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Posts Tagged ‘amberjack’

Tyler ehlers 5-13 rooster tags

Big roosterfish again this week with this gorgeous pez gallo for first-timer Tyler Ehlers from Denver, Colorado. Great colors on this fish and I can tell it’s a big fish because Tyler is 6’7″ tall and plays college baseball! Note how close to the beach they are. Many of these roosters are only in a few feet of water.  Tyler and his grandfather caught a number of nice roosters over several days and released all of them.

dorado Al Dodson TX tags 5-13

Texas in the house with one of our first large dorado of the season! Al Dodson from Austin, poses with a nice bull caught out on the east side of Cerralvo Island by the 88 bank. Thanks to Roger Thompson for the photo. We started seeing a few more dorado this week…finally!

ziggy dorado 5-13 tags

Espirito Santo Island north of La Paz also started to kick out a few dorado as well as waters nicked up a few degrees in warmth. Our amigo, Ziggy Haspod, from Santa Barbara hooked this one on live bait.

pompano tags 5-13 randy choate

It’s hard to suppress a grin when you’ve got a trophy pompano in your hands like this slug of a fish caught by Randy Choate from Idaho on light tackle near Cerralvo Island just off Las Arenas. It’s been a good season for big pompano, but I can’t remember seeing this many this large! Great eating!

Walt Pargo 1 tags 5-13

No Santa Clause isn’t visiting La Paz in the off-season! But, our buddy, Walt Topping had a super 3 days of fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet taking big cabrilla and pargo like this one every day…all of them trophy fish…maybe the best 3 days of any rockfishing I’ve seen this season!

rooster raul tags 5-13

Even our Tailhunter Restaurant manager, Raul Chollett just had to get in on the roosterfish action desperately wanting to get his first pez gallo. He just recently started fishing and has the “bug” pretty badly so he took a day and got several nice roosters off Las Arenas including this fish estimated at 20-25 pounds.  Al the roosters were released.

rooster tom ames flyrod tags 5-13

Tom Ames visited us with his flyrod last fall and got some nice 10 pound roosters that really impressed him. After 4 days of fishing and catching roosters like this on the flyrod and light spining gear, he had the biggest grin and says he’ll try to come back again before the year is over. His largest was a 40 pounder.

pargo 1 ziggy 5-13-tags

Ziggy Haspod told me he NEVER gets in the fishing reports after all the years he has fished with us. I told him “catch big fish and take good photos!” This week he gets in twice. Once for his dorado in the photos above and now for this HUGE barred pargo (pargo mulato) he caught off Espirito Santo Island. Ziggy…you made it! He’s coming back in July.

amber chino 3 5-13 tags

Here’s a story…ALMOST a world record! Kevin (“Chino Verde”) Shiotani of Thousand Oaks was just about done for the day fishing off Espirito Santo Island with our other good amigo, Rick Hosmer, when Kevin’s rod with a live caballito went bendo! After a 25 minute fight on 50 pound test, he ended up with this massive amberjack estimated at 130-140 pounds which would have made it just under the IGFA records! Unfortunately, the fish was cleaned and cut up before anyone realized!

tag Amberjack Kevin Shiotan & Rick Hosmer Las Arenas.-proc-proc

Here’s another photo of Kevin’s huge fish this time the amberjack is being held up by Captain Mundo Lucero. Just to get an idea of the massive bulk of the amber. It’s the big cousin of the yellowtail and is great eating!

STELLAR INSHORE ACTION BOOSTED BY SHOWINGS OF DORADO! PLUS NEAR RECORD AMBERJACK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 19-26, 2013

Another great week of inshore fishing with some stellar rooster fish action.  It’s still a little windy and downright chilly in the mornings, but if you were looking for action this week, it probably couldn’t have been better, especially for lots of variety inshore for light tackle and flyfishers plus the bonus of warming waters with some dorado and billfish moving in!

For the past 3 weeks or so we’ve had some of the most solid rooster fish action I’ve ever seen in almost 20 years.  The fish are stacked up along the beaches near Las Arenas right up close to the beach within 100 yards of the break and often in just a few feet of water visible from the pangas.  They are also rolling around the islands near the south end of Cerralvo Island as well as Espirito Santo Islands.

Clients have been hooking and releasing 4, 5, 8, 10 or more roosters per panga with fish ranging from 10 up to 60 pounds and some dynamic battles especially on the lighter tackle and on the flyrods. We’ve had a number of first-timers as well as youngsters, wives, girlfriends and families out lately as well so this is just exciting action for them to hook these exotic fish close to shore in calm waters  plus hook into other species as well in the same areas.

