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Archive for the ‘triple tail’ Category

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Sept. 1-7, 2014

marlin mckenzie tags small 8-14

Scott McKenzie from Seattle WA and his sisters Jana and Lauren have fished with us many times for many years and caught all kinds of fish with us including marlin that they released. But this one was quite a story. While fishing with our Tailhunter fleet at Bahia de Los Muertos, they caught a few dorado the saw a marlin on the surface. They tossed a bait at it and the fish went off. Over three hours, the three of them battled the fish on a light rod and 40-pound test. However, during the first hour they almost had the fish to the boat and it was battling down and bulldogging without doing much jumping. Suddenly the big striper went ballistic as two killer whales started to chase it! During the balance of the battle, the fish stayed largely airborne trying to avoid the killer whales which circled the marlin and the panga adding quite a measure of excitement. They finally got the fish to the boat but were not able to revive it…but the marlin probable didn’t want to go back in the water anyway. The killer whales kept circling and finally swam off.

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The McKenzie marlin gets air as it’s being chased by the killer whales!

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Happy Birthday to me! Our good amigo, Mike Whitlow from Kennewick, WA came down to celebrate #50 with us. He’s a spectacular light tackle fisherman and pro bass guy too! He got himself this nice rooster on light tackle and did a great release after the photo! Feliz cumpleanos, amigo!

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Some images from Mike Whitlow’s 50th birthday party at Tailhunter Restaurant! Good time had by all! Thanks for sharing, Mike and Wendy!

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Darryl “Buffalo Soldier” Poindexter…one of the nicest and funnest guys on his first trip regretfully, only got to fish one day before the storm hit us ,but he made the most of it with a good day of dorado fishing like this nice bull he presses overhead!

NORBERT

It was FUGLY! Norbert eventually turned into a Cat 3 hurricane that by now has gone up the Baja coast and is dropping rain on the SW United States, but not before doing some pretty bad damage to Baja coastal areas. Gratefully, La Paz didn’t get hit too hard, but enough to put the clamp on fishing. Better to be safe and dry with a cold one.

HURRICANE PARTY!

When you can’t fish…fishermen very often…find other means of entertainment! Thanks to everyone this week, including Alex Trasvina and his boys who kept grinning even tho’ they had only one day to fish and had to cancel. They ended up at Tailhunter Restaurant watching football and raising their glasses! Salud, Fish Brothers! The “Tequila Bandito” says you rock!

Adam Florence 9-14 dorado small

This is another great story. Adam Florence all the way from Kansas was fishing with Captain Pancho. He went to Walmart here in La Paz and got a cheapo freshwater spinning rod with 8 lb. test. He got bit big time and this bull dorado was all he could handle almost spooling him. They had to chase it down with the boat!

Wade Ralston rooster 8-14 tags small

Great shot and super fish by Wade Ralston who visited us from Washington on his first trip down. Punta Perrico in the background right off the rocks. Wade is a light tackle guy and fishes bass tournaments professionally. He did a great catch-and-release on this pez gallo.

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Nick Petrilli and his son, Nick, Jr. had a banner day out’ve Las Arenas with Captain Pancho and a slammer of mahi.

Dave Sundgren Steve Rosebaugh dorado tags 9-14 small

Just after the storm, the waters started to get back to normal. Dave Sundgren and Steve Rosebaugh hold up a nice pair on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos!

 

GOOD FISHING SLAMMED BY STORM NORBERT

ALTHOUGH LA PAZ ESCAPES DAMAGE

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-7, 2014

It was a worrisome week on alot of levels.  The previous week had been one of the slowest weeks of fishing for the season for no apparent reason.  All the signs were there for good fishing, yet the fish just either didn’t show up or just weren’t ready to cooperate.  It wasn’t just slow, it was dead.

So, we jumped into this week not knowing what was going to happen. It was a tale of two completely different weeks…

EARLY IN THE WEEK

As it turned out, the fishing came back to life!  Maybe not full blast, but compared to the previous week, we were rocking with bent rods and good variety.  Both of our fleets…the Tailhunter fleet in Las Arenas and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets found dorado between 8 and 15 pounds on the average, but also some of the trophy bulls running 20-40 pounds.  Limits were not uncommon and it was good to see that some times there were so many fish that anglers were releasing them as fast as they could go or at least kicking back the small ones!  It’s been a few weeks since we had that kind of bite.  Moreso, we often had double…triple…and quadruple hookups!

Even better, for our Las Arenas fleet where it’s really been a struggle sometimes, we not only had dorado, but a surprising number of sailfish and marlin were hooked between 70 and 200 pounds.  Most were released, but really did a number for some of the guys using light tackle.

As well, rooster fish showed up again between 10 and 50 pounds and we even had a few wahoo hooked up although none made it back to the boats!  Add in some big bonito…jack crevalle…some pargo and snapper and it made for a pretty decent week of fishing.

During this whole time, we were all watching the weather…and watching…and watching.  Norbert started as a little blip…it got bigger and bigger…and went to tropical storm level.  But like so many other storms that have appeared on the horizon down south, the tracking for the storm showed it was going out to the Pacific and wouldn’t do more than drop a little rain on us.  We were sure that like all the other storms, it would continue to veer out and away from Baja.

It didn’t…

LATTER HALF OF THE WEEK

Tropical Storm Norbert became Hurricane Norbert and would eventually reach a category 3 ripper.  Although La Paz did not suffer extensive damage, in areas of Cabo and along the Pacific Coast, there was extensive flooding and damage.  Several thousand people had to be evacuated and over 1000 homes were damaged.  At the time of writing this, there was at least 1 fatality related to the storm.

For us in La Paz, the heavy wind and rain hit us just as we were launching in the early dark of Thursday morning.  Rain began to pelt and the winds began to howl.  And it got stronger.  We all went for cover and hunkered down. And hunkered down.

For three days pretty much everyone had to sit it out.    The roads to Las Arenas got flooded.  Mud everywhere.  While La Paz pretty much did not flood. there were intermittent bits of heavy wind…rain…drizzle…and more rain as the storm passed.  AND THE PORT WAS CLOSED!  So, we couldn’t even get out if we wanted to.  For safety measures, the port captain kept the port bottled up and prevented anyone from leaving until mid-morning Saturday.

It was really bad especially for some of our many anglers who never got to fish before having to go home.  Or only getting to fish 1 day or 2 days.  And, when they did get to fish, conditions weren’t the best.  If it wasn’t windy or wet, then the waters, even after the storm passed, were turned over green and muddy.  Hat’s off to so many guys who grinned and were patient and still kept smiling while we did our best to control things of which we had no control.  You guys and gals are the best!

It wasn’t until Sunday that we finally started to see some changes in the water and some better fishing action with dorado, billfish and pargo waking up.

This coming week, as you’re reading this looks like it might have some of the best weather we’ve seen in awhile.  Hopefully, it lets the fishing come ripping back!

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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 Aug 17-24, 2014

Taryn Mitoma dorado alfredo tags 8-14

We all remember what it was like to get our first fish! Captain Alfredo with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet laughs and helps young Taryn Mitoma from Livermore CA with a nice dorado. She got away with her dad for a few quick days with us and had some very good catches! This was her first time and she’s definitely “hooked.”

