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Posts Tagged ‘baja mexico’

Dennis Fuji from Sacramento brought his group of 14 to visit us this week. Although the tuna were sometimes hit-or-miss, the gang did get into some nice fish on two days plus some great dorado fishing. Here's Dennis with 3 of the guys standing on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. The fish were found near the S. end of Cerralvo Island.

Characteristic of late fall fishing, many of the dorado were sizeable bulls between 30 and 40 pounds! Eric McClanahan had a banner day off the charts with a day full of bulls like this fishing north of La Paz with his son (see other photos below).

I gotta hand it to these guys (L-R) Mike Cutchin, Bob McPhee, Dan McPhee, Josh Charleton from Napa CA went out on one of the roughest days we've had in awhile. Some of the guys got more than a big queasy, but they hung in there. Caught some fish. Came back to shore to get their sea-legs and went right back out to fish s'more! They're showing off their yellowfin tuna here!

Our good friend, Jeff Sakuda, has come down more times than he and I can count. Sometimes he comes down 3 times a year and always does well...except this past week. Just one of those things. The tuna were elusive, but Jeff still got into some nice snapper, pargo and cabrilla to take home. More reef fish are showing up in the counts as we transition towards winter fishing and cooler waters.

Most of us tend to think the big pargo are only around in the cooler waters of the spring, but there's some resident fish hanging out in the reefs like this one caught by Rich McClanahan and his dad Eric near Cerralvo Island. The nice thing about it is that this time of year, virtually NO ONE if fishing for them!

Dave Combes and Mel Uchida pose with some of their yellowfin tuna taken late in the week with us. The bite was often early and furious then tapered as the winds and sealion made things difficult. So...early to the bite!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Just click the link! 

Tailhunter International Fishing Clips from Week of Oct. 22-30, 2011

TUNA PLAY GAMES AS DO THE WINDS BUT DORADO AND OTHER SPECIES HELP OUT!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 22-30, 2011


It was a bit of an up-and-down week around La Paz waters. Clearly things are changing as water temperatures, water conditions, winds and currents all seem to reflect that the seasons are in transition.  One day, the tuna bite at Las Arenas would be hot, but the next day, it would go completely down the tubes.  The next day, the dorado bite for our La Paz boats would be on fire and the next day, the guys would have to scratch for fish to fill the fish boxes.

 

Most of the tuna were nice grade.  They were 25-35 pounders.  The dorado were ranging in size from smaller schoolers of 10 pounds, but some really nice fish in the 30-40 pound class were taken every day. 

 

But things are changing…no doubt…

 

…it was clear that things are changing by the varieties of species that were caught.  Along with dorado and tuna, there were marlin and sailfish hooked; roosterfish that were still prowling the shallows; pargo starting to bite again; plus sierra inshore in the cooler waters and more cabrilla (seabass ) in the counts as well. 

 

Mostly, things were great.  If anglers were spending two or three days with us, they went home with a nice load of fish.  If they had one bad day, they usually made up for it on the other days.  I imagine if the winds pick up consistently, the warm water species will soon be replaced by more inshore varieties.

 

One thing…it’s really pleasant in town right now. Air temps about 75-85 degrees most days, but the mornings can be chilly (by our standards!). If you’re going fishing, bring a light windbreaker or sweatshirt that you can always take off later when it warms up!

 

 

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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As the seasons start to change, it was another good week for roosterfish along our beaches with some nice trophys making the report. Jerry Wansack came all the way from S. Carolina and fished an entire week with us and his buddy, Luke Britz. They planned the trip for 3 years and really wanted a rooster. Well, they got tuna and dorado and other species, but they didn't get roosters until their last day when persistence paid off and they got a handful of nice fish including this one taken off Punta Perico near Las Arenas. All the roosters were released.

Yes, the tuna are still biting off the south end of Cerralvo Island across from Las Arenas. Our pangas are averaging about 1-4 fish per day mixed in among all the big bonito and it can be an arm-tiring day as shown by Victor from El Monte CA who has to lean up against the panga with his duo of tuna.

Larry Wayne looks on as his amigo, Bob Sklar, holds up his yellowfin tuna. Both are from Orange Co. CA and Bob had a banner trip getting his first tuna and marlin (see below).

As shown in the photo above, Bob Sklar from Orange Co. CA got his first tuna ever fishing with us but also got his first marlin as well. In fact, he got TWO marlin...and BRAVO to him...HE RELEASED BOTH OF THEM! He took this photo just before letting the 2nd one go. It was caught off Punta Arenas. Well done, Roberto!

Like I said, a pretty nice week for roosters! Double hookup with Captain Archangel from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and Luke Britz from S. Carolina who caught these not far from shore in shallow water. Both fish were released.

I don't often post-up photos of the pesky feisty bonito that rampage through our waters bending rods and tearing up anglers. But take a look at this huge bonito that Mimi Wayne caught! Compare that to the tuna photos in this week's report! Is that a slug bonito or what? Pound-for-pound, bonito fight alot harder than their more popular cousins the yellowfin tuna!

As the weather and waters start to get cooler, I'm not sure how much longer the dorado will be around, but for the time-being, we're still pulling them in...mostly with our pangas fishing north of La Paz around Espiritu Santo Island. However, John Mc Lucas and Bill Lee took time of from a week of light tackle fishing on pargo, cabrilla, and roosters to put a couple of dorado fillets in the box.

SEASONS CHANGING BRINGS A VARIETY OF SPECIES!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 16-23, 2011

You can tell the seasons are finally changing!  Not only has the heat and humidity been exchanged for pleasant tropical sunshine and off-shore breezes but the variety of fish we’re taking give every indication that we’re turning the corner on the season.