Along the beaches and islands and shallow reefs, we’re also seeing some monster 30-40 pound pompano (related to the rooster fish…except good eating), as well as sierra (which means there’s still some cooler water around plus some truly huge pargo (snapper)  and cabrilla (sea bass).  We have also had some surprising jags of amberjack up to 50 pounds near Espirito Santo Island that seem to come and everyone gets excited then the next day the fish are gone.  But when they’re on, it’s non-stop action on big fish.

But the bonus this week has been the warmer waters have finally brought in a smattering of dorado between 10 and 35 pounds as well as some marlin biters which is very encouraging as it seems the warmer water fish are a bit tardy moving in!  Oh and we had a few wahoo bite off this week as well.

Also, in case you hadn’t heard, a near-world-record was also caught this week in our waters by Kevin Shiotani of Thousand Oaks, CA.  Kevin was fishing with Captain Mundo Lucero on a panga near Cerralvo Island at the end of the day and had a live caballito in the water when he got hammered by and amberjack estimated at 130-140 pounds.  He fought the fish for 25 minutes on 50 pound test!  Spectacular catch but unfortunately, the fish was cut-up not realizing the potential as the world record is only about 150 pounds!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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

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

 

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roosterfish tags 1 5-13

From Chicago to the Roosterfish Capital…Captain Pancho gives Tim Sayre a hand posing with this colorful exotic roosterfish just off the beach near the Las Arenas lighthouse where the roosters again put on a show this past week.  This fish and all their roosters were released.

yellowtail tags jorge 5-13

Happy Hombre! Our amigo, Jorge Romero hoists a nice late season yellowtail he pulled up on a yo-yo yellow and brown iron near Cerralvo Island. He also lost a huge cabrilla shortly after on the iron as well. The presence of yellowtail tells us that there’s still cooler waters around!

SAYRE pompano tags 5-13

Bob Sayre looks like he’s not quite sure what he’s holding, but our amigo is holding a HUGE pompano that ended up on the dinner plate at our Tailhunter Restaurant. Bob’s standing on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos and caught this on a live bait near Punta Perico.

pompano tags tom ames 5-13

A battle-scarred pompano that our buddy, Tom Ames from Idaho, took on a flyrod that wore out both man and fish! We’ve had a run of nice big pompano. Note the flat waters and how close it was caught to the beach!

rooster randy choate tags 5-13

Randy Choate was here last year with us and wanted to get into some nice roosters. Looks like he’s trying to suppress a smile over this nice roosterfish taken in flat waters out of Bahia de Los Muertos.  They caught a number of these and released all the roosters.

dorado Laurie Kennedy 5-13

I’m really surprised we’re not catching more dorado right now given that our air temperatures are in the 90’s and it’s almost June. But cooler waters have hung on so there’s only sporadic dorado fishing…so far! But Laurie Kennedy from Washington got one in Bahia de Los Muertos fishing close to the rocks in flat waters with Captain Adolfo.

rooster ken fritz tags 5-13

Ken Fritz from Sacramento called this “the best fishing day ever!” He got into the great roosterfish bite right off the lighthouse beach at Las Arenas and caught and released a number of these roosters!

PEZ GALLO ESTEBAN Rooster tags LAS ARENAS 002

First rooster ever for amigo, Esteban Romero, who is very familiar to many of our fishing clients! Captain Fernando helps with the honors. This fish was released and was caught on a live sardine.

Andrew McCormick pulled up this fat barred pargo near Espirito Santo Island working a live bait near the rocks.  Great eating fish!  Andrew is from the Portland OR area.

Andrew McCormick pulled up this fat barred pargo near Espirito Santo Island working a live bait near the rocks. Great eating fish! Andrew is from the Portland OR area.  Andrew was on his first trip with Tailhunter to La Paz.

Jesus sierra 5-13-tags

Hard to believe this late in the season that we’re still getting sierra, but the tasty toothy fish are still hanging off the beaches which means we still have cool water hanging out as well. Young Jesus was out fishing for the very first time and give’s a thumbs up to Captain Fernando and this nice sierra that ended up as a big plate of fresh ceviche!

Kenton McGuire roosterfish tags 5-13

Holding it high! Kenton McGuire from Santa Barbara was on his first trip to La Paz with his dad for a quick vacation before heading off to the Air Force Academy and pulled in this trophy roosterfish as well as several others. All were released.

ROOSTERFISH STILL CENTERSTAGE OF SOLID INSHORE ACTION

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 12-19, 2013

Another solid week of some of the best rooster fishing of the season.  The hot spot extends from the famous Punta Arenas lighthouse and that area of white beaches south through Bahia de los Muertos and down to Boca de Alamo to the south.  This is the area that has the reputation as the “Roosterfish Capital of the World” and extends to the East Cape area as well.

It’s surely living up to it as many folks who have never caught roosters are getting multiple hookups.  The roosters are right up close to the sandy beaches in several feet of water.

