La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay and Mag Bay Report for Week of March 25-April 1, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT for the WEEK
PAST WEEK AT A GLANCE
Water – Not bad. Getting warmer. Still stronger currents than we’d like
Temps – Mid 80’s day time. Pleasant nights. Still really windy about 1/2 the days
Fishing – I’d give it a 4 on a scale of 10, but 4 is better than it’s been. Alot of variety and good fish signs
Catching– I’d give it a 4 also. Could be alot better. And I think it will get better as things get warmer and water and wind settles down more and more.
What Got Caught – Dorado, yellowtail, jack crevalle, bonito, yellow snapper, red snapper, pargo liso, pargo perro, barred bargo, triggerfish, bonito,, cabrilla, palometa, pompano, corbina
THE REST OF THE STORY
Our amigo for many years, Mitch Chavira has been fishing La Paz almost as long as we’ve been there. He knows his stuff and knows his way around throwing iron too. He jigged up this toad cabrilla off Espirito Santo Island.
Gary and Miles Wagner from Colorado Springs, Colorado fished inside the mangroves of Bahia Magdalena on a day Gary said, “The winds outside were blowing 40K!” and did great on the corvina and palometa on light tackle!
Two of the best fishermen, Mitch and Charlie “Stix” McGee from San Diego working just inside of La Paz Bay put the wood to some of those nice dorado that have shown up.
All the way from Germany, Claude Demith got himself some great eating variety…dorado…dog tooth snapper (cubera)…big triggerfish…and cabrilla!
Dan Miyake with Captain Pancho and a nice Muertos Bay yellowtail. Waters are warming so not sure how long we’ll see these YT’s around.
The right kind! Mitch looking good with one of those tough forkies. Yellowtail out’ve La Paz.
Guys from Colorado always know how to pose creatively with fish! Gary Wagner again with a palometa from Mag Bay!
Just in time for Spring Break / Semana Santa and Easter, the winds kinda gave us a bit of a break this week. There were still some really windy days, but at least there were some windows of opportunity. Definitely, more folks in town for vacation. More fishermen on the water and for sure…the beaches are just jammed.
Normally, our beaches are pretty empty, but during Semana Santa, it looks like Woodstock! Makes you wonder where everyone is the rest of the time? I mean, on some beaches, there’s not a square inch of empty space and in Mexico, the beaches are public so you can pretty much camp and picnic anywhere and anytime. Afterwards, it makes for quite a clean-up as you might imagine. At least, it’s once a year and everyone is having a good time.
Anyway, for fishing, the fish are there! If the windows of opportunity are open and the waters are fishable, the bite is there to be had! It’s far from wide-open, but fishing is alot better than might be expected with alot of variety possible.
LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY
It’s evident that the waters are changing. We have quite a bit of transition going on with both warm and cold water fish occupying the same water space! I’m surprised that this early in the year, we have some dorado, tuna and billfish around. Normally, we don’t see those until maybe a month or more from now. Not alot of these species, but any day holds its possibilities.
Likewise, there are still cold water species around as well. Cabrilla, snapper and Sierra were caught this week as well as several species of pargo (dog-tooth/ cubera snapper and barred pargo). Plus, add in the usual jack crevalle and lots of bonito on top of things and, you’re not quite sure what’s gonna bite.
Every day is not good. Every boat is not catching fish. I want to be honest about it. But there’s fish there and the signs are encouraging. It was one of the better weeks in awhile. We’re using a combination of live bait, dead bait, jigs and Rapalas for the days.
LA PAZ
With the wind having backed down a bit this past week…with no guarantees of next week…we had some boats finally able to get out. Again, just like at Muertos/ Las Arenas, there was a combination of cold and surprisingly warm water fish. A few yellowtail and pargo around but maybe we’re not going to see much of a yellowtail season this year because the waters are getting warm quick as evidenced by a few tuna popping up plus there seems to be dorado right in La Paz Bay! We don’t usually see mahi mahi in the bay until much later in the year. The ones we’re seeing now are legit 10-20 pound fish! Plus, there’s sardines around too. All good signs!
GASTRONIMICA LA PAZ 2018 – MAY 4
The 2018 La Paz Gastronomica Food Festival will be held May 4 once again on the beach in La Paz. If you’ve never been to it the massively fun food festival draws thousand of visitors and over 100 restaurants, hotels and culinary schools from La Paz as well as Todos Santos and Cabo San Lucas.
For one ticket price, you get to eat and sample all kinds of great regional Mexican foods…all you can eat…shrimps, clams, oysters, roasted pig, all types of tacos, moles, Italian food, Chinese, Thai, desserts ,baked goods…everyone has a booth. And so do the wine, tequila and beer distributors as well so it’s all the tequila, wine an cerveza you can handle as well.
Great music, bands and entertainment and it goes well past midnight and just an incredible event. Each year, Tailhunter Restaurant also has a booth among the “seafood row” vendors! Last year, we had our famous Hawaiian poke!
