Washington for 14 days of great fun! He gives a thumbs-up on his catch of dorado plus a rainbow runner at the end of the table.
Gorgeous shot of Chris Bedsaul and his bull. Great colors.
Craig Shijo and smiling Walt Menda with a dorado hooked just outside of La Paz Bay.
Dale Martz has another dorado!
Joe and Angelo had some great days with Captain Jorge who has some fish cleaning to do!
Brad Baker needs a pink shirt like Captain Arcangel and Jim Adair. Some big dorado, but check out the nice pargo on the table too!
Fishing inshore in the rocks is a hoot! Mari Bedsaul with one of several cabrilla and pargo she caught.
What’s wrong with this picture of Joe Hicks? LOL. He didn’t realize until I saw this photo. Nice bull dorado!
Kenny (“K.C.”) Campbell one of the best guys ever, brings a bunch of his amigos to visit us each year. Mike Gistlink was on his first visit to us and they were out with Captain Armando.
Nice chunks of meat! Debbie and Chris Girard spent 14 days with us and were incredible fun the whole time!
Even with the full moon and some breezier conditions, still a nice solid week of fishing with a good mix of surface biters. Temporatures are definitely cooling and the seasons are changing a little sooner than normal, but it’s been that kind of strange year and we’re just happy the fish kept biting.
Once again, for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, dorado were the main attractions. Here and there one boat might have a slow days, but overall, it was limits or near limits for all our anglers. The dorado were more numerous for our La Paz anglers, but larger fish seemed to show up with our Las Arenas anglers. But, frankly, you just never knew what was coming back in the fish boxes. If you had a bait in the water, you might hit a ferocious school of 10-15 pound voracious juveniles willing to hit anything and fight each other for it or you might get that 25-40 pound trophy that you never expected and always seems to hit your lightest line and smallest reel! There were definitely some big fish lost.
Most of the fish were caught on live and dead sardines, but trolled feathers and hootchies also worked and many of the larger fish were caught on strips of fresh bloody bonito. Catching the bonito, in and of itself, provided plenty of action in between the dorado bites.
No wahoo to speak of in a year that has seen a dearth of the prized speedsters, but every day we’re still hanging some 20-30 pound yellowfin tuna south of Cerralvo Island. It’s usually an early bite before all the boat traffic shows up.
In addition, we’re having a pretty good bite on billfish. Most are un-intentional hook-ups when an angler is in the middle of a school of bonito or dorado, but we’ve hooked some nice sailfish, striped marlin and smaller blue marlin with most fish getting released.
Surprisingly, even though it’s not the season, some 5-20 pound roosterfish are biting along with sierra and rainbow runners!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Bahia Muertos/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 28-Oct. 5, 2022
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Another big-headed beast! Captain Pancho holds up the tail end of a huge bull dorado caught by Marlene Kikuchi!
Show me the meat! Good amigo, Dana Murray from Idaho, has a thumbs-up for 3 nice yellowfin tuna and a few dorado for the fillet table!
Honeymoon marlin for Terry Sandmeier and his wife Caroline with an assist from Captain Gerardo. The day before, Terry had a marlin on and it popped off. He want back the 2nd day and this time he rocked it. The fish was not able to be released. The Sandmeiers are from Colorado on their first visit to us in La Paz.
Yes! We finally found some tuna. Funny guys Nat Hargett and Steve Manney hung some nice yellowfin to go along with their dorado. The guys are from Washington and come visit us each year.
Paul Nagata has become a regular poster-boy over the years with all the great fish he has caught . Check out this pretty bull mahi! Paul is from San Francisco.
We finally got a visit from Stan Andre and Terry Hawk who fish with us each year until Covid got in the way two years ago then had to cancel again last year and earlier this year. However, they made up for it. They donated all of this dorado meat to the Captain Pancho and the pueblo.
First timer with us Ken Fritz battled this marlin on light tackle while fishing outside of La Paz Bay. He also put some dorado in the box as well. The marlin could not be released.
First timer who had never been to Mexico, Jim Gibson, was fun to have visit us. Nice day of dorado fishing on the sand at Balandra Bay.
Just a great photo that’s worth framing! Grant Nakagawa and Captain Armando with a legit bull.
Whoa!!! That’s some quality mahi. Wesley Peterson (middle) needs some assistance posing with his big bull dorado.
