Tailhunter Fish Report

PHOTO 1: Steve Greanias has a banner day out of Las Arenas although he did catch more fish out’ve La Paz. It’s hard to top a 70 pound class amberjack ripped off the south side of Cerralvo Island. Usually, these bigger members of the jack family (think yellowtail on steroids) are around high spots, structure and pinnacles, but this bad boy struck a trolled lure in deep water! Great eating!

HURRICANE HENRIETTE BLOWS THROUGH AND SAME TIME MORE EARTHQUAKES GIVE US A JOLT WHILE FISHING TAKES A POWDER BUT STARTS TO BOUNCE BACK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for September 9, 2007

PHOTO 2: Now THIS is what a dorado is supposed to look like! What a beast! This 45 pound bull is being held by Captain Gerardo and the smiling guy is Dr. Jim Stewart who tells me during the winter he lives in Arizona and the rest of time time near Jackson Hole, Wy. The fish were scratchy after the storms disturbing the waters not to mention probably shaken by all the tremors we’ve been having. Of all the fish, the dorado seemed to come back online fastest with our best fishing being done by our La Paz fleet.

PHOTO 3 : Who said you can’t catch roosters during the fall. Steve Greanias (above with amberjack) and dad, Chris (below with chilicano) jumped on two 60-70 pound class roosters off Las Arenas. One of them was fought with the reel completely backlashed in an epic battle. Both fish were released. After the hurricane we had a nice flurry of roosters start biting along the sandy beaches between El Sargento and Punta Pescadero. The larger the bait, the better the chance at one of these big sluggers! Quite a few others were hooked this week, but over-anxious anglers didn’t let the big fish eat the big baits and dropped the fish. Gotta let the big dogs chew their bones before you set the hook!

PHOTO 4: Good frends of mine, Ivan Lau and his dad, Ivan, Sr. from El Monte CA came in right after the storm and fished 3 days with us. First day they hammered the dorado fishing out of La Paz. On their second day, they got roosters, as well as some yellowfin and dorado. The yellowfin had been on a tear before the storm, but they were harder to find after the storm. The fish are surely out there and some of the fish later in the week were in the 20-40 pound class, but a lack of bait to chum the fish up, was the most prohibitive issue. If you had the sardines to use as chum, you could get the tuna to bite the hooked baits. If you’re coming down, the sardines are small. Consider using smaller hooks like #2’s for the tinier ‘dines!

PHOTO 5: What the???? Is it a mutant sardine? Is it a big mullet? Actually, it’s a milkfish which we call chilicanos! In all my years down here this is only the second one that I’ve seen hooked on rod and reel. They often school off Cerralvo Island, but rarely take a bait. This 30 pounder inhaled a sardine fished by Chris Greanias. He said it was quite a battle with long runs and spectacular leaps!

PHOTO 6: Jamie Smith (right) from Malibu and Avo Oughourlian (left) hung these nice dorado off Las Arenas. It was encouraging that the dorado came back so fast after the storm with the fishing better at La Paz than Las Arenas. However, at the time of writing this report, there’s some magnificent debris lines forming up from all the stuff washed into the water from the hurricane. Once these form up and the water clear up, look out! Traditionally, this stuff brings in all kinds of beast that hunker down under the debris.

PHOTO 6: People come for years and years hunting the elusive wahoo and never get a sniff. Steve Button from Santa Clara CA got only 1 fish this day, but it was a fish he had been hunting. Taken on the dark purple rapala below, he said they had barely put the rods in the water and the big Hoo zipped it. Wahoo fishing after the hurricane was one of the highlights with several fish hooked.

PHOTO 7 : This is what wahoo teeth can do to a CD-18 Rapala after a single strike! This is Steve Button’s rapala after it was mauled by the sharp teeth of the wahoo in the photo above!

PHOTO 8: Orange Co, CA, John Berry of the Big Fish Electric Co. has already been here twice this year and just booked another trip for November. This bull dorado fell to a live sardine.

PHOTO 9: Look at the colors! This is the legendary pargo liso of Las Arenas. Tom Radoumi of UT is the angler and he put alot of meat in the cooler with this 30 pound hog. Everyone thinks that these big pargo are only around in the spring. We don’t catch many in the fall simply because most folks are out chasing tuna, dorado, billfish and wahoo outside. Inshore fishing during the fall can be outstanding!