Tailhunters is putting together event packages with hotel, festival tickets, plus the usual great activities of fishing, diving, snorkeling and more! If you’re already booked with us during these dates and want to attend the event, we’ll be selling tickets. Contact me directly at: Jonathan@tailhunter.com
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
La Paz- Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of March 18-25, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT for WEEK of March 18-25, 2018
THE REST OF THE STORY…
Jorge Romero with one of the rare quality fish picked up the whole week and has a nice yellowtail in hand he caught with sardines. He also said there were quite a few bonito, but overall no one was getting too much of anything, Nice shirt!
There were few bright spots for fishing this past week as it was mostly a windy, cloudy rough time. It’s fairly common during the winter months which is why we don’t have many folks fishing during these months. We had one or two days at most that were somewhat fishable and even then, it was picky fishing at best. Some snapper…some pargo…a few cabrilla…and a few yellowtail were about it. Oh, and alot of bonito for some grateful action. And that was the whole enchilada for the week. Fortunately, not many anglers. However, with spring break and Easter on it’s way, things are going to start getting crowded and we can only hope the weather and winds drop back a notch or two. Early predictions so far look a bit iffy. Just being honest.
TAILHUNTER 2018 ROAD TOUR COMES TO AN END!
After almost 4 months on the road and a journey that started back in December and took us through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, California, Washington and Oregon…we come to the end of the road.
Jilly wrapped things up a the Fred Hall Show in San Diego. I was out in the Phoenix, Arizona area with the International Sportsmans Expo. Both shows were super and good to see so many Tailhunter tribe members and new amigos!
Its been another epic road tour after 23 years and we are so grateful to everyone who took the time to come see us all of the hunting and fishing shows. It was great and we appreciate all the smiles and hospitality. God bless you all!
To those of you who signed up to come visit us this year fishing in La Paz, let’s get going! We’re gonna have a great season and we’re looking forward to seeing you down with us. We have to unpack the van and the cat and then saddle up and get home to La Paz right after Easter. So, we’ll see you down there! Thanks again.
Mexican Minute Fishing Report for Week of March 11-18, 2018
WINDS CUT US SOME SLACK FINALLY
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of March 11-18, 2018
A mess of great eating for Carl Bock from Puyallup Washington with Captain Pancho and some nice cabrilla and pargo lisa (mullet snapper) taken off the reefs and rocks. Typical winter fishing!
Chunky winter yellowtail for Greg Garrison of San Diego that he took off the north end of Cerralvo Island this week. Thanks for the photo, Gary!
We’d like to see a few more of these as the waters get warmer. Steve Strummell from the bay area of San Francisco poses with his bull dorado.
A hog trophy cabrilla off the north end of Cerralvo Island caught by Gary Garrison of San Diego. Thanks Gary Wagner for the photo.
Second day on the water proved a nice mix of warm and cold water fish for Carl Bock who poses with his cabrilla and dorado
Well, the good news is that after 3 weeks, the winds settled down a bit and allowed us to get to do a bit of fishing. The bad news is that well…there weren’t many fishermen. Fairly typical for this time of year. Further bad news is that the winds are supposed to jump back up this coming week!
Oh well, you just roll with it because that’s how it is during the winter months. For all the lack of fishermen right now, with Easter coming up April 1, those are the busiest times for travel to Mexico and especially places like Baja and particularly La Paz where we are. Not necessarily gringos looking to party and kick it up during spring break, but for Holy Week and the dates around Easter, these are the busiest travel times for Mexicans. Moreso than Christmas or any other time of the year, Mexicans visit and travel outside the country, but also many Mexicans living in the U.S. and other places take the time to visit their friends and relatives back home. Likewise, domestically many locals travel to visit during this time. What that means is that many otherwise “empty” beaches are going to be packed with folks camping and picnicking all week. Many will be fishing too so expect that in about 2-3 weeks, it’s going to be jammed.
Anyway, on the days we could fish, we got out and got an interesting mix. Coldwater species like snapper, cabrilla, pargo, jack crevasse and yellowtail mixed it up with warm water species like dorado and even a few tuna and lots of bonito. The better action and most consistent bite was in shallow waters over structure for the colder water species using Rapalas, live bait and dead bait. We found fish close and around Punta Perrico and also at the north and south ends of Cerralvo Island.
TAILHUNTER DOWN THE HOME STRETCH
After almost 3 1/2 months on the road with our 23rd year kicking off, we have just two more shows to do before going home. We just finished up the ISE Show in Sandy, UT, just south of Salt Lake City and a big “GRACIAS!” to everyone who came by to say hello and to those of you who booked with us, we’re sure looking forward to your visit!
So now…Jilly and I go in different directions again.
Jilly will be headed to the Fred Hall Fishing & Boating Show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego CA. Click the link:
These are our last two shows of the season then we’ll be headed home to La Paz. We’ve got alot of you reserved this year, but still have some spots open! Get in touch with us ASAP so we make sure we have you covered and you get in on this 2018 season! If you can make it to Del Mar or Scottsdale, Jilly and I will be in the booth every day and it would be great to see you!
