Tailhunter Fish Report

PHOTO 1: Marissa Rendall from Hermosa Beach CA shows off the two main fish we caught all week…dorado and yellowfin tuna. This was Marissa’s first time fishing and she enjoyed the tuna sashime we made for her at the Tailhunter Bar that evening. She was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and Capt. Pancho.

PHOTO 1: Megan Premoe from Washington State was on her first ocean-fishing trip as well as her first trip to La Paz. She made no bones about telling folks she was going ot catch the largest fish! Well, take a look at this estimated 60-pound toad yellowfin tuna. Not only did she catch this fish, but she pulled it in herself even though the fish was TAIL-WRAPPED making it almost impossible to turn and double-hard to bring in! She got this fish on live bait at the north end of Cerralvos Island.

PHOTO 2: Captain Adolfo (“Yofo”) poses with San Diegans Steve Vargo and Robert Thoma and 6 of their yellowfin tuna. The guys came back to the beach at 10:30 a.m. I thought something was wrong, but they told me, “Hey…we’re just tired! My arm is tired! This is plenty of fish!” Good reason. The fish ranged from 15-20 pounds and popped up just off the beach between the old Hotel Las Arenas and the Arenas lighthouse.

PHOTO 3: He’s become one of our poster-guys. This our amigo, Don Melucci and Tony Gabriola who got into the tuna and broke off a few as well using light tackle. These were nice fat fish in the 20-pound class and eat the smaller sardine baits.

PHOTO 4: The catch…a nice rooster caught by Terry Biggs this week…that’s one good part. (see below)

PHOTO 5: The best part…THE RELEASE! Captain Jorge releases Terry’s roosterfish to fight another day. Bravo to all.

PHOTO 6: Dorado are still the mainstay for our La Paz fleet. The fish are holding in several areas and these nice fish are typical of those held by Richard Keogh and Jim Davis from Northern Cal. Live bait and stripped pieces of bonito work best.

PHOTO 7: It’s only October, but we got ALOT of sierra this week. Normally, these are cold water fish that show up around November or December and hang out during the winter. However, there were a few days when you could catch as many as you wanted. These are great eating fish and fantastic on light tackle. If you wanted to go no further than stay in La Paz Bay all day, you could nail limits of sierra in short order. Jim Davis holds a pair.

TUNA AND DORADO MIX-IT-UP FOR SOME STEADY FISHING

La Paz/ Las ARenas Fishing Report for the Week of September 20-27, 2009

Overall, a pretty solid week of fishing here highlighted by the re-appearance of schools of 15-30 pound tuna right off the the beach near Las Arenas, near the old hotel as well as in front of Muertos Bay. Another school of larger fish in the 30-60 pound class showed up and busted up the anglers at the north end of Cerralvo Island. It made for some good catches.

However, the mainstay fish continued to be dorado. There were small fish in the 10 pound class, but some nicer 20-30 pound models with sprinklings of thelarger 30-40 pound bulls. The dorado were scattered in numerous spots all the way south from Punta Pescadero to the north end of Espiritu Santo Island. No one particular place seemed to be the hot spot. You could encounter dorado pretty much anywhere. Sometimes you would dink and scratch for a few fish here and there or you could blank all day then at the 11th hour run into a nice school willing to go on the wild chew and all hell would bust loose!

A few billfish were hooked and either released or lost. No wahoo to speak of. However, late-season roosterfish and pargo are still in the shallows with some of the roosters bring trophy-class 50-90 pound fish. Squid pop up for a day then disappear. No real trend to speak of with the big squirters. Everyone is getting fish is the bottom line. Even for the light tackle guys…small roosters, jacks, sierra, pompano and snapper can keep you busy all day long!

AUCTION FOR JACK VELEZ

We wanted to thank all of you who reached out and bid for the two custom rods that were being auctioned off for the family of Jack Velez.

The Whopper Stopper Mini rod went to Art Savedra of Las Vegas for $300.

The Seeker bait stick was won by Richard Winslow for $275.

You guys who kept up the lively bidding are awesome. Ed Robison of Whopper Stopper Rods http://whopperstoppers.976-tuna.com/

and Vic Ochoa who wrapped the Seeker blank, you also rock. Thanks, amigos!

In fact, just to bring you up-to-date, money for the family continues to trickle in. In a few weeks, the season will slow down and we plan to have a memorial dinner for Jack and will surprise the family with a check as well as a card with everyone’s names who donated. You’re the best! Mil gracias por todo!

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

PHOTO 1: THIS IS THE KIND WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR! Bigger yellowfin tuna popped up at the north end of Cerralvo Island this week that bent rods, back and stamina! Brian O’Neill took down this 60 pound class toad yellowfin tuna fishing with Captain Adolfo and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet . It was a long run to the north island, but it paid off in some of the largest tuna of the year.

