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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Sept. 14-21, 2014

CNN weather

BIG AND ANGRY! ODILE sat right on us.

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Odile’s tracking path up the Baja

 

HISTORIC STORM  RIPS INTO BAJA

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept 14-21

What a week!

I could be writing for many many pages over what has happened since our last fishing report a week ago, but let me try to summarize everything.  You can surely look up alot of this (especially photos and video online by googling it!) but since I’m writing this and we do not have much electricity and only sporadic and very slow internet,  I have to be brief before I lose the signal again.  Most of the La Paz photos are mine.  Others from friends and clients.  Others taken from the internet with appreciation and apologies in order to tell the story.

WHAT HAPPENED:

  • A bit more than a week ago ODILE appeared on our weather radars with some trepidation.  It gathered speed and power, but like more than a dozen storms before it, the weather models showed it coming our way then glancing out to see giving us maybe some a bit of rain and wind.  We were all relieved.  The week before, Hurricane Norbert had come at us and didn’t do much other than keep our boats off the water for two days.  No harm to anyone or to property.
  • Last Saturday night, ODILE did something even the experts didn’t expect.  It turned rapidly back right into Baja.  Predictions had it anywhere from a Category 2 to Category 5 Hurricane (5 being the strongest).  Hurricane Sandy that hit the East Coast last year was a 3.
  • Being that this was a 4 day holiday weekend, everyone was ready to party.  No one paying much attention to the weather and gearing up for the huge Independence Day Festivities.
  • We watch the weather daily and warned as many as we could and geared up for it. Most in La Paz thought it would be “just another strong storm.”  We knew differently.  We hunkered down and advised our clients to do the same.
  • Around midnight it slammed into La Paz.  Hurricane ODILE ripped in with 110-140 mph winds.  Turned into the strongest hurricane in Baja history.
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Even after it has passed, 30-40 mph winds continued to hit La Paz the morning after.

WHAT IT WAS LIKE

  • It was like being inside a vacuum cleaner full blast with giant trains blasting through.  Tree branches shattered.  Entire trees pulled up by the roots came crashing down.  Furniture blew.  Glass breaking everywhere.  Our ceiling collapses.  Roofs lifted off.  Cement walls knocked over.
  • Power lines falling.  Paint peeled off walls.  Bark completely stripped off trees.   Telephone pole and power poles snapped in half or at ground level.  Rain and wind both coming in sheets.  Sound so loud you can’t talk or hear a yell.  Vehicles tipped over.  Beach palapas tossed topsy turvy in the air like the little umbrellas in tropical drinks.
  • Statues knocked off pedestals.  Signs ripped off buildings.  Metal sreet light poles, not just broken, but twisted like licorice until they snapped. Rocks and boulders tumbling from hillsides.  Boats blown off their anchor and moorings.  Many sunk.  Many blown aground across the bay.  Boats in yards knocked over like tenpins. Entire sides of high buildings stripped off a cat had clawed them.

AFTERMATH

The storm came through quickly that literally, it was over fast.  By the next morning, everyone was out and surveying the damage.  Most were relieved.  But that’s when it really got worse.

LA PAZ

  • Lots or property damage.  No water, power, cell, electricity, gasoline.  Many many trees torn up by the roots.  Debris everywhere.  30-40 boats in the marina sunk.  Power lines criss-crossed across road.  Power poles and trees snapped off and fallen across homes and crushing walls.  Road blocked.
  • Airport shut down.
  • Several persons missing with their boats (later found deceased)
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Many old trees were pulled up by their roots and were knocked or blown over.

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Debris everywhere. Many trees and plants were completely denuded.

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Beach palapa flipped upside down after it snapped and tossed 30 yards up the beach.

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Phone lines and power poles askew

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La Concha pool turned into a green murky pond of debris.

CABO SAN LUCAS

  • Entire neighborhoods flatted and destroyed
  • New Airport destroyed
  • Widespread destruction in hotels and homes
  • Estimated 30,000 tourists stranded with no flights
  • Estimated 25,000 people in shelters
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Entire neighborhoods in Cabo were destroyed.

Cabo home

Many lost everything. Many of those didn’t have much to begin with.

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The remains of Cabo Airport.

IN THE PAST WEEK SINCE HURRICANE

LA PAZ

  • Many areas still without water or power, but slowly coming back.  Most of the hotels have power and water by day 4.
  • Cell phone reception in many areas returned by day 3
  • Gasoline shortages critical for a few days with rationing or running out, especially as folks from Cabo San Lucas migrated up and started to purchase gas.  Same with food shortages.  Many of the larger markets and stores are empty, but getting better after 1 week as supplies come in.
  • Some looting reported, but has been controlled
  • Boats in the marina or those that have been abandoned and grounded have been looted.
  • Airport semi-open after being closed for a few days.  There are some commercial flights starting next week.  Volaris Airlines sent down several empty planes to help with evacuations.
  • It took us 5 days to evacuate all of our clients through the La Paz Airport and through the La Paz Ferryboat taking.  Many took another 2-4 days to finally get home to the U.S. Some were stuck in airports for several days sleeping on floors waiting to get flights.
  • It looked like Hurricane Polo was going to kick us again this weekend, but it tempered down to a tropical storm and now threatens only some rain this weekend and during the week.  GRACIAS A DIOS!  But, it’s like dog-piling on a guy with two broken legs.
  • Town is packed with refugees and escapees from Cabo San Lucas trying to get away or just looking for a roof and water or here trying to purchase gas and food or supplies. There are ZERO hotel rooms available at night.  Even the littlest hole-in-the-wall place is booked with people waiting to get in.  Even if the hotel does not have full water and power, people are happy to be away from Cabo.
  • As La Paz is the capital of the State of Baja Sur and the seat of government, crews have been working around the clock and hundreds of techs from mainland Mexico along with equipment have been brought over to get electricity and communications back on the grid.
Power lines and debris are knocked over on a street after Hurricane Odile hit La Paz

Destruction in downtown La Paz

PEMEX gas station

The roof of one downtown Pemex gas station in La Paz came crashing down.

