Tailhunter Fish Report

PHOTO 1: Now THIS is a BEAST!!! Dan Ferialdi from Pasadena pulled this bad boy off one of the many buoys off Las Arenas. He hit the honey hole as the buoy produced several huge dorado including this one that bottomed out a 50 pound scale! Take a look at the head of this bull dorado and the fact that Dan is about 5’9″ and the tail of this thing is still on the deck!

DORADO AND MARLIN SET THE PACE STILL TRYING TO GET IN GEAR WITH MORE TUNA STARTING TO POP UP!

LA PAZ- LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR JULY 22, 2007

PHOTO 2: This is a great shot for many many reasons. Bill Albright was an avid fisherman until 21 years ago when he ended up in a wheelchair. He had not been fishing since then. With the help of his family…We got him into a panga and on the water at Las Arenas with Captain Jorge and he got himself this nice bull dorado as well as some others and a pompano. The smile says it all. We were all pulling and glad he got to pull again too on some fish! Bill is a great guy being very patient with all of us. He’s out on the water again as I type this!

PHOTO 3: Jessie Pfost is 19 and just finished her first year of college and stands here with Captain Joel, one of our favorite guys. She was out for a few hours in rough conditions and got a handful of dorado although we had to work up to getting her to touch the bait! We’re working on it and she’s a great sport.

PHOTO 4: Now here’s a nice handfull of mahi mahi! Randy Darnell has 5 bull dorado he and his partner caught fishing this week on the La Paz side. The bite was anemic at times as we got more winds, but you could go all day and not find a thing then hit one spot in the last 15 minutes and all heck breaks loose! The thing to do is keep at it and keep a line in the water. As I tell guys, you are only 1 bait away from turning a good day into an awesome day and if you don’t have a rod in the water you’re DEFINITELY not going to catch a fish unless one jumps in the boat!

PHOTO 5: Pete Mason holds up a regulation keeper dorado. This is the kind of schoolie we’re getting right now…or should be! Conditions are still a few weeks behind schedule of where they should be as far as weather and water. Hence, the fish are also a little late as well, but we’re seeing a more consistent bite weekly on the nicer grade of dorado like this one held by Pete.

PHOTO 6: Roger Smith and Ralph Crayton from Los Angeles were fun to have around. They’re holding a few of their Las Arenas dorado here. The dorado are eating the sardines as well as feathers very well. The key is NOT to lose any fish! If you bust off that first fish, it will often take the rest of the school with it and you’re gonna be bummed as that might be your ONLYchance to get into the school so having your “A” game together doesn’t hurt!

PHOTO 7: Now here’s an interesting shot! Look closely. That’s my amigo, Bob Horton, maker of Toad Tamer Rods in Palm Springs CA holding the 80 pound rooster. Up front is my other good amigo, Rabbi Shelly Donnel who makes his residence in Israel these days! If you look closely at the mouth of the roosterfish and in front of the skipper’s face, you will see a huge fin and back end of a snapper. That’s about a 5 pound snapper! The darned fish inhaled the huge snapper and basically kinda choked on it while Bob fished it mightily. Talk about jamming the whole meal in your mouth!!!

THE FISHING REPORT

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PHOTO 1: “BIRTHDAY JACK!” Now THIS is a fish. This is an amberjack (pez fuerte). It was Wes Howard’s birthday and he said he wanted a BIG fish! Well…imagine this toad of a fish! Wes got it at the south end of Cerralvo Island fishing with Captain Ramiro. It was over 100 pounds because it was put on a 100 pound scale and bottomed out the scale! Wes is 6’2″ and weighs 340 pounds and this fish STILL looks HUGE!!!
PHOTO 2: MORE BIRTHDAY JACK! Here’s the rest of the story. This bad boy bit a sardine on a little 1/0 hook and Wes fought it out of the rocks for 2 1/2 hours on 25 pound test!!! Quite an accomplishment. After this, Wes didn’t want to fish another day. He also got dorado and rock fish as well. Great birthday fish!

DORADO FINALLY KICK IT UP A NOTCH WITH MARLIN STILL MILLING ABOUT!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for July 15, 2007

PHOTO 3: Las Arenas started kicking out more of the “right kind” of dorado this past week. Here’s a slugger bull dorado being held by “Pirate” Ed Santillan of Mira Loma CA. Punta Coyote is in the background. These bulls were sometimes freeswimmers but other times, you hopped from buoy to buoy hoping to hit the right one. You could hit 10 and find nothing or hit the right one and watch the waters explode with fish fighting to get to your bait!

PHOTO 5: These were some of the funniest guys we’ve had in a long time. Great times whenever they’re around. Here, Albert Salazar, Mike Sergiuff, Oscar Howard and Gerry Burford strike a dorado pose for us. All the guys are from the San Gabriel Valley area near Los Angeles.

PHOTO 6: Ricky Fraysure from Palmdale CA has one of the best eating fish around right now. He’s holding a big African pompano. These fishe are just about 30 yards off the beach in front of the Arenas light house and have a propensity to eat a sardine with a small weight atached. This fish is huge. Ricks a big guy and this thing is the size of an XL pizza plate that feeds 10 people.

PHOTO 7 : It’s been a great week for striped marlin around here. Multiple hook ups and multiple sightings every day. Somedays they won’t eat and others…they almost attack the boat. More than once this past week, anglers told me they were hooked up to one or two only to have others circling the boat at the same time! Most are fortunately being released.

PHOTO 8: Bob Gonzalez (right) came down this week and told me, “I just really want to catch at least ONE dorado! I’ve never caught one. If I catch just one, it will make my trip!” Well, he got more than just one. He put quite a few fillets in the ice chest. Norm Schickling shares the Kodak moment with a couple of excellent bull mahi.

PHOTO 9 : Sometimes the rookies do the best! Bill Johnson from Running Springs CA (left) and Steve Robles (right) openly told everyone, “We don’t know what the heck we’re doing! We’ll be happy to catch needlefish!” Well, on their first day each of them spent 45 minutes on each of these nice bulls in a double-hook up. “I was so tired! Crazy fish kept going round and round the boat!” said Steve. Captain Francisco stands front and center.

PHOTO 9: This is Jerry Mason’s lure showing what teeth can do to a purple Rapala! These are the big Rapalas’ I’ve been telling you to bring down for months! Jerry said it took one wahoo, but two big amberjack. This is the lure you want to keep! The more scars the better! If it’s not broke…don’t fix it!!!

PHOTO 10: Everyone asks, “What’s an amberjack?” and “What does it taste like?” Well, if you like yellowtail as a sportfish or as eating fish or you enjoy yellowtail (hamachi) at your favorite sushi restaurant…that’s AMBERJACK! The Mexicans call it “Pez Fuerte” (the strong fish) and these bronze bulldozers run from 5 to over 100 pounds and are the big cousins to yellowtail. The meat is fuller and more flavorful as it eats a variety of foods including…well, just about anything it wants like clams, mussels, crabs, lobsters, other fish….so the meat reflects all these great flavors. Dorothy Danielson of Palmdale CA put the hurt to this big boy. Captain Jaibo looks on. Dorothy got this amber off the islands. Amberjack have been a great surprise these past few weeks.

