Feeds:
Posts
Comments

October 18, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Famlies that fish together. From the left…the first four are the Barker family (Matt, Al, Big Al and Diane). Next four…the Gustafson family (Bill, Morgan, Debbie and Broc). All are from the Salt Lake City UT area and were on their first trip down to visit us. As you can see, not a bad day of dorado fishing out of Muertos Bay. The fish they’re holding are fairly representative of the type of dorado we got all week.

RESIDUE FROM THE STORM – A HUGE FULL MOON – CHANGING WINDS PUT A TRIPLE WHAMMY ON THE FISHING BUT DORADO AND BIG SQUID FILL IN THE BLANKS!

La Paz / Las Arenas Report for the Week of Oct. 12-18, 2008

PHOTO 2: YEOW! Talk about first time outta the block! Justin Wick from Alaskas holds onto the big 250 pound black marlin he nailed out of La Paz on his first day of fishing. Captain Eddy Carballo (left) was driving the panga and holds up one of his lucky orange Crocs. Seems whenever Eddy scores big he is wearing his lucky Crocs! The funny thing is that this fish was caught on a little purple and black tuna feather while trolling for bonito to use for dorado bait. Justin fought the fist for over an hour. They were going to release it, but the fish died at the end.

PHOTO 3: Here’s out amigo, Al Barker again and his son Matt from Sandy, UT. Biggest dorado of the week he got on a chunk of slow trolled squid just outside of Muertos Bay.

PHOTO 4: More long-distance amigos all the way from Kansas. In front is Al Burgess and behind him is Leroy Freeman. Both have been down numerous times and show off some of their first-day dorado. Leroy also got a marlin that day.

PHOTO 5: Rich Grigas from Northern California holds up a pair of dorado he got on bait that are fairly typical of some of the fish we were getting early in the week.
PHOTO 6: Diane and Al Barker get an assist from Captain Armando on the beach at Muertos with a couple of their dorado they got on their first day of fishing.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Check it out. Turn up the sound and click thelink!


Kind of a quiet week around here. Quite a few folks for all the fleets canceled after so many flights canceled over the previous weekend from the hurricane (that turned out to be a woosie of a hurricane…lots of wind, but not much else). Anyway, not much traffic on the water.

I kinda think we got triple whammied this past week. I don’t put much stock in any of these things that happened if taken alone, but all three of them stacked up and I think it made a big difference in the fishing. First, as mentioned, we have the hurricane (which wasn’t much of one). Then, we had the biggest and longest full moon of the season. Then, the winds shifted from the north and started blowing and made things kinda rough. Put all those together and the fish were just outta synch!

What the hurricane did was turn up the waters around La Paz. It got rough AFTER the hurricane. In fact, the waters out of La Paz AFTER the hurricane were rougher than during the hurricane! Bright sunshine and warm conditions, but there were 4 foot waves in the bay! We did put out some the day after the hurricane but fishing was off as the waters remained brown and green.

So…

We had everyone fish out of Las Arenas instead most of the week. That’s the beneifit of Tailhunter having two fleets. We fished out of Las Arenas…well, Muertos Bay to be exact (we moved the boats back there to the cove)…and surprise! We got fish!

In fact, the area barely got touched by the storm! The big squid remained there right where we left them. There were dorado scattered around the mouth of the bay including a few nice bulls there then towards Punta Perico and the lighthouse which also kicked out more cabrilla and yellowtail. It wasn’t great gonzo fishing by any stretch, but everyone got fish. We had several families and first timers so by fishing them out of Las Arenas instead of La Paz, we were able to have a good time for all.

Some other surprises as well…yellowtail popped up off Punta Perrico! There’s been some strange happenings there this pas season. Yellowtail were there in the spring…big ones!!! But usually yellowtail are around when the waters are cold. However, there’s a bunch of bait stacked up there like squid, mackeral, caballitos and sardines. Commercial guys got some 20-30 pound yellowtail early in the week then some of our anglers got some 10 and 15 pounders. We’ll have to keep an eye on that.

Additonally, some tuna popped up briefly around the south side of Cerralvo. The elusive tuna came up and went down. We’ll keep track of that as well. Who knows! It’s been a weird season for species.

By the time you’re reading this, hopefully, the La Paz side fishing will have settled and the fish come back. Tune in for the next report!

That’s our story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

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

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

October 12, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1 : Dog tooth pargo trophy! Chip Wickline was fishing with 30 pound test just off the Las Arenas lighthouse with Captain Archangel and looky what he caught! This massive dog-tooth snapper (pargo) also called a cubera snapper or pargo perro. Estimated at 50-70 pounds this huge guy tore into a chunk of bait. Most folks think that the spring is a good time for the pargo, but although it’s true we get the most fish during that time, we got the biggest ones in the fall.

HURRICANE NORBERT HALTS FISHING LATE IN THE WEEK BUT DOES LITTLE DAMAGE BUT BEFORE THAT BIG SQUID AND DORADO SCHOOLS KEEP ANGLERS HAPPY!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of Oct. 5-11, 2009

PHOTO 2: Wade Gomes and Bill Moore from northern California area hold up two of the dorado they got fishing a day out of Las Arenas sch

PHOTO 3: One of the larger bulls that day, first timer Keith Kleppe hooked this guy working the dorado schools that have taken up residence between the Las Arenas lighthouse and Boca de Alamo.
PHOTO 4: Now appearing on “air dorado” playing “Rock You Like A Hurricane”, Joe Burkhart holds up an ice bull dorado taken south of Muertos Bay.

PHOTO 5: Dave Wakaybayshi’s guys from Southern California all hold up a nice quiver of dorado after a day of fishing at Las Arenas.
PHOTO 6: I teased Paul Dubow that he was holding his big roosterfish like a “loaf of bread” with an assist from Captain Gerardo, but he said, “When you’re 75-years-old you can’t be blamed for holding a big fish like that! Great catch from Paul. It was his first and he released it. The big roosters are still around this late in the season!

PHOTO 7: Captain Moncho (Raymond) poses with Ed “Sunny” De La Torre who spent 3 days flyfishing with us on his first trip down. He admitted he was a rookie on the flyrod but got numerous pompano, his first rooster and well as dorado on the flyrod and had a great time.
PHOTO 8: Willy Domingo from San Jose CA was trolling a plastic hoochie on the surface with 30 pound test line. No wire. When this wahoo bit, not 50 feet from the shore! As it was being fought, another wahoo twice the size swam around the boat eating chunked squid, but nothing with a hook. The wahoo was a great surprise. Sed Roldan of Hacienda Heights CA, cradles his prized barred pargo he caught on a piece of squid off the Las Arenas lighthouse.