PHOTO 2: What a week for Leif Dover who rolled in all the way from Atlanta GA . He booked 6 straight days of hardcore fishing just to catch a single roosterfish. He got a 35, 45, 50 and this fish estimated at 80-85 pounds. All the fish were released. He also go tuna and dorado on the week as well. The big roosters bit live ladyfish trolled behind the boat.

PHOTO 2: The man behind the fish is first-timer, Brian Meier, from Oregon hit this big boy on his first day fishing out of Las Arenas with Captain Adolfo. Estimated at more than 65 pounds (by the captain), it was caught off the Las Arenas lighthouse area and was released after the photo. It was a good week for the big roosters and most of them were caught fishing with our Captain Adolfo (Yofo).

PHOTO 3: Ladies Day! On the beach is Jillene Roldan of La Paz (tuna) , (Mom) Janille Todd from Spring Valley CA celebrating her birthday in La Paz (dorado): Captain Jorge holding jack crevalle; and “Lucky” (Auntie) Maryann Hendren from San Diego (tuna). There was a nice mix of fish out’ve Las Arenas all week.

PHOTO 4: Nice sized football tuna held up by John Brown from Eugene OR and Ray Miklich from Pueblo CO, holds a dorado. Most anglers this week took home a nice mixture of tuna and dorado. Most of the tuna were caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 5: Quentin Abramo and Mike Koontz were on their first trip to La Paz this past week and hold up a few of the yellowfin tuna that poked up off Cerralvo Island a a few other spots this week.

PHOTO 6: Never too late to start! This is Frank Burgess from Kansas City. First time ever on the ocean. He showed ’em how it’s done and ran circles ar0und some of the other anglers here holding up just one of his fish. Frank came with his son Allen Burgess, who is one of our regulars. They fished 5 straight days and Frank just keep rolling…never getting tired!

PHOTO 7: Just an incredible shot of a marlin. This is John Chase’s striped marlin just after being hooked south of Muertos Bay. You won’t get many special shots like this with full action!

PHOTO 8: Charlie Gibson is actually really happy to have cuaght his nice female dorado fishing with Captain Chito and our La Paz fleet north of La Paz. The dorado fishing got better as the week went on. Stripped pieces of dead fresh bonito worked best to get the fish to charge the pangas.

PHOTO 9 : In this job one of the best things is that we get all kinds of folks. It’s what makes it fun. Jess Franco never has a dull moment. He came in with a big group of retired firefighters this past week and came down to the pool at La Concha Beach Resort wearing a bikini top. He proceeded to walk around the pool sending mothers and small children scurrying away!

PHOTO 10: Steve Linenberger retired from years working for CBS Sports and loves Harley’s and fishing. He got into our nice tuna bite earlier in the week. He holds a couple he nailed off Las Arenas near the old hotel.

GOOD WEEK OF FISHING HIGHLIGHTED BY 60-POUND TUNA and BIG ROOSTERFISH

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 13-20, 2009

It looks like we’re finally back on track. Steady to good fishing for our La Paz fleet for dorado ranging in size from 5-40 pound fish.

The schools are scattered north of the city all the way from Las Cruces to the gap between the islands then on the west side of Espiritu Santo near Isla Ballena across the bay all the way over to San Juan de la Costa in front of the mining town. Quite a few smaller fish, but cruiser bulls seemed to join the party as the week went on. The better fishing came on our pangas that were able to get big bonito in the morning and use the carcasses or strips of bonito to chum up the schools to the boat or entice a bite on the troll then get the fish to bite on flylined sardines. Not a bad idea, if you’re coming down to bring some hoochies to small tuna feathers to catch bonito. The faster you get your bonito, the faster to the fishing grounds.

The big news for our Las Arenas fleet was the appearance of larger tuna. Over the course of the week, 10-15 pound footballs had teased the fleet with our pangas getting 2-5 fish each from various spots around Espiritu Santo Island mixed in with some dorado, pargo and cabrilla as well as sierra. Late in the week, 30-60 pound fish showed up at Northern Cerralvo that really tore into the anglers. These were bigger grumpier fish and fishermen had their hands full and rods bent! Only problem is that it’s a long boat ride from Las Arenas Beach all the way up along the side of the island to get the fish, but no one complained once they came back with those big fillets!

By the way, waters must be getting cooler! We’re getting alot of sierra all of a sudden. Normally, we run into sierra when the waters are cooler and generally not until November so, but some boats ran smack into schools of these toothy guys.

As a side note…roosterfish are still here, over 6 days of fishing, Leif Dover and Brian O’Neill specifically came to chase roosters. They posted smaller fish, but tallied an 85 pound beast as well as a 35, 45m 59 abd 65- pound fish that were all released.

FACEBOOK

Last week, I told you that I started posting up daily reports on FACEBOOK under my name, JONATHAN ROLDAN. However, I didn’t know that we already had an account under TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL. So, if you’d like to check out DAILY reports, get on as a fan of TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL on FACEBOOK. Over the past two weeks, I”ve posted photos and items about the fishing and our Tailhunter Bar that may not necessarily make it onto the weekly fishing report.