PHOTO 11: Steve Artis was one of our first guys to sign up his reservations this year. He and his amigos really worked hard at their fishing and hung tough. Steve came from Antioch CA and holds the kind of bull dorado we’ve been known for, but have been elusive until recently as waters finally started to warm. Las Arenas waters are a good 5 degrees warmer than the waters north of La Paz which only finally turned blue.

PHOTO 12: Two sea turtles doing the “wild thing.” Absolutely no privacy these days! Unfortunately, on the darker side, these guys are endangered and even possessing a single turtle egg can result in a year in a Mexican jail. But that does not stop folks from killing and selling both the turtles and their eggs which are considered a delicacy. Turtles just doing their onw thing on the surface are especially vulnerable. The only think taken were some great photos.

PHOTO 13: Abolutely no reason for this photo other than it’s another “day at the office” and a beautiful Sea of Cortez sunrise to be thankful for with friends and family and a promising day of fishing.

PHOTO 14: Bob Ames from Texas was on his first trip with us here to La Paz and had his hands full with this jack crevalle or “toro” (bull) as the Mexicans call it for it’s feistyness. They don’t taste good, but they make up for it in brute fishing strength. Famous Captain Jorge smiles from behind.

PHOTO 15: This is Harriet. She’s with Bob, above! She’s from Texas too and Jorge is helping here with another of these great jack crevalle. Schools of these jacks up to 30 pounds have been rampaging in front of the Las Arenas beaches especially near the old lighthouse.

THE FISH REPORT

Fishing definitely got better this week as waters warmed and we lost some of the green currents that hurt us for several weeks. Lots of marlin in the area and it was not uncommon for the pangas to get multiple strikes although at times numerous marlin simply teased the boat and swam away. Dorado were biting better for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleet. It’s still behind the curve of what we normally see, but there was a marked increase as the week went on. Lots of wahool still swimming around the S.end of Cerralvo Island, but sometimes that’s all they did was swim and not bite! Pargo, cabrila, amberjack and roosters still offering great action inshore.

Overall, I would have to say that early in the week, Las Arenas was the place to fish. Waters were easily warmer by a good 3-4 degrees around that south side of Cerralvo Island. As a result…The bite was simply more consistent and there was alot more variety. No particular fish was wide open, but as you walked the beach, you’d see that boats would have some dorado, the occasional tuna, some billfish, amberjack (see the photos above!), pompano, roosterfish, pargo, some wahoo, cabrila, jack crevalle, etc. It was a good mix. If you were out at the buoys and hit the right buoy, you could easily slam some 30-50 pound dorado. The secret was hitting the RIGHT buoy that was holding fish. There’s something like 80 buoys just offshore. You could hit 20 and find nothing, but the boat ahead of you goes to buoy 21 and finds all the fish YOU were looking for. Luck of the draw.

As the week went on, the La Paz area finally got into the program. Most of the week, it was picky. A few dorado. Quite a few marlin, but not much consistent action although alot of guys hooked their first marlin with alot of stripers. Fortunately, many of the fish were released because sometimes a boat would hook 3 or 4 stripers. The bad thing… However, that could be the ONLY bite of the day with dorado going lockjaw most of the week. Later in the week, the waters got warmer and bluer and the dorado finally jumped in and boats on the weekend hit their pace with much much better dorado action with bigger and more fish and boat taking limits or near limits. We don’t do much trolling, but many of the larger fish were taking trolling feathers or slabs of fresh bonito.

It’s HOT down here! Bring the sunscreen and big hats! I kid you not!!! It may not feel like it, but it’s 100-104 right now. It doesn’t feel like it on the water, but believe me, it sucks it outta you so drink alot of water and lather the sunscreen. I’m seeing alot of macho guys who think they “never burn” fishing without their shirts all day who turn to lobsters and pay dearly for showing off their torsos all day. It’s not fun! Sunburn hurts!

DELTA AIRLINES

OK…this is getting old. I’ve been writing about this for months and guys still show up surprised.

1. Delta airlines IS charging for rod tubes if you’ve already checked-in two bags. It’s $100 bucks EACH way!!!! Combine as many rods in a tube as you can. The folks are the check-in desk…frankly suck. I’m sorry. Sometimes they charge and the next person doesn’t get charged. There’s no rhyme or reasons. I’ve heard them tell people that they charge if the tube is over 84 inches. I’ve heard them tell people they charge if it’s over 60 inches…even if it’s not your third piece of luggage. I heard one story from an angler who was simply told that his 7 foot tube was not going to be allowed at all…”because it won’t fit in the plane!” SAY WHAT???? Just be prepared. Argue at the counter. Tell ’em their idiots. They are. Even old Aero California was not this bad.

2. Delta Airlines stands for Don’t Expect Luggage To Arrive. It also means Delta Scare-lines! It seems that every single flight arrives and several people do not have their luggage. Delta routinely lightens their plane by taking luggage off. Yes…OFF!!! Or, once they are full, that’s it. The rest of the luggage has to wait for the next plane. Do not be one of those people. Be the FIRST in line.

That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/

Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

“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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PHOTO 1: Dave Crawford from Amarillo TX said he ALWAYS wanted to make the fishing report after visiting us numerous times. Well, Dave…you got it! He got this early morning fat wahoo off Cerralvo Island with the purple Rapala still dangling from it’s mouth! Although fishing started off really stingy, the wahoo sure burned a few reels off the south end of the island.

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for July 8, 2007

PHOTO 2: Scott Kendall (L) and Dave “Splash” Lopez from Canoga Park CA have been with us many times and always do well. Scott is holding a nice red snapper while Dave posts up a nice amberjack. They two got a number of different species including wahoo. For Las Arenas, fishing was still mixed with both topwater pelagic species as well as inshore species such as what Scott and Dave are holding.

PHOTO 3: Don’t mess with the baby! Actually, Dave Lopez shot this great photo of a “baby” whaleshark passing under the panga. This guy was only about 25-30 feet long. Docile and gentle these guys can get as big as 50 feet and will often let you swim with them. Don’t worry…they eat plankton but are, in fact, a true shark!

PHOTO 4: He lost 50 pounds (CONGRATULATIONS cuz he wasn’t even fat to begin with!) and got himself a dorado! Dave Berthold, our amigo from the East Coast turned 40 years old, lost 50 pounds; started kickboxing and came down (never wore a shirt for the whole week so he could pose for fotos!) and got himself this nice dorado. He was intent on getting a marlin which eluded him, but he sure did a number on some big dorado all week. He also has a great sense of humor…right Dave? Dave? He’s gonna beat me up after reading this. Boom! Kick to the head. Dorado got a little lockjawed this week. They were harder to come by. They are out there, but did not always want to eat. Larger ones ate lures trolled through the fishing grounds.

PHOTO 5: The East Coast has been well represented these past few weeks down here. Doug Hollinger from Trenton, NJ, was on his first trip down and hung this nice pair of dorado fishing near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 6: Our New Mexico buddy, Larry Daniel told me, “The more I fish here, the more I realize I have so much more to learn!” One of the nicest guys and easiet guys to have down here fishing, Larry is holding a barred pargo (pargo mulatto). These guys are still up around the rocks and can get pretty large. Great eating and tough fighters on the first few runs when they try to get back into their caves.