PHOTO 9: Kevin Lang and George Nichols show off two of their dorado caught flylining baits south or Muertos Bay SE of La Paz.

PHOTO 10: Here’s the fish that made Las Arenas famous being held by Chris Blair and one of the best rooster captains in our fleet and in the area, Captain Archangel. This beauty was released to grow larger, but fish like this are still prowling the sandy shallows near the lighthouse!

PHOTO 11: Another solid beauty of a roosterfish! Rod Brown from Alaska visits us each year and loves fishing with Captain Jorge, for obvious reasons. Check out the rooster. Las Arenas is considered the “roosterfish capital of the world.” This fish was released.


PHOTO 12: Look carefully. I’ve never seen it photographed before and it’s a shame I can’t make the photo larger, but there’s about a dozen dorado in the water boiling on bait in a feeding frenzy! Get them going like this and it could be non-stop high-flying action for hours!

PHOTO 13: On the left Paul Scheuring from Mill Valley. Middle is Mike Ting from Redwood Shores. On the right is Fernando Sucre also from Redwood City. Showing of a brace of dorado headed to the hotel kitchen for a cook out. The guys caught these dorado north of La Paz

PHOTO 14: Don’t go in the water! This is the beak of one of these aggressive hungry giant squid. Easily snap off a finger or when groups get together tear apart fish and yes…even people! These hunters are canibalistic and even eat each other! This beak is what is in the middle of all those tentacles!

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

We actually have two clips this week. Turn up the sound. The first link is to the hot fishing action. The second link shows some clips from Hurricane Norbert! Enjoy!
THE FISHING REPORT

An exciting week here for sure. Let me set the scene. We pretty much figured hurricane season was over. It’s already pretty late in the season. Things had been going really well. Cooler temps on the water and air pretty much signal the end of storms. Well, about mid-week, all of a sudden, we get notices that Hurricane Norbert might be headed our way and it was gonna be a BIG ONE! We couldn’t be sure of how strong it would be or even if it would hit us directly. Day-by-day, it was stronger-weaker-stronger. It was going to hit us directly, then move north, then come our way again. It was the most erratic storm I have seen. At one time, it was up to a Category 4 hurricane which is almost the strongest!

People spent the week here alternately sandbagging, taping windows, moving furniture, building berms, and stocking up on flashlights and water and gas. For us as a fleet, we had to continuously juggle the fishermen to get them where waters were safer as winds would rip, then die, then rip again.

Anyway, it finally hit us Saturday. Oh wow…that’s about all I can say. It was ALOT of wind and that was about it. Like a big FART of a hurricane! It had to be the dryest hurricane I have ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I was thankful, but after all the preparation and anticipation, it turned out to be just severe enough that we had to cancel a lot of fishing trips and a lot of our fishermen headed home had their flights canceled. So, everyone drank beer and watched the baseball playoffs. I have officially re-named Hurricane NORBERT, Hurricane INCONVENIENCE!

As for the fishing…well, those big squid off Muertos continued to be huge and hungry so that’s how we started most days off Las Arenas. Trolling the squid strips for dorado usually produced a flurry or two and enough dorado in the 8-20 pound class to keep folks happy most days. (Check out the photo above). Still not a lot of big bulls. This late in the season, we should have more bulls in the 30, 40, 50 pound class, but right now, a 25 pounder would be a trophy.

Big roosters are still around as you can tell by the photos. It’s late in the season, but the big boys are still hanging.

Marlin and sailfish are also around. Most of them are being caught right where the dorado schools are biting. Not surprisingly, they are eating the smaller dorado and baitfish.

We did have some really interesting things happen. Our amigo, Bruce Peterson, from South Dakota, dropped his big squid jig down and as it sank below the boat in the clear blue water, not 10 feet below the boat, a big striped marlin bolts out and inhales the squid jig all the way down it’s gullet (Squid jigs the new hot marlin lure?) Anyway…fish on! Fight on! The got the fish to the boat and the marlin had completely inhaled the the lure down it’s throat, but was still able to be extracted and released.

Roy Cordes (we want to adopt him as our ex-officio grandfather) got into a wild dorado bite where a dorado leaped into the boat and bit him in the toe, then jumped back out! FISH ATTACKS MAN!

I was on the water myself a few days this week and the squid bite was incredible. These are 60-80 pound beasts! I would NOT want to get into the water with these. They were not only hard to pull up, but if you took too long, you could actually see the other squid tear the hooked squid apart. No mercy. After all your work, you’d come up with just a head and some tentacles!

I don’t know what this storm will have done to the water and fishing conditions so we can only guess. But often, it washes a lot of debris into the water that becomes a haven for baitfish and ergo, the sportfish! We’ll keep you posted.

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

October 4, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: THE BEASTS ARE BACK! I”m referring to the squid, not our two angler buddies from Boston…Mike “Moogie” Alperin and Joe Abrams. For two weeks not the big uglies have been off the Las Arenas area and range up to 60 pounds!

THEY’RE NOT BIG BUT THERE’S ALOT OF THEM! DORADO AGAIN CENTER STAGE WITH BIG SQUID GARNERING LOT OF INTEREST TOO!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, 2008

PHOTO 2: From Denver, Dave Van Steenkiste came down for his first La Paz foray and did some great fishing including this excellent bull dorado, one of the largest this week. He was fishing just south of Muertos Bay.

PHOTO 3: Our amigo, Nathan Chow, has been down numerous times with us and always does well. He got this nice female dorado while fishing north of La Paz. Nathan is from Fremont CA

PHOTO 4: A happy bunch after their first day of fishing, Steve Meyers, George Nichols, Kevin Lang (hiding behind the dorado) and Steve Delot hold some of their catch including the giant squid held by George.

PHOTO 5: Yes, the big roosters are still around. Mike Alperin was our rooster king of the week with several big guys caught and released this week including this big guy taken not far from Las Arenas beach. Captain Adolfo helps out. Mike released all fish and specializes in light tackle. He’s from the Boston area and this was his second trip out to see us this year.
PHOTO 6: Also down for their 2nd trip of the season are Craig and Cathy Corda from the San Diego area. Note Cathy’s new pink rod!

