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Posts Tagged ‘bahia de los muertos’

It was another good week to get a trophy-sized dorado, especially if you fished with our La Paz fleet. Solid good dorado fishing pretty much all of this past week, like this bull taken by Brent Fischer and posing at Balandra Beach.

Roger Thompson seems to be king of the big fish. This is not only a gorgeous giant bull dorado, but also just a great photo. The fish was taken in the channel near Cerralvo Island.

This is like a poster! James “Hawk” Davis got this photo of about a 40-pound bull dorado under his panga and the filtered light caught it just right! (Thanks, Hawk!)

Our two college-professor friends, Llew Williams from Florida and Prof. Mark Marcus from Washington, tag-teamed this big boy off Las Arenas. The fish looks like it’s ready to bite Marks face!

Don Rea is the long-tme head football coach at Pacific High School near Ventura CA and a long-time amigo of Tailhunters. He’s a hardcore fisherman and always gets into the big guys like this hug bull dorado he took fishing with Captain Marcos north of La Paz.

Here’s a pair…and I don’t mean the roosterfish! Darrell George and Bo Herrera are two of our funniest fishermen and fly out from New Mexico several times a year. They post up two of their double-hook-up roosterfish just off the rocks at Punta Perico.  They released a week’s worth of roosterfish includingthese two!

A beast of a roosterfish and the kind of fish that helps give Las Arenas the reputation of being the “roosterfish capital of the world!” John Rygiol gets a hand from Captain Pancho to take a photo of this big boy before they release it. That’s the south end of Cerralvo Island in the background.

That’s a lotta bull…dorado! Fish slam for four! From New Mexico…Darren Hanson, Darrell Hanson, Steve Hanson and Josh Van Dam!

Rob Caron and Capt. Rogelio show off another of Rob’s dorado. Rob spent over a week with us in the middle of the dorado schools limiting on the fish almost daily. Check out the flat ocean behind them. Rob’s from Boise, Idaho.

Darrell “Gomer” Oleson and his buddy, Brent, drove all the way from Utah for a few days of fishing in La Paz. This was Gomer’s first trip and they got a limit of dorado and this striped marlin. Marlin were again active all week with a number of fish hooked, lost or released.

A trophy trio for Brent, Dan and Matt Fischer who got 6 of these big dorado on a day fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet near Espirito Santo Island.

Almost too big to lift! Steve Hanson from New Mexico put the gaff to this huge bull dorado he got on live bait north of La Paz just outside the bay fishing with Captain Marcos.

It’s not the biggest, but it’s his first! Erik Peterson finally got the dorado he was looking for while fishing between Espirito Santo Island and Cerralvo Island.

One of our long-time amigos, Tim Blagen, holds up his catch-of-the day…a big bull dorado that inhaled a bait and bent the rod. Tim had a few banner days with our La Paz fleet.

BIG DORADO AGAIN PUT ON A SHOW!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 22-29, 2012

Pretty simple this week…TAKE A LOOK at the PHOTOS!

Overall, a really good dorado week, especially for our anglers that fished with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.  Fishing north of the city around Espirito Santo Island then around the tips near Las Cruces and the channel in between Espirito Santo and Cerralvo Island, nice schools of the mahi were  being found my locating floating sargasso weeds or bringing schools to the boats by slow-trolling live or dead bait; getting a hook up; then chumming the rest of the school to the panga resulting in multiple hookups.

The highlights for the past week were the continued catches of larger dorado.  Fish in the 30 to 40 pound class were not uncommon and many lost as well as the “huge giant fish that bit and broke up.”  (Or course to many anglers EVERY large fish is a “fifty pounder!”)  But, even our captains verified that there were some big boys out there that simply left the clients out-gunned.

For the most part, we had one slow-day, but almost every day our clients each got limits or, if they didn’t get limits they were really busy with the larger fish.

Plus, the bite on marlin…stripers mostly…continued.  Every day we had a few hookups on marlin with most fish being lost or released as the billfish were often found in the middle of the dorado schools often chasing the smaller baby dorado.  (Which meant trolling a yellow and green feather was a good way to hook a marlin!).

As for other species, there were more roosterfish and a smattering of tuna and pargo at Las Arenas, but the area still has not produced a consistent bite even tho’ we’re finally finding some sardines.  If you’ve been following our reports, for the last 3 months, there has been very little sardines around the Las Arenas area to use as bait.  Despite little flurries of promise, it’s just not that good for fishing there.  We keep our fingers crossed.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

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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Another big week for big dorado and another big week where it seems like the ladies were on fire! Debbie White from Oregon isn’t that big herself, but take a look at the size of this dorado she took off the east side of Cerralvo Island with Captain Pancho! Debbie comes down with her husband at least once-a-year and always does well. This fish is HUGE!