PHOTO 10: Josh Thrasher brought his Oregon guys down for a few days and unfortunately, fishing was curtailed when we got slammed by the hurricane and fishing wasn’t exactly stellar immediately after the storm. However, they hung in there and did put some dorado fillets in the chest!

PHOTO 11: You have to admire the spirit of it all. Hurricane Henriette slammed into us early in the week. It was “only” a category 1 storm..mild by many standards but it did drop alot of rain and the wind blew like crazy knocking out power and flooding many areas. The hotel parking lot of La Concha Beach Resort and some of our anglers made the best of it…grabbed kayaks and broomsticks and with rain pelting down had a little kayak regatta!

PHOTO 12: Not many folks can say the went swimming during a hurricane, but Eric Engstrom’s guys from Northern CA organized a pick-up football game in the swimming pool with the seas going nutes behind them and rain coming down in sheets!

PHOTO 13: Winds howled and rain fell. It wasn’t supposed to hit us but then it veered and jagged when it should and gone the other way and well…we were right in it’s path! Henriette was worse then we expected, but not as bad as it could have been. This photo was taken in the day during the middle of the storm when winds were 80 mph with gusts up to 100 and rain coming from all directions.

PHOTO 15: The hardest part of the storm was that so many fishing trips had to be canceled. Nothing to do but crack another beer and wish it would stop. Even in the middle of the blast, some of the guys attempted to get in a little pier fishing (and got bit!). Mind you…they are fishing when the world was crashing around them and 20 pound coconuts were falling from the trees above! To all the guys who were here this week and patiently kept smiling even when it was apparent they wouldn’t get to fish, you’re the best. We’ll grow the fish bigger when you come back!

THE FISHING REPORT

The photos pretty much tell the story, amigos. The week started with a bang. We were deep into the fish. Tuna all around Cerrlavo Island. Dorado scattered around and willing to eat just about everything. Billfish were biting everyday.

Then, a tropical storm that wasn’t supposed to hit us decided to pay a visit and that was that! Henrietta kicked in with 80 mph winds and a couple of days of rain. There was some flooding and damage about town but thankfully, it was not as bad as it could have been.

Nevertheless, it kept us all indoors twiddling our thumbs and bailing water for a few days not to mention cancel dozens of fishing trips scheduled this week.

When we did get back on the water , it was green, cloudy, colder and not very cooperative. Bait was harder to find. Fish were edgy and picky. Thankfully, the dorado around and north of La Paz got untracked within 2 days of the storm and fishing started to rip again albeit with mostly smaller fish. There were some nicer bulls taken and several billfish were also hooked.

For Las Arenas, hard times lingered. Bait that was normally caught around the island went deep and made it harder to fish. With minimal bait, it was harder to chum. The tuna are here ,but with no chum to bring them up , it was a scratch bite. Some tuna that were caught were of a better grade averging 20-40 pounds. A few dorado were taken, but nothing to write home about mostly except for some larger bulls. The nice surprise were the roosterfish that suddenly showed up off the beaches and willing to eat.

As long as the weather holds, I can only imagine that as we get further and further away from the storm, conditions will improve and we’ll be all over the fish again!

Have a great week! That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

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

Phone: (626) 333-3355

FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

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

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

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

PHOTO 1 : Possibly one of the coolest billfish photos I’ve ever seen. This is Jeff Ott’s sailfish taking flight in the early dawn against a rising sun off Las Arenas and Cerralvo Island. Jeff was on his first trip with us to the area from Utah. Note how close the fish is to the gunwale of the panga. Outstanding!

TUNA TURBULENCE AND TEMBLORS AS AUGUST CLOSES OUT!

LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR SEPT. 2, 2007

PHOTO 2 – Richard Shipley from Utah is all smiles with a bull dorado. That’s Cerralvo Island in the background. He and his group got quite a mix of fish over 3 days of fishing.

PHOTO 3: All the way from New Jersey, Chris Barnard brought all his brothers and uncles down for a big La Paz reunion this past week. They got billfish, dorado, tuna, and numerous other species. The dorado remained the most prolific fish this week with fish scattered in all the warm spots between Punta Pescadero up through Cerralvo Island and up north of La Reina lighhouse. Winds that persisted over the weekend made the fish hard to find at times after cooler waters came in or winds scattered the sargasso weeds. The key was finding blue water or pieces of debris from sporadic weekly rains that had washed junk in to the water.