PHOTO 7: This seemed to be a week for returning amigos! Roger Van Steenkiste on the far left from Arizona comes to visit us twice a year. He was just here in August. Here’s he’s back again terrorizing the fish schools. Next to him are: Mike Reber, Greg Van Steenkiste, Jay Dawe, David Van Steenkiste and Olin Martin. Over 4 days, the group caught and released scores of dorado.
PHOTO 8: On is first trip with us, Joe “Flash” Abrams holds up one of the many schoolie roosterfish still holding along the beaches around La Paz. Great fun on light tackle. Joe and his amigos released a majority of their fish including all roosters.

PHOTO 9: La Paz in the house! Two of our La Paz amigos, Aurelio and Carlos know exactly what’s going on the barbecue tonite. They got an easy limit of dorado not 200 yards from the beach and stopped fishing after only 2 hours.

PHOTO 10: Don’t go in the water. This is what a 50 pound squid looks like going through it’s color changes before being brought aboard after coming up from the deep. These are not “cute.” These things can and will hurt you.
PHOTO 11: I told Dave Van Steenkiste to bring his flyrod out on the panga. Right off the bat, his first two fish on the flyrod are dorado! That’s Cerralvo Island in the background.

PHOTO 12: Left to right, Randy Nakayama (Fullerton CA), Derrick Tagawa (Whittier CA), Mark Kojima (Hacienda Hts CA) with some of their dorado catch as well as one of the big squid they took just south of Punta Arenas lighthouse SE of La Paz
PHOTO 13: This is Chuck and Jennifer Applegarth from San Luis Obispo CA showing their first-day catch standing on the sand at Las Arenas. Flurries of breezing dorado can quickly turn into a feeding frenzy of colorful fish.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Turn up the sound and click the link!
THE FISH REPORT
Well, if you wanted to catch a dorado or a big squid (big enough to eat you!), this was certainly the week. Probably 90 percent of the catch this week was dorado. To get the dorado, you often had to catch the big squid. What a way to start the day…pulling a 40, 50, 60 pound squid up from several hundred feet down in the hot sun! It’s a workout!

But, let’s start with the dorado bite. OK…there are a lot of dorado around here right now. There’s not a lot of big ones. Normally, this time of the year, our average dorado STARTS at 20 pounds and goes up to 60. The AVERAGE size dorado is a 30 pounder. Not so the last few weeks. A 20 pound mahi is pretty big for now. Most of the fish are in the 10-15 pound class. However, lacking in quality, the schools have been making up for it in QUANTITY. Although it doesn’t happen every day and you can miss the school or have a slow day, don’t be surprised if you run into a school where you can hook and release 20 or 30 fish at a time! Bottom line, everyone who wants a dorado is getting dorado.

The dorado areas are scattered. Basically, if you have a bait in the water, you never know if a dorado will bite. The competition for the food is fierce and they’re willing to bite the big squid in chunks, live sardines, lures and strips of bonito as well.

For the squid, the guys fishing Las Arenas are getting big huge! Check out the photos. There have been squid even larger! Catching them right out of the chute in the morning is the way to go then using chunks for the dorado to get them going. Also, save some of that squid meat! Guys are taking huge slabs home in their ice chests for calamari.

For other species…sorry…no tuna this past week. I can’t imagine where they are, but this is normally a good time for the yellowfin. Maybe by the time you’re reading this, the tuna bite could crank up!

As you can see, we’ve still got some chunky roosterfish around! Fish the beaches. Most of these fishe are getting released and we’ve gotten some solid 50 pounders this past week.

Marlin and sails still around, but all four billfish…black marlin, blue marlin, striped marlin and sailfish are all in the waters feeding on all the small dorado and bonito.

That’s our story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

September 27, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: “She outfished me!” laughed Tom Bartlett as he helped wife, Diane, hoist her bull dorado for the camera. It was a great week for dorado with limits or near limits most days!

GREAT WEEK FOR DORADO FISHING HIGHLIGHTED BY THE GIANT SQUID FINALLY SHOWING UP!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Sept. 20-27, 2008

PHOTO 2: The size of the fish doubled this week for the dorado catch. Standing on Las Arenas Beach, Jim Andrews from S.California holds up a beauty he got flylining live bait just offshore.

PHOTO 3: Patrick Tomyoy really wanted to catch a marlin. He had no idea what he was in for. He was fishing for dorado with 25 pound test when this big striped marlin whacked him. With the help of Captain Miguel, he fought the fish for almost 4 hours north of La Paz. We don’t often target billfish although we surely have our share in our waters, but not much you can do when one of the big boys eats your little bait. An epic battle!
PHOTO 4: These guys always do well. Our good amigos, Jeff Sakuda and Criag Fuschino hold a pair of winners. Jeff holds one of the few yellowfin tuna we got this week and Craig holds the bull dorado. The next day, both amigos each got a wahoo to cap things off.

PHOTO 5: Not many tuna taken this week, but but ones that were were closer to 20 pounds than previous week like this one held by Johnny Wong from Pasadena CA

PHOTO 6: Lionel Frailey from Arizona always wanted to get a roosterfish. He succeeded! The roosterfish are still along the areas beachs ranging up to 50-60 pounds. This one was released.

PHOTO 7: Ladies in da house with fish! Roseanne Ishihiro from Hawaii was on her first trip. Marianne Sugawara from Cypress CA makes it down several times a year. The dorado bit nicely for the ladies!
PHOTO 8: Alex Molina came down with a pack of his firemen buddies and he displays one of the good looking dorado caught off La Paz waters this past week.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Turn up the sound and click the link to see some of the fishing clips from this past week:
THE FISHING REPORT

What a week! Dorado! Dorado! (And more dorado!). Not a whole lot of BIG fish, but there was generally now shortage of action for 10-20 pounders with limits of fish the rule rather than the exception. There were a few bulls in the 30-40 pound class, but they were fewer and far between Suffice to say that at least the fish were bigger this week than last and there were a few days this week when the boats came back early or simply stopped fishing the dorado well before noon because anglers simply had too much; got bored with too many dorado; or wanted to hunt other species. All of these are GOOD things which meant lots of action and fillets for the ice chests.

Overall, I’d have to say that our Las Arenas fleet did better than our La Paz fleet, but our La Paz boats weren’t far behind.

Our Las Arenas boats ran into several days of the giant squid (20-60 pound beasts to start the day!) and using them chummed schools of hungry dorado into a frenzy towards the boats. After that the schools would eat live bait, chunked squid, trolled bonito, chunked bonito, trolled feathers…and even a piece of lunch burrito that one angler dropped over board in the middle of the bite and had two dorado race to explode on the toritllas! Actually, the larger problem has been reminding anglers and captains to RELEASE more fish, especially the smaller and female fish! As the week went on, I think anglers got the clue as we heard stories and saw more fish getting tossed back.