As some of our anglers put it, “We’ve been surrounded by roosters every day!”  

These fish are running 10-50 pounds with some larger ones breaking off especially as anglers drop down their gear to have some fun on lighter tackle!  

“Every cast was a bite, but these fish are tough on the light tackle!”

“I had no idea how much they fight.  I’m outgunned.  I brought a light spinning rod and got broke off on the first fish and got spooled on the 2nd fish before we could chase it with the panga!”

“What fun…hooked, released and lost over 25 fish and I’m whupped!  I couldn’t stop a few that simply broke off!” 

In these same areas, there’s been a nice run of pompano up to 15-20 pounds plus schools of jack crevalle also marauding the bait schools along the beaches.

Our flyfishers have been having a blast casting to these fish as they boil along the beaches as well.

The rocks have been producing good action on pargo and cabrilla as well as the occasional yellowtail as the waters have not been warming as expected so we’re in a lingering transition with cooler and warmer waters all in the same areas.

That’s our story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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

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

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International of La Paz for Week of May 5-12, 2013

rooster scott Mcguire 5-14 tags

Roosterfishing has been on fire this past week! Big fish and tremendous action! Check out Scott McGuire’s big rooster that he caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet while fishing with his son. They caught and released several big fish.

rooster al rodriguez 5-13 tags

One of my favorites photos of the week…Al Rodriguez with one of his roosters. Great colors and the big smile is priceless! Nothing beats fishing for roosters on light tackle and check out how close to the beach he’s fishing! This fish was released as were all his roosters.

Kevin Kennedy tags dorado 5-13

Definitely NOT a salmon! Kevin Kennedy came to visit us from Washington for the first time and got this gorgeous early season dorado just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos. With waters warming, we should be seeing more dorado.

dan and andrew tags 5-13

Our frequent amigo, Dan McCormick from the Portland area, brought his son, Andrew down with him for the first time and they did especially well fishing north of La Paz with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet knocking out a number of solid yellowtail, pargo, and this fat amberjack over several days!

yellowtail kevin chang tags 5-13

Kevin Kennedy and I have been fishing amigos for many years, but I haven’t seen him visiting us in La Paz for a long time. He finally made it down and shows off one of the yellowtail he caught of Espirito Santo Island. The yellowtail are getting more scarce as the waters get warmer.

Bob Coon rooster tags 5-13

For everyone who asks all the time about our popular Capt. Pancho, he wraps himself up all the time with his hoodie, hat and bandana because he’s alergic to excessive sun which is hard for a panga captain in Baja! But he’s one of our best and probably more of us should follow his lead when it comes to sunburn! But check out this trophy rooster he got for Bob Coon just off the sand at Las Arenas near the lighthouse! The fish and others were released.

rooster JP tags 5-13 two

Big boy slugger roosterfish for my old amigo from Florida, JP Perkin, who I first met more than 20 years ago when he was running a famous tackle store on the pier in Santa Barbara CA before moving to Florida! Great fisherman! Nice rooster that got released.

Laurie Reynolds rooster tags edit 5-13

What a great photo! Laurie Reynolds of Long Beach was out with our amigos, Roger and Donna Thompson, and they got into a fast and furious roosterfish bite at Boca de Alamo south of Bahia de los Muertos! I love the colors in this photo. Thanks, Roger! The ladies really did well this week!

kuhn cabrilla 5-13 tags

When my amigo, Bill Kuhn, pulled this one up off Espirito Santo Island while fishing with our Captain Joel, we figured it was the biggest cabrilla we had ever seen, but on closer exam…it’s a grouper! Made for some great fat fillets! Bill lives in Laguna Beach CA.

roosterfish adolfo and Laurie tags 5-13

All smiles…must be the cool sunglasses! Captain Adolfo with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet poses with Laurie Kennedy from Washington on her first visit to La Paz and her first rooster!

mantas-tags 5-13

Couldn’t pass up this great photo of a school of manta rays passing by one of our fishing pangas in the blue water of the Sea of Cortez. Thanks for the photo, Kevin!

ROOSTERFISH PUT ON A SHOW AT LAS ARENAS!  MAYBE BEST EVER…

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 5-12, 2013

We’ve have an incredible week of variety and one of the best weeks of rooster fishing that I can remember!  I guess there’s a reason they call our area the “Roosterfish Capital of the World. ”

I was getting a bit worried about the roosterfish because normally by March or so we’ve got pretty decent biters and it’s fairly consistent by May.  But up to about 3 weeks ago, it had only been hit-or-miss in that famous area near the Las Arenas lighthouse where the world record 114-pounder had been caught a number of years ago.