 

The tuna bite off S. Cerralvo we’ve had the last few weeks is still there with some nice 20-45 pound fish and our pangas averaging maybe 1-4 fish per boat/day.  Our Las Arenas fleet is still finding the best results with drifted chunking dead sardines in the area about 2 miles off the island.  In the same areas, it’s not been unusual to also get a hook up on dorado, sailfish or marlin or other species cruising through the area and having no hesitation just slurping up all the dead sardines in the areas…some of which just happen to have a hook…attached to a line…attached to a rod…in the hands of one of our anglers trying to catch a tuna!

 

For our La Paz fleet, the dorado are still the main event as well.  Western Cerralvo Island continues to be the target area.

 

It’s a pretty simple formula for the most part.  Fish with our Las Arenas fleet if you want tuna.  Fish with our La Paz fleet if you want to target dorado.

 

However, I mentioned things changing…

 

In addition to the tuna, dorado, marlin and sailfish, if you look at our fish reports, we had a great week on roosterfish as well as pargo, cabrilla and good numbers of sierra are now showing up in La Paz Bay and inshore where it’s obvious that the waters must be cooling down if the sierra are around.  Lots of fun on light tackle plus great eating!  We’ll probably see more of all these species as things change. 

 

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 was a pretty good week for long drawn out battles and bent rods! Rod Brown, our Alaska amigo, and popular Captain Jorge who can only watch as the minutes start to pile up!

Typical of this week's tuna, Sed Roldan and Bob Dominguez of Hacienda Hts. CA heft up a few of their yellowfin tuna taken just south of Cerralvo Island. Most days the boats averaged 1-4 of these fish per day, but the fish were a nice-grade 25-45 pound fish that often took close to an hour to put aboard, especially since the fish preferred light line!

John McVay from Valencia CA finds his way to us each year for about 5 days of hardcore fishing. Hard to argue with a first day of 8 fat tuna. Maybe one of the best days that any of our amigos have had all year with the yelllowfin. About day 3, John actually hurt his elbow on these slugger fish and had to beg off his last day to get some therapy on his arm! John's a good angler. These fish can be pretty brutal.

The last thing a sardine sees before it goes into the pie hole of a big tuna! All the way from S. Caroline, Luke strikes a pose with his yellowfin at Muertos Bay.

Most of you reading this report will see this photo and the next and say..."What in the world is THAT?" In 16 years down here, I've rarely gotten to see a photo of one myself, but these are the much sought-after fish called the SNOOK! (ROBALO). Highly treasured gamefish and great eating, they're normally found around structure or in pilings or shallow water or in the channels, of bays or in the mangroves. They are supposedly great eating and can get up to 40 or 50 pounds. In all my years here, only a handful have been caught. Rod Brown and his brother Jeff (photo below) were fishing the island with Captain Joel and they said, all of a sudden, the school of snook came up and tore into them!

Jeff Brown from Minnesota, joined his brother, Rod (photo above) and Captain Joel and show off more of the snook they caught at the island. A remarkable catch. The fish only stayed around for a short while, but you can see how close to shore they were fishing.

We keep getting asked if there are roosterfish still around. Hmmmm...you think? That's Punta Perico in the back. Thanks for our buddy, Roger Thompson, for the shot of Larry Rose from Long Beach with this bad boy that they released. We actually got some nicer grade roosters at the end of the week in the 30-60 pound class.

Oh yea...this one too! Mike Wythe and Captain Hugo with another beast. (released).

Lest you think we're not catching dorado, actually yes...we're getting good numbers of dorado with our La Paz fleet. Dorado have been our bread-and-butter fish. Pretty reliable if you want to have some fun and want some fillets for the cooler! Also, for those who wonder if I still got game and get out on the water...yes I do! This is me and my dad who visited us this week.

Cute couple of the week and also first-timers with us...Lance and Kim Miles from Utah had some good days of fishing with us!

Childhood friends who now live in 3 different states, Jonathan Duc Le, Matt Trinh and Hau Pham from Texas, Colorado and New Mexico try to get together at least once a year. This year they picked us to visit and got into some good doardo and tuna fishing.

Randy Sharon and I went to law school together and it's always great to see him. Captain Armando helps out with this thick fat yellowfin tuna.

It's a long way from S. Carolina to Baja and Jerry Wansack planned the trip for 3 years to make it down...and then made it worth his while by fishing the whole week getting tuna, dorado and roosterfish for his efforts.

WEEKLY FISHING VIDEO CLIPS!

Got some GREAT stuff this week including underwater shots of tuna and dorado.  It’s a bit longer than normal, but turn up the sound and check this out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEq_4b1gydI

FULL MOON KINDER TO US THIS TIME…FISH CHEW NICELY!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 9-16, 2011

It wasn’t too bad of a week of fishing, alll things considered. (Full moon…high tides…some winds left over from the hurricane!)  We were surely a bit nervous as the week kicked off. 

 

First, we were surely watching the full moon which was big as all get-out.  Normally, the full moon is no biggie, but this year, I don’t know what it is.  The full moon has really played games with our fishing. 

 

Second, we were glued to our web pages and weather channels following 4 different storms to the south of us (including Hurricane Jova that ended up dumping alot of water on Puerta Vallarta)  that had our phones ringing and our e-mails buzzing.  “Should we cancel our trip?”

 

Fortunately the storms failed to materialize except for one day of strong winds that stumped the fishing and the full moon didn’t yank our chain too hard…and the fish bit!

 

The tuna bite off Las Arenas was hardly over-the-top, but it was a decent week for fish in the 25-45 pound shot.  These were thick muscular stubborn growling fish.  Most folks had a shot at 1 or 2 and that was pretty much it.  No mas!  Either the bite shut off or folks were done and wanted to fish for something a little more forgiving.  I mean, most of these fish were close to an hour to put on the boat!  That’s a long time for most people.  The bite was off the south end of Cerralvo Island.  Some days it started really early.  As soon as baits were put in the water…WHAM!  Hook up! 