But a word about these squid. These are the big boys everyone keeps asking about. Imagine starting the day winching up one of these creatures from deep water when the sun is climbing higher and the humidity is already 80 percent and the captain tells you that you need several of these for bait! As one guy said, “It was like pulling a refrigerator up the side of a building with a string!” But all had fun. If you can, bring the BIG heavy squid jigs with you!

Roosterfish were sporadic but still on the beaches. Tuna would pop up and bite then go down fast. We had 5 or 6 wahoo biters, but only 2 landed at the south end of Cerralvo Island.

For our La Paz fleet, the bite was scattered, but centered generally between the islands. The dorado were a touch larger than their Las Arenas counterparts and the largest dorado of the week came from our La Paz boats. We had a few marlin hooked up and released as well. There were stories of tuna breaking at the north end of Cerralvo Island, but every boat that chased them there never found the fish.

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

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

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

September 20, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Tuomas Holmberg from Los Angeles with one of the larger dorado taken this week. We scaled it at 41 pounds taken on a sardine in Bahia Ventana. There were alot of dorado this past week, but very few approaching this trophy sized beast!

DORADO GO ON THE RIP JOINED BY YELLOWFIN TUNA THIS PAST WEEK. BIG ROOSTERS ALSO STEP UP!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of Sept 14-20, 2008

PHOTO 2: Big dorado are the norm in the fall here in La Paz, but this past week, there weren’t many big ones at all. However, Frank Venesca holds a gem taken while fishing with our La Paz fleet north of the city.

PHOTO 3: Some guys just got the luck! Anthony Avila, Jr. came down on his first trip. Not only does he get his first billfish…a sail…but he also gets a wahoo right off the bat on his first day on the water. Go figure! Great fish. Guys come for decades and never get a sniff of one of these. Anthony is gonna get spoiled.

PHOTO 4: Goofy shots are always the best. These guys just had too much fun. From left to right holding dorado at Las Arenas Beach is Wes “Big Kahuna” Howard, Anthony Gallardo, Jorge Villegas and Ruben Gallardo, all from the Los Angeles area.
PHOTO 5: Every few days this past week, the tuna went strong to the baits. These yellowfin were 12-20 pounders. The fish also moved closer just off the old Hotel Las Arenas south to Muertos Bay. Here, Don Nose and Mark Lee heft a few tuna that ended up in their box along with a mystery dorado!

PHOTO 6: Funny thing about the tuna this past week. The smaller your bait, the better the yellowfin tuna liked them! Bigger baits caught dorado. Smaller baits caught tuna. Johnny Wong from Pasadena CA and Stever O’Rourke ripped into the tuna schools with my Las Arenas fleet.
PHOTO 7: It was a good week for roosters. The big boys were right there in the shallow waters. True to it’s reputation, there’s a reason why Las Arenas is known as the “Roosterfish Capital World.” Steve Tomata and Ray Lim were fishing with us for the first time and got a double hookup on these two 35 pounders not too far from the Las Arenas lighthouse close to shore.

PHOTO 8: Randy Lee is from Los Angeles. Bruce Dodge is from another planet. (Gotcha Bruce!) and two of the nicest and funniest guys when they come down here. Bruced hooked this nice sailfish. There were quite a few billfish around feeding in the bait schools and on the samller dorado, tuna and bonito.
PHOTO 9: Hector Chavez from Salinas CA had a good trip with us. Got his first roosterfish as well as his first dorado on his first time fishing…ever. This 40 pound rooster ate a slow trolled live bait off Las Arenas Point.

PHOTO 9: My good buddy, Pablo Bejarano from Rosarito Beach, Baja Norte, made the report this week with this nice dorado. Congratulations, Pablo. This young man can really dance too. We put a few tacos into him one night and he stopped the crowd in the restaurant when he decided to show off his footwork!

PHOTO 10: Gotta love this photo. It’s our Dave Crawford from Texas who dodged Hurricane Ike to come play in La Paz. Along with his amigo, Larry Daniels, they had a great day on the dorado and yellowfin tuna.
PHOTO 11: Shout out from Jorge Villegas showing off one of many schoolie dorado he racked up fishing two day with our Las Arenas fleet. The dorado were sometimes so thick you could “free gaff” them said one of our anglers.

PHOTO 12: Keeping it tight, Mark Avila, Anthony Avila, Manny Avila, Manny Jr. Frank Venesca and Anthony Avila, Jr. gather around a big mess of fish headed to someone’s barbecue.

PHOTO 13: Brad, Jeff and Greg Smith (they’re brothers!) and amigo, Frank Villa all came from northern California and ran into a mess of yellowfin tuna and dorado.

PHOTO 14: Pete Mason had quite a day tangling with the big roosters. Talk about grand slamming! Pete got a 34 pounder, 50 pounder and this 62 pound rooster. All fish released.
PHOTO 15: Not a big week for wahoo, but Brian Kam from the San Francisco Bay area, busted up this one near the south end of Cerralvo Island.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Turn up the sound and click this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkJn1ut6RCI
THE FISHING REPORT
Wow…what a week. It had it’s ups-and-down, but overall, I’d have to say it was a pretty darned good week of fishing down here! There were some slow moments, but I think for most guys who fished at least 2-3 days, they had some great action!

In fact, some guys had some outstanding trips…trips of a lifetime. Many personal best or heaviest fish were caught. Or, many guys got their first tuna, wahoo, marlin, or dorado. It was good to see the smiles. For instance, Patrick Tomyoy fought a 150 pound black marlin close to 4 hours on 25 pound test. Lionel Frailey, Ray Lim, Steve Tomata, Hector Chavez got their first roosters and all of them were trophy fish! Anthony Avila, Jr, got his first wahoo AND his first sailfish. I can’t even name all the guys how pulled on their first tuna this week.

But that’s how it went.

Far and away, the most prevailant catch were the dorado. Some time they were like little punks everywhere. They were some moments they were so close to the boats and so thick, guys were trying to free-gaff them! Both our La Paz and Las Arenas Fleets got into the dorado. There were more fish on the Las Arenas side, but the larger bulls were caught by my La Paz boats.