Roosterfish are one of the most prized and sought-after species in our area.  Extremely exotic, anglers come from all over the world to get a shot at them with their fiery black racing stripes and iconic dorsal fins.  These fish inhabit the pristine white sandy beaches and blue waters of the southern Baja and perhaps no more prolifically than in the 10 or so miles of beaches around Las Arenas and down towards the East Cape…but especially the lighthouse.

These fish can be found in waters that are only a few feet deep and are known to tear up the bait schools of sardines and mullet that come into these areas at this time of year.  The fish can be school-sized 5-10 pounders but 10-40 pounders are not uncommon and an incredible sport for flyfishers and light tackle anglers.

The fish this week have stormed the beaches with our pangas getting 2, 4, 8 or more roosterfish per day with fish in the 20-60 pound class and some larger getting away!  Many anglers are getting their first ever plus more.  Others are getting their personal best largest roosters!  These are hard-charging members of the jack family and often the pangas have to chase the fish up and down the beach to keep up with them!

As a bonus in the same areas, there’s some monster jack crevalle, also known for their tenacity and known as “toros” in Spanish which appropriately means “bull.”  As well, there is another member of the jack family in these same areas which are the African pompano.  The great thing about the pompano is that they make for incredible eating whereas the jack crevalle and roosterfish taste terribly with their black/ red stringy meat and almost all those fish get released.

In other action, the reefs and rocks are producing good action on cabrilla (sea bass), pargo (several varieties up to 20 pounds) plus some big amberjack up to 40 pounds and sierra.  Yellowtail continue to hit, but sporadically.  The best spot is now north of La Paz around Espirito Santo Island.  Waters are warming and we expect the yellowtail will continue to diminish and more blue-water species like dorado moving in.  I’m seeing more sargasso around the channels and the influx of the floating seaweed is a good sign that dorado will also be arriving soon.  So far, we’ve had some dorado already in but we’re waiting for the main body to show up!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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

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

 

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Rooster Dover tags 4-13

We’ve finally had a good appearance of roosterfish, the kind that made Las Arenas the “roosterfish capital of the world.” The fish have been 10-50 pounders and right near the beach. Check out Leif Dover’s big pez gallo taken right off the sand near the Arenas lighthouse. Leif got several of these and released all of them. We encourage releasing the roosters…great exotic fighters, but don’t taste very good and most guys voluntarily are voluntarily releasing them although you’re allowed to keep them. It’s good to see them getting released.

pompano tags jp perkin 5-13

Super photo of another member of the jack family…related to yellowtail, amberjack, jack crevalle…this big pompano was hooked by our amigo of many years, JP Perkin, who used to own a famous tackle store on the Santa Barbar pier in California but now lives in Florida and came to spend a few weeks in La Paz with us. These make incredible eating…and especially sashime! Almost better than yellowtail!

Wayne yellowtail tags

Yellowtail still biting, especially north of La Paz around Espirito Santo Island. They’re diminishing as the waters are warming but some of the one’s we’re getting are still 20-40 pound fish like this nice one that Wayne and Captain Rogelio are showing off here.

Jerry Sylvia 5-13 pompano tags

Jerry Sylvia holds the tail gaff on another sweet-sized pompano. The fish have moved in the last few weeks but I can’t remember seeing so many larger ones caught as we have this year. Jerry came to visit us from Santa Barbara CA

Amberjack 2-Dover 5-13-tags

This is the time of year…late spring…when these big slugs show up. The Mexican name for them is “Pez Fuerte” (amberjack). They are horses and they are the bigger cousins of yellowtail and roosterfish and THEY TASTE GREAT!!! These fish get up over 100 pounds. Leif Dover had a pretty epic week on these all the way from Georgia. This big guy was probably over 50 pounds!

WARM AND COLD WATER SPECIES MIX IT UP FOR THE WEEK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 28- May 5, 2013

It wasn’t a bad week of fishing, but it was’t a great week of fishing either.  There was certainly a lot of action in terms of getting rods bent, but just not a lot of quality fish that came up.  But, also some of that had to do with the type of fish that were getting hooked as well.

Like I said, there was some fairly decent action as we had good numbers of pargo, cabrilla, sierra, pompano and bonito ripping around.  Great great fun on light tackle.  Some dorado were also showing up to 25 pounds.  And there’s rooster fish up to 40 pounds plus jack crevalle in the same area.  So, some great varieties!

But, in terms of quality, we just didn’t see much.  But then again, the “quality” fish were the type that have a lot going for them…like ROCKS!

We did get yellowtail again.  Fewer, but many of those busted guys off in the rocks, but we still showed some in the 20-30 pound class.  The best area has been the east side of Espirito Santo Island north of La Paz.  That’s an area where there’s still a big body of cooler water according to the satellite images of the water temperatures.  As well, their bruiser cousins, the amberjack also made a great showing with fish up to 60 pounds, but again, it’s a lot  harder to put a 60 pound fish in the boat than a 10 pound fish and although guys were hooking them, they mostly broke off.  Same for the larger pargo and cabrilla.  If you can’t get them out’ve the rocks, the overall fish counts don’t look very good.  Good fishing.  Bad catching.