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The La Paz waterfront malecon soaked and sloshed

CABO SAN LUCAS

  • By everyone’s account, this is going to take a long time to re-build.
  • Thousands of troops and police have been brought in to get control.
  • It has been described as a war zone.  Destruction is everywhere.
  • Looting has been widespread.  All the big stores have been emptied.
  • Gangs roaming the streets with weapons and machetes have been reported
  • Citizen groups have banded together to protect their neighborhoods and homes and using rocks, re-bar and bricks to defend themselves against attacking gangs.
  • Much gunfire heard at night
  • False roadblocks have been reported in order to hi-jack cars
  • The airport has two runways open for military, government and humanitarian flights to help with lack of food, water and medicine.  80% of the city still has no power or phones.
  • Estimates that half of the 30,000 stranded tourists have now been evacuated a week after the hurricane.
  • The U.S. State Department has recommended that folks get to their nearest Cabo or La Paz Airport and special flights are being used to evacuate, but expect long waits.
  • Many many people driving to La Paz to escape.  Roads are damaged, but passable.  Roads north of La Paz up to the U.S. are down in some places due to flooding and damage, and expect waits, but it’s usable most of the time.  Work going on  constantly.  All of those communities…El Rosario, Constitucion, Loreto, Mulege, etc. all sustained their own damage from ODILE.
  • They say that by this week some airlines like Alaska will be running flights in and out’ve Cabo San Lucas.

 

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Looting in Cabo San Lucas. Diapers and cereal for the kids.  Cup o Noodle for Mom and Dad.  But Captain Morgan too?

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It got ugly during the looting

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What’s left of Cabo Walmart

TAILHUNTER

We had some REALLY GREAT FISHING going on before the hurricane! Dangit, the storm spoiled it all.  When the storm hit, we had several dozen folks here and the aftermath was the most difficult.  Many of our folks never got to fish at all.  However, thankfully, no one was hurt and our biggest situation was (1)  Getting the home and evacuated safely and (2)  While they were stuck here making them as comfortable as possible given no water…electricity…cell phones…and dwindling food.

Almost all of our folks were at La Concha Beach Resort thankfully so it made it easier than other times when we might have dozens of folks scattered among, 3, 4 or 5 locations.  The folks and staff at La Concha were and continue to be magnificent.  Much of the hotel was damaged.  Of the more than 100 rooms only 20 did not sustain damage.  Even 1 week after the storm, there is still no water or power fully established.

However, the hotel folks worked round the clock.  Many of them sleeping at the hotel and working by candlelight or digging out rooms and grounds from debris, fallen trees, broken glass and shredded walls.  A limited menu was served during special hours in the lobby since the restaurant glass was blown out but they really did a good job on the food.

Our drivers, Jorge and Esteban were freakin’ heroes.  Despite their own problems at their own homes, they ferried our people to and from markets…to and from airports and the ferrys…at all hours at their OWN expense…just to help out and always doing it with a smile and good sense of humor even in the most stressful times even when their own families needed their presence.  There was nothing they wouldn’t do.

Kudos also to our guests…who hung in there during a trying time with patience and good will and all the laughs possible under the circumstances.  They were all stars.  No one losing their cool.  No one going “Ugly American.”  No one blaming anyone, but rather helping each other and bonding and hanging tough.  Thankfully, everyone got home or is on their way home.  No one injured.  No one hurt.  I’m just sorry that their vacations took such a turn.

Tailhunter Restaurant is open.  Our own staff kicked butt and cleaned up most of the damage and allowed us to open 3 days after the storm with a limited menu, but open when many others still were closed.  Many of our “new friends” are from Cabo San Lucas and just relieved to be here and we’ve been sharing our phones and internet signals with them so they can reach out.  For many, this is their first time in La Paz.   We are still having trouble with ice and some food items, but each day it’s been a bit better.

As for the fishing…well…regretfully, we’ve had a load of cancellations understandably.  We’re telling everyone who postpones that they will get 100% credit towards their new dates.  We have had no banks open or available all week. Banks aren’t even answering their phones.  Not even an ATM,  so doing business has been problematic.  But we’re still here and we’ll pull out’ve this.  Losses have been huge, but could have been worse and there are so many others who have it much worse than us.

But, as for yesterday, we have been putting a few stranded folks on boats and there’s still dorado out there!  We can actually see rooster fish breaking just off the beach outside the restaurant.  So the fish are waiting! They haven’t been biting really well because the waters are really messed up, but if we don’t get any more turbulence, waters should clear up and fish will be back…we hope!

Will keep you as posted as we can signal and phone reception allowing.  Thank you for all your good wishes.  We’ve literally gotten hundreds of e-mails, phone messages and facebook messages and simply cannot answer them all.

IF YOU WANT TO HELP

Jill put together these links if you’d like to help and make donations:

La Paz Rises

https://www.facebook.com/pages/La-Paz-Rises/636793356437674

Links for donations and other info will be up and hopefully it can be of use as a clearing house for info.

FANLAP (Judy’s kids)

http://icf-xchange.org/donateonline/index.php?webkey=losninosdelapaz

Cruceros (search, rescue etc)

http://www.gofundme.com/en7dtw

Waves for Water

http://www.gofundme.com/en7dtw

Baja disaster relief fund (Mexican Red Cross/International Community Foundation)

http://icf-xchange.org/donateonline/?webkey=bajadisasterrelief

God bless.  That’s our story

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Sept. 1-7, 2014

marlin mckenzie tags small 8-14

Scott McKenzie from Seattle WA and his sisters Jana and Lauren have fished with us many times for many years and caught all kinds of fish with us including marlin that they released. But this one was quite a story. While fishing with our Tailhunter fleet at Bahia de Los Muertos, they caught a few dorado the saw a marlin on the surface. They tossed a bait at it and the fish went off. Over three hours, the three of them battled the fish on a light rod and 40-pound test. However, during the first hour they almost had the fish to the boat and it was battling down and bulldogging without doing much jumping. Suddenly the big striper went ballistic as two killer whales started to chase it! During the balance of the battle, the fish stayed largely airborne trying to avoid the killer whales which circled the marlin and the panga adding quite a measure of excitement. They finally got the fish to the boat but were not able to revive it…but the marlin probable didn’t want to go back in the water anyway. The killer whales kept circling and finally swam off.