JACK VELEZ FUND

At this time, we have bids on the two custom rods offered to raise funds for the family of Jack Velez. On the mini-Whopper Stopper rods, we have a current bid of $140. On the Seeker bait stick, we have a current bid of $70. If you’re interested, we’ll hold the auction open for one more week. Just send me an e-mail to riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

Have a great week!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

PHOTO 1: Arizona resident, John Chase, came down to dive and fish with us and put this pretty bull dorado in the panga fishing with Captain Pancho and our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Great colors and a great photo. Dorado were on-again-off-again, but some spots produced limits or near limits. It changed from day-to-day.

PHOTO 2: Just another fantastic dorado photo that really shows out the colors of one of the prettiest fish in the water. Paul Mohklenbuhr is a retired firefighter from the Sacramento CA area and he put the hurt on this nice bull dorado fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and Captain Jorge.

PHOTO 3: Yes…we got some tuna this week. Early in the week, Dave Bean got one of the teaser football tuna that kept popping up and then disappearing while fishing south of Cerralvo Island. There were some larger 40-50 pound fish lost. Late in the week, some 30 pounders showed up schooling and got everyone excited. Maybe by the time you’re reading this, we’ll be going full turbo on the nicer grade of fish. That’s Todd Rudaitis with his back to the camera on another fish!

PHOTO 4: Might be one of the larger dorado of the week when big fish weren’t real common so you’d think Aaron Hamilton would be smiling. But, he said it was hard to hold up! Normally, Aaron goes after his game and fish with a bow since he works for Martin Archery. He caught this nice bull north of La Paz with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet and Captain Raul.

PHOTO 5: This is our gal, Jessie Pfost, who just moved to Las Vegas after just graduating from college. She came down and spent a week with us putting up not only with her two parents, but hurricane Jimena as well that put a damper on her vacation. However, once the sun came out, things got better. She got this bull dorado off Punta Coyote and then came back and her boyfriend, Brian Reid, proposed to her! She got a ring and everything! Congratulations, Jessie!

PHOTO 6: Ed Janas spent years coming down to Baja trying to catch “just one roosterfish” unsuccessfully. We sent him to the east side of Cerralvo Island where he slammed and released over a dozen roosters as well as dorado, pargo and other species all on light tackle! Notice how close they are to the island. All the fish were caught on live bait and released…except the dorado…which they brought back to the Tailhunter Bar for dinner!

PHOTO 7: Here’s another one of Dave Bean with a dorado he hung just south of Muertos Bay where he and Todd Rudaitis (battling his own fish) got limits earlier in the week.

PHOTO 8 : Sarah Hamilton from Washington State wanted us to adopt her. She didn’t want to leave after spending 3 days fishing and 2 days finishing up her open water PADI dive certification. We sure enjoyed her and her husband, Aaron. Sarah was a gamer…she could fish and dive all day and loved the Tailhunter mai tais at night. She loves the outdoors and is an accomplished bow hunter.

PHOTO 9 : Still swinging it’s tail, this big bull dorado wants to smack Pete Hansen from the San Francisco Bay area. Pete was fishing north of La Paz and got this fish on live bait. Best bait all week for the larger fish were strips of dead bonito trolled behind the boat to get the fish near then dropping a live sardine back onto them.

PHOTO 10: When Pete Hansen told me he was coming down with Sam Hansen, I figured he was bringing his son or his brother. It was his lovely wife “SAMANTHA.” Fishing with Captain Joel, she shows off one of her dorado she just gaffed.

FISHING ALL OVER THE PLACE FROM SLOW TO EXCELLENT AS AREA RECOVERS FROM STORM BUT EVERYONE GETTING FISH!

La Paz / Las ARenas Fishing Report for week of Sept. 6-12, 2009

A bit of a mixed week down here. At first, I thought that the hurricane hadn’t done much to us and on the surface, the waters and conditions seemed amazing. It wasn’t turned over or muddy or full of debris as is normal after a storm. Fish were still around. However, as the week went on, the bite got a little more spotty…a little more scratchy. Everyone got fish. The dorado are still bending the rods, but the fish seemed to move around a lot. They weren’t schooling up like normal. We had to work harder to find them and keep them around. One area could be red-hot on day and stone cold the next without even a bonito around. Like I said, it just meant we had to hunt a little harder. Dorado were the mainstay with fish about 10-20 pounds on the average, but larger fish showing up later in the week in the 30-40 pound class.

We did notice one thing. If you could get bonito early in the morning and use them for strip bait, you had the btter shot at gettting the larger dorado, especially for our La Paz fleet anglers. The dorado wouldn’t necessarily bite the bonito bait, but it would draw them in then you’d feed them back a live sardine and WHAM! By the way, weather is great…mid-90’s but it can be windy and rough in the morning so if you’re coming down, keep that in mind! Some guys got a little queasy.

One FLASH!