PHOTO 4 – Captain Victor of our Las Arenas fleet poses with Earl Denos, our amigo from Mission Viejo CA and his fishing partner Todd McChesney from Utah. The dorado recently have been quite a variety of sizes from 5 pounders up to 40 pounds with some larger fish lost. We’re hoping that the bigger bulls start to move in now, but we’re waiting for the waters to stay consistently warmer.

PHOTO 5 : Randy Galaz and pro race car driver Art Saavedra from Las Vegas NV tore it up with a great mix of dorado and football-sized tuna. Art was most proud of doing a big 150 pound billfish on 20 pound test he fought for over an hour on the small Whopper Stopper rod he’s holding in the photo meant for ultra light big game fishing.

PHOTO 6 : For our La Paz fleets, dorado were the hot ticket early in the week when they were pushed out’ve ths spotlight by a raging tuna bite at the north end of Cerralvo Island. Joe Barnard holds up a nice pair standing at Ballandra Beach where we clean our fish. Joe and his family filled alot of ice chests fishing both La Paz and Las Arenas despite having to cancel one day due to a fast -moving rain squall.

PHOTO 7: Cory Kato from Whittier, hung tough during some tough fishing and tough weather and still got to pull on some good fish on his first trip to Baja. Here he poses with a good-sized dorado. Despite the rough conditions, Cory insisted on going out every single day!

THE FISHING REPORT

To those of you still coming down this week, bring a windbreaker or pancho. It might rain. It might not. Weather down here in the tropics is funny. It could rain buckets….50 yards away from you and you could be bone dry. Or it could rain directly on you and last 10 minutes!!! Bottom line…no matter the weather…as long as you want to go out and it’s safe (no fish is worth getting dangerous), we will find a way to fish!


We did it this week when high winds made it impossible to get our boats off of Las Arenas beach (it’s the wind that bothers us more than rain!). We put everyone back into the vans and hustled them back here to La Paz and put them on our super pangas. It was still rough, but at least they still got out fishing and still caught fish! We will always do our best.


Earlier in the week, it was pretty much a dorado bite for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets. Billfish mixed in as well with stripers and some really big sailfish. It was a pull at times, but if you hung in, there were fish to be caught. Where we fished and what we fished for was largely dictated by the weather which was as inconsistent as your girlfriend changing her mind on what to wear!


However, by the end of the week, the weather eased up and…TUNA!!! North and south ends of Cerralvo Island started to kick out yellowfin tuna! Fish ran 5-30 pounds. A real nice grade of fish! At times, they were foaming the pangas just like the old days!

Inshore, there’s still some good cabrilla, pargo and roosterfishing. The fish are still there, but not many anglers are fishing for them.

What will happen this week? I can only guess. Anyone with a crystal ball, please contact me!


The last part…in addition to the rain and wind that came up from time-to-time this week, we also had a 6.4 earthquake on Saturday! In over a decade here, that was my first and it rattled doors and windows pretty hard.


Centered just about 35 miles north of La Paz in the Sea of Cortez, there weren’t any injuries or damage reported, but it shook up some folks. Most of the anglers and divers had great stories to tell.

You could see the ocean actually vibrate. Folks sitting in beach chairs were actually bounced around. Divers who were underwater said they could actually feel the compression wave underwater and fish immediately disappeared into any nook and cranny! The sound was like a loud explosion. Anglers told of big rock slides as cliffs collapsed off Cerralvo Island like icebergs calving in Alaska sliding into the ocean. Pretty fantastic stuff!


That’s my story!

Have a great week!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115E
-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

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

PHOTO 1: Nathan Weiner came down to put the hurt on a big fish and got this big bull dorado on 20 pound test off Las Arenas. Bigger bulls have moved in for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets although pesky winds during the week and occasional flurries of rain resulting from southern storms kept blowing the sargasso weeds apart. Dorado still remained the main catch for most of our anglers.