PHOTO 7: Rusty Koch, Morristown, NJ has his hands full with a sweet bull dorado. That’s Cerralvo Island in the background. Most of the dorado have been caught in the gap between Cerralvo and Espiritu Santo Island. Some days you’ll see a ton of these guys around and they won’t hit a thing. Other days, they literally eat the paint off the boat. I think we need our water temps to kick up just a few degrees more and it’s gonna bust wide open!

PHOTO 8: No, that is not me even tho’ it looks like my legs, but this is what happens when good people go bad! We had about 100 people every day this week and so we decided to toss a big taco feed party at the Sunset Bar on the pier. Great time.

PHOTO 9 : These taco feeds are a blast. Folks get into it…as you can tell ! That’s Sheila, Andrea, Yvette and Heather getting into it. Some folks left too early and missed the bar dancing and conga lines!

PHOTO 10: Nelson and Julie should just forget their day jobs and do this professionally up on the bar!

PHOTO 11: Keep folks happy by feeding them!

PHOTO 12: James Newman is from Monterey CA and is headed to the FBI academy in Virginia soon. He uses his power of investigative reasoning to try to figure out what this sign is saying. A “Boob” crossing? Dolly Parton Museum? Nuclear power plant?

THE FISHING REPORT

I won’t lie to you. It wasn’t our most shining fishing week for sure! It was pretty scratchy. Basically long periods of nothing punctuated by flurries of everything from pargo to marlin and wahoo to tuna, but the dry period in between could be quite a drag.

Water temps dropped 4 degrees earlier in the week and the fish simply went lockjaw. EVERYONE SAW FISH! Imagine schools of marlin and dorado that could care less what you threw at them. Imagine dorado and wahoo turning up their noises at baits tossed right in front of them or schools of marlin diving down when a mackerel was in front of them as if the mackerel had some kind of stink on it! Just weird!

But…that’s not to say we didn’t catch fish! On the contrary, everyone still went home with fish. You might have some down times, but there were still fish that were willing to bite and guys still got marlin, sails, wahoo, dorado, pargo, amberjack and other species. It was just hard to put your finger on the bite and certainly, you had to be either lucky or have your “A” game with you.

I would see the fish boxes with one or two fish in them and the disappointed look on the angler who would dejectedly tell me they had a “slow day.” Then, I would talk to the captain who would tell me that the angler who had a “slow day” also popped three fish off and had on a marlin or two, but farmed them! That’s actually a very GOOD day, but a bad CATCHING day! Hookups count!

If you farm fish or miss a bite, that could be your one and only shot so you have to be chilly and take your ops when you get them! You could come up on that one giant school of dorado that’s willing to chew, but if you lose ONE fish…it takes the school with it and it’s SEEE-yaaaaaa!!!! There’s goes the school. There goes the bite for ALL the boats. It’s not the captain’s fault. It’s not the bad water or bad bait. It’s pilot error!!!

But…that’s how it is…

La Paz waters were still green most of the week, so the dorado weren’t really interested, but let me tell ya…the marlin sure seemed to want to go! Boats were getting at least one marlin hook up a day or more! This was a great week to take a shot at a marlin if you were fishing on the La Paz side of town. Stripers were going about 100 pounds and there were also some blues hooked as well.

On the Las Arenas side, there were two stories. If you fished inside, you had a good shot at amberjack, pargo, cabrilla, jack crevalle and roosters. You could do that all day long OR…

You could go outside of hit the high spots and take a shot at wahoo or tuna or hit the right buoy and whack dorado. Understand this…there’s 80 or so buoys out there. It’s a matter of luck. Not everyone holds dorado. Much like kelp paddy fishing back in S.California. If you hit 6 of the wrong ones, you could go stink. If you hit the RIGHT one, it could make your day.

Toward the end of the week, fishing did pick up especially for our Las Arenas boats taking a number of different species and hopefully encouraging that we’ll get outta this bit of slump!

LAST THING…

If you’re flying in Delta and want your luggage to arrive with you…

1. Do NOT be the last in line. Be the first in line. Delta is leaving luggage behind on every trip both coming and going.

2. Put a label on all your luggage.

3. Do not pack your medicines, cash or important papers in your luggage. Carry it on with you!

That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/

Phone: (626) 333-3355

FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

“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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PHOTO 1: What a gem of a photo and fish! No lie…we had it on a scale. This is what a 60 pound wahoo looks like! Johnny Bartee from Glendora CA is given an assist on the left by Alan Isham of Pomona CA (check out his cool shirt…”I see dead fish!”). This neat fish was taken off Las Arenas dragging the rapala you see still hanging from the mouth. It was certainly a good week for wahoo for our Las Arenas fleet although as the week went on, fishing got a bit tougher.

WEEK STARTS GOOD BUT FULL MOON, GREEN WATER, LOTS OF WATER TRAFFIC AND WINDS HAMPER THE BITE!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for July 1, 2007

Photo 2: Some really nice wahoo this week for our Las Arenas folks! Jeff Sakuda from Monterey Park comes down 3 times a year and always does well with Captain Jorge. Check out the nice wahoo. The wahoo continued to show a preference for trolled dark Rapalas and Yozuri Magnums.

PHOTO 3: OK…just had to put this in. It’s me and I do not have a hat or my bandana on so don’t be writing me about it! That’s not the point! Len and Cheryl Atkinson brought me THREE In-N-Out double-double animal style burgers in vacuum sealed bags! As much as I love Mexican food, sometimes you just GOTTA eat something not wrapped in a tortilla and covered with salsa! If only there was a way to get the hot french fries down here!

PHOTO 4: The dorado were hit and miss this week after two weeks of pretty solid fishing. The dorado bite got a bit picky. Lots of small fish, but occasionally some sweet mahi like this bull held up by our amiga “camp counselor” Marianne Sugawara from Cerritos CA. Marianne had a good few days of fishing including nailing a wahoo.

PHOTO 5: Danny Kadota, famous S.California sportfishing captain and ex-rep for Loomis rods (now with Quantum) and his brother Steve, love fishing inshore for pargo, jacks and other species. They nailed these nice amberjack in the shallows. Despite the fact that it’s July, inshore fishing remains steady for amberjack, pargo, roosterfish, cabrilla and even the occasional sierra! If you want action, just tell your skipper you want to chase some of these bad boys in the rocks!

PHOTO 6: Here’s a great story. Kasidy and Cassi Manhart came all the way from Utah. Their plane forgot them (Delta) AND lost their luggage too! But, both came with great attitudes (and Cassi is also pregnant with their first!) and they wacked fish! They got a number of species which was incredible for first times. On these wahoo…people come for years and never even get a wahoo to sniff. These two were trolling about 5 minutes into the day when WHACK! One rod goes off. While one of them is fighting it the other lure just happened to be sitting dead in the water when the second wahoo came up and blew it apart!