The biggest problem was actually the lack of larger fish. It seemed like the fish gods put a 10 pound dorado into a copy machine and pressed “copy!” There were so many fish that looked exactly alike! It was rare to get any fish over 20 pounds or even 15 pounds although we did have a few nice bulls to put in the boxes (see the photos). But, I could have used a few more of those. Still, there was no real shortage of the streaky spring-time dorado. Usually, this time of the year, the dorado are more like 20-50 pounders. They must be out here somewhere!

As for other species, we had a nice surprise of tuna for my Las Arenas fleet in the area of Punta Perrico and Bahia de Los Muertos. Not far from shore at all and the fish went 10-20 pounds. A few days every boat had about 5-10 of the fish hooked. A few other days, the tuna went to ground and only a handful of tuna were brought to gaff. However, some boats hooked tuna they COULD NOT STOP!!! So some of the bigger models appear to have moved into the area.

In addition to the tuna and dorado, it was a pretty good week for roosterfish too. Funny thing. Some days we couldn’t get a sniff from the roosters. The next day when no one really wented them, they were THICK!!! Small ones…medium…sized…large models! Just depended where you were fishing. Check out the photos above. These are the ones that were not released. Quite a few others were dropped or let go to get even bigger. The largest of the fish this week were 50-60 pound brutes.

For other stuff…a few wahoo were yanked and spanked ,but more often it was the other way around. The anglers lost the fish! A few billfish were caught while guys were trying to fish dorado or tuna and sierra in the bay indicate to me that there’s some cooler water moving in.

We’ll keep you posted!

That’s our story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

September 14, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Manny Gonzalez had never fished before. He had never even had a fishing rod in his hand. He casts his first bait and hooks this good looking dorado bull fishing just a hundred yards from where he is standing for this photo at Punta Arenas Beach. Dorado were the mainstay of the catch this week.

TROPICAL STORM LOWELL PINCHES THE FISHING A BIT WITH A FEW HOURS OF HEAVY RAIN AND ALOT OF ANXIETY BUT DORADO STILL TRY TO DO THEIR PART

LA PAZ/ LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK OF SEPT 7-13, 2008

PHOTO 2: Anthony Garrett was on his first trip down to see us and had a good time. (Right Anthony?) He’s holding a few of his first-day dorado here that he got on live bait off Punta Perico.
PHOTO 3: A pair of nice dorado for Brian Kam who came from the San Francisco Bay area.

PHOTO 4: Two of the funnest folks we’ve had in a long time are John and Dolores Ehler from Denver Colorado standing here with Captain Pancho from our Las Arenas fleet. Check out the dorado and yellowfin tuna in front of them. There weren’t many tuna this week. They got elusive on us again, but there were a few. The key to them was the lightest line you dare to use!
PHOTO 5: Ian Boyd, Dave Boyd, Jeff Gilbertson and Dave Stoller do a group pose with dorado at Las Arenas Beach. Dave has a roosterfish he’s cradling. (See below)

PHOTO 6: Dave Boyd wanted a rooster and got this trophy 33 pounder on live bait in shallow water off Punta Arenas. Attempts to revive the fish weren’t successful, but the meat was donated. There are still quite a few roosters around. You either find some loners like this one with the larger fish going 30-70 pounds or you hit schools of smaller fun 10 pounders.

THE FISHNG REPORT

I guess the story this week was Tropical Storm Lowell mucking things up. Like most storms at this time of year, it comes out of nowhere. One moment, you’re looking at all the 5 day forecasts and the next, it suddenly changes and shows 5 days of storms on the horizon. Our biggest concern, of course, is whether it becomes a hurricane or not. Lowell did not get bigger and badder. When all was said and done, it messed with the fishing a bit and dropped some heavy rain for a few hours. It caused the port captain to shut down the port for the most of a day. That forced us to cancel the boats for one day. That was kind of it. We feel badly for the guys who can’t fish that day, but most made good use of it…staying out later the night before to enjoy the town then getting a chance to sleep in the next day and have real breakfasts!

So, bottom line…Lowell was more a big inconvenience than an actual emergency.

As for the fishing, before the storm, we had a fairly nice bite of dorado going on. Both our fleets at Las Arenas and La Paz got into maybe 3-8 dorado per boat per day with a mix of bonito, and the occasional tuna. On the La Paz side, our boats got primarily dorado but also got to raise a few marlin and sailfish.

Most of the variety fish were caught on the Las Arenas side by our other fleet. A few tuna got into the counts with the dorado, but we got a few wahoo biters, some sailfish and pargo. Plus, our failsafe, roosterfish were pretty much good to have along the shorelines. It wasn’t great fishing, but it wasn’t bad either. Just kinda of mixed up and unpredictable because of the storm.

After the storm, it seemed to get a bit better everyday, but at the time of writing this, it’s still a bit early to say what’s up. We’ll keep you posted. My suggestions if you’re coming down fishing is to go with the flow. Don’t be “species specific.” Fish for what’s there. Don’t shoot for the homerun. The captains all want to catch fish so let them put you on the bite and you’ll have fun. By far, the boats this past week that didn’t focus on a particular species got the most bites and had the best times.

ALASKA STATE CLIENTS

If you’re one of our Alaskan clients, Alaska Airlines has some incredible fares and companion fare discounts if you book before Oct. 13th for a trip down here in 2009. Check it out. Some of the companion fares are as low as 50 dollars.

ALASKA AIRLINES FLIERS
This past week, Alaska Airlines started using Horizon Air (owned by Alaska Air) to start flying down here to La Paz. If you’re booked on Alaska to fly down here, check your schedule to make sure it’s the same flight. It may have changed slightly . Also, the Horizon planes are smaller than the Alaska planes so they’re alot tighter on weight restrictions and luggage sizes. Get there early to your terminal if you’re bringing gear with you!

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

September 6, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: The tuna are back!!! Bigger and stronger. South of Las Arenas, we located the tuna schools again and hit some larger 20 and 25 pounders held by Lyndon Johnson and Jack Minter from California

TUNA FOUND AGAIN WITH DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH TO START THE MONTH!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of Aug 31 to Sept. 6, 2008

PHOTO 2: Shelley and Sherm McDonnell all the way from chilly Green River, Wyoming hold some of the dorado they got fishing light tackle with our Las Arenas fleet. There weren’t alot of big dorado this week, but the numbers were nice!

PHOTO 3: Left to right…Serge Douzjian, Jamie Smith, Dan Estandia, and Greg Voudouris, hold up a few of the fish they got. Jamie is holding up a nice cabrilla (seabass) and Greg holds onto his snapper.

