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Posts Tagged ‘fishing holidays’

yellowtail art debbie tags 3-13

Great way to start your fishing vacation! Dr. Art Flippin usually spends his days in sub-zero weather working around the Arctic Circle! So, donning shorts and Hawaiian shirts is a welcome treat! He and his Debbie Divine kicked off their vaction by jumping on some fat yellowtail near Cerralvo Island as well as a few tasty cabrilla off the reef! They’re posing here on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

Jorge jig gaff yellowtail tags 3-13

Our amigo, and former La Paz fishing champ shows hows it’s done as he does it all by himself! He hooks and fights the fish…hangs the fish…then gaffs it and brings it aboard Superman-style! We recommend you let our captains help you, but Jorge is a super-star! This is the back-side of Cerralvo Island. Not the big dorado-colored jig in the fish’s mouth and the flat waters close to shore!

Flippin yellowtail 3 tags 3-13

Art spent a few days on the water with us and shows off another nice fat yellowtail near the north point of Cerralvo. Check out the guy in the background on the bow of another panga…totally bent on another big yellowtail!

yellowtail to gaff tags 3-13 flippin

Nothing quite like seeing a fish come to gaff after a long battle! Looks like another yellowtail is gonna get put in the box!

Adam Toeniskoetter yellowtail tags 3-13

Adam Toeniskoetter and his dad came down to visit us from Northern California for the first time and had 3 banner days of yellowtail fishing before the winds kicked up again mid-week. Adam poses with a hefty yellowtail.

Yellowtail jigs

Handy to have! I’m getting alot of questions from guys asking what colors of lures/ iron they should bring down this time of year if the yellowtail are biting or if the bait gets scarce. Here’s a few samples I pulled from my own tackle box to show. They’re a little nicked and dinged and scraped, but that’s because they’ve been BIT!

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Just thought I’d throw this in. Chuck Toeniskoetter kindly sent me this photo of Steve Jobs new yacht that’s been parked in Marina Costa Baja in La Paz. This is what 140 million bucks can buy you. One amigo joked that it kinda looks like a floating iPod. It’s not the prettiest watercraft ever! But I bet if you get close enough you get free wi-fi signals! It’s probably hard to fish from!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

If you ever wondered…yes, whales do smile! The grey whales seemed to staying around a bit longer than usual this year and our visitors had a great time with them this week getting about as close to the mom’s and calves as you could get and rubbing noses! Thanks to Debbie Divine for this photo. We’re still running daily trips to Mag Bag as long as the whales stay around!

Salt Lake City-20120318-00232

Salt Lake City you were great to us! Thanks for all the hospitality and the fantastic time at the ISE show in Sandy UT! After 3 months on the road, Jill and I finally wrap up our Tailhunter Road tour and will be in San Diego starting Wednesday to Sunday at the Del Mar Fairgrounds for the Fred Hall Fishing Show! Then we head home finally to La Paz!

YELLOWTAIL SLAM MACKEREL AND IRON JIGS BACKSIDE OF CERRALVO ISLAND!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week for March 10-17, 2013

It’s a good thing we didn’t have any fishing clients early in the week as the northern winds kicked in again and pretty much made it impossible to fish so just as well!  However, mid-week winds kicked down a notch and like clockwork, up came the bait and so did the big horse yellowtail that have taken up residence around Cerralvo Island.

Again, a good grade of 20-40 pound fish were the norm.  Mackerel worked as the hot ticket, but for guys who knew how to work the iron, especially blue and white, yellow and green and scrambled egg patterns the fish were more than cooperative and produced some of the larger fish.   Pangas averaged about 3-8 yellowtail each with almost as many tougher fish lost in the rocks or simply busted off…which is part of the fun.

Late in the week, it’s important to note that the mackerel did get harder to locate.  That’s not a good sign.  So, we’re keeping an eye on that.

We’ve had a great yellowtail season the last 5 weeks or so, but that was dependent on the mackerel being around.  As the mackerel go so do the yellowtail so we hope the mackies don’t go…just yet!  But that means that we had to work harder to get the fish especially using iron so one of those rare times when artificials are preferred over live bait simply because the live bait was hard to find, those angler who knew how to use throwing and yo-yo iron were at an advantage.  The basic technique simply means dropping the lure overboard and winding like your arm is falling off as fast as you can go!  The faster you crank the better the chance of getting a big yellowtail to slam the lure.  It also means that when you do have the mackerel, every one has to count!  No wasting bait!  Be on your “A” game!  Yellowtail don’t “nibble!”   The INHALE and head back to the rocks!   Big 40-pound fish don’t hesitate and they’ll slam into the baits and if you’re not ready, you miss your chances!