Big grins all around for another big dorado! Captain “Jolly Roger” Rogelio helps Mandy Carron with her first big fish of the trip. Mandy is from Boise, Idaho was on her first trip to La Paz (and is still here as I write this and out fishing!). This week fish of 30-50 pounds were no uncommon!

From New Mexico on his first trip, Dick Carroll, had 3 super days of fishing and spent one day chasing our exotic roosterish. He got this one just off Las Arenas.

This is one of the craziest fun guys who visits us every year at least once or twice! He rolls in from New Mexico and fishes hardcore and no one gets more excited about a fish. He spent 5 days riipping up on big roosterfish and added this trophy dorado with Captain Victor off Las Arenas.

It was another good week of billfish again! Quite a few fish hooked and released or lost. Many are being found around the dorado schools feeding on the same baitfish as well as the dorado themselves. Leticia Hayler holds up a nice on while posing north of La Paz.

Another hefty bull dorado off Cerralvo Island! Don White pulled this one while dragging a small pink feather trying to locate a school or tuna! Don’s our good amigo from Oregon. Take a look at the video clip below for more details.

I was hoping Jeanette Carroll was going to adopt us! No one had more fun than her fishing every day. Always laughing! Captain Victor was fishing with her just off Punta Arenas Beach (in the background) and got this nice roosterfish which she photo’d and released.

Not sure if Dr. Bo Herrera is ready to launch this roosterfish out into the water, but he did release it. Bo spent 5 days fishing and caught and released quite a few big roosters!

From Oceanside CA, Tom Slaughter and his son spent a few days fishing with us with our both Las Arenas and our La Paz fleet plus some snorkeling out at the island. Tom poses with one of his dorado north of La Paz.

As you can tell, it was a good week for roosters! For some co-incidence, we had alot of amigos from New Mexico this past week. John George was working a spot of Cerralvo Island and got his roosterfish before releasing it.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Don White boats a huge bull dorado off Cerralvo Island!  Click the screen or the YOUTUBE link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCPk8pkfZVQ&feature=plcp

BIG DORADO ROOSTERFISH AND MARLIN SET THE PACE THIS PAST WEEK!

La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-22, 2012

We just had one of the most solid and steady weeks of fishing of the season.  No down days.  It was almost like a reading a book a menu.  If you wanted roosters fish with our Las Arenas Fleet.  If you wanted dorado, you fished with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet!

Overall… Good fishing for both dorado, roosterfish and marlin.  If you fished with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, the roosterfishing was good to outstanding with 3-8 nice roosters each day ranging from 20-50 pounders (all getting released).  As well, if you went outside, there was a shot at larger bull dorado up to 50 pounds as well as striped marlin.

If you wanted dorado, you simply told us you wanted to fish with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.  It was almost like dialing in an order on the internet.  Every day most of our pangas got full limits of dorado and losing and releasing many many more fish.  We got several fish that did not fit on the 50-pound handscales and several in that class that were lost each day by the captains’ accounts!

Our largest that hit the scales was a slug bull of 47 pounds and that same day, I believe we had over a dozen fish that were at least 30 pounders.  There were several keys.  One was finding the right spot near Espiritu Santo Island or around the corner in the canyon or around Las Cruces.  If you found sargasso weeds, that would be a decent indicator. Second was just being patient.  Sometimes, it would literally be slack bite for hours and clients getting pretty frustrated.  Then, WHAM!  Just after 1 or so in the afternoon  the fish just blew up and it would be pandemonium in for an hour or so of double and triple hookups…catching and releasing as fast as they could go…and at the end a fish box stuffed with tails and exhausted anglers ready to head back.

All-in-all, a pretty good week!

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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It was a great week for the larger dorado! Captain Victor gives and assist to Nicki Vavao on a huge pig-of-a-bull doado! It was not unusual to see 30-50 pound fish this past week. Nicki took over an hour to put this fish aboard, but total props to her. Not only was it her first time fishing in Baja. It was her FIRST TIME fishing…EVER! And this is her FIRST FISH…EVER! That’s gonna set the bar pretty high for the future!