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
This is the best mustache of the week! Don Slaiman and Captain Pancho from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet bust out the big smiles with two nice bull dorado on the beach.
Chris Chang owns an organic nursery in Canada and had never fished in Mexico before, but fishing with Tailhunters got plenty of dorado and, on his last day, a huge 300 pound blue marlin north of La Paz that he fought on a Penn 6/0 reel with 60 pound test and put in the boat in only about an hour. The gut hooked fish inhaled the green and orange lure all the way down it’s gullet. He was fishing with popular Captain Rogelio “Jolly Roger” Camacho.
There’s a zillion good things going on in this photo of Tyler Emard from Fullerton CA. Fishing with Captain Rogelio from our Taihunter La Paz fleet, Tyler fought this dorado…his first and biggest…for 20 minutes on light tackle…no belt…all arms and shoulders! He’s headed to the University of Arizona in a few weeks! Great colors on this photo!
The skies went from clear to this…as a wave or darkness hits the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. There had been absolutely nothing on the advisories or radar about this. That’s why they are called “toritos.” (little bulls). These storms come out of nowhere with thunder, lightning, wind and rain and it’s almost like a baby hurricane. Ominous. The pangas had to scramble back to the beach for cover.
Seven minutes after the first photo, here’s what the beach looked like at Bahia de Los Muertos…a malestrom! Thirty minutes later, the sun was out…
Las Arenas provided some good action this week for Tailhunter clients including Steve Holguin from Los Angeles and his son, Marcos who is attending college in New York as the pair show off a set of dorado standing on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos with Captain Jorge of the Tailhunter fleet.
Susie Waters had never fished La Paz or ocean-fished before, but broke into it big time with a couple of days on the water with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. This is just a super photo of her hanging the fish all by herself with big smiles.
Long Beach fishing veteran, Zach Linden, raced down for a last-minute trip this week and a couple of days of fishing. The fish gods smiled and Zach did some great action on ultralight tackle including this pair of La Paz dorado.
Rebecca Kendrick got into the thick of the dorado action with this nice bull mahi fishing with Captain Alfredo and deckie Blas. She had always wanted to fish Mexico and salt water and had a great first experience with a number of nice fish over several days of fishing.
It’s got a little sand on the forehead, but a great photo of Peter Knapp and Captain Pancho on the beach at Las Arenas with this nice-sized bull.
Grant Stark and Levi Fadoul put the wood to this thick bull dorado fishing north of La Paz last week. These two guys had too much fun all week. Always seemed to be cracking up!
UNPREDICTABLE EL NINO CONDITIONS AFFECT FISHING BUT DORADO DO THEIR BEST
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 20-27, 2014
With the exception of another of those surprise “torito” (little bull) storms that popped up on Thursday, it was a pretty good week of fishing for the most part.
This time of year, waters are extremely warm…actually, warmer than usual…as a result of the “el nino” situation. This has given rise to rapidly forming storms that are not shown on weather advisories in the morning. However, out of seemingly clear skies, huge thunderheads suddenly build and the skies grow dark within minutes. Winds start whipping and wave emerge from calm seas turning the ocean into churning froth. Wind-driven rain doesn’t fall so much as it shoots sideways from the gusts. It’s time to get the heck off the water!
Several weeks ago, one of these storms turned into a huge waterspout between Cerralvo Island and El Sargento and Las Arenas. We didn’t quite get that this week, but in the span of about 10 minutes clear skies went dark and the oceans got treacherous. The pangas had barely been on the water, but found themselves racing back to the beach made more perilous by waves now pounding the sands where the pangas had to land. Lighting strikes illuminated everyone scrambling around for shelter. Cell phone and electrical power gets cut off.
As the rains hit and everyone hunkers down….that’s pretty much all you can do. There’s a reason they call these “little bulls.” Within an hour or two…sometimes in the span of minutes…it’s over. The sun blazes back out. The winds turn off. The skies go clear and flat. Except for puddles of water, there’s no trace.
And that’s what happened Thursday morning.
But, the rest of the week was pretty grand!
LAS ARENAS
Fishing definitely improved over the week before. Again, dorado were center stage, but there were fewer punk 5 pound dorado and more respectable 10-20 pounders and all willing to charge pretty much water was in the water. Some boats did better than others, but then the next day the boat that did poorly would be the big boy boat. Consistently , ever panga we put on the water caught fish…or had opportunities to catch fish. One of the big problems is that the baits we have tend to be large. Hence, it takes longer than normal for the fish to really chomp the bait and get a hook down in their mouths. Anxious anglers would often tell me they pulled the trigger too soon before the dorado could eat and they would lose the hook-set and half-a-bait would come flying back to the boat…sans dorado!
