The better grade of tuna popped up off Las Arenas and Cerralvo Island. There weren't many of them, but the ones that did show up were in the 40-100 pound class with some larger ones mixed in. Chance Vega from Long Beach hoists up a 40 pounder that just came over the rail.
Dorado continued to be the main attraction for both our Tailhunter fleets with some really nice grade fish being about 90 percent of the weekly catch like this big bull that Captain Rogelio is helping Ron with fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
There's no question that there's alot of billfish in the water right now and the guys fishing for dorado and tuna are getting quite a few surprise hook ups. I wante to thank our amigo, Tom Beautnagel, who took some great billfish photos this past week, including this fantastic shot of our Captain Gerardo gunning the boat and trying to chase down a jumping sailfish hooked by one of his anglers. This is what we call a "Nantucket Sleigh Ride!" All you can do is hold on!
This guy never has a bad day. He is always smiling! Our good friend, Rick Kasper, actor and outdoor TV show host got into that nice jag of tuna this pas week off Las Arenas.
You gotta give this smiling gal props! Debra Guyton from Buena Park CA was fishing for the first time this week and got badly seasick, but refused to stop fishing even when she could easily have gone back to shore. She'd get sick...catch a fish...get sick...catch a fish...and kept smiling too! She got some big tuna as well as some great dorado like this one!
They came to get a tuna or two and Kevin Meyerhoff and Brian Hoff did get these two that ended up on their dinner plates at our Tailhunter Restaurant as ceviche, sashime and Hawaiian poke.
It's a bit hard to tell all the players behind the dorsal fin, but for sure, it's our popular Captain Pancho with Ron and maybe Tyler and the smiles. This particular day, they got the sailfish AND a marlin fishing off Las Arenas and major kudos for quickly releasing both fish to swim away! Quite a few billfish in the water many around the schools of small dorado and bonito. (Thanks for the photo, Tom!)
Showing off a nice rack of Las Arenas dorado, Capt. John Seidensticker from Huntington Beach CA shows of some good sized dorado typical of the size we're getting right now.
HOT WEATHER AND HOT DORADO FISHING PACE THE WEEK!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 28-Sept. 4, 2011
Again, it was a pretty hot week for dorado fishing around town, especially for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet where filling the coolers in a single day was sometimes the rule rather than the exception for quite a few fishermen if they wanted doado meat! Fishing north of town, there was both quantity and quality with some 30-40 pound fish taken each day.
It wasn’t quite so frisky for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, but dorado fishing was still fairly steady but the bonus being that we found several spots of tuna that ranged from 20-100 pounds that were close to shore or to the island plus quite a few hookups on sailfish and marlin. So, all-in-all, lots of variety.
Perhaps the biggest concern all week wasn’t the hot fishing. The fish took care of themselves! If you had lines in the water and a few days fishing like most of our clients, you were gonna put some fillets in your ice chest without really trying too hard. However, the hottest things was the weather!
We had our normally warm temps in the high 90’s and low hundreds that are tolerable to most folks. No biggie. However, I can’t remember when it was so humid. For instance, one day it was 98 degrees at 3 p.m. but with the humidity, the heat index had us at 118! Another day it was only 101 degrees, but with the humidity and the heat index it was a whopping 129 degrees at SIX P.M.!!!!! Amazingly, as soon as the sun dipped down the afternoon Corumuel winds come up every day and immediately, the temperatures drop within 30 minutes by 20 degrees and then continue getting cooler with the breeze refreshing everything through the night. Our biggest concern wasn’t reminding our fisher-folk to hold onto their rods…it was reminding them that they MUST drink waters! Beer doesn’t count. The ice in the margarita doesn’t count! With temperatures so high, people don’t realize that the liquid in their bodies is getting sucked right out with every breath and dangerous heat stroke is a very real possibility! In the past, we’ve had folks literally tip over and pass out and had to call the ambulance or get sick when they came back to their rooms thinking they had the flu or food poisoning with cramps and chills when, in fact, they were just heat stroking. Fortunately, it’s not happened yet this season, but as long as you wear a hat. Stay in the shade as much as possible and stay hydrated, folks are fine.
But back to the fishing…
Yes…dorado…dorado…dorado…Hahahahaha…(yawn). Seriously, we’re thankful the dorado have been ripping all summer. Great fun. Great fighters. Great eating! Probably 90 percent of the catch this past week has been dorado.
But, the continued bites by sailfish and marlin to unsuspecting anglers who are have a little sardine out there swimming around on light tackle trying to hook a dorado or tuna then suddenly finding a 7-10 foot fish on the end is usually pretty thrilling. Most times the fish break off after a fight or, if taken, almost all the billfish are getting released.
Even moreso was the exciting appearance of the larger grade of tuna off Las Arenas. Some of the fish were as close as Punta Perrico which is about 5 minutes down the beach from where we launch our pangas near the lighthouse. 30-40 pound models were the norm, but larger 50, 60 and a few fish over 100 pounds were hooked and most lost. But this is definitely something to keep an eye on. The tuna were hardly wide open, but boats that went to the tuna zone got 1-4 fish each most days.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
It was a great week for BIG dorado and probably none larger than this 45-pound best that our amigo Angela "TPG" Farrell from Oceanside CA nailed just off Cerralvo Island fisihng with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Tim, her husband, lends a hand and a big smile on ths fish. Tim got his own big fish...a huge 50 pound rooster the next day. The dorado were hungry all week and we had both quality and quantity. Angela and Tim make at least one trip a year to visit us and always do well!
Man of bronze with tuna! Steve Artis holds up a nice 20-pound class yellowfin tuna he picked off Cerralvo Island fishing with Captain Archangel. There were little flurries of football tuna every few days near the island, but nothing wide open so the few that were caught were welcome catches. Smaller sardines and cedar plugs worked well.