Waters are in that transition mode and passing through a warming phase so we’re expecting to go from cooler water to warmer water species any week now.  There’s some good fingers of warm water and sargasso is starting to build up in the channels which bodes well for dorado season coming up!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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

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

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IMGP0401

It’s the dead of winter and dorado are still biting! In between the winter winds, we still have quality fishing including bull dorado and other blue water species! Check this gorgeous bull in full color lit up just next to the panga.

Jason Jacobs wahoo 12-12 tags

Surprisingly some of the best wahoo fishing of the year the last few weeks! Take a look at this awesome wahoo that Jason Jacobs from Phoenix AZ pulled out during two days of fishing. Hefty ‘hoo!

IMGP0403

I have already had several folks ask me if we took a fiberglass fish mount off the wall for this photo because of the incredible colors! This is as good a shot as it gets and Adam Smith and Captain Jorge pose it well. That’s Bahia de los Muertos in the background. Check out the calm waters. They didn’t have to go too far off the beach for this nice mahi mahi.  Adam was visiting us from Arizona.

Jason Jacobs with Yellowtail tags 12-12 1

First real yellowtail of the season! Wow…big fork tail and hamachi for the grill. Jason’s got big smiles for this slug fish caught off Las Arenas. Hope this is an indication of a good yellowtail season if fish this big are already moving in!

IMGP0420 copy

It’s not snowing and he’s got a t-shirt on! All the way from Alaska, Tim Bowman, was fishing just off Bahia de los Muertos in great conditions when he hooked this nice bull dorado on live bait.

Gail Pancho with Wahoo tags 12-12 2

Hard to believe we’re getting this kind of quality fish so late in the season, but even Gail Jacobs pulled a wahoo out with help from Captain Pancho just off Isla Cerralvo. She also got dorado and sierra!

SURPRISE FISHING WHEN WINDS AREN’T BLOWING!  (…but the wind blows a lot!)

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 23-30, 2012

We had a much better week of fishing this past week mainly because we had much better luck with the winds.  This is, of course, that time of year when winds can get howling and it’s almost pointless to be out there and get bounced around in a panga.

Lots of snow-birds in town who decide they want to do a day of fishing and we often have to steer them to different days or postpone their trips when the winds come up.  Sometimes, we just tell them, it’s better not to fish at all unfortunately.

What they don’t understand often is that even if the Bay of La Paz is calm, outside, it can often be treacherously rough and getting to the fishing grounds is almost futile.  Even other times when it’s a little calmer, you still have to go find bait or the bait man has to have bait available to sell.  If the waters are too rough, bait will be hard to obtain because the rough waters prevent anyone from getting to the areas where the sardines are holding.

Even other times when it seems relatively calm, there can be big swells that make it uncomfortable and dangerous.  In fact, this coming week doesn’t look very promising!  Pretty much if there’s storms in the western U.S. then Baja and the Sea of Cortez is very often affected by windy conditions.

So, this past week, we actually got a few days where the winds layed down  enough for us to fish!  Sure enough, the fish bit.

Sierra are almost a sure thing with some really quality grade sierra up to 4-6 pounds evident along the shorelines where the bottom starts to drop off.  Even on the windier days, the fact that the sierra are so close to shore is a bonus as we don’t have to go out so far.

Inshore also, we’re surprisingly still getting rooster fish up to about 10 pounds which can be fun.  We even had some flyfishers able to throw at roosters this past week.  Pargo and cabrilla are also in the mix.

But, without having to go too much further out, we also got into some nice grade dorado in the 10-20 pound class which normally aren’t around in December.  No one complained.  The fish were school-sized, but I have a feeling some of the larger bulls are still around as we got into some 40 pounders less than 2 weeks ago.

In addition to the surprising dorado, we’re still finding the occasional wahoo and billfish too, but I can tell waters are finally cooling off as some husky stray yellowtail up to 25 pounds have found their way into the fish counts as well.  Hopefully, finding yellowtail of this grade is a good sign for the coming season and these are the vanguard of large fish moving into our waters.

As for the wahoo…who knows?  There’s a smattering of wahoo in several areas and it’s like hitting a lottery ticket when we hook them. Or at least like finding a 20 dollar bill in your pants pocket you didn’t expect!    No one is expecting them, but boy, what nice fish!  Hopefully, they’ll stick around awhile longer.  There’s not much traffic out there now that it’s off-season and we’re finding the fish off Cerralvo Island as well as Punta Perico.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL

Mexico office: 755 Obregon, La Paz, BCS, Mexico
Phone: 612-12-53311U.S. Office: P.O. Box 1149, Alpine CA  91903-1149
Phone: 626-278-1585 or 626-333-3355

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Ryan O’Connor holds up one of the big tuna that showed up off the south end of Cerralvo Island and surprised us all late in the week. Ryan is from Miami. This fish was close to 100 pounds and he and his dad put 4 nice fish in the boat!