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Yup! Still got roosters around! Leif Dover from Atlanta GA makes several trips a year with us and always gets into big fish. Captain Rogelio looks on as Leif hoists a big rooster estimated at 60-70 pounds taken on live bait. The fish was released.

Ed mitoma marlin 8-14 tags small

First billfish and it’s HUGE for Dr. Ed Mitoma who was fishing north of La Paz when he hooked into this unusually large striper estimated at 170-200 pounds by Captain Alfredo.  Quite a few billfish were hooked this past week.

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Two of the larger dorado taken this week among so many larger fish that were lost! That’s why they are bigger fish! But George Kasee and Leif Dover pose with two big bulls.

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From Texas, Kevin Todd was fishing out’ve Las Arenas and got this unusual rainbow runner which is a cousin to yellowtail and makes great eating. Kevin couldn’t resist the photo with the cigar in the fish! Great shot!

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Coach Joey Fuschetti insists his ability to catch fish has something to do with his camouflage shirt so the fish can’t see him! He always does well fishing with us every year!

rooster tags small 8-14 George

Captain Jorge and George Kasee with another rooster caught and released off Las Arenas!

 

THREATS OF RAIN KEEP ANGLERS FISHING IN LA PAZ WATERS WITH DORADO ON THE CHEW

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 17-24, 2014

We spent the week dodging the “possibility” of thundershowers all week and it looks like as you read this, we’ll be doing the same thing this week as well. According to predictions, we ran anywhere from 10-80% chance of thundershowers all week.

Now, that didn’t always mean it actually dropped water on our heads.  Some of these never ever materialized other than some big fluffy clouds.  Sometimes they were little squalls.  On two days we had real gully washers and floods that lasted about an hour…then the sun came out.  Sometimes it rained in one part of the city but a few blocks away, they got nothing.

It really didn’t affect our fishing much other than we kept most of our anglers fishing with our La Paz fleet instead of taking the chance of fishing with our Las Arenas fleet which has areas that are much more exposed to wind and waves.  Especially the wind!  A little rain is no biggie but big winds…you might as well forget it.

As a matter of fact, the only day when fishing was really off was a day that south winds kicked up into double digits.

For the most part, however, even if the rains came, it was generally in the later afternoon after all the fishing was done.  That’s what it looks like again this week as several big storms hundreds of miles to the south of the Baja keep passing by out to sea, but spinning bits of rain cells our way.

LAS ARENAS

Because of the threat of thundershowers, we didn’t do much fishing in the area.  It was just easier to keep fishing out’ve La Paz instead where the anglers had a better shot at good weather and more chances to get into fish, even if the weather late in the day soured.

However, when we did fish, the fishing was OK.  We got into some TUNA!  Yes…there were some big boy tuna that showed up.  Several guys hooked into tuna estimated over 100 pounds, but all the fish broke off without ever seeing the fish.  The area was around the south point of Cerralvo Island.

As for other species, the fun-sized 10-15 pound dorado were usually pretty easy to catch as well as big bonito.  But the nice surprise were the number of hookups on sailfish and striped marlin.  Most fish either got loose or were broken off.

We also got several nice rooster fish along the beach in the 20-40 pound class.

LA PAZ

As mentioned above, this was our most consistent area to fish.  It was better to fish here than take a chance and end up in stormy weather further south.  And, for the most part, it was a good decision.

Decent to very good dorado action took center stage.  Lots of fish were lost so the counts weren’t as good as they could have been, but pangas still averaged some good counts of 5-20 pound fish with some larger in the 30 pound class.  Every day was different.  Every panga was different.  Some areas produced wide-open bites one day, but the same spot the next produced very little.  But if one spot wasn’t working, other spots took over.

Some nice rooster fish were caught and I was surprised at the size of some of the striped and blue marlin hooked and lost!

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

http://www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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 Aug. 10-17, 2014

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Another pretty solid week of dorado fishing with some really nice bulls taken including this sweet one that jumped a bait and bent Steve Dorsey’s rod fishing north of La Paz.

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Captain Adolfo poses with our Colorado amigo, Frank Kunze who fished with us all week and had a good shot of dorado including this nice bull he got on the flyrod after just missing a rooster on the fly. He’s on the beach here at Bahia de los Muertos.

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Ed Sakuda was on his first visit to fish Las Arenas and we think he’s “sold” on coming back with 3 days of dorado fishing. His sister Caryn and her husband Mark Aizawa from Pasadena CA get in the photo too!

Dan Llerena tags 8-14 small dorado

Daniel Llerena from Buena Park had never fished salt water before and his dad hadn’t fished in salt water in more than a decade! The two of them came down and got in two quick days of fishing with some great results! Dan was fishing with Captain Joel when he put the hurt on this mahi.

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Lee Carlson from the Denver Colorado area, spent 6 days on the water with us fishing with both our Tailhunter fleets and shows off one of his better bull dorado he got near Cerralvo Island.

Dan Hayler and his family all got together on one of our mega pangas for a day of fishing on the bay and had a nice day of action.  The family is from Upland CA.

Dan Hayler and his family all got together on one of our mega pangas for a day of fishing on the bay and had a nice day of action. The family is from Upland CA.

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Gino and his son Daniel Llerena got in two quick days of fishing and made the most of it with some nice dorado as well as this striped marlin on light tackle. Cerralvo Island in the background.

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Kelly Soo Hoo has fished with us before and did really well. This time she brought her son, Nick, for his first experience. Nice had a great time and got a variety of fish including these very tough jack crevalle!

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From Bankor, Pennsylvania, Rich Normyl had a full hand of mahi. Check out the storm clouds coming up behind him at Bahia de los Muertos!

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The whale sharks have returned to La Paz bay. Dan Hayler took this great photo of a “baby” whaleshark of only about 20 feet in the shallow bay water. They can grow to over 50 feet long and are true sharks, but are gentle and have no teeth and eat plankton.

This is what 15 minutes of rain produces on the La Paz waterfront right in front of our Tailhunter Restaurant Bar.

 

CRAZY WEATHER PACES FISH BITE

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug 10-17, 2014

 

Even with the week of “super moon” we still had a pretty decent week of fishing going on.  Even with the tropical thundershowers late in the week that were almost like baby hurricanes, the fish still bit.  But it was a bit of a challenge.  But, like I said, the fish still bit.

The super moon was beautiful over Baja waters, especially here in La Paz over the bay making it much like a postcard with the huge bright moon shimmering over the bay and the palm trees.

The big problem was more of these afternoon thunderstorms that crashed into us late in the day.  Fortunately, mostly after the fishing was done.  But something to watch.  Blue skies would darken quickly.  Incredible lightning storms would follow then almost simultaneously thunderclaps that would sound like they were right overhead.  During one 2 hour period during one storm, over 70 light night strikes were counted.  During another storm, a bolt hit a palm tree on the malecon waterfront area igniting it which then caused it to fall on the palapa roof of a popular bar.  The bar caught on fire then burned to the ground with huge flames 30 feet in the air.