It was a week for some really nice quality bull dorado typical of this time of year like this big bull held by Ronnie Collins on his first trip with us at Tailhunter
Sometimes, it's not the size of the fish...it's the size of the smile and the kid in all of us, especially when it's your first fish and it's a pretty dorado like Eric Sirkow's fish with Captain Archangel.
Funny guy, our amigo, Paul Nagata from the San Francisco got some nicer tuna, but chose to pose with this bruiser of a yellowfin that he caught with our Las Arenas fleet. Everday, it seemed we got a handful of footballs and hopefully, the bite will come on stronger.
Hug your catch! Our buddy, John Pastorello from Fullerton CA hugs a real pretty dorado fresh out-of-the-water. He and his crew had banner 3 days of fishing with us. Great colors on this fish!
Speaking of great colors...Dr. Desmond Sjaufowkloy often comes to see us and comes at the last-minute to get in on a quick bite and always puts fish in the boat like this great photo of him with one of his many dorado. Again...great colors!
You will never find a better guy than Art Savedra from Las Vegas...pro race car driver and owner of ARTS off-road race car tech. The man drives and the man fishes and does both well. Using his mini Whopper Stopper rod, Art put the wood to the fish for 3 straight days then decided to try SCUBA diving with us for the first time and did that great as well!
Jon Luker has been with us many years, but Shane Foster was on his first trip and got into some great fishing over 3 days packing in dorado as well as tuna like these!
Nate and Darrell were on their first day fishing with us and had their day interrupted when we had a quick summer storm hit and everyone had to run back to the beach and wait it out. However, after about an hour we sent the boats back out and everyone got hooked up on marlin, sailfish and dorado like the ones the guys got here!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 22-28, 2011
It was a not only a week for good dorado fishing, but a week for big dorado as well. Especially if you were fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, the action was fast and furious. Sometimes, our boats were back onshore at the beach by 10:30 or 11 each day with the anglers tired, laughing and saying, “no mas!”
“We released twice what we caught!” said one.
“We were barely out of the bay after getting bait,” said another of our fishermen “and in an hour it was some of the crazy fishing I have ever seen. There were so many dorado around the boat!”
“It took us longer to catch bait than to fill up on limits plus release many other dorado. We had some 20-40 pound fish, but there it looked like there were others in the school but the smaller fish would beat them to the bait. We had double and triple hookups solidly for most of the time!”
“No sooner did my wife boat one fish then the captain was handing her another rod with another fish one while I tried to film all the action! We caught limits then then went to catch pargo and roosterfish! We were laughing all day!”
And so it went. One angler laughingly complained that he filled his ice chest in one day and still had 4 more days to fish!
The crazy thing was that along with all the smaller schoolie sized fish there were so many more larger bulls this week. We’ve had some great weeks of dorado fishing, but I don’t re-call having so many larger fish in any recent weeks. For many of our fishermen and fisherladies, it was their largest fish they had ever caught. For many of our first-timers they got spoiled right out the gate with such quality as well as quantity.
For our Las Arenas fleet, it wasn’t quite so good. It was a bit scratchier, but there were still some good catches in between some slower days. A boat might do poorly, but the next boat would get into a good bite. Dorado were the mainstay just like with our La Paz fleet, but as well, there were some good quality fish in the mix with 20-30 pounders not uncommon. Additionally, what we lost in quanity of fish was made up for by the variety of fish that were available. In addition to the dorado, there were some smatterings of tuna, pargo, roosterfish, cabrilla and some really nice bites on sailfish and marlin that were amongst the dorado and bonito schools feeding that seems to show no hesitation grabbing a hooked sardine. Some anglers had some real thrills having a billfish hooked on light tackle.
If you’re planning on coming down in the near future, several things to mention…
We had some little baby tropical storms this last week. It’s that time of the year when some pretty hard downpours come through. It might rain for a just a few minutes most times and one panga might get wet but 100 yards away another is bone dry. Having a cheap pancho or windbreaker isn’t a bad idea. Several creative guys brought the big trash bags from their rooms and just cut holes in them for their heads and arms and kept on laughing and fishing in the rain!
For gear…plain wooden cedar plugs seem to be the rage of the season. You might want one or two. Also, flurocarbon leader in 20-40 pound test is a good thing to bring along as well as smaller live bait hooks for some of the smaller sardines. A #2 and a #4 sized hook is good to have as well as 1/0, 3/0 and 5/0 hooks. The tuna we found this week at the smaller baits.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
It’s a bit of a trek from Montana and S. Dakota for Cliff Garber, Colton Nye, Chris Voller, Ryan Baumgart who were on their first trip to La Paz. Two days of good fishing produced nice catches of dorado for the guys…typical of the action this week!
Scott McKenzie from Seattle already made one trip to see us in the spring and has another trip booked next month in September, but last week brought his sisters, Jana M. and Lauren Moser down on their first trip to La Paz. Jana just took the California Bar Exam last week. Lauren is still in law school and all had an excellent trip. (See Steve’s accounts below!)
Our good buddy, Wally Lee, from San Francisco visits us yearly and shows off one of the dorado he caught during his 3 days fishing. However, he caught over a dozen species oveall including cabrilla, yellow snapper, pompano, and several species of pargo.
Yellowfin tuna were again elusive this week, but they threw a few teases at us at the south end of Cerralvo Island like this pair that Captain Victor found. (thanks for the shot, Hawk!)
Here’s at you! Jeff Lee poses with Captain Jorge and a nice big pompano caught off the sand near the Las Arenas lighthouse. Great eats! The fish tend to school right where the sand slides off into deeper water.
You don’t get many of these in Montana! Chris Voller holds up a fresh mahi on the sand at Las Arenas. Both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets did well on dorado this past week.
There weren’t alot of trophy-sized dorado this week, but nice -grade fish such as this dorado shown with Jana Moser and Captain Victor were pretty typical and it wasn’t unusual to get limits or near limits daily of the hungry colorful fish!