Once again, the ladies were on fire this week! Geri Sandstrom, is from Idaho and she’s LOVES to fish, but had never gotten anything larger than big kokanee. Needless to say, she more than topped her personal best with 3 days of solid fishing for dorado and roosterfish!

We love having father-son fishing trips! Tom Slaughter and his son, Mike, spent 3 days fishing and snorkeling with us and got into some of the nice dorado bite we had including these two while posing at Balandra Bay north of La Paz.

This has been one of the best roosterfish seasons ever! Take a look at this huge trophy roosterfish that Scott Voldness took off Las Arenas. Scott’s from Utah and the big fish was released.

From Arizona, these two were a kick to have around for 4 days of fishing. Joe Cullwell and Dylan Martin hold up a double pair of dorado after one day of fishing north of La Paz.

Sam Sybesma comes to see us every year. He spent a few days fishing with our La Paz fleet having fun with the dorado but on his last day went with our Las Arenas fleet to see if he could get a roosterfish! WINNING! That’s Punta Arenas Beach in the background.

Another one of our father-son trips this week. Lyndon Mumm and his son, Matt, pulled on some great dorado during the week. Big smiles all the way around. They also took our island snorkel trip with the sealions as well.

Our good amigo, Dick, had to cancel his trip this last year, but towed his boat down to get in on the dorado bite and shows off his first day catch with, Randy Lyons.

Good way to start the week with a striped marlin for Al Sandstrom from Idaho. It was another good week on the billfish with most fish running 90-150 pounds. I believe we got over 20 hooked this week with all but a few released. We probably had another 10-15 break off or get unbuttoned. Al got this his first day and also got into the dorado nicely!

Jimmy Csutoras almost didn’t make it down, but got here at the last minute and slammed into nice dorado like this one. Jimmy is from Northern Cal.

Brothers Fred and Mike Sontag rolled on the dorado big time after 4 days fishing. Fred is from St. Louis and Mike is from S. Carolina. They hold up a nice pair standing on the beach at Balandra Beach north of La Paz.

BIG BITE OF BIG DORADO SET PACE FOR THE WEEK WITH ROOSTERS AND MARLIN!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 8-15, 2012

It wasn’t as spectacular as last week’s dorado slam during the full moon, but there was some excellent fishing to be had nonetheless. I was a little worried as the first 2 days of the week it was like someone turned off the mahi-mahi spigot!

Whereas the week before our anglers were reporting 10, 20…40 or more dorado hookups per day and releasing fish as fast-as-they-could-go, the first two days this past week suddenly shut down to 2 to 6 dorado per panga.  That’s a huge drop in production!  I was sweating!

However, as the week went on, we got into a little rhythm again.  It was not wide up and there was an occasional day or panga that had an off-day, but more-often-than-not, the fishing day produced limits or near-limits of dorado.  If you were only fishing 1 day, that might be the day you had the stink on you, but if you fished 2, 3 or 4 days, at the end of the trip, our clients usually still found they had more fish than they knew what to do with!  They might have a day or two that was less than stellar, but then they had another day or two that was an explosion of fish that made up for the other slack times.

Often, I had to tell our anglers to just be patient.  Often, the days started slow.  I mean…really SLOW!  It’s noon and they have 1 fish aboard!  Then, at noon or 1 p.m.often when other fleets are heading in, our guys would hang out just a bit longer.  It would be all the difference in the world as that late bite would turn into dorado pandemonium with double-triple-and-quadruple hookups!  Often, our captains weren’t bringing in our clients until 3 or 4 p.m. or even later…giving that little bit of extra time to get onto the bite.

The coolest thing about this week that differed from last week was the appearance of some big quality bulls.  Whereas last week there were just a few of the fish over 20 pounds, this week fish between 25 and 40 pounds were hooked daily and many of the larger fish were lost and the clients coming back with only wide-eyed stories of big battles or broken lines.  Even some of our captains were talking about 50-pound class fish swimming out there or busting off after long fights.

Another big surprise were the marlin.  I think this past week, I counted over 20 striped marlin hooked amoung our Tailhunter anglers of which almost all of them were released.  There were probably as many that broke off or came unbuttoned during the battle.  Personally, I think the marlin are more active because there’s not only more bait in the water (sardines, mackerel, cocineros, jacks, and caballitos), but also, there’s so many little dorado swimming around that they’re feeding on the young dorado.  In fact, one of the best trolling color feathers right now just happens to be yellow and green!

One other item of big news…LAS ARENAS FINALLY TURNED ON!