We did get a few tuna from our Las Arenas fleet. The fish were 10-15 pounds, but two larger fish estimated at 40-50 pound by our captain were lost. Then, late in the week…we hit a school of 30-40 pound fish that put the hurt on a few guys! (That’s why you come down here, right?). Anyway, hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, we’ll be into a regular tuna bit. I’ll keep you posted.

As well, we had a few marlin and sails come up. No calamari or wahoo to speak of, but we had some anglers who wanted to fish inshore and had an outstanding time on roosterfish, pargo, cabrilla and other rock fish with non-stop action.

NFL and COLLEGE BALL at the TAILHUNTER BAR

Just an FYI that we have NFL! It’s great to finally come into a season and have 7 flat screens carrying all the college and NFL games. Whooo-hoooo!!! After 15 years here to finally be able to watch AMERICAN football and have all our friends and guests and clients over with cold cerveza and good food is incredible for Jill and I.

We had on the USC vs. Ohio State game last night and were packed. Right now as I write this, we’ve got NFL on all the flat screens going and tomorrow night a double-header for Monday Night Football.

Also, we now have Tecate Beer Co. aboard. We’re excited because that brings us Tecate, Dos Equis, Indio and Sol Beer. We’ve been carrying all the Pacifico line…Corona, Corona Light, Pacifico, Pacifico Light, Bud and Bud Light, Estrella, and Modelo Dark and Modelo Light ON TAP in ice mugs!

Oh…and we also started serving breakfast as well and it’s been a big hit. We’ve got the best pancakes and huevos rancheros on the waterfront! And we plan to add chicken wings and sushi rolls to the menu this week too!

FACE BOOK

If you FACEBOOK Jonathan Roldan, I’ve started to be a little better. I’m going to be posting almost daily with little snippets that might not show up in the regular fishing report. All week, I’ve had mini-fishing reports and photos as well as things going on at the TAILHUNTER BAR. If you comment, I probably will not be able to respond to everyone, but will try. Don’t be offended if I don’t! But, I know many of you die-hards like to know almost daily what’s going on so I figured I’d better get better at FACEBOOK.

JACK VELEZ MEMORIAL FUND

Thank you to so many of you who donated to the fund for the family or our friend Jack Velez who passed away earlier this summer. The response has been fantastic. Money is still trickling in and at the end of the season, we plan to do a surprise memorial dinner for Jack for the family and present them with a check and a card with everyone’s names on it.

To that end…we have to great amigos who have donated their services to the cause

1. Ed Robison of Whopper Stopper Rods http://whopperstoppers.976-tuna.com/

and the famous mini-rod, has put one of his custom sticks up for auction. Starting price for the auction is $140.

2. Victor Ochoa, our long-time amigo, has also put up one of his custom sticks. It’s a 7′ Seeker stick double wrapped in blue. Starting bid is $75.

I”ll hold these open for 2 weeks. Write me directly at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com if you have a bid and which rod you are bidding on. If someone tops your bid, I will write you back. The bidding starts Sunday, Sept. 13. Thanks for all your good thoughts!

That’s our story
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://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: 044-612-14-1786

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

PHOTO 1: Here it comes! It’s getting angry out there…Hurricane Jimena starts to roll into Baja.

PHOTO 2: I don’t have photos of La Paz during the hurricane because there was nothing really to take pictures of…moving palm fronds? Puddles of water? This, on the other hand, is Cabo San Lucas which dodged a bullet ,but still got some heavy winds and rains as well as big surf since it faces the open ocean, unlike La Paz.
Thanks to Bil Pulford for the photos.

PHOTO 3: Dave Duenas from Rialto CA took time off from his police work and got in some good fishing for dorado before the storm hit. He got this nice bull fishing north of La Paz with our Tailhunter Fleet.

PHOTO 4: Two of our best amigos who visit us yearly, Steve Huth and Billie Nash from the Glendora area new Los Angeles CA hold up an excellent “variety” of fish they caught earlier in the week fishing with our Tailhunter Las ARenas fleet. Steve holds up a barred pargo and roosterfish (the smaller ones taste pretty good). Billie hangs onto a handful of dorado and a pompano.

PHOTO 5: Sunny Chung from Santa Clarita CA is also a police officer and got into a really nice snap of dorado fishing with our Captain Chito with our La Paz fleet. Before the storm, the dorado bite had just started to pick up.

PHOTO 6: Eileen Dann from Los Angeles got a nice batch of dorado and here holds up a prized barred pargo mulatto.

FISHING INTERRUPTED BY HURRICANE JIMENA ALTHOUGH LA PAZ ESCAPES SERIOUS DAMAGE

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for week of Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, 2009

Not much to show you in the way of fishing this week. We spent most of the week in lockdown as Hurricane Jimena ran towards us with Category 4 written all over it. We taped windows, hoarded water and flashlight batteries and sandbagged our building and got ready to get slammed. And at the last minute it veered north of us and thankfully, hit us with only about 2 ½ days of intermittent rain and some strong winds doing little damage and only localized flooding. I think we dodged a big bullet! But, it also kept us off the water for 3 days.