TUNA SURPRISE LA PAZ ANGLERS ALTHOUGH BILLFISH AND DORADO STILL ROCK ANGLERS DESPITE TROPICAL STORM FLURRIES

LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR AUGUST 26, 2007

PHOTO 2: Lots of folks think that just because everyone is out in the blue water chasing marlin, tuna and dorado that the inshore fishing is dead. On the contrary. The inshore fishing is just being ignored! This past week we got cabrilla, pargo, roosterfish, rainbow runners and other rockies like this great snapper (huachinango) being held up by Sharon Imada of Whittier CA

PHOTO 3: Mark Aizawa from Pasadena and his family always seem to do well, not matter what’s going on. Mark is holding a nice dorado, but they also go snapper, tuna, jacks, and billfish. While the majority of the dorado fishing is north of La Paz, if you want variety, the most species can be found for our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 4: This is just too good of a photo to pass up. Joey Fuschetti and Captain Jorge hold up one of several tuna they got around the islands. Joey comes down alot and insists that chumming with chunks of papaya is the key. Hard to argue. Joey always gets the most and often the largest fish in his group by the end of the trip. Tuna have been a surprise all month. They are not always there, but doggone it…every few days they pop up and roll big time. Areas around Cerralvo Island both north and south have been holding fish between 5 and 40 pounds.

PHOTO 5: I don’t often post up photos of billfish. Actually, most times, we don’t have to, because most billfish are released, but when they are dispatched they are never wasted and this has been an incredible season for billfish. I kid you not. There are days when you can encounter billfish after billfish with multiple hookups. Take a look at these two young ladies. Alyssa Shinto and Eryn Imada from Whittier CA are two of the gamest anglers we’ve had in awhile. They had not done this kind of fishing before. Despite big seas and winds, they continued to go out every single day with no complaint. In fact, when given the option to cancel, they insisted on fishing! They did very very well!

THE FISHING REPORT!

What a week!!! I’m not sure how to explain it. If you talk to some guys, they’ll tell you fishing was off. Other guys stuffed their ice chests. It was really hit-or-miss! If you fished several days, you got fish. If you only fished a day or two, you limited yourself and you could have hit one of the days when the fishing was off. Mainly, we hit the periphery of the big storms that have been swirling around the Western Hemishphere all week creating havoc.

While we didn’t get any big storm (thankfully!), we did get flurries of strong winds; strong waves and “torito” rains hit at times that made it uncomfortable and even unfishable at times. But 10 minutes later…an hour later…the sun would break out…the winds would die…and the world would be right again and the fish would bite again!

During times like this, you could be getting drenched in the panga by rain getting miserable and 1/4 mile away your buddy could be in sunshine getting bent on fish after fish! Ten minutes later, the situation could be reveresed.

Like many things, it’s all timing. Be in the right place at the right time with the right bait in the right boat. It made all the difference.

Overall, the tuna bite sure surprised folks! We’re always wondering when they’ll show up and August has been pretty good but we just never know when and where they’ll show up. This week the 5-30 pound fish showed up at the north end of Cerralvo Island and then in various spots around the Punta Arena area. In addition to bait, the fish also hit trolled feathers.

Dorado, however, were still the spotlight. I’m sure alot of guys were a bit disappointed that there weren’t more bigger fish, as many of the fish are still in that school-sized 10-20 pound class, but larger bulls are out there up to 50 pounds and many an angler will tell you this week that they had a big fish or two on the line and farmed it!

As for billfish…what can I say? The marlin continue to be thick! Can you say “wall of marlin?” At times, they marlin are so pesky that the guys get angry because they’d rather be hooking dorado and the marlin won’t leave the baits and lures alone. However, on light tackle, these fish are sure alot of fun. Nice to see that alot of guys are releasing their fish too!

That’s my story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

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

PHOTO 1: Hard to resist kid photos! This is 10 year old Bryn Parmenter and Captain Miguel. Bryn has himself a nice bull dorado. Bulls are still out there and seemingly getting bigger! They are in a wide area north of La Paz and around Cerralvo Island.

MARLIN AND DORADO BACK ON CENTER STAGE DESPITE BUMPY SUMMER WEATHER PATTERNS

La Paz / Las Arenas fishing report for August 19, 2007

PHOTO 2: Larry Crass and Al Cohen have been fishing together for many years and with us for more than I can remember. It is just like these two guys to play tug of war with a fish like this and argue about who caught it. This is a 40 pound class bull dorado caught off the Las Arenas area.