As for other species, the focus has been so intense for the last month on the big yellowtail that the other species common to this time of year are almost being ignored.  Yes, there’s pargo liso in the shallows as the big mutton snapper are in the shallows for their annual spawn.  There’s also cabrilla and sierra as well in the shallows and rocky areas plus we’re seeing more roosters as the weeks go on as well.

TAILHUNTER TOUR 2013 WINDS IT UP IN SAN DIEGO THIS WEEK!

San Diego-20120321-00243

After 3 months and almost 15,000 miles of driving, the 2013 Tailhunter Road Tour winds it up this week with our 10th and final show.  We’re back on the beautiful Pacific Ocean in S. California in San Diego at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.  We’re in the booth from Wednesday to Sunday at the Fred Hall Fishing and Boating Show.  This is always a fun show and it’s good to be back in the sunshine and on home turf!  Come say hi and let’s talk about your 2013 La Paz fishing vacation!  For more details, check out the link:  http://www.fredhall.com/pages/san_diego/sdticketInfo.php

Have a great week everyone!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com

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

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: 

http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

 

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Huge dorado almost looks pre-historic! Scott McKenzie was on his 2nd trip with us this year and was rewarded by this monster bull dorado he caught fishing with Captain Pancho and our Tailhunter Las Arena fleet. For Scott, it was his largest dorado and he had just been here 3 weeks ago with his sisters, but came back on this trip with his buddies. The dorado fishing prior to the storms was pretty steady!

What a week! This is a photo of the malecon…the waterfront road at the heart of La Paz under several feet of water after a week of suffering a partial hurricane then a tropical storm!

Huge sinkholes and potholes often were not evident under the rushing waters until someone tried to drive through them. Several times drivers and passengers had to be rescued and fortunately, no one was killed. During the final storm of Tropical Storm Norman, more than 12 inches of rain fell in 16 hours.

There’s a 4 lane highway under here someplace! One sign pointing south to Cabo about 100 miles away just on the edge of La Paz that got almost a week of heavy rains.

Good amigo, Tom Hinmon, from the Los Angeles area, shows off one of the larger bull dorado of the week he caught with our Las Arenas fleet. Unfortunately, Tom and his amigos had to cancel their 3rd day of fishing when rain washed out roads to Las Arenas.

and the next day the storm hit forcing cancelation of their 2nd day of fishing.

Derrick Tagawa and Mark Kojima teamed up for a nice day of dorado and a striped marlin fishing near Cerralvo Island. It was unfortunate that our two amigos only had two days of fishing

Chris Lynch and Pat Stoll started 3 days of fishing on a high note with a good day of dorado fishing with our Las Arenas fleet. Things went downhill from there as the rains started up that night. But the guys, to their credit, kept up the smiles and good spirits as did many of our disappointed anglers.

On his 2nd trip with us this year, Frank Vargas, came down from Seattle to enjoy some sunshine and fishing and on his 1st of 3 days of fishing started off with some great dorado fishing including this nice bull dorado.

Two of our best fish brothers from the Pacific Northwest, Rod maker Bob Solee for B & B rods in Portland and Grant Darby from Washington have fished with us so many times over all the years and never stop smiling. They started 3 days fishing with some nice dorado and Grant’s nice fat barred pargo!

Not bad for a first timer…Misty Rogers gets a hand from husband, Justin, and Captain Archangel on her big sailfish. The couple is from Idaho and were on their first visit to La Paz. Note the dark skies of the impending storms that hit soon after.

From the Sacramento CA area, Ron and Yvette Straub, had one of their better fishing trips with us showing off their first day on the water of 3. Nice bite of dorado on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

Nick Keshish, Tom Moon, Robert and Bob Connell pose at Muertos Bay with some of their first day dorado.

Our amigo, Wade Gomes, from Sacramento has been with us many times and had many good trips, but really got snakebit the first 2 days with us. However, they kept at it and worked hard and hung in there and on day 3, finally found a willing school of nice dorado they they nailed while fishing with brother Greg Gomes. They were fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island

Steve and Kevin Resky started off well with a nice day of dorado and a lost pargo, but then rains hit and lost 2 days of fishing when the storm hit. These fish were caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

There’s still roosterfish around and we got a few this week for folks who wanted to get one off their bucket list. Justin Rogers from Idaho shows off his rooster before releasing it.