 

Other times, the bonito went crazy until about 11 or so then the tuna moved in.  The one hitch in everything was the sardine situation.  The sardines are smaller than your little finger.  They  are so small you can’t put them on a hook without impaling them and killing them so we’re fishing them dead.  Just chunking and drifting big handfuls in the water and making the tuna come up for them. Except for one day when we literally got only 1 bonito per boat/day, most days it’s been 1-5 yellowfin tuna per boat/day with our Las Arenas fleet.

 

With our La Paz fleet, well, the dorado were off just a tad, but overall, still pretty reliable fishing for dorado in the 10-20 pound class with occasional 30 pounders in the box.  Sometimes we’d hit a big school and it would be crazy as every rod goes off. Other times, it was a pick bite with 1 here…1 there…and at the end of the day, there would be a box of dorado on the boat.  You could never tell.  Our hot spots moved from Las Cruces off Cerralvo Island to the waters west of Espirito Santo Island. 

 

With other species we had a nice batch of sailfish and marlin hook ups this week.  No one was really fishing for them, but the billfish came up and bit.  Most of the fish were lost or released, but made for some good unexpected fun.  Also, good bites of pargo , cabrilla and roosterfish, some larger ones late in the week,  in the shallows.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

 

 

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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Team Owner Hooks showed up to fish our tuna bite this week. Popular fishing personality, Dennis Yamamoto of Owner Hooks (middle) brought all the guys down for 3 days and got into fish between 25-45 pounds fishing with our Tailhunter Las Fleet. We had a great time with them. From left to right: Maurice Nakagawa; Ken Imoto; Gerry Koyama; Randy Kanemaki; Dennis Yamamoto; Miles Nakahara; Clark Saito; Dennis Fong...thanks guys!

Our buddy, Dan McCormick, from Oregon escaped the OR rain this week and shows off the type of quality tuna we got off Las Arenas. Dan got 5 of these slugs this day.

Lots of our veteran anglers, many with lots of tuna experience, were telling us that "These tuna were fighting like fish alot bigger!" Jeff Brown (Minnesota) , Captain Jorge, and Rod Brown (Alaska), our amigos who visit us twice a year, fished an entire week with us and spent anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or more on each hookup with yellowfin. We had some clients spent over 2 hours on their fish and lots of anglers commented that for some reason, these fish fought like tuna much much larger. It also didn't help that the fish preferred light tackle so 20-30 pound line got bit the most.

Just so you don't think we only caught tuna this week, Rich Miles from Utah justifiably shows off the beast of a bull dorado he caught north of La Paz with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. We didn't catch as many dorado this week as in the past, but the quality seemed to make up for the loss of quantity with bigger and better fish like this beast.

Like I said, these fish were "beasts in battle." Check out our great friends, Jorge Romero and Bob Duncan from Santa Barbara. Look closely at Bob's mouth. He's holding the tip of his custom rod that got snapped off while fighting a tuna.

Roger Van Steenkiste is 84-years-old often comes to visit us in La Paz twice a year and usually outfishes and out-lasts all of his younger sons and friends. Here, he's showing off some dorado with our other amigo, Jerell Mulhollan from New Jersey.

Grandpa and grandson, Jeremy and Jim Reeves at Las Arenas with Jeremy's first tuna. No word on if Grandpa Jim made him eat the heart!

Our San Diego connection for the week, amigo Jock Argust, put this nice slug yellowfin tuna in the box. The bite was really strange this week. One day there would be 1-2 fish per boat. The next day the fish would come up boiling and produce 4-6 fish per boat.

VIDEO HIGHTLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK

Got some good stuff this week.  Check out the images and video clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjzVB-7Sw6g

SCRAPPY TUNA AT LAS ARENAS PICKY BUT HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 2-9, 2011

It’s a bit difficult to characterize the week.  If you’re looking at sheer numbers, it wasn’t a very good week of fishing.  I mean, 1-5 fish per panga/day doesn’t sound like much.  And it’s not.  You’d be right. Even the dorado, which had been our bread-and-butter fish, weren’t exactly cooperative.

 

However, the other side of the coin is that the fish we DID catch…they were generally bruisers! And one or two fish could fill a cooler.

 

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, the tuna were anemic and picky but no doubt they were there.  Early in the week it started with 25-30 pound fish.  By the end of the week it was 30-45 pound fish with some 50’s, 60’s and even and estimated 140 pounder on the beach!  The fish were selective and generally only hitting light tackle in the 20-40 pound lines so that meant long drawn out battles of 45, 60, 90 or even (in two cases)…almost 3 hours on fish.  That’s a butt-kicker in the hot Baja sun.

 

So, when you look at the numbers, and that it takes that long to get a fish to the boat, not many fish show up in the counts.  Also, take into effect that you could fight a fish for an hour or so…and then BOING…YOU LOSE IT!  There goes an hour of fishing time.  GONE!  The school might be gone by then.  You don’t get many shots.  So, it’s a gamblers odds on putting fish in the panga.  If you put 3, 4, or 5 of these sluggers in the boat, you’re both good AND lucky!

 

Some notes, often the tuna bite has been late in the day.  Some days the fish are all over the waters and you can see them running under the boat.  And they won’t eat a single bait.  Also, the baits are incredibly small.  I’ve never seen baits this small. I’m not kidding.  Some of these baits are about 2-3 inches long!!!  So, if you’re coming down, you want small strong hooks.  We had  Dennis Yamamoto and the Team from Owner hooks with us and all of them are experienced tuna fishermen and they were using flyline Owner hooks and 20-30 pound lines and even they lost some fish but still took home full coolers. 

