Tailhunter Fish Report

BIG DORADO PACE COMEBACK AFTER SLOW STARTING WEEK!

Photo: California Highway Patrol officer Randy Lyons from Elk Grove CA ran into a few days of tough fishing but hung in there and finished with a flourish nailing some nice bull dorado, his first ever striped marlin and this solid 42 pound bull (on the scale) which was his personal best. He caught it east of Espiritu Santo with popular Capt. Raul “Papa” Martinez of the Tailhunter Fleet.

BIGGER DORADO TURN A ROUGH WEEK AROUND!

Early in the week we got double whammied with a full moon and rainy windy weather. I think those were some of the poorest fishing days of the year. Local water temps dropped a good 4-8 degrees! However, by the end of the week we were on the upswing. Still not wide open, but the dorado that were caught were all generally trophy sized mahi. Marlin…especially striped marlin and occasional blues were also on the chew as things got back to normal. Even Las Arenas picked up with inshore species such as roosters, cabrilla, big pargo and even a few stray yellowtail got in the counts with some nice dorado as well as a few wahoo. The recent storms put out some nice lines of brush and trash that had washed down from the hills and by the end of the week dorado were hanging out under the current lines.

NEW TRAVEL REGS

Better give yourself extra time at the airport amigos. I’m sure you’ve heard about most of these new regulations. For East Coast travelers, they are not allowing ANY carry-on luggage of any kind except those that fit the exception.

So far, however, for travelers to Mexico, you can still carry stuff on, but check out the new stuff below:

US customs and Border Protection as well as the Transportation Security Administration (TASA) will be increasing enforcement efforts in international arrival areas, including the use of advanced targeting tools, special response teams including baggage and aircraft search teams, baggage X-ray equipment, specially-trained canine units, and explosive detection technology. (You thought taking off your shoes were bad…)

No liquids or gels of any kind will be permitted in carry on baggage. Such items must be in checked baggage. This includes all beverages, shampoo, sun tan lotion, creams, tooth paste, hair gel and other items of similar consistency. (Well, there goes the Grecian formula…)

Exception: Baby formula, breast milk (that’s a quote) , or juice if a baby or small child is traveling; prescription medicine with a name that matches the passenger’s ticket; and insulin and essential other non-prescription medicines, which all must be presented for inspection at the checkpoint. Beverages purchased in the boarding area (beyond the checkpoint) must be consumed before boarding because they will not be permitted on board the aircraft. Pack lightly and use clear plastic bags to facilitate screening. For international flights arrive 3.5 hours prior to departure.

That’s my story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter InternationalWebsite: 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 Pichlingue KM5; Numero 205, La Paz, Baja 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.”

DORADO AND OTHER FISH GET SCRATCHY ALONG WITH WEATHER – La Paz Fishing Report for Aug. 5, 2006

PHOTO: Dave Berthold came all the way from New Jersey to “see what West Coast humidity was like.” He also got several nice days of dorado fishing taking a number of fat bulls like this hefty dorado fishing north of La Paz.

SCRATCH FISHING FOR LAS ARENAS AND LA PAZ SO HAVE YOUR “A” GAME WITH YOU

Interesting week. I think we’re still adjusting a bit from that storm two weeks ago and continued iffy weather where it’s blazingly sunny one day then windy and snotty the next. It seemed like we were coming back pretty nicely. Maybe we weren’t getting the numbers of dorado previously but we made up for in quality what we lost in quantity as most of the fish were really nice bulls.

Then, late in the week, we had a tiny little squall and the fish either lockjawed or pushed far outside. I mean way outside north of El Bajo or on the edges of our perimeter east of Cerralvo or south almost to the East Cape. Some marlin grabbed lures, but by this last Saturday, it was considerably slower. I think the fish are just re-adjusting. Inshore fishing for Las Arenas and La Paz is still good. Some pargo hanging in the rocks as well as some roosterfish. But really got scratchy over the weekend.

On both sides, if you were on the right boat you got a fish or two or three. If you weren’t or you weren’t on your game, it was disappointing. There’s fish to be caught right now, but if you aren’t sharp or miss an opportunity, that could be the one or two bites of the day. Everyone late in the week is scattering looking for the bite. Nothing concentrated so it’s a pick. If the weather stabilizes, I think things will settle down.

Don’t know where the wahoo and tuna went, but there was a quick jag of tuna outside Cerralvo that quickly disappeared, and there was a wahoo or two hooked, but nothing stuck.

It’s hot and muggy and partially cloudy here.

That’s my story!

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 Pichlingue KM5; Numero 205, La Paz, Baja 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.”