Wayne Wellsandt and Curt Desjardins fishing with our Las Arenas fleet and their family pulled in some nice dorado when the fish went off early in the week.

CRAZY WEEK  WITH A HURRICANE AN EARTHQUAKE THEN ANOTHER STORM WITH DORADO BITING EARLY

La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 23-30, 2012

It was one of the strangest weeks ever in years.  It was certainly one for the record books.  In a week, we got sideswiped by Hurricane Miriam.   We got hit by a 6.2 earthquake.  And we got a Tropical Storm Norman that dropped 12 inches of rain on us in less than 24 hours!  It was a crazy week. 

 

We technically didn’t take the hurricane on the nose, but it brushed us and dropped several heavy afternoons of rain with thunder and lightning.  (We were still able to fish each day as the storms did not hit until late in the afternoon!).  However, it was during one of these big thundershowers on Tuesday that one giant “thunderclap” didn’t stop.  Thinks kept rumbling and then things started falling off the wall.  The floor started jumping and walls bending and we realized EARTHQUAKE!  Our staff went flying out the door into the rain as our Tailhunter offices and restaurant are in a 3 story concrete building that’s 100 years old!  Not the funnest place to be when things are shaking! 

 

Anyway, no real damage.  No one hurt.  More laughs when it was over than anything else but quakes are so unusual here, let alone one during a rainstorm that we were all scratching our heads as we stood in the rain! 

 

Then, late in the week as Hurricane Miriam was just leaving us, Tropical Storm Norman crashed into us dropping as much as 12 inches of rain in about 18 hours and truly flooding the city.  Cars were stranded in the deep waters.  People were stranded from getting to their homes and jobs as streets flooded.  It was like a hurricane without the 50 mph winds! 

 

For the first time in 3 years, we had to cancel pangas to the disappointment of many of us, but the roads to Las Arenas become too flooded and muddy with water-filled arroyos to go out and for our La Paz fleet, the port captain closed down the port re-calling all boats or preventing watercraft from leaving.  Real disappointing 2 days. 

 

We’ve gotten more rain in 3 weeks than we’ve had in 3 years.  In fact, we’ve pretty much had zero rain here in La Paz in 3 years and were in a drought situation.  This is also the first time in 3 years we’ve canceled pangas due to the weather.  What a week!

 

More specifically for the fishing…

 

Early in the week with hurricane Miriam dropping afternoon rains on us, we were still able to fish and were doing quite well for the most part.  Not great fishing ,but we were still catching.  Dorado were the main hitters and our Las Arenas fleet was more on target than our La Paz fleet.  Again, just like the week before, there were some low spots where some boats found the fish and others virtually right next to them struggled.  But dorado in the 15-20 pound class were the norm with some larger fish up to 45 pounds.

 

As mentioned, I think this past week, our Las Arenas fleet had the edge with not only better dorado action, but also more variety.  In terms of species, we had dorado, sailfish, striped marlin, pargo, blue bonito, pacific bonito, jack crevalle, and a few stray yellowfin tuna and a wahoo.  But, what was really exciting was that for the first time in 2 years the giant squid came up.  These were the nice 30 pounders and they came up out’ve the trench in front of the old Hotel Las Arenas.  I was especially excited because usually within a few days of squid coming up from the deep, the yellowfin tuna also come up.  But then the storm hit and we had 2 days of canceled trips.  Hopefully by the time you’re reading this we’ll have some tuna in the counts.

 

La Paz fishing continued to produce dorado as well, but not as well as we’ve been doing the past few months.  Colder greener water was the problem and it appears that waters might indeed be getting colder sooner than expected.  We started catching sierra mixed with the dorado which usually don’t show up until it gets cooler in late November.  Sierra are always an indicator of the colder water.

 

Hopefully, now that the storms have passed and not a cloud in the forecast, there will be lots of debris in the water which becomes perfect habitat for dorado.  Maybe we can make up this week for having to cancel a few days of fishing this past week!

 

That’s our story

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, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

 

Phones:  from USA : 626-638-3383 from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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

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

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A rare and treasured fish…at least this year! There’s been a dearth of wahoo caught this year. Only a handful have shown all season when we should be really getting into them! But Harry Hsu got this 30-pound class ‘hoo fishing with our Las Arenas fleet just south of Cerralvo Island.

Triple generation “man-cation” for Larry Bodle from Huntington Beach, his son, Ernie, and dad Jim. They blasted a nice day of dorado with us as they pose on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

San Diego in the house! Alex Trasvina (closest to the camera) gets in the line up with dad, and cousins after a solid dorado day at Las Arenas. One of their boats had limits before 11 a.m. and were back on the beach goofing for roosterfish.