LA PAZ
Still our most consistent area. Our La Paz boats rocked some really nice 20-40 pound fish this week as they have now since June. The fish extend right from La Paz Bay towards Espirito Santo Island then around the corner to about El Rosario/ Las Cruces where the larger bulls seem to have taken residence not too far from the beach. Co-incidentally, that’s where large schools of baitfish have been seen. We also got some roosterfish off the beaches.
The bigger news is the increased incidence of hookups with billfish including larger-than-normal sailfish and even some blue marlin. I don’t remember seeing so many hookups on blue marlin as I have the past two or three weeks. Most of the sails and marlin are getting released, but one fish that couldn’t be released was a hefty 300-pound blue.
WEATHER
El Nino effects keep coming. Days can start out with bright brilliant sunshine but by afternoon, the clouds roll in and we get tropical storms that can be pretty crazy. It can rain in one place and 100 yards away, it’s bone dry! And the rain can last 5 minutes of an hour. Then the sun comes blazing out. But, there’s some predictions of more afternoon rain this week.
Good amigo, Steve Hartsook, from N. California has been visiting us for years and came down earlier this year than normal finally getting into some nice yellowtail fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet despite some pesky winds.
Retired Sherriff’s officer, Verda Boyd, usually comes with her husband, Tim, in December and the way the winds blew this week, it might’ve been about that cold! But Verda came without Tim for some yellowtail fishing and produced this hefty forkie fishing off Espirito Santo Island with Captain Joel.
Big red pargo lisos (mullet snapper) for Kwame Satterfield who was visiting us from Antioch, CA. The double catch was taken while Kwame was fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. He’s posing here at Bahia de Los Muertos. The big snapper/pargo are schooling in the shallows right now.
We just started getting some good roosterfishing the last week or two and most of them have been quality pez gallos. Jeff Brown from Minnesota caught and released this beauty off Espirito Santo Island. There have been some good schools showing up with some nice quality fish to start the season.
Happy smiles from Yolanda Wheeler. Her first time ever on the ocean…first time ever fishing on the ocean…and her first fish on the ocean…a nice dorado! She was so excited she was jumping up and down in the panga! One of our first dorado of the season also!
Far from home, but always welcome, Rod Brown visits us several times a year from distant Wrangell, Alaska! He always does well. Maybe two of the last yellowtail of the changing season, Rod’s posing with Captain Joel from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Jackson, Mississippi in the house! Randall Carrier came a long way to visit us on his first trip and it paid off (just before the winds kicked up) with this nice wahoo on his first day and first day ever! The wahoo was stuck at the south end of Cerralvo Island.
Two of our newest amigos, Chuck Fiola from Washington and Cal Lambert from Colorado have an nice rack of pargo and sierra they caught while fishing off Las Arenas with us last week.
Nice dog-tooth snapper aka “cubera snapper” or “pargo perro”, in the hands of Bob Patterson.
PARTING SHOT! When fishing is already tough, don’t complicate it! Our resident amigo and fishing champ had a tough day…then found out later that “someone” had put bananas aboard! This was the only fish caught on the panga all day! For those who don’t know…bananas are bad luck!
STRONG WINDS BLOW APART THE BITE !
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 7-14, 2013
After such a spectacular week two weeks ago, Mother Nature kicked up again to remind us that there are some things we still can’t control and we really had a difficult week of fishing. The bugaboo winds that really determine all things down here howled and blew demonically and either damped the fishing or outright, kept our anglers off the water.
It’s too bad because we were really charging into (what I thought!) was high gear.The previous week we had our first big tunas…the best wahoo bite in severe seasons…big rooster fish show up…first dorado of the season…big pargo and cabrilla finally kick in…some solid yellowtail still biting…we were kicking up our heels and ready to charge!
And then this week came on. As they say…”in like a lion.” The winds roared.
Actually, our weather seemed to reflect what much of the west to middle of the U.S. and Canada got…cold temperatures, high winds… One day we just brought all the boats back to shore. Another day we just “suggested” it might not be so good to go out and told everyone to just stay back on the beach rather than get beat up (they had other extra days to make up the missed day). Two of the rare occasions when we maybe could have gone out, but why? Go out and get beat and wet? It’s supposed to be fun.
On a few other days, it was just too rough to even get bait or get to the fishing areas. So, this resulted in really slow fishing. So, that was pretty much the story of the week.
When we did get out, we did get a few yellowtail, some dorado. Some sierra. Some nice rooster fish were also caught. We did get two marlin hooked and dropped. As well, some pargo were taken. But, I need to be honest…it was a stinky week. We’ve had better.
The good thing about fishing the Baja…it doesn’t stay bad for long. We should turn the corner again…probably by the time you’re reading this.
It wasn’t the best of weeks for fishing Strong winter winds whipped the area for several days giving even the palm trees along the La Paz Malecon on the waterfront little respite.
We know the fish are out there! Check out this big bull taken by Wayne Jarrett out at the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island…just before the winds started. Big bulls like this aren’t very typical in the winter, but various reports from several areas confirm that the dorado are still hanging around! The problem is either getting to those spots or braving the waves and big winds to get the bait to fish for the quality fish like this! (Thanks for the great shot, Hawk!)