LATE SUMMER DORADO STILL ON THE CHEW!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 14-21, 2011
Well, the full moon didn’t play games on us this time and Hurricane Greg went wide left so all-in-all, a good week of fishing, especially if you came to load up on dorado fillets! For both our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets, dorado were 90% of the catch most days if that’s what you wanted to do. The fish are fast, feisty, hungry and fun! Pretty much all you want in a sportfish and since we had so many first timers with us this week, they were perfect gamefish during a pretty solid week.
Most of the fish weren’t big by any means, but 10-20 pound grade fish were the norm and more than enough for some anglers to handle, especially after a full-day of rod bending. Theere were some larger 25-35 pound fish and some larger ones lost, but most were that medium-class mahi. Some days, the schools were even smaller with lots of 5 pounders providing crazy action as it’s amazing what a voracious dorado will hit when it’s in full turbo but as one angler told me, “They were fun and we must have caught and released a dozen for every one we kept. It was a blast!” So, no shortage of action.
I think the surprising action was found by our anglers that decided to fish inshore. During this time of year, most fisher-folk like fishing the blue water for the “glamour species” like the dorado, tuna, marlin, wahoo, etc. ” The inshore stuff gets ignored but since almost no one is fishing inshore, it’s a great opportunity to find spots that haven’t been hit in a long time and likewise, find yourself the only boat working the area! In the past week or two, I’ve had several of our anglers ask me to send them inshore and they’ve done great on some great eating fish like cabrilla, pargo, snapper, parrotfish, sheephead and ambjerjack as well as fun fish like pompano and their not-so-good-eating (but still great fighters) the jack crevalle and roosterfish!
Tuna and wahoo remained elusive at best. This has to be the poorest wahoo season I can remember, but no telling what will happen the next few weeks which is traditionally our best time of the year for wahoo. The tuna are the same way. Every few days, they pop up and everyone gets excited…then they disappear. We’ll keep an eye out for them for sure. We should be coming up on prime time for our yellowfin.
There’s still alot of billfish in the water. We hooked, lost, and released several this week. Check out Scott McKenzie’s great first-person account (photo above with his sisters)…
“… first day out of La Paz we had about 11 beautiful dorado up to 35lbs, plenty of double and triple hookups making for a frenzy of fun on the boat with (Captain) Boli!!
Second day, out of Las Arenas, we fished with (Captain) Victor the master. Right out of the gate a sailfish lost, with yard long dorado keeping us busy regularly, and a couple of marlin lost until late in the afternoon a bonito strip-bait fell prey to a marlin (about 60-70 lbs??), 4th time was the charm as we got a good hook set, and it was on our light tackle rod to boot!!
A long fight ensued with everyone getting a chance at working this fish to the boat where it was admired and released! Second day- 7 nice dorado to 25-30 lbs, 1 marlin caught n released, 2 marlin lost, 1 sailfish lost….. doesn’t get any bettter than that!!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
Kristen Barnard from El Segundo CA was on her first trip to Baja and went fishing with Uncle Joe Barnard from Honolulu HI when they tagged into this pair of nice dorado near the Las Arenas lighthouse.
Our amiga, Marianne Sugawara visits us about 2-3 times a year and always fishes with Captain Jorge. It usually pays off like with this nice bull dorado taken south of Bahia de los Muertos!
The Kodama Men...Dad (Curtis) with Daniel and Darin...were on their first trip to visit us in La Paz and put some nice dorado in the box after their first day.
Definitely a good week for the ladies! Kelly, Kristen and Kathy Barnard pose with some of their Las Arenas catch of dorado.
It was another great week for roosterfishing off our beaches...largest being a 60-pounder and almost all of them were released. Dr. Al Yu took this one near Punta Perrico with Captain Adolfo looking on and the fish was released.
Quite a few of our clients had a blast by going to light tackle and working the inshore structure like Jeff Sakuda and Mark Aizawa who used spinning rods and flyrods to nail cabrilla, pargo and roosterfish like these!
Steve and Shirley Erquhart live in the mountains of California's Sierra Nevada off-the-grid in a log cabin he built by hand in the forrest, but came to see us and did well after 3 days of dorado fishing showing off a trio of bulls they took fishing north of La Paz.
Fred Li, had a great mix of fishing working Espiritu Santo Island where he went to knock out some pargo and cabrilla along the rocks. He did great, but then this nice 22-pound bull dorado came swimming into the shallows and ate his sardine too!
They called it a "man-cation" this year for their La Paz trip. JR Nojadera came with his dad, Al, Jordan Richards and Dennis Cudal to swing on some fish and did well on the dorado, but probably had their best time taking out the fish along the inshore waters of Ceralvo Island with roosterfish, cabrilla, and pargo like these!
WEEKLY TAILHUNTER VIDEO CLIP
Click the link to check out the weekly video clip:
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 7-14, 2011
There was no shortage of fish if you wanted to catch dorado. For both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleet, the dorado were again the center of attention and made up more than 90 percent of the catch. There seem to be so many spots where the dorado are congregating some of the anglers were laughingly getting tired of finding dorado everywhere they looked.
Some days were better than others, but overall, there were limits or near limits of dorado almost every day. The only issue was whether the fish would be caught 1-by-1 over the fishing day or whether it was going to be slow all day topped off by explosion of finding a hungry school and the ensuing madness as every rod got bent!
Most of the fish were in the smaller 10 pound class, but there were a few larger in the 20-30 pound class. Larger baits usually drew the larger fish. It was good to hear that many of the anglers either dropped to lighter tackle or else catching and releasing so many of the smaller fish or realizing they had so many fish already in the freezer they released ALL their fish. A few of the guys even took the hooks off their surface lures just to watch the dorado slam the lures and take off with the lures only to let go and have another dorado pick it right up!
