Feeds:
Posts
Comments

April 25, 2009 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: San Diegans Matt Muckerman and Mike McFeely started their trip out to Muertos Bay with a nice little grand slam of some dorado, cabrilla( seabass) and a really nice dog tooth snapper. Look carefully at the photo. In the background, Tom Staples puts a liplock on a dorado while Captain Archangel takes the Kodak moment!

PHOTO 2: There’s such a nice mix of fish possible right now. The waters are transitioning between winter/ spring/summer so the fishing reflects that. On the tailgate, there’s dorado, sierrra, cabrilla, and amberjack ready to be filleted! These fish were all caught on live bait taken no further out that 100 yards from the beach.

PHOTO 3: Al Tesoro comes down twice a year and loves the inshore species. This particular day he spanked the sierra big time. These are excellent light tackle fish and even better on the table! Al shows off a trigger fish to be made into ceviche and there’s also a seabass (cabrilla) trying to hide in the stack of sierra.

PHOTO 4: From Denver area, Bill Blount on the right brought his boys down to escape the recent snows of Colorado. Nice dorado for the day given it’s still springtime! Dorado have moved into the area and perhaps is a vanguard of a really good dorado season.

PHOTO 5: Just a fun photo of our Captain Armando. I saw this huge plastic Pacifico bottle in his panga and couldn’t help but laugh. He says he broke his thermos so he keeps his drinking water in it. Looks really funny when you see him drinking out of it. I imagine at one time it had beer because the street vendors sell these during the city carnivale!

PHOTO 6: Yes…the MAN is on the loose. They’re checking licenses more often these days. They’re being very nice and professional about it, but if you are at all on a fishing boat, even if you are not fishing, you’re required to have a license. It’s a pain in the butt to get licenses here in La Paz…howver…Recently, we’ve been named as one of the 5 places in La Paz that will be selling licenses directly to clients.

BIG YELLOWTAIL, ROOSTERFISH AND JAGS OF DORADO ROLL INTO ANGLERS!

The La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of April 19-26, 2009

First off, if you tried to e-mail me this week, apologies if you couldn’t reach me or I didn’t respond right away. We had some bugs in the new system we’re installing. For future reference, here’s my new e-mail address www.riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

Let’s talk fishing…

A wacky wacky week here. We had a little bit of everything it seems. No shortage of variety at all. Take a look at the pictures for a small sample of what could be caught on a given day!

Our La Paz fleet again struggled with a few days of wind which made it either hard to fish or else made it difficult to fish the mackerel which are the larger baits preferred by the big yellowtail out at the islands. However, on the day when the bait and wind were aligned, wow…some big beefy fish to be had.

In addition to 30-40 pound yellowtail, there were also some big cabrilla, pargo as well as some 30-60 pound roosterfish…clearly the largest roosters we’ve seen so far this season. As I said, the larger baits were the ticket, but sardines were available and were also effective, but to a lesser degree.

For our Las Arenas/Muertos Fleet, well…dorado were clearly here! Some times, the bite was literally only hards from the shore and the fish would slam into the fleet while guys were fishing in 20 feet of water! Other times the mahi were found outside at the buoys. Near the south end of Cerralvo, spots of wahool were seen and several hooked and lost. As well, again rumors or fast break tuna were seen moving with the dolphin, but not slowing down enough to jump on them.

Inshore, the roosters (between 5 and 30 pounds), big jack crevalle and pompano tore up the guys near the beaches. In the rocks, pargo liso and dog tooth snapper (cubera snapper) were on the hunt and were willing to bite but NOT ready to be dragged to the boat so we lost quite a few of those beasts this week. As well, mix in good numbers of sierra, snapper, and cabrilla as well as smaller yellowtail, rainbow runners, amberjack and bonito and it made for an action-packed day!

Check out this week’s video clip!

TAILHUNTER IS NOW AN AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR LICENSES

By the way, Tailunter International is now an authorized dealer to sell fishing licenses. It’s a pain in the butt to get licenses if you have ever tried in Mexico, but now, we can sell them direct!

Have a great week! That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill
Tailhunter International

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

April 18, 2009 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Cole Chavira from the San Diego area has been in our reports probably more than anyone over the years. This young man is GOOD! He’s often got big fish in his hands and here he holds an incredible and rare Baja Grouper. On top of it all, knowing their scarcity, he released the fish! Caught north of La Paz near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 2: No stranger to La Paz fishing, my amigo, Charlie “Stix” McGhee has fished with us many times and I’ve done quite a few long range trips with him also. Not many better! He holds up a quality La Paz yellowtail here while standing on the beach at Balandra. Charlie lives in Poway CA . Expect to see him here again in a few weeks when he comes back to La Paz for our Cabin Fever Classic.