That’s major headlines.  After almost 3 months of some of the dreariest fishing I have seen in years with no bait, we finally got some smaller tiny sardines this week as well as the larger baits and what a difference it made!  It wasn’t wide open, but our pangas were getting into some nice dorado between 10 and 15 pounds, but also some of the big slugger mahi over 30 pounds.  In addition, it also produced good billfish action…I think one day 3 of our pangas hooked and released 7 marlin alone!  Plus, the roosterfish continue to bite as well.  So, this is all very promising and I’m glad both sides finally started to kick out some fish!

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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Yes! Even we get to fish now and then and it was great to get on the water with Jilly for an epic day of non-stop dorado fishing where we hooked and released over 40 fish before noon! Great week of dorado fishing even with the full moon! Here, Jill ducks behind Captain Joel with another bull dorado that was thrashing around wildly before Joel released the fish!

The ladies were on fire this week! Especially alot of first timers like Sylva Ourghoulian from Pasadena CA who came with our long-time amigo and her new husband Avo. Avo is a great fisherman and wanted to have a good experience for Sylva. She got limits of dorado each day plus some nice roosterfish!

Like I said, the ladies were rocking this week! From Sacramento, another first-timer, Becky Csotoras, was just off the Las Arenas lighthouse when she caught and released this nice roosterfish. She and her dad also got into the dorado bite this week as well.

Every time he comes down, Fred Sontag, from St. Louis MO says, “This is the best trip ever!” Four days of hot dorado, roosterfish and marlin fishing resulted in lots of fillets headed back to the midwest including this trophy big-headed bull dorado taken near Espirito Santo Island.

Our long time friend from Colorado, Doug Oclassen got his son, Andrew out with us for a day and off Las Arenas pulled in some nice roosterfish like this one. It’s turning into thee best roosterfish season in memory. Pretty much 99 percent of all the roosters like this one are getting released. Great job, guys! Andy is looking alot like dad these days!

Not many of these in Montana! Phil Matteson said he got “everything on his bucket list” on this trip to La Paz, his first! Dorado, roosterfish and this marlin shown with Captain Boli holding on!

Rex Smith has been visiting us for years. Our amigo did three days fishing with our La Paz fleet and had limits of dorado like this one every day. Rex is from the Phoenix AZ area and is posing here at Balandra Beach north of La Paz.

Big smiles for another of our ladies who had a good trip. From Utah, Kim Woodard, shows off another nice bull dorado that jumped on the line. Kim and her family had good results on dorado and roostefish over several days of fishing with us!

Fishing with grandpa, John Ehlers, from Colorado, 14-year-old Cheyenne says she cannot get enough of the ocean and was on her first trip ever to La Paz! Posing here with our popular Captain Pancho with our Las Arenas fleet, she’s holding one of several big roosterfish she caught and released. She also did several days of banner dorado fishing with grandpa, John!

One of the larger striped marlin of the week, Mike Sontag, has visited us a number of times and finally got his billfish. From North Carolina, Mike’s fish was estimated at about 150 pounds. The billfish have really gotten up to speed this past week even with the full moon and about 90 percent have been released. Mike’s panga hooked two others that got away.

More big smiles to go with a big dorado! The ladies were pulling hard on the fish all week and Karen Matteson from Montana was no exception. Nice dorado…big roosterfish…pargo…a real good trip and nice to have fun folks from Montana. I think Montana people just bring good fishing with them! Nicely done, Karen!

Dustyn Woodard is 17-years-old, and had a great trip sticking a bunch of big roosters with Captain Gerardo and releasing them all. He and his family, from Utah, also popped some great dorado. This was Dustyn’s first trip to see us.

Northern Cal resident, Jimmy Csutoras, saw an article in the S.F. Chronicle about Tailhunter and booked a trip with us. He got dorado and roosters and also got one of the only pargo we’ve seen in awhile! He got several of these nice barred pargo. That’s Punta Arenas in the background and they were very close to the beach!

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Check out this underwater clip in slo-motion of a wild dorado hooked (then released)!  Turn up the sound.  If you can’t see the embedded video clip, click the youtube link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xl-JF0VOcM&feature=plcp

FULL MOON PRODUCES BEST DORADO BITE OF THE SEASON!

La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-8, 2012

What’s the big deal about the full moon?  I keep telling people it really doesn’t seem to make much difference down here. As a matter of fact, we just had the best dorado week of the season in the full moon.  At times, folks were catching and releasing fish as fast as they could go!   Somedays the bite was later in the day but other our anglers were full of fish by breakfast time!  Once it started it could be pandemonium with double and triple hook ups.  Some of our clients told us they released dozens of dorado each day.