Horse yellowtail like this one caught by our amigo, Art “Doc” Flippin who comes all the way down from his job in the Arctic to fish with us, have been very close in the shallows just south of Bahia de Los Muertos. The promising bite was shut down by the winds and we plan to recon the spot again hopefully by mid-week when the winds should diminish.
It’s whale season as the grey whales have begun returning to Bahia Magdalena to the west of La Paz! It’s an incredible experience to get this close to the gentle animals and Tailhunters is running daily trips now through March to spend a day on the bay with the whales. Just e-mail us at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com.
Thanks to all of our amigos who came to visit us at the Denver Convention Center this past week. We has a blast seeing old friends and meeting new ones and talking about fishing in La Paz. Our “tour” now takes us to Puyallup, Washington at the Washington State Fairgrounds. Jill and I will be in our booth from Wednesday to Sunday. Come say hi and let’s chat about your 2013 La Paz fishing vacation!
WORST WEEK OF WIND KEEPS EVERYONE OFF THE WATER
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of January 12-20, 2012
Not much of a week of fishing. In fact, how about zero fishing. I think that’s the first time I’ve reported that…EVER in 17 years down here in La Paz!
Cold weather and incredibly strong winds kept everyone off the water or close to shore. Certainly, not much fishing going on, but thankfully, we didn’t have anyone reserved for this week. It wasn’t just choppy, it was rough out there as it seemed the winds blew continuously as a windy front pushed through and chilled everyone! If you walked around town, everyone seemed to be bundled up although many tourists found 67 degree weather to be rather pleasant. For locals, there was a rush to put on jackets and long pants!
Commercial guys say there’s still some dorado outside at the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island but no one really wants to go out there and get smacked around on a long run. There’s also yellowtail stacking up at the north end of Cerralvo Island as well as around Bahia de Los Muertos. The week really started out promising, but then the winds came up and it wasn’t worth it to go out. Everyone just wants the winds to stop!
Typically, we do indeed get winds during the winter, but rarely is it do we get continuous winds for several days. Normally, we get it for a day or two intermittently. We’ll keep an eye out on it. According to the advisories, we’ll start to see some decrease in the velocity of the winds about mid-week. Hopefully!
TAILHUNTER TOUR ROLLS INTO WASHINGTON
We had an outstanding show at the International Sportsmens Expo at the Denver Convention Center this past week. But now, the “2013 Tailhunter Promo Tour” rolls on! We drive back west a zillion miles and will be at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington (near Seattle) from Wednesday to Sunday! For more details, click this link: http://www.thesportshows.com/wss/ Hope to see you this week! Come pick up our 24 page brochure and DVD and check out our new t-shirt styles. Plus come talk to us about setting up your 2013 La Paz fishing vacation!
Double bonus! It’s great when our local friends go fishing. It’s even better when it’s their first time and they do well! But check out the quality dorado taken by Simon Loftus from Amistad Real Estate here in La Paz and Darrell Duncan and Leslie Duncan who just opened the beautiful Casa de La Paz Bed and Breakfast near our Tailhunter Restaurant http://www.casadelapazmexico.com On one of the calmest days of the week they were able to get East of Cerralvo Island in flat water and put these mahi in the boat and lost several others. It’s surprising to get this quality of fish so late in the season!
Spectacular shot of a dorado slamming the bait and getting air taken by Leslie Duncan’s quick shutter finger on the camera!
From the East Bay area of San Francisco, enjoying her recent retirement from the Sheriff’s Department, our amiga, Verda Boyd has already visited us twice this year and plans to do alot more fishing! Oh…and she can fish! Check out the colors on this dandy bull dorado she’s holding with Captain Jorge.
Two more of our La Paz amigos and fishing for the first time, Shelly and Michele hooked 14 sierra and lost 3 dorado fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet mid-week!
Fresh colors aboard! Simon Loftos has Captain Gerardo looking over his shoulder as he pulls another dorado aboard with a big smile. It was a big week for our local La Paz friends to fish! Simon is a property manager and realtor here in town at Amistad Realty http://www.amistadrealtors.com It was his first time fishing with us as well.
Who would have thought we’d be catching marlin and sailfish in December! But, it was a good week for billfish. I’d have more photos, but happily most were released like this good looking sail here next to the panga. One on day alone we had 5 sailfish and 2 marlin and all but one marlin were released.
Tim Zimmer, always does well when he comes down in December to enjoy some some sunshine and fishing! He’s got a nice rack of dorado here and check out the size of his fat sierra!
From Washington state here in La Paz to celebrate their anniversary, Christine Ainsworth, was fishing with us for the first time. She and her husband, Mike, who’s a professional guide in Washington got quite a variety of fish on conventional and fly-fishing tackle including, sierra, roosterfish, cabrilla, ladyfish, jack crevalle and others!
Terry Robinson from Twin Falls, Idaho, is another first-timer checking out La Paz with us. He nailed a nice roosterfish and great dorado fishing as well like this one just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos.