PHOTO 3: Mitch Chavira comes down about 3 times a year. I’ve taken so many pictures of him over the time he’s one of our regular poster boys. He not only catches fish, but he looks good doing it too! He got this beast of an amberjack fishing north of La Paz while yo-yo-ing blue and white iron! Amberjack can get up to 100 pounds in our waters and are the big cousin to yellowtail.

PHOTO 4: Robinson Whitaker came all the way from Gainesville GA where he attends a military academy to come fishing with his dad. Check out the flat waters! They were able to get outside and get into some nice dorado with Captain Jorge including this nicer early season dorado.

PHOTO 5: You gotta love it! Eric Mikity from Chino CA rocked his first roosterfish this past week as well as some other fishing including dorado and got to scuba dive for the firs time as well. Great pose! He plans to come back with dad later this year and get his scuba certification with us now that he’s gotten a taste!

PHOTO 6: “There must have been 30 dorado around the boat!” said our buddy Rob McClean from S.California as he and his sister, girlfriend and uncle tore into a big school of mahi just off Las Arenas. “We had to pull away from all these fish. There were too many. We told the captain to go inside and look for pargo. The dorado were too easy!”
MORE WIND AND SOME SURPRISE BIG FISH PACE THE WEEK
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 12-18, 2009

It’s hard to describe the fishing week. Everyone got fish, but some days were better than others. Some anglers (as you can see by the photos this week), got some real NICE fish. Some boats could be right next to others and slam fish after fish while the boat 30 yards away would have a slower day.

A lot right now depends on the weather. Winds are still irregular. In the span of a day, the wind can change several times in intensity as well as direction. That makes for some churned up water so consequently, most of our fishing is out of Muertos Bay. Those who did brave the stronger winds out of La Paz, got some BIG TIME slugger fish, but some days they were bounced all over the place. It just depended on the level of discomfort you were willing to handle!

Then, some days…it was flat flat flat! It’s just that time of year.

In addition to the weather, talent and experience had a lot to do with it as well. There’s a lot of easy fun fish around…sierra, roosters, cabrilla, smaller snapper, bonito…but the bad boys…the yellowtail, the bigger pargo liso and dog tooth snapper, the amberjack…it’s not like you jump in the boat and say, “I want to catch yellowtail and pargo today!” like you’re ordering up a Happy Meal at McDonald’s. These are tough fish. They got big because they know how to attack and fight. They’re not gonna just let you pull them into the boat and they have everything in their favor like rocks and reefs.

I had two guys come back one day grumbling because all they got were some bonito and some sierra and if you looked at their scores, it seemed like they had a so-so day. They weren’t very happy. However, I talked to my captain and he told me they lost 6 bigger pargo or yellowtail and just weren’t fast enough or strong enough to rip back on the fish. These are trophy fish. Dorado are nice. It’s easier to catch them because once they are hooked they don’t try to climb back down into a cave or something. They’re generally in bluer water with nothing but blue around them so you can fight them. Even pulling a 20-pound pargo to the boat takes well…for basically all the stars lined up in your favor!

Of course, then there is always the newbie rookie that gets 4 on his first day fishing and says, “What’s the big deal?” I guess that’s fishing!

Anyway, the old adage seems to have held true this week. Fewer fish but bigger fish were found by my La Paz anglers. (Yellowtail and Roosters) More fish and more variety were caught by my anglers that fish with our Las Arenas/Muertos Bay fleet. (Sierra, bonito, smaller yellowtail, cabrilla, snapper, pargo, dorado, roosterfish)

Bait has been fine, but there’s a lot of birds right now too making it a pain to slow troll with bait somedays. I would recommend that if you can, bring some smaller Rapala-type lures. They’re effective in trolling and getting down and away from the birds.

One thing to keep an eye on…the waters are REALLY warm! I”m not sure how much longer the yellowtail and other cool water fishes will be around. It’s starting to feel alot like late spring fishing already!

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
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 : 626-638-3383from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

April 13, 2009 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Waters got rough late in the week as winds kicked in over Easter weekend, but Bob “Gladiator Juice” Duncan of Santa Barbara went where other pangas didn’t want to go and was rewarded. He’s seriously bent her for almost 20 minutes when he dropped a live bait over the side. Study in intensity. Captain Jorge “Moscoron” looks on.

PHOTO 2: SCORE! Big yellowtail over the side. Using his mini- Whopper Stopper rod, Bob Duncan gets that yellowtail to gaff. Goofing, Jorge Romero from La Paz, our fishing buddy tried to stay anonymous. I think he was supposed to have been at work that day! Unfortunately, he’s now on the internet and his boss in La Paz reads the fishing reports!