 

“These fish just seemed to fight larger than fish their size! I couldn’t believe it!” said one of our guys from Oregon

 

“After 3 days of fishing, not a single fish took less than an hour!” said another.  “And these fish were mostly 25-35 pounds, but fought like 50 pounders.  I do San Diego long range and have fished Baja before ,but these fish seemed like they were juiced or something!”

 

For some of our anglers, 1 or 2 of these beast tuna was enough for the day. “We decided to go fish for roosterfish after those first fish,” said one of our fishermen.  “I really wanted to experience catching a tuna and now I know.  Those things pull alot harder than salmon or halibut!”

 

Anyway, it was the same with many of our dorado as well. Fewer fish this week again.  Normally, we’ve been catching limits or near limits for the entire summer.  However, the last two weeks it’ dwindled to 2-6 dorado per boat.  However, again, it’s quality over quantity.  We’re seeing larger and stronger bulls in the mix.  A number of fish were in the 25-30 pound class and 40 pounders were caught every day with one fish estimated at over 50 pounds taken as well.

 

Not sure what the next week will bring.  It seems every week is a surprise. 

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

 

               

 

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.”

Read Full Post »

Although the main focus has been on the tuna and dorado bite, roosterfish are still around and are a great trophy catch. Trudy wanted one of these and got it just off the Las Arenas lighthouse which is a world-reknowned "roosterfish alley." The pretty fish took a live sardine and was quickly released after the photo.

Our Sacramento amigo, Wade Gomes, comes to visit us yearly and shows off one of the nicer dorado we've been getting with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. The bite was a little stickier this week than normal, but schools of dorado are definitely around and the bite got better as the week went on.

Shane Grove from Utah gets a special mention. Y'know some guys will wear our Tailhunter t-shirt. Some sport our Tailhunter stickers. Take a look at the inset photo. Shane went and got our Tailhunter logo tatooed on his shoulder! This so rocks! Thanks, Fish Brother. Oh...nice dorado too!

Our yellowfin tuna at Las Arenas were better than last week when we had the full moon, but still not exactly wide open on the bite. Our pangas averaged 1-5 tuna per boat and the bite was late in the day. Fish went 20-30 pounds on the average like the nice trio of tuna caught by our buddy, Leif Dover, who came ovef from Hong Kong where he works. This was his 2nd trip to see us in two months! He's an animal fisherman!

Over the last few weeks, the ladies have really been doing well. Marsha Barnett, on her first trip to La Paz, spent 3 days catching dorado like these. She's holding this one after her first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet.

Another of our lady anglers who had a banner week, Kathy Terbu, from Utah pulled this nice bull out of the waters west of Espiritu Santo Island. The bite for our La Paz fleet was a little off but dorado got hungier as the week went on.

Johnny Terbu had a banner week of fishing and snorkeling with us and all the while kept his flyrod handy just-in-case. On his last day, the dorado boiled up all around the boat and he was able to get in some casts hooking up on dorado like this one in the channel between Cerralvo Island and Las Cruces. Here's what John said: " Awesome trip! Best day we had was 13 Dorado! Done by 12:00 noon. Also, got the 1 tuna I wanted. Even got one onthe fly rod! 12 wt. isn't big enough. Go big or stay home.Can't wait til next trip. Thanks so much for a wonderful trip and condo!"

POST – FULL MOON BITE IMPROVES WITH BETTER DORADO AND TUNA FISHING

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 2009

It wasn’t the best of weeks for fishing, but it was certainly better than the week before when we had the full moon playing games with us.  It was still scratchy fishing but the fish were more cooperative to a degree.  But, we still had to work hard for them.  Things were compounded by the fact that many days the bite was late in the day.  So, sometimes guys would get out to the spot and sit there…and sit there…and sit there…and work the area with their captain.

 

There’s only so much patience.  And, in some cases, they’d get the captains to leave the spot and go hunt for roosterfish or cabrilla or some other species.  Those boats that stuck around would suddenly get rewards with biters of tuna or dorado.  It’s just a matter of knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em.  Of course, being fish…sometimes sitting at one spot didn’t do much good either and the guys who pulled off found some action.

 

Anyway, for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, tuna were the center stage again.  Fish were a bit larger this week.  Most fish were in the  20-25 pound class, which is a real bull for alot of folks, but there were others in the 30-40 pound class and some larger that anglers never saw and busted off.   If you count up 1-5 tuna per boat/day then add in a few dorado and about 20 bonito and the occasional roosterfish, it’s an arm-tiring day especially in some cases where all the pandemonimium doesn’t even start until late in the day!

 

For our La Paz fleet, well, the dorado continue to be good to us and honestly, the mahi are our bread-and-butter-fish.  All summer we could count on them to bend the rods and fill the ice chests.  This week, they were a little more reluctant.  Not so crazy, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in quality.  Quite a few fish were in that nice grade 30-40 to pound size!  So, one or two fish could stuff a fish box very easily and it wasn’t unusual to see big tails sticking out of the fix boxes because the whole fish wouldn’t fit with the lids on.