Most of the dorado fishing was north of La Paz and was found in a nice wedge from the Las Cruces/ Gordo area then up to the east side of Espirito Santo Island and up to the Charo Bank.  There’s a nice current line of sargasso weeds holding fish all up and down that area.  There’s lots of voracious 10-15 pounders all along that area that are almost fighting each other to get to the hooks but there’s also some nicer 20-50 pound bruisers mixed in as well.  In the last 2 weeks, it’s like someone threw a switch!

On Friday, Jill and I snuck out for a “quick day of fishing.”  What we ran into was one of our all-time best days on the water in 16 years of living here.  We ran into that line of sargasso weed along the east side of Espirito Santo Island.  Just on a lark we did not follow the rest of the fleet that morning which had gone south to check out the Las Cruces area where the dorado had been biting fairly steadily.

Our first bait immediately got slammed…as did our 2nd and 3rd…by 8 a.m. we had caught and released almost 20 dorado!  By 10 a.m. we had over 30 fish hooked and released.  And we were still the only ones fishing the area!  By 10:30 we were joined by the rest of the fleet and everyone hooked up!  There were dorado everywhere.  Under the boat, it looked like a fish pond!  There were dorado darting in and out of the weed line and current break.  Dorado were jumping following flying fish and one flying fish smacked Jill on the arm followed by a dorado that was chasing the bait that blew up in her face and narrowly missed her.

By 11 that morning we stopped counting at 40 dorado caught and released!  By this time we had switched to complete circle hooks and were also using all kinds of goofy lures that were in the tackle box!  Our last 3 fish were caught by us just dangling BARE HOOKS in the water and watching dorado come out from under the boat and 1…2…3…SLAM!  HOOK UP! BARE HOOKS!

As we pulled off the spot at 11:30 so we could back to the office, dorado were still jumping all around the boat as if yelling, “FEED ME! “  Way fun day.  Of course not every boat did that well, but more often than not all the pangas this week fishing La Paz came back with limits.  And if not, a quick query would tell you that they lost quite a few fish!

In that same area, especially with all the smaller punk dorado around, marlin and sailfish have also moved in to the area and are actively feeding.  We had quite a few hooked, lost and released this week with most in the 100-120 pound class.

Around Las Arenas, our fleet there continues to do well on the roosterfish.  If you’ve ever wanted to check a roosterfish off your “bucket list, ” this has been the year for it. Roosters in the 20-50 pound class have not been uncommon and they’re very close to the beaches where you can visually cast to them and watch the pick up!  Pretty exciting stuff to watch those huge dorsal fins cut through the water!  Las Arenas also produced some marlin and sailfish for us this week as well as pargo.

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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That’s a mouthful! Our friend, Rich Jones, from Hyrum Utah knows a photo opportunity when he catches one! Take a look at the great colors on this fresh giant bull dorado he took this week north of La Paz! It looks like dorado season finally hit!

Lots of first-timers visiting us this past week including Rob and Natalie Carroll who took advantage of the dorado bite that finally kick started with a nice roar. This big bull was caught near Espiritu Santo Island on live bait.

Yes, it is THAT big! It’s 89 pounds to be exact and Roger Thompson and Captain Hugo have a knack for big fish! Roger was fishing around Cerralvo Island and stuck FOUR big wahoo including this TREE! Of course, the next day everyone went to the same spot and nothing showed up! But, what a day for Roger!

Like I said, lots of first timers this past week and many went home with some great stories to tell. Like Kelly Jimenez, who’s been trying to fish with us for years and finally made it down from Loveland, Colorado. On her first day, she stuck this trophy roosterfish just south of Bahia de Los Muertos! The fish was released. It was just the start of a spectacular week of fishing and diving!

Ya gotta love this photo! Gerda Siewert from Anaheim CA gives and OK sign as she peeks out from behind Captain Blas holding two slug bull dorado taken out of La Paz. Gerda was on her first trip and over several days of fishing outfished many of the veterans!

He came a long way for this. All the way from Montana, Mike Harvey finally put the bend on a few roosters fishing out’ve Las Arenas. Mike’s coming back in September. The fish was released.

Big smiles for Diego Jimenez, retired firefighter from Colorado, fishing with Captain Chito who had a banner day on the dorado fishing north of La Paz towards Punta Mejia. “We had two and three fish on at the same time!” said Diego. “I would have been happy with 1 or 2. What a fun time!”