PHOTO 3: Getting into the spirit of the weekend, Emily Duncan and dad, Bob, hold up a couple of nice sierra at Muertos Bay Beach. Sierra were thicker early in the week before the winds came up.

PHOTO 4: For the sheer joy of it all ! The smile from Christina Moreno, fishing for the first time, even though she grew up in La Paz, just beams, as does husband, Lance Cole. They had a nice day inshore with pargo and cabrilla and here she gets to find out that even little bonito pull hard!

PHOTO 5: Doesn’t get better than a big smile and a nice cabrilla from Christina Moreno of La Paz!

PHOTO 6: If you were willing to possibly get wet and blown around, there were still big yellowtail to be had. Jess Akeroth and Steve DiGuiseppe hoist some toad-sized slugger yellowtail taken while fishing out’ve La Paz north at the island.

PHOTO 7: Pargo city! Steve Di Guiseppe, Ross Martinez and Gabe Martinez hold up their day of pargo and cabrilla fishing when they headed north to Espiritu Island. They had 3 days of this kind of fishing. Steve is an attorney from Ventura Co. CA area and Gabe is an attorney from Las Vegas. I went to law school with both amigos. Dad, Ross Martinez, has an interesting history. He owned a gas station in Vegas that is now the site of the MGM Grand Hotel!

PHOTO 8: Fat yellowtail and big smiles for Gabe Martinez and dad, Ross Martinez of Las Vegas. The fish was taken out at El Bajo seamount.

PHOTO 10: OK…were’t not officially open yet, but we’re close! But we had a surprise birthday party for Jill at the FUBAR Cantina on the ground floor. Standing room only! Mariachis showed up and tequila and cerveza flowed. Incredible evening! We hope to be “officially open” this week!

PHOTO 11: We had a packed house. It was marked as a “private party” but people off the street just kept stopping in so we invited ’em on in! Great vibe. Great time. We’re excited about opening after more than 2 years of work.
VARIED WEEK OF FISHING MARKED BY SOME NICE HIGHLIGHTS AS WINDS AGAIN KICK IN!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for week of April 5-12, 2009

To be honest, it wasn’t a GREAT week of fishing, but some folks had a GREAT time! Does that make sense? The bite was so-so some days and winds came up late in the week, but those of our anglers who fished several days might have had a slow day here or there, but made up for it on other days.

It was a time-place issue. Right place at the right time with the correct currents and minimal wind. I’m not a big believer in the full-moon thing, but when you combine it with strong winds that kept shifting directions, high currents and quite a bit of spring break traffic, the bite wasn’t as good as it had been.

But…

EVERYONE still got fish! If you were willing to bust out north of town with my La Paz fleet, then there were big yellowtail, big pargo, cabrilla and roosters north around Cerralvo Island. The ticket, again was minimal winds and having the big baits like mackerel.

If you fish with my Las Arenas fleet, again…a lot of variety. Some of the guys early in the week were able to get out to the 88 bank and the outter buoys and got into some dorado that were incredible. Some 40 and 50 pound fish were logged in. Interestingly, there was FOG out there on the water too which was pretty eerie until the sun burned it off. How often do you see fog in Baja waters?

Inshore fishing produced smaller yellowtail plus a collection of sierra, jacks, roosterfish (some nice sized), bonito, pargo and cabrilla. I had some flyfisher this week that got beat up nicely by bonito and roosters and had a blast. The biggest problem were the huge numbers or pelicans and other birds. Sheesh…they hit almost every bait that hit the water.

Jill and I were on the water Saturday…the windiest day of the week. After so many bird incidents, we switched over to smaller Rapala, Yo-zuri and other shallow diving lures and trolled the rocks. This got the birds off our backs and we hit cabrilla and pargo one after the other losing several lures to big fish that took us into the rocks. The blue colored lures worked better.

That’s our story! Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur,
MexicoTailhunter 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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

April 4, 2009 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Can this be? Dorado in April? Charline Oistad from the Sacramento CA area came down with her husband and brother for their first trip to La Paz and got into some nice fishing including this pair of spring dorado using live bait out of Muertos Bay. Read below…there were more than just dorado biting!

CRAZY FISHING MIXES WITH CRAZY WINDS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Report for week of March 29-April 4, 2009

Not sure how to describe this past week of fishing….