 

Knock on wood, we did dodge hurricane Hillary that kept our attention most of the week and had us answering phone calls and e-mails from clients wondering if they should still come down.  I don’t want to spit in the face of the weather-gods but Hillary fizzled and we didn’t even get any strong winds or storms.  We were pretty happy about that, needless to say.  We still have to keep an eye on the weather as we wind down the season, but it’s clear that fall is coming.  Shadows are longer.  It’s a tad cooler.  A bit breezier.  We hope the fish keep biting.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

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:
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“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

 

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 was finally a week where the dorado decided to join the party and just-in-time for Chad Schearer's TV show "Shoot Straight" and his family to show up with the cameras. http://www.shootstraightTV.com Chad is the TV host of the program and usually travels the world with either a bow or muzzle-load rifle, but is quite a celebrity with the flyrod as well. He filmed all week with us and one of his sponsors is Cabela's Outdoor Stores. They wanted him to test out their new 6-piece travel flyrod that looked so thin and light a trout would've broken the 10 wt stick! Chad's intent was to get a big roosterfish on it, but when a big dorado charged through, it was GAME ON! Chad battled this monster 40-pound rooster on the light flygear for 1 hour and 45 minutes! He had never gotten a dorado before and this was a personal best...and all in front of the cameras!

Wahoooo! We finally got one to the boat. For weeks, I've been saying the conditions are right and Roger Thompson finally nailed one on a rapala at the north end of Cerralvo Island. He said te day was going slow (note the tuna boat in the back!) but he usually comes through and this 60 pound class speedster topped the day!

It was a stellar week for roosters for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets with fish up to 80 pounds. Sheldon "Doc" Schearer is a minister and sherrif's officer from Montana and this 60 pound rooster was a personal best. It ate a live sardine in about 10 feet of water near the Las Arenas lighthouse and took 1/2 an hour to battle. The fish was released. In fact, they caught 6 that day and all but one fish were put back in the water.

Tailhunter's own Jilly Roldan got into the nice dorado bite late this week posing with San Diego's Joe Jacobs in the blue waters of Balandra Bay north of La Paz. They also got roosterfish and small yellowtail, but ran into a spot of dorado that blew up on them and they lost count of the fish with double and triple hookups!

Tihs is the first week that dorado bit consistently. Not surprisingly, the waters edged over 80 degrees too and the winds calmed down. hmmmm...funny how that works! But the week started slowly, but by mid-week the counts were going up with mostly smaller fish in the 5-10 pound category, but as the week went on, there were more 20-40 pound fish in the counts and hardly anything prettier than a lit up mahi on the hook like this one taken off Espiritu Santo Island this week.

Even last season we didn't see many bull dorado over 20 pounds, but this week we had some fish in the 30, 40 and one that may well have been over 50 pounds! Jill got this one on the NE corner of Espiritu Santo Island just off the drop-off on live bait. Captain Joel holds it up for the photo! The waters are holding various spots of fish but they're scattered in all the usual places with many holding under building schools of sargasso weeds floating on the surface!

Even tho' waters kicked into "summer mode," there were still some "cooler water" fish around like this decent yellowtail held by Lisa Chandler of La Mesa CA. We actually took a few of these YT's this week.

Even when the fish weren't biting it seemed there were often schools of dolphin blasting through...wherever dolphin go! It was not unusual to see half the fleet suddenly stop what they were doing to follow the schools! This one was between Cerralvo and Espiritu Santo Island.

For alot of our clients and friends this week, it was their first time tangling with roosterfish and underlines why La Paz waters are called the "roosterfish capital of the world." Joe Jacobs from San Diego took this nice one in Pilot's Cove north of La Paz and released it.

The roosters were biting for BOTH our Tailhunter La Paz and Tailhunter Las Arenas fleets. Captain Jorge with our Las Arenas fleet helps Marsha Schearer pose with this slug rooster caught in shallow water just outside Bahia de Los Muertos.

SLOW START TO WEEK CRANKS UP WITH DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH!

Las Arenas/ La Paz Fishing Report for Week of May 22-29, 2011

Amazing what a difference a week can make.  Take away a
full moon; strong winds; green water; and inconsistent water
temperatures…little things like that…and WHAM…THE FISH BITE!  In
fact, water temps hit 80+ for the first time this year and it was a 180 degree
turn from the strange fishing last week.  In fact, it was a pretty decent
week of fishing!

It didn’t start out like that!  At the beginning, it was scratch fishing at
best.  I was pretty worried.  But…the conditions changed!

Hey, for the first time, dorado bit consistently with nice
patches of sargasso weed building up in the surrounding channels and while many
of the fish were firecracker punks in the 5-10 pound class, there were still
some nicer fish running in the 20-40 pound class (and even one or two that sure looked like 50-pound-class dorado)  that really got folks
excited.  In fact, we had Chad Schearer, nationally known host of the
outdoor TV show “Shoot Straight” filming the entire week  (www.shootstraightTV.com)  with us and
Chad, who had never flyfished Baja before and came to tie on a big roosterfish,
instead  threw a pattern at boiling bonito and a huge 40-pound class
dorado bit his 10wt rod and it was “fish on!”  And epic battle
lasted almost 2 hours as the fish bulldogged down on the light line but finally
Chad got the fish to the boat and was almost speechless in front of the
cameras!

As well, we got into some incredible roosterfish
action.  Some stops with both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets resulted in
double and triple roosterfish hookups.  Fish ranged from 10 to as large as
80-pounds this week with some incredible battles on light tackle, flyrods and
spinning gear when anglers fishing for smaller “fun” fish instead got
blown up on larger world-class roosters that almost brought some anglers to
their knees on the smaller gear.

Overall, just a great week with additional species that
included some big cabrilla, jack crevalle, barred pargo, striped marlin (hooked
and lost and released); sailfish (hooked and lost and released), pompano,
bonito, barracuda and even some very very late yellowtail in the 10-15 pound
class.  We even got a huge 9-foot mako
shark that ate a small dorado hooked by one of our amigos.  They got it to the boat and wisely decided to
cut it loose!