Jim Barlow from San Juan Capistrano with son-in-law Riley had 3 good days on the water like this one with a cleaning table full of dorado. Jim used to fish La Paz many years ago but hadn’t been down for years until giving us a try.
The hat-trick for Nat! A dorado…a tuna…and a marlin that he shared with his amigos. A good day!
Dale Ringer and Andy Hall pose with Captain Jorge and some of their dorado catch.
Double tuna. Double dorado! Terry and Stan…fishing buddies with us for many years.
First-timer from Oklahoma, John Grigsby had fun with his first time fishing for dorado . That’s Espiritu Santo Island in the background.
Big smiles for the honeymoon couple . Terry and Caroline Sandmeier took home alot of fish after spending a week with us scuba diving and fishing.
Ken Fritz with another bull for the fish box.
Les Bek from Oregon was with us for the first time this week and had some good fishing in the dorado schools.
Captain Armando with Dave Eady and Tom Fausnight after a day fishing out’ve Bahia Muertos.
Pete Walker from Washington got into the tuna that first day they showed up!
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Long story short…Dorado everywhere!
Although we nervously watched the approach of Hurricane Orlene, it veered off and went inland hundreds of miles to the south leaving us with excellent conditions all week and solid fishing with voracious dorado biting all week. Both our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet and Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet hit the mahi every day with easy limits most days and limits hit early that most of our anglers released more fish than they kept.
It seemed there were more but smaller 5-15 pound fish with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet scattered from San Juan de la Costa to Espiritu Santo Island to the channel between the islands. It can be a pick-pick all day to fill the fish box or BAM…hit the spot and it’s madness for an hour or pandemonium with fish everywhere like a trout pond hitting anything that hits the water.
That included sardines, strips of bonito, jigs and feathers and casting iron.
For our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, fewer, but bigger fish. Good amount of school-sized fish, but larger 25-50 pound bulls were also evident with some of the best big mahi fishing of the year. Many of our anglers caught their largest fish ever.
As well, we had a nice bite of marlin and sailfish with the bills often swimming and feeding in the middle of the dorado schools or, in some cases, feeding on the smaller dorado and bonito. Several “small” blue marlin in the 100-200 pound class were hooked and lost, but several striped marlin and sails were hooked, landed and released. There were a few long long battles on light tackle!
The big surprise was the show of tuna with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Fish up to 30 pounds hit baits for the first time all year! No idea if they’ll stick around, but it was alot of fun or a year when the tuna have been scarce. Mostly, it was an early quick bite south of Bahia Muertos. The fish would stick around until all the traffic showed but, but it has been a nice grade of fish.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Bahia Suenos Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 18-27, 2022
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…
Our amigo, Tim Larson, has been visiting us for years, but this past week landed his personal best largest dorado. Great shot and a pretty bull mahi!
Captain Alfredo gives Steve Ritz a hand with this big-headed bull. Steve has been with us for years and usually makes two trips a year. He tangled with this dorado on light tackle and fought it for over an hour! Steve is 86-years-young!
First day meat day! Brian Rubino and Mike Martins stacked the dorado on their first day of fishing big time!
Love this photo and this lady! Lisa Hicks from Washington has big smiles with her favorite Captain Victor out’ve Bahia Muertos. We’ve know Lisa for almost 20 years of visits to Tailhunter.
Oh yea! Josh Robert was just here about a month ago from Nashville. He had so much fun he came back and had his way with several big bull dorado like this one.
Two of our long-time favorite characters. Jess Franco from Prescott AZ and Mac Treasure from Reno NV. Both retired fire captains.
Oh my! No, Josh did not catch this. He’s just helping with the photo. Actually, Julia his wife, caught this beast on 30-pound test and battled it for over an hour. She refused to give up the rod even tho’ she said her hands were cramping and her arms were shaking! Well-done!
Captain Victor with Tim Larson and Paul Jordan with a good start to 3 days of fishing.
Vonnie McGonigal is the owner of the famous Vonnie’s Fishing Fleet in Sitka, Alaska. At the end of the season, she treats her crew and lodge workers to a big trip and this year brought them down to see us! Sandy Cromley works in the fish packing area of their lodge and the two ladies cranked out some fun dorado fishing!
Dan and Sammy Hicks! Sammy is 12 now and Dan has been fishing with us even before Sammy was born. Great fun family from Washington and one of our favorites. Lots of meat on the table!