For other species, there were a few marlin and sails hooked and busted off. Roosterfishing could be as frantic as the dorado if you got into the school-sized fish. One group of our anglers threw Shimano wax wing lures all day-long and hooked rooster and after rooster but said with bait they could have been bent on every cast. Largest rooster of the week was a 60 pound fish taken by Tom Barnard who revived the fish and released it.
No tuna to speak of. They popped up here and there then moved off faster then we could chase ’em. No wahoo either.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
Big league bull dorado for Mike Rossi of Santa Ana who got this big guy to chomp a live sardine near Las Arenas. It was a decent week for dorado fishing for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleet.
That's an armful! One of the largest fish of the week taken by first-timer Mike Ehrlinger, from Orange Co. CA. He took this huge bulll...his first fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.
It's great to see first timers kick butt like Mac Oudin shown with Captain Adolfo from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Mac go this first dorado; his first sailfish (40 miinute fight and he released it!) and this beautiful roosterfish that he also released. Great sportsmanship, Mac! Gracias!
Here's another good sport. Bill Hughes really wanted a roosterfish this trip (his 2nd to see us), and he tried repeatedly to revive this one (he wasn't even trying to catch a rooster at the time, but it bit the lure in deep water and they thought it was a sailfish! Most roosters are caught in shallow water.). They repeatedly tried to "swim" the big fish back and forth but were unable to revive it. But, a great catch and the folks on the beach gladly accepted the gift of the fish for making machaca and soup.
Alex Gragg (middle) has been chomping at the bit for years, but his dad, Ken, who comes down several times a year told him he had to wait until he was 12-years-old to come to La Paz. So, he finally made it! Shown here with older brother, Steve, and Tailhunter Capt. Boli, they pose with some of their dorado from a good day of fishing!
It seems we have alot of great roosterfish stories this week. Harlie Deckhard from Arizona had hooked up to this big roosterfish off Las Arenas when the reel seized up and was ready to snap the line. Quick-thinking Captain Pancho grabbed another rod and while holding both lines, cut the line hooked to the fish and in the heat-of-battle, quickly spliced on the 2nd rod-and-reel and the fight continued! Great story. Great fish...which Harlie released after the photo!
It wasn't a big week for yellowfin tuna, but every few days the fish popped up. Most were like these held by Mike Ehlinger, Bernard Jain and Joe Fuschetti on Las Arenas beach. Note the other fish on the sand.
That's Rick Gil del Monte goofing in the back of Dave and Paul Henke holding up a few of their dorado they caught after 3 days fishing with our Tailhutner Las Arenas fleet.
It's a long way and a big difference between Baja and the Arctic Circle, but that's where Lisa and Colby lives but came down where she got this trophy bull dorado fishing our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
It's good to get a little help from your friends...especially when it's your birday! Mike Demple from AZ, celebrated his big day by zooming down to La Paz on a private plane with friends for a single day of fishing...just long enough to get a load of dorado like this one Mike holds with the help of Captain Boli from the Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.
This is about as good a representation of some of the many species you can catch in a single day right now. Jon Dunn, Captain Pancho, and Mike Rossi pose with a day's catch of tuna, dorado, barred pargo, triggerfish among others!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 1-7, 2011
It was one of those good-steady weeks of fishing down here around La Paz. Not off-the-charts, but fun solid fishing with good weather and some of the best ocean we’ve seen in awhile. Dorado were the main attraction with about 80 percent of the catch for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and Tailhunter La Paz fleet…albeit moreso for our La Paz anglers.
If all you really wanted to do was hang some fish; have some fun; put some fillets in the ice chest, then the “no-” was to just go fish for dorado. Slow troll some sardines in an area; find some floating weeds; or look for circling birds is pretty much how to swing it, but fast trolling with feathers or slow dragging some dead bonito strips also set off the bite. Most days the boats caught dorado as small as 5 pounders and as large as 40 pounders mostly but the majority of the fish were 10-15 pound school-sized fish. The larger fish continue to be taken by our La Paz fleet.
If you wanted a bit more variety, then fishing our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet was probably better. Dorado bite was OK at best with smaller schoolies, but at least you also had the opportunity to get into some of the good roosterfish, marlin, sailfish and the occasional elusive tuna.
Oh…a sighting of wahoo…two bites this week, but for the most part, no wahoo to speak of. I think this has been one of the poorest wahoo seasons I can remember. But, prime time wahoo season is still to come possibly…October and November! We’ll keep you posted!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
With a solid week of dorado fishing, it was a good spot for first timers to get either their first dorado or their biggest dorado. In some cases, it was BOTH. Jason Westra and captain Chito from the Tailhunter Fleet show off Jason's huge bull dorado taken near Espirito Santo Island. Rough seas left from missed hurricane Dora didn't slow down the dorado bite...much, but it was bumpy and windy many days.
All the way from Clovis, New Mexico, our amigo Dougie Idsinga was another of our anglers who got a personal best dorado! Check out the size. Doug's standing in Balandra Bay north of La Paz.
It wasn't a bad week for tuna, especially for our Las Arenas fishers with the bite being best at mid-week for football-sized tuna between 10-30 pounds like this one by my amigo, outdoor writer, editor and book author, Zack Thomas who came out from Arkansas. That's the tip of Cerralvo Island on the right side of the photos. Most of the tuna fishing has been taking place closer to the island now rather than running out to the 88.
Lots of amigos from all over visiting us these days. Neal Thomas all the way from New York on the left and Evan Cascio from Manhattan Beach on the right only had one day to fish with us on a quick run to La Paz, but made the most of it with a good day of dorado fishing.
This was a week when it seemed like about half the states in the U.S. were represented fishing with us...Alaska, Washington, Georgia, Texas, Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada, Idaho, Arkansas...just to name a few! Well, Miles Brown here is from Oregon and he and his dad got into some of the yellowfin tuna that bit this week for our Las Arenas fishermen.