I was as surprised as any when Chuck Eaves and Captain Jorge pulled this huge slugger out’ve the fish box on the panga! WHOA!!! Close to 100 pounds and not only the first tuna of the season, but the largest as well. Great way to start! The fish initially were found running with porpoise. More video of Chuck below this weeks’ photos!

Good start for their first day of fishing for Curt Weiss and Henry Hernandez from Florida who pose with 4 of their big yellowfin tuna in the shallows at Punta Arenas. These fish were the first tuna run of the season we had seen!

Ben and Kendra Gillette usually spend their anniversary in Hawaii, but opted for La Paz this time. Ben had wanted to use his flyrod, but when these big tuna showed up he wisely put down his flyrod and grabbed the bigger conventional guns! Big smiles to go along with their nice fish!

Rick Walker from Washington, has had better trips to see us but ran into some of that tough fishing early in the week. However, he did put the largest dorado of the week aboard one of our pangas. The dorado are here, but the bite has been scattered. One day on…next day off!

Nelson Kwok was spearfishing on the north end of Cerralvo Island when he stuck this monster amberjack which was scaled at 87 pounds. This beast is a cousin to the yellowtail and makes great eating. Water temperatures around the island are about 83 degrees right now. North Cerralvo has traditionally been a hot spot for finding amberjack. (Thanks for the photo, Hawk!)

Again…thanks Hawk for all the photos you get me! He got me another photo of Nelson Kwok from N. Cal with one of the yellowtail he got go go along with the big amberjack (shown above). We thought the yellowtail had left us over a month ago, but with water temperatures all over the place, yellowtail are showing up in the cooler waters.

Video Clip:  A short video clip of Chuck Eaves’ big tuna being pulled from the panga.  My video camera went on the fritz right after this or I would have had more video footage of all the tuna we got!

FLURRY OF NICE TUNA HIGHLIGHT OTHERWISE  UNUSUALLY SLOW WEEK!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 20-27, 2012

This past week was perhaps the strangest week of the season.  Maybe it was a continuation of last week. In word, maybe “strange” wasn’t strong enough…it stunk!   We have jokingly been blaming the eclipse and big waves generated from the hurricane hundreds of miles to the south, but nothing adds up.  More likely, it’s been a combination of a number of factors. 

 

It would seem the conditions are all good.  Water temps are in the low to mid 80’s and air temperatures have been in the mid-80’s to mid-90’s.  Perfect vacation weather!  But you really have to look closer at what the satellite readings are telling us about the surface temperatures.

 

Around our Las Arenas/ Cerralvo Island areas, the surface water temps are in the 80’s.  Good warm water for species like dorado, wahoo, billfish, etc.  But north of La Paz around Espiritu Santo Island, the water temperatures are around the mid-70’s!  Those are more like cooler spring-time temperatures that produce yellowtail, pargo, cabrilla, sierra, and more inshore fishing.  But…75-80 degree difference… That’s quite a change.  Plus there are fingers of warm water in the cold areas and fingers of cold water in the warm areas.  I can only speculate what it’s like UNDER the surface!

 

So, I think the fish are all messed up!  I think they are ready to take off and go, but we’re just going through a really rough transition time between our spring and summer conditions. Add to that the fact that there’s a huge bank of cold water down as cold as the mid-60’s hovering off Cabo San Lucas and the East Cape to our south that’s really hurting those areas AND threatening to move up into our area and we end up with a real “chop suey” of conditions!

 

So, not only are the fish confused, but moreso, it has affected our bait situation.  Some days bait is almost impossible to get.  This is mostly with our Las Arenas fleet which has resorted to using frozen ballyhoo, cut squid, live pilot fish, caballito jacks and liso (mullet).  It’s pretty hard to chum with these species and I especially feel badly for many of the flyfishers who come to La Paz this time of year when normally we have tons of sardines to chum up the fish for them. 

 

For our La Paz fleet, the bait has been a little easier, but still tougher than normal.  We’re getting some sardines but supplementing that with mackerel and caballitos. 

 

Bottom line is that there’s not many bullets for the guns!

 

But, we are getting some fish…

 

For our La Paz fleet, we have been surprised by the re-emergence of yellowtail again.  We had a great bite going for 3 months that just simply fell off the boards about a month ago.  Then, with the re-emergence of cold water, we suddenly have yellowtail biting again as well as pargo, cabrilla and little flurries of dorado and marlin in the warmer areas.