SUMMER STORM MARS DORADO BITE BUT BIG BULLS CHEW POST RAIN – La Paz Fishing for July 30, 2006

Photo: Blake Cook was on his first trip from Utah and got this nice bull dorado. N0. . . he didn’t catch the fish in the desert. He’s standing at the nude beach at Balandra north of La Paz.

MOTHER NATURE SPANKS THE FISHING

Not much to tell you! We had one of the best dorado bites in the history of mankind happening then this week, tropical storm Emelia came and shut it all down with rain and wind for almost 3 days and we had to cancel boats. Since the storm ended, however, it looks like it washed a lot of stuff into the water that’s already starting to shape up in long current lines for the dorado so we expect a nice comeback.

Boats late in the week were finding some dorado and marlin. Actually, the dorado that were found were all big bulls! Bob Sayre of Chicago got 4 fish over 40 pounds. No dinks! (Of course, Bob thought the fish were all 60 pounders, but the captain said they were all 40-50 pound fish legitimately). Temps are back to the mid-90’s and the coming week looks clear. Water temps are interestingly just about the same as the air…92.

AERO CALIFORNIA

The airline we love to hate now says no flights before Aug. 10th. However, check this out…don’t count on it. All of a sudden, they finally put up their website at http://www.aerocalfornia.com/. Yes, it looks like they will fly. Want the bad news? No where on their website is Los Angeles or any other international destination listed, We been jammed! It looks like they will only be a domestic carrier. Rat bastards! Here’s what I’d do if I were holding an Aero Cal ticket:

1. Contact your credit card company to reverse charges
2. Fly Aero Mexico / Aero Litoral (same company) to La Paz
3. Fly any number of carriers into Cabo and we’ll arrange shuttles back up to La Paz

Or…

4. I’m sorry, amigos…you can call me to cancel your trip or we’ll get you credit for a future trip if you have deposits with us.

ALASKA AIR

Alaska Air starts flying Oct. 30th and the response has been extremely strong. We’re already taking reservations for November. There’s some good rates, pescadores. Let us know if you’re interestested.

That’s my story!
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

“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.”

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK:

PHOTO 1 – 14 year-old Mike Harkins from Los Angeles has a knack for getting big fish each year he comes to La Paz including this sweet 30 pound class bull that he caught on the La Paz side this past week.

PHOTO 2 – A wild week of parties here, especially for the Jim Booth Group from Riverside. Here Jorge shows off his enhanced uh…chest against the Corona Girls during our big Corona Beach Party at La Concha Beach.

PHOTO 3 – Chris Silva from Riverside says it all. No explanation needed!

THE FISH REPORT

FULL MOON DORADO TEAR IT UP –

So much for that full-moon superstition! The dorado bit like their fins were on fire this week! In fact, it got to be a little too good. Usually sometimes if fishing isn’t so good, guys get frustrated and will cancel some fishing trips and decide to sleep in or lay on the beach. This week on several occasions, the fishing was so turbo, guys came back beat up and tired and canceled trip because they had no more room in their ice chests (even after releasing fish!) or strength in their arms!

The best fishing was on the La Paz side, but the buoys at Las Arenas were also holding fish. It was a case of just being on the right spot! You could go all day and scratch fish then hit the right sargasso patch or the right buoy and watch dorado life explode in your face and go non-stop bendo for the next hour! Just had to be patient. Sometimes the dorado rodeo was early. Sometimes it was late. Sometimes it was just spending that last 10 minutes out there on the water.

Once the fish were going, however…forget it!!! They’d bite a piece of tortilla flipped in the water! Guys were coming back with “tales of tails” literally charging the boat in a race to the baits. There were a lot of punk firecracker fish (many getting released), but there were also larger bulls in the 30-50 pound class as well.

I was on Black Magic one way with the youngsters from the Greg Leon group and the boys put a couple of 35 plus pound fish in the box, but not quite enough to beat the dads fishing the super pangas who got 40 plus pounders. Same for the Jim Booth group earlier in the week who also stuck some nice bulls as well as marlin, cabrilla and pargo. That’s what Steve Vetrone and his partner, Von did. When they got tired of all the dorado, they lit out for the rocks and went after the pargo and cabrilla which still seemed to be holding inshore.

No tuna or roosters or wahoo to speak of and the marlin bite was off, but that could also be a function of all the folks chasing dorado. I did go diving one day this week and the water temps were an incredible 87-92 degrees on the surface. I gotta tell ya that I dove through one rock overhang about 35 feet down and came face-to-face with about 30 nice sized dog tooth snapper that just stared back at me with grins like little kids caught with cookies and milk in the closet! I thought of all the times these danged fish had kicked my butt! These were 5-30 pound snapper and darned lucky they were hanging out in a protected area or else I’d have marked the spot on my GPS and been back in the morning.