It’s been a few years, but Patricia and Phil Andreason came to visit us after several postponed efforts because of Covid. They made up for lost time with Captain Armando.
The start of 3 days fishing for Grant and Julie Nakagawa who are always fun every year. They’ve already given dates for next year with their favorite Captain Armando.
Love this shot! Gerry Hermosillo from L.A. is feeling pretty powerful after his day of fishing! LOL
Two of our newest Tailhunter Tribe amigos…Bruce and Tanner Robert came down to celebrate Tanner becoming a dentist. Check out the size of Tanner’s bull! Whoa!!!
Captain Jorge with another of our new amigos! Terry Suminski came to visit from Sitka Alaska for some warm-water style fishing.
Our Utah amigos, Bick Lessor has been with us before, but brought first-timer Scott Bowes to come fish with Captain Gerardo. I have no idea how that little pompano ended up getting caught with this good mess o’ dorado!
Two more of our great retired firefighters, Jimmy Andrews and Gary Bowie with Captain Armando got a cleaning table full of dorado.
Fishing with their favorite Captain Pancho, Marlene and Taky Kikuchi hooked up on a good batch of dorado plus a tasty barred pargo.
Josh…with another big bull in the fish box! He had a banner trip on the dorado.
Jon Eide has been fishing with us for years from Minnesota, but never ever got a roosterfish until this past week! It’s even more remarkable since this is not usually roosterfish season! Jon released the fish post photo!
Jeff Sakuda has been with us about 20 years and loves fishing with Captain Jorge! Jeff is from Cypress CA and a retired pilot for United and comes down twice-a-year.
Captain Alfredo approves of Wade White’s dorado he caught just outside of La Paz Bay.
Lee Hazelquist with his first sailfish! The fish ate a live sardine and Lee battled it on light tackle. The fish could not be released.
Rapid City, S. Dakota is a long way from the ocean, but it was fun to have Dick and Lucy Mahlendorf come visit us for the first time. They sure took home alot of dorado fillets to share with neighbors!
Two of the best! On their 2nd visit this year, Steve Ritz and Larry Chastain. The got into a swarm of dorado by the looks of it with their favorite Captain Gerardo.
Two more of our newest Tailhunter amigos who were out with Captain Jorge, Vicky and Mark Sherwood from Washington had a good day on the dorado schools.
Pretty photo and great colors! Juli has another dorado!
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We had a little “tickle” of a storm that was supposed to pass through that had us all watching nervously as it bounced outside to the Pacific and didn’t affect us as we had feared like other storms these past few weeks.
But, other than that and a few cloudy days, it was a wonderfully boring week for weather finally with just super conditions and it left us with some terrifically solid fishing. In fact, it was one of the better fishing weeks of the season.
Not much variety to speak of, but that’s because the dorado were so numerous and voracious! They weren’t giving any other species a chance, but no one was complaining. Some boats were done by 9 or 10 a.m. with full limits of mahi and had released even more fish than they had caught.
The fish were generally legit 10-20 pound fish with some in to the 30 and 40 pound class. Many anglers laughingly complained that they had dorado all around them feeding “like a fish pond” and would see some big dorado on the perimeter, but the “smaller” fish were so aggressive that the big ones never had time to grab a bait.
Still, everyone had fun. Everyone who wanted dorado or had never caught a dorado got into fish!
We also have some decent billfish hook-ups on sailfish and marlin as well, this week with about 80% of the fis lost or released. One big blue marlin actually snapped the rod in half!
Other species included cabrilla, rainbow runners, triggerfish, snapper and lots of tough bonito!
BOOKING FOR 2023 STARTING TO FILL UP!
Just a heads-up that we’re already starting to fill up early for our 2023 fishing season! We’re getting reservations daily and we don’t want to miss you!