 

For our Las Arenas fleet, with even tougher bait stocks, the fishing was reduced to some bonito, some roosters and the occasional pargo and cabrilla.  I mean, “STINK” doesn’t even begin to describe it!  There were some nice amberjack at the north end of Cerralvo but then that was it!  Guys were really working hard and our captains were even staying extra hours on the water to do their best to get fish for the clients!  (But hat’s off to the fishermen who really put in the time and kept up the good attitudes and kept smiling through it all without a whole lot of whining.  Good sports!  Honestly, many of our clients the past week or so are regulars so they know how goood the fishing can be and are as perplexed as we are about the lack of bite!)

 

But then the highlight of the week, on Friday off the south end of Cerralvo Island…

… a big school of moving dolphin came through.  A few of our boats chased them and got immediate hook ups on slugger-sized yellowfin tuna.  Other boats joined in.  Instead of moving off with the dolphin, the tuna stayed…and bit!  And for a few great hours guys had bent rods on 40-100 pound yellowfin that just spanked the guys!  All our pangas got 1-4 fish each but all of them lost 2-5 other nice tuna as well.  They were pretty tired at the end of the day but these were feisty hard-charging fish.

 

The next day, most of the guys didn’t want to chase tuna as they were pretty beat up so it’s hard to know if the tuna stayed around, but inshore, the guys found roosters between 10 and 70 pounds as well as some small dorado and a few marlin and sailfish hookups that were either lost or released.  All roosters were also released.

 

So…I don’t know where that leaves us, but I’m encouraged by what we saw at the end of the week and hope things settle down!

Happy Memorial Day week and weekend everyone!  God bless all you vets for your service!

 

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter International Website: www.tailhunter-international.com U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745 Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico Phones:  from USA : 626-638-3383 from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm Tailhunter YouTube Videos:  http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

 

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Big yellowtail were a big part of the story this past week with fish up to 35 pounds like this solid fish that Roger Thompson took on a trolled deep diving Rapala north of Cerralvo Island.

Kneeling on the sand at Bahia de Los Muertos near La Paz, our amigo, Jorge Romero not only got two slugger yellowtail, but also a nice amberjack as well...usually larger cousin to the yellowtail obviously, the full moon didn't have much effect!

It's a pretty picture of the pangas at sunrise at Muertos Bay, but the key to the photo is how flat the waters are! The key to the good fishing this week wasn't the full moon, it was the fact that the winds laid down most days allowing anglers to get onto the fish!

This lady can fish! Donna Thompson always does well and she worked north point Cerralvo Island for this early season trophy yellowtail.

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE THE VIDEO CLIP

Thanks to everyone who came by our booth at the Denver Convention Center at the International Sportsman’s Expo that wound up on Sunday.  It was great to see so many of our older amigos and clients as well as meet new amigos and talk about fishing with Tailhunter in La Paz.  It was our 12th year hear at this expo and Denver always treats us great!  Next stop will be the Califorania State Fairground in Sacramento for the next ISE show!  See you there!

EARLY SEASON YELLOWTAIL and PARGO ROCK FISHERMEN FOR FIRST WEEK OF 2012!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Jan. 1-8, 2012

What a way to start off the new year!  Winds laid down for the most part and we got a surprise bite of nice fat 20-40 pound yellowtail!  The key was the wind.  On the days when the wind blew, fishing was scratchy at best, but for most of the week, winds laid down and the little firecracker yellowtail we were catching around the holidays suddenly grew into the big trophy fish we usually don’t see until a month or two from now.  But, no one was complaining!

The fish were in several areas.  North Point Cerralvo Island held fish.  As did the southern area near the lighthouse.  The fish were holding off the bottom but could be enticed up with live bait or slow trolling deep-diving Rapalas or Yo-Zuri Magnums (green mack patterns and silver/black patterns worked well).  Yo-yo iron in blue/white and brown/yellow also got picke up on the fast retrieve.

Other good areas included Bahia de Los Muertos which rocked up some nice amberjack but the fleet also took fish south of the bay in the shallow drop off areas off Boca de Alamo near the arroyo.  Most of these fish were taken on live bait and iron.

But wait!….

It  looks like we’ve also  got an early run of the schooling spawning pargo liso (mullet snapper) happening already too!   Normally, we start seeing the fish around March or April in these numbers, and certainly, they’ll get thicker as the weeks roll in, but at least for this week, they were a big focus for us around Punta Perico near Las Arenas.

The fish we’re getting have been 5-20 pounders, but larger fish are getting lost.  It’s hard to tell sometimes since the fish are in shallow waters inshore in rocky areas and a quick pickup and bent rod is often followed very quickly after a few moments with strained line…some grunts…a squealing drag and a POP!  As the line breaks!  They’re pretty frustrating fish!  But no doubt great sport.