We did have some thundershower roll throw that did opened the heavens on us with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. But they were short lived despite being spectacular.

FIESTA TIME

Special shout out to Jim Booth’s group out’ve La Paz. What a fun batch of folks. We hired them a big party tour bus to bring them up from Cabo loaded with drinks, music and video. We threw a big Corona party on the beach complete with the Corona gals and even a big taco cookout at the Sunset Bar where folks were up on the bar dancing and I was asked to preside over a wedding…as the PREACHER!!! Dave Aguilar and Denise Miller actually had flower and exchanged rings amid massive tequila toasting and good wishes as I held a broom over their heads and stood on a bar chair! Oh…and they also caught fish too!

HOTEL LOS ARCOS TO RE-OPEN

After almost two months of closure because of a labor dispute with the union, the two sides finally came to an agreement and the popular hotel will be opening July 17th, although their corporate offices tell me it’s more likely to be July 19th. Glad they’re opening. Lots of people had it rough with no work.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

In case you missed my posting, we were mentioned in a front page story of the business section in the Los Angeles Times on July 11th. In a story by Marty Zimmerman, he gives a good piece about the new airlines that might be flying into Baja next year. Here’s the link: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-airmex10jul10,1,4126442.story?coll=la-headlines-business&track=crosspromo

That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter InternationalWebsite: www.tailhunter-international.comPhone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.comU.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
“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.”

MARLIN-SAILFISH-DORADO and EVEN TUNA GRAB SPOTLIGHT – NO BOOZE SALES – AERO CALIFORNIA – PHOTO OF THE WEEK

RODS BENT ON BILLFISH AND FINALLY SOME TUNA!

It only seems to be getting better. While you could still have the off-day, not only did the dorado continue to provide constant action for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets, but yellowfin (football sized) tuna finally showed up at Las Arenas off Punta Perrico just outside Muertos Bay close to shore. These were fun-sized 25 pound fish that all of a sudden showed up early in the week where guys were trying to catch a few bonito to strip bait. All of a sudden…tuna were blowing up all around out of nowhere! At first it started with about 1-2 fish per boat then by mid-week we had about 5-6 per boat. By end of week we were at a steady 2-4 tuna just 1/4 mile off the cliffs. The secret on these tuna was light line…20-25 pound test and using 20 pound flurocarbon leaders!

Additionally, several days this week it was almost impossible not to get a marlin or sailfish hook up and several of our pangas had double, triple or even quadruple hookups simultaneously and reported that other marlin were still swimming around the pangas eating anything thrown in the water as if they were 10 pound dorado competing for chum! (See the photo story below!) Besides that, a smattering of decent sized roosterfish, a couple of wahoo and even some hefty dog tooth snapper made for a darned good week! I fished one day with Dr. Dave Perine from the state of Washington. Dave comes down every year and decided he was going to get a big dog tooth. At one point he was 14 misses in a row as the big snapper were busting off 130 pound test in the rocks!!! Well, on number 15, we finally got one of the big dogs into the boat. It was only about 35 pound…quite respectable…but there wasn’t much of that leader material, but a fine looking fish!

I was out several times this week with folks actually . Great shout out to the Pez Gringo guys who spent most of the week with us and not only spanked the fish and parited to tell about it, but made a point of releasing a ton of marlin as well as huget 50,60 and 80 pound roosterfish. Today was a great example of fun fishing. I was with Julian Ramos who will be a sophomore next year in high school and his chum Alex Tovar who will be starting high school. While their dads were chasing larger offshore stuff, the buys hooked 2 tuna, 4 dorado, 8 roosterfish and 3 huge jacks. (most of the fish were released). What a great day and we probably could have sat on that spot of roosters and bent rods on them all afternoon.

Looks like we could have another banner marlin season. See the photo below but black marlin shouldn’t be here yet. They are generally a late summer/fall fish. Well, several huge fish were hung this week, but one 800 pounder was hooked and fought for 6 hours before it was released on our cruiser “Black Magic.”

STOCK UP EARLY

As I mentioned last week, July 2nd is national elections here in Mexico. If you’re coming down, no booze can be bought or sold that day so stock up ahead of time.

AERO CALIFORNIA

This is supposed to be the week that Aero Cal poops or gets off the pot, but we’ve heard that before. If they do come back up this week, you can be sure that we’ll jump all over that!