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The McKenzie marlin gets air as it’s being chased by the killer whales!

mike whitlow tags small rooster 8-14

Happy Birthday to me! Our good amigo, Mike Whitlow from Kennewick, WA came down to celebrate #50 with us. He’s a spectacular light tackle fisherman and pro bass guy too! He got himself this nice rooster on light tackle and did a great release after the photo! Feliz cumpleanos, amigo!

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Some images from Mike Whitlow’s 50th birthday party at Tailhunter Restaurant! Good time had by all! Thanks for sharing, Mike and Wendy!

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Darryl “Buffalo Soldier” Poindexter…one of the nicest and funnest guys on his first trip regretfully, only got to fish one day before the storm hit us ,but he made the most of it with a good day of dorado fishing like this nice bull he presses overhead!

NORBERT

It was FUGLY! Norbert eventually turned into a Cat 3 hurricane that by now has gone up the Baja coast and is dropping rain on the SW United States, but not before doing some pretty bad damage to Baja coastal areas. Gratefully, La Paz didn’t get hit too hard, but enough to put the clamp on fishing. Better to be safe and dry with a cold one.

HURRICANE PARTY!

When you can’t fish…fishermen very often…find other means of entertainment! Thanks to everyone this week, including Alex Trasvina and his boys who kept grinning even tho’ they had only one day to fish and had to cancel. They ended up at Tailhunter Restaurant watching football and raising their glasses! Salud, Fish Brothers! The “Tequila Bandito” says you rock!

Adam Florence 9-14 dorado small

This is another great story. Adam Florence all the way from Kansas was fishing with Captain Pancho. He went to Walmart here in La Paz and got a cheapo freshwater spinning rod with 8 lb. test. He got bit big time and this bull dorado was all he could handle almost spooling him. They had to chase it down with the boat!

Wade Ralston rooster 8-14 tags small

Great shot and super fish by Wade Ralston who visited us from Washington on his first trip down. Punta Perrico in the background right off the rocks. Wade is a light tackle guy and fishes bass tournaments professionally. He did a great catch-and-release on this pez gallo.

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Nick Petrilli and his son, Nick, Jr. had a banner day out’ve Las Arenas with Captain Pancho and a slammer of mahi.

Dave Sundgren Steve Rosebaugh dorado tags 9-14 small

Just after the storm, the waters started to get back to normal. Dave Sundgren and Steve Rosebaugh hold up a nice pair on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos!

 

GOOD FISHING SLAMMED BY STORM NORBERT

ALTHOUGH LA PAZ ESCAPES DAMAGE

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-7, 2014

It was a worrisome week on alot of levels.  The previous week had been one of the slowest weeks of fishing for the season for no apparent reason.  All the signs were there for good fishing, yet the fish just either didn’t show up or just weren’t ready to cooperate.  It wasn’t just slow, it was dead.

So, we jumped into this week not knowing what was going to happen. It was a tale of two completely different weeks…

EARLY IN THE WEEK

As it turned out, the fishing came back to life!  Maybe not full blast, but compared to the previous week, we were rocking with bent rods and good variety.  Both of our fleets…the Tailhunter fleet in Las Arenas and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets found dorado between 8 and 15 pounds on the average, but also some of the trophy bulls running 20-40 pounds.  Limits were not uncommon and it was good to see that some times there were so many fish that anglers were releasing them as fast as they could go or at least kicking back the small ones!  It’s been a few weeks since we had that kind of bite.  Moreso, we often had double…triple…and quadruple hookups!

Even better, for our Las Arenas fleet where it’s really been a struggle sometimes, we not only had dorado, but a surprising number of sailfish and marlin were hooked between 70 and 200 pounds.  Most were released, but really did a number for some of the guys using light tackle.

As well, rooster fish showed up again between 10 and 50 pounds and we even had a few wahoo hooked up although none made it back to the boats!  Add in some big bonito…jack crevalle…some pargo and snapper and it made for a pretty decent week of fishing.

During this whole time, we were all watching the weather…and watching…and watching.  Norbert started as a little blip…it got bigger and bigger…and went to tropical storm level.  But like so many other storms that have appeared on the horizon down south, the tracking for the storm showed it was going out to the Pacific and wouldn’t do more than drop a little rain on us.  We were sure that like all the other storms, it would continue to veer out and away from Baja.

It didn’t…

LATTER HALF OF THE WEEK

Tropical Storm Norbert became Hurricane Norbert and would eventually reach a category 3 ripper.  Although La Paz did not suffer extensive damage, in areas of Cabo and along the Pacific Coast, there was extensive flooding and damage.  Several thousand people had to be evacuated and over 1000 homes were damaged.  At the time of writing this, there was at least 1 fatality related to the storm.

For us in La Paz, the heavy wind and rain hit us just as we were launching in the early dark of Thursday morning.  Rain began to pelt and the winds began to howl.  And it got stronger.  We all went for cover and hunkered down. And hunkered down.

For three days pretty much everyone had to sit it out.    The roads to Las Arenas got flooded.  Mud everywhere.  While La Paz pretty much did not flood. there were intermittent bits of heavy wind…rain…drizzle…and more rain as the storm passed.  AND THE PORT WAS CLOSED!  So, we couldn’t even get out if we wanted to.  For safety measures, the port captain kept the port bottled up and prevented anyone from leaving until mid-morning Saturday.

It was really bad especially for some of our many anglers who never got to fish before having to go home.  Or only getting to fish 1 day or 2 days.  And, when they did get to fish, conditions weren’t the best.  If it wasn’t windy or wet, then the waters, even after the storm passed, were turned over green and muddy.  Hat’s off to so many guys who grinned and were patient and still kept smiling while we did our best to control things of which we had no control.  You guys and gals are the best!

It wasn’t until Sunday that we finally started to see some changes in the water and some better fishing action with dorado, billfish and pargo waking up.

This coming week, as you’re reading this looks like it might have some of the best weather we’ve seen in awhile.  Hopefully, it lets the fishing come ripping back!