This dorado is alot bigger than it looks because Wes Simpson from Atlanta GA, is about 6'4" tall. Wes and his amigos fished for an entire week straight hardcore.
Sam Sybesma from Long Beach CA took home a full ice chest of fillets after 3 days of fishing including this big bull dorado he's holding up after a day of fishing with our La Paz Fleet.
Another good example of the dorado bite we had this past week is Don Rea from Ventura fishing with his mom and dad for a week with us who had some banner days pulling on the dorado schools!
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Click this and watch Jason Westra’s reaction to pulling in his first and biggest bull dorado:
DORADO COME ON STRONG IN AFTERMATH OF DORA’s WINDS
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 24-31, 2011
It was a solid dorado week here in La Paz, but in all honesty, a strange strange fishing week. We dodged getting punched in the face by Hurricane Dora that came up the coast, but then veered outside with barely a cloud in the sky! But, it still left some residual effects Despite blazing hot sunshine and warm waters, it was windy enough most of the week for us to think it was spring. Winds were among the strongest we’ve seen in many a summer. It made for some unusually rough water and bouncy days not to mention uncomfortable fishing at times (mostly the winds died by noon)…but..
Thankfully the fish still bit!
For the most part, the dorado saved the week with dorado being the mainstay catch for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and Tailhunter La Paz fleets. There were some nice-sized fish also in the 30-50 pound class that turned out to be personal bests for the successful anglers, but most of the fish were in the 10-15 pound category with the occasional 20-25 pounder in the box. The fish are scattered all over. There are a number of “hot” spots that seem to hold concentrations of dorado but there’s also free-swimmers all over. Many times, the key is finding a fish willing to bite either on a slow troll or on a high spot or weed or current line then, while that fish is still on the line, toss some chum and see what else comes up. Maybe nothing. But maybe another 3, 4 , 5 or the whole school! Then, it’s hold onto your socks!
As for tuna, again up-and-down, but this past week, it was a little more up than down. No big boys, but quite a few 10 pound footballs…maybe 3-8 tuna per panga with our Las Arenas fleet. The fish are much closer near the island and high spots without having to run out to the 88 bank. Live bait and chunked dead bait work in bringing up the schools but a few guys got the schools going by trolling cedar plugs (natura color) that either hooked up to tuna or produced a dorado.
The rest of the catch was rounded out by some marlin and sailfish (most released) and quite a few fun roosterfish in the 10-20 pound class that was a great find for our flyfishers and light tackle fishers that worked Cerralvo Island this past week. No shortage of action!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Look at the head on this bull dorado! Randy Pelcher from Bishop CA was on his first trip here and took this big guy on his first day of his trip. There's some big dorado down here right now! Randy got this on a live sardine with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
It was another week where the ladies sometimes outfished the guys! Robin Sawaske from Carpenteria CA, was on her first trip ever and took this 40-pound class dorado fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.
It wasn't a spectacular week for tuna but we did have some nice flurries of tuna off Cerralvo Island that kept the rods bent on fish in the 10-30 pound category. On break from med school in Virginia, Robert Jackson, Jr, mugs with goofball captain Victor holding up a couple of tuna at Las Arenas Beach.
This has probably been one of the slowest wahoo years I can remember. Only a handful so far this season although we've been seeing the occasional fish here and there. But no one has been catching any! At least until Kevin Davis from Mustang, Oklahoma and nephew of our La Paz amigo Hawk Davis got this sweet fish north of Cerralvo Island. I dunno...I think he flew in from Oklahoma with a horseshoe in his back pocket. In additon to this trophy wahoo, he also got a blue marlin and released an 80-pound class roosterfish! Talk about first-timer luck! Great trip!
There's still some variety down here, especially if you fish the rocks inshore like Joe Adler from Mammoth CA who pulled this hefty barred pargo off a reef near Punta Arenas!
It was a good week for our flyfishers, like Spencer Sawaske who had a banner day catching-and-releasing 12 roosters like this one working the rocky eastern shoreline of Cerralvo Island.
Ken Milici lives up in the Eastern Sierras and came down the mountain to fish with us for the first time and is all smiles with this nice Las Arenas yellowftin tuna. The tuna appear to have moved in closer to the island these days.
Incredible colors on this great shot of Dr. Bill Thomas and Captain Jorge with a fresh dorado on the gaff!
It's rare that we have to do much trolling, but Robert Jackson of San Diego, who has been an amigo for years, decided to troll a cedar plug and knocked down a yellowftin tuna and this monster bull dorado...which set off a run of folks looking for cedar plugs at the local La Paz tackle stores!
DODGED A HURRICANE BUT LEFT WITH SCRATCHY FISHING!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 17-24, 2004
I guess even bigger than the fishing was the amount of focus garnered by the approach of Hurricane Dora that came up from Central America this past week that had us all watching. Reaching Category 4 status with 150 mph winds and huge seas, early predictions had southern Baja in it’s track. So we waited and watched …and waited and watched…and it’s all everyone talked about all week. At our Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the La Paz waterfront, we were getting the rain ponchos and sandbags ready. We were dreading the weekend since we’ve been full with clients all week and are in the prime of the season.
And then…well…gratefully NOTHING HAPPENED! We did some strong winds and chop with some big swell from the south, but it beat getting battered by Hurricane Dora. At least we got out fishing and most folks still did OK with the fishing and, although we had to work hard for fish, most folks went home with a load in the coolers.
The most consistent bite were again the dorado. More prevailant with our La Paz fleet than our Las Arenas fleet, nonetheless, most days it was limits or near limits of mahi ranging from school-sized 5-10 pounders to 20-40 pounders. There might have been some larger ones in the count, but there were some legit 40-50 pounders busted off on lighter tackle after long battles.