DECEMBER STARTS WITH FANTASTIC FALL FISHING!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 2-9, 2012
If you were to ask me, I’d say we’re probably on the very very tail-end of any kind of bluewater or warm water fishing. But what do I know?
Check out this week’s photos! I wish I had more, but so many fish were getting released and on one of our best days this week…no one brought a camera!
But what crazy fishing!
Just when I’m about to write things off, we have another great week of fishing…in fact…some of the best winter fishing I’ve seen ever! Dorado…huge roosterfish…sailfish…marlin…pargo….cabrilla…jack crevalle…wahoo…pompano! Nothing in big numbers, but the very fact that they’re still biting and we’re almost into Christmas is pretty surprising!
But, then, there’s some days when the bite just goes crazy!!! We had one day this past week where our pangas were back on the beach before noon! The anglers just simply had too much fish!
Of course, none of our anglers is complaining and I’m always sure to tell them that any kind of bluewater-type fish is a bonus! They shrug. They laugh. Many of our anglers now are just grateful to be in the sunshine as they’re coming from colder places like Canada, Utah, Washington state and other places that are already in the grips of winter and right now, we’re blessed with breezy 80-85 degree sunny weather.
And then they come back with 3 or 4 or 6 dorado in the 10-20 pound class and maybe a wahoo or a roosterfish and have big giant smiles! We had a few roosterfish this week that went 70-80 pound world-class size! We had another day when we hooked and released 5 sailfish plus two marlin were hooked as well.
On top of it, they’ll probably pop anywhere from 5-10 sierra as well and maybe a pargo or cabrilla or two plus a additional action on bonito. Makes for a nice day of rod-bending!
The dorado are very close to shore which is a good thing since winds are definitely kicked up and mostly from the north making it bumpy at times. That’s also why we’re doing most of our fishing from Las Arenas where it’s closer and more protected. However, for those a bit more adventurous, the larger dorado (up to 40 pounds) have been holding out at the 88 bank east of Cerralvo Island. It’s a little more than an hour to the high spot, but in a wind it’s impossible or simple too bone-rattling to want to do it. Those same areas is where the billfish were also holding.
Sierra and roosterfish are in the shallow areas usually just where the bottom starts to slide off the ledge to slightly deeper water and it turns color. If there’s some structure in that area, nice pargo mulatto are also being hooked.
Most of our fishing is with live bait or also dead stripped slices of bonito are effective. Sierra are getting taken on baited hooked with wires or by slow trolling Rapalas, Rebels, Yo-Zuris and Mega Baits.
Great photo! Dan Neale of La Verne CA holds up a beautiful late-season bull dorado caught just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos on a live sardine. Dan was on his first trip with Tailhunters in La Paz. The dorado are still biting!
With Captain Pancho all wrapped up (he has an allergy to dust!) he helps out my high school classmate Gary Howarth who poses with another dorado he caught south of La Paz. Don’t know how much longer the dorado will be around, but they’re a welcome catch right now with the seasons changing!
There are days when you can catch these all day or a quick limit within a short time! Sierra schools have moved into the shallow drop-off areas and live bait on a thin wire or else trolling small rapalas or yo-zuris or anything shiny will get a viscious strike! Great eating fish and a favorite for ceviche!
It’s that time of the year and one of the great draws in La Paz right now have been the whale sharks swimming in the bay in shallow water. Snorkeling with these 15-30 foot gentle giants is an incredible afternoon adventure and only several hundred yards from the city waterfront.
WARM WATER SPECIES STILL LINGER FOR ANGLERS WITH COOLER SPECIES MIXING IN
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 18-25, 2012
We hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving weekend! We’re grateful to all our Tailhunter friends and tribal members who read our fishing report each week!
Let’s get to it…
We’re still doing some pretty good fishing for so late in the season and the mix of fish is really surprising. With northern winds getting stronger and air temperatures getting cooler, I’m really happy to see such a great variety of species that we’re catching…most importantly the “glamour” warm water species that so many anglers come to catch!
Almost all of our fishing now is out’ve Las Arenas where even if the winds are closer, we’re more protected for launching our fleet as well as just more comfortable fishing! When fish are as close as just a few yards from shore, there’s no reason to run way outside and get bounced around and get your kidneys shaken loose outside the wind line!
But that’s what makes it fun right now. In addition to a decent dorado bite of 10-25 pound mahi both inshore and hear the closer buoys, the southern side of the island is still getting some late season wahoo bite with fish up toe 45 pounds. Rapalas doing most of the damage, but several were hooked on bait while guys were fishing for other species. The biggest hinderance is the wind which can really whip it up getting over to that side of the island from Muertos Bay ahd headed north.
But not far from shore from the Arenas lighthouse down to about Pescadero, we’re encountering dorado, roosterfish, nice batches of sierra, pargo, cabrilla, rainbow runners, pompano, bonito and jack crevalle. All of this can make for a lot of action in a fishing day!