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Sportfishing for Week of Aug. 24-31, 2014

shawn parker dorado 8-14 tags

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!

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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.

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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)

dorado leif rogelio muscle

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.

walt dorado 8-14 tags small

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.

JG tags dorado 8-14

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!

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Aug 17-24, 2014

Taryn Mitoma dorado alfredo tags 8-14

We all remember what it was like to get our first fish! Captain Alfredo with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet laughs and helps young Taryn Mitoma from Livermore CA with a nice dorado. She got away with her dad for a few quick days with us and had some very good catches! This was her first time and she’s definitely “hooked.”

Rooster1 dover edited tags small 8-14

Yup! Still got roosters around! Leif Dover from Atlanta GA makes several trips a year with us and always gets into big fish. Captain Rogelio looks on as Leif hoists a big rooster estimated at 60-70 pounds taken on live bait. The fish was released.

Ed mitoma marlin 8-14 tags small

First billfish and it’s HUGE for Dr. Ed Mitoma who was fishing north of La Paz when he hooked into this unusually large striper estimated at 170-200 pounds by Captain Alfredo.  Quite a few billfish were hooked this past week.

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Two of the larger dorado taken this week among so many larger fish that were lost! That’s why they are bigger fish! But George Kasee and Leif Dover pose with two big bulls.

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From Texas, Kevin Todd was fishing out’ve Las Arenas and got this unusual rainbow runner which is a cousin to yellowtail and makes great eating. Kevin couldn’t resist the photo with the cigar in the fish! Great shot!

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Coach Joey Fuschetti insists his ability to catch fish has something to do with his camouflage shirt so the fish can’t see him! He always does well fishing with us every year!

rooster tags small 8-14 George

Captain Jorge and George Kasee with another rooster caught and released off Las Arenas!

 

THREATS OF RAIN KEEP ANGLERS FISHING IN LA PAZ WATERS WITH DORADO ON THE CHEW

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 17-24, 2014

We spent the week dodging the “possibility” of thundershowers all week and it looks like as you read this, we’ll be doing the same thing this week as well. According to predictions, we ran anywhere from 10-80% chance of thundershowers all week.

Now, that didn’t always mean it actually dropped water on our heads.  Some of these never ever materialized other than some big fluffy clouds.  Sometimes they were little squalls.  On two days we had real gully washers and floods that lasted about an hour…then the sun came out.  Sometimes it rained in one part of the city but a few blocks away, they got nothing.

It really didn’t affect our fishing much other than we kept most of our anglers fishing with our La Paz fleet instead of taking the chance of fishing with our Las Arenas fleet which has areas that are much more exposed to wind and waves.  Especially the wind!  A little rain is no biggie but big winds…you might as well forget it.

As a matter of fact, the only day when fishing was really off was a day that south winds kicked up into double digits.

For the most part, however, even if the rains came, it was generally in the later afternoon after all the fishing was done.  That’s what it looks like again this week as several big storms hundreds of miles to the south of the Baja keep passing by out to sea, but spinning bits of rain cells our way.

LAS ARENAS

Because of the threat of thundershowers, we didn’t do much fishing in the area.  It was just easier to keep fishing out’ve La Paz instead where the anglers had a better shot at good weather and more chances to get into fish, even if the weather late in the day soured.

However, when we did fish, the fishing was OK.  We got into some TUNA!  Yes…there were some big boy tuna that showed up.  Several guys hooked into tuna estimated over 100 pounds, but all the fish broke off without ever seeing the fish.  The area was around the south point of Cerralvo Island.

As for other species, the fun-sized 10-15 pound dorado were usually pretty easy to catch as well as big bonito.  But the nice surprise were the number of hookups on sailfish and striped marlin.  Most fish either got loose or were broken off.

We also got several nice rooster fish along the beach in the 20-40 pound class.

LA PAZ

As mentioned above, this was our most consistent area to fish.  It was better to fish here than take a chance and end up in stormy weather further south.  And, for the most part, it was a good decision.

Decent to very good dorado action took center stage.  Lots of fish were lost so the counts weren’t as good as they could have been, but pangas still averaged some good counts of 5-20 pound fish with some larger in the 30 pound class.  Every day was different.  Every panga was different.  Some areas produced wide-open bites one day, but the same spot the next produced very little.  But if one spot wasn’t working, other spots took over.

Some nice rooster fish were caught and I was surprised at the size of some of the striped and blue marlin hooked and lost!

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

 

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Aug. 10-17, 2014

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Another pretty solid week of dorado fishing with some really nice bulls taken including this sweet one that jumped a bait and bent Steve Dorsey’s rod fishing north of La Paz.

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Captain Adolfo poses with our Colorado amigo, Frank Kunze who fished with us all week and had a good shot of dorado including this nice bull he got on the flyrod after just missing a rooster on the fly. He’s on the beach here at Bahia de los Muertos.

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Ed Sakuda was on his first visit to fish Las Arenas and we think he’s “sold” on coming back with 3 days of dorado fishing. His sister Caryn and her husband Mark Aizawa from Pasadena CA get in the photo too!

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Daniel Llerena from Buena Park had never fished salt water before and his dad hadn’t fished in salt water in more than a decade! The two of them came down and got in two quick days of fishing with some great results! Dan was fishing with Captain Joel when he put the hurt on this mahi.

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Lee Carlson from the Denver Colorado area, spent 6 days on the water with us fishing with both our Tailhunter fleets and shows off one of his better bull dorado he got near Cerralvo Island.

Dan Hayler and his family all got together on one of our mega pangas for a day of fishing on the bay and had a nice day of action.  The family is from Upland CA.

Dan Hayler and his family all got together on one of our mega pangas for a day of fishing on the bay and had a nice day of action. The family is from Upland CA.

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Gino and his son Daniel Llerena got in two quick days of fishing and made the most of it with some nice dorado as well as this striped marlin on light tackle. Cerralvo Island in the background.

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Kelly Soo Hoo has fished with us before and did really well. This time she brought her son, Nick, for his first experience. Nice had a great time and got a variety of fish including these very tough jack crevalle!