As I sit here at the moment looking out at the ocean, it’s grey. So is the sky. The wind is screaming out’ve the west and I’m glad I’m not out on the water today. Weather-wise, it’s been a windy and choppy week which is not uncommon for this time of the year. You definitely want a windbreaker or sweatshirt right now. Some days are flat calm, but better to have the protection and not need it than need it and not have it. Some days it starts by ripping then settles out. Sometimes not. Guys have told me they’ve gotten wet getting out to the fishing grounds, especially those headed north out of La Paz.

But…

Some darned good fishing this week! Where do I start? Out’ve La Paz, the yellowtail continued to hammer out by the islands and at El Bajo Seamount. Mackerel and heavy iron were the ticket to these slugger fish that run into the 40 pound class. If you have a Lucky Joe rig, bring it to catch the mackerel. These are tough fish and many are getting lost to the rocks and you definitely want to use the heavy 50 and 60 pound string on these big fish!

My amigos, Steve Di Guiseppe from Ventura CA area and Gabe Martinez from Las Vegas came with dad, Ross and friend, Jess, and spent their first day pulling on the yellowtail. The next 3 days they found “the honey hole” of pargo! “Almost every drop was a hookup!” They got limits of pargo and big cabrilla almost everyday and lost many, but hauled in a bunch of fillets every day to the hotel restaurant for daily feasts that they shared with other guests.

From our Las Arenas/ Muertos fleet….

Can you say smorgasbord? What’s going on? One day it was like going down a buffet line. Incredible early season fishing. Inshore, lots of sierra, roosterfish, big cabrilla and pargo were on the chew. But offshore, spots of floating squid prompted the fish to go nuts!

“We went out to the buoys with Capt. Jorge,” said Rob McClean who’s from California and one of our regulars who fishes with us several times a year. “We got to one and there must’ve been 50 dorado there! We stopped catching and releasing after awhile. Took some for the ice chest and said, let’s get outta here. This is too much! We went inshore to catch pargo!”

Yes, dorado came out and big ones too! Some 30-50 pound fish (Captains estimates on the weights!) were caught but some striped marlin also were caught as well. Rumors of breezing tuna also came in, but no one was able to get on them as they seemed to traveling with fast-moving dolphin schools also jumping on some of the floating squid.

This is getting interesting! We’ll keep you posted.

Happy Easter Week everyone! Be safe if you’re traveling and God bless.

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.comU.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur,

MexicoTailhunter 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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

March 29, 2009 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Yellowtail season is on. Nice forkies like these held by Gary Palese and Bob Robbins from Arizona are eating sardines, mackerel and heavy iron fished on the yo-yo. There’s a number of hot spots. See below. Not all days, unfortunately, are as flat as what you see here. Winds keep being stubborn.

PHOTO 2: Angela Farrell hung this nice Cerralvo Island yellowtail on live bait. Angela has a knack for big fish whenever she comes to La Paz. She took this one on her mini Whopper Stopper rod and Penn 4/0 with 40 pound test.
YELLOWTAIL STILL SOLID EVEN AS WIND BLOW BUT INSHORE BITES PRODUCE BIG CABRILLA, SIERRA, PARGO and EVEN SOME DORADO!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of March 22-29, 2009
The bite has been pretty good. It would have been better if the winds didn’t kick in. It was pretty fierce a few days, but the guys who hung in even during the blustery days got into a nice jag of quality yellowtail in the 15-40 pound class. Mackerel and caballitos were best north of town around Espiritu Santo Island, north Cerralvo and El Bajo Seamount. For those who know how…yo yo heavy iron got the largest fish. Blue and white and scrambled egg patterns were hot tickets.

For our anglers on the Las Arenas/ Muertos side, a nice mix of yellowtail, pargo, sierra, bonito and two days when dorado showed up! Sardines were the best bet. Surprisingly large number or big cabrilla. Biggest problem were the number of pelicans and seagulls marauding the fly-lined baits. Some of the anglers went to trolling small crank baits and were able to avoid the birds and put good numbers of legal cabrilla aboard. But, overall, a good mix of fish for our Las Arenas boats whereas our La Paz boats concentrated largely on yellowtail and pargo/cabrilla.

There were some hints of big solo tuna at the north end of Cerralvo Island, but when we checked it out, there was nothing there. This is the 3rd or 4th time the fish came up briefly for a boat or two but then went deep again when the fleet went to check it out. Just never know. Have to be at the right place at the right time.
Also, some reports of early season (real early!) billfish cruising around already, but not biting. This bears keeping an eye out. To the south of us around Cabo San Lucas, they’ve had the best marlin bite in the last few decades and normally, that body of fish starts to move up into the Sea of Cortez and our waters as the ocean warms. Maybe they are early this year! Normally, our billfish don’t show up until late spring.
We’ll keep an eye out!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

March 22, 2009 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: These are the type of fish that made El Bajo famous! Bill Evans recently retired to La Paz to do just this…fish his brains out! The waters laid flat, the fish came to eat and Bill got into some nice grade yellowtail like this awesome fish!