Again, the weed lines north of La Paz were productive areas we as were the areas around SE Espiritu Santo Island, Las Cruces, and Punta Mejia. For our La Las Arenas fleet, dorado were found at the 88 spots, the inner and outer buoys as well as marauding in the areas between Punta Arena lighthouse and South Point of Cerralvo Island.
I don’t know about Las Arenas. The whole year, the bite there has been anemic. One week great…next week so-so. One day great. Next day we have trouble getting bait. Hopefully, things will improve. Some years, La Paz is the tougher side. This year, it’s just the opposite. Las Arenas struggles.
For the tuna bite, none of the big sluggers this week, but it seemed that every -other-day for our Las Arenas anglers, the tuna would pop up and everyone would get 3-8 football-sized tuna in the 20-40 pound class. Pretty much the perfect size for most anglers. Enough of a fight without the 1-2 hour battles often ending in heartache when it gets lost. The footballs were plenty work-out for most! Some days the fish, interestingly, would eat only live or dead sardines. The next time they would only eat trolled lures like Rapalas, feathers and for some reason…Cedar Plugs (natural colored) worked nicely when they never seemed to have been very effective before except for catching bonito.
Some other notes…our flyfishermen this week did exceptionally well. Several worked the easter-side of Cerralvo Island and found the schools of 10-15 pound roosters in the shallows that were a great battle on 8-10wt flyrods. Vicki Mitchell from Carmel CA hooked one really sweet 35 pound dorado that put up a big fight and really tore it up on the flyrod for her.
As well, it’s not been a really great wahoo season, but conditions have certainly seemed good for it. However, we’ve caught very few this year. I can only think of a handful taken, but that could also be because no one has really worked the area. Well, this past week, three were hooked and one landed at the north end of Cerralvo Island.
Still quite a few billfish in the area. Sailfish up to 100 pounds and striped marlin up to about 120 were hooked and lost. Most billfish are getting released. However, there were several blues up to about 300 pounds hooked and lost as well plus one fish estimted at possibly being a “grander” (1000 pounder) was seen by some very experienced free divers in the blue water.
That’s our story
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
Wow! What an excellent photo. This is our amiga from Oregon, Debbie White, with Captain Pancho. She always seems to do well here and take great photos like this (actually, husband Don takes the shots!), but check out the colors on this big bull dorado she got fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. There's some nice bulls out there!
It was a good week for the ladies to show the guys a thing-or-two! First timer amiga from San Diego, Leanne Pleasants, fished off Espiritu Santo Island for a day and took limits of dorado with her family including this nice mahi!
That's our son, Jarrett Pfost, with a nice dorado and standing behind him is first timer and new funny amigo, Gary Pleasants from San Diego. They spent a day working the sargasso weeds north of La Paz for some limits of dorado.
Yes...there's still tuna around. Check out Don and Debbie! Debbie was actually on a fish estimated over 100 pounds for an hour and it came off right next to the boat. The tuna bite has been sporadic at best. One day there's fish and then several days of nothing but empty ocean. Fish have ranged from 25-150 pounds and are around Cerralvo Island with some schools moving closer.
It was another good week for marlin and sailfish for both of our Tailhunter Fleets. Most of the fish are breaking off or are getting released. Rick Hosmer took this underwater shot of one that ate his jig. We had two fish estimated over 300 pounds bust off and we also had our spearfisher buddy, John Peretti, who has had several spearfishing records line up and take a shot on a fish estimated over 1000 pounds...and miss. The water was so clear he unfortunately misjudged the distance and the spear shaft dropped short! He said, "I missed the fish of a liftime!" He said he saw the big blue eating big bonito beneath the surface.
Fish Brother, Ray Laney, spent an entire week with us and fished every single day! He had a spectacular week fishing with our La Paz fleet hooking 5 or 6 mariln/sailfish and numerous dorado like this big bull!
Big smiles from Diana Pleasants with her first roosterfish which was released. It was another good week for the roosters, especially around the Las Arenas area. Diana is from San Diego.
Just after Stan Andre took this photo of his buddy, Terry Hawk and his dorado, he dropped his iPhone in the water. It started working two days later and they were able to save this photo of Terry and his nice bull dorado!
For those of us who consider needlefish the curse of the ocean, take a look at this beast being held up by Captain Raul!
PARTING SHOT! Everyone tries to take photos of leaping fish, but it's harder than it looks. First to take the photo. Second to make it look good! These fish are moving faster then it looks! Rick Hosmer caught this one perfectly in mid-flight!
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Click the link to see some of the video and still images from the week:
Video 1: Debbie White struggles with a 100-pound tuna!
Video 2: Some summary shots and clips of the week
SLIGHTLY OFF-WEEK AS FULL MOON HITS BUT DORADO STAY STRONG WITH OTHER SPECIES FILLING IN!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 10-17, 2011
Maybe it was the full moon coming up on us, but it was an up-and-down week with the fishing here. It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t exactly off-the-charts either. Weather was hot and muggy and very tropical and we had some little showers here and there ,but overall pretty nice weather, but the fishing was good some days and so-so on other days.
Like previous weeks, dorado led the way and were the predominant catch. Our La Paz fleet continued to do the best. There’s quite a bit of sargasso formed up along the current lines and you just have to find the right spots. The general pattern seemed to indicate that fish were all over under the weeds, but the best bite was usually late. A common comment from many of our anglers was that they were “bored” or “almost giving up on the day” as captains tried to get the reluctant fish to bite. All of a sudden somewhere between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. fish would start hitting. Maybe it was 1 at-a-time. Maybe it would be a whole slam school that hit the boat and all craziness would break out. But, at the end of the day, folks would look in the fix box and go “Hmmmm…I guess we DID get some fish!” and grin. Most of the fish were not big fish but there was alot of action and there were some spots where we hooked into some 30-40 pounders. We also lost quite a few fish as well for whatever reasons!