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From Bankor, Pennsylvania, Rich Normyl had a full hand of mahi. Check out the storm clouds coming up behind him at Bahia de los Muertos!

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The whale sharks have returned to La Paz bay. Dan Hayler took this great photo of a “baby” whaleshark of only about 20 feet in the shallow bay water. They can grow to over 50 feet long and are true sharks, but are gentle and have no teeth and eat plankton.

This is what 15 minutes of rain produces on the La Paz waterfront right in front of our Tailhunter Restaurant Bar.

 

CRAZY WEATHER PACES FISH BITE

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug 10-17, 2014

 

Even with the week of “super moon” we still had a pretty decent week of fishing going on.  Even with the tropical thundershowers late in the week that were almost like baby hurricanes, the fish still bit.  But it was a bit of a challenge.  But, like I said, the fish still bit.

The super moon was beautiful over Baja waters, especially here in La Paz over the bay making it much like a postcard with the huge bright moon shimmering over the bay and the palm trees.

The big problem was more of these afternoon thunderstorms that crashed into us late in the day.  Fortunately, mostly after the fishing was done.  But something to watch.  Blue skies would darken quickly.  Incredible lightning storms would follow then almost simultaneously thunderclaps that would sound like they were right overhead.  During one 2 hour period during one storm, over 70 light night strikes were counted.  During another storm, a bolt hit a palm tree on the malecon waterfront area igniting it which then caused it to fall on the palapa roof of a popular bar.  The bar caught on fire then burned to the ground with huge flames 30 feet in the air.

Within minutes of the thunder and lightning the rains would cascade.  Huge rolling waves of sheer water flooded streets and turned many into rivers and lower areas and arroyos into raging category 2 or 3 cauldrons that would’ve been the envy of whitewater kayakers…except they were all brown mud!

Cars suddenly found themselves up to the doors in water and many stalled.  Neighborhoods found themselves turned into islands with people trapped in long rainy lines unable to leave the area and others in the opposite directions unable to return home.  Off the La Paz cliffs, mini-Yosemite-like waterfalls tumbled 20, 30 40 feet to the roads along with rocks and boulders.  In a one hour period during one storm, more than 3 inches of water descended on La Paz.

But, like I said as far as fishing, at least most of this was all taking place later in the day or evenings when the fishing was done.

LAS ARENAS

There was only one day during the week when we decided it wasn’t worth it to fish Las Arenas because of the stormy conditions.  The rest of the time, for the most part, Las Arenas was pretty much as good as it has been all year.  Relatively speaking.

We actually even had small sardines to use for bait and we had flyfishers hooking rooster fish, dorado, jack crevalle and bonito.

The dorado were 5-15 pounders with a few 20-30 pounders as well.  If a boat found the right spot, limits were pretty easy.  Roosterfish, while not as plentiful as earlier in the season were still around with most in the 10-30 pound class.  Bonito, jack crevalle and even some barred pargo gave us some variety.

LA PAZ

Our La Paz fishery has been the most consistent all year.  Some days are better than others, like anywhere else, but 9 out’ve 10 days, the fish are around and biting.  Even on that 10th day, I’m not sure what the issue is, but anglers and my captains will tell me…”The fish were all around.  We could see them or they would sniff the baits, but just wouldn’t take the baits!”

That was usually made up for on the other days of fishing when the dorado would be found in many areas from just inside the bait to the island and then around the point to El Rosario and Las Cruces.

Generally, the fish were 10-15 pounders although there were still persistent squirts in the 5 pound class around.  But, larger 20-30 pounders were not uncommon.  We also hooked some marlin and sailfish with most being released as well as some stray rooster fish that ran about 30 pounds near Espirito Santo Island.

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Fleet for Week of June 8-15, 2014

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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Dennis Cudal knew this one was headed to the grill when he stuck this nice big barred pargo around Espirito Santo Island.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

combo signature 2-proc

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

 

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet for Week of June 1-8, 2014

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All hail the “Wahoo King!” Mike Guest from Phoenix Arizona has been coming to fish with Tailhunters in La Paz for years and never got a wahoo despite great efforts. This past week after only two days he got three wahoo and lost two other, but did get this one huge beast estimated at 60-70 pounds near Cerralvo Island. Amigo, Esteban Romero, gives a hand!

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Cole Chavira from Solana Beach CA always smokes the fish here in La Paz since he was little kid. He’s now in high school and nothing changes. He put the wood to this big cabrilla on a deep jigged yo-yo iron!

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He came all the way from Lisbon, North Dakota, but Joe Nelson told us, “It’s been as cold as 30 degrees below zero back home” and he wanted some sunshine and his first rooster fish! He got both including this fat rooster off the rocks at Punta Perico with Captain Archangel of the Tailhunter fleet.

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Al Rodriguez has fished in La Paz and Baja but NEVER got a dorado so he really focused on one this past week. He did that…and MORE! Well done, Al. He nailed this nice bull just outside of La Paz Bay.

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Malibu in the house! Luke Appel dropped the hammer on this sweet amberjack off Isla Espirito Santo on a heavy jig north of La Paz.

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Captain Adolfo from the Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet helps Megan Kennedy from Washington with the smiles and a big roosterfish just off the rocks outside of Bahia de Los Muertos! The fish was released!

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Gabe Rodriguez was in town with his dad and to celebrate his 40th birthday doing some fishing. He and dad both got into the dorado with Captain Rogelio of our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Feliz cumpleanos!

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Happy Honeymoon! Pat Snyder from Orangevale CA said this fish “beat him up” for 30 minutes while fishing with Captain Armando. He was here on his first trip to La Paz and to celebrate his first week of marriage! Congrats to him and Kathy!

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A well-deserved “thumbs-up” from Captain Jorge to pose with Kevin Kennedy and his big roosterfish that he caught and released not too far off the little cliffs at Punta Perrico. Our amigo, Kevin, is from Washington.

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Colin Reed from San Diego with a speedy wahoo he caught off Cerralvo Island where the wahoo bite has been pretty steady for several weeks!