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 like they were just waiting and feeling ignored. The last few weeks everyone was so excited about the tuna and dorado fishing that no one went to chase the wahoo. Then, about 2 weeks ago, a few of our guys took a shot and scored big time. Since then, we're getting daily hits at both the north and south end of Cerralvo Island with fish between 20 and 50 pounds coming up on dark Rapalas and other trolled wahoo rigs. Paul Nagata had a spectacular week with tuna, dorado, pargo, roosterfish and his first wahoo shown here.

Al Cutler from Whitter CA holds up his "new best friend" a big yellowfin tuna cradled in his arm. Great shot! They had some of the "best tuna fishing ever" over three days fishing with our two fleets. The tuna varying in sizes from 5 pound peanuts to fish over 100 pounds continue to roll through our area.

Steve Uretsky and Moise Hendeles from Los Angeles made a last-minute spur-of-the-moment trip to see us and show off their first day catch of tuna and dorado at Las Arenas.

Dave Rose powered all the way down in his truck driving from Denver in two days to get in a some fishing with us when he heard the tuna were biting and was rewarded with some great yellowfin action including this thick YFT taken near the Arenas lighthouse on chunks of squid.

Just a great shot. Young Alex Kruse came fishing for the first time and got out with his family including dad, Tim. Alex struggles to lift one of his dorado he caught fishing north of La Paz with dad and in two days, "I caught all the fish!" he says.

Surprising for this time of year but big pargo have been ripping up tackle and anglers. Normally, we get most of our pargo fishing in during the spring time months, but cooler-than-normal water temps have kept fish like this pargo liso held by Randy Lyons and Captain Pancho as well as yellowtail and cabrilla on the feed in shallow waters.

Pargo and yellowtail in August? You bet! Not very typical, but John Pastorello holds up the proof.

Headed for the sashime plate! Fresh one for Paul Nagata from San Francisco holding one of several nice tuna he took during the week. This one filled up the cooler all by itself. Chunks of fresh giant squid continues to be the hot bait.

Jack Garcia almost canceled his trip when he got a new job back in San Bernardin CA, but was able to put it off as this would be his first trip to La Paz. It paid off. He shows off a nice bull dorado with fresh colors.

Oh-oh...it's that time of year again. It's feeling tropical with occasional showers now and then. Dark ominous clouds looking north off Las Arenas Beach towards Cerralvo Island. While our boats were out, a quick little storm hit that forced all the fleets to pull their boats back to the beach. We figured the storm would pass. All the other fleets called it a day and left the beach. We kept our folks waiting in the vans. In an hour the sun came back out blazing and we shoved off again to find the fishing grounds completely deserted...except for us! We blew up the fish that day! The tuna came hungry and often! Some of the anglers spent the downtime shore fishing or swimming in the warm downpour.

ANGLERS BEND RODS ON TUNA NOW SHOWING UP FOR BOTH LAS ARENAS AND TAILHUNTER FLEETS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 15-22, 2010

Other than a ripping little thundershower one day that chased everyone off the water for about an hour (and then we all went right back out to catch fish), we had some great catches and another solid week of fishing.  Again, waters are cooler than normal for the season so it’s providing us with an incredible variety of fish. 

Our normal warm water species are around such as dorado, billfish, wahoo,  roosters and tuna, but it’s also providing some outstanding and surprising catches of amberjack, pargo, cabrilla and even yellowtail. 

Tuna continue to be centerstage for most of our Las Arenas anglers who are seeing some of the best tuna fishing we’ve had all year and maybe in a long time.  Smaller football-class tuna from 10-25 pounds are close to shore near the lighthouse and south towards Muertos Bay in waters that are incredibly shallow.  As one angler said, “It was crazy.  I got hit by a 40 pound fish and instead of going down like a normal tuna, the thing zinged off about 100 yards of line straight out.  Then I realized we were only in about 20 feet of water!  I could see the bottom.  The tuna had nowhere to go!”

Indeed limits or near limits of the football tuna were available most days.  But the big boys are still around and providing the most drama.

Again, we don’t have much in the way of live sardines, but we’re catching and also buying chunks of live squid and chumming the waters  The tuna are coming to feed and when some of them show up, it’s even scaring some of the anglers.

“We were at the south end of Cerralvo Island on the high spot and were tired of fishing for the smaller tuna close to shore,” said one of our anglers.  “We started tossing chunks of squid into the current and suddenly there were swirls that were half-the-size of the panga!  Then big splashes and the back of a yellowfin about 150 pounds came right up next to the boat and inhaled a piece of squid.  You could look down and see fish that looked even bigger! Out-of-the water, backs of big tuna were rising with that big sickle yellowfin sticking out.  We’re not stupid.  I knew we were not up to fish like that. We went back to look for dorado!” 

Quite a number of anglers tangled with the larger models with battles lasting 1, 2, and even 3 hours and most of the fish breaking the lines and hearts! Most of the fish actually making it to the beach were the 50-80 pound fish. 

“We fought one fish for 3 hours and passed the rod between 4 anglers and two different pangas.  The 60 pound line just snapped!”  One disappointed fisherman said. That was their whole day and they came back with only 2 small dorado for the day.

Dorado have been evening out the catches.  However, not many big mahi.  A “large” dorado right now would only be about 20 pounds.  I don’t know where the big bull are, but there’s plenty of 10-15 pounders running around right now in various spots.  They are also eating squid and chunks of bonito.

For our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, dorado have been 90 percent of the catch.  The fish are holding in various places but the bite has normally been later in the morning or early afternoon so fishermen need to be a bit patient.  If you can find a big patch of floating weeds all the better.  Something to keep an eye on  is that in the channel later in the week, 20 pound-class yellowfin tuna showed up which was a nice topper for a day of dorado fishing. 