PHOTO 4: Nice lineup! Bottom row left to right: Nick Voudouris, Avo Oughourian, Toros Marganian. Back row left to right: Chris Greanias, Capt. Steve Greanias, Johnny Gouma, Serge Douzjian, Andre Kerian, Danny Estandia, Jamie Smith, Robert Marganian with some of the dorado they nailed one day fishing out with our Las Areanas fleet.
PHOTO 5: Tim Gudeneau is holding up some of his yellowfin tuna next to Don Baker. Both are from the Orange Co. area of S.California. Tim has been telling me for years about coming down and finally made it. He got his first dorado and his first tuna this day and you can see him eat the traditional heart of his tuna if you click the video clip above. Rookies believe anything!

PHOTO 6: Oregonians from Portland, Charlie Pongrantz and Brent Lakey got a box of these dorado on their first day fishing with us. They were off the Arenas lighthouse.
PHOTO 7: Makelle Catmull and Kent Christensen from Utah won this trip on a contest and got into the yellowfin tuna this week as well.
PHOTO 8: Too nice of a photo to ignore. Chris Greanias holds up a pretty permit. These guys roam the shores foraging and make great inshore light tackle sport as well as great eating.

PHOTO 9: One of the better dorado this past week was taken by Avo Oughourian, This nice bull was taken while Avo was fishing with our La Paz Fleet.

The WEEKLY VIDEO CLIP

Click the link and see the dorado and tuna as well as Tim Gudeneau of Mission Viejo CA eat the heart of his first tuna as per “tradition!” Turn up the sound!

Click this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfu0zVJsBUY

The FISHING REPORT

Fishing hasn’t exactly come roaring back, but I’m sure not hearing a lot of complaints. After the storm almost two weeks ago, fishing got sticky but better day-by-day. It still isn’t on fire, but darn there sure is a lot of action to be had! So, I’d have to say fishing isn’t too bad after all!

No one is going home without fish! I”ll tell you that much. And everyone is having a good time. Probably the biggest news is that our Las Arenas fleet seemed to have found the tuna schools again south of Las Arenas and this time the fish have some legit 25 pounders in there. For a lot of anglers…including a bunch of first timers…you mix in 3, 4, 5 or 6 of these hard-charging yellowfin…add in about a dozen 15 pound bonito. Throw in some pesky needlefish and maybe a handful or several dorado…and you come back to the beach just beat up to shreds! I mean it! Oh…and let’s not forget 100 degree sunshine too! Takes a lot out of anyone our there. We have to keep reminding anglers that drinking beer out there on the water is fun and part of the whole ambience of fishing here in Mexico, but YOU MUST DRINK WATER or you will cook your brains right out’ve your head! Wear a hat. Put on the sunscreen. Common sense!

Anyway, yup…the tuna came on nicely. There’s also dorado breezers too. Not many big ones, but enough to get flashes of color in the fish box. Live bait. Stripped bait. Fresh dead bait and tuna feathers are working well. Don’t forget 25 pound flurocarbon line too! That’s a big plus!

For our La Paz Fleet…the dorado were definitely here this past week. But some days you find the spot and other day, it’s picky. Most of the boats got 3-7 dorado each day out’ve La Paz. Not many big bulls but most fish were 10-15 pounds with some 25 pounders rounding it out. Several big bulls were hooked, but not many landed. Roosterfish along the shores and pargo inside the rocks have been a great change-up!

If you’re flying Alaska the next few weeks, you know that Horizon is now the new carrier. Horizon is owned by Alaska so it’s not a big deal. However, the Horizon jets are smaller. Instead of 5 seats in each row, there’s only 3 seats in each row. Space is limited in the cargo hold too. So, get there early if you’re bringing a lot of gear. Just an FYI!

That’s our story
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

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

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

August 31, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: King of the week is Captain Steve Greanias from the Los Angeles area who rocked the big fish all week as well as several of the largest roosters of the season. Take a look at some of the underwater photos this week. Steve also took those. Steve does well every time he comes down and released all of his big roosters. Steve got 3 fish that went upwards of 50 pounds plus they lost a few as well. Steve and his dad got marlin (released) and big dorado, but made a point of chasing the big roosters that Las Arenas is famous for.

STORM STARTS THE WEEK WITH A THUD BUT AFTER THINGS CLEAR FISHING STARTS TO GET BACK UP TO SPEED

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Aug. 24-30, 2008

PHOTO 2: Two of the funnest folks we’ve had in a long time, Sherman and Shelley McDonell left snow falling in Wyoming to come enjoy some Baja sunshine and fishing. Both are extremely experienced and figured they’d try light tackle fishing in the Tailhunter House! Well, their first day out on 17 pound test and spinning rods, they got their first taste of Baja power. Double hookup within minutes! Shelley’s fish on the right was the larger of the two and in the 45 pound class and she fought it for an hour and 15 minutes! Attempts to revive the fish were unsuccessful so the meat was donated to the San Pedro pueblo.

PHOTO 3: Check this out!!! 40-pound class dorado underwater with the Mean Joe Green jig hanging on the lip. Steve Greanias stuck his camera underwater and got this spectacular shot just below the surface. The fish was hooked just north of La Paz.

PHOTO 4: Yes, another photo by Steve Greanias with his digital camera. His dad was on his first marlin (see photo below) and Steve poked his camera underwater again for this rare shot. The yellow on it’s flank is the lure trailing behind the hook. They were fishing over the canyon near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 5: Here’s the fish you saw underwater in the shot above. Captain Eddy Carballo helps Chris Greanias with the honors. It was Chris’ first marlin and was in the 150 pound class and the fish was released and swam away.

PHOTO 6: OK, Jamie…you made the report! Jamie Smith from Malibu and his nephew Daniel Estandia from Ventura CA area hold up a nice pair. Jamie has a 15 pound yellowfin tuna, but check out the size of the bruiser bonito that Danny is holding onto! Both the bonito and the tuna got larger this week after the storm.
PHOTO 7: Yellowfin tuna weren’t thick, but they were biting sporadically south of Cerralvo Island. Armen Minissian (left) came down to celebrate his birthday here in La Paz and he’s flanked by amigo, Andre Kerian (right) with a pair of nice yellowfin headed to the sashime platter.

PHOTO 8: Greg Voudouris and Harry Gouma were quite a pair this week. Fishing both Las Arenas and La Paz, they had a good week on dorado. They were often high boat each day on the mahi. Here’s part of their catch on day on the beach at Las Arenas.
PHOTO 9: Toros Marganian had only been trolling a feather about 15 minutes when this sailfish came up and struck the lure near Cerralvo Island. It was his first.