PHOTO 3: James Molina from Arizona got so many species of fish this past week including dorado, cabrilla, roosters, tuna and this striped marlin that was released. Capt. Archangel, from our Las Arenas fleet, gives a hand and a funny face pose! Marlin continued to be thick this week with most fish getting released.

PHOTO 4: This is Danny. This is his first marlin. He was so excited that by the time I reached him on the beach to warn him, he had been posing in many different poses with his fish. I tried to warn him, but it was too late. Marlin have a slime on them that when it touches bare skin can be extremely irritating and caustic. Danny had posed with his fish holding it across his bare chest; over his shoulder; carrying it on his back and here reclining in the surf. Within minutes of this shot, he was in agony. I tried to tell him, “I told you so.” A bad rash developed over his upper body that we had to scrape away with salt water and sand. I also told him that pouring cold beer on him would be good too and that the acid from the beer would counteract the stinging slime. He had several friends pour beer on him. I also said that pee works good too but he drew the line at that, no matter how painful when several generous hearted friends also offered to lend a hand at that too! The rash was gone in 20 minutes. (I knew it would all along, but it was funny watching them pour beer on him).

PHOTO 5: Kathy Newbold from Arizona is a trooper. A real gamer. She gets really seasick, but gutted it out to go out fishing almost everyday with her husband, Ken. I gotta admire someone like that. She holds a nice dorado and pargo here at Balandra Beach.

PHOTO 6: Coach Joey Fuschetti has been visiting us for years. He’s a high school coach and does alot of youth programs all year then cuts out and comes down to pull on fish. Joe has a knack for getting bigger fish than everyone else. Here he holds one of the better sized tuna taken off Las Arenas. Joe chums with pieces of cut papaya and swears by it. He did well all week chumming with papaya. Can’t argue with his results. Joey is from Orange Co. Califorania.

PHOTO 7 – Here’s James Molina again. They decided one day to fish inshore alont the islands and got all kinds of rock fish including this roosterfish that was released. Yes, roosters are still here!

PHOTO 8 : One of our best amigos is Dentist Roy Morita from Modesto CA. He always brings us See’s candy! Here he’s holding some great eating pargo which are still pretty abundant inshore. This size, while not large, is highly prized in the markets and restaurants because it fits on plates and pans whole and gets the highest market prices.

THE FISHING REPORT

We got a little sprinkle here and there and those pesky winds were back every few days, but thankfully no HURRICANES!!!

I think most folks this week would tell you it was a pretty solid week of rod bending. No one went home empty. There were alot of fish caught…alot of bigger fish lost…everyone had opportunities and alot of anglers had stories of fish that got away. It was too bad that there were some weather conditions that didn’t help things, but if you had a line in the water, you got bit!

I guess the most inconsistent thing was that the fish didn’t stay put! One day the dorado were in one spot and the next they moved somewhere else. The same could be said for just about every species…tuna, wahoo, marlin…every single species kept us guessing. A captain could be “on fire” one day and the next could look like the goat for no fault of his own except that an area teeming with fish one day would be desolate the next!

Some hot spots, however, that did produce some nice bites included the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island….there were a few days where the tuna were to thick you could jackpole them into the boat and dangle a bait above the water and the fish would leap out of the water to grab it; Ventana Bay, Las Cruces and north of Espiritu Santo Island for dorado as well as the buoys…for dorado ranging from 5 pounders to 50 pounders. These same areas were also hot for marlin where hooking 2-5 billfish was not uncommon.

Y’know…guys will go years wanting to hook a billfish and not get a thing, but you can be a total rookie right now and end up the whole day fighting one billfish after another! Most of the striped marlin are about 100 pounds or so, but some guys fought and lost some of the big slugger blue marlin that were in the 250-350 pound class.

With the tuna…just no way to tell. Darn these fish move around alot! However, we’ve had tuna every week but not every day. That’s the problem. They pop up willy- nilly wherever they darn well please! They are also in quite a range of sizes. I kid you not…one day, the tuna are the size of trout! I would not even call them football tuna. These are like cute little pet tuna or something! Then, the next day, 20 pounders pop up. Go figure.

Anyway…hot tickets….

1. Flurocarbon line

2. Purple rapalas

3. Blue and white tuna feathers

4. Purple and black feathers

5. A windbreaker or cheap pancho…or in a pinch a trash bag with holes cut for your head and arms for 3 minutes of rain!

TWO MOONS AT YOU!