PHOTO 2: This is just so classic. The bent rod on flat water with yellowtail under the boat. That’s northern Espiritu Santo Island in the distance just north of La Paz. The waters don’t always look like this during the spring, but when they do, time to get out. Bill Evans had a great day on the water.

PHOTO 3: We just came off 3 months on the road doing all the fishing and hunting shows. Every now and then as we criss-cross the states you come across some signs that are just too funny to pass up. We drove past this “motel” in Baker CA. It’s just WRONG on so many levels! Read all the signs! Look at the picture! No big rigs allowed except for deliveries! By the way…the motel didn’t have any windows. Only doors! Too funny! There’s probably a perfectly good story behind this… It’s on the way to Vegas. Lots of you have passed through. Interestingly, it’s right across from the famous “Mad Greek Restaurant.” Best strawberry shakes around!

PHOTO 4: Our last stop on the tour was Salt Lake City. Wow…great gas prices!
YELLOWTAIL BITE BUT NOT SO EASY TO PUT THEM INTO THE BOATS!!!
The La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of March 22, 2009
More yellowtail this week, although not as many. That, however, might have been a function of the fact that there weren’t many anglers out this week, but also, some of the fish were thick, mean and strong and there were more fish lost than put in the boat! These fish are not only tough, but when you get into the 25-40 pound fish and surround them with rocks, reef and other structure, the fish has the edge. Put that up with the aspect that many anglers just don’t know what a strong fish can do and more-often-than-not, the fish wins! It’s one thing to hook a fish, it’s another to put that grumpy fish in the boat.
As one angler said this week, after losing two…”These ocean fish don’t nibble!” No, they don’t! They slam! What I see so often is an angler getting bit and then just hanging on as his or her elbows get slammed to the gunwale of the panga. They try to hold on instead of lifting and trying to turn the head of the fish. They fail to realize that the bottom isn’t that far away and that fish (this goes for pargo too) already has a head of steam when it hits and the first thing it’s gonna do is head down! Next thing is “zingpowie!” The line snaps…game over!

So, it’s deceiving when the fish counts are low. The truer tail is not how many were caught, but how many opportunities did you have that were lost? But all fun!

Like I alluded to…it’s the same with pargo. Big bruising fish, and like the yellowtail, they are structure oriented and probably even closer to the rocks. If you can’t turn them in that first run, well…they’ve got their momentum up already.

“Just got back from my 2 days fishing. I had a good time and some good success toward my multiple species goal. 8 new varieties including a good size Dogtooth Snapper on the last day, at the last hour, at the last minute. It was a wrap as soon as the Snapper was boated,” according to Nick Morenc who fished this week with us

Anyway…yes, pargo (snapper) in the shallower areas near drop offs and reefs. Yellowtail…from what we can tell…are in the deeper areas moving in the channels between the rocks. High spots too! Best areas are off Muertos Bay, the Las Arenas lighthouse, north Cerralvo Island and El Bajo Seamount.

Still lots of sierra in various spots. Cabrilla and yellow snapper were also in the mix. Several nice roosters were caught and released.

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

March 15, 2009 by riplipboy

Photo 1: Dave Harper, all the way from the chilly cold of Wyoming came out for a few days and got into a surprising bite of early season dorado. Check out this nice bull but also notice how close he is to shore and how calm the waters are! Dave hooked this on live bait. (Details below!)

Photo 2: Again…dorado in March? We usually don’t see these warm water guys until May or so, but Hilda Sexauer holds the proof with this young bull. Captain Jorge lends the assist.

PHOTO 3: Here’s Dave Harper again, but this time holding up a big yellowtail taken off Punta Perico. If the fish looks funny, it’s because it was subject to a sealion attack. The dog grabbed the fish, but they were able to chase it down and get the fish back losing only some yellowtail guts!

PHOTO 4: I keep getting asked what “sierra” look like. We’ll here you go. Nice rack of fish caught by John Diciccio and Sue Nielsen. These are great light tackle sportfish and make excellent eating. Top-of-the-line for ceviche!

PHOTO 5: Here’s John Dicicco and Captain Victor holding a fat yellowtail. This is typical of the type of big ones coming along right now. John has more details below.