Within minutes of the thunder and lightning the rains would cascade.  Huge rolling waves of sheer water flooded streets and turned many into rivers and lower areas and arroyos into raging category 2 or 3 cauldrons that would’ve been the envy of whitewater kayakers…except they were all brown mud!

Cars suddenly found themselves up to the doors in water and many stalled.  Neighborhoods found themselves turned into islands with people trapped in long rainy lines unable to leave the area and others in the opposite directions unable to return home.  Off the La Paz cliffs, mini-Yosemite-like waterfalls tumbled 20, 30 40 feet to the roads along with rocks and boulders.  In a one hour period during one storm, more than 3 inches of water descended on La Paz.

But, like I said as far as fishing, at least most of this was all taking place later in the day or evenings when the fishing was done.

LAS ARENAS

There was only one day during the week when we decided it wasn’t worth it to fish Las Arenas because of the stormy conditions.  The rest of the time, for the most part, Las Arenas was pretty much as good as it has been all year.  Relatively speaking.

We actually even had small sardines to use for bait and we had flyfishers hooking rooster fish, dorado, jack crevalle and bonito.

The dorado were 5-15 pounders with a few 20-30 pounders as well.  If a boat found the right spot, limits were pretty easy.  Roosterfish, while not as plentiful as earlier in the season were still around with most in the 10-30 pound class.  Bonito, jack crevalle and even some barred pargo gave us some variety.

LA PAZ

Our La Paz fishery has been the most consistent all year.  Some days are better than others, like anywhere else, but 9 out’ve 10 days, the fish are around and biting.  Even on that 10th day, I’m not sure what the issue is, but anglers and my captains will tell me…”The fish were all around.  We could see them or they would sniff the baits, but just wouldn’t take the baits!”

That was usually made up for on the other days of fishing when the dorado would be found in many areas from just inside the bait to the island and then around the point to El Rosario and Las Cruces.

Generally, the fish were 10-15 pounders although there were still persistent squirts in the 5 pound class around.  But, larger 20-30 pounders were not uncommon.  We also hooked some marlin and sailfish with most being released as well as some stray rooster fish that ran about 30 pounds near Espirito Santo Island.

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jill

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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 20-27, 2014

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This is the best mustache of the week! Don Slaiman and Captain Pancho from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet bust out the big smiles with two nice bull dorado on the beach.

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Chris Chang owns an organic nursery in Canada and had never fished in Mexico before, but fishing with Tailhunters got plenty of dorado and, on his last day, a huge 300 pound blue marlin north of La Paz that he fought on a Penn 6/0 reel with 60 pound test and put in the boat in only about an hour. The gut hooked fish inhaled the green and orange lure all the way down it’s gullet.  He was fishing with popular Captain Rogelio “Jolly Roger” Camacho.

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There’s a zillion good things going on in this photo of Tyler Emard from Fullerton CA. Fishing with Captain Rogelio from our Taihunter La Paz fleet, Tyler fought this dorado…his first and biggest…for 20 minutes on light tackle…no belt…all arms and shoulders! He’s headed to the University of Arizona in a few weeks! Great colors on this photo!

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The skies went from clear to this…as a wave or darkness hits the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. There had been absolutely nothing on the advisories or radar about this. That’s why they are called “toritos.” (little bulls). These storms come out of nowhere with thunder, lightning, wind and rain and it’s almost like a baby hurricane. Ominous. The pangas had to scramble back to the beach for cover.

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Seven minutes after the first photo, here’s what the beach looked like at Bahia de Los Muertos…a malestrom! Thirty minutes later, the sun was out…

 

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Las Arenas provided some good action this week for Tailhunter clients including Steve Holguin from Los Angeles and his son, Marcos who is attending college in New York as the pair show off a set of dorado standing on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos with Captain Jorge of the Tailhunter fleet.

susie waters dorado vert small tags 7-14

Susie Waters had never fished La Paz or ocean-fished before, but broke into it big time with a couple of days on the water with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. This is just a super photo of her hanging the fish all by herself with big smiles.

Linden Zach 7-14 dorado

Long Beach fishing veteran, Zach Linden, raced down for a last-minute trip this week and a couple of days of fishing. The fish gods smiled and Zach did some great action on ultralight tackle including this pair of La Paz dorado.

dorado Rebecca Kendrick 7-14 tags

Rebecca Kendrick got into the thick of the dorado action with this nice bull mahi fishing with Captain Alfredo and deckie Blas. She had always wanted to fish Mexico and salt water and had a great first experience with a number of nice fish over several days of fishing.

Pete Knapp tags small dorado 7-14

It’s got a little sand on the forehead, but a great photo of Peter Knapp and Captain Pancho on the beach at Las Arenas with this nice-sized bull.

grant stark dorado 7-14 tags

Grant Stark and Levi Fadoul put the wood to this thick bull dorado fishing north of La Paz last week. These two guys had too much fun all week. Always seemed to be cracking up!

 

UNPREDICTABLE EL NINO CONDITIONS AFFECT FISHING BUT DORADO DO THEIR BEST

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 20-27, 2014

With the exception of another of those surprise “torito” (little bull) storms that popped up on Thursday, it was a pretty good week of fishing for the most part.

This time of year, waters are extremely warm…actually, warmer than usual…as a result of the “el nino” situation.  This has given rise to rapidly forming storms that are not shown on weather advisories in the morning.  However, out of seemingly clear skies, huge thunderheads suddenly build and the skies grow dark within minutes.  Winds start whipping and wave emerge from calm seas turning the ocean into churning froth.  Wind-driven rain doesn’t fall so much as it shoots sideways from the gusts.  It’s time to get the heck off the water!

Several weeks ago, one of these storms turned into a huge waterspout between Cerralvo Island and El Sargento and Las Arenas.  We didn’t quite get that this week, but in the span of about 10 minutes clear skies went dark and the oceans got treacherous.  The pangas had barely been on the water, but found themselves racing back to the beach made more perilous by waves now pounding the sands where the pangas had to land.  Lighting strikes illuminated everyone scrambling around for shelter.  Cell phone and electrical power gets cut off.

As the rains hit and everyone hunkers down….that’s pretty much all you can do.  There’s a reason they call these “little bulls.”  Within an hour or two…sometimes in the span of minutes…it’s over.  The sun blazes back out.  The winds turn off.  The skies go clear and flat.  Except for puddles of water, there’s no trace.

And that’s what happened Thursday morning.

But, the rest of the week was pretty grand!

LAS ARENAS

Fishing definitely improved over the week before.  Again, dorado were center stage, but there were fewer punk 5 pound dorado and more respectable 10-20 pounders and all willing to charge pretty much water was in the water.  Some boats did better than others, but then the next day the boat that did poorly would be the big boy boat.  Consistently , ever panga we put on the water caught fish…or had opportunities to catch fish.  One of the big problems is that the baits we have tend to be large.  Hence, it takes longer than normal for the fish to really chomp the bait and get a hook down in their mouths.  Anxious anglers would often tell me they pulled the trigger too soon before the dorado could eat and they would lose the hook-set and half-a-bait would come flying back to the boat…sans dorado!