PHOTO 10: Bakersfield Sam Smith gets alot of credit. Despite showing up in the biggest and worst storm of the season so far, he and his dad hung in with alot of patience and kept it light and fun and still got in a bit of fishing in less than ideal conditions earlier in the week. He did get this nice dorado fishing with Captain Victor out of Las Arenas.

PHOTO 11: Steven Laurentis is our amigo from “Los Angeles and world for a big radio station there. Great guy who was on his second trip to see us here in La Paz. He’s holding up a pair of yellowfin tuna, but also go his first sailfish on this trip which he released.

WEEKLY VIDEO CLIP

Click here for a little video clip of some of the week’s fishing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzESE_8WlMU

Have the sound up!

THE FISHING REPORT

Well, where do I start? Fishing really tanked as we began the week. Straight up…it pretty funky and that was because tropical storm Julio came through here.

It was weird. There was absolutely nothing on the radar. Then, we wake up and suddenly we have rain coming. And not just a little blow. Turns into a tropical storm named Julio. In truth, it wasn’t much of a storm as storms go and thankfully, it wasn’t a hurricane so thanks to all of you who wrote and wished us well.

It was just enough to get my car muddy and have to turn on the window wipers and it was bad enough that we didn’t want anyone out on the water because it was rough and wet and the port captain shut things down for a bit.

But, I felt bad for the amigos that were here and lost a day of fishing and had to keep watching the weather screens like us wondering from day-to-day if they’d be able to go fishing that day. Hat’s off to all of them who kept patience with us and kept smiling!

The fishing was not great as you might guess, but everyone made a go of it and did their best…captains and anglers both! They scratched up a few dorado, some bonito, a few too many needlefish and some roosters.

As the week went on, the rain left us and the winds died down, but the clouds still hung over us, but the fishing did improve seemingly with each passing day. More dorado started up in the counts including some larger 30 and 40 pounders. We saw quite a few billfish and got a few to bite. Several anglers got 2 or more billfish in a single day. Most were released. As well, roosters along the beaches kept things fun for the light tackle guys and ladies plus we’re seeing more sierra which leads me to believe that there’s some cooler spots of water here and there.Some of the roosters, as you can see from the photos, were the trophy-sized horses that this area is famous for. We had a few wahoo jump the lures, but nothing stuck. Tuna showed up back in the counts as well with legitimate 15-pounders at the north end of Espiritu Santo Island.

Like I said, it wasn’t great fishing by any stretch, but as the week went on, things got more promising.

Hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, we’ll be back in the swing of things and fishing is back up to speed.

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

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

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

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

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

August 23, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Lots of firsts for Kenny Nishimura from the Sacramento CA area. First time in Baja. First time fishing in Baja. First dorado! And it’s a gem. He holds up a sweet bull dorado that raked him across the ocean for awhile, but he put the fish in the boat! Kenny was fishing with his dad and other Sacramento firefighters this past week north of La Paz where dorado were a bit picky this week, but there were still some prizes to be had.

SCRATCHY FISHING MAKES ANGLERS WORK HARD FOR THEIR FISH THIS WEEK BUT EVERYONE STILL WENT HOME WITH FISH!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Aug. 16 to 23, 2008

PHOTO 2: One of the highlights of the week was the re-appearance of wahoo willing to go after a trolled lure or bait. Both the north and south side of Cerralvo Island had a few biters like this great 37-pounder held by Scott Singleton from the Sacramento area in California. He was fishing with our Las Arenas fleet south of the island

PHOTO 3: Tony Glover was on his first trip with us. He took a vacation from serving in Afghanistan with special forces protecting the U.S. embassy in Kabul and decided to do some fishing and also get his scuba certifcation. Tony hung this slugger bull dorado fishing north out of La Paz with Captain Marcos.

PHOTO 4: Kari Strickland from Mobile, Alabama poses with a dorado she hooked and landed east of Espiritu Santo Island. This was her first trip with us here in La Paz.

PHOTO 5: Paul Romano comes to see us every year with his dad Carl and has so many adventures every time! His first day fishing he pulls up on this huge blue marlin estimated at over 300 pounds. Many of you know famous Captain Chito Martinez standing alongside. Paul said he got the fish in about an hour. All the fish was donated to local families.

PHOTO 6: I couldn’t resist. Kenny Nishimura also got his first roosterfish with us this week as well as his first dorado. It’s great when you’re 14 years-old and on a trip with dad. He actually got several roosterfish on this particular day fishing less than 50 feet off the Las Arenas beach in water no deepter than 3 feet.
THE FISHING REPORT

I have to call it like I see it. It was a bit of a down week this past week around here. Actually, it’s been a little longer than a week of picky fishing. I know some are blaming the full moon on the 16th of August, but I hate putting the blame on a lunar cycle. Not my style. Most of the time this past year on a full moon cycle we slammed fish. But not this last week.

I can’t detect anything really different. Water is and has been a great 85-88 degrees on the surface. Our scuba divers tell me even at depth, it’s not much cooler…a warm 82. Air temperatures are in the upper 90’s each day and we have our seasonal tropical rain showers in the afternoon. Water is mostly clear. Winds have been down with only slight breezes. Criminy…we even have good bait!

Maybe it’s just Mother Nature giving us a reminder slap not to be cocky and telling us it’s still fishing! Because Jiminy Crismas, we had some good dorado and tuna fishing the past few weeks. As all things here in the Cortez are cyclical, I can only believe it’s going to go on the upswing…just in time for YOUR trip coming up! Right? I have my fingers crossed! September and October are traditionally our BEST and hottest fishing months to swing on fish so don’t get all droopy-eyed. (Yes, I know the tuna and dorado are getting caught on half-day boats in S.California so don’t write me and rub it in!) This is still Steinbeck’s and Ray Cannon’s Sea of Cortez we’re talking about!

So, wassup?

Well, the great tuna bite of the last month for our Las Arenas fleet tapered off. Actually the problem could very well be the bait. We have LOTS of it. Not a problem. However, during the weeks the tuna were going off, we had the scrawniest, tiniest baits imaginable. They barely fit on a hook. They were so small they were almost transparent. If you saw them you’d have to roll your eyes and figured you were in for bad fishing. On the contrary, the tuna LOVED the small baits and gulped them by the handfuls.

Well, this past few weeks we got the NORMAL sized sardines back. Good healthy swimmers. The kind we love to have in the baits wells. Unfortunately, the tuna don’t seem to like ’em as well. I guess we have to go looking for sickly bait! Go figure!