Utah in the house! Kip and Sue Slaugh spent the week with us and it’s always good to see them from Salt Lake City area. Check out the nice bull. After 6 days of fishing, they and their family went home with 125 pounds of fillets!

Our amigo from Sacramento, Jim Klein, got his first sailfish this week. Both sailfish and marlin showed alot more interest and we hooked and released several every day. Jim said he’s going to fire up his smoker and get the teriyaki brine ready!

Nice colors! A flat sea and a big colorful fish on the gaff for Makani Fisher from Salt Lake City. Makani and his dad fished 3 days with us.

A happy fella! Doc Norm Harris from Santa Ana CA got his first roosterfish out of Las Arenas and the smile shows! The fish was released.

Frequent visitor and fisherman with Tailhunter is actor and TV show host, Rick Kasper. Rick always does well and knows how to pose with a fish also showing off two of his bull dorado while on the beach at Balandra.

One of the few bright spots from Las Arenas this week that wasn’t a roosterfish, Tom Radoumis from Wyoming with Captain Archangel holds up a quality bull dorado to start off his fishing week.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Check out Jim Talley’s release of a fat striped marlin with an assist from Captain Adolfo with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.  Jim was fishing south of Ceerralvo Island.

JUNE SLIDES OUT WITH BEST DORADO FISHING OF THE SEASON!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 24 to July 1, 2012

With temperatures up to the low 100’s this week the fishing hit the red as well!  We just had the best dorado fishing week of the season.  Waters finally warmed up, cleared up, and shaped up and the dorado came to chew!

The first two days of the week I was a little worried.  Winds came up and the nice dorado bite that started last week seemed to waiver.  Oh no, I thought.  Not again just as we were kicking it into gear!  So, those first day days we scratched for 2-4 dorado per day with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

Then, the winds died down…and the ocean blew up on us!

That area north of La Paz around Espiritu Santo Island and then towards the north end of Cerralvo Island and around Punta Mejia , Coyotes and Las Cruces erupted in limites of dorado each day.  Guys were getteing 10-20 hookups per panga; losing many and releasing many more!  The larger fish kicked in at 20-45 pounds each with captains telling me larger bulls were lost or just humiliated some anglers after long battles.  This is finally the kind of fishing we’ve been waiting for.

As well, marlin and sailfish kicked it up a notch as well with several being hooked and either lost or released each day plus we had one day around Cerralvo where the wahoo decided to join the party.

Our pangas out’ve Las Arenas, were still scratching for fish unfortunately, but there’s roosterfish up to 60 pounds to be had and there were two small jags of tuna out on the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island.  Not enough action to get too excited about yet, but we’ll keep an eye out for it!

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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One little flurry of fast-moving tuna looked promising but turned out to be a fluke and didn’t develop into much, but the fish were quality slugs like this one that Carlos has! But that was it…gone like ghosts!

Roosterfish were surely the highlight of the week either because that’s what everyone focused on or because that’s all that was biting. But for many folks, getting a rooster is a unique thrill and a much sought-after trophy fish like this beautiful fish held by Joe Jacobs caught near Espiritu Santo Island and released.

Some of the roosters we’re getting have been quality fish. The photo great, but we don’t have many photos mainly because most of the fish are released. They don’t taste very good either so lucky for them! Captain Archangel with our Tailhunter Fleet at Las Arenas hefts a nice one before letting the big fish swim off.

This is the satellite view from the http://www.terrafin.com. It shows the water temperature surface gradients around La Paz which could explain alot of things. Every week the water seems to change from warm to cold and back to warm then cold again. The fish might just be shocked. However check out the reading from June. 2. The green and blue colors are cold waters in the 70 degree range. The orange and redder colors are the warmer waters. A week ago, almost all the waters around La Paz were in the 80 degree range! Now, if you’re on a boat, the waters are cold and green.

ROOSTERFISH  MARLIN HIGHLIGHT OTHERWISE SLOW SLOW WEEK OF FISHING

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 27 to June 3, 2012

A tough scratchy week of fishing here.  None of us can get a “read” on this.  It’s maybe the most inconsistent season I have ever seen.  Water temps rise and fall by 10 degrees warm…cold…warm…cold.  Winds are dead then howl…then die again.  As I write this the palm trees are bending over from strong northwesterlies and it looks like the port captain will shut down the port.  This after a week of relatively calm waters.  The bait situation is fluid.  Our La Paz boats have bait, but the water temperatures are so varied that the fish are lockjawed.  Marlin and dorado ignore the baits and lures and we have to scratch out any kind of a bite.  On the Las Arenas side, our fleets have no sardines or they are very tiny. So, the guys have resorted to using frozen ballyhoo, or jigging up pilot fish or cocineros or liso (mullet).  It’s hard to chum if you don’t have sardines.  I’m recommending guys bring fresh frozen squid or mackerel right now.  Not the kind you buy at the bait store.  Fresh frozen is the kind you buy in the market that’s for human consumption.  It could make a big difference.