Prior to the storm, the dorado bite had picked up nicely and I’m anticipating that once the water settles the dorado will come back strong given all the junk that gets washed into the ocean from storms. At the time of writing, we’ve been back on the water for two days and the waters are still a bit turned over and murky. It’s gonna take a bit for it to settle down and clear up because there’s still some residual chop. However, we did find some dorado up to about 20 pounds and normally that gets better assuming no other fronts come through. Looking at the forecasts, it looks like great conditions on tap.

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

PHOTO 1: Sheryl Lucero doesn’t have many oceans in New Mexico where she’s from but got out on the water with Captain Victor and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and got this nice dorado not too far offshore on live bait.

PHOTO 2: From San Francisco area, Shannon Aurand and her husband got 10 different species of fish over 3 days of fishing. Captain Jorge from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet help with gaff duties on a feisty yellowfin tuna. This past week, they ranged from 10-30 pounds.

PHOTO 3: My dive buddy from San Luis Obispo CA, Anthony Reynolds got into a nice snap of dorado fishing north of La Paz with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet. He just racked this nice bull but buddy , Bob, pumps one to the boat in the stern.

ANGLERS AND CAPTAINS WORK HARD FOR THEIR FISH AS DARK MOON PHASE SEEMS TO HAVE SLOWED THE BITE THIS WEEK…OR SOMETHING…IT WAS DEFINITELY OFF…

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 23-29, 2009

PHOTO 1: Wahoo went on the chew again this week! South end of Cerralvo Island held most of the fish. Here’s one that chased down a Rapala pulled by Jeff Sakuda of Monterey Park CA. Captain Jorge shares the smiles.

PHOTO 2: Professional hunting dog trainer, Steve Artis from N. California looks pained, but he was pretty happy with this fat wahoo he got his first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. That’s Captain Victor hiding behind him.

PHOTO 3: Again with Captain Jorge! This time assisting Shannon Aurand from the San Francisco Bay area with her first wahoo she pulled on the troll. The fish showed a definite affinity for dark Rapalas this week.

PHOTO 4: All the way from New York, this is Arie Hendeles. Arie took a break from school like he does each summer to fish with us. This is one of several wahoo he put on the boat.

PHOTO 5: Yes, the yellowfin tuna also bit and they also got bigger too! Rod’s yellowfin was taken just off Las Arenas. The fish ranged from 10-30 pounds this week and crashed the live baits.

PHOTO 6: Bill White from San Luis Obispo is a fireman and he had sashime and sushi in mind for dinner as he holds up two of his yellowfin tuna he got fishing with our Las Arenas fishing fleet.

PHOTO 7: “Three Chicas and a Pancho!” Captain Pancho poses with Roseanne Ishihiro from Hawaii; Marianne Sugawara from Los Angeles and Karen Sakuda-Aizawa from San Franciso and their catch of dorado.

PHOTO 8: George is all smiles holding a bull dorado that might be our largest dorado of the week. George caugth this fish while fishing with Captain Victor and our Las Arenas Tailhunter Fleet. The fish fell for a live sardine.

PHOTO 9: Los Angeles resident Moise Hendeles got a cooler full of tuna fillets and added some great wahoo steaks to the catch with this fish.

PHOTO 10: First-timer, Ian Colbert from Belmont CA near San Franciso had a great first outting while fishing with us this past week. Here, he shows off a nice dorado he caught north of La Paz with our La Paz Tailhunter fleet.

PHOTO 11: Dave Tyree pulled this whopper dorado fishing on one of our super pangas with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet out of La Paz Bay. The dorado were hit or miss some days, but if you found the right spot, it could go nuts.

PHOTO 12: One of the most amazing action photos I’ve seen. If you’ve ever tried to take a shot of a leaping fish, you know how hard it is. Your eye, your brain, your finger and your camera just don’t work fast enough! Well, Steve Artis had everything lined up perfectly for this shot of a big bull dorado going ballistic and grabbing air while on the hook!

PHOTO 13: Not a bad day! Arie Hendeles from New York; Eli Hendeles and Jonathan Uretsky from Los Angeles do the group pose with wahoo and dorado. They had a banner few days with us taking wahoo, tuna and dorado.

PHOTO 14: Double fist tuna for Tom Aurand after fishing a day with our Las Arenas fleet. Tom comes from the San Francisco area and got into a nice snap of yellowfin tuna early in the week off the Arenas lighthouse area.

WAHOO AND YELLOWFIN TUNA LEAD THE CHARGE AT LAS ARENAS WHILE DORADO KEEP LA PAZ ANGLERS BUSY (MOST DAYS).