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Pretty good for a first day fishing and first time to La Paz for brothers Andew and Ian Vale Cruz from San Diego. They got a variety of fish including these two trophys. Andrew holds up a big dog-tooth snapper and Ian has his first wahoo. Captain Pancho fails the photo bomb!

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Everyone was in on the dorado bite including amiga, Nina Duc Le and son, Will, from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Over 3 days fishing they got marlin, dorado, bonito, and others!

 

THAT’S MORE LIKE IT!  FISH BITE!  RODS BEND!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 1-8, 2014

 

 

Good solid fishing this week for both of our Tailhunter Fleets for once.  Usually, either the La Paz fleet is doing better than our Las Arenas fleet or vice versa!

However, this week, I would have to say that for once, we had alot more consistency which made for some good catches and action for our anglers although here and there, some anemia still persisted.  Basically, some boats did better than others on a given day.  But, overall, everyone got fish.

For our Las Arenas anglers, the big news continues to be the wahoo bite around Cerralvo Island with some bruiser wahoo literally hammering the Yo-Zuri and especially the Rapala X-Rap lures which seem to be the season’s new-found “hot lure”.  Run ‘em deep and they get bit!

I gotta say, there’s gotta be some big time wahoo underwater because even with wire, some of the lures are still getting bit off.  And…get this…we’ve had some lures literally getting CRUSHED!  I mean, how often do you ever hear of a hard-bodied lure like a Rapala getting broken or even smashed by the teeth!  Or the treble hooks getting straightened out!  That’s a big mean fish that can do that!  We had several fish this week tickle the 50-pound mark and even one estimated at 70 pounds!

The other benefit of these deep running X-raps that can run 30’ down is that we’re actually getting some huge pargo on them!  (By the way, I am NOT a rep for Rapala!  Prior to this, I actually liked the Yo-Zuris better because the older metal-lipped Rapalas got “out of tune” too easily after a bonito slammed them.  But the new ones have acrylic lips that dive deep and don’t get all screwy!).

The other big star at Las Arenas has been the rooster fish.  Not as many “big fish” this week compared to other weeks when we had 50-90 pound roosters, but 30-45 pounders this week are nothing to sneeze at if you’ve ever gotten bent on one!  For many, this is an opportunity to finally get a rooster checked-off the bucket list and, also for many, they’ve never had a fish this big to contend with.  As one of our anglers told me later, “I don’t know what I was thinking asking for a 100-pound fish!  Prior to this, I had only caught a 40-pound salmon.  After 15 minutes on a 30 pound rooster, I was ready to pass off the rod to my friend and sit down with a beer!  These fish don’t give up!”

For dorado at Las Arenas there were polar opposites.  There’s a spot we’re starting to call the “nursery.”  There are so many 3 to 8 pound dorado there that you can hook a dozen quite easily and the flyfishers and light tackle anglers are having a blast.

Beyond that, there’s very little in between.  The dorado then jump up into the 25-30 pound class!  There’s a few out there and bigger ones as well.

For our La Paz fleet, dorado are the name of the game.  Limits or near limits of 15-40 pound fish are just inside La Paz Bay and some of our boats actually quit early and came back with anglers saying “no mas!”  Full fish boxes and ice chests after a few hours fishing were not uncommon.  Other anglers not doing as well, still had opportunities with quite a few fish lost to either inexperience or simply tough luck…but still plenty of action!

On a final note…alot more marlin and sailfish hooks ups this week with more billfish entering th area.  By my count, our two fleets hooked perhaps a dozen billfish of varying sizes including one blue marlin and the rest being 100 pound stripers and sailfish.  One fish brought in and the others either got un-bottoned or released.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

combo signature 2-proc

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

 

 

 

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Sportfishing for Week of May 24-31, 2014

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Not only first time fishing in Mexico…BUT FIRST TIME FISHING IN SALT WATER! Rich Pomeroy from the Sacramento CA area had a spectacular week with a variety of fish including his first marlin, dorado, pargo and this cherry wahoo!

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Nice way to kick it on your bachelor party! Rich Drehsen from Camarillo CA was on his bachelor party here in La Paz and spent a few day on the water with us and shows off a trophy bull dorado just off the beach near Boca de Alamo near Bahia de Los Muertos.

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No doubt a trophy! But, this is one of the larger cabrilla we’ve seen so far this year and Rick Pope dropped the hammer on this bad boy near Espirito Santo Island north of La Paz! We cooked up a bunch of it at our Tailhunter Restaurant! Rick was on a roll this week. He was even catching sizeable pargo on the docks behind La Concha Beach Resort at night!

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Stan Yung and Captain Archangel had a productive day! Take a look at the nice wahoo and dorado while on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos!

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The quality of the dorado definitely improved this week with some nice bulls in the box like this brightly colored bull caught by our amigo from Diamond Bar CA Bill Hsu!

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He’s shy! But Randy from Canada is hiding somewhere behind the comb of this 40 pound roosterfish taken off the rocks near Punta Perrico with Captain Pancho! The fish was released and Randy is smiling back there…somewhere!

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A colorful lineup rogues gallery! Rich, Chris, Ron and Ed did a nice number on dorado and pose on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos! All are from Camarillo CA on Rich’s bachelor party!

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Big smiles as Captain Rogelio with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet helps Ken Errair from Oxnard CA who came down with his son, Cody, to spend a few days fishing and scuba diving with us.

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Arroyo Grande CA in the house! Mike Davis has been with us many times, but this is the first time he’s joined by his wife, Colleen who turned into quite a trooper and holds up some of their dorado catch with Captain Archangel.

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Roy Stenzel from the mountain area near Auburn CA caught and released this nice roosterfish with Captain Pancho during the week! Roosters are still here, although the emergence of dorado took some of the pressure off the roosterfish!

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Rick Pope and Rich Pomeroy with two of the many fish and species they caught while fishing 4 days with us!

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No arguing over the quality of these mahi mahi! Captain Jorge and Ed Drehsen hold a nice pair on the beach.