If you are out and about at 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 27th, you can see something that no one alive today has ever seen or will ever see again in their lifetimes. The planet Mars will be so close and so bright that it will seem like there are 2 moons over earth. Check it out. It won’t happen again for over 200 years. Howl while you’re at it. I bet there’s gonna be all kinds of crazy things happening!

KAYAK SHARK FISHING

You gotta check this out. These Alaska guys are fishing for salmon shark outta kayaks!

http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/9195704p-9112127c.html

That’s my story. Have a great week!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

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

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

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

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

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

PHOTO 1: All hail the king! This is our new wahoo king. Darrell Manginelli from the Ventura area of S.California got SEVEN wahoo and lost others while fishing with us. One day he and his lady Christine Merriman (see photos below) got FOUR of these much-sought-after speedsters. The fish were once again near the south end of Cerralvo Island which you can see in the background and were crushing the big purple Rapalas. After one day, Darrell showed me his lure completey scarred and torn up and he was saying he was looking for a “new one.” I told him “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it! There’s a reason the wahoo love this particular lure and do NOT lose it!” In all honesty, the wahoo bite last week and earlier into this week was incredible, but tapered as a small weather front hit mid-week and had not revived by this past weekend. Hopefully, this coming week…

WELCOME TO THE MARLIN ZONE! DORADO GET SMALL! TUNA GET SCARCE! BUT BILLFISH PICK UP THE SLACK!!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Sunday Aug. 12, 2007

PHOTO 2: Captain Victor (he shows up an awful lot in these photos!) peaks from behind the big wahoo held up by Tim Sayre who came all the way out with his dad and brother from Illinois to fish Las Arenas. What a day, they got two wahoo and numerous other fish.

PHOTO 3: Pete Smigeiskit holds up another ‘hoo. This is turning into the best wahoo season in a number of years. They fish are not there every day, but at the end of the week, the numbers don’t lie. The fish will bite or 2 or 3 days, then take a powder for a few days, then come back on the chew again after kicking back. The ticket is just being there on the right day!

PHOTO 4 : Check out 18-year-old Stephanie Huth from the San Gabriel Valley area of S.California. Then chcck out the thickness of the “neck” of this huge slugger toad wahoo. What a beast. Wahoo are supposedly the fastest fish in the ocean clocked at speeds of 60-70 mph when they want to kick in their jet bursts! If you ever hook one, be prepared to MOVE! With a sleek rocket-body like you see here, these fish are built for speed. Las Arenas has been the top spot all season!

PHOTO 5: I don’t often show photos of marlin here, but this week, there were days when that’s ALL we were catching! You could not keep them off the lines! Boat were hooking 1-5 marlin a day one some days, especially mid-week when nothing else was biting! Fortunately, most of the fish were released. I can think of a number of anglers this week that caught 1, 2, 3 and even 4 marlin by themselves and let all of them go. Bravo! Others, like this great first marlin by Kevin Bell look as perfect as a fish mount on the wall. For alot of first timers, this was a big thrill this week as the marlin were eating big lure, small lures, baits and jigs! It was not uncommon to talk to an angler who would tell me they had half-a-dozen marlin surrounding the boat “like mackerel.” Pretty amazing to have big fish like this fighting to eat your little sardine! Fun week. None of the marlin that were taken were wasted. Meat was taken and even when the angler did not want the fish, it was donated to families who needed fish and some donated to the old folks home here in town.

PHOTO 6: Like I said…sheesh…there were alot of marlin this week! Brian Sayre holds up his first…a nice striper. Tales of larger blues were not uncommon either! Brian is from Illinois and this was his first time fishing our area. They also got dorado and tuna. One day on the beach, I counted 26 marlin hooked between 9 of our boats of which only 3 were kept. There were many other marlin that were also fought and broke off.

PHOTO 7 – Christina Merriman got her wahoo off of Las Arenas. This 40 pounder fell for a purple and black rapala. Christina had another fish even bigger come off just before the gaff. These wahoo weren’t shy about striking. And it didn’t matter if it was early or late in the fishing day. If the fish were ready to eat they bit!