PHOTO 7 : It’s impossible not to post up this photo. Dorado fishing kinda tapered a bit. There’s alot of them out there the last few days, but they weren’t always very cooperative and many of those that were caught were too small to be worth keeping so thankfully, guys were throwing them back…that’s how small they were. Kasidy had no problem with this big bull. Live bait and trolled feathers did the best on these larger fish this week.

PHOTO 8: Hector Chacon from the San Gabriel Valley area in S.California came down with his family. They took two boats out one day. Fishing stunk. Nothing. Zero. Then, Hector remembered that his wife had packed BANANAS in the ice chest. He remembered that I said bananas are bad luck. So, he tossed all the bananas into the ocean. Within minutes they were hooked up. Bonito, dorado and even a mako shark were hooked. They yelled over to his father’s boat to “THROW AWAY THE BANANAS!” But, it was too late. The other boat got skunked.

PHOTO 10: We encourage the release of our billfish, but sometimes the fish dies and it can’t be released. The meat is never wasted! For both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleet, they are seeing tons of marlin out here, but they don’t often go for the bait or lures. Other times, they charge the boat like mad dogs. I’m happy to say that we’re releasing about 85 percent of our billfish catch. This sailfish was caught by Captain Victor and John Berry, from Los Angeles, who owns the Big Fish Electric Company.

PHOTO 12: Chris Sena from Lafayette CA hung this big headed wahoo with our Las Arenas fleet. That’s S.Cerralvo Island in the background. There were a few days early in the week where there were spots of wahoo so thick and free-swimming that the commercial pangeros were actually harpooning them with sharpened rebar tied to a rope! Talk about cowboy fishing!

PHOTO 13: Tony Adamich and Brendan hold a pargo, a tuna and a striped marlin. I’ll let Tony tell it: “…in two days we caught eight Dorado, 5 tuna, 3 Red Snapper and too many dorado to even count and released…and that was during a supposed slow week.”

PHOTO 14: Folks ask about flyfishing all the time down here and it’s getting more and more popular. Chris Anderson from Brentwood CA shows the power of our fish. He hooked a striped marlin on his flyrod and fought it for quite sometime. That is…until the marlin straightened the hook! Epic! I believe he told me it was a Gamakatsu or Owner hook which are some of the strongest you can tie on!

THE FISH REPORT:

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OPENING PHOTO: Can it possibly be? Yes, Johnny Bartee of Glendora CA and Alan Isham from Rancho Cucamonga CA are holding up YELLOWFIN TUNA! Go figure! A welcome surprise in an already weird year. The fish showed up a few times this week of S. Cerralvo Island. Check out the nice pargo too!

NO DOUBT DORADO ARE HERE ALTHOUGH SOME DAYS ARE TOUGH – OTHER SPECIES LIKE AMBERJACK, MARLIN, WAHOO, AND EVEN TUNA PICK UP THE SLACK!

The La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for June 24, 2007

PHOTO 1 : Bruce Husson from San Diego hefts one of several nice dorado he hooked fishing out of La Paz this past week. Although fishing was hardly wide open, this was by far the most consistent week of dorado fishing of the season with all of our La Paz boats getting limits or near limits most days as dorado season seems like it’s finally kicked in. If winds continue to die down and conditions improve, the dorado bite will only get better!

PHOTO 2: Rick Carlton came down from San Diego and hefts a nice roosterfish that was released. Although it’s hard to see, Rick’s panga is only a few dozen yards off the beach at Las Arenas where roosters are still holding around the bait. In the last few weeks it would seem the roosterfishing has tapered off. In fact, the roosters are still there up to 50 pounds. It’s just that not many anglers are fishing for them anymore now that dorado and good-eating amberjack have shown up. Live sardines are still best for these pez gallo with the larger ones falling for live large ladyfish (sabalo). Big fish…big baits!

PHOTO 3: Mike “Intimidator” Gravert has a great time fishing with us. In fact, he fished 10 days with us. All the way from Sacramento, I can’t get him to smile when he holds fish! But, he’s never happier than when he’s fishing. Over his trip, he got several blue marlin (released), dorado, pargo, snapper, cabrilla, wahoo and a few other species as well. This dorado was caught out of La Paz.

PHOTO 4: Kelee Sharlack didn’t have too bad of a trip. From Northern California areaa, this early season bull ripped a live sardine off Espiritu Santo Island. Kellee was fishing with her favorite Capt. Joel and got quite a few of these nice dorado over the course of her stay. Fishing the dorado right now, can be hit-or-miss all day until you hit the right spot then it can turn into utter madness as fish slam from all angles. As one clients told me, “We could have had 40 fish in an hour if we wanted to!” Fish are loving the live baits, but the larger bulls are hitting trolled feathers and stripped bonito. So, bring your tuna feathers, anglers! Bright colors work best.

PHOTO 5: For our Las Arenas boats, there are fewer dorado but they seem to generally be larger fish. Greg Covello holds a pair at Las Arenas Beach near the lighthouse.

PHOTO 6: Wahoo are still biting…sort of! One day everyone gets hit. Then for two days, nothing even bumps! The hot spot is still some of the high spots at the south end of Cerralvo Island trolling with larger dark Yozuri Magnums or CD 18 Rapalas. No wire is best. One method we seem to find effective and has resulted in some strikes is to troll like normal then stop the boat. Sometimes, it seems that wahoo are simply trailing and not striking. When the boat stops…WHAM!!!! Here’s Mike Gravert again. Good day when you get a wahoo!

PHOTO 7: La Paz has more dorado (5-15 pound size), but generally, Las Arenas has the larger fish although fewer of them. Sam Henning on his first trip here from Colorado stuck this good bull off Las Arenas fishing with Captain Victor.

PHOTO 8 : Check out the colors on this pargo. Derek Chu of Philadelphia spent two days off the end of Cerralvo Island with his dad and they hammered all kinds of pargo, cabrilla, jacks and pompano.

PHOTO 9: This is me and Captain Victor who many of you know. I was working my light spinning rod in front of the Arenas lighthouse and got 3 of these beasts. It’s your every-day garden variety needlefish that we all hate. But…look at the size. Check out the head! The beak of teeth was about 2 feet long and if I had let go the tail, it would have touched the deck of the panga.

THE FISH REPORT

Well…some folks who fished down here this past week might tell you that fishing was not very good. But, I gotta tell you…not many of them were OUR folks! We did pretty good! It wasn’t wide open and if you fished few days with us, there were some rough spots…winds came back…bait a little tough…periods of slow fishing.

But WAIT (as they say in the info-mercials) !!!!

If you fished with us a few days, you went home with fish! You might have an off-day but overall, there was some great fishing in between too and all our anglers got fish.

So…check out the photos and that will tell you the story. Yes, the winds came back up again and turned the waters off-color and cooler and made some mornings bumpy, but if you had a bait in the water you probably got bit! Let me bust it out like this…

LAS ARENAS

We still have alot of variety around the south end of Cerralvo, Punta Arenas and Punta Perrico. Generally these are the areas where the water was calmer although some mornings there were late starts until you could get enought bait.

Wahoo continued to tease with a few fish caught every other day or so. People would crash the areas and scatter the fish then take a few days for the area to re-load.

Dorado could show up at anytime and anyplace. Generally, many of the dorado from Las Arenas were the larger variety especially if you were fishing the buoys.