LA PAZ

Still our most consistent area.  Our La Paz boats rocked some really nice 20-40 pound fish this week as they have now since June.  The fish extend  right from La Paz Bay towards Espirito Santo Island then around the corner to about El Rosario/ Las Cruces where the larger bulls seem to have taken residence not too far from the beach.  Co-incidentally, that’s where large schools of baitfish have been seen.  We also got some roosterfish off the beaches.

The bigger news is the increased incidence of hookups with billfish including larger-than-normal sailfish and even some blue marlin.  I don’t remember seeing so many hookups on blue marlin as I have the past two or three weeks.  Most of the sails and marlin are getting released, but one fish that couldn’t be released was a hefty 300-pound blue.

WEATHER

El Nino effects keep coming.  Days can start out with bright brilliant sunshine but by afternoon, the clouds roll in and we get tropical storms that can be pretty crazy.  It can rain in one place and 100 yards away,  it’s bone dry! And the rain can last 5 minutes of an hour.  Then the sun comes blazing out.  But, there’s some predictions of more afternoon rain this week.

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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 Fishing Fleet for Week of July 13-20, 2014

dorado raul tags small 7-14

Our amigo, Raul Chollet, here in La Paz just recently started fishing only about 2 years ago and has the “fishing bug”  big time! He’s since gotten his first marlin, roosterfish, sierra and here, his biggest dorado. It was a slow day but they got a few and this nice dorado with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. That day, some boats did OK and others, like Raul’s , had a bit more trouble locating the bite.

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Jeanette Carroll from New Mexico with Captain Victor just south of Bahia de Los Muertos caught and released this hefty 40-45 pound roosterfish on a live bait. It was her biggest and “bigger than my husband’s rooster!”

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Phil Matteson was on his 2nd trip to La Paz this week and told me they had winter in Montana that was 40 degrees below zero! Weather was’t so great in La Paz this week either as we got clouds and wind, but at least it was a tad warmer than Montana. First day out, Phil nailed this big boy bull dorado with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

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John Kennedy, our amigo from Auburn CA, had to postpone his yearly trip earlier in the year for an injury, but came roaring back with a great week of fishing topped off his last day with this nice sailfish caught and released, as well as a box of dorado, pargo, cabrilla and triggerfish releasing many.

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Dick Carroll and his wife came to visit us again this year from New Mexico and couldn’t have been a more fun couple. Both of them got roosterfish with our Las Arenas fleet on the same day including this one that Dick quickly released.

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Mark Martis from Redondo Beach CA has been fishing with us at Tailhunter since the early days in the mid-90’s. Under grey skies he still put the wood to this nice big bull dorado near Espirto Santo Island.

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Air Dorado taking off! Great shot taken by Phil Matteson of a 40-pound bull dorado ripping off line and grabbing air. As anyone knows who has tried to take one of these shots, it’s a difficult shot to take. The dorado are moving up to 30 mph!

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Happy Gal! Becky Munos from Arizona on her first day fishing and first time to La Paz just could not get enough of the fishing and beaches of La Paz. Fishing just off the beach at La Ventana, she put this nice little bull in the box. They released or donated all the the fish they caught!

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Josh Matteson on his first time ever salt water fishing is from Cascade, Montana. His first cast, he nails a 40 pound dorado….among others. The next day he battles this nice striped marlin and released it after taking this great photo with Captain Pancho. They were fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

 

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He’s just about to “heave-ho” this roostefish over the side to release it, but a good fish just-the-same, for amigo Jack Young from Arizona on his first trip with Tailhunters. He had a good week of fishing with both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleet. The roosterfish was caught his first day just off El Sargento.

 

 

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Wayne Moss, has been my Canadian amigo for many many years and is a commercial pilot in the Maldive Islands. He’s also one of the better fishermen I know. I love the look on his face here wondering if this big bull dorado is gonna make one more attempt to get back in the water! Great colors. Nice fish!

 

 

DIFFICULT WEEK STILL HAD SOME GOOD HIGHLIGHTS

La   Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-20

 

 

It was a hard week to put my finger on.  With the exception of flyfishermen, everyone got fish, but where you fished and how you fished made a huge difference. If you took our advice and did what we or the captains told you to do, you got fish and there were some nice ones to be had!   Overall, I would have to say this week was slower.  Last week we had the huge full moon and fishing was much better.  Last week we had rainy weather and fishing was better.   This week the moon was better and the weather was generally better and fishing was a bit more complicated.

Here’s the breakdown:

LAS ARENAS

The week started OK.  We got some roosters.  There were small to medium dorado around.  There were some billfish, pargo and cabrilla.  Not spectacular fishing, but it was OK.  We even had bait.  But, as the week went on, we had some of the worst fishing we’ve seen all season with our Las Arenas fleet.

On the surface, I could say it was the lack of baits.  That includes ballyhoo, sardines and mackerel that we usually use for most of the gamefish.  But, the sabalo…the big ladyfish…that we use for the bigger roosters also got hard to find.  So, naturally, lack of bait had something to do with it.

Likewise, later in the week we had some tropical storm cells pass through.  This made for some rougher and windier waters.  It got choppy.  The skies were gray.  There were little flurries of rain here and there locally.  We almost had another water spout form up one afternoon near Cerralvo Island prompting the panga fleets to head for the beach.

So, all that would have or could have affected fishing.  I’ve seen similar situations where we had all those conditions and we still got fish.

But beyond that, there were some other variables as well which, contributed to the lack of scores on the fish.

Later in the week we had folks specifically going for “home run” fish.  Those are fish that you either get ‘em…or you don’t. Instead of going for “action” they went for the top-shelf bad boys.   They are trophy fish for a reason.  For instance, going for wahoo.  You either get-em..or you don’t.  You can be the king of, if nothing is there, then you have a good shot of not coming back with any fish at all because you have to concentrate on the wahoo.

Same for the rooster fish.  First, you have to spend the time trying to catch the better live bait…mullet or ladyfish.  That can take time.  If the baits aren’t there or are hard to come by…that’s a whole lot of time spent.  Then, actually chasing the roosters takes time as well.  Again, there’s alot of focus and energy on them.  If they aren’t there or not biting, then you stand a good chance of getting goose-egged.  That’s what happened quite often towards the end of the week.

Frustrated anglers who came back with nothing.  But that’s what happens when you swing for the fences!  I applaud the effort.  It’s awesome.  I like that kind of fishing myself.  But, sometimes the big hitters strike out.  Part of fishing.  Part of the game. You have to be ready for disappointment.  And there were some disappointed anglers this week. Who got no fish!

About the flyfishing…Frankly, it’s been tough.  I’ve been singing that tune all season.

  No one in Baja seems to have bait for chum for the flyfishermen.  This El Nino has not been good to the flyfishers.  Normally, we have sardines to toss out and get the fish going.  The sardines are non-existent.

We have larger baits…caballito and mackerel, but you can’t chum with that.

The flyfishers who have been coming down and willing to be flexible and do some conventional fishing are all getting fish.  Everyone is catching fish.  The ones who are strictly flyfishing are not doing well.  The operators here in La Paz that are strictly flyfishers have had a terrible year because they have no other avenues to catch fish.  They are strictly flyfishing.  I did have 4 guys who just left this morning that were strictly flyfishing.