Live bait is not a problem most day with live sardines available for purchase although they do tend to be on the smaller side so smaller live bait hooks are suggested. Due to the time change, I know it sounds early, but we’re leaving the hotels at 4:45 a.m. to get out at first light. Hopefully, the bite will continue a few more weeks!
Dorado were again our bread-and-butter, especially for our clients fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Even when the weather turned, the fish continued to bite. Captain Rogelio holds up a trophy bull dorado that Mark Gilliam of Thousand Oaks stuff of Espiritu Santo Island.
Wyoming first-timer, Amy Larson, had a banner day fishing out of Las Arenas with Tailhunter captain, Jorge. Now that we’re getting some sardines for bait, the fishing has improved with dorado getting most of the attention.
Shawn Parker got a bit of a mix fishing north of La Paz. Dorado from fishing topwater and nice barred pargo fishing closer to the rocks. Shawn is from the Reno NV area.
Brennan Lowery and Roger Hayak hadn’t fished with us in quite awhile, but had 3 pretty good days playing with the dorado schools last week. The show off a double-pair of mahi they caught their first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Both are from the Newbury Park / Westlake Village CA area.
Iowa in the house! Andy Gilliam did a good job repping the mid-west this past week. It was Andy’s first trip with us and he got a number of dorado similar to this one out of La Paz and Las Arenas.
Rick Kasper has place north or La Paz and visits often. In 31 years fishing the area, he had never caught a roosterfish until this past week when he caught and released this nice one off Cerralvo Island east of Las Arenas on a live bait.
Shawn Parker had a knack for nice pargo this week and he wasn’t even fishing for pargo! He was trolling deep water for wahoo with a Rapala when somehow this big pargo came up from the bottom and whacked the lure!
We had some brief thunderstorms this week, but some of them were pretty crazy! Mid-week we got a 45 minute dambuster that had downtown La Paz under several feet of water and turned streets into rivers!
Down on the malecon on the waterfront by our Tailhunter Restaurant, within minutes of the rainstorm starting, roads were blocked by torrents of water. By the very nature of these storms, several hundred yards away it was completely dry. Not a drop had fallen.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Mark Gilliam put a big dorado in the boat this week. Check out the final moments of the battle:
THUNDERSTORMS AND SUNSHINE MIX WITH DORADO AND OTHER SPECIES
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 19-26, 2012
It was another crazy week of thundershowers on-and-off. It would rain one place, but not another. It would rain for 5 minutes or 60 minutes. One place would flood, but another place would be bone-dry! Downtown La Paz was under several feet of water early in the week as a flash downpour with thunder and lightning engulfed the commercial areas, but several blocks away, there wasn’t even any single rain-drop!
But, despite all that, we were able to continue fishing with no interruptions. Often, during this time of year, we’ll get these thunderstorms. You can often see them coming in columns of rain marching across the mountains or ocean. Pretty much all you do is either drive the boat around them or else you pull over and onto the beach …which is never far away…and wait it out for a few minutes then head back out .
Even tho’ the sun isn’t out sometimes, the fishing can still be good. The rains wash a lot of junk into the water and can really discolor the water especially with the run-off of mud from streets, ditches and arroyos. Seen from the air, it’s really a contrast between the dirty brown water and the true color of the ocean. However, the upside of that is all the debris that’s carried into the ocean as well. This includes brush, plants, trash, trees, parts of structures, branches…anything that floats.
This stuff accumulates on the surface and becomes a haven for baitfish. The baitfish, in turn, attract the larger predators, especially the dorado. So, one of the keys to fishing this time of year is to look for the current lines where the brush and debris will accumulate in long lines or just look for anything floating. Anything out there is worth investigating! Even a floating bit of styrofoam cup might be holding dorado under it. You never know! You could come up on a floating tree trunk and find dorado, tuna, wahoo and billfish all milling around it but never know it until you trolled by it or tossed some bait at it!
This past week there were some pretty decent days of fishing for both our Tailhunter La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets. The La Paz side had more fish and larger dorado but Las Arenas had some decent day as well with smaller dorado, but more variety with roosterfish, pargo, and a few billfish as well as scattered tuna. Most of the dorado were 5-15 pounds, but larger ones in the 20-30 pound class were around with some larger ones lost. Some striped marlin were also caught and released. Not many guys got roosterfish this week, but that might be because not many of our fishermen were chasing them, but the few that did go after them got some in the 15-30 pound category.
Still no wahoo to speak of and tuna remain elusive although we should be getting into them about now. September and October are usually the best part of the year for fishing !
It was a great week for the larger dorado! Captain Victor gives and assist to Nicki Vavao on a huge pig-of-a-bull doado! It was not unusual to see 30-50 pound fish this past week. Nicki took over an hour to put this fish aboard, but total props to her. Not only was it her first time fishing in Baja. It was her FIRST TIME fishing…EVER! And this is her FIRST FISH…EVER! That’s gonna set the bar pretty high for the future!