 

DORADO FINALLY FIRE IT UP AS WATERS WARM UP TOO!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 24-31, 2014

 

Maybe one of our best week’s of the young season!  Here we go…

Well, we seem to have dodged a major bullet this week.  Hurricane Amanda that formed up way south of us was watched intently all week.  Not only would it have been the first “named” storm f of the year, but more importantly, it would have been a doozy.

The weather folks say it would have been the strongest recorded hurricane ever for form up this early in the year.  The Category 5 blaster registered winds of up to 170 miles per hour and regular winds over 150 mph!  If it had made landfall, it would have torn up some real estate!

Fortunately, Amanda spun out and went off west into the Pacific Ocean and left us only with some cloudy skies…a few big rain drops…and actually very flat calm seas that didn’t even have a ripple on them!

Not sure how much it had to do with the fishing, but we sure had a pretty nice week of fishing!

Early in the week, we again had some sweet big rooster fish around our Las Arenas areas.  Las Arenas also produced some regular wahoo up to 45 pounds, pargo, cabrilla, sierra as well as jack crevalle and some huge big bonito.

But, the more remarkable thing was that the dorado roared to life for our La Paz anglers and pangas.  Towards the end of the week we were getting limits or near limits of fish up to 35 or 40 pounds and I would have to admit that the numbers were deceiving because our captains were coming back telling us that the clients lost more fish than they caught!  For example a panga might come back with 3 fish, but I would find out from the clients or our captain that they “farmed” 4, 5, 7, even 10 fish”   Every day was different.  Some better than others, but overall, it was a marked difference from previous weeks.

But, that’s all fun!  Lots of action is a good thing!

Even the flyfishers are having a better time of it.  They’ve had a tough time because of a lack of bait during the early season, but they even got into the dorado this week as well although roosters on the fly have proved to be a bit more difficult.  We had one amigo who got  25 dorado caught-and-released on the flyrod on a single day.

Also remarkable was the fact that we’ve been lamenting the lack of bait all season.  However, this week there stacks upon stacks of bait around La Paz beaches…mackerel…caballitos…huge sardines…ballyhoo!   The bait was thick!

In fact, there was so much bait in the bay for several days that we had dorado swimming in the shallows inside the marina and harbor areas within casting distance of the hotels.  We also have clients who were beach fishing in the late afternoons hooking some big pargo and cabrilla and several marlin were seen inside the bay as well!

Not sure if this will last or we’re finally kicking into summer, but I will tell you that the water temps edged up a few degrees this week and alot of the green plankton water burned of leaving us with some gorgeous blue water like the kind you see in postcards!

We even got out to the islands to sneak away for a few hours of scuba diving, paddle-boarding and kayaking!  Jill got to put a few more dives under her belt with her new certification!

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Jill kicking along about 40 feet down in 82 degree water at Isolotes north of La Concha!

CHECK OUT THE VIDEOS FROM THE ISLAND…JILL DIVING…PLAYFUL SEALIONS…BAJA TORQUOISE BAY!

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The Beach at Ensenada Grande on Espirito Santo Island run by our amigos at Fun Baja and a great place to kick it for the afternoon after diving and snorkeling. With kayaks, paddle boards, palapas, lounges and a great little lunch kitchen, it’s hard to beat!

 That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

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Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

 

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Sportfishing for Week of May 18-25, 2014

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Another week of big big big roosters! Leading the way is Brian Davis with a fish estimated by Captain Pancho as 85-95 pounds and caught on live bait off Las Arenas. This beauty was released…as were all roosters this week. Brian brought a great gang of amigos with most of them from Louisiana.

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This i s just a pretty photo! I might just frame it. First-timer, amigo, Boyd Loveless from Utah brings aboard a nice dorado with a hand from Captain Raul. Check out that flat water! Water temps are almost 85 degrees now!

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Captain Armando and Kacie Ellis from Portland are all smiles as they get ready to put this big roosterfish back in the water. Kacie is from the Portland area and she was at our Tailhunter Restaurant almost every night to watch her Portland Trailblazers on our TV!

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Biggest wahoo of the week and winner of $100 best from his amigos, Eddie Flanigen posted up this nice fish he hooked off the south end of Cerralvo Island on his first day of fishing. Ed is from Louisiana and is holding his fish on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

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From Utah, Shirl Loveless just seemed to be the “hot stick” no matter where he fished or who he fished with all week! Check out the bad boy rooster he caught and released with Captain Pancho just a few yards off the sand at Punta Arenas.

SCOTT BEHNKEN pulls in a nice bull dorado!  PLAY THE VIDEO ABOVE!

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All the way from Indiana, Scott Behnken, pulled this nice bull dorado up north of La Paz. Check out the video in the photo above.

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He really wanted to get one and he stuck this trophy roosterfish near Punta Arenas. Mike Ellis from Oregon did a nice job catching-and-releasing this fish!

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The three amigos…they are funny as heck when they get together… Joey Stolarczyk, Walt Topping and Ziggy Haspod, found some nice spots of dorado just inside of La Paz Bay and put some nice fish in the box and lost other larger fish!

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Great big bull dorado for Shawn Silk from San Mateo CA. Shawn was on his first trip with us and nailed this nice fish north of La Paz just outside of La Paz Bay north of town.

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Jeff Jiles looks a bit surprised, but no doubt he’s got a trophy roosterfish with Captain Jorge just south of Bahia de Los Muetos. Jeff came to visit from Utah.

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Maybe one of the happiest guys of the week. Great fun to have Felipe Yanez with us fishing all week. He holds up a paid of dorado caught with our Las Arenas fleet.

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Ziggy and Walt…in danger of a bit of sunburn, but happy with another dorado on the gaff! Always good to have them visit!

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Not a bad day of fishing for the Loveless family. Russ Loveless…Jeff and Shirleen Jiles…Tony Loveless and dad (Shirl) in the hat with a batch of nice dorado on the beach in front of La Concha Beach Resort. Great fun family.

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Tony Loveless in on the roosterfish bite with another nice fish! Punta Perico in the background!

 

ROOSTERFISH BEASTS and SUMMERTIME DORADO!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of May 18-25, 2014

 

It’s actually been one of the hotter and more humid weeks of the year with temps every day just over 100.  It’s only May, but if felt like July. Waters were also noticeably warmer as well.  But, the good-side of that is much of the green plankton-colored water burned off and we’ve got some pretty blue stuff finally here!

