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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 21-28, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dog tooth snapper, dorado, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, freediving, grouper, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, panga, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, robalo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra mackeral, snook, spearfishing, sportfishing packages, squid, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged amberjack, bahia de los muertos, bahia de los suenos, baja, billfish, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dog tooth snapper, dorado, east cape, el sargento, Espirito Santo Island, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing tips, fishing video, flyfishing, freediving, holidays, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, live bait, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra, spearfishing, sportfishing, tackle tips, tailhunter international, trips, tuna, vacations, wahoo, yellowtail on July 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It was a banner week for wahoo fishing this past week as we are in one of the best wahoo seasons in recent years. Kirk Rose and son Ben with Captain Armando just had one day of fishing to squeeze in with us and had never fished the area before and came up with the mega hat trick of three trophy wahoo fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet off Cerralvo Island

On vacation from college at St. John’s University in New York, Marcos Holguin had two days of double wahoo fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

Mike Figley spent the week with us fishing 4 days with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. This was his 2nd trip with us and I had just been telling him how strong tuna can be. He goes out the next day and tangles with this nice yellowfin that kept him bent for almost 90 minutes! He’s a believer now. He also got some great dorado fishing in! Mike’s from Arizona.

Jorge Romero, our La Paz amigo, only had 2 hours to get in some fishing so he jumped on one of our pangas and between 9 and 11 a.m. he put 3 nice bull dorado in the box fishing north of La Paz. He was trolling some small hoochies behind the boat because he left so late there was no more live bait left.

This trio had some fun! Tom Heaslet from Oregon along with Kathy and Darryl Pietak from the San Francisco Bay area, got 2 nice wahoo off Cerralvo Island. They also fished 2 days with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and plugged the panga with dorado each day.

Dan Fuller from Childress, Texas, had a great week with us for his first visit with Tailhunters. He got his first dorado. He got his biggest dorado. He got his first billfish! He’s here with big smiles…a big bull dorado…and Captain Rogelio from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

This might be my favorite photo of the week. Big smiles from Bob and his son Bo Heinke from the Los Angeles area showing off big bull dorado on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

Steve Holguin visits us each year but missed last year. He made up for it with two days of nice wahoo like this one from his first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

These two amigos had 4 of the best days fishing…they got dorado, sailfish, marlin and several other species. Rex Smith from Arizona and Mike Sontag from N. Carolina had not shortage of big bull dorado like these two on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos.

Group shot! Mike Figley, Bo Cullwell and Dane Fuller fished four days and on their fourth day had one of those wild banner dorado days that was a complete frenzy and will make for good story-telling filling 3 pangas with limits in short order and multiple hook-ups. They’re starting to unload one of the pangas here on the beach at Balandra Bay.

SLOW START PICKS UP STEAM AS FULL MOON RECEDES

La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report For Week of July 21-28, 2013

The week started slow…picked up some steam…then sort of evened out as the week went on. It took us a bit to recover from last week’s full moon with sporadic fishing, but some good catches of billfish for both our Tailhunter La Paz and Tailhunter Las Arenas fleets as well as some big dorado and even a few nice spots of 20-50 pound tuna that showed up north of La Paz. As with previous weeks, although there might not have been a lot of fish, the quality of the fish gave many of our anglers personal bests in terms of their biggest fish ever caught or, for many, their first billfish caught and released. It still wasn’t spectacular good fishing.

Then, the week suddenly turned on a switch and boom! We had dorado going nuts for our La Paz boats where it was virtually one-stop shopping once the spots were located and dorado came crashing to the pangas with multiple hook-ups and our captains plugging the pangas within an hour of frenzied fishing and tired anglers coming back with frayed lines and big smiles plus ice chests full of fillets!

As well, we had a big-time flurry of wahoo and billfish late in the week for our Las Arenas fleets as well with some of our pangas getting 1-3 wahoo hookups per day and just as many sailfish or marlin. Overall, the fishing for our La Paz fleet was better for sheer numbers while our Las Arenas fleet produced the trophy fish.

Some fishing suggestions if you’re headed down:

Bait has been hit or miss lately. We’re doing a little more trolling than we’re used to. Our folks are doing fine with what we have and use down here, in fact, most clients bring absolutely nothing with them. However, if you’re coming down and want to fine-tune things a bit, I would suggest:

Some small trolling feathers. Not many. Surely two…a light one and a dark one with at least 60-80 pound leader
Little plastic “hoochie” skirts have been on fire. We use them to sometimes catch bonito for bait, but the bigger dorado and tuna have really shown a liking for them the last two weeks
If the tuna are around, plain unpainted cedar plugs have resulted in some nice tuna catches as was as enticing some of the larger dorado and another plus is that the bonito don’t seem to like them
If wahoo are around or you want to chase them, Yo-Zuri Magnum lures or Rapala Magnum CD’s in black/purple or black/silver/white have been hot. If you can or know how or can get your tackle store to do it, wire them up and take the treble hooks off and replace with single Siwash hook
Hook sizes for the varying types of bait we are using…#1, 1/0, 3/0 and 5/0 hooks. Not circle hooks. “J” style hooks
Flurocarbon leader in 30, 40 and 60 pound test. No spectra

FISHING LICENSES

The Mexican government at CONAPESCA keeps telling us, “maybe in a few weeks” they will have printed fishing licenses again. I guess that will happen when it happens. However, for the foreseeable few weeks, the only way to get your fishing licenses to fish down here is to purchase them online before you come down. The government did not print enough licenses for the year for the whole of Mexico so until the situation is remedied, you must purchase fishing licenses online.

Here is the link:

https://www2.ebajacalifornia.gob.mx/Pesca/

Click the American flag and it will be in English
You want to purchase the fishing license for the “FEDERAL ZONE.”
Do not be alarmed at the price…it’s in pesos!!! So just divide by 11 or 12 and that’s the rate in dollars and it will show up on your credit card statement in dollars.
If it’s slow or doesn’t work at first, try again later. With this announcement, everyone in the whole of Mexico has to purchase their licenses online.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website:

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine CA 91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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

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

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 14-21, 2013

Posted in amberjack, Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, Baja, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, cabrilla, Cerralvo Island, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dog tooth snapper, dorado, fish, fish report, fishing, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, freediving, grouper, jonathan roldan, La Paz, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, panga, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, robalo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra mackeral, snook, spearfishing, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, tagged 88, amberjack, bahia de los muertos, bahia de los suenos, baja, bay of dreams, billfish, cabo san lucas, cabrilla, cerralvo Island, charters, dorado, el bajo, el sargento, Espirito Santo Island, fish, fishing, fishing guides, fishing reports, fishing techniques, fishing trips, fishing vacations, fishing video, flyfishing, free diving, holidays, jack crevalle, jonathan roldan, la paz, la paz hotels, La Ventana, Las Arenas, light tackle, light tackle fishing, marlin, Mexican, Mexico, outfitters, packages, panga, pargo, roosterfish, sailfish, sea of cortez, sierra, spearfishing, sportfishing, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin, yellowtail on July 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Nice way to start out a trip! All the way from North Carolina, Mike Sontag, visits us each year, but had an incredible week fishing with us starting right off the bat with several of these huge bull dorado that were all in the 40-50 pound class outside of Cerralvo Island.

Rex Smith has been an amigo of Tailhunters for years and has caught pretty much everything in our waters, but wahoo always eluded him until this past week when he put the wood to this nice ‘hoo off the south end of Cerralvo Island in the background. Rex is from Arizona.

Hard to find someone more fun than Alison Nagatani. It was a little rough out of Las Arenas their first day fishing but she was still got this nice bull dorado…her largest ever. Shortly after this, she accidentally fell in the water and came up laughing. She got her first billfish this week as well.

First-timer from Washington State, Colleen Russ, had a great week of fishing with big dorado and quite a few billfish like this one posed with Captain Victor from the Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. This one could not be revived and was donated. Colleen was just hoping to catch “one big fish” during the week!

From Delano CA, John Wessner was game. Even fishing with a recovering broken wrist, he did great on big dorado and billfish this week. He’s shown here with one he got north of La Paz fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

For weeks we’ve seen signs of big tuna off Cerralvo Island although hooking them has been difficult. David Vicino from Cancun MX, didn’t wait for the to come up…he went down and speared this big 180 pound yellowfin! Thanks to Tim Hatler, our amigo at Palapas Ventana for the photo. Yes…the beasts are there! For those of you not familiar with spearfishing in our waters, all of it is done by freediving…no tanks allowed. All breath-holding in whatever you can carry in your lungs!

On a well-deserved break from the Air Force, Pat Russ will be heading to officer’s candidate school when he gets back to Washington but he came down for 10 days of fishing and diving and poses with another colorful bull dorado and big grins!

Jess Escobedo from Los Angeles had never been salt-water fishing. He had never even taken a vacation in his whole life. So, it was great to have him visit Tailhunter this past week here in La Paz where he got his first dorado and billfish like this one caught near Espirito Santo Island. Check the video clip below of Jess fighting his first marlin!

Clarence Foster and his big hat pose with Allen Burgess and one of their big bulls on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. Both of our amigos are from Kansas and spent a week fishing with us.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

From our amigo, Charles Belnavis, who owns Kelp Fishing Clothing and Shogun Tatoo in Pasadena CA (he’s the best of the best for inking all of us up in the fishing industry!) http://shoguntattoo.com/

He shared this fun clip of himsel and Jess Escobedo (pictured above) getting lit up by a nice billfish! At one point, there’s a double hook-up going! Turn up the sound! This is some fun video and not very long!

BIG DORADO BILLFISH

TUNA HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-21, 2013

The week had some highs and lows, but overall, many more high spots than low spots with a solid week of fishing. We even had a little rain come in on us, but it was mostly just a little bump in the overall bite.

Again, it was a big of big fish mostly. It’s been like that the last few weeks. It’s almost like all the fish ate steroids or something. The dorado, especially for our Las Arenas fleet tended to be 30 pound line busters or bigger. It was not unusual to see fish on the beach that bottomed out our 50-pound scale! That fills up an ice chest really fast with a fillet from even a single fish. I had one panga go out and on it’s first day get 6 fish that were all around 50 pounds and they still had 3 more days to fish!

But, the size of some of these fish has been quite a story. However, the showing of billfish has also been remarkable. I’ve not seen this many marlin in our waters in many years. As one of our anglers this week said, “I had 4…5…6 billfish swimming around the boat all the time when I’m trying to catch dorado. It was really funny because we would move the boat away and they would either swim after us or would show up again! They were like pigeons waiting to be fed. My first day, I caught and released three and that was enough!”

Most of the billfish, whether marlin or sailfish, fortunately are being released by the anglers so that’s been very gratifying. Other times, the anglers go through great effort trying to revive tired fish and it’s only the rare billfish that’s being kept. Mostly because there was no other option.

However, one fish that is NOT getting released is the wahoo. Like the marlin, the wahoo bite has been far better than we have ever seen in years. The wahoo are mostly lurking on the usual high spots around Cerralvo Island and trolling early with big lures has been the most effective. The biggest hinderance can sometimes be that there’s far too much traffic out there with boats zig zagging all over the spots. But…ni modo…that’s just the way it is when the bite is hot…especially for wahoo! So, the earlier you get to the spots the better the chances!

Also, we got into several nice spots of yellowfin tuna again this week. Like last week, they popped up for a few days and went crazy then moved off, but we had spots of tuna pop up for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets which was a real welcome surprise. Nothing big, but fun 10-20 pound footballs are a hoot good time. We saw some bigger 100+ pound guys moving through the areas real fast as well, but no one could get on them, but we know they are there!

Our biggest problem has been the lack of sardines for bait. We’re going through one of those times again when sardines are hard to get. But, at least for us, we’re able to jig up larger baits like mackerel, cocineros, caballitos, zebra fish, mullet and ladyfish! That might also have something to do with why we’re getting mostly big fish! It takes a big fish to eat a big bait!

If you’re coming down, a few tips…

1. If you’re bringing stuff, this is one of the few times when I’d recommend bringing a few feathers. All you need are two. A dark one and a light-colored one Also, if the tuna are around, the plain wooden cedar plugs have been deadly and the bonito tend to leave them alone.

2. Bring a sabiki or lucky Joe rig with about a 4 oz torpedo sinker

3. I wouldn’t be out there fishing with anything less than 40 pound test, although, if you’re a light tackle fan like many of our anglers, at least use 40 pound test leader or higher