For our Las Arenas fleet, the elusive tuna continued to be the bug-a-boo for anglers. One day, they’d hit the 88 spot that has been producing tuna for several week and nothing would even sniff. Not a fish…not a bird…no porpoise schools…NOTHING! Next day, guys would go out there and 20-150 pounders would be all over the place! Go figure. So, it was either hit or miss with the tuna. There’s definitely some big boys still out there. We had several larger models get away and one fish straightened a hook on an angler of ours.
If the tuna weren’t working there were scattered dorado schools to be hunted out at the buoys just offshore from Las Arenas and pangas will leap-frog each other trying to find some fish that will bite. There’s also ALOT of billfish activity working all areas as well. A number of smaller striped marlin and sailfish were hooked and released this week and several blue marlin in the 300-pound category were also hooked and lost.
As well, if you want a roosterfish, those have been our saving species on days when other stuff just wasn’t biting. Find some sandy areas of beach or some drop offs and it’s been a good season for roosterfish, especially for the school-sized fish in the 5-40 pound class.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
It was pretty much a candy store out there this past week if you wanted to catch a dorado. Most days, it was pretty hard not to catch one. Some days were better than others, but no question that dorado season is in full swing with fish ranging from 5-50 pounds. Sacramento amigo, Jim Klein poses on Las Arenas beach near the lighthouse ith a nice female he caught his first day fishing.
I don't have any photos of big tuna to show you this week but this pair of yellowfin were "big enough" for first time La Paz visitors Anna and Shaun Ramirez from Oregon. The tuna were sporadic all week, but they were closer to Cerralvo Island than having to head all the way out to the 88 spot. We seemed to scratch out a few every day with most fish in the 15-30 pound class.
This was probably the best week for marlin and sailfish of the season . Justin Whisler got this one just off Cerralvo Island. Every day we hooked a few and some days, the fish were so voracious and pesky that the guys complained that the fish were literally following them from one spot to another. The problem also was that the guys would be fishing for dorado on light tackle using sardines and all of a sudden a striped marlin or sail would grab the bait and swallow it...FISH ON! But, it's hard to release fish that swallow the whole bait and get gut hooked. Fortunately, most of the billfish all week were released which is why I don't have more photos and also because we encourage catch-and-release. This one nice sail is one of those that could not be released and looks ilke a perfect wall mount just taken off the wall for this picture. Cerralvo Island is in the background.
The week started out a tad shaky for our La Paz fleet, but once it got going, it was pretty much no-brainer limits most days if you headed north from the city and put a line in the water. Dorado were on fire. Arizona amigos, Shaun Preston and Rex Smith show off a pair of good mahi. The got limits almost every day fishing 4 days with Tailhunter International.
Every year, Mike Sontag makes it down to visit us from the Phoenix area and this year brought first-timer Dan Baldwin standing here at Las Arenas beach with two of the nicer-grade yellowfin tuna we picked up this week. Fish were closer this week.
From Monterey CA, Ear Lawson gets an assist on a big bull dorado from Captain Joel. They were fishing north from La Paz towards Espirito Santo Island.
That's alot of bull...dorado! We got quite a number of sizeable fish this past week with both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets. Jeff Huff from Washington poses with his largest bull of the week which was estimated in the 45-pound class.
San Diego in the house...Dave Garibay on the right. Chas Wilson on the left with three of their yellowfin tuna they ended up bringing back to our Tailhunter Restuarant for a big dinner for their respective families.
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 3-10, 2011
No question, it’s summer down here with temperature firmly
in the upper 90’s every day now and feeling very tropical with occasionally
short strong showers here and there breaking way to blazing sunshine.
And, if it’s summer, it must be dorado season because that’s what lead the
charge all week. For both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets, the
majority of the fish were dorado. Some really nice fish too. There
were fewer of the small schoolies and more legit 10-20 pounders coming up but
also some great bulls in the 25-40 pound class.
Fish are spread out. For our Las Arenas fleet, the
fish could pop up everywhere, but the most targeted areas were the commercial
buoys not far offshore where our pangas play leapfrog over each other checking
out buoy-after-buoy as one boat would get ahead of another. But, more
often than not, if one buoy didn’t play our or was occupied by a panga or two,
the next would be “available” and could hold 1, 2 or perhaps a school
of hungry mahi. Just throw a few baits! If they come up, throw more
with hooks in them. If not, move onto the next one. Not every day
was productive and not every boat did as well as others, but if you fished
several days, no question you’d have a good load of dorado to take home.
Actually, the biggest problem was getting live sardines. Some
days were easier than others to get.
For our La Paz fleet, no problem with the baits and the
dorado schools were swarming most days with most of the larger fish being taken
north of town and around the eastern corner between Punta Mejia and Las Cruces.
But the fish could pop up anywhere or anytime. Often, the key might be
finding a patch of weeds; a current line; or keeping your eyes peeled for 2 or
3 birds dogging a fish or two that might be pushing bait to the surface.
All it takes is finding one and often others would also be in the area.
Not much in the way of tuna, but we did get into a few off
Cerralvo Island. We didn’t have to go all out to the 88 spot to find
them. Most of the fish were closer into the island and in the 20-30 pound
class. Everyday we seemed to get a few, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly
where they would show up or if larger schools were moving through the
area. Sometimes live smaller sardines worked. Sometimes slow
trolled feathers produced a bit. Other times, chunking dead sardines in
an area or chopping up bits of bonito produced hookups.