Other species we’re watching:

Yellowtail – every other day someone hooks a hog…20-40 pound fish only about 30-40 feet down near the reefs. 

Roosterfish – big beasts can be seen prowling the sandy beaches.  Several large fish were hooked and lost this week.  One captain estimated one fish at about 80 pounds hooked in about 5 feet of water

Wahoo – No one had been fishing for them until about a week or so ago because everyone was concentrating on tuna.  Then at both the north and south end of Cerralvo Island, trolled lures started hooking wahoo between 20 and 50 pounds.  One angler hooked 4 and two came unbuttoned, but the fish have definitely been there.  Dark trolling sub-surface lures are best that run deep.

That’s our story. Have a great week!

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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On and off throughout the week, flurries of 40-60 pound tuna showed up for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet which made things pretty exciting. Some bigger fish were hooked and lost too. Fish were just off the rocks at Punta Perrico and eating live bait as well as chunked squid. Dr. Desmond Sjaufoekloy from Orange Co. California plugged the boat two straight days with 8 nice fish as well as dorado and marlin!

Several big pargo were caught this week. Ray Laney, Sr. was a little upset when his son, Ray, Jr. got the first marlin of the trip, but dad more than made up for it with this huge dog tooth cubera snapper (pargo perro) he got off the rocks with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

Washington resident Ed Van der Veer fished with Captain Pancho and got one of the nicer female dorado which came on strong this week. Ed was fishing live bait and light tackle which made it even more fun on the panga.

Like I mentioned above, it was a week with some especially good-looking pargo on the beach. Our good amigo, Mark Martis, always seems to do well. Although fishing wasn't particularly good on this particular day, Mark still nailed this trophy pargo liso (mullet snapper ) fishing with our Captain Archangel.

Two great looking dorado fully lit! Ray Laney, Jr. and Ray, Sr. hold up a pair that they got fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet where dorado have been the mainstay of the catch with more of the larger fish finally starting to show up.

I don't usually post up marlin photos here in the fishing report, but I just had to pop this photo of one of our best amigos, Dave Berthold, holding his first marlin. Dave comes all the way from New Jersey ever single year. He gets the prize for determination plus being a helluva good guy. He has come 12 straight years in a row sometimes fishing every single day just to catch one single marlin! He has done things like promise the captain as much as 500 tip and one year even brought down a new XBox 360 plus games as part of the bonus for the captain if he could just catch one single marlin. Well, this year, he finally got his marlin fishing with Captain Chito and donated the fish.

Yes! The big squid are back! Plus this is just a great morning shot too! The squid are not here every day, but when they are, the tuna are lurking nearby as well. The squid are as big as 60 pounders and are mean and voracious! We are using chunks of the squid for the larger tuna.

Coral and Brad spent a week with us all the way from Durango, Colorado and fished a day with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet and Captain Chito. Holding up 4 of their dorado inside Balandra Bay they had a nice day. If you look at the bottom of the photo you'll se a big tail. Coral spent 90 minutes on a striped marlin as well!

This could be a pending world-record 70-pound wahoo shot by 14-year-old freediver Lucca Perretti on his very first dive...ever! More below. (FREEDIVING...no tanks...hold your breath like a fish!)

Not bad for 14 years old! Possible world record shot right-off-the-bat! See the story below!

TUNA AND DORADO HIGHLIGHT ANOTHER CRAZY WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 11-18, 2010

A mixed week of fishing here…again!  Still having trouble getting a handle on the fishing conditions here as wind blow one day, but not the next.  Waters are blue one day, but green the next.  Tuna pop up one day then disappear the next. Dorado go crazy one day then the next day it’s giant squid that pop up!  One day we can find sardines for bait and the next day they are hiding or have to use squid or caballitos.  Never two identical days in a row!   It’s a three-wing circus!

The good thing is that most of our clients are fishing several days and the fact that we have both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets allows us to adjust where our clients fish as dictated by the weather, fishing conditions, bait, and what’s biting. 

For our Las Arenas anglers the up and down appearance of yellowfin tuna has been the most exciting part of the week.  The fish aren’t there everyday, but it seems that when the giant squid are around, so are the tuna.  But even with the tuna, their appearance is as erratic as their size.  One day, it’s all 5-10 pound footballs.  The next day, it seems like they gulped steroids and they’re 40-100 pound monsters that beat up everyone!  The 40-50 pounders are manageable…maybe 10-30 minute fights.  The larger fish…well, no one has landed any of the 100 pounders yet.  Once the battle goes towards and hour-or-more, it seems that the battle leans more in favor of the fish as the anglers and the gear wear down in the hot sun.  One mistake and it’s zingpowie…bye bye tuna!
Fortunately, for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets, other species like dorado, marlin and pargo, cabrilla and roosterfish fill in the gaps most days.  The dorado are the most prolific and finally we’re at least seeing some larger fish in the 20-40 pound class.  Slow trolling or drifting live sardines, caballitos or strips of fresh bonito are key. 

If you’re coming down, bring big squid jigs just-in-case the squid are here.  They are 20-80 pound beasts!  Also bring an assortment of live bait hooks to accommodate the different types of bait that might be used.

 FIRST PERSON STORY FROM A 14-YEAR-OLD SPEARFISHERMAN WITH PENDING WORLD RECORD!

Lucca Perretti from Los Angeles is 14 years old and the son of champion diver John Peretti (and former cage fighter).  He came down here on his first free-diving trip.  On his very first day…very first shot…he nails a 70 pound wahoo that may well be a new age-group world record!   Here’s his story below.  Keep in mind that in Mexico, spearfishers are NOT allowed to use tanks!  This is all freediving…you bring only what you can carry in a single breath of air!  Check this out:

“Right after the La Paz Blue Water Invitational Championships, my father, John, Dennis Haussler, three time national Spearfishing champion and I went diving on the north end of Cerralvo. I was using a prototype Sea Sniper, 2 bander. We were flashing and got into the wahoo, my father shot and lost one after being pulled around, and then landed a 60 pounder, Dennis shot and landed a 70 pounder with ease. 