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 16-24, 2009

Finally back on track after a little glitch the previous week. Not only did the dorado find their way back into the feeding mode, but even more importantly for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, the tuna and wahoo came back strong! Yellowfin tuna running 10-30 pounds bit nicely just off the beach inhaling live baits, dead chummed bait and iron. Light tackle anglers had a blast because the tuna were mixed in with even harder-charging bullish bonito and big skipjack so it was non-stop action between the 3 species. Limits were very common.

As well, and even more exciting, the wahoo made a strong comeback at the south end of Cerralvo Island along the rock highway. Two to four biters per boat were the average if you were pulling a big dark crank bait or wahoo rig. Quite a few fish were lost with bad hooksets and busted lines but boats were taking 1-2 wahoo in the 30-50 pound class.

Other species this week included a few marlin (released), roosterfish (most released) as well as some cabrilla, pargo and a nice jag of large pompano. Dorado ran 10-30 pounds on the average.

There were some slow spots and if you fished a few days you might have an off-day, but overall, it was a real good week of fishing with some anglers canceling (bad for us!) some of their trips later in the week because they had too much fish to take home after 2 or 3 days fishing! Glad to see guys releasing more and more fish and also more guys going to circle hooks as well. It wasn’t wide open, but the opportunities are there for some great catches right now.

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

PHOTO 1: Perhaps one of the largest dorado of the season, Captain Chito helps Steve McWhorter of Ventura with the big fish taken north of La Paz. Steve is 6′ tall and you can see that this fish is about that long. Captain Chito estimated the fish at about 60 pounds and was amazingly taken after a long battle on light tackle by Steve.

PHOTO 2: John Seidensticker of Huntington Beach CA fished with Captain Victor and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and pulled in this nice bull dorado. The dorado bite at Las Arenas slowed this past week but tuna and wahoo picked up the slack.

PHOTO 3: Whittier CA resident Alan Cutler poses with another nice La Paz dorado he got north of town of Espiritu Santo Island. Live bait worked well this week, but many of this week’s larger fish were taken with strips of dead bonito.

PHOTO 4: It might not be the biggest fish picture, but it’s certainly my favorite of the week. Rebecca Waverly from Ventura CA was with us for the first time on her first fishing trip and fished with Captain Ramiro. The sheer exhuberance captured in this photo is priceless. We sometimes get so “hardcore” about our fishing we forget it’s supposed to be fun. Good job, Rebecca!

WAHOO AND YELLOWFIN TUNA CRASH THE BOATS UNTIL SPEARFISHERMEN JUMP IN WATER AND SHUT OFF THE BITE

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of August 9-15, 2009

We had a really nice wahoo and yellowfin tuna bite going on for our Las Arenas fleet the last few days the earlier half of the week. Guys were getting 2-5 bites on the skinnies per day and putting 1-2 in the boat. The wahoo ran up to about 50 pounds and were eating the big crank baits like Yozuri and Rapalas in the darker colors. As well, the yellowfin tuna popped up as well not far off the point. These were a fun grade of fish going 10-25 pounds.

All was good until freediving spearfishers dropped into the middle of the bites while the pangas were trying to fish. Incredible. Well, I do believe it and spearfishers wonder why they get such a bad rap here and get stinkeye from local captains…both commercial and sport captains and there has been open antagonism in the past and confrontations. Local commercial guys are trying to catch a few fish to feed their families. Panga captains are out there trying to put a few fish on the pangas for their clients.

A few jerk spearfishers screw it up for everyone and basically, they shut off the bite. It taints all spearfishers who show up. Word has it that some of them were using illegal gas-powered guns as well instead of the normal band guns. Nothing like little explosions underwater to put the lockjaw on the fish!

Additionally, they didn’t heed requests to go find other spots. The ocean is big. No reason to drop right in the middle of guys trying to make a living. Anyway, that surely screwed up the bite and hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, the bite will have come back.

After that, the pickings the rest of the week were marginal at best with fishermen chasing a few dorado, a few tuna and inshore species like roosterfish, pargo and cabrilla. Like I said, hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, the bite will have come back.

The dorado are still biting, however, for our La Paz boats. The bite has been pretty far-ranging from the outer banks all the way down the channel around Las Cruces. You might find a big school that makes your day or dink or single and double biters all day long, but limits or near limits were not uncommon for our boats. Live bait worked best, but catching a few bonito then using dead slabs on the troll drew fish to the boat.

That’s our story

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

PHOTO 1: Leave it to the rookie to roll the big one! Just an incredible fish by Juan Martinez from Northern CA who made his first trip fishing to La Paz at the last minute and nailed this huge bull dorado near Espiritu Santo Island. Again, this week, dorado were the hot ticket.

PHOTO 2: One of our bestest amigos, this is “Coach” Don Rea who fishes with us several times a year. Every trip he fishes his brains out but never gets in the report. He always fishes with his favorite captain Marcos who’s helping him hold up the beast dorado. Coach took this fish on light tackle with a little Avet SX and fought the fish over an hour and admitted the fish slugged it out with him. Well, he finally made the report. Congrats, Coach!