On the bright side of things…

The marlin finally seem to have woken up.  For weeks the marlin have been lethargicly sunning themselves on the surface.  No interested in anything.  Well, each day now, the marlin seem more active. We seem to get a hookup or two each day and sometimes more.  Credit to the anglers and captains for releasing all fish.  Most of the fish have been about 120 pound stripers although we had one that one of my captains estimated close to 200 pounds that busted the line during the fight.

Also, if you want a roosterfish…we got those running around.  Most days each of our Las Arenas boats is getting 1-4 of them up to about 40 pounds.  All on bait.  Really tough on the flyfishermen with no chum to speak of right now.  But using mullet and cocineros, the conventional fishermen are getting the roosters.  We’re also getting a few dorado now and then up to about 25 pounds, the occasional snapper or pargo as well as cabrilla.  But nothing to get too excited about.  Hope it turns around.

NEW TAILHUNTER WEBSITE IS LIVE

After 7 months, we’ve finally got the new website up and live.  Check it out  www.tailhunter-international.com

With increasing frequency, folks have been having problems with viewing the website as more folks use browswers other than Microsoft Explorer.  Many folks are increasing using Google and Yahoo browsers and we wanted to keep ahead of the curve to reduce future problems and bring you up-t0-date information.  Hope you find the new site enjoyable and informative.  Thanks to our master IT guru Bil Pulford for the great job and patience.

Have a great week!

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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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 Videoshttp://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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We don't catch alot of these during the prime-time part of the season, let alone the off-season during the winter, but these colorful hard-fighters are called palometa jacks and we've probably gotten more in the last 2 weeks than we've gotten in the last several seasons combined. Schools of the good-eating fish are congregating just offshore at the drop-offs near the reefs and beaches. Tim Zimmer got a handful just off the beach behind him of east Cerralvo Island.

It's a pretty simple formula. When the wind doesn't blow we're still able to get dorado even this late in the season. If the wind DOES blow, it gets pretty scratchy. Verdo Boyd fished with us a number of day over the past week-and-a-half and did a pretty good number on a variety of fish including dorado like this one. She was fishing with Captain Jorge.

Tim Zimmer fished with us a bunch of days since last week and shows off a pretty typical catch right now with a mix of sierra and the occasional dorado. He's posing here on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos near Las Arenas.

It's been a long and crazy year! However, we count our blessing each day and thank you for being a part of those blessings. Enjoy the holidays and may the new year bring you all things good and thank you for asking us to share in the smiles all these years! You're the best!

ONLY TWO STRONG DAYS OF WIND MAKE FOR SOME DECENT WINTER FISHING

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

The early part of the week was really quite nice fishing.  It was cloudy and overcast, but not cold and best of all…not windy!  Nice and flat.  And the fishing surprised us.  Good catches of dorado up to 20 pounds were hitting  just out of Bahia de Los Muertos as well as south side of Cerralvo Island.  One private boat of amigos went out to the 88 and said it was “unlimited” dorado fishing…”catch and release as fast as we could go full speed!”  All of this in winter!

As well, there were the bread-and-butter fish…sierra willing to go as well.  Our boats were averaging about 4-15 nice sierra with some up to 5 pounds and when a good school was found, the fish were voracious!  In addition to the sierra, we also found some surprising palometa schools which are members of the jack family…sort of like a greenish/yellow jack crevalle.  Great fighters and good eating as well!  A bit like pompano.  Some of the commercial guys out there were thick into the fish.

All of this was while the skies were grey and the winds were flat…

Then, about Thursday, the sun popped out and skies were brilliant.  And the winds came back up!  And fishing sort of tanked.  Bait got hard to find.  Fish scattered. Some scratchy sierra and dorado fishing.  Really picky bite.  And that was it…

Saturday, the winds died down again and the fish popped back up…it’s going to be a typical pattern during the winter.   But that’s what it’s like this time of year.  Everything is variable and you just have to roll with whatever is biting.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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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It’s a bit of a trek from Montana and S. Dakota for Cliff Garber, Colton Nye, Chris Voller, Ryan Baumgart who were on their first trip to La Paz. Two days of good fishing produced nice catches of dorado for the guys…typical of the action this week!