Anyway, the tuna we found dropped from about 10 per boat/day to about 1-4 per boat per day and generally caught at the north and south ends of Cerralvo Island. Football-sized yellowfin ranged from about 8-17 pounds punctuated by flurries of bonito, skipjack and the occasional wahoo, marlin or sailfish. Roosterfish sometimes turned to be the saving grace on a few days when the boats would come in go light tackle in the inshore roosters catching and releasing most fish. However, just to be totally honest, I saw two days when the main catch was TRIGGER FISH! Great eating, but hardly what you come to Baja to fish for.

For our La Paz fleet, it was picky as well. It was pretty much so-so fishing with a few highlighted spikes. Most boats that past week got only 1-4 dorado on the average with a few nice bulls. However, it seemed one or two boats each day would find a hot spots and get limits in short order. If you were on a boat that worked hard, but just didn’t find the spot, you had a scratchy day. Some of our captains blamed the lack of current and the fact that it was “too calm” some days for the dorado.

I have to believe we’ll be rolling again. Despite what I wrote, everyone DID catch fish and everyone who wanted to bring home fish brought home fish. If you fished only one day, it could be that one day that stunk, but generally speaking, if you fished 2, 3 or 4 days, you went home with a fairly full cooler. It’s just that you had to really work hard for your fish and there was no room for error. Often, I’d talk to the guys coming back to the beach and they’d tell me they “only got 2 fish.” Of course, they’d be disappointed, but the captain would tell me they “LOST FIVE!” Like I said, you gotta be on your game. No second chances!

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

August 16, 2008 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Big man with big bull dorado! Mike Cramer holds up a legit 36 pound mahi. (See the scale in his hands). There weren’t alot of dorado this week, but there were surely some nice quality dorado caught this week. Mike got this bad guy fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.

TUNA STILL FRONT AND CENTER MOVING CLOSER BUT DORADO AND BILLFISH STILL IN THE RING AS WELL!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of Aug. 10-17, 2008

PHOTO 2: Our buddy, Joey Fuschetti from Irvine CA rocked with this huge bull dorado that could easily have been a 50 pound class fish. Joey always does well fishing here at least once-a-year and got this dorado fishing with our La Paz fleet.

PHOTO 3: No shortage of sashime and sushi meat! Two of the nicest guys, Leo Dunn and Mitch Kawamoto, hold up just a few of the football tuna they popped south of Las Arenas. The fish got a little bigger with most now over 10 pounds. Small sardine baits were the key as well as light line and flurocarbon leaders.

PHOTO 4: Like I said…there were som brute dorado around this week. Mark Azaiwa, holds the head of a trophy bull helped by Captain Pancho with our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 5: Las Vegas in the house! Eric Jones. Rob Manke, Sean Maes and Dave Jones started off their trip with a load of fillets. They hold up just a few of the tuna and dorado they whacked fishing with our Tailhunter Fleet out of Las Arenas.
PHOTO 6: Two of our best friends and darned good anglers, John Dunne and Gina Dunne from the Sierra Madre area of Los Angeles, come to visit every year. They also stack up the ice chests. This year it was full of dorado and here, some of the yellowfin footballs they scored south of Las Arenas. As the week went on, the fish got bigger and closer to the island.

PHOTO 7: First timers from Oregon, Chris and Julie Groth came down from the Portland area where Chris is a commercial fisherman who traded in his rain slickers for some shorts and t-shirts. They got so much fish they were giving it away to whoever wanted at the hotel.
PHOTO 8: Check this out. We all know what needlefish are. They are a curse to those of us who fish these waters. We have some big ones here. Well, check out Danny Wong’s needlefish! I put it on a scale and it measure 17 pounds! By contrast, the tuna this week were only about 12 pounders.

PHOTO 9: It’s soooo cool when people catch their fish fish. Here, Sharon Aurand from the S.Francisco bay area holds up her very first yellowfin tuna aided by Captain Jorge
PHOTO 10: Nice day! Tom Aurand and his son, T.J. pose with their first day of fishing. A nice rack of yellowfin tuna and a dorado in the sand. It was their first time down here to Baja and they probably caught about 9 different species of fish over the course of a week plus had billfish rising, but not quite taking their lures.

PHOTO 11: CAUGHT in the act! When you have fresh tuna you might as well make sashime while it’s fresh! Ray Quon is caught with all the essential ingredients making sashime in his hotel room!
PHOTO 12: All smiles, Captain Jacobo holds up a dorado caught off Espiritu Santo Island picked up by Leonard Kam who was on his first trip down to see us.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Check out some of the footage from this week. Click this:

THE FISHING REPORT

If you can put aside the weird tropical weather, it was a pretty darned interesting week of fishing…actually it was pretty good! Tuna kept up their charge and for our anglers that fished the Las Arenas area, that was what kept most of the focus. For our La Paz anglers, I’ll be honest, it was hit-or-miss. Most of the fish were dorado. Frankly, there weren’t many, but there were a few real trophy fish.

But let’s talk about the tuna first. The primary spot had been south of the Muertos Bay area. OK, so these were football sized, fish, but ya gotta admit, catching 5-10 footballs a day, plus add in a few dorado, some roosters, a bunch of bonito, a couple of jacks and way too many needlefish and it adds up to an action packed day. There were a few scratchy days when the bait wasn’t quite right (smaller the bait the better!), but over all, it was all good.

The thing about the tuna is that they seemed to be getting bigger. The 8 pounds of two weeks ago became 10 pounds. This week there were more 12 and 14 pounders. By the end of the week, there were a few 18 and 20 pounders and although we didn’t catch any, there were reports of 30, 40 and 50 pound breezers on the perimeter. Even moreso, the spot of fish has moved so that they are in spitting distance now just south of Cerralvo Island.

Not only is that a shorter boat ride, but that’s also a great area for wahoo and billfish. Sure enough, we did hang a few sails, marlin and hooked few wahoo this week as well.

For our La Paz boats, it was so-so. Not sure what’s up. One boat would hit limits of dorado. The next boat would get 2 fish. The boat 50 yards away would take 4 dorado. No rhyme or reason. The hot boat one day could go ice-cold the next. It’s fishing! There are some big billfish eating the small dorado. Paul Romano got a 300 plus-pound blue marlin at mid-week.

I’m writing this and it’ full moon. Last full moon, all heck broke out with great fishing. We’ll keep you posted!

That’s my story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »