La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay / Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 8-15, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE La Paz Fishing Report
WEEK at a GLANCE
Weather – Sunny and super with highs mid-80’s, but cool enough for a light sweatshirt in the mornings and evenings
Wind – CURSED! Storm in the U.S. = winds in Baja. They were back again. Maybe only 2 days this week not windy. One day winds were gusting 20-25 knots and the port captain shut everything down in La Paz. No boats in or out . Fortunately, we have our Las Arenas fleet and our folks were able to fish, but it was still a difficult effort.
Water – Warming, but with the winds, there were strong currents and big rollers at time. Even crashing surf here in La Paz Bay which is highly unusual. On the days the wind was not blowing the waters were really turned up and cloudy from the winds.
Fishing – Dictated by the winds. Better fishing on days when it was less windy. Hard to get bait also when it’s windy.
Catching – Nice variety. Some tuna, dorado, yellowtail, several species of pargo and snapper, cabrilla and some hefty white bonito.
LAST MINUTE FLASH – Just as we were going to post this report and too late to make changes, we had a great dorado bite take off. Go figure! Will have more in next week’s report.
THE BIG PICTURE
Not sure how much longer there will be yellowtail in the water with waters getting warmer, but this forktail didn’t know that and got hammered by Chuck Toeniskoetter.
Chuck Toeniskoetter and son, Adam, from Los Gatos CA try to come down to La Paz at least once a year to fish and did relatively well despite tough conditions while fishing, once again, with the Tailhunter Fleet. This one day rack of fish shows an incredible variety including yellowfin tuna, a big yellowtail, a nice cabrilla, white bonito, pargo mulatto and a red snapper.
Captain Victor with a big cabrilla and some great reef fish including pargo liso, barred pargo and huachinango.
You remember the thrill? Big bonito for 12-year-old Nick Genovese with Captain Armando. He also had a big tuna on for awhile.
Sweet yellowfin tuna for Adam Toeniskoetter.
Couldn’t be any nicer folks! Steve Friemark with a handful of tasty white bonito and Captain Jorge on the beach at Muertos.
Just when we thought it might be mellowing out, those winds came back and hit us again this week. In fact, one day the northerns were so bad, there were surfable breakers in our normally calm La Paz Bay and the port captain closed the port for any boats leaving. As one person described it, it’s like winter all over the Northern hemisphere being like an angry boyfriend or girlfriend who stomps out’ve the room then comes back and says, “And One More Thing!!!” Blah blah blah…
Basically, as long as storms keep showing up in the U.S., it’s going to affect things in Baja and the Sea of Cortez!
So, it wasn’t the greatest week for fishing.
There was some variety, but not much for quantity although some days there was some great action on some pig bonito. Not only good fighters, but these are “white bonito.” (Bonito Diente). They have teeth, but also have some incredible great white meat for table fare. Most folks would not be able to tell it from tuna.
In addition, we did have some 15-30 pound yellowfin tuna show up around Cerralvo Island and some larger that were lost after long battles. But, the issue is getting across the channel to the island. If there’s wind and rollers happening then getting across to the island (and to get sardines) is pretty futile.
But, inshore offered alternatives like several species of pargo including pargo mulatto (barred pargo); pargo liso (mullett snapper); cubera snapper (pargo perro/ dog-tooth snapper) as well as red and yellow snapper (huachinango). We also got some action off cabrilla (seabass) and some decent triggerfish and jack crevalle.
Honestly, however, not the best fishing and kudos to our anglers who hung in there and grinned through it all the kept smiling. But, one reason, not many folks are fishing this early in the season.
BUT WAIT…Just as I was posting this up but too late to make changes, we had dorado go off in La Paz Bay! Go figure . I’ll have more on that in the next report!
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay/ Mag Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 1-8, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
WEEK at A GLANCE
Water – Warming and better and flatter this past week. Coming week maybe not so much.
Weather – Mid 80’s now. Bring the sunscreen. Breezy at times, especially the afternoons
Fishing – Much better . Alot of vareity as warm water fish move in and mix with colder water fish
Catching – Lost alot of larger fish!
THE BIG PICTURE
Whoa! Just off the rocks, Jeff Brown and his son, Cole, were with Captain Joel Martinez from the Tailhunter Fleet in La Paz catching smaller snapper, pargo and cabrilla when this big grouper gulped Jeff’s live bait in shallow water and they were able to winch it away from the rocks! Jeff and Cole are from Minnesota and come down every year to La Paz for sunshine and fishing!
Steve and son, Ben Fox from Huntington Beach were visting La Paz for the first time and got into some of those Cerralvo Island yellowfin tuna their first day on live bait.
Good amigo from Wrangell, Alaska, Rod Brown comes down every year for about 10 days of fishing and got a variety of fish again this year. He took yellowtail, snapper, pargo, cabrilla, jacks, tuna and bonito among others while fishing north around Espirito Santo Island.
First-timer with a big smile, Cole Brown, and a real colorful dorado among several he caught fishing with our La Paz fleet.
Love how he fishes! Light tackle and top-water jigs! Miles Wagner from Colorado Springs with one of his nice dorado fishing out’ve Muertos Bay/ Las Arenas.
This kind of fishing is a hoot! Like tackle right up in the rocks for cabrilla, snapper and pargo. All great eating and these are tough fish on light or heavier tackle. Larger fish all lost in the rocks! Cole and dad, Jeff Brown, with Captain Joel.
Anyone who asks me about getting bluewater fish and not believing that the fish can be caught close to shore, take a look at the rocks just behind Jeff and Cole Brown holding a legit yellowfin tuna. Yup…just a few yards off the island!
OVERALL…
Looks like the weather is clearing up just in time for the season to kick off with alot more of our fishermen now arriving in La Paz. There’s still some wind on tap for this coming week and indeed we had some this past week, but overall, a big improvement in not only the weather, but the fishing, catching, and variety! Each week seems to get a little better as things warm up! It’s all about the winds. If the winds are gone, there’s fish starting to bite.
All signs are encouraging as just to the south of us along the East Cape, things are already starting to go off with the fishing so those conditions are moving north towards us!
LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY/ SUENOS BAY
It’s not crazy good…yet! But the fishing is more like May fishing with lots of different variety in the water. Inshore, pargo liso (mullet snapper), pargo per (dog-tooth snapper) and pargo mulatto (barred pargo) are biting along with several types of snapper, jack crevalle, bonito and cabrilla.
In the deeper water but not far off, dorado are around between 5 and 20 pounds although not in great numbers plus yellowtail up to 25 pounds. Plus we found some tuna over at nearby Cerralvo Island although, again, not in great numbers. Some wahoo were seen, but didn’t bite and commercial guys said billfish look like they’re moving into the area.
LA PAZ
For the first time all year, we had some consistent fishing for our La Paz Fleet. Normally, with the winds blowing in from the north, it’s just often too rough to even get out’ve the bay or, when you get to the spots, it’s hard to fish the areas.
However, with some pretty good post-Easter conditions, I was blown away by the variety of species that ended up on the hook! We didn’t find quantity of fish, but the variety was remarkable especially for inshore species. This included several species of pargo, snapper, cabrilla, grouper, jacks and bonito. As well, we hooked some yellowtail up to about 20 pounds and even got a tuna about 50 yards from the rocks!
BAHIA MAGDALENA
Ben Fox from Huntington Beach CA shows off a nice snook he caught light tackle fishing inside the shallow waters of Bahia Magdalena with Tailhunter Sportfishing. He and his dad caught snook, snapper, pargo, cabrilla and other species using live shrimp and spinning gear.
He’s our guy! Jorge Romero with a nice snook (robabo) taken just outside the treeline in the flats off Bahia Magdalena using live shrimp.
That’s quite a box of pargo and snapper!
Almost all the fish was donated to the local church to clean and distribute.
Some video of the kind of fishing they were doing
We had anglers fishing our inshore waters with light tackle again and they scored great. Using live shrimp for bait, they rocked snook, cabrilla, corvina and several kinds of snapper working in the shallow waters and in the eddys and backbays and sandbars among the trees.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay and Mag Bay Report for Week of March 25-April 1, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT for the WEEK
PAST WEEK AT A GLANCE
Water – Not bad. Getting warmer. Still stronger currents than we’d like
Temps – Mid 80’s day time. Pleasant nights. Still really windy about 1/2 the days
Fishing – I’d give it a 4 on a scale of 10, but 4 is better than it’s been. Alot of variety and good fish signs
Catching– I’d give it a 4 also. Could be alot better. And I think it will get better as things get warmer and water and wind settles down more and more.
What Got Caught – Dorado, yellowtail, jack crevalle, bonito, yellow snapper, red snapper, pargo liso, pargo perro, barred bargo, triggerfish, bonito,, cabrilla, palometa, pompano, corbina
THE REST OF THE STORY
Our amigo for many years, Mitch Chavira has been fishing La Paz almost as long as we’ve been there. He knows his stuff and knows his way around throwing iron too. He jigged up this toad cabrilla off Espirito Santo Island.
Gary and Miles Wagner from Colorado Springs, Colorado fished inside the mangroves of Bahia Magdalena on a day Gary said, “The winds outside were blowing 40K!” and did great on the corvina and palometa on light tackle!
Two of the best fishermen, Mitch and Charlie “Stix” McGee from San Diego working just inside of La Paz Bay put the wood to some of those nice dorado that have shown up.
All the way from Germany, Claude Demith got himself some great eating variety…dorado…dog tooth snapper (cubera)…big triggerfish…and cabrilla!
Dan Miyake with Captain Pancho and a nice Muertos Bay yellowtail. Waters are warming so not sure how long we’ll see these YT’s around.
The right kind! Mitch looking good with one of those tough forkies. Yellowtail out’ve La Paz.
Guys from Colorado always know how to pose creatively with fish! Gary Wagner again with a palometa from Mag Bay!
Just in time for Spring Break / Semana Santa and Easter, the winds kinda gave us a bit of a break this week. There were still some really windy days, but at least there were some windows of opportunity. Definitely, more folks in town for vacation. More fishermen on the water and for sure…the beaches are just jammed.
Normally, our beaches are pretty empty, but during Semana Santa, it looks like Woodstock! Makes you wonder where everyone is the rest of the time? I mean, on some beaches, there’s not a square inch of empty space and in Mexico, the beaches are public so you can pretty much camp and picnic anywhere and anytime. Afterwards, it makes for quite a clean-up as you might imagine. At least, it’s once a year and everyone is having a good time.
Anyway, for fishing, the fish are there! If the windows of opportunity are open and the waters are fishable, the bite is there to be had! It’s far from wide-open, but fishing is alot better than might be expected with alot of variety possible.
LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY
It’s evident that the waters are changing. We have quite a bit of transition going on with both warm and cold water fish occupying the same water space! I’m surprised that this early in the year, we have some dorado, tuna and billfish around. Normally, we don’t see those until maybe a month or more from now. Not alot of these species, but any day holds its possibilities.
Likewise, there are still cold water species around as well. Cabrilla, snapper and Sierra were caught this week as well as several species of pargo (dog-tooth/ cubera snapper and barred pargo). Plus, add in the usual jack crevalle and lots of bonito on top of things and, you’re not quite sure what’s gonna bite.
Every day is not good. Every boat is not catching fish. I want to be honest about it. But there’s fish there and the signs are encouraging. It was one of the better weeks in awhile. We’re using a combination of live bait, dead bait, jigs and Rapalas for the days.
LA PAZ
With the wind having backed down a bit this past week…with no guarantees of next week…we had some boats finally able to get out. Again, just like at Muertos/ Las Arenas, there was a combination of cold and surprisingly warm water fish. A few yellowtail and pargo around but maybe we’re not going to see much of a yellowtail season this year because the waters are getting warm quick as evidenced by a few tuna popping up plus there seems to be dorado right in La Paz Bay! We don’t usually see mahi mahi in the bay until much later in the year. The ones we’re seeing now are legit 10-20 pound fish! Plus, there’s sardines around too. All good signs!
GASTRONIMICA LA PAZ 2018 – MAY 4
The 2018 La Paz Gastronomica Food Festival will be held May 4 once again on the beach in La Paz. If you’ve never been to it the massively fun food festival draws thousand of visitors and over 100 restaurants, hotels and culinary schools from La Paz as well as Todos Santos and Cabo San Lucas.
For one ticket price, you get to eat and sample all kinds of great regional Mexican foods…all you can eat…shrimps, clams, oysters, roasted pig, all types of tacos, moles, Italian food, Chinese, Thai, desserts ,baked goods…everyone has a booth. And so do the wine, tequila and beer distributors as well so it’s all the tequila, wine an cerveza you can handle as well.
Great music, bands and entertainment and it goes well past midnight and just an incredible event. Each year, Tailhunter Restaurant also has a booth among the “seafood row” vendors! Last year, we had our famous Hawaiian poke!
Tailhunters is putting together event packages with hotel, festival tickets, plus the usual great activities of fishing, diving, snorkeling and more! If you’re already booked with us during these dates and want to attend the event, we’ll be selling tickets. Contact me directly at: Jonathan@tailhunter.com
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
La Paz- Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of March 18-25, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT for WEEK of March 18-25, 2018
THE REST OF THE STORY…
Jorge Romero with one of the rare quality fish picked up the whole week and has a nice yellowtail in hand he caught with sardines. He also said there were quite a few bonito, but overall no one was getting too much of anything, Nice shirt!
There were few bright spots for fishing this past week as it was mostly a windy, cloudy rough time. It’s fairly common during the winter months which is why we don’t have many folks fishing during these months. We had one or two days at most that were somewhat fishable and even then, it was picky fishing at best. Some snapper…some pargo…a few cabrilla…and a few yellowtail were about it. Oh, and alot of bonito for some grateful action. And that was the whole enchilada for the week. Fortunately, not many anglers. However, with spring break and Easter on it’s way, things are going to start getting crowded and we can only hope the weather and winds drop back a notch or two. Early predictions so far look a bit iffy. Just being honest.
TAILHUNTER 2018 ROAD TOUR COMES TO AN END!
After almost 4 months on the road and a journey that started back in December and took us through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, California, Washington and Oregon…we come to the end of the road.
Jilly wrapped things up a the Fred Hall Show in San Diego. I was out in the Phoenix, Arizona area with the International Sportsmans Expo. Both shows were super and good to see so many Tailhunter tribe members and new amigos!
Its been another epic road tour after 23 years and we are so grateful to everyone who took the time to come see us all of the hunting and fishing shows. It was great and we appreciate all the smiles and hospitality. God bless you all!
To those of you who signed up to come visit us this year fishing in La Paz, let’s get going! We’re gonna have a great season and we’re looking forward to seeing you down with us. We have to unpack the van and the cat and then saddle up and get home to La Paz right after Easter. So, we’ll see you down there! Thanks again.
Mexican Minute Fishing Report for Week of March 11-18, 2018
WINDS CUT US SOME SLACK FINALLY
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of March 11-18, 2018
A mess of great eating for Carl Bock from Puyallup Washington with Captain Pancho and some nice cabrilla and pargo lisa (mullet snapper) taken off the reefs and rocks. Typical winter fishing!
Chunky winter yellowtail for Greg Garrison of San Diego that he took off the north end of Cerralvo Island this week. Thanks for the photo, Gary!
We’d like to see a few more of these as the waters get warmer. Steve Strummell from the bay area of San Francisco poses with his bull dorado.
A hog trophy cabrilla off the north end of Cerralvo Island caught by Gary Garrison of San Diego. Thanks Gary Wagner for the photo.
Second day on the water proved a nice mix of warm and cold water fish for Carl Bock who poses with his cabrilla and dorado
Well, the good news is that after 3 weeks, the winds settled down a bit and allowed us to get to do a bit of fishing. The bad news is that well…there weren’t many fishermen. Fairly typical for this time of year. Further bad news is that the winds are supposed to jump back up this coming week!
Oh well, you just roll with it because that’s how it is during the winter months. For all the lack of fishermen right now, with Easter coming up April 1, those are the busiest times for travel to Mexico and especially places like Baja and particularly La Paz where we are. Not necessarily gringos looking to party and kick it up during spring break, but for Holy Week and the dates around Easter, these are the busiest travel times for Mexicans. Moreso than Christmas or any other time of the year, Mexicans visit and travel outside the country, but also many Mexicans living in the U.S. and other places take the time to visit their friends and relatives back home. Likewise, domestically many locals travel to visit during this time. What that means is that many otherwise “empty” beaches are going to be packed with folks camping and picnicking all week. Many will be fishing too so expect that in about 2-3 weeks, it’s going to be jammed.
Anyway, on the days we could fish, we got out and got an interesting mix. Coldwater species like snapper, cabrilla, pargo, jack crevasse and yellowtail mixed it up with warm water species like dorado and even a few tuna and lots of bonito. The better action and most consistent bite was in shallow waters over structure for the colder water species using Rapalas, live bait and dead bait. We found fish close and around Punta Perrico and also at the north and south ends of Cerralvo Island.
TAILHUNTER DOWN THE HOME STRETCH
After almost 3 1/2 months on the road with our 23rd year kicking off, we have just two more shows to do before going home. We just finished up the ISE Show in Sandy, UT, just south of Salt Lake City and a big “GRACIAS!” to everyone who came by to say hello and to those of you who booked with us, we’re sure looking forward to your visit!
So now…Jilly and I go in different directions again.
Jilly will be headed to the Fred Hall Fishing & Boating Show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego CA. Click the link:
These are our last two shows of the season then we’ll be headed home to La Paz. We’ve got alot of you reserved this year, but still have some spots open! Get in touch with us ASAP so we make sure we have you covered and you get in on this 2018 season! If you can make it to Del Mar or Scottsdale, Jilly and I will be in the booth every day and it would be great to see you!
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
Fish were hard to come by this past week, let alone BIG fish! But Shawn Parker knocked in this big bull dorado fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Great colors!
Big-headed bull dorado for Tony Perkins who gets a photo op hand from Captain Boli with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Check out the flat waters. Cerralvo Island in the distance.
Geri Cammack loves to fish and she always does well and I have so many photos of her laughing. But not on this one for some reason even tho’ she has a big dorado on the gaff! Geri is from Idaho and was visiting us with amigo, Al Sandstrom. (And they love eating their fish at Tailhunters Restaurant)
I love goof-ball candid shots. One of the best of the season is Captain Rogelio “Jolly Roger” Camacho who had the best week of any of our captains with stellar fishing 5 straight days with Leif Dover, our Atlanta GA amigo who visits us twice a year and shows off another big bull dorado.
One of the funnest guys, but always takes serious fishing photos, Walt Topping from the Santa Ynez Valley got into the report with a nice bull while fishing with Captain Boli and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Johnny Gilbertson hung tough all week even during difficult fishing and kept at it hard! He did get this bull dorado just off Punta Arenas one of his days fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.
CONDITIONS GOOD BUT FISH PLAY HARD-TO-GET! TOUGH WEEK OF FISHING…
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 24-31, 2014
It was a strange and not very good week on alot of levels here. It was hard to put a finger on it. Dare I say, it might have been the toughest week of fishing of the year…and maybe in many years of being down here! It was just STINKY for lack of a better word.
Early in the week, it seemed we had threats of rainstorms just about every day. Some days it would actually rain pretty hard for awhile. Other days, we got nothing but clouds. But, it surely kept us on alert and trying to figure if it would be better for our fishing clients to fish out’ve La Paz or Las Arenas.
Mostly, just to be on the safe side, we kept folks fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Dorado were more-or-less ready, willing and able and everyone was hooking fish. Not alot of big ones, but fun sized 10-20 pounders with occasional 25-30 pounders plus some billfish.
When we did fish Las Arenas, there were rooster fish and enough 10 pound dorado to at least keep it interesting.
Later in the week, it seemed that the weather pretty much cleared up. We were pretty excited after watching clouds for so many days!
The conditions looked awesome. Sunny skies…dark moon…blue water…decent bait (at least more than we had before)…good currents…warm water…but WAIT!
NO FISH!
I don’t know what happened, but the latter part of the week it was almost like a dead ocean. Not only did the dorado go lock-jaw on us, but so did the bonito and even needlefish got scarce!
Many of our ace captains who NEVER get shut out were coming back with nothing or only 1 or 2 fish. Maybe one day that can happen, but 2, 3, 4 days in a row?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many days go dead on us. At least not that many consecutive days.
Hopefully, but the time you’re reading this, things will have turned on again! Any day now! But we have to keep an eye out…MORE RAIN IS PREDICTED THIS WEEK! NO HURRICANES BUT THUNDERSHOWERS PREDICTED!
Thanks to all the amigos who fished this week and kept the smiles. You’re all champs! Even when the fish weren’t biting, you kept at it and were all great sports!
This is the “OH NO” moment when your reel is screeching…your arms are aching…your rod is bent when you see the big monster 45-pound dorado and you realize you only have 30-pound equipment! Becky Csutoras took this great shot of her dad’s fish as it made that big jump. Yes, he did get the fish. See the tired angler below…he fought it for 45 minutes!
Don White always does well. He was just off Punta Perico with Captain Pancho when he tied into this baby blue marlin. Happily released! Check out the video below of the unceremonious, but successful release. The marlin was not complaining. Congrats to our amigo, Don, who visits from Oregeon each year!
Becky Csutoras, is normally travellng all over the country as an accountant, but she takes some time each year to get in some fishing with us at Tailhunters. She has to be one of the happiest fisher people we ever see. Every day is a “GREAT DAY!” Check our this fine dorado she caught off Las Arenas! She did well all week!
Start ’em young! Six-year-old Roman, gets a hand from his grandma, Kelly Jimenez, with a nice bull dorado standing on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. “Romo” had himself a great time all week helping grandma and grandpa to fish!
John Russell told me, “They fight harder than salmon!” He used to be a salmon fishing guide. Visiting us from Milpitas CA, he put the hurt on this colorful big bull dorado fishing near Espirito Santo Island north of La Paz. Great colors…big fish!
My old classmate from law school, Skip Coomber in the center with friends and family got out for a day even during the ugly cloudy weather and got a few dorado. Skips daughter, Amelia, in the gray t-shirt is with her girlfriends Haleigh and Isabella…all 3 girls on a last hurrah before staring their respective college careers in several weeks!
She never fails to get big fish! Oregon in the house, Debbie White in flat water with another big dorado on her scoreboard! Punta Arenas in the background. Each year, Debbie makes us the best homemade moonshine “Apple Pie” for our Oregon show.
John Gothie had just a few days to spend with us, but made the most of it with a nice wahoo plus some fun dorado while fishing with Captain Adolfo and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
Another youngster headed to college for the first time…Brian Russell will be headed to Arizona State in just a few weeks, but got his first striped marlin here with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
TROPICAL STORM DROPS SOME RAIN AND DAMPENS FISHING
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 30-July 6, 2014
Rain cells moving through the area and bringing a mix of some thundershowers, drizzle, wave surge and winds marred some of the fishing. Fortunately, it wasn’t a hurricane, but just some tropical storms. In most cases, the rain didn’t get anyone wet until the afternoons when the fishermen were already back and it really cooled things off, but it did rob sunshine from vacationers looking for more sunshine than we got this week.
It was very tropical. It could rain for 5 minutes or two hours. It could rain on one spot but then 200 yards away, it would be bone dry. An hour later, it would change again. Or not rain at all until the next day.
Again, the most cooperative species were the dorado. Both our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet had some good results that differed from day-to-day and boat-to-boat.
LAS ARENAS
At Las Arenas, there was again, no shortage of little firecracker 3-10 pound dorado. Some days, all you wanted. There were some billfish hooked and we did get a few wahoo and pargo. The big roosterfish are still around, but most of the focus has been on the bluewater species.
The week started OK, but then the skies would darken and each day, the winds and waters got a little rougher as we got the tail end of the storm and the periphery of the rain. At least, there wasn’t alot of wind, but it still wasn’t real comfortable towards the end of the week. We actually, had most of our fishermen move over to fish with our La Paz fleet where the fish were at least a big larger.
LA PAZ
For our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, the dorado were a bit bigger and went normally 10-30 pounds and were in areas scattered around Espirito Santo Island and the western side of Cerralvo Island. After the storm clouds moved off, waters went back to calm and flat pretty quickly. We did get some dorado up to the 40-pound class and other large ones lost. Billfish were also in the area with most fish getting released. Decent live caballitos for bait.
Keep an eye out. There’s alot of sealife out. Turtles…manta rays…whale sharks…blue whales were all seen this week! Water’s 85 degrees. Jump in!
According to the forecast, we’re gonna get a little more rain at times at least through next week. But, every day the forecast changes. As of writing this, there’s not a cloud in the sky and it’s brilliant sunshine and now they are saying no rain! Just come fish!
Long time amigo, Rick Kasper, went fishing with his son, Kasey and friend Mario from Texas and had a pretty good day with some nice dorado and a striped marlin they were unable to release after it swallowed the lure. Both marlin, sailfish and dorado were good bets this past week.
From Arizona, Jolly Jaeger and husband Dwight came down this week and took some of the nice bull dorado that have been showing up recently.
Johnny Enright brought grandson Dawson down for 3 days of fishing and show off a trophy dorado and some others on the rack. However, check out the big pompano also on the rack. It’s our first of the season!
Every year, Don and Debbie White from Oregon come spend a few weeks with us and always catch fish! This particular day, they not only got dorado you see here, but also caught and released a blue marlin estimated at about 120 pounds.
Three years ago when he was 9 years-old, Garrett Santana came down to fish with us and got into some nice dorado. He came to visit us again this past week and not only caught a mess of dorado, but also put the wood to this huge sailfish all by himself and refused any help! Captain Raul helps out. Nicely done, youngster!
Rex Smith from Phoenix, Arizona has been visiting us for years. As usual, he caught lots of dorado, but over the years had never caught a pargo…until this past week! He took this tasty pargo mulato (barred pargo) fishing withour Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.
Our wine-making friends from Yakima, Washington, Chuck and Claudia Fiola had fun with the dorado and fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet last week.
Big smile from our Captain Victor as he hoists up Jolly Jaeger’s bull dorado. Check out the video below of her pulling in the fish. Well done!
Our Captain Boli has a funny face for the camera, but it’s all smiles for Carson Vincent who had never gotten a dorado before and was brought down by dad to give it a go! Dad got some video of Carson pulling in the nice fish below. Check it out. Well done, Carson!
DORADO KEEP RODS BENT FOR THE WEEK RAIN ON THE WAY?
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 22-29, 2014
It wasn’t a bad week of fishing. It was a “mixed” week of fishing. Dorado surely did their part and kept everyone smiling, but things seemed to change from Las Arenas to La Paz and from day-to-day and indeed from one pangs-to-the-next!
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS FLEET
We sort of re-bounded from last week when fishing was sluggish and all we had were some more of those pesky mosquito-size dorado everywhere. It might have been a combination of lack of bait coupled with the fact that last week there were SOOOO many boats out there on the fishing grounds the fish just got lock jawed!
This week was much better. The biggest news was a splash of tuna…yes 15-40 pound yellowfin tuna that made their first appearance off Cerralvo Island and several boats got into them. Usually, these fish are moving too fast and no one can get into them, but we also had a school of 50 pounders that went crashing by some shocked fishermen at the north end of the island as well. So, the fish are around and hopefully, we’ll see more of them because in subsequent days, our recon trips to look for the school went for nothing.
However, the dorado were surely more cooperative. Some larger fish in the 20-40 pound class were taken, plus more billfish including some blue marlin we hooked and either lost or released.
Other species: cabrilla, jack crevalle, bonito, pargo, pompano…we had several wahoo bite off, but no fish boated
TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET
Much better for quality and quantity this week for dorado. Fish ran 10-40 pounds and limits were common with many fish lost and many released. We do have live bait in the form of caballitos and mackerel, but a big error with the fishermen is not letting the dorado really chomp down on the baits and giving the dorado enough time to get the hooks in their mouths. These dorado are so voracious that even small dorado will charge baits that areas big as them making you wonder how they even get an 8 inch bait into their little mouths. But, they will hit it so you just have to be patient before pulling the trigger and setting the hooks.
The fish are around Espirito Santo Island and as close as right in La Paz Bay, but the larger fish are all the way around the corner around Las Cruces, El Rosario and Punta Gorda. It takes while to get there, but it’s worth it and the fish can be as close as just a few yards off the beach in the calm protected waters near those areas.
We are also getting some good bites on sailfish and marlin as well in the same areas.
OTHER SPECIES: Since everyone is concentrating on the blue water species like dorado, we’ve found some spots holding some BIG cabrilla and pargo that are willing to bite, but getting these beasts out’ve the rocks once you hook them is the trick and the fish usually wins!
WEATHER
Usually not much to say. It’s sunny today. It was sunny yesterday. It will be sunny tomorrow. Water about 84 degrees. Nights about 72. Yawn…
Seriously, it’s been a tad humid and in the mid 90’s, but this week the forecast is showing some afternoon thundershowers coming our way. Very tropical. I don’t think it will affect our fishermen very much and, as of the time of this writing, these are not hurricanes, but merely some rain cells moving our way. We’ll keep an eye out! Might actually be very refreshing!
WHOAAA!!!! That’s a big fat rooster! Captain Jorge helps out Robert Rost who was fishing with us for his first time from Boise, Idaho! Robert had super week topped by this huge rooster they caught and released near Punta Arenas!
That’s a big wahoo for Ty Mitchell from Washington on his 2nd trip with us. He got this trophy off Cerralvo Island fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet!
Captain “Fettucine” Alfredo from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet photobombs deckhand Blas posing with our amigos from Colorado Doc Art Flippin and son-in-law Mike Shepherd!
Tiffany FLOYD could NOT have been a more fun person to come down to fish! I don’t think she ever stopped laughing or smiling and this big sailfish with Captain Joel put a big smile on her face. She was down celebrating her anniversary and she caught this just outside La Paz Bay!
OH the joy! This is just pure ecstasy! Mike Shepherd had a great week with us, but a big dorado eluded him all week. But at the last hour with almost his last bait on the last day, he finally put the wood to this nice bull dorado! Great facial expression, Mike! CLASSIC!
I think this should be their new 2014 Christmas card photo! The Nichols family run a big time fishing operation out’ve Florida and came down for a few days to visit. They all got and released their first roosterfish plus some nice dorado including this trophy bull that ended up for dinner at Tailhunter Restaurant!
Dennis Cudal knew this one was headed to the grill when he stuck this nice big barred pargo around Espirito Santo Island.
Check this off the bucket list! Nothing like an exotic roosterfish on the line! Jeff FLOYD from Idaho, was fishing with Captain Pancho literally just a few yards from the beach at Las Arenas and caught and released this big time rooster!
An extended Father’s Day Week plus graduation present for Craig and Ashley Sanford from the Phoenix AZ area where they show off quite a variety of fish they caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet including cabrilla, bonito, triggerfish and dorado!
Great story. Mike Shepherd was trolling a big bait in the shallow waters near Punta Perrico when his rod went off and all heck broke loose. He started yelling, “MARLIN! MARLIN!” Captain Jorge was tying up some lines and not looking and said, “There’s no marlin here!” Until he looked up! MIke had on a fish estimated at well over 200 pounds! Unfortunately, only 30 pound test so they hung on as best as they could while wife, Candi snapped photos! Folks ask all the time for “bigger boats” so they can go out further and catch “bigger fish!” Well, as you can see, we don’t have to go far and our pangas do just fine!
Our good amigo, Don Busse, always does well and he put this big pargo on board at Las Arenas and ended up bringing it to our Tailhunter Restaurant for dinner!
It was a good week for big barred pargo! Al Nojadera has been fishing with us for alot of years and shows off one of his big pargo.
Gary Pilkington is from Northern Cal and fished with Captain Pancho. Gary was on his 2nd visit with us and wanted to get a rooster! Mission accomplished with this caught-and-released trophy!
Luke Appel from Malibu took a nice picture and a great photo of this barred pargo in full raging colors! These are tough tough fish when hooked and fight like beasts!
This is our rockstar, Rick Kasper, who always gets fish with us. Rick has a place our there near La Paz now and spends several weeks hanging out and fishing!
Captain Adolfo and Megan Kennedy with another colorful rooster onboard and flat blue waters behind! The fish was caught and released. Megan was on her first trip and came down with dad.
This is just a super fun photo! One on board and another on the rod for Tiffany and Jeff Floyd celebrating their 19th anniversary with a trip to La Paz!
ROOSTERS DORADO LIGHT IT UP WITH THE FULL MOON…AND ANOTHER MISSED HURRICANE!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 8-15 2014
Another fairly solid week of fishing even with the full moon…even with another hurricane missing us and blowing out to sea (Christina!)… but the difference between our anglers who fished with our Las Arenas fleet and those who fished with our La Paz fleet was like night and day…in a good way! Fortunately, for us, our clients get to fish both sides if they so choose!
For Las Arenas, at times, the winds plus the big swell generated by hurricane Cristina far to the south had to be contended with and made for some bouncy days, especially towards the end of the week. The hurricane was up to a category 4 with winds up to 170 mph, but thankfully banked out to the west before it got up to the Baja.