If you want to read a great piece on what Aero California’s closing did to La Paz, click this link to La Paz Mexico.com and written by my amigo Russ http://lapaz-mexico.com/articles/new.html

PHOTO:

If you ever doubted you could get big fish on small pangas…Greg Covello (holding the head) weighs about 280 pounds and is a security guard at the Tracy CA prison. He was on his first trip to Baja fishing this week. We can only estimate that this fish was around 400 pounds ore more…a huge black marlin. Remarkably it hit a mackerel then snagged itself in the stomach just deep enough for the 6/0 hook to bury itself just under the skin. The tough skin will not rip! On 50 pound test and no leader, Greg battled the fish for over 2 hours on the panga. He didn’t have a fancy reel. He was using a simple stock Penn 4/0. Had the fish been mouth hooked it probably would have gotten free by busting the leader, but because it was snagged, the 50 pound held. They were going to release the big fish, but 50 yards from the panga, the fish died and they had to handline the fish in. Captain Yofo is second from the left. Even he said he was exhausted. When the fish hit the beach…the anglers took only a small chunk of the fish and donated the rest to the towns of Aguamarga and San Pedro which have been on hard times. On the far left is Cesar Carillo who also works at the prison and also took a turn at the rod as well. An incredible fish!

That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter InternationalWebsite: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.comU.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

SORRY TO START THIS WAY –

So, there was I was on Thursday evening strolling over to Hotel Los Arcos to meet my clients who were coming in from the airport. Parking was unusually difficult so I had to park some blocks away and as I got closer to the hotel there was quite a crowd around and I began to notice a lot of my friend who work at Hotel Marina and La Concha Beach Resort as well as other hotels here in town. I figured there must be a big union meeting at Los Arcos because most of my friends were waiters, room maids, porters, etc. As I greeted them, I laughing asked, “Where’s the party and how come I wasn’t invited?” They laughed back.

So, I walk towards the lobby and its PACKED! I walk smack into the TV cameras and crowds and find out that the hotel has gone on strike. Well…not the hotel, but the union of hotel employees. Apparently, the contract had come up and negotiations had stalled and BOOM…hotel suddenly closes! People were being turned away to other hotels. Current clients were being packed up to other hotels!

This is no bueno. The hotel, like all hotels and other tourist related businesses here in La Paz have been extremely hard hit by the Aero California situation and the lack of airflights into town the last 3 months to where various parts of the hotel had already been closed down. Now this!

Like most strikes…money is at the heart, but also a big political thing. Luis Cuppola is the owner (also owns the Finnesterra in Cabo) is running for the senate as the “choice of the worker.” Big black eye to him when his own hotel workers take a walk!

Bottom line, if you’ve got reservations at Los Arcos this week, better change them! I spoke with hotel management who hope it resolves soon, but we all said that about Aero California too. If you’re one of my clients this week, we’ve already taken care of you. However, many of you who read this are not my clients so talk to your agents or give us a shout to see what can be done. All of my clients have already been placed in other hotels. Once again…until further notice, Los Arcos Hotel is closed due to a workers strike!

OK…let talk fishing…

YOU WANT DORADO WE GOT DORADO!

I think I will dub this the official week that dorado and marlin season started. Still a bit windy, but the dorado bite went into full swing this week with good numbers of chicken-sized schoolies topped off with nice 30-40 pound bulls. It wasn’t wide open or all day, but some spots really produced and if you wanted dorado they were there to be caught. Additionally, marlin finally decided to get with the program instead of just cruising the surface and actually jumped baits and lures along with sailfish. On the La Paz side, areas such as Las Cruces, Coyote, the Canyon and Punta Norte all produced as did the sargasso weeds accumulating in the channel. On the Las Arena side, if you hit the right buoy it was dorado rodeo. You could dink dink all day and get limits or do it with one-stop-shopping if you hit the right buoy. Biggest dorado of the week was a 45 pounder by Rich Strauss of Cleveland who landed a personal best. Inshore as well, roosters, jacks, big bonito and pargo were still on the chew although drawing less attention now that the mahi are centerstage.

AERO CALIFORNIA UPDATES

Still on the ground, but according to the newspapers this week, all the planes have been tested. All the paperwork has been filed and submitted and turned into the government to get the planes back in the air. It’s in the governments hands now (always was!). For the first time, town is buzzing that Aero Cal will be accepting reservations again after June 12th. I want to believe!!!!! But…my optimism is tempered. I want to see their planes flying with people first! The planes have been flown around here, but not with clients…just yet!

In the meantime, most of our clients are either coming through Cabo San Lucas and we are shuttling them up or coming in on the limited flights offered by Aero Mexico.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Big jacks such as this one taken by Doug Oclassen (left) of Boulder CO, helped by his dad Glenn were voracious and could school up in huge spots. Using light tackle, the Oclassens got quite a few of these tough fighters and released them all.

That’s my story!
Jonathan