PHOTO 3: Here’s another guy who worked like crazy for his fish. Rich Jones is an experienced long-range angler from Utah who came “just to get ONE roosterfish!” Well, over his first 3 days of fishing he put “60-70” roosterfish on light tackle and had a ball and finally nailed this beauty saying, “We saw it come into the shallow water after my ladyfish and it ripped into deep water!” Best of all…Rich released all his fish. He also caught dorado, snapper, cabrilla, and jack crevalle. By the way, knowing what this looks like, he wanted it known that he does NOT fish with a blue bonnet on his head. His boonie hat had the brim tilted back!

PHOTO 4: Tom Moon from Northridge CA put in a day with Captain Adolfo fishing off S. Cerralvo Island and put this mahi mahi in the panga while fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 5: Ron Hepner put the gaff to a number of dorado and other species while fishing 5 days with both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleet this past week. He released all his roosterfish, but this dorado went into the box and onto the dinner table! Ron came to visit us from Utah in the Salt Lake area.

PHOTO 6: Coach Joey Fuschetti is high school track coach from Orange Co. CA who does lots of work with putting kids on fishing trips. He took some time out do some fishing of his own and comes to see us each year. Fishing with our La Paz Fleet, Joey got this dorado near Espiritu Santo Island. “We were w/ limits both days at Las Arenas w/ our famous capitan Jorge and the high boat out of La Paz w/ Capitan Boli. But, reality check on day three when the Pargo took us for a ride at Isla Partida and we landed 3 and lost a bunch of big toothed beasts to the rocks………” said Joey. Joey insists that chumming the waters with minced papaya is his secret to success.

PHOTO 7 – It’s always nice to know that someone caught their personal best fish when on one of our trips. George Higi has fished Baja for years, but got his personal best dorado fishing with Captain Jorge and our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. George stands 6’2″ so this fish is the real deal!

PHOTO 8: Kodak moment with dorado, left-right, Bob Wood, Tom Moon, Tony Toven and Doyle Wood holding some of their day’s catch fishing north of La Paz with our La Paz fleet.

WEEK STARTS SLOW AND SCRATCHY BUT GETS BETTER AS MOON GOT FULLER!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of 2-9, 2009

It was a difficult week to put a finger on. In some respects, it was scratchy fishing as water temps seemed to have dropped and fish scattered. Let me put it this way, often you had to work hard for your fish! This was especially true for our Las Arenas Fleet. While there was a mix of fish that includes dorado, some billfish and a smattering of tuna, the “offshore bite” really wasn’t happening. Those anglers that worked inshore however, took advantage of some great fishing for roosters, pargo, jacks, cabrilla and snapper. In fact, they had an excellent time, especially on light tackle.

For our La Paz fleet, the bite was much more consistent. While there wasn’t much variety, the dorado more than made up for anything else School-sized fish in the 10-20 pound class made up most of the catch, but there were some monster 40-60 pound fish caught and many more lost to bad gear, busted lines or inexperience or simply bad luck. You might have a bad day here or there, but for the most part, limits or near limits of fish with many released were the rule more than the exception.

LATE breaking news…as the week went on and the moon got fuller…THE BITE GOT BETTER. Tuna and dorado started showing up again at Las Arenas and the La Paz dorado bite got more consistent!

JACK VELEZ FUND

Thank you to many of you who have been sending condolences, prayers and checks to the family. We have already raised several thousand dollars and will be making a surprise presentation to them in a few weeks. In advance of their appreciation, thanks from all of us with the Tailhunter Family. Please write if you’d like more information.

That’s our Story
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

PHOTO 1: Jack McGuire from Orange Co., California with this monster of a dorado. The 50 pound-class fish was taken on light tackle which is Jack’s specialty when he comes down here. Dorado were once-again the mainstay of the week’s catch although changing water conditions meant sometimes it was hit-or-miss. See more details below.

PHOTO 2: Bob Woods, Tom Moon, and Tony Toven from the Los Angeles CA area show off a really strange catch for July. Take a close look…in addition to the dorado and the tuna they’re holding YELLOWTAIL! These fish are normally caught here in the spring when waters are cooler, but for the last two weeks we started getting yellowtail again on bait and on yo-yo iron! Weird! Some of the fish have been as large as 40 pounders. The yellowtail might be here because waters cooled this past week a few degrees which might also explain why overall fishing slowed a bit as well.

PHOTO 3: When you only have two hands to hold 3 fish, it’s hard to show off a grand-slam catch of tuna, dorado and yellowtail, but TonyToven found a way to photograph all of them at Las Arenas Beach. Needless to say they dog-piled onto the sashimi that night at the restaurant! Nothing fresher!

PHOTO 4: All the way from New Mexico, Darren Hanson holds up one of the nicer bull dorado of the week. Darren was fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet north of La Paz our towards the islands. Dorado were the focus of most of the fishing this week. While not spectacular, the fishing for the most part was solid with some good days and some slower days as the dorado schools moved around.