The biggest surprise, might have been the billfish bite this
past week. It got to the point where several clients were getting a bit
frustrated with hooking so many sailfish or marlin while trying to catch
dorado! Some boats hooked 2 or 3 a day and were getting tired of fighting
the fish and having to deal with trying not to harm the billfish so they could
be released and sometimes it wasn’t possible. Not to mention burning up
time fighting a billfish on light tackle using up time when the guys wanted to
be targeting other species. But, the marlin would often follow the pangas
around. They’d sweep in and grab any bait tossed in the water (like
sealions!) or grab the smallest feather or hootchie trolled behind the
boat! None of the fish were especially large. Most were in the
80-120 pound class, but fortunately we were able to release most.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Lead off picture of the week was a "no miss!" What a great shot and great colors on this dorado taken by 18-year-old Jess Miller who was here as a graduation present with his grandfather. Captain Jorge adds and extra smile. There weren't alot of big ones this week, but there was enough activity with the dorado to keep folks happy. Jess caught this fish with our Las Arenas fleet.
Amy Sawaske from Bakersfield is our poster girl of the week. She told everyone (husband and father-in-law) that she was going to "kick everyone's backside with more and bigger fish". She talked up the smack big time. And...she backed it up! She actually did have a great week. Even when dad and hubby were getting queasy, she was still standing up and pulling on fish. Take a look a the collage we did of Amy below in the other pictures. Here she's got a decent dorado she caught north of La Paz. Fairly typical of the fish this week. There were some bigger dorado out there including some 30-50 pounders hooked...but not landed. Most tended to be school-sized fish in the 10-15 pound class which were great fun when they swarmed the boats!
This tuna held up by Captain Victor of our Las Arenas fleet and caught by Earl "Butch" Lawson might be the biggest fish of the week for us for reasons that have nothing to do with the size of the fish! About 20 months ago, Butch was on life support in a Las Vegas hospital and the doctors basically telling the family they were going to do a 6-way-by-pass but to say good-bye because he probably would NOT survive the surgery. His son, Earl had this to say, "He was in surgery all day and received a 6-way bypass. Sometime the next day he was starting to come around so I decided to try to lift his spirits. I held out a couple fingers and told him to grab my fingers with his left hand. I told him to pull them toward him, then (when he did) I said, "Reel! Reel! Yeah, you're gonna be okay." The smile on his face was priceless. Getting back to La Paz has been his goal during his recovery." So, this trip was his "coming out" party and he was all smiles! Congratulations, Butch. Gracias a Dios!
During the winter, our good amigo, Jim Newman from Chicago sends me pictures of frozen Chicago and frozen Lake Superior! I love the way he fishes...light tackle...inshore...and throwing lures! He gets hammered by fish like this huge jack crevalle that's one of the toughest fighters around. And he releases almost all his fish too! He got this badboy fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.
Mike Crisp from San Antonio, TX was one of the lucky guys who put one of the big-boy tuna into the boat. He got this nice fish near Cerralvo Island.
After you've fought a few of these big tuna, it's alot easier to just lie down next to them for the photo op then trying to pick them up when someone wants a photo! Will Long from San Francisco area got two nice tuna out by Cerralvo Island.
As I said above, Amy Sawaske from Bakersfield CA "walked the walk" and "talked the talk" when she came for the first time this week with her husband and father in law. She smack-talked them all week about catching more and bigger fish than them. Check the photos. Not bad for a first-timer! The rooster WAS released as were ALL the roosters she caught (I think about 8 of them). And truth be told, her family could not have been happier that she outfished them. She's surely this week's poster-gal!
After 9 days of diving over 100 feet and holding his breath up to an incredible 5-minutes each time and 6-8 hours in the water, Johan Jacobs from S. Africa shot these two pargo near the north end of Cerralvo Island. He said he has the "bug" for pargo now and said he saw so many fish down there hiding in caves and under ledges that he did not shoot or were impossible to shoot. Many days he did not shoot any fish. But says he is hooked on chasing the elusive pargo and cabrilla.
TUNA ELUSIVE BUT DORADO PICK UP THE SLACK!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 27-July 3, 2011
Let’s put it this way. Everyone is catching
fish. But, there’s just no consistency to the fishing right now. If
you walked up to me this past week and asked whether to fish Las Arenas or La
Paz or what you might catch, I would have to shrug my shoulders.
Ask me about the wind or the weather and you’d get the same
response. The fishing and the weather has been all over the boards
this past week. But…everyone caught fish…as long as they fished more
than one day. If they only fished one day…there’s a chance that
it could be one of those off-days. At least if you fished several days,
you had a good chance of getting into fish!
Compared to last week, we surely did not get into the big cow
tuna out of Las Arenas from the 88 spot or along the buoys. In fact,
nothing over 100 pounds this week. But then again, we didn’t really work
the area very hard because many days it was just too windy! Several times
when we did go out there, it was just too rough to hang or else the drift
was so strong. So, it was hard to give the area it’s proper
workout. Still, we did manage up some decent tuna in the 5-45 pound
class. Quite a range. It was funny because one boat would get the 5
pounders and the next boat would be hanging the 40 pounders.
For our Las Arenas fleet, if the 88 spot wasn’t happening,
there were some decent dorado at the buoys. Of course, you had to wade
through the “dink dorado” that were about the size of big trout, but
the larger fish in the 15-30 pound category were out there.
Inshore, roosterfish continued to put on a good show. Our largest fish
released this week was estimated at 50 pounds, but lots of little 5-10 pounders
caught and let go.
For our La Paz fleet, about the only consistent thing to say
was that if it was windy, the fishing was tough. If the winds laid down,
then we found dorado. Again, lots of punk fish, but we also had some good
20-40 pound bulls as well as a few marlin hookups as well. Some of
the rocky areas are really holding some nice pargo and fat cabrilla. But,
the dorado bite did do much better as the week went on as we found schools
north of town near Espiritu Santo and around the Las Cruces and Punta Mejia
areas. Finding floating structure as
well as the temperature breaks were key.
As I write this, we’re keeping an eye on the weather. There’s thunderstorms predicted the next few
days that could mean nothing or some short quick showers. I know we’ve seen some great lightning shows
in the morning (no rain) as the sun comes up.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Tailhunter Fish Report 