At least the good part is that in those same areas are some nice cabrilla (Mexican seabass) as well as some of the smaller yellowtail and rainbow runners showing up too and just offshore, bonito are around to at least provide fun action.

Like I said…The earlier parts of the week the winds were down and we put up good numbers with our pangas getting 10-30 fish caught and released…good fun days!  Letting smaller cabrilla and bonito go but plenty of action.  Then, the winds came up beginning Thursday and the counts got scratchy again.  The local windsurfers love it, but not so good for fishing.  Then, late in the week, even with the full moon, the wind settled again and that’s when we started getting the big yellowtail!  Hope it holds up!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

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


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

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Retired fire captain, Jesse Franco, shows off one of the type of yellowfin tuna typical of what we were catching this week off Las Arenas. The bite seemed to have suffered this past week during the full moon. Fish averaged about 20-35 pounds most days. Jess got this one on live bait just off from Punta Arenas.

It would seem to be too warm for amberjack, but several large ones were hooked this week. Amberjack are the good eating big boy cousins to yellowtail and we normally see them around late spring and early summer when conditions are cooler. However, Fabio Caldron was fishing with our amigo, Hawk Davis off Cerralvo Island when he roped this big beast estimated at 50-60 pounds or larger!

Lisa Ogle...first timer on the ocean...from Oregon probably caught the largest tuna of the week...estimated at 70 pounds by our Captain Victor. She just didn't have a camera to take a photo of it! So, you get her 2nd best tuna! We enjoy showing- off the ladies and especially when they're first timers! She and her husband Brian, a hunting guide, also got into a big day of dorado.

Dean Francoeur and Jeff Lipp hold up a couple of their yellowfin at Las Arenas. Some of the problem with the tuna may have been the difficulty in catching bait. Some days the fish bit early and other days, the tuna waiting until the last minute to bite. Dean's fish went 27 pounds on the scale.

More like it. Greg Marsalla took one of our super pangas north outta La Paz as he only had one day to fish and probably had one of the better days this week with three of them on the boat taking some quality dorado.

John "JD" Drucker makes it down every year to visit us...sometimes twice a year...when he can get away from work and always does pretty well on the fishing. He's holding one of his Las Arenas yellowfin tuna here on the beach.

Jeff Sweet fished with first-timer Greg Landerer and got 4 nice yellowfin tuna for their efforts their first day. Largest fish was 24 pounds.

Our buddy from Washington, Mike Whitlow, celebrating his birthday for an entire week in Mexico, posted up with this quality yellowfin tuna he caught fishing with Captain Adolfo.

VIDEO CLIPS OF THE WEEK!!

Sorry…no video clips this week.  FUMBLE FINGERS ME…I dropped my video cam in the water!  What a doofus. I was taking some shots and had removed the waterproof housing so that I could get better audio.   It slipped out’ve my hands.   It’s fried.    First time in all these years here that I’ve ever dropped a camera in the water.  Of course, it happens to be the ONLY camera I have that is NOT waterproof.

FULL MOON MAKES FOR A STICKY BITE BUT TUNA AND DORADO STILL ACTIVE…SORT OF…!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 11-18, 2011

Some great photos this week and if you just looked at the photos, you might be inclined to say that we had a pretty nifty week of fishing.  But….hold on…in all honesty….There was a noticeable drop off in the good tuna bite that went off last week off Punta Arenas and South Cerralvo Island. 

Not sure if it was the full moon or the scarcity of bait, but things were definitely off.  Our pangas averaged only 1-4 tuna in the 20-30 pound class although we did hit a fewer in the 40-60 pound class.  They were few and far between.  Compared to last week when 5-10 tuna in the 40-50 pound class was more the norm. 

 

But everywhere this week the bite seemed to have dropped off…even for our La Paz fleet.  Everyone got fish but it was more of a picky bite.  Excluding what you may or may not believe about a full-moon affecting things, conditions seemed good except for one thing…the bait!  It was harder to get.

 

For our Las Arenas fleet, our normally good sardine areas held few or only tiny sardines which meant some days we had to jig for caballitos.  Or, we had to go way up the east side of Cerralvo Island to find sufficient sardine supplies.  For our La Paz fleet it was also a struggle to get bait. We got the bait, but some days it took alot longer to get enough to head out.

 

Still, we did get some good dorado this week with our La Paz fleet doing better than our Las Arenas fleet. But it could be like pulling teeth at times.  Imagine some of your favorite captains…all stars like Chito, Raul, Boli, Pancho, Jorge, Victor… and others getting only 1 or 2 fish!  That’s unheard of!  Wow!  But then the boat right next to a hot boat could get 10 fish!  Crazy.

Some good roosterfishing, sailfish and marlin bites too.  Will see what happens as we move away from this full moon. 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

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Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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


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

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