PHOTO 6: Salt Lake City International Sportsman’s Show…last stop on the 2009 tour. Thanks to all of you who came out to all the shows! Headed home now to La Paz!
BIG YELLOWTAIL AND SURPRISING DORADO MARK THE WEEK’S BITE!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of March 8-14, 2009

Interesting week of fishing. A bit windy as might be expected this time of year, but again just an interesting mix of fish as well! Yellowtail are definitely here. I don’t think we’ve seen the full brunt yet, but in between punky 10-15 pounders there’s definitely homeguard mossbacks around in the 30-40 pound class. Best areas have been off Muertos Bay, Punta Perico then north of La Paz around the El Bajo Seamount and north Cerralvo Island. The fish eat the sardine bait, but if you can find the larger caballitos or mackerel, it’s like french fries in front of a kid! In the deeper areas, heavy iron fished yo-yo is also working. Scrambled egg and blue/white patterns work best. Wind like a madman until your arms fall off is the best way to get chewed! If you don’t crank hard you won’t get bit!

The other part of the fishing report is the dorado bite that started last week. Normally, we don’t see dorado this early. Normally, we get numbers like this when the waters start to warm up in a month or two. Sure, we’ll get the stray bite or two but we’ve had limits or near limits several days! Our bite has been rather close to shore too! Only about 100-200 yards off Perico rocks, but there’s also some fish outside by the inner buoys.

All-in-all…some exciting stuff happening. We’ll keep you posted.

Here’s some first-hand reports:

This is from Dave Harper who has his photo above with the dorado and yellowtail:

“We had a great time fishing with Jorge, as you heard, the first day was wide open for Dorado. I was not expecting that and we were pretty darned happy to have boated 15 dorado before 11:00!!! All three days were calm (?).

The next day I caught my first yellowtail, but only after a 15 minute battle with the fish, followed by a 20 minute tug of war with a sea lion!! It was only through the persistence of Jorge chasing after the sea lion when it surfaced and tiring it out that I got it back, and it was pretty much intact somehow. Pretty funny stuff. We also hooked 5 big pargo Lisa and were schooled by every one of them. Humbling. I am ready to battle those buggers again!!!”

From John Dicicco who also has his photo above with the big yellowtai:

“For what we were told is off season fishing, we did pretty>well: 2 Yellow Fin, 22 Sierra, 1 Pargo and about 45 Pelicans. Too>bad we couldn’t eat the Pelicans. We also lost 2 Yellow Tail and 2>Sierra. Breakfasts and Lunch on the fishing days were very good.>>We had several very good dinners but two that stood out were, El Jibe>in town and the best was Pichilngue Restaurant. It was the>best meals I think I have had in Mexico and in the top ten ever.>And not a bad view either.>>This beats hell out of Cabo. I hope it doesn’t change.”

Thanks, guys!

COMING TO BASS PRO SHOPS THIS FRIDAY

This Friday March 20th, I’ll be giving a seminar at the Bass Pro Shops theater in Rancho Cucamonga CA on extreme light tackle fishing in La Paz. It’s at 7 p.m. and this is geared towards an extreme light tackle fishing trip to La Paz in August. Come check it out! Promise not to heckle!

TAILHUNTER ROAD TOUR 2009

Final thanks to everyone who came to see us the last 3 months. Jill and I have been on the road over pretty much most of the Western U.S. Seven states and a lot of miles as we hit the big fishing shows in Sacramento, Denver, Portland, San Mateo (San Francisco), Phoenix, Long Beach and Salt Lake City. We had a great time and it was great to see so many old amigos! Thanks to all who stopped by and have a great 2009 fishing year! Now back home to La Paz and let’s get fishing again!

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

March 6, 2009 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Mitch Chavira and his 11-year-old son, Cole from the San Diego area never fail to do well when they fish La Paz. They say it’s better to be lucky and good but these two have both going for them and often put fish on board when everyone is just scratching around. Cole especially has often set the waters on fire. This past week when alot of other anglers were hiding from the winds, these two were out at El Bajo knocking out yellowtail on bait and iron. Check out some of these nice fat yellowtail.

PHOTO 2: Mitch Chavira with another fat forktail for the box. There’s more details below in our report, but Mitch said the wind was really kicking most days, but one day it just laid down flat and was epic.

PHOTO 3: Just one more day on the water. Cole and Mitch with another triple on yellowtail. They lost several others and also released other fish as well.

DID YOU SAY DORADO IN MARCH? BIG YELLOWTAIL TOO FOR LAS ARENAS AND LA PAZ BOATS IN BETWEEN WINDS

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for week of March 1-8, 2009

What a crazy week. I wouldn’t say it was fantastic fishing, but there were some fantastic bites here and there as things certainl warmed up on the waters!