Marlin are rather abundant. Some boats got multiple hooksup daily as many of the billfish are starting to finally warm up to the idea of eating a bait and are also actively eating all the small dorado in the area.

Inshore species like roosterfish are still around although not many are being caught as anglers have turned their focus more towards the better eating fish like the dorado and wahoo. Still, any of the sandy beach areas could hold pez gallo if you threw a handful of bait and watched the combs explode. In the same area, jacks and pompano are also being caught.

As well, amberjack up to 50 and 60 pounds were caught this week along with more pargo and a smattering of small yellowfin tuna popped up in the middle of the bonito and skipjack schools.

LA PAZ

For the second straight week, dorado were the central focus of our fleets. Safe to say, I think we’re finally into a solid dorado season. Some boats did better than others, but almost all our boats would get limits or near limits ( We did have one boat that took a load of bananas and and didn’t catch a thing while their buddies on another panga discovered the bananas, threw them overboard and suddenly started hooking up!)

Fish are school-sized 5 to 15 pounders mostly with a few 20-30 pound bulls mixed in and some larger fish getting lost. Live bait works best, but larger baits like caballitos and mackerel or trolling dead bonito strips or feathers seemed to produce the larger fish.

The best areas are around Punta Coyote, Las Cruces and the gap between the islands. Same areas are getting lots of marlin sightings.

FISHING TIPS

1. Bring flurocarbon leader if you have it. 30 and 40 pound leader seems to make a difference

2. Dark colored Rapalas or similar for the wahoo

3. Small swivels if you have to use leader

4. Trap-hook rigs (double hooks) for the larger pargo

5. Lots of sunscreen and a giant hat…it’s HOT!

6. We do not troll alot down here, but some of the bigger dorado are coming up on feathers!

AIRLINE ALERT

If you are flying in September or October down here and you are holding a ticket with Delta Airlines or it’s partners you need to call up your travel agent or Delta Airlines. This past week, Delta canceled or changed many of the flights to La Paz during those months. For some, it was simply a matter of a time change. Others have been re-routed so that there’s a short stop somewhere. Others (not many) have been cancelled.

That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/

Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

“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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PHOTO 1: Alissa Dufour came up from the East Cape with her husband, Chris for one day fishing with us out of Las Arenas. They did great. Check out the size of this nice amberjack. Amberjack came on strong this week. Many of the rocky areas around Cerralvo Island as well as Punta Perrico sometimes running in schools under the boat. The key bait was to go get zebra fish as bait from around the buoys then come back to the rocky areas and it was like dropping meat in front of a hungry lion.

DORADO SEASON IS OFFICIALLY ON AS HOT WEATHER HITS LA PAZ ALONG WITH NUMEROUS OTHER SPECIES

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for June 17, 2007

PHOTO 2 – Cute as a button, Jaimie Ivins, from Orange Co. CA had a great week. In addition to a great week of fishing, she just found out she and her husband are having their first baby! That didn’t stop her from pulling on fish like this great wahoo that’s about as big as she is. She’s helped by Captain Loreto. The fish was taken off Cerralvo Island. Wahoo continued to hit with a few getting taken everyday. The darker Marauder/Rapala/Yo-Zuri type trolling lures were best. Fish averaged 30-50 pounds.

PHOTO 3: Chris Dufour from Fresno CA just finished his first year of teaching first graders and was on a serious Baja vacation for R and R. He and his wife, Alissa, fished with us one day off Las Arenas with Captain Ramiro. Chris had never caught a dorado before and his first turns out to be this 30 pound class slugger bull dorado! As you can see from this week’s photos, there were alot more dorado this week as the mahi bite turned on for the first time with consistency.

PHOTO 5: Greg Covello from Modesto CA always does well with us. Last year he nailed a 400 pound black marlin on a panga about 100 yards from shore. This year he got didn’t get a big marlin, but hooked several stripers and got this nice wahoo off Cerralvo Island.

PHOTO 6: Dorado coming off the outside buoys was the ticket this week. If you hit the right buoy, it could be banner action. Captain Jorge “Moscorone” fished with Jeff Dawkins and Lee Spack and put some mahi meat in the ice chests! The secret on these dorado was to be the first to the spots before boat traffic built up.

PHOTO 7: Check out “Iron” Dan Aguilar and Dave Gault from Riverside CA. Great dorado fishing, right? But take a look at what Dan is holding…it’s a mako shark. Dave was fighting one of the dorado when the shark came in and took a piece of the dorado’s tail! Captain Adolpho (“Yofo”) grabbed a steel leader and tied it on with a baited hook and the shark bit! Hook up! About a 25 pound mako shark. Although we don’t encourage shark fishing (can be a bit dangerous), this fish is great eating. Tastes alot like swordfish!

PHOTO 8: Officer James Henning is often patrolling around Denver CO, but brought a group of 10 to visit us this week. Here, he’s holding up a nice dorado while standing on Las Arenas Beach.
PHOTO 9: Kendall Weickum and his son Gary, did some great dorad fishing also taking this nice pair of mahi on their first of 3 days of fishing. Captain “Albondigon” Gerardo is in the center.

PHOTO 10: Yes, the roosterfish are still here and they’re off the Las Arenas lighthouse in what has to be the best roosterfish season we’ve had in awhile. The only problem is that there’s also so many jacks that they zoom in a hit the baits before the big pez gallo can slam in. Cesar Carillo is one of our great amigos and comes down every year from the Modesto CA area. He was intent on getting his first rooster and nailed this bad boy right off the beach. The fish was revived to released. Cesar also got wahoo; pargo; dorado; and one day had 4 marlin hook ups and releases this past week.

PHOTO 11: Our amigo, Len Atkinson and his wife came down to celebrate 39 years of marriage. They also brought me the gift of gifts…3 vacuum sealed In-N-Out double double animal-style burgers that I had been craving! They were soooo delicious! Anyway, here Len hefts a nice female dorado with the help of Captain Jorge. They also nailed some nice amberjack and spent most of their time handing out free fillets to whoever wanted fish!
PHOTO 12: Check out the smiles. Check out the big amberjack “pez fuerte.” These nice fish are bigger cousins to yellowtail and much better eating. Rajer Choobek and Paul Castellano from Los Angeles had a nice week of fishing with us getting pargo, jacks, ambers, and dorado.

PHOTO 12: Despite the hot weather, there’s still some big pargo here which are usually associated more with the cooler waters. Check out this bad boy…the fish that is…not Mitch Kiuharski from Denver CO who had his hands full pulling this guy out’ve the rocks. The larger pargo are still there in the rocks near the SE end of Cerralvo Island as well as off Espiritu Santo although the amberjack are doing their best to steal the spotlight. Bigger the baits, the bigger the fish!

PHOTO 13: Dr. Pek Chu from Northern CA is a dentist. His son, Derek, is in his dental residency in Philadelphia PA. They took a break to check out the teeth on some of our rock fish and got an incredible amout of great-eating variety including, pargo mulatto, red snapper, yellow snapper, pargo liso, pargo perro, pompano and a few others I can’t remember over two days fishing the islands.