PHOTO 5: Sailfish release. We love to see this. Not only a good photo, but a good release as well. We release about 80 percent of our billfish and encourage letting ’em go. This season has been about average for the billfish. We haven’t seen alot of marlin or sailfish the last two weeks but there were still some bitiers. We’re about to head into the blue and black marlin zone as the end of summer and the fall seasons approach. Our largest fish this year has been around 700 pounds.

PHOTO 6: First-timer, Kevin Blakely, Jr. from Los Angeles had a momentus first trip with us getting tuna, sailfish and dorado including this bull while fishing with Captain Yofo and our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 7: Although the tuna weren’t as crazy as previous weeks, but off Las Arenas there’s still some tuna cruising through. Al Tesoro comes down several times a year and always fishes with Captain Adolfo.

PHOTO 8: Captain Victor put Steve Kerchichian on this nice roosterfish he got off S.Cerralvo Island. The high-schooler came with the intent of catching just a single rooster and instead “stopped counting at 10” and maybe got over 20 roosters on his first day. The roosterfish are still here but few folks are fishing for them now that the dorado and tuna are in the area.

PHOTO 9: On a sadder note, we lost our friend, mentor and Tailhunter Family member, Jack Velez, to a heart attack this week. Jack had been sick for the past few months but seemed to be on the recovery. He was an icon and a character in La Paz for decades and with us since the first days of Tailhunter 15 years ago. Many of you may remember his crazy sense of humor and boisterous laugh in the early morning hours as he delivered the breakfasts and lunches before we packed you off in the vans to Las Arenas. He could laugh at anything and certainly himself and always greeted people by bragging, “I am the only Mexican that is ever on time!” He was one-of-a-kind and will be sorely missed. Jack leaves a wife and 3 young kids so we’re starting a fund for them. Details are below.

CHANGING WATER CONDITIONS MAY HAVE SLOWED THE BITE BUT DORADO STILL FILL FISH BOXES MOST DAYS

LA PAZ/ LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR WEEK OF JULY 26 – AUG. 2, 2009

It can’t always be “SPECTACULAR” or “AWESOME” or “OF THE CHARTS!” But better to be honest. It wasn’t bad either! In fact, we had some pretty darned nice fishing all week. I think the fishing had just been so incredible for the last few weeks that we got spoiled, but we had some good solid fishing this week with a nice mix of fish.

The backbone of our catch were dorado for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets. At times the fish were thick. At others, it was a pick day. Each boat seemed to do differently each day. The slow boat one day became the hot boat the next. The boat that had all the big fish one day, had trouble finding fish the following day. But, if you put in 2-3 days on the water, EVERYONE got fish! They ranged in size from newbie 5 pounders up to fish in the 40-50 pound class.

As well, there was still a smattering of tuna off Las Arenas and incredibly, some yellowtail biting as well. These yellowtail have been showing up the last two weeks in a total surprise since yellowtail season is in the spring when the waters are cooler and right now things are anything but cool. The yellowtail are biting the live bait fished a little deeper and some larger fish were lost in the rocks estimated in the 30-40 pound class. The guys who knew how to fish yo-yo iron really did better.

I tell you what I think, we looked at the satellite charts and although it seems like the ocean is warm as a bath and the air is blazing, the water tempos actually have been dropping over the last week or so. It’s come down a good 3 or 4 degrees. That may not seem like much but it’s enough to put the fish into a bit of a pout until things level off. I think that’s why the bite may be a bit off. Other species this week included some sails and striped marlin (all but one released) and a few wahoo were hooked, but not landed.

JACK VELEZ

As mentioned above, we lost our amigo, Jack Velez this week. To so many he was a comic, a character, a scamp and a clown, but he was always a gentleman from the old-school. He could make anyone laugh and best of all could laugh at himself. “Never fear when Jack is here!” was his motto. He always loved all the clients and would always go the extra mile for service and deliver it with a smile and often a song too! I used to call him the “Ricky Ricardo of La Paz.” I wish you could have heard some of the stories he would tell of “Old La Paz.”

Jack’s dad, Rudy Velez, used to run the fleet for the Ruffo Brothers for the old Hotel Cocos then went off on his own and set up his own fleet. Jack and his brothers ran with dad and their list of stories and celebrities who fished with them back in the day included Chuck Connors, Clark Gable, Steve McQueen, James Garner and others.

Many of you wanted to send flowers or donations for flowers, but we came up with a better idea instead that has met with a lot of approval so far from many of you. Jack leaves his wife, Gelines and three great youngsters that many of you have watched grow up…Felicia, Daniel and Jacobo. Rather than spend money on flowers, anyone who wants to contribute to a special fund for the family, would be welcome. No pressure. A number of amigos have already sent checks even before this announcement. Just send me an e-mail at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

I’ll give you more details rather than take up the fishing report. To those of you who have already written, God bless. Your thoughts and prayers have been appreciated.

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://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

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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