Nice way to start out a trip! All the way from North Carolina, Mike Sontag, visits us each year, but had an incredible week fishing with us starting right off the bat with several of these huge bull dorado that were all in the 40-50 pound class outside of Cerralvo Island.
Rex Smith has been an amigo of Tailhunters for years and has caught pretty much everything in our waters, but wahoo always eluded him until this past week when he put the wood to this nice ‘hoo off the south end of Cerralvo Island in the background. Rex is from Arizona.
Hard to find someone more fun than Alison Nagatani. It was a little rough out of Las Arenas their first day fishing but she was still got this nice bull dorado…her largest ever. Shortly after this, she accidentally fell in the water and came up laughing. She got her first billfish this week as well.
First-timer from Washington State, Colleen Russ, had a great week of fishing with big dorado and quite a few billfish like this one posed with Captain Victor from the Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. This one could not be revived and was donated. Colleen was just hoping to catch “one big fish” during the week!
From Delano CA, John Wessner was game. Even fishing with a recovering broken wrist, he did great on big dorado and billfish this week. He’s shown here with one he got north of La Paz fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
For weeks we’ve seen signs of big tuna off Cerralvo Island although hooking them has been difficult. David Vicino from Cancun MX, didn’t wait for the to come up…he went down and speared this big 180 pound yellowfin! Thanks to Tim Hatler, our amigo at Palapas Ventana for the photo. Yes…the beasts are there! For those of you not familiar with spearfishing in our waters, all of it is done by freediving…no tanks allowed. All breath-holding in whatever you can carry in your lungs!
On a well-deserved break from the Air Force, Pat Russ will be heading to officer’s candidate school when he gets back to Washington but he came down for 10 days of fishing and diving and poses with another colorful bull dorado and big grins!
Jess Escobedo from Los Angeles had never been salt-water fishing. He had never even taken a vacation in his whole life. So, it was great to have him visit Tailhunter this past week here in La Paz where he got his first dorado and billfish like this one caught near Espirito Santo Island. Check the video clip below of Jess fighting his first marlin!
Clarence Foster and his big hat pose with Allen Burgess and one of their big bulls on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. Both of our amigos are from Kansas and spent a week fishing with us.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
From our amigo, Charles Belnavis, who owns Kelp Fishing Clothing and Shogun Tatoo in Pasadena CA (he’s the best of the best for inking all of us up in the fishing industry!) http://shoguntattoo.com/
He shared this fun clip of himsel and Jess Escobedo (pictured above) getting lit up by a nice billfish! At one point, there’s a double hook-up going! Turn up the sound! This is some fun video and not very long!
BIG DORADO BILLFISH
TUNA HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-21, 2013
The week had some highs and lows, but overall, many more high spots than low spots with a solid week of fishing. We even had a little rain come in on us, but it was mostly just a little bump in the overall bite.
Again, it was a big of big fish mostly. It’s been like that the last few weeks. It’s almost like all the fish ate steroids or something. The dorado, especially for our Las Arenas fleet tended to be 30 pound line busters or bigger. It was not unusual to see fish on the beach that bottomed out our 50-pound scale! That fills up an ice chest really fast with a fillet from even a single fish. I had one panga go out and on it’s first day get 6 fish that were all around 50 pounds and they still had 3 more days to fish!
But, the size of some of these fish has been quite a story. However, the showing of billfish has also been remarkable. I’ve not seen this many marlin in our waters in many years. As one of our anglers this week said, “I had 4…5…6 billfish swimming around the boat all the time when I’m trying to catch dorado. It was really funny because we would move the boat away and they would either swim after us or would show up again! They were like pigeons waiting to be fed. My first day, I caught and released three and that was enough!”
Most of the billfish, whether marlin or sailfish, fortunately are being released by the anglers so that’s been very gratifying. Other times, the anglers go through great effort trying to revive tired fish and it’s only the rare billfish that’s being kept. Mostly because there was no other option.
However, one fish that is NOT getting released is the wahoo. Like the marlin, the wahoo bite has been far better than we have ever seen in years. The wahoo are mostly lurking on the usual high spots around Cerralvo Island and trolling early with big lures has been the most effective. The biggest hinderance can sometimes be that there’s far too much traffic out there with boats zig zagging all over the spots. But…ni modo…that’s just the way it is when the bite is hot…especially for wahoo! So, the earlier you get to the spots the better the chances!
Also, we got into several nice spots of yellowfin tuna again this week. Like last week, they popped up for a few days and went crazy then moved off, but we had spots of tuna pop up for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets which was a real welcome surprise. Nothing big, but fun 10-20 pound footballs are a hoot good time. We saw some bigger 100+ pound guys moving through the areas real fast as well, but no one could get on them, but we know they are there!
Our biggest problem has been the lack of sardines for bait. We’re going through one of those times again when sardines are hard to get. But, at least for us, we’re able to jig up larger baits like mackerel, cocineros, caballitos, zebra fish, mullet and ladyfish! That might also have something to do with why we’re getting mostly big fish! It takes a big fish to eat a big bait!
If you’re coming down, a few tips…
1. If you’re bringing stuff, this is one of the few times when I’d recommend bringing a few feathers. All you need are two. A dark one and a light-colored one Also, if the tuna are around, the plain wooden cedar plugs have been deadly and the bonito tend to leave them alone.
2. Bring a sabiki or lucky Joe rig with about a 4 oz torpedo sinker
3. I wouldn’t be out there fishing with anything less than 40 pound test, although, if you’re a light tackle fan like many of our anglers, at least use 40 pound test leader or higher
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com
Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine CA 91903-1149
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/
Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate
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