Overall, another up-and-down week.  One day our Las Arenas fleet would be top-dog for fish and action.  Next day, Las Arenas would be tough and our La Paz fleet would be rocking the fishing.   Similarly, two pangas next to each other would be fishing and doing the exact same thing or working the same beach or patch of water.  One would hook up left-and-right.  The other would have guys scratching their heads wondering if they had unlucky bananas aboard.  There was just no predicting from day-to-day or from location to location.

The two biggest stars that came through were our dorado, especially for our La Paz anglers, with fish up to 40 pounds, but so so so many fish lost!  It made the counts very deceiving!  Our fishermen would come in with some sad stories and only 2 or 3 fish.  Then, I would check with our captain and he would say, “But they had lots of opportunities!  They LOST 7 fish!”  Well…that’s a big difference!

But, then on at least two days this week, our captains and anglers said, “We saw fish everywhere…dorado…roosters…jack crevalle…And they wouldn’t bite!  They would swim right by the baits uninterested!”

The best news as again, the rooster fish.  The roosters around Las Arenas have been doing really well. Again, we got some real horse-sized pez gallos.  Fish were generally 20-50 pounds which are nothing to sneeze at, but we also got some fish in the 60-70 pound class and even one estimated at 80-90 pounds!  All fish were released.

We also saw more marlin this week and are hearing stories of tuna moving into our area from the south.

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

 

 

 

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of May 4-11, 2014

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Nice “skinny” for Matt Garrett from Washington who pulled up this nice wahoo that ran about 30 pounds just off Cerralvo Island. This was Matt’s first trip to La Paz. The wahoo have been pretty consistent now the last few weeks. We’re taking a few every day.

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This is the kind of dorado we like to see! Big bull dorado on the beach caught by Vince Bussio from Utah! There’s a few other dorado tails down by his feet as well.

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Great photo, smile and colors as Sandy Davis poses with a fresh wahoo off the south end of Cerralvo Island. Sandy is the sister of our good amiga, Donna Thompson who rocks the fishing grounds and lives in La Ventana. (Thanks for the photo!)

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Kansas City  in the house! Marion Lawver  pulled this nice dog-tooth snapper (pargo perro / dog-tooth snapper) out’ve the rocks. Tough tough fish that is all teeth, sharp gills and scales and lots of power. But they taste great! Nicely done!

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Some nice mahi on the beach as Don Henderson and Bill Cook from Idaho hold up a couple of dorado they caught with our Tailhunter Fleet and Captain Victor.

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Rick Rieken from Las Vegas has his hands full with a nice dorado and a nice wahoo! Some fish packing is in order. Muertos Bay in the background.

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It’s late in the season, but whalesharks are still in our La Paz Bay. Early this week, Jill and I took a few hours to snorkel with the hoping to find maybe 1 whale. Instead we ended up in the water with 8 of the gentle creatures! This one glides by the panga and is about 20 feet long! A baby…they grow over 50 feet long!

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With water only between 10 and 15 feet deep and incredibly warm, the big “babies” are feeding on plankton near the surface and often gulp their meals by opening their mouths and letting the food flow in! One of them seems to be giving Jill a big smile as it came next to our panga. We were snorkeling with our good friends at Fun Baja.

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It’s a great experience to get in the water with huge creatures and we had EIGHT of the “baby” whalesharks around us while we snorkeled for a few hours in water that was only 10-15 feet deep. Schools of foraging bait fish accompany the big whalesharks and feed off the leftovers! This big guy waited very patiently while I took his photo.

 

FISHING STILL ERRATIC BUT SOME QUALITY FILLS THE GAPS

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 4-11, 2014

 

Winds continue to be a problems…some days.  Others it’s barely breezy.  But this type of weather is consistent to this transitional time of year when it’s not quite spring and still not quite summer although air and water temps are relatively warm.  So, some days, it can be pretty bouncy out there limiting our range and style of fishing while other days, it’s like a pond!

Fishing is reflective of those conditions as well.  If it’s windy, we’re somewhat confined to inshore fishing, although that can be quite good for cabrilla, snapper, pargo, jack crevalle, small to large rooster fish and even some late-season sierra.  On the days that we’re able to range a bit further (fortunately, we never have to THAT far for our fishing!), we add to that list the larger dorado and wahoo which bit pretty well this week, especially off the north and south end of Cerralvo Island.   The wahoo were most aggressive in the early morning hours around sunrise and mid-morning and ranged from 20-40 pound fish.  Trolling with dark-colored Rapalas and Yo Zuri’s worked best.

The rooster fish saved us quite often with fish right up near the beaches and rocks going 25-50 pounds.

Summarily, it was spotty action.  Straight on…

It’s hard to explain.  You can do OK one day and, even tho’ conditions had not changed much, you can really struggle the next day.  Different boats do differently each day.  There can be long stretches of little action suddenly punctuated by the zing of a line going off or jetting jerked outta your socks by a fish slamming the bait or lure.

Bait continues to be a problem.  From what I’m hearing, the el nino has been plaguing the entire Baja.  I’m getting communications from the East Cape as well as Cabo asking if we have bait to sell or send.  I heard from friends in Loreto that they are also having trouble with live bait as well.   We’re making do with what nature gives us these days.  We’re using larger baits like stripped bonito as well as mackerel and caballitos…that all make excellent bait, but it’s not like you can throw handfuls of larger baits into the ocean for chum like we’re used to doing with sardines.  We are also using live ballyhoo as well.

One note of optimism is that I’m getting reports that out at the 88 bank outside of Cerralvo Island there’s lots of small mackerel and caballitos and small bonito balling up.  These are palm-sized fish that are super on the hook and we’re looking hopefully that in the week or two that area could blow up on us.  Last year, in the summer, the 88 turned into dorado and marlin candy land with dorado all going 40-50 pounds and marlin cruising the area in great numbers as well.

We’ll keep you updated!

Happy Mother’s Day to you and yours!   Hope it’s a good one!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

 

 

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