Dennis beckoned me into the water, we threw flashers for 5 minutes. 

With Dennis on my left and my father on my right, a big wahoo inspected my flasher, at the time I did not realize the size of it. I lined up on him and he turned out to my right, as he was swimming away I shot and let him have it. I knew I could not horse him, so I let the buoys go and my father and I chased them. We swam for what seemed like half a mile, it took us 10 minutes to finally reach them, Dennis was already there. We were all very concerned as to whether the shot would hold, Dennis swam down to 100 feet to take a peek. I used my shark clip to bow and arrow the fish up. 30 feet from the surface, the wahoo started to rip out and we did not want to lose it because it was my first, so Dennis swam down and second shot it. I was a 70 pounder, skinnier than Dennis’ but mine was 8 inches longer. I was told that most spearos wait a lifetime to shoot a wahoo like this, I am so grateful.”

VOLARIS AIRLINES SURPRISE LA PAZ AIRLINE TICKET SALE!

 

We just found out of a big sale that Volaris Airlines is having.  Round trip to La Paz from Tijuana is only about $120 bucks!   They will pick you up in San Diego and bring you right to their terminal.  Lots of our clients have been using this brand new airlines for the last two years and service has been great. 

Check out their website:  http://www.volaris.com.mx/  or write to us directly.  My e-mail is riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com 

You MUST purchase tickets by July 20 and travel must be between Sept. 1 and Dec. 12th.

That’s our story! Have a great week.

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.”

Read Full Post »

Yellowfin tuna popped up for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet with some fish in the 60-200 pound class that really chewed up anglers and spit them out, but some nice "football" sized fish in the 10-30 pound class like this one held by our amigo, Jorge Romero and assisted by Capt. Jaibo, did show up in flashes throughout the week.

Looks like big roosterfish season is here. We're not seeing so many smaller fish anymore. Most of the roosters we got this week were like this hog of a fish caught and released by BARBARA KENTSLER from Utah (Sorry for the mistake Barbara and thanks Aubrey for catching my error!) with Capt. Jorge near Las Arenas.

There are still a surprising number of pargo around. Check out the flat seas behind Randy Forestiere holding this nice pargo liso just off Muertos Bay.

I wish our friend, Rich Sawaske, and Capt. Adolfo had looked up into the camera, but they have their eyes riveted on this beautiful dorado Rich got on a live sardine just off Punta Arenas. Check out the flat ocean. They were only a few hundred yards offshore.

The water is still cold enough that we're still getting sierra which are normally cold water fish. Captain Romero holds a big one! Great eating fish.

MARLIN TUNA DORADO WAKE UP TO START SUMMER!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 26- to July 4, 2010

It was all going along really well.  Then the winds came up again…at least for our La Paz fleet.  It was like April all over again as the week came to a close, but before that, fishing had been really great. 

For the better part of the week both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets have been doing really well.  I mean, when was the last time someone said, “There are too many marlin!” 

However, that’s what I heard more than once this past week, especially for our anglers fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.  Over the last two weeks, all those lazy striped marlin and sailfish that have been sunning themselves on the surface waiting for the waters to warm finally woke up and came to the party.  It’s about time!

Here’s some of the comments from the week:

“We had 8 marlin just swimming ’round and ’round the panga!”

“Those pesky marlin were as thick and dumb as dorado and I don’t want to catch marlin. I want to catch dorado, but the marlin chased the dorado away!”

“We hooked and released 5 marlin before 10 a.m. and then got the heck out’ve there so we could try to catch something like pargo to put in the ice chest!”

“I’ve never had a triple marlin hookup on a panga before and we were only about 200 yards from the shore!”

Fortunately, most of the marlin are getting broken off or released, and it’s especially great to see so many first timers letting their fish go…especially the youngsters tying into their first billfish. 

However, in addition to the billfish, we got quite a variety of other species, especially around the south end of Cerralvo Island and Las Arenas.  More and larger dorado showed up although there’s still quite a few dinks, but we saw some fish caught in the 20-25 pound category.  As well, we’re not seeing as many roosterfish, but some really hefty big boys were caught and released up to about the 60-70 pound category as well as pargo and cabrilla.

More exciting than that, however, was that some large squid popped up south of Arenas and usually when that happens there’s tuna that come up out’ve the deep trench. Sure enough, we got into some 20-60 pound fish and several larger tuna in the 100+ pound category were hooked and lost after long long battles.  There were even some fish estimated at 200 pounds that literally gobbled up anglers and spit them out.

 There weren’t alot of tuna, but enough to get everyone excited and to see some of the larger fish pop up as well really jacked up the interest.  Only problem was that many anglers were outgunned or not experienced enough to tackle these bigger gorilla tuna or, in some cases, I heard of at least 2 anglers simply cutting themselves off when they realized what they were tied onto!

 If you can, imagine holding a 200 pound weight over the side of a 50-story building in a strong wind and you’re attached to that weight with a little tiny piece of string and a rod and reel!   How many hours can you hold that?

FIRST PERSON!

Dave Gora and his family from Dana Pt. CA were down this week and Dave does some incredible video clips!  He put this together for us from fishing two days with our Las Arenas fleet and Captain Victor. One of the best video clips I’ve ever seen down here.  Great underwater footage too!  Thanks, Dave!  Click this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkkqUUb4wws

Will keep an eye out. Have a great 4th of July holiday! 

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

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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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