In order to accommodate growing tastes we’ve broadened our hotel offerings once again. Lots of different choices depending on where to stay…
OUR OLD FAVORITE LA CONCHA BEACH RESORT – ON THE BEACH ROOMS
HOTEL GAVIOTAS – WATERFRONT BAY VIEW CONDOS ON THE MALECON
HOTEL MORO – OLD STYLE MEXICAN OASIS ON THE MALECON
CASA AL MAR – BOUTIQUE CONDOS ON THE MALECON WATERFRONT
MARINE WATERFRONT HOTEL (Formerly Hotel Marina) – Modern Vacationing
COSTA BAJA RESORT COMPLEX- 5 STAR LUXURY ROOMS VILLAS CONDOS
RANCHO COSTA – BAHIA MUERTOS REMOTE LUXURY
Get in touch with us and we’ll customize a fishing package just for you! If you’re already part of the Tailhunter nation and you want specific rooms or your favorite captain, don’t wait. We’re booking fast!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug 25-Sept 1, 2022
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of THE STORY…
Jimmy Williams (right) was out on the north end of Cerralvo Island with his neighbor Derrek when they hit these pair of jurassic bull dorado! Jimmy was fishing a live cocinero and Derrek nailed his fish on a flyrod!
Captain Ramiro helps Doctor Angie with her first dorado. First time visitor and first time fishing. She took home a nice load of fish.
Really fun folks visiting us for the first time and spent a few days fishing with us while staying at Rancho Costa. John and Sally Jongsma started their trip with a nice pair of just inside Bahia Muertos.
Steve Fajardo from Havasu City AZ looks like a postcard holding his bull there in Bahia Muertos!
A rare shot of Captain Arcangel smiling while helping Corey Giles from Utah on the gaff and photo. Arkie has worked for us almost 30 years at Tailhunter and a great guy and captain, but rarely smiles when the camera comes out.
All the way from Michigan, Jason Brown holds a legit bull dorado while uncle Brian McClelland looks on.
Steve has doubles! Both caught fishing just outside of La Paz Bay.
Always smiling, Sue McClelland has visited us many times from Utah and always gets into some nice fish.
Bringing back a nice load of dorado meat! Peggy Fry and Corey Giles headed back to the beach.
New addition to our Tailhunter Tribe, Brian Devlin from Colorado, spent 3 days fishing the dorado with us.
Big beast bull dorado! Captain Armando helps pose it with Tricia and Gary Bondoc.
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BOOM – LAST MINUTE UPDATE! TROPICAL STORM XAVIER HITS US
Just as I was about to publish this week’s report, Tropical Storm Xavier hit us. Well…mostly it glanced off the Baja and headed west to sea, but enough of it so that today (Friday Sept 2) it’s now raining and winds are blowing up to 30 mph. Some areas have lost electricity. In the video you can hear car and building alarms that got set off by the storm.
The port captain has shut down all boat traffic in and out’ve the port so we regretfully had to cancel all fishing for our guests. Hope we can get back on the water soon!
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It took a long time for summer to reach us down here with summer-time fishing as La Niña kept waters cool and fishing unseasonable until almost mid-July. Then, things finally hit stride and the fishing has been solidly summer and conditions more normal with sunshine, blue waters and typical Baja humidity.
However, this past week, it almost seems like the seasons are already changing to fall conditions. It’s been sunny but cooler. Warm, but breezier. We’ve had afternoon tropical showers. In fact, this coming week, the weather predictions show chances of thunderstorms here and there almost every day. (See update above…”tropical showers” turned into major tropical storm!)
Afternoon rainshower blows across La Paz Bay.
Hopefully, things aren’t changing too fast because the fishing has been mostly very good, especially for dorado. That being said, we even hooked some “cold water” fish like sierra that we usually catch in the winter and pompano and trevally that we usually see in the cooler spring! We’ll have to see…
It wasn’t a fantastic week of fishing, but overall pretty good. Some good days. Some not so much.
The mahi have been 98% of the catch with fish in a wide area. You can pick up fish here and there all day or you can hit that one school and have dorado pandemonium for an hour until your bait is gone and the fish box is full of limits and exhausted fishermen say they’re too tired! Many of the fish have been school-sized 10-15 pounders. Many smaller fish are getting kicked back. A few 20-30 pounders in the mix with larger ones breaking off.
Not much else showing up in the counts, but I think alot of that has to do with folks are fishing for and having fun for the dorado. They’re great fun and abundant and it’s not complicated fishing. So, no one is really chasing roosters, marlin, tuna, wahoo or the inshore species. We have had a few marlin and wahoo hookups, but nothing landed and the bites were incidental. (The anglers were fishing for dorado!). The few times that folks fished the rocks, they hit pargo, cabrilla and even some pompano, but everyone really is chasing the dorado.
Tailhunter Fish Report 