PHOTO 1 – I couldn’t resist! Smiles say it all This is 5-year-old Ezra Kinsche. Came out with mom and dad (see below) for his first trip. He got his first dorado and had a great time, but more fascinated with catching puffer fish! Dorado continued on the chew big time for La Paz anglers this past week!

WAHOO BLOW UP AT LAS ARENAS WITH TUNA – DORADO GETTING BIGGER – MARLIN STILL BENDING RODS – A GREAT WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Aug. 5, 2007

PHOTO 2 – Not bad for first time fishing! Nice batch of mahi! Fewer schoolies and more bulls were showing up north of La Paz with fish going 15-30 in many cases with larger 40-50 pound bulls!

PHOTO 3: Kevin Beehn came is from San Francisco CA area, but flew in from Istanbul, Turkey for day of fishing to get his girlfriend out for her first time fishing. They got a batch of nice dorado as well as tuna. It’s been a nice surprise getting such a great mix for our La Paz boats. The bite is straight north out’ve the bay between Cerralvo Island and Espirit Santo with several nice spots of fish!

PHOTO 4: Here’s 5-year-old Ezra Kinche again but this time with mom and dad. They came all the way out from the East Coast. There’s a great story here. Ten years ago, they were living in Ventura CA and came out to La Paz to fish with us. Ed proposed to Katie here in La Paz. He almost did it on a panga with Captain Victor! Anyway, Katie said yes and they moved to the East Coast. This was their first time back and they slammed the tuna by 9 a.m. in the morning and brought back their 5 year old son, Ezra. Great week for tuna fishing and one we’ve waited for a long time! The fish are south of the island but as close as a hundred or so yards off the beach! When they crash, it can be a frenzy!

PHOTO 6: Neil and Kathy Soto from San Bernardino CA have been visiting for a long time and some of the nicest folks you’d ever want to meet. Each time down they always came with a group or with the family. Well, the kids are finally up and grown so they did a spontaneous trip to get into the dorado bite. Kathy had never been on the boats with Neil and she did great. The dorado are swimming solo…at least the larger ones are, but the fish are also hitting in schools and swarms where an empty day can suddenly turn into madness as 10, 20, 30 or more fish suddenly appear and crash the panga. Just be ready and have extra rods ready to go. The secret is not to lose that first fish. If it swims away…bye bye school ! Don’t get cocky and farm that first fish!

PHOTO 7 : For those of you who fish La Paz before, when was the last time you saw a catch like this? Dorado PLUS tuna!!!! Both La Paz and Las Arenas are kicking out both species right now. As I recall, this was the first day’s catch! This filled up two ice chests. They still had two more days of fishing to do!

PHOTO 8 – I couldn’t help but put this photo in. Shawn Cooper took this great striped marlin photo of his son’s first marlin Great shot. Marlin have been balled up around our area from the East Cape to well north of us in La Paz and they are finally chewing! Big time! We encourage releasing these guys whenever you can because it is not unusual to hook more than one of these a day. One boat this week hooked 5. Another hooked 4. All fish were released!

PHOTO 9 : Gina has the knack for big dorado. She never fails. Gina is from the Pasadena/ Sierra Madre area of Los Angeles and fishing with Capt. Chito, she’s always into the big bulls. Over three days she got marlin, tuna and billfish including her first marlin.

PHOTO 10: Mitch Kawamoto is in the middle of John Knowles (left) and John Dunne (right) and they’re holding up a whopper of a sailfish. Mitch is a long-time experienced long-range fisherman and is about 5 feet tall and weighs about as much as my tackle box! Everyone always pulls for Mitch. He had a couple of bad trips the last time down although everyone else got plenty of fish. This time, Mitch got the sailfish, marlin, tuna, and dorado. No shortage of sashime meat for his cooler!

THE FISH REPORT !!!!