  I kept offering to switch them to fish with my La Paz fleet where we are catching fish, but they insisted on staying with my Las Arenas fleet where they has been no bait…they caught pretty much zero fish for 3 days and left pretty frustrated and angry with us.  They could have switched to bait or at least fished with my La Paz fleet and done quite well…even had a shot on the flyrod, but they were stubborn.  I wish I could have gotten them some fish.  See below…we did find some roosters.  The bonito were huge and would have been awesome on the flyrod.  They could have gotten the dorado going on the bait then tossed a flyrod into the boils.   These were all good guys and experienced fishermen, but I was as frustrated as them.They left for Loreto where I hear it’s been tough as well, but I hope they do better.

I feel for all the flyfishers I’ve seen here this year…lots of them fishing with our competitors.  I meet alot of them at our restaurant and hear the stories.   That’s fishing this year.  As I said at the beginning…it depends on where you fish and how you fish.

LA PAZ

La Paz, while not as good as last week, was still very productive.  There were some slow spots…but everyone got fish every day.  Some of our pangas would do really well one day and others not so good, but the next day the panga that did poorly would find fish and the other would have a slower day.  But the dorado were very cooperative with fish in the 5-40 pound class and some HUGE 12-15 pound dynamite bonito that put some guys on light tackle on their knees!  As well, we had several marlin and sailfish hooked up and either lost or released…even a few rooster fish…plus some nice pargo and cabrilla.

The difference is that we had more live bait…caballitos and mackerel.  Still a bit big to chum, but the baits brought the fish to the boat.  You could even catch a bonito and then chop it up and use it for chum and then that would bring even more fish to the boat.

The one drawback with the larger caballito and mackerel is that they are well…large!  One big mistake is that anglers would think they had a hookup and swing to early.  There’s alot of smaller fish out there or larger fish that eat slowly!  Swinging too early and  the bait would literally get yanked out of the fish’s mouths or resulted in alot of short bites too where the gamefish only bit off the back half of the big bait.  We missed alot of fish that way.  Some of the more experienced anglers increased their hook-up to catch ratio by tying trailer/ trap hooks onto the main rig so that there would be a second hook dangling at the back-end of the baits.

But, overall, the La Paz fishing took care of everyone and got fish in the boat!

One of the nice thing about having our two fleets is that as Las Arenas fishing got slower or more frustrating, or the weather got more unpredictable, we could offer to have our folks fish with our La Paz fleet and get into the fish.  That made all the difference between big smiles or frowns!

WEATHER

Normally, this time of year, there’s not much to say about the weather.  The sun comes up.  The sun goes down.  It’s hot and sunny.  End of story.

However, this year, with El Nino, we’re seeing alot of variations.  Not only is the water warmer, but the tropical humidity and conditions are tangible.  The air is generally heavier and muggier.  We’re seeing afternoon tropical rain showers come through and sometimes drop considerable rain for a few minutes then move on and the ground steams dry.  We see electrical heat storms and lightning in the afternoons, evening and early morning hours when it’s still dark.   This is more like September and October weather.    Other days, there’s no rain, but it’s cloudy most days.  Almost like the “June gloom” seen along Southern California beaches where a marine layer moves in and everything is grey until the sun burns through in the afternoons.  Crazy.  That being said, it’s still 95-100 degrees every day with cooler evenings in the 70’s.

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 That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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 Sportfishing for Week of July 6-13, 2014

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That’s the way to do it! Our Captain Eddy Carballo helps 13-year-old Luke Fregoso from Agoura Hills with his biggest dorado. The 40-pound class bull was hooked north of La Paz and Luke fought it solo all the way to the boat. He also had a fish estimated at 50 pounds on for awhile.

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Yes! There was some crazy weather this past week. Here’s a shot taken from the beach of the giant waterspout that popped up in the channel between Cerralvo Island, La Ventana and Las Arenas. No one has ever seen one this big out there.

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Fortunately, this didn’t affect the fishing! But, it was pretty fascinating to watch!

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Sam Sybesma (right) and Landon Tilema (left) have a handful of bull dorado here on the beach at Balandra after another good day of fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

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Debbie White , our amiga from Tualatin OR, spends several weeks a year with husband, Don, with us in La Paz getting in some great fishing and always taking big fish like Debbie’s massively huge bull dorado here just outside of Bahia de los Muertos!

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Wayne Moss has been my friend for many years and an exellent fisherman. He is a commercial pilot in the Maldives but took a few days to visit us and got a nice catch-and-release roosterfish just outside of Las Arenas.

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Dick Carroll and his wife, Jeanette come to us from New Mexico and pose with a really nice Las Arenas bull dorado on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos.

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Norm and Dorothy Fulco have known me since I ran JNJ Fishing Tackle in Rosemead CA some 20 years ago! The usually come to visit in July for Dorothy’s birthday and like fishing with Captain Pancho.

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“Big Fish” Don White and an incredibly-colored blue bull dorado! Don is from Tualatin, Oregon near Portland.

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Rob is looking pretty serious here but had to be one of the funniest guys this week. He took a day to give pargo fishing a shot and, while they lost several large models to the rocks, did manage this smaller one to bring back and add to the box of dorado!

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Syd De Vries from Ripon CA and Captain Rogelio put another dorado in the boat. Yes, Rogelio is shorter than Syd! They were fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.

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Not as many whalesharks around these days, but there’s a few around. This “baby” 12 footer came up in the middle of the fishing boats to check out the action.

 

FULL MOON – TROPICAL RAINS – WATERSPOUTS AND DORADO!

La Paz  – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 6-13, 2014

 

It was another one of crazy weeks.   The fish were here but the weather was crazy funky.  We had afternoon tropical storms that brought some heavy thunderstorms at times and flooding.  The nutty thing was that it would rain for 10 minutes here…but not there…30 minutes in one area and 2 blocks away, it would be totally dry.  This is normally the kind of weather we get in the fall, but El Nino conditions seem to have changed the game a bit.  Thankfully, no hurricanes and no serious damage from the flooding, but out-of-the-blue mid-week, we actually had some pretty intense water-spouts show up between El Sargento, Las Arenas and Cerralvo Island.   They looked like water tornados like the kind that would pick up your house and send you off to the Land of Oz!  Incredible to watch.

Here’s what we saw this week:

LAS ARENAS

Our Tailhunter fleet at Las Arenas again found lots of action on the smaller school-sized dorado in the 5-8 pound range.  They are like little squirrels all over the place.  The larger models were harder to find, but the few we got were trophy 30-40 pound slugs.     Dorado made up 80% of our Las Arenas catch.

Other species included some marlin and sailfish and roosters along the beach.  Live bait continues to be problematic, but we’re still getting fish.  No wahoo this week, but that’s because no one was really fishing for them.  However, divers say the skinnies are still out by the island.

LA PAZ

La Paz fishing has been our “cooler-filler” action.  The dorado have been 10-40 pounds regularly with a number of fish in the great 15-20 pound category.  Lots of fun.  Plenty strong without destroying anyone!   I think the fact that we have move live bait in our La Paz area has made a difference.  In addition to the dorado we are getting hookups with striped marlin and sails as well.  We did some schools of roosters along the beaches and some of our guys that went after pargo and cabrilla got schooled on some big fish that took them to the rocks!

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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 Sportfishing for Week of June 22-29, 2014

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Long time amigo, Rick Kasper, went fishing with his son, Kasey and friend Mario from Texas and had a pretty good day with some nice dorado and a striped marlin they were unable to release after it swallowed the lure. Both marlin, sailfish and dorado were good bets this past week.

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From Arizona, Jolly Jaeger and husband Dwight came down this week and took some of the nice bull dorado that have been showing up recently.

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Johnny Enright brought grandson Dawson down for 3 days of fishing and show off a trophy dorado and some others on the rack. However, check out the big pompano also on the rack. It’s our first of the season!

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Every year, Don and Debbie White from Oregon come spend a few weeks with us and always catch fish! This particular day, they not only got dorado you see here, but also caught and released a blue marlin estimated at about 120 pounds.

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Three years ago when he was 9 years-old, Garrett Santana came down to fish with us and got into some nice dorado. He came to visit us again this past week and not only caught a mess of dorado, but also put the wood to this huge sailfish all by himself and refused any help! Captain Raul helps out. Nicely done, youngster!

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Rex Smith from Phoenix, Arizona has been visiting us for years. As usual, he caught lots of dorado, but over the years had never caught a pargo…until this past week! He took this tasty pargo mulato (barred pargo) fishing withour Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.

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Our wine-making friends from Yakima, Washington, Chuck and Claudia Fiola had fun with the dorado and fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet last week.

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Big smile from our Captain Victor as he hoists up Jolly Jaeger’s bull dorado. Check out the video below of her pulling in the fish. Well done!

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Our Captain Boli has a funny face for the camera, but it’s all smiles for Carson Vincent who had never gotten a dorado before and was brought down by dad to give it a go! Dad got some video of Carson pulling in the nice fish below. Check it out. Well done, Carson!

DORADO KEEP RODS BENT FOR THE WEEK RAIN ON THE WAY?

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 22-29, 2014

 

It wasn’t a bad week of fishing.  It was a “mixed” week of fishing.   Dorado surely did their part and kept everyone smiling, but things seemed to change from Las Arenas to La Paz and from day-to-day and indeed from one pangs-to-the-next!

TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS FLEET

We sort of re-bounded from last week when fishing was sluggish and all we had were some more of those pesky mosquito-size dorado everywhere.  It might have been a combination of lack of bait coupled with the fact that last week there were SOOOO many boats out there on the fishing grounds the fish just got lock jawed!

This week was much better.  The biggest news was a splash of tuna…yes 15-40 pound yellowfin tuna that made their first appearance off Cerralvo Island and several boats got into them.  Usually, these fish are moving too fast and no one can get into them, but we also had a school of 50 pounders that went crashing by some shocked fishermen at the north end of the island as well.  So, the fish are around and hopefully, we’ll see more of them because in subsequent days, our recon trips to look for the school went for nothing.

However, the dorado were surely more cooperative.  Some larger fish in the 20-40 pound class were taken, plus more billfish including some blue marlin we hooked and either lost or released.

Other species:  cabrilla, jack crevalle, bonito, pargo, pompano…we had several wahoo bite off, but no fish boated

TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET

Much better for quality and quantity this week for dorado.  Fish ran 10-40 pounds and limits were common with many fish lost and many released.  We do have live bait in the form of caballitos and mackerel, but a big error with the fishermen is not letting the dorado really chomp down on the baits and giving the dorado enough time to get the hooks in their mouths.  These dorado are so voracious that even small dorado will charge baits that areas big as them making you wonder how they even get an 8 inch bait into their little mouths.  But, they will hit it so you just have to be patient before pulling the trigger and setting the hooks.

The fish are around Espirito Santo Island and as close as right in La Paz Bay, but the larger fish are all the way around the corner around Las Cruces, El Rosario and Punta Gorda.  It takes while to get there, but it’s worth it and the fish can be as close as just a few yards off the beach in the calm protected waters near those areas.

We are also getting some good bites on sailfish and marlin as well in the same areas.

OTHER SPECIES:  Since everyone is concentrating on the blue water species like dorado, we’ve found some spots holding some BIG cabrilla and pargo that are willing to bite, but getting these beasts out’ve the rocks once you hook them is the trick and the fish usually wins!

WEATHER

Usually not much to say.  It’s sunny today.  It was sunny yesterday.  It will be sunny tomorrow. Water about 84 degrees. Nights about 72.  Yawn…

Seriously, it’s been a tad humid and in the mid 90’s, but this week the forecast is showing some afternoon thundershowers coming our way.  Very tropical.  I don’t think it will affect our fishermen very much and, as of the time of this writing, these are not hurricanes, but merely some rain cells moving our way.  We’ll keep an eye out!  Might actually be very refreshing!

 That’s our story!

combo signature 2-proc

Jonathan and Jill

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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 Fishing Fleet for Week of June 1-8, 2014

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All hail the “Wahoo King!” Mike Guest from Phoenix Arizona has been coming to fish with Tailhunters in La Paz for years and never got a wahoo despite great efforts. This past week after only two days he got three wahoo and lost two other, but did get this one huge beast estimated at 60-70 pounds near Cerralvo Island. Amigo, Esteban Romero, gives a hand!

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Cole Chavira from Solana Beach CA always smokes the fish here in La Paz since he was little kid. He’s now in high school and nothing changes. He put the wood to this big cabrilla on a deep jigged yo-yo iron!

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He came all the way from Lisbon, North Dakota, but Joe Nelson told us, “It’s been as cold as 30 degrees below zero back home” and he wanted some sunshine and his first rooster fish! He got both including this fat rooster off the rocks at Punta Perico with Captain Archangel of the Tailhunter fleet.

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Al Rodriguez has fished in La Paz and Baja but NEVER got a dorado so he really focused on one this past week. He did that…and MORE! Well done, Al. He nailed this nice bull just outside of La Paz Bay.

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Malibu in the house! Luke Appel dropped the hammer on this sweet amberjack off Isla Espirito Santo on a heavy jig north of La Paz.

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Captain Adolfo from the Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet helps Megan Kennedy from Washington with the smiles and a big roosterfish just off the rocks outside of Bahia de Los Muertos! The fish was released!

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Gabe Rodriguez was in town with his dad and to celebrate his 40th birthday doing some fishing. He and dad both got into the dorado with Captain Rogelio of our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Feliz cumpleanos!

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Happy Honeymoon! Pat Snyder from Orangevale CA said this fish “beat him up” for 30 minutes while fishing with Captain Armando. He was here on his first trip to La Paz and to celebrate his first week of marriage! Congrats to him and Kathy!

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A well-deserved “thumbs-up” from Captain Jorge to pose with Kevin Kennedy and his big roosterfish that he caught and released not too far off the little cliffs at Punta Perrico. Our amigo, Kevin, is from Washington.

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Colin Reed from San Diego with a speedy wahoo he caught off Cerralvo Island where the wahoo bite has been pretty steady for several weeks!

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Pretty good for a first day fishing and first time to La Paz for brothers Andew and Ian Vale Cruz from San Diego. They got a variety of fish including these two trophys. Andrew holds up a big dog-tooth snapper and Ian has his first wahoo. Captain Pancho fails the photo bomb!

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Everyone was in on the dorado bite including amiga, Nina Duc Le and son, Will, from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Over 3 days fishing they got marlin, dorado, bonito, and others!

 

THAT’S MORE LIKE IT!  FISH BITE!  RODS BEND!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 1-8, 2014

 

 

Good solid fishing this week for both of our Tailhunter Fleets for once.  Usually, either the La Paz fleet is doing better than our Las Arenas fleet or vice versa!

However, this week, I would have to say that for once, we had alot more consistency which made for some good catches and action for our anglers although here and there, some anemia still persisted.  Basically, some boats did better than others on a given day.  But, overall, everyone got fish.

For our Las Arenas anglers, the big news continues to be the wahoo bite around Cerralvo Island with some bruiser wahoo literally hammering the Yo-Zuri and especially the Rapala X-Rap lures which seem to be the season’s new-found “hot lure”.  Run ‘em deep and they get bit!

I gotta say, there’s gotta be some big time wahoo underwater because even with wire, some of the lures are still getting bit off.  And…get this…we’ve had some lures literally getting CRUSHED!  I mean, how often do you ever hear of a hard-bodied lure like a Rapala getting broken or even smashed by the teeth!  Or the treble hooks getting straightened out!  That’s a big mean fish that can do that!  We had several fish this week tickle the 50-pound mark and even one estimated at 70 pounds!

The other benefit of these deep running X-raps that can run 30’ down is that we’re actually getting some huge pargo on them!  (By the way, I am NOT a rep for Rapala!  Prior to this, I actually liked the Yo-Zuris better because the older metal-lipped Rapalas got “out of tune” too easily after a bonito slammed them.  But the new ones have acrylic lips that dive deep and don’t get all screwy!).

The other big star at Las Arenas has been the rooster fish.  Not as many “big fish” this week compared to other weeks when we had 50-90 pound roosters, but 30-45 pounders this week are nothing to sneeze at if you’ve ever gotten bent on one!  For many, this is an opportunity to finally get a rooster checked-off the bucket list and, also for many, they’ve never had a fish this big to contend with.  As one of our anglers told me later, “I don’t know what I was thinking asking for a 100-pound fish!  Prior to this, I had only caught a 40-pound salmon.  After 15 minutes on a 30 pound rooster, I was ready to pass off the rod to my friend and sit down with a beer!  These fish don’t give up!”

For dorado at Las Arenas there were polar opposites.  There’s a spot we’re starting to call the “nursery.”  There are so many 3 to 8 pound dorado there that you can hook a dozen quite easily and the flyfishers and light tackle anglers are having a blast.

Beyond that, there’s very little in between.  The dorado then jump up into the 25-30 pound class!  There’s a few out there and bigger ones as well.

For our La Paz fleet, dorado are the name of the game.  Limits or near limits of 15-40 pound fish are just inside La Paz Bay and some of our boats actually quit early and came back with anglers saying “no mas!”  Full fish boxes and ice chests after a few hours fishing were not uncommon.  Other anglers not doing as well, still had opportunities with quite a few fish lost to either inexperience or simply tough luck…but still plenty of action!

On a final note…alot more marlin and sailfish hooks ups this week with more billfish entering th area.  By my count, our two fleets hooked perhaps a dozen billfish of varying sizes including one blue marlin and the rest being 100 pound stripers and sailfish.  One fish brought in and the others either got un-bottoned or released.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

combo signature 2-proc

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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 Sportfishing for Week of April 27-May 4, 2014

Tom Worley cabrilla grande tags smalll 4-14-proc

Not bad for a first time out with us! From Evergreen, Colorado, Tom Worley pulled this trophy pig cabrilla (Mexican seabass) out’ve the rocks near Cerralvo Island. He was working a live bait early in the week.

wahoo esteban tags 4-14 small

Many of you know Esteban Romero, one of our favorite amigos and who drives for us. Even he got into the wahoo action with this speedster while trolling a Rapala outside of Bahia de Los Muertos near Cerralvo Island.

dorado wahoo small pettit group McKell Condie 4-14

Another first-timer with us had an incredible two days of fishing getting and releasing his first roosterfish of about 40 pounds then sticking a wahoo and a dorado for the grand slam. McKell Condie was visiting us from Utah. Oh…and he also jumped in the water to swim with a whaleshark too!

Jorge dorado small tags  4-14

Big smile and a two-handed batch of dorado for everyone’s amigo, Jorge Romero, who also took some time this week to check out the fishing. He got a total of 4 dorado for the day.

taylor murphey dorado tags small 4-14

Always with a good day of fishing, Taylor Murphey, from Lakewood CA poses with a fresh colorful dorado she took fishing with grandpa Roger Thompson who kindly sent us the photo. That’s the beach near Muertos Bay in the background.

wahoo ken huskey tags small 4-14

Palm Springs in the house with his first wahoo…Ken Huskey photos-up with Captain Archangel on the beach with Ken’s wahoo. He also got a number of dorado as well.

Sy Thomas rooster tags 4-14

First rooster for Sy Thomas with Captain Victor posing behind him. This nice fish was caught and released just off the sand near the Las Arenas lighthouse. Check out the video below!  Just click the “start” arrow.  Thanks to Rick Kasper for the voice-over and video work!

 

nagata tags dorado small 4-14

Amigo, Paul Nagata, from San Francisco, usually visits us several times a year and got away this week for a quick few days with his favorite captain Jorge. This particular day, Paul jumped all over the dorado, but the previous day he hooked a massive wahoo that straightened the hook near the south-end of Cerralvo Island.

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These two guys cracked me up! Left is Bob Martz and on the right is Jordan McMasters from Victoria, Canada. They show off a few of their dorado on the beach, but Jordan also caught and released a 50 pound roosterfish.

wahoo carlos westerman tags small 4-14

From Mexico City, Carlos Westerman was able to get out one day with us at La Arenas and our Captain Archangel. The action wasn’t great, but he made the most of it and took this nice-sized wahoo and dorado.

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Captain Victor from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet isn’t short! Angler, Jay is just tall and Victor gives him a hand taking a photo of one of their bull dorado.

 

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Don Henderson from Idaho grips his wahoo near the water’s edge at Bahia de Los Muertos. Taken near Cerralvo Island. Don got a batch of dorado as well.

FRUSTRATING FISHING BUT SOME NICE HIGHLIGHTS ON A TOUGH WEEK

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 27-May 4, 2014

It was somewhat of a frustrating week of fishing.  It started well.  It ended fairly well.  But in between, it was a bit rugged.

We had some promise going into the week but then strong winds and some really high tidal surges and waves seemed to have not only stirred up the waters, but also chased away the bits of live bait spots we had as well as brought up cooler waters and some rougher waves.  Not exactly the best conditions or situations for fishing.  Just being honest.

There were some highlights, however.  What we lacked in quantity and action we tended to make up for it in some nice quality fishing.  There were some good-sized rooster fish taken that ran 30-60 pounds and some larger ones broken off.  All of them released.

There were also some larger dorado in the area as well that helped out as well.  Some of the pangas got limits or near limits some days.  Not everyone, but several boats a day would do well.  It just depended on the the spot as well as the luck and skill of the anglers.

But, truth be told, there were days this week when boats came back with nothing…either because of simple bad luck or losing fish or choosing to chase a fish that was “hot”one day, but cooled off the next.   I especially felt badly for a pair of flyfishing anglers we had that fished hard and hardcore like troopers for the entire week and pretty much came up goose-egged.  It wasn’t a good week for flyfishing…and tough for the conventional fishing as well.  Despite some nice catches, it might have been one of the more frustrating weeks of the young season.

The highlight would had to have been the wahoo that went on the bite again.  Every day, we took a few and lost even more to the speedy toothy fish.  But, for many of our anglers, it was their first wahoo with some decent 20-35 pound ‘hoos brought into the boat.  South end of Cerralvo Island was our hot spot trolling Rapala and YoZuri lures.

 

 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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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 Repor from Tailhunter International Fleet for Week of April 13-20, 2014

BLOOD MOON 2014

Hope you got to see it! It was pretty amazing to watch the moon go dark…then go red! It was already a HUGE full moon this week ,but extremely amazing to watch the “BLOOD MOON” eclipse! Unfortunately, combined with other factors, it might have had an affect on the fishing this past week…dangit.

 

yellowtail peter koschnitzke small tags 4-14

Captain Boli from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet helps out young Peter Koschnitzke from snowy Colorado who earned himself a cigar and a beer from dad for nailing this slugger-sized yellowtail near Espirito Santo Island. I was told it tasted great with manga salsa!

 

Pargo Tim Butterworth tags 4-14

Pargo were a good bet this week, but putting these tough good-eaters in the boat required some luck and skill as some of our anglers will tell you as they head straight back into the rockpiles! Tim Butterworth hung this fat hog north of La Paz on live bait.

striper in water tags 4-14

With the warmer waters, we’re already seeing some billfish around Cerralvo Island and Las Arenas. Nothing full turbo yet, by any means, but promising! This hundred-pounder was hooked and released out by the buoys east of Bahia de los Muertos.

 

terrafin 4-20-14

The latest satellite shot from http://www.terrafin.com shows the heavy bodies of warm water around Cerralvo Island while cooler waters still hold north of La Paz city.

BLOOD MOON WHAMMY?  TOUGH WEEK OF FISHING

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 13-20, 2014

 

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Easter week and weekend!

Well…

Not the best of weeks down here.  Kinda wacky actually.

It’s really hard to put a finger on what happened.  It was sort of a convergence of a lot of things that could have affected the fishing…a variable here and a variable there could have made the difference.

But, fishing was really down! It doesn’t happen often.  The track record here…like any other fishing destination that has a reputation…is that sure…you get the down day now and again.  But it usually bounces back pretty fast.

Well, this week we had several days that were either bad or at best…ho-hum…

But, here’s how the planets lined up that could have made a difference.  Any single one or two of these items usually makes no difference, but perhaps all of them converging at the same time?  I dunno.  Take a look.  All I know is that fishing was off.

1.  Stronger than normal winds…even for this time of year when it can get breezy.  This week we had some white-cap days!

2.  Waters got a little cooler…not warmer as has been the trend.  Maybe caused by the stronger winds!  Fish get lock-jawed when water temps change drastically…especially for the cooler.

3.  Strong winds make it harder to get bait as the shallow areas where we get bait are spanked with waves and the bait scatters or we can’t get up close to the rocks to throw nets.

4.  Combination of #2 and #1 meant clouded green and off-color waters…again affecting fish activity and feeding

5.  THE MOON!  I hardly ever blame things on a full-moon, but in combination with the other factors PLUS it was not only full, but did you see the RED MOON ECLIPSE???  The moon was not only larger than normal, but it eclipsed to dark…then went almost dirty red!  Here in La Paz everyone was out taking photos with their cell phones in the dark. It was pretty funny to see “photos flashes” going off!  (Oh sure…that flash reaches up to the moon!).  But, maybe…just maybe the fish freaked out too!

Anyway, by the time you’re reading this, the full moon will have waned and hopefully the rest of these things will have settled back to normal. Either way, a weird week.

That being said, it was still sunny most days…although we had some weird cloudy days when I thought it would rain.  But day temps are usually in the high 80’s to low 90’s and pretty pleasant.

And, we still managed a few fish here and there.  For our La Paz anglers, yellowtail up to about 30 pounds were found around Espirito Santo Island as well as some sizable barred pargo and some dorado in the 20 pound class.

For our Las Arenas anglers, it was picky.  Some dorado up to about 15 pounds.  Some big bonito.  Some snapper and pargo and a few rooster fish (released) plus some sierra along the beaches.

Still better than working, but the fishing honestly could have been better and hopefully is back on track by the time you’re reading this!

SPOTS STILL OPEN FOR JUNE “SUMMER PANGA SLAM” WITH TAILHUNTER and WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWS

dorado Lily Chung 8-13 tags

We still have a few spots open for our 2013 Western Outdoor News/ Tailhunter Sportfishing PANGA SLAM!

The dates are June 17-21 and promises to be great fun, and it’s really GROWING!  It was going to be a fun low-key tournament and fun get-together, but word got out!  Now, it’s gotten some legs and it’s gonna be a special blast!

  • Sponsors aboard now include:  Okuma Reels, Costa Sunglasses, Yo-Zuri, Sufix, Turners Outdoors and Lazer Trokar Hooks!
  • Three full days of panga fishing at Las Arenas  (gear, breakfast and lunches included) 
  • 4 nights La Concha Beach Resort in ocean-facing room
  • Welcome dinner and Awards Dinner
  • Taco feed night and live music at famous Tailhunter Restaurant
  • Two days jackpot tournament (cash entry $100 in La Paz per team) 
  • Event t-shirts
  • Cabo San Lucas Airport Shuttles 

 

Additionally,  Tailhunter Sportfishing is now an IGFA weigh center with certified scales and will also have the new release measuring devices for the new IGFA “release categories.”  As members of the Roosterfish Foundation, we will also have devices to tag and release roosterfish in the first sanctioned roosterfish release event of it’s kind and a great opportunity to posssibly get a world record in an area that has produced arguably more world records than few other places in the fishing world.  IGFA record holder, representative, author and journalist, Gary Graham, will also be on hand.

We are limiting this to just 40 persons on 20 panga “teams.”  Couples are welcome!  Cost is $1350 per person!  For more info, contact Mike Flynn at Western Outdoor News at Flynn@wonews.com or call him at 949-366-0030 extension 30.  Or Western Outdoor News Editor, Pat McDonell at 949-366-0030 extension 33 or pat@wonews.com.

Gonna be a real kick!

That’s our story!  Happy Easter to you and your family!

combo signature 2-proc

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

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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