Bill Hsu from Diamond Bar CA  had a successful 3 days fishing with us as we had better activity than we’ve had in a long time with our Las Arenas fleet. Bill took this nice dorado on bait.

Earlier in the week, we still had lingering clouds and rain, but the dorado still cooperated. This is our son-in-law Brian Reid celebrating his birthday with us, our daughter, Jessie from Las Vegas and that’s Scottie Roughgarden from Hollywood CA playing around in the back!

People often forget that while everyone is a bit offshore chasing the “glamour” gamefish like dorado, inshore offers some great fishing. Stan Yung and his daughter Shantel spent several days working the reefs and rocks and went home with a mess of cabrilla and yellow snapper which are incredibly delicious eating! Stan was on his first trip with us and is from Glendale CA.

Gloria Paymani is a producer from Hollywood and is one of our newest fun Tailhunter amigas! She busted several days of fish and tied into this HUGE bonito that she says ran her around for “20 minutes” before she got it to the boat with a hand from smiling Capt. Alfredo with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

Colorado has been well-represented this year and this week was no different. Laura and Rob Duerr from Denver rocked the boat with a load of dorado and yellow snapper and pargo this past week and pose on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

Ron Koslowski is probably wondering “How did a trigger fish end up in the fish box with all these dorado?” Fishing with Captain Pancho he and his wife stacked the panga fish box with a load of dorado to take home to Colorado.

LAST MINUTE ADDITION! Just as I was publishing this fishing report (Sunday night), Ernie Bodle and Scott Sylvester sent in their photo from Sunday’s great dorado bite! I had to get it into the report. Ernie got this nice wahoo and took the family jackpot (there were 7 of them fishing) plus Scott nailed the big bull dorado!

POST FULL MOON ANGLERS WORK HARDER FOR FISH BUT LAS ARENAS AREA WAKING UP FINALLY!

La Paz -Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 2-8, 2012

It would seem that our bite during the full moon was a lot better than our bite AFTER the full moon this past week.  While there were definitely some high spots for fishing this week and some good catches, I would have to say that fishing was only spotty to good during this past week.  I’m not sure whether to blame it on the after-effects of last week’s rains; clouded water in some spots; or what.  I really can’t put my finger on it as there really doesn’t seem to be much different this week than last week when we had numerous afternoon showers.  But, the bite definitely wasn’t as good.

Dorado were our main species again this week.  Every day a few boats got into them nicely for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets.  A few boats would find the right spots and get bent nicely but then other boats would scratch and scratch.  The next day, it would be just the opposite.  The “hot boat” or the “hot spot” would get cold and a different boat; set of anglers; or area would turn out to be the hot area.  No real rhyme or reason that even our captains could discern.

Las Arenas did better than it has been.  That was encouraging.  Much more dorado with some nice schoolie fish.  Las Arenas all year has literally been slower than slow except for roosterfish.  But this week we got into some decent dorado, roosterfish plus even a (surprise) wahoo!   Pargo were also a good fallback with pargo mulatto (barred pargo) and yellow snapper filling some coolers.

La Paz was OK.  Steady, but as mentioned, hit-or-miss.  Dorado ranged from smaller 10 pounders to some 25 pounders.  A few larger ones got away.  We also had a few sailfish show up in the bites with all fish released.

Hopefully, this week is just a bump in the road and we’ll be back on track by the time you’re reading this!

By the way…not sure how much of a difference it made, but some of our guys brought fresh frozen squid with them this week and swore it made a difference on the dorado so…if anyone wants to bring FRESH frozen squid (not the stuff you buy at the bait store), it wouldn’t hurt.

NEW ADDRESS

Tailhunter International has moved it’s U.S. address.  While Jill and I still live full-time down here in La Paz, our U.S. office is:

TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL

3566 Quail View St.
Spring Valley, CA 91977

or

TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL

P.O. Box 1149

Alpine CA  91903-1149

TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

Don’t forget, if you need a bigger dose of our fishing and other things from down here in La Paz, you can follow me personally (Jonathan Roldan) on Facebook and Twitter then “like” TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL SPORTIFISHING and “like”  TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL (the restaurant/bar).

Have a great week!  This coming week is going to be crazy…MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY is like New Year’s Eve and Spring Break and 4th of July all rolled into one on the 15th/ 16th of this week!

That’s our story!

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, Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate


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

Read Full Post »