Big yellowtail were in the counts again with 20-30 pound fish rolling around not too far out of Muertos Bay and Punta Perico. But we are supposed to be catching yellowtail right now. It’s that time of the year. We get yellowtail this time of year. But, here’s the surprise…in that same area schools of dorado showed up! That’s right. Dorado are normally warm water fish. However, schools of punky 8-15 pound fish came up to bite. That could only mean that there’s some fingers of warm water moving around. These fish were hungry and ready to bite! We normally do not see these fish until at least late April or May. We’ll keep you posted! There were also some reliable reports of dorado just outside at the buoys as well!! What’s up with that? No one is complaining!

Another nice surprise was that north of town, despite strong winds we’re finally seeing some activity as well. If you can brave the rough water and breezes, there are some good windows of opportunity finally opening up. San Diego residents, Mitch Chavira and his 11-year-old-son, Cole, who have successfully fished La Paz for many years got into some great yellowtail fishing especially at the El Bajo Seamount using bait and iron. According to Mitch:

“We had to work hard to get fish as the wind was blowing and had the bite pretty shut down. We did get fish every day and our last day at El Bajo was epic as the wind finally laid off. They really wanted the iron! One guy had to stay dedicated to the yo yo which got em going and allowed us to get em with surface iron and bait as well. We boated three, released a couple at the gaff and lost a few to the rocks. It was a hoot! Man they pull so much harder in the deeper water! We had our drags buttoned all the way down. Cole now 11 yrs old was really man handling these fish! Made the ol man proud.”

Just before posting this, we got more reports of a jag of big pargo that came up on the east side of the island! These were the nice dogtooth and mullet snapper with fish up to 40 pounds. They came. The ravaged. They went down! Wow….things are perking up!!!

PRINT MEXICAN FISHING LICENSES NOW ONLINE!

More big news…

YOU CAN NOW GET YOUR MEXICAN FISHING PERMITS ONLINE! It’s about time! You have no idea what a pain-in-the-keister it is getting your Mexican fishing licenses here in Mexico. Talk about bureaucratic B.S.! (I can’t say what I really think because Mexican officials read my postings!) But, it’s not like walking into your local Wal-Mart and paying your money. Five minutes later you walk out with your fishing license! In Mexico, it takes us 2-4 days to have a fishing license for one of our clients.

However, now, using your credit card you can actually do everything on the internet and be ready to get bent! Here’s the link to keep handy: Click these. http://www.bestbajafishing.org/ or http://www.discoverbajacaliforina.com/

I love technology!

LAST STOP ON 2009 TAILHUNTER TOUR!

We’ll after 3 months, we’re finally headed to our last round up on the Tailhunter Tour for 2009. It’s been awesome to see so many amigos….San Mateo, Sacramento, Denver, Portland, Phoenix, Long Beach and now…Salt Lake City. Going out with a bang at one of our favorite venues. The International Sportsmen’s Expo will be from Thursday to Sunday this week, March 12-15 at the Expo hall in Sandy. Great facility built for the Olympics. Hope to see you this week!

That’s our story
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Phone: (626) 333-3355

FAX: (626) 333-0115Cell: (626) 278-1585

Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176

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

Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

March 1, 2009 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Roosterfish appear to have shown up a tad early this year, but Las Arenas isn’t called the roosterfish capital of the world for nothing. Captain Jorge hosts a nice pez gallos taken south of Muertos Bay on live bait. Notice how close to shore he is. The fish was released.

PHOTO 2: Hotel Perla, one of La Paz most historic hotels on the waterfront has been added to the Tailhunter list of lodgings for our fishing clients who prefer to stay downtown in La Paz.

PHOTO 3: Hotel Perla is now available for our La Paz clients who prefer to stay downtown on the waterfront area close to restaurants and shops now that Hotel Los Arcos has been closed.

PHOTO 4: The cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium where the NFL Cardinals play indoors. We just spent the week there for the International Sportsmen’s Show. Our booth was right at ground level and this photo shows the indoor stadium before we all set up. Had a great time in the town! Thanks to everyone who came by and said hi!

PHOTO 5: We got a chance to sneak out behind the scenes at the football stadium and came upon a secret locker room down a dark hallway where we probably should not have been!

MORE LARGE YELLOWTAIL MARK MIXED BAG OF FISH THIS PAST WEEK!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 22-28, 2009

The winds last week brought up some cold green waters that put off the fishing bite the early part of the week, but it seemed to improve as the week went by. Not many anglers out to get a really good read on the bite, but we did get some smaller yellowtail in the 10-15 pound class close to shore. As the week went on, we saw some of the larger models show up in the 25-35 pound class. Again, thoug, it’s really hard to get good feel on this to know if there’s a lot of fish in the area or they’re just breezing through and just the vanguard of the larger bite still coming. Still, it’s encouraging and everyone got fish this week. There just weren’t a lot of folks on the water, but this coming week, we’ll have more boats out with spring break here so we’ll hopefully have a better read on this for you.