PHOTO 14: I have no idea where Chad Theis lives. He wouldn’t tell me. He wanted me to go find a basketball and play him hoops (Why?). His friends think he’s sometimes from outer space! But he sure did well with these two big pargo.

PHOTO 15: “Scuba” Steve is prison guard by day and a dorado fisherman when he comes to Baja. Steve is here on the beach at Las Arenas with one of a number of dorado he caught.

THE FISHING REPORT

I guess this is another week when I can just let the photos do the talking! If you read the captions, it gives you and idea of what kind of week we had. The winds finally slowed down and both Las Arenas and (finally) La Paz started to kick out the dorado. Las Arenas had the larger fish, but La Paz had the most fish (although lots of them were smaller 1-5 pound fish we encouraged releasing). However, there were still 20-40 pound bulls that were nothing to sneeze at. Sargasso weed paddies are starting to build around that area between Cerralvo and Espiritu Santo Island. As long as winds don’t blow it all apart again, we hope the dorado bite just gets stronger. These little fish if left to live will be 10 pounders in a month and 20 pounders by the end of summer or fall.

Because there’s so many little dorado around, so were the marlin. Still many were reluctant to eat our baits, but there were still a good number of hook-ups, bust-offs, and releases. Striped marlin in the 100 pound class and blue marlin in the 200-300 pound class were the mainstays. Most were released by anglers.

Inshore, still super action on pargo (lisa, dog, red, yellow and barred) with lots of fish still taking guys into the rocks. However check the photos and some guys just have a knack for doing better than others! The nice addition were the influx of big amberjack that moved into the same spots. Ambers like the rocks too, but the difference is that they’ll come up and out of the rocks so they can be fought easier. There’s still big roosters along the beaches as well as jack crevalle and pompano too!

SOCIAL HAPPENINGS WITH THE TAILHUNTER FAMILY- MILESTONES AND CONGRATULATIONS!

PHOTO 16: I met Spike Ivins years ago when he was a deckhand on the long-range boat “Red Rooster” out of San Diego. One of the best fishermen we’ve ever had down here. He’s standing with his wife Jamie and both of them live in San Clemente CA. Just before coming down, they found out they were pregnant and the doctor told them to still come down and have some fun. They did pretty darned good!

PHOTO 17 and 18 : “Intimidator” Mike Gravert from Sacramento CA came down this week for 10 days of rod bending. But, he also had another agenda. Somewhere during the week he was intent on asking his long-time lady, Kelee the “big question!” It was quite an adventure, but he finally just pulled her out on the pier behind La Concha Beach Resort at sunset and took a knee. We were hiding with our cameras and captured the moment!

Oh…by the way…during the week, they caught 2 blue marlin, numerous dorado, wahoo, and a bunch of other species releasing most of their fish. Good folks!

PHOTO 19 – UNSUNG HEROES – I cannot say enough about these guys. Strange picture? Well, on their last day, Chris Silva in red, James Booth behind him and their buddies Mike Booth and Bill Sharp from Riverside CA, told me they wanted to bring all the fish they had caught to the old folks home at St. Vincente here in La Paz. Wow…that was great. They must have had 2 full ice chests of fish. On the way to the home, they wanted to stop at the market to “buy a few things.” Well, each guy got a full basket and like kids in a toy store threw just about everything into these 4 carts…eggs, hams, chickens, tortillas, canned goods, rice, flour, vegetables, milk, juices, soap…things were flying! I think I even saw Mike Booth sneak a bottle of tequila into his basket. “They’re old…they’re not dead!” he said with a wink!

They bought over 500 bucks of groceries. What a great great gift when we arrived at St. Vincents. Thanks guys. You rock!

LUGGAGE WARNING AND ADVICE

Over the past week it seems that we’re seeing more and more luggage misplaced by the airlines coming down here. Delta seems to be the worst. I don’t know what’s up with them. It’s getting worse. I don’t know if they just hit a bad patch or what, but here’s some advice:

1. Board your plane EARLY. People who come on last stand the great chance of luggage not making it.

2. Label your gear

3. Do NOT put your medications or parts for your PAP machines in your check-in luggage. Carry it on!!! PLEASE. We’ve had several vacations almost turn to disaster when critical medications were left in check-in luggage that did not arrive until a day or two later. Bring an extra copy of your prescription so that if your meds do get lost you can take the prescription to a local pharmacy.

4. There seems to be no problem with line on reels.

That’s my story!

Happy Fathers Day everyone!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/

Phone: (626) 333-3355

FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

“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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PHOTO 1: Erik Boye from the San Francisco area, probably did as well as anyone in the 3 days he fished with us. In fact, he was “on fire.” I think the biggest fish he had ever caught before visiting us this past week was a rainbow trout. If I recall correctly, he got wahoo, pompano, amberjack, dorado, jack crevalle, roosterfish and a few more. The list was too long!
Wahoo are still biting south of Cerralvo Island. We’re having one of the better wahoo seasons we’ve had in a few seasons. Dark-colored rapalas or Yo-Zuri type lipped lures are working best with no wire. You do get bit more with no wire, but I tell you what…I’ve lost 4 of these hard-to-get lures the last two weeks and still haven’t been as lucky as Mr. Boye!

FISHING VARIETY STILL KEEPS EVERYONE GUESSING WITH SO MANY SPECIES ON THE BOARDS -NOT FULL SPEED YET AS SOME LATENT WINDS AND GREEN WATER HINDERED THE BITE BUT THERE’S FISH TO BE CAUGHT!

LA PAZ – LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR JUNE 10, 2007

PHOTO 2: Check this out! How good of a shot is this? Early season dorado in the hands of Jennifer and Tony Mouncer from Oregon. We had more of these show up this past week, but still nothing wide open. We seem to be a few degrees off still with winds stirring up some green water and collaring a bite that seems to want to take off. But look at these colors. Check out the flat water that is so glassy you can’t tell where the blue water ends and the blue sky begins!

PHOTO 3: Carlos Vasquez from El Monte CA came down with his family but took two days to fish with us out of Las Arenas and did as well with his buddy, Bernie Melendez (photo below) as anyone given the limited time. Amberjack like this showed up at Punta Perrico as well as the South Side of Cerralvo Island with fish upt to 30 pounds. The trick to getting these cousins to the yellowtail was to catch the zebra fish (pilot fish) first to use for bait. With a zebra, the ambers literally inhaled the hooks! Las Arenas was the hot spot for these great fighters this past week.

PHOTO 4: OK, so it’s not the most artistically posed fishing photo, but Bernie Melendez’ grin says it all. He and his buddy Carlos Vasquez (above) tore up the bottom fish with pargo, cabrilla, pompano, amberjack, and this upside-down barred pargo (pargo mullato). Some great fillets to bring home! This fish was caught off the SE end of Cerralvo Island.

PHOTO 5: More dorado showed up this past week. I think we’re still on the edge and waiting for the waters to warm fully, but we’ve had a few nice flurries. Here, Katie Olson from Pasadena stands with Captain Jorge “Moscorone” at Las Arenas Beach. Katie and her husband, John, had a banner few days taking dorado, roosters, snapper, pargo and sailfish this past week. Keep tuned. Late in the week the buoys off Las Arenas held some incredible dorado fishing that would be “on” one day then “off” the next. Just a matter of time! Our largest this week as a 47 pounder taken by Mike Law of Northern Cal.