However, it still pushed residual winds and waves our way and up the Sea of Cortez. The surfers at Land’s End by Cabo and also around Todos Santos were loving the big waves with the thick lips!
But, at Las Arenas, we continued with swarms of little dorado. So many that some of the anglers are calling it “the nursery” where it was not uncommon to hook and release a dozen or more dorado in short order of fish no bigger than 3-5 pounds! Great light tackle action, but very few fish larger than that. The good thing is that the way dorado grow, in just a few months, these fish will be 15-20 pounders! So, it’s good that many are getting released.
The better action was on the wahoo, especially earlier in the week when that area south of Cerralvo Island kicked out another nice jag of 20-40 pound speedsters on trolled lures like the Rapala X-Raps and Yo-Zuri Magnums. For every fish taken, at least 2 more were lost so there’s some fish out there.
The other part of Las Arenas were the big roosters that seemed to pop up again with a vengeance. We had several days mid-week when, as one angler said, “Every bait thrown in the water generated an immediate hammer from a big rooster!” The fish this week were as “small” as 35-40 pounds, but we had some larger estimated in the 60-85 pound class (by the captains!).
For La Paz anglers, it was a completely different story altogether! The dorado were bigger. They were more abundant and they really bent rods and went 15-40 pounds with some larger ones lost. The bonus was the many of the best bites were literally right in La Paz Bay or just outside without having to go very far. As well, where the smaller dorado were found, marlin and sailfish were in the same areas either eating the same baits or else feeding on the small dorado themselves.
Dorado in winter? Yup! Jeff Burnham from Larkspur CO came down to wet some lines with us and stuck this nice bull fishing off Las Arenas. The nice mahi was taken just outside Bahia de Los Muertos!
Nothing wrong with this colorful bull dorado with big smiles and a great catch by our amigo, Larry Cornwall. Hard to believe getting this kind of fish in March!
Yes! There’s wahoo around Cerralvo Island right now, like this pair of speedy skinnies shown off by our Tailhunter Captain Jorge on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
With Tailhunter captain Archangel checking the water for any “followers” as dorado will often do, Dennis McGuffee poses with another sweet mahi while fishing out’ve Bahia de Los Muertos. After this they came inshore and using light tackle played with numerous inshore species.
More like it! This is normally, what we’re catching this time of year…cabrilla (seabass) like this tasty one caught by Jeff Burnham.
We had an incredible time in Salt Lake City! What a party at the International Sportsmens Expo with lots of sign ups for our 2014 La Paz fishing season and great photo ops for Jill and our amigas!
SPRING-LIKE CONDITIONS SET THE SCENE AND THE FISHING…UNTIL THE WEEKEND!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of March 9-16, 2014
As one of our anglers said, “It’s incredible. It’s like fishing in May down here right now!” And that about sums it up. “I come down and expect winter fishing and instead encounter dorado right in the bay!”
He has it pegged about right.
Unseasonably warm water has turned the fishing somewhat on it’s head. Normally, we’re getting yellowtail and sierra and other cool-water fish this time of year and instead we’ve run into a pretty steady jag of dorado up to about 20 pounds…flirted with shots of wahoo several times a week…caught the occasional tuna…and even hooked a few marlin! All fish, we don’t normally see until late spring and even early summer!
As well, there have been some surprising catches of amberjack in the 20-80 pound class to go with cabrilla (sea bass), pargo (snapper), sierra and bonito and the occasional yellowtail as well.
This past week, the highlight were probably the dorado that were free-swimming literally within yards of the beach at times. Some of these fish were respectable quality fish too with some decent bulls in the panga boxes. The fish ranged from Bahia de Los Muertos out to the buoys and around the island. They weren’t highly concentrated and it wasn’t a wide-open bite by any stretch, but the fact that the fish are even here this early and have been since January is remarkable. When we did run into the fish, our anglers were getting 2-4 fish per panga mixed with some of the other species.
But, just like they say in the commercials…”But wait!”
We also took a few wahoo off the island early in the week and some smaller roosterfish are starting to show as well. All good signs! Throw in a few sierra some action on the bonito and there was some OK action this week.
At least until the weekend hit. Mother Nature slammed us back with a reminder that March comes in like a lion and roared in with 30-40 mph winds more characteristic of this time of year! The high winds pretty much shut things down for the weekend. But, it’s going to be like that at times and we’ll just have to keep an eye out for this.
TAILHUNTER WRAPS UP SALT LAKE CITY ISE SHOW
A big “muchas gracias” to Salt Lake City for treating us so well and all our friends who came by to say hi and our new amigos who booked fishing trips to La Paz for 2014 at the International Sportsmans Expo! Our booth was jumping for all 4 days and it was great to see so many of our amigos and make new ones as well. This was our 9th show of the season and now we wrap things up and head south once more to the Fred Hall Fishing show at the San Diego Co. Fairgrounds in Del Mar CA for our 10th and final show!
Tailhunter Fish Report 