Once again, the ladies were on fire this week! Geri Sandstrom, is from Idaho and she’s LOVES to fish, but had never gotten anything larger than big kokanee. Needless to say, she more than topped her personal best with 3 days of solid fishing for dorado and roosterfish!
We love having father-son fishing trips! Tom Slaughter and his son, Mike, spent 3 days fishing and snorkeling with us and got into some of the nice dorado bite we had including these two while posing at Balandra Bay north of La Paz.
This has been one of the best roosterfish seasons ever! Take a look at this huge trophy roosterfish that Scott Voldness took off Las Arenas. Scott’s from Utah and the big fish was released.
From Arizona, these two were a kick to have around for 4 days of fishing. Joe Cullwell and Dylan Martin hold up a double pair of dorado after one day of fishing north of La Paz.
Sam Sybesma comes to see us every year. He spent a few days fishing with our La Paz fleet having fun with the dorado but on his last day went with our Las Arenas fleet to see if he could get a roosterfish! WINNING! That’s Punta Arenas Beach in the background.
Another one of our father-son trips this week. Lyndon Mumm and his son, Matt, pulled on some great dorado during the week. Big smiles all the way around. They also took our island snorkel trip with the sealions as well.
Our good amigo, Dick, had to cancel his trip this last year, but towed his boat down to get in on the dorado bite and shows off his first day catch with, Randy Lyons.
Good way to start the week with a striped marlin for Al Sandstrom from Idaho. It was another good week on the billfish with most fish running 90-150 pounds. I believe we got over 20 hooked this week with all but a few released. We probably had another 10-15 break off or get unbuttoned. Al got this his first day and also got into the dorado nicely!
Jimmy Csutoras almost didn’t make it down, but got here at the last minute and slammed into nice dorado like this one. Jimmy is from Northern Cal.
Brothers Fred and Mike Sontag rolled on the dorado big time after 4 days fishing. Fred is from St. Louis and Mike is from S. Carolina. They hold up a nice pair standing on the beach at Balandra Beach north of La Paz.
BIG BITE OF BIG DORADO SET PACE FOR THE WEEK WITH ROOSTERS AND MARLIN!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 8-15, 2012
It wasn’t as spectacular as last week’s dorado slam during the full moon, but there was some excellent fishing to be had nonetheless. I was a little worried as the first 2 days of the week it was like someone turned off the mahi-mahi spigot!
Whereas the week before our anglers were reporting 10, 20…40 or more dorado hookups per day and releasing fish as fast-as-they-could-go, the first two days this past week suddenly shut down to 2 to 6 dorado per panga. That’s a huge drop in production! I was sweating!
However, as the week went on, we got into a little rhythm again. It was not wide up and there was an occasional day or panga that had an off-day, but more-often-than-not, the fishing day produced limits or near-limits of dorado. If you were only fishing 1 day, that might be the day you had the stink on you, but if you fished 2, 3 or 4 days, at the end of the trip, our clients usually still found they had more fish than they knew what to do with! They might have a day or two that was less than stellar, but then they had another day or two that was an explosion of fish that made up for the other slack times.
Often, I had to tell our anglers to just be patient. Often, the days started slow. I mean…really SLOW! It’s noon and they have 1 fish aboard! Then, at noon or 1 p.m.often when other fleets are heading in, our guys would hang out just a bit longer. It would be all the difference in the world as that late bite would turn into dorado pandemonium with double-triple-and-quadruple hookups! Often, our captains weren’t bringing in our clients until 3 or 4 p.m. or even later…giving that little bit of extra time to get onto the bite.
The coolest thing about this week that differed from last week was the appearance of some big quality bulls. Whereas last week there were just a few of the fish over 20 pounds, this week fish between 25 and 40 pounds were hooked daily and many of the larger fish were lost and the clients coming back with only wide-eyed stories of big battles or broken lines. Even some of our captains were talking about 50-pound class fish swimming out there or busting off after long fights.
Another big surprise were the marlin. I think this past week, I counted over 20 striped marlin hooked amoung our Tailhunter anglers of which almost all of them were released. There were probably as many that broke off or came unbuttoned during the battle. Personally, I think the marlin are more active because there’s not only more bait in the water (sardines, mackerel, cocineros, jacks, and caballitos), but also, there’s so many little dorado swimming around that they’re feeding on the young dorado. In fact, one of the best trolling color feathers right now just happens to be yellow and green!
One other item of big news…LAS ARENAS FINALLY TURNED ON!
That’s major headlines. After almost 3 months of some of the dreariest fishing I have seen in years with no bait, we finally got some smaller tiny sardines this week as well as the larger baits and what a difference it made! It wasn’t wide open, but our pangas were getting into some nice dorado between 10 and 15 pounds, but also some of the big slugger mahi over 30 pounds. In addition, it also produced good billfish action…I think one day 3 of our pangas hooked and released 7 marlin alone! Plus, the roosterfish continue to bite as well. So, this is all very promising and I’m glad both sides finally started to kick out some fish!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