PHOTO 6: Jennifer Mouncer was worried about how she’d do fishing on the ocean with us and we kept re-assuring her that this was EASY!!! She’s now a believer. She and her husband, Tony, from Oregon (photo 1) are already planning two trips next year. They slammed fish including this big rooster that needed a heft from Captain Victor. They released all of their roosters and many of their other fish. There was still a good body of roosters there near the Arenas lighthouse and along the west side of Cerralvo Island.

PHOTO 7: Kyle Bowers is 14 years old and came down with his dad from Denver. Although fishing was really inconsistent for our La Paz fleet, Kyle holds up two of the dorado he boated fisihng off Espiritu Santo Island. He and his dad (see photo below) nailed numerous other varieties of fish with our Las Arenas fleet and Kyle even took several days to complete his SCUBA certification.

PHOTO 8: I’m not sure who has the meaner looking face…this huge barracuda or our amigo, Carlos! We have barracuda here in La Paz, but usually, they’re about a foot long. This hog goes about three feet and was caught off Cerralvo Island wth live bait.

PHOTO 9: For four years, Mike Bowers would come to our booth at the Denver CO Sportsmans’ show and tell me he was coming down. Every year he would tell me the same thing. This year, he finally made it with his son (photo above). With Captain Gerardo driving the boat, Mike and Kyle ripped up roosters, jacks, pargo, cabrilla, big eyes, bonito, and several other species as well. The rooster was released , but they took alot of other fillets home for a barbecue with friends.

PHOTO 10: From the Phoenix AZ area, Chris and Rhoda Brown visited us this past week for some R and R. One day of fishing at Las Arenas provided quite a variety! Smaller dogtooth, yellow snapper, pargo, cabrilla and pompano filled the box…all great eating fish! This is the kind of inshore variety we have this time of year with great action on numerous species.

PHOTO 11 – What the heck is that? I told you there was alot of variety right now! Last week we had a fish that looked like a fresh water catfish that no one had ever seen before. Turned out to be a “chili sea catfish.” This fish also turned alot of heads. Looks alot like a halibut to me and we don’t catch halibut down here. This turns out to be a “gulf sand dab” held by Rob Dickens from San Francisco standing next to Captain Ramiro.

PHOTO 12 : We still have pargo in the shallows right now. The schools are still up against the rocks frustrating alot of anglers as they crash the baits and take guys into the rocks. Hot spots are still the SE side of Cerralvo Island where the amberjack also showed up as well as down around Punta Perrico. Fish like the ones Larry is holding up here are the ones we actually get to see! Larger fish up to 50 pounds or so…we never see! We just hear stories about huge fish that could not be stopped even on the heaviest tackle!

THE FISH REPORT

Again, I think this is another week where I’m just gonna let the pictures do the talking. Check ’em out. However, that does not begin to do justice to the total variety of species you can catch right now.

The list is long…roosters, dorado, sailfish, striped marlin, blue marlin, bonito, skipjack, barred pargo, pargo liso, dog tooth snapper, yellow snapper, cabrilla, wahoo, rainbow runners, big eye jacks, pompano, jack crevalle, yellowtail…are just some of the species I saw this week.

I won’t BS you however…it’s not WIDE OPEN. One day the fish are on fire or one species is just exploding and the next day it’s a pick bite or the spot that was blowing up one day seems like a desert the next. Or you pull to a spot and it’s litterally a fish pond of fins…marlin or sailfish or roosters and they won’t eat a single thing no matter what you throw at them! Frustrates the hell outta you! It’s hit or miss sometimes or some guys swing for the fence with a home run and strike out going for the big fish or blue water species like marlin and dorado. When they find out that those fish aren’t there or not eating, it’s often too late to go fishing for something else. It sure keeps us guessing, but if you put in a few days, everyone is getting fish.

Or…

The bug-a-boo…freaky winds hit us this last week. I thought we were all done with that foolishness. May was incredibly windy and we thought it was done. We had about a week-and-a-half of super weather, water and fishing. Yay! At last, summer was here.

Then, WHAM…the wind came up. It turned the waters green as cooler upswellings came up frmo the deep canyons. Some areas shut down. No fish. Others just got too unfishable. That’s what happened with our La Paz fleet. It was not only rough, but real difficult fishing. So, fortunately having our fleets at both La Paz and Las Arenas we switched most of our people over to Las Arenas where waters were still green, but at least calm and there was stil action to be had. Even if it was a day full of fishing for jacks, it topped going out of La Paz Bay and getting wet and travelling far for spotty action.

Personally, I still think we’re just a degree or two of water temps away from things blowing up big time. Before the winds, the sargasso weed was starting to build up nicely in the channel. When that happens the dorado schools aren’t far behind! But the winds came up and blew all the sargasso paddies apart!

We’ll keep you posted!

FED SUSPENDS THE PASSPORT PROGRAM WITH SOME GREAT MODIFICATIONS!

It’s official. Just in case you had not heard, this past week the feds suspended the passport program requiring that all travelers to and from Mexico have passports starting this year. The surge in applications literally crippled the immigration staffs not to mention pissing off a bunch of people who had to sweat it out waiting for passports which were taking up to 4 months to process. Quite a few people lost vacations over it. Anyway, the new law says that if you can show that you have a receipt for your application and that it’s being processed and can also present a valid i.d. like a driver’s license, you’re good to go! Click this link to FOX news for more details: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,279380,00.html

That’s my story!

Have a great week…

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.comU.S.

Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

“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.”

Read Full Post »

PHOTO: One danged big pargo liso! These are the ones we rarely see…mainly because they bite your bait, kick your butt, and take you into the rocks and you can’t stop them! So, you end up scratching your head wondering “what the….?” Well, this is what they look like, amigos. And they get bigger. Captain “Chava” Jorge didn’t have any clients this day so he decided to see what he could do on his own. That’s alot of fillets! These fish are still at the island and rocky areas.

PHOTO 1: Bob Lederer came all the way from the East Coast and got our largest dorado of the week. The mahi are showing signs of coming on stronger each week although they’re not quite here in force…yet. However, vanguard fish like this bull are showing up more often and sargasso weed is starting to build in the channel. Bob got this around the S. end of Cerralvo Island with a live sardine.

PHOTO 2: Mr. ‘Hoo and his mouth of teeth are prized catches here not to mention deee-lish-us on the plate! In the past 4 weeks, more wahoo have been hooked and landed already than we had all last year. Fish are 20-50 pound flyers with about a 1:5 hook-up to catch ratio. So many fish are getting lost or lines getting cut. Wire is nice, but you get more bites by tying on straight. Paul Shepherd from Modesto CA and Daniel Lee from somewhere in Indiana (Sorry, Dan!) got these two, but had another 8 or 9 fish fall off during 3 days. Dark Rapalas worked best and it did NOT have to be an early morning bite like usual. If you want more fish, take off the treble hooks and put on single Si-wash hooks on the Rapalas. You’ll lose less fish. At times you can see several fish on the surface and they WILL strike Rapalas or baits that are just sitting there wiggling on the surface! The fish bite some days and not others, but on the days they bite, there’s some prize meat on the beach. Fishing out of Las Arenas has been best.

