This is the kind of bite we see in March and April…maybe not even THIS good! But with water temps dropping low, the yellowtail came roaring back near Espiritu Santo Island north of La Paz. 17-year-old, Emiily Duncan poses on the beach at Balandra with the catch taken by herself, her dad and friend Jorge. They were back on the beach by 10 a.m. this morning!
From Pocatello, Idaho, on his first trip to La Paz, Troy Lenhart takes a knee on the beach in front of La Concha Beach Resort with just a portion of his catch for the day. The fish were 20-50 pound slugs and they put 11 of them in the box, and lost several others. Their captain said, “We could have had 20 fish easy!” They were done by 10:45 in the morning.
Our first official wahoo of the season…FINALLY! Also turns out to be Dave Rose’s first wahoo as well. Dave DROVE all the way down from Colorado as he does several times a year. Dave initially had one wahoo come off, but came back and gave it another shot and put this nice one in the boat just south of Cerralvo Island on a dark Rapala CD 18.
It’s always nice to put a “check mark” next to an item on the bucket list. Ed Hoffman lives just north of us in Loreto and came down specifically to catch a trophy rooster and got this beauty just of the Las Arenas lighthouse first thing in the morning! Just what he ordered! The fish was released.
First timer from Idaho, Amy Lenhart, was on her first day fishing and just off the beach at Las Arenas put the wood to this super nice grouper! The fat guy was put in the boat by Captain Victor who poses with Amy. She also got her first roosterfish as well the same day.
Our amigo, Jorge Romero, does the gaff honors with Bob Duncan of Santa Barbara on a day that they put 11 of these nice fish in the panga west of Espiritu Santo Island. Daughter, Emily, fights another fish in the stern. This week, waters were again green and dirty but for some reason, the yellowtail came roarding back!
Our buddy, retired fireman, Craig Braswell, grunts to lift up two of their limits of yellowtail as he stand in the shallows of Balandra Beach.
Sacramento amigo, Dave Frausto, should be happy about the 10 yellowtail they landed! But here he hoists two of the nice yellows they put in the box one of the banner days this week that the yellowtail went crazy.
A look at the Terrafin sea temperature satelite maps (www.terrafin.com) show some encouraging signs. Much of the water near Las Arenas is inching up into the high 70’s and low 80’s. A vast improvement over the past several weeks when the waters were in the 60’s and showing blue/green on the satellite maps. Hopefully, the warmer waters will burn off all the cloudiness in the water and also bring back the sardines as well.
YELLOWTAIL in JUNE? CRAZY BITE MARKS WEEK OF FISHING!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 3-10, 2012
Who could have imagined. It’s June. Last time I checked, it’s summertime on most people’s calendars. In southern Baja and here in La Paz this is the time when we should be sticking dorado like crazy as well as marlin, sailfish, tuna, wahoo and other warm water species. However, on the contrary, water temperatures in the Sea of Cortez and around the southern Baja fishing “hot” spots that are traditionally on fire this time of year have fallen off the charts! In a bad way. Instead of 80 degree water temperatures, anglers have been facing cold, green, dirty, cloudy waters down in the 60’s! On top of it, getting bait has been like finding a needle in a haystack!
Needless to say, like many areas, the fishing around La Paz has been less than stellar. In fact, it’s been really difficult. Using lures, larger baits like live and dead mullet, mackerel and other species, we’ve been able to scratch up roosterfish, some jacks, the occasional dorado and a few other species. And that’s been it. Lots of disappointment. But what are you gonna do?
You’re gonna keep fishing!
And then things kinda took a little upswing this week! Earlier in the week, for our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, we got into some nice jags of wahoo at the south end of Cerralvo Island. We also got some great quality roosterfish up to about 50 pounds plus got into some pretty decent pargo and cabrilla. We also hooked a few striped marlin as well. Still not up to snuff, but surely way better than what we had been doing most of May and early June.
And, with waters still cold, green and cloudy…when we were giving up on warm water species…a surprise. No warm water fish, but instead, we had a late week eruption of 20-50 pound yellowtail! This is crazy! Yellowtail season is March and April. We haven’t seen yellowtail in over a month. But this week for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, they not only got into yellowtail, they had some of the best snaps of yellowtail we have ever seen!
Boats were coming back by 10 or 11 a.m. with limits of 10 big slugger yellowtail. They would tell me they lost 4, 5, 6…8 other fish to the rocks. Captains would tell me they could easily have taken 20 or more yellowtail. The fish were eating in about 40 feet of water and taking the larger cocineros and live mackerel we were catching in La Paz Bay. Folks didn’t know what to do with so much fish. When you have 10 fish that are 40 pounders…you suddenly find yourself with about 150 pounds of fillet! Kind of a good problem…especially when many of our anglers were geared to really having to scratch for any fish at all and finding that by 10 a.m. they were too tired to pull on another fish!
As the week closed out, the yellowtail got a bit more elusive. One day on and next day off. But, I stopped trying to guess where and when. We were just glad they showed up!
Don’t know if this will hold or it’s just a blip on the radar, but it surely saved a crazy week!
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
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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.”