This was perhaps one of the best and most consistent fishing weeks of the season. If you had a line in the water you got bit and everyone who wanted fish in the cooler took home fish in the cooler. It didn’t matter whether you chose to fish with our Las Arenas or our La Paz fleet although some anglers preferred one over the other, not because of the fishing action but because they preferred one type of species over the other

For one, our Las Arenas anglers were all over the yellowfin tuna this past week. Nothing big but yellowfin in the 10-20 pound class were all over the rods and eating in a nice arc between the south side of Cerralvo over to the Arenas lighthouse then down towards Punta Perico and south to Pescadero. It’s been awhile since we’ve had an nice bite like this. However, even more incredible was the explosion of wahoo once again on the high spots south of Cerralvo Island. Guys come for years looking for wahoo and never get a sniff. Unbelievably, there were a few days this past week when the boats AVERAGED 2-4 wahoo biters A DAY with some hoos as large as 60 pounds. Darrell Manginelli is one of our long-time amigos. He’s my new hero and king of the wahoo. I lost count, but I think he got 7 this week including 4 or 5 on one day and that doesn’t include the ones that got off! That is UNHEARD OF ! You should see what his purple Rapala looks like. At one point he wanted to get a new one, but I told him, “There’s a reason they like that lure. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!”

Roll that into a box full of tuna, add in a few dorado, perhaps a billfish or pargo and you’ve filled the ice chest in one day!

The ticket on the wahoo continues to be the dark purple and black/white Rapalas, Marauders and Yo-zuri’s.

For our La Paz fleet, more outstanding dorado fishing with the mahi now getting away from schoolie fish and more consistently in the 15-30 pound class. The biggest problem some days was knowing when to stop and adhere to limits because when the dorado swarm the pangas it could be pandemonium with every rod going off. Additionally, the marlin continued to be thick with multiple hook ups on numerous occasions with stripers as well as sailfish and the occasional blue marlin ripping into the baits.

WANT A HOTEL ANYONE????

Everyone keeps asking. I thought it had just been sold, but apparently not. Hotel Las Arenas is for sale if you got the fat wallet! Click this:

http://www.doradoproperties.info/detalle.php?id=011-12&en=true

If you buy it, make sure to let me know!!! I’ll send you my resume!

ALASKA AIRLINES CHEAP FLIGHTS!!!!

Alaska Airlines has some cheap rates again!!! Go directly to the airlines or their website. Hook it up. The sale goes on for several months and seats are below $300 bucks round trip Los Angeles/ La Paz. Call us to set up the hotel and fishing!

That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

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

Phone: (626) 333-3355

FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

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

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

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

PHOTO 1: Check out the colors on this incredible bull dorado. Shawn James of Los Angeles had just about wrapped up his day at Las Arenas with Captain Victor and were headed in. Just a few yards off the beach, the spotted a school or dorado and this big bull slammed his bait. Fish on! You won’t see many pristine dorado photos like this!

TUNA – DORADO – MARLIN TAKE CENTER STAGE (FINALLY!)

LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR JULY 28, 2007

PHOTO 2: Lookie ! Lookie! Can that really be….TUNA???? Yellowfin tuna spread on the cutting table off Las Arenas. Boats did really well this week on the footballs with fish being caught by both our Las Arenas and (surprise) even our La Paz fleet too! Rob Lloyd (left) and Jan Laes had came all the way from Washington state and had some banner days with us this week getting tuna, dorado, and marlin on their first trip to La Paz.

PHOTO 3: Classic La Paz photo this week. Pristine beach. Blue water. Blue panga. Rack of nice dorado. This is Tino Fernandez holding the big bulls. He and his buddies from the Central Valley area of California (Chuck Hunter/ Chad Hunter / Randy Darnell ) beat up on some fish and get this…donated more than 100 pounds of fish to the orphanage here in La Paz!

PHOTO 4: Not bad for a first timer on her first day!!! Michelle Durston gets an assist from Captain Jorge with this big bull. That was about all the help she needed. In two days fishing she packed the coolers with alot of dorado fillets. The dorado are in full force most days right now for both my La Paz and my Las Arenas fleets.

PHOTO 5: This is Tom Moon and Captain “Pelon” Roberto Carballo. Last year, Tom had to cancel when Aero California stopped flying to La Paz, but came back this year. On his first day, he got a great mix of dorado and these yellowfin tuna fishing with his buddy Rob Wood. Both are from the Los Angeles area. Surprisingly the yellowfin are popping up for our La Paz fleet. Normally, most of our tuna bite around Las Arenas, but for the last few weeks, the tuna bite has gotten stronger and stronger. Most of the fish are coming on trolled feathers with the average size being 5-15 pounds.

THE FISHING REPORT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE FISHING REPORT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE FISH REPORT

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

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

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

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

DELTA AIRLINES

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

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

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

That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

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

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

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

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

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

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