PHOTO 3: Look at this slugger. The fish that is…not Terry Johnson from Denver, CO. This is one plug of a roosterfish. Terry and his son Preston got numerous fish all week on light spinning tackle and had a blast. They released almost all their roosters. This was one that did not revive but the meat was donated. The roosters are still going strong right off the Arenas lighthouse as well as around Punta Perrico. The larger fish like live ladyfish, but this one ate a sardine.

PHOTO 4: Can it be? Is that a FRESH water catfish? It perplexed the hell out’ve all of us! Pete Wight from Torrance CA was fishing from the kayak in front of the Marina Fiesta Beach and hooked this interesting fish. (In 4 days fishing, Pete actually caught 24 species of fish from pangas, cruisers, the beach and kayak!). Turns out it’s a CHILE SEA CATFISH! http://www.mexfish.com/fish/cscat/cscat.htm And it has venomous spines. Put it DOWN, Pete!

PHOTO 5: We had one day where all these lazy billfish that have been hanging around our waters took a day and finally decided to come to the party! It was spectactular with many boats suddenly hooking numerous billfish close to shore. This shot is a sail going airborne off Espiritu Santo Island about mid-week. (The fish was not killed!)

PHOTO 6: Al Isham from Rancho Cucamonga CA is about 6’8″ standing next to me so you can figure how big this rooster is! Check out how close they are to the beach behind them. Al got a number of these roosters and released them all. Al just left us and booked to come back already this month! That’s famous Captain Victor behind him hiding!

PHOTO 7: Randy Johnson from Rosarito Beach, Mexico and Al Isham from Rancho Cucamonga CA have been pals longer than dirt is old. They finish each other’s sentences! And have been fishing togther for a couple of decades. Check out the big pompano they’re holding. These fish moved into the shallows near the Las Arenas lighthouse about 3 weeks ago and are fished near the bottom with a small weight and live sardine. Some of the best eating fish in the Cortez!

PHOTO 8: This smiling guy is Mitch Chavira. Mitch lives in Encinitas CA. Mitch comes down here all the time and makes us all look foolish with some of the fish he catches. Better to be lucky than good. Mitch is usually both. This is a HUGE jack crevalle! The biggest hinderance to catching a trophy rooster right now are these things! They grab the bait before Mr. Rooster can swing in!

PHOTO 9 : This smiling young man is 11-year-old Cole Chavira. Cole is Mitch’s son (see photo above). Mitch makes us all look bad. Cole usually makes his dad look bad. Cole has been fishing for years down here and has probably gotten his photo published more often than any other friends/clients I have ever had. This past week, Cole and his pops, got into a massive jack and rooster bite off Espiritu Santo Island. It was WFO non-stop. They released over a dozen roosters (lost count) plus jacks plus other rock fish. I think they even got dorado too. They were back by 11 a.m. on the beach. (Notice the cool authographed shirt he’s wearing…with my signature of course! With the way he fishes I should have asked for HIS autograph! )

The Report:

Where do I start? I guess I can tell you to just look at the photos and let the photos do the talking!!! It’s much like I tell folks about this time of year. You never know what is gonna hit your line! There has been so much variety this week, it’s incredible. No one fish stuck out, but there were a whole bunch of fish that helped to fill fish boxes and bend rods. It would be a lie to tell you it was OUTSTANDING fishing…some days were just better than others. Some spots were better than others. However, if you fished a few days there were so many opportunities to get so many different kinds of fish, it was alot of fun this past week.

Pete Wight (photo above with the catfish) said this:

“Enjoyed your operation–had a blast. Like I mentioned, the variety of fish in La Paz was outstanding. Twenty-four different species including sailfish, dorado, roosterfish, amberjack, toro, catfish, bonefish, pompano, cabrilla (two types), barracuda, pargo (red, striped, yellow), skipjack, three unidentified species of jack, striped grunt, pufferfish (two types), needlefish, one unidentified species from the kayak, needlefish, and lastly the lowly lizardfish.”

Ok…so some of these species aren’t real exciting, but just take a look at the photos above and it gives you a smidgen of what we had this week.

It was weird. One day yellowtail broke loose and then the next daythey were gone. Another day, marlin just blew up the ocean and boats had multiple hooks ups and dorado were shooting through the billfish. The next day that spot was blank…but just up the track…roosterfish decided it was their turn. So unpredictable.

Both La Paz and Las Arenas had their moments so it’s hard to say which side is better to fish on right now or to predict what the coming week will be like. I think if there’s any disappointment, it’s from guys who fully expected the dorado would be in full swing by now. They’re not. However, the waters are just a degree or two away from turning it all around. There are more dorado each week. But until then, fill the plate with whatever is biting!

That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

“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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ROOSTERS GONE WILD! JACKS AND POMPANO ROLL UP ON BEACHES! WAHOO GETTING MORE ACTIVE WITH ANGLERS WHILE DORADO FINALLY START TO SHOW!

La Paz / Las Arenas Report for May 27, 2007

PHOTO 1 : Daniel Lee from Indiana was on his first trip to Baja and first salt-water trip. He holds up one of our first dorado of the season. We started get more dorado this week as waters warmed. Dan was fishing for pargo near the Punta Perrico rocks when several mahi shot through and bit the baits. Daniel also got his first wahoo this week as well as roosterfish! Talk about beginners luck!

PHOTO 2: You can’t see his face, but no mistaking the fish! This slugger rooster is being held by Bruce Kim of S.Pasadena CA. Las Arenas beach is in the background. Bruce said they had run out ‘ve bait and then used a small cocinero (jack) and hung this bad boy…the captain said it weighed about 30 kilos…65 pounds. We got lots of roosters this week and almost all of them were being released.

PHOTO 3: That’s no salmon! Cindi Colvin from Oregon had quite a first day with her husband Mark. In addition to numerous other species, they got TWELVE roosters including this 45 pounder. Cindi says they were into the fish five minutes after they started fishing. All fish were released.

PHOTO 4: Mark Colvin came down from Oregon and couldn’t get into the photo. But Captain Victor did! In addition to the roosters, he and his wife, Cindi (photo above) also got big eyed-jacks, pompano and tough fighters like this huge jack crevalle (toro).

PHOTO 5: Bob Keaton worked the flyrod all week. The flyfishers had a ball for the most part all week with all the species in the water right now, but check out the huge pompano! Size of a pizza plate! Smile, Bob! Great catch.

PHOTO 6: Everyone keeps asking me what a big-eye jack is! We call ’em ojotones. They’re thick in the beaches now and great fun. Also, unlike their cousin roosterfish and jack creavalle, these guys are great eating! This is Paul Shepherd from San Jose modeling his fish for us.

PHOTO 7 : This is our economy party-boat panga. You get what you pay for! Just having some fun! Honest, we don’t crowd you in our pangas. We’re just waiting for the tide to float us off the beach!

PHOTO 8 : Mexican sand is HOT! Two blocks of ice come in handy for obviuos reasons!

OUR STORY

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