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.
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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/
Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate
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