Scott McKenzie from Seattle already made one trip to see us in the spring and has another trip booked next month in September, but last week brought his sisters, Jana M. and Lauren Moser down on their first trip to La Paz. Jana just took the California Bar Exam last week. Lauren is still in law school and all had an excellent trip. (See Steve’s accounts below!)

Our good buddy, Wally Lee, from San Francisco visits us yearly and shows off one of the dorado he caught during his 3 days fishing. However, he caught over a dozen species oveall including cabrilla, yellow snapper, pompano, and several species of pargo.

Yellowfin tuna were again elusive this week, but they threw a few teases at us at the south end of Cerralvo Island like this pair that Captain Victor found. (thanks for the shot, Hawk!)

Here’s at you! Jeff Lee poses with Captain Jorge and a nice big pompano caught off the sand near the Las Arenas lighthouse. Great eats! The fish tend to school right where the sand slides off into deeper water.

You don’t get many of these in Montana! Chris Voller holds up a fresh mahi on the sand at Las Arenas. Both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets did well on dorado this past week.

There weren’t alot of trophy-sized dorado this week, but nice -grade fish such as this dorado shown with Jana Moser and Captain Victor were pretty typical and it wasn’t unusual to get limits or near limits daily of the hungry colorful fish!

LATE SUMMER DORADO STILL ON THE CHEW!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 14-21, 2011

Well, the full moon didn’t play games on us this time and Hurricane Greg went wide left so all-in-all, a good week of fishing, especially if you came to load up on dorado fillets!  For both our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets, dorado were 90% of the catch most days if that’s what you wanted to do.  The fish are fast, feisty, hungry and fun!  Pretty much all you want in a sportfish and since we had so many first timers with us this week, they were perfect gamefish during a pretty solid week.

 

Most of the fish weren’t big by any means, but 10-20 pound grade fish were the norm and more than enough for some anglers to handle, especially after a full-day of rod bending.  Theere were some larger 25-35 pound fish and some larger ones lost, but most were that medium-class mahi.  Some days, the schools were even smaller with lots of 5 pounders providing crazy action as it’s amazing what a voracious dorado will hit when it’s in full turbo but as one angler told me, “They were fun and we must have caught and released a dozen for every one we kept.  It was a blast!”  So, no shortage of action.

 

I think the surprising action was found by our anglers that decided to fish inshore.  During this time of year, most fisher-folk like fishing the blue water for the “glamour species” like the dorado, tuna, marlin, wahoo, etc. ”  The inshore stuff gets ignored but since almost no one is fishing inshore, it’s a great opportunity to find spots that haven’t been hit in a long time and likewise, find yourself the only boat working the area!  In the past week or two, I’ve had several of our anglers ask me to send them inshore and they’ve done great on some great eating fish like cabrilla, pargo, snapper, parrotfish, sheephead and ambjerjack as well as fun fish like pompano and their not-so-good-eating (but still great fighters) the jack crevalle and roosterfish!

 

Tuna and wahoo remained elusive at best.  This has to be the poorest wahoo season I can remember, but no telling what will happen the next few weeks which is traditionally our best time of the year for wahoo.  The tuna are the same way.  Every few days, they pop up and everyone gets excited…then they disappear.  We’ll keep an eye out for them for sure.  We should be coming up on prime time for our yellowfin.

 

There’s still alot of billfish in the water.  We hooked, lost, and released several this week.  Check out Scott McKenzie’s  great first-person account (photo above with his sisters)…

 

“… first day out of La Paz we had about 11 beautiful dorado up to 35lbs, plenty of double and triple hookups making for a frenzy of fun on the boat with (Captain) Boli!!

Second day, out of Las Arenas, we fished with (Captain) Victor the master. Right out of the gate a sailfish lost, with yard long dorado keeping us busy regularly, and a couple of marlin lost until late in the afternoon a bonito strip-bait fell prey to a marlin (about 60-70 lbs??), 4th time was the charm as we got a good hook set, and it was on our light tackle rod to boot!! 

A long fight ensued with everyone getting a chance at working this fish to the boat where it was admired and released! Second day- 7 nice dorado to 25-30 lbs, 1 marlin caught n released, 2 marlin lost, 1 sailfish lost….. doesn’t get any bettter than that!!

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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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