Still… Pargo and roosterfish are still around and big big bonito have been great fun as well. Sierra schools keep coming in and out and when they hit…it can be bendo bendo bendo as they rip into the lines non-stop. Bait is fine. Hopefully, the winds will stay down so the water temps can get back to normal.

HOTEL PERLA NOW ON OUR ROSTER!

With the unfortunate closing of the historic Hotel Los Arcos earlier in the year, we needed to have another resort property for our clients who wanted to stay downtown on the waterfront. We’re happy to announce that we’re now able to lodge our fishing clients in the equally historic Hotel Perla. Built in 1940, the Hotel Perla has been a great destination right in the heart of the La Paz waterfront with walking distance to shops, restaurants and nightlife. Let us know if we can set you up. As usual, depending on our fishing, we’ll pick you up right there each day to get you on the water. We still have our other great hotels as well, La Concha Beach Resort and Hotel Marina.

FRED HALL FISHING AND BOAT SHOW THIS WEEK!

It’s that time again. The big circus is coming to town. The Fred Hall Fishing and Boating Show at the Long Beach Convention Center March 4-8 (Wednesday to Saturday) rolls in. Come see us! This is the big one so come early. We’ll be in our usual spot in the tackle section right next to Izorline. Look for the booth with the palapa roof overhead!

We’re just leaving our ISE show in Phoenix. What a great show. Great to see so many old amigos and clients and what an outsanding facility. We were actually on the football field at ground level in Cardinals Football stadium. We had never done the Phoenix show before and had a great time. Thanks to everyone who came by to say hi.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176

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

Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

February 22, 2009 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: It’s calm now, but most of the week it was whipping and frothing pretty hard down here and had most folks hunkered down against the strong winds!

PHOTO 2: Fireworks over the waterfront and 2 miles of streetfair go off as Carnival time roared into town this past week.
STRONG WINDS SHUT DOWN PORT AND FEW ANGLERS MADE FOR SPOTTY FISHING!
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 14-21, 2009

It can’t be good all the time…especially in winter. I’d love to tell ya it was a great week of fishing. It really looked promising, but then the winds hit us. All those storms from up along the Pacific Coast of the U.S. that dropped rain and snow resulted in a face blast of winds down here.

In fact, it was so strong, they had to close the port of La Paz a few days. But that’s the way it is during winter fishing. It was still a warm and sunny time ashore with 80 degree weather, but on the water, it was rough if you planned to fish north of the city.

That’s why we put most of our boats out’ve Muertos Bay. Fishing was calmer and closer to shore. That would’ve been fine and good, but on the other side of the coin, we just didn’t have a lot of anglers this week either. Those that went out did run into sierra and some bigger pargo were lost. Some smaller yellowtail were caught…none of the bigger hogs this week. As well there were big bonito and roosterfish to be caught as well. At the time I’m writing this winds have flattened and things are looking pretty good out on the water from where I’m sitting looking at the bay. We’ll keep you posted.

CARNIVAL LA PAZ 2009

Carnival has been going on full blast most of the week and will continue on until FAT TUESDAY which is Feb. 24 (appropriately) it’s also the full moon! For sure, the town was howling. It was full scale party all week. I’ve never seen the waterfront so packed. Rides, game, food stands, and seemingly a concert stage every block or so, the carnival occupied a good 2 miles of waterfront area!

Town has been out in full force and you can hear the pounding music from a mile away. They even built two full-sized roller coasters in the area in front of the now-closed Los Arcos Hotel as well as the park across the street from the hotel which was turned into a huge midway of rides and games. There hasn’t been a hotel room available for over a week.

TAILHUNTER ROAD TOUR 2009 ONTO PHOENIX ARIZONA
We hit the road again this week. After doing shows in San Mateo and Sacramento, CA, we hit Denver and Portland. This coming week we’ll be at Cardinal Football Stadium in Glendale AZ which is the fishing/hunting show for the greater Phoenix AZ area. IT’s the International Sportsmen’s Expo.
It’s a 3 day show and starts Friday and goes to Sunday. Come check us out! It’s right down on the football field!

After that. we crank it up for the gigantic Fred Hall Fishing and Boating Show at the Long Beach Convention Center March 4-8 followed by the International Sportsmen’s Expo in Salt Lake City. Hope to see you!

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »