Wind – 6 (Still pesky but better than before. Messes up the fishing water)
Fishing – 5 (Decent, not great. Should be way way better for this time of year. Changes daily.)
Catching – 4 (Still losing alot of bigger fish that would change alot of things)
Bait – 4 (At best. Better in La Paz than Las Arenas)
THE BIG PICTURE!
Laura Weinholtz from Denver, Colorado was with Captain Pancho of the Tailhunter Fleet near La Paz when she hooked this huge bull dorado not far from Bahia de los Muertos on a live bait. It’s the largest dorado so far of the season. She had a pretty good trip! She also got a wahoo. See photos below!
Damon Chin from Massachusetts was on his first fishing trip to La Paz and fishing with Tailhunter Sportfishing and got a wahoo pretty much bigger than him on his first at-bat! He needed a hand from his buddy, Tim Mistler and Captain Gerardo who is about 6’5” tall. Fish is estimated at about 65 pounds.
Good start for the Pacific NW! Captain Arcangel with Kelly Steck from Washinton and dad, Ed, from Oregon and a nice pair of dorado to start the week!
Megan Garrison tied into this beautiful wahoo just outside of Bahia de los Muertos and got it to the panga to pose. Megan is from San Diego. Thanks to Gary Wagner for the photo. Megan was staying at his place a Rancho Costa.
Doctors in the house! Jim Good and his son, Marshall Bell, are both heart doctors from Colorado. They got a nice little adrenaline buzz off these two dorado south of Bahia de los Muertos.
What a week for Arizona cattleman, Rick Skaaler, and Captain Gerardo with another big fish. This time, a hefty roosterfish. Released.
From Park City, Utah, it was great to finally get Jim Pankow down to visit us. He scored one of the larger dorado with our La Paz fleet so far this season fishing with Captain Boli.
Captain Armando shares a smile and photo with our Denver amigos, Diane and GaryKaiser and their dorado.
Big smiles from Dr. Marshall Bell and his dad, Dr. Jim Good, who baited our first striped marlin of the season then had himself quite a stand-up battle just off the east side of Espirto Santo Island. The fish could not be released. Father and son are from Colorado.
Hard to have more fun than Katie Skaaler from Arizona who got her first wahoo with us and Captain Gerardo!
From San Diego, Karl Ferreira, only had one day to fish with us and did himself well with several dorado in the box and brought to dinner at our Tailhunter Restaurant for dinner!
For someone who hasn’t done alot of fishing, Laura Weinholtz had herself a dandy week of fishing including this nice wahoo with Captain Pancho.
Funny pose with Captain Jorge and amigo, Craig Weitzel, from Denver and a couple of schoolie dorado.
Good bonito action for both our fleets with several species of bonito. Anyone who doubts the feistyness of these members of the tuna family has never had one on a hook! They pull perhaps harder pound-for-pound than anything in the water. If they were only 50 pounds larger ,they’d probably yank fishermen right into the water. Captain Pancho and John Ehlers, our amigo from Colorado, with a big fat bonito!
DORADO FINALLY JOIN THE ACTION
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 11-17, 2017
Not a terribly bad week. Even with the big moon!
Good sunny weather and diminishing winds helped conditions improve although there are still some big patches of cold green water and erratic fishing patterns as the season still tries to get in gear. Some high spots. Some low spots. Every day seemed different. Hot fishing spots changed daily. Bait availability changed daily. What we caught changed daily.
It’s just traces of winter still lingering as we’re about 5-8 degrees cooler than normal as are the waters. Even my scuba divers are telling me that there’s warm “green water” up on top but then 30’ below the surface the water is clear, but icy cold! Usually, it’s just the reverse. Warmer waters are clear and colder waters are greener. There are also current lines where one side of the current is green and the other side is clear.
Apparently, fishing is erratic all over as we’re getting calls from other locations and folks staying in other areas asking how our fishing is doing!
However, overall, the best thing about the week is that the dorado look like they’re finally joining the show about 1-2 months late! The conditions we’re seeing right now are basically what we should have seen at the end of April or through May, not mid-June.
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS/ BAHIA de LOS MUERTOS FLEET
We saw more and bigger dorado than we’ve seen in a long time. Not a lot of mahi-mahi, but anything is an improvement over what we’ve had, especially over the last two years when fish averaged about 12” long! The dorado we saw this week were nicer 8-20 pounders with a few in the 25-35 pound range and it was great to see some actual schools of dorado instead of one or two free-swimmers!
Wahoo are also still around with us getting some fish in the 20-30 pound class, but also one estimated over 60 pounds. Not sure how much longer they will be around as the waters get warmer which is bringing some of the billfish into the waters as we’re seeing more sails, striped and blue marlin hanging out the the surface just waiting for the waters to kick it up a notch or two in temperature and they’ll start biting.
Not much in the way of rooster fish this week but that’s also a function of the fact that folks weren’t really chasing the in-edible rooster fish although they are a spectacular fish to catch and a real trophy. They’re not good eating so most of our clients were out chasing dorado and wahoo. But the fish we did catch were all chunky 30 pound class fish or larger.
Live bait is still an issue. Flyfishers are pretty much giving up although two of our flyfishers did see some action on sabalo and dorado. The flyfishers down here have all pretty much been fishing conventionally if they want to catch fish.
TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET
Very very encouraging to see more dorado finally with 10-20 pound fish in the mix. Better than it has been in a long time. But, a lot of the fish are just not quite ready to go yet.
My captains are telling me the area is set to blow up. Waters are getting bluer away from the islands (still green) and there are dorado everywhere, just not yet feeding on much or not willing to take a bait or lure. But, it’s bubbling and promising to hear that there’s dorado activity that could go off soon!
Same for billfish. More and more billfish showing up and look like they could go on the chew if waters warm and clear up just a tad more .
Inshore, there’s still amberjack, pargo, snapper and cabrilla as well as triggerfish biting nicely.
PACK FOR A PURPOSE
Thanks to our folks who brought us donations this week for our on-going community out-reach programs. So many great things. We just sent several hundred pounds to one of the outlying La Paz communities where they have no water or electricity. This batch might be headed to the women’s shelter. But big gracias to Grant and Carol Darby, John Ehlers and his family with Laura Weinholtz his daughter; Jim and Jeff Pankow from Utah and more Colorado amigos, Diego and Kelly Jimenez plus the Ferreira Family from San Diego.
From Washington, Carol and Grant Darby with toothbrushes, toothpaste, school supplies and toys!
John Ehlers and his daughter Laura Weinholtz with school items, hygiene things and more.
Every year, they bring the big hearts. Diego and Kelly Jimenez from Colorado!
HAPPY FATHER’s DAY!
My dad is giggling as I shave him. Happy Father’s Day, Dad. I miss you!
That’s our story!
Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR Top 5 – Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Weather– 7 (still some wind, but not as bad as before)
Heat – 9 (cooler than normal . Sunny and near perfect beach weather)
Fishing – 6 (lots to be caught)
Catching – 3 (losing alot of fish)
Fish Quality – 6 (some big fish around but losing too many)
Outlook for the coming Week – 7 (conditions improving)
Live bait – 3 (at best)
That’s a beast of a wahoo for good amigo, Doug Oclassen, fishing with Captain Jorge. Doug got two in a row. Photo further down.
I love this photo of Katie Skaarer and Captain Gerardo and one of the largest roosters of the season! She’s a bit tired, but what a gamer! Check out how close they are to Punta Perrico. Katie is from Arizona.
First timer to visit us, Kurt Gallow from Washington and Captain Armando pulled out this big-time dog-tooth snapper.
Big smiles for Mark Jacklin and Dana Wolff from Grants Pass, Oregon who spent the week with us and got a variety of fish including Mark’s first wahoo.
The whole week, I don’t think Brad Cooper from Arizona ever stopped smiling. It was great! Just like when he caught his first roosterfish. The big fish was released.
Another big wahoo for Captain Gerardo and Rick Skaarer, who runs a cattle business in Arizona and got some nice fish this week. It was his first time visiting us at Tailhunter.
Another of our good Arizona amigos, Mike Guest, has a habit of putting wahoo into the boat and he didn’t miss on this one either!
With his first rooster, Shawn Westberg from Copperopolis, California, makes the report in this nice photo!
Captain Armando rocked it again with Bruce Eads and his first roosterfish. It’s a nice one!
Talk about a variety of great eating fish, John Shields has about a half-dozen different types of fish after a great day of action including snapper, dorado, triggerfish, cabrilla and white bonito.
One of the nicer bull dorado of the week get to pose with Charlie Rodriguez who gets an assist from Brad Cooper.
It’s Captain Armando again who got Kurt Gallow a fat wahoo on Kurt’s last day fishing with us.
The 2nd of two wahoo in a row for Doug Oclassen in this great photo! Spectacular shot!
Charlie Rodriguez and Brad Cooper had a good trip fishing together shown here with the first wahoo of their trip!
First day of fishing for Kurt and Brenda Gallow with Captain Armando produced a couple of nice dorado and a hard-charging Jack Crevalle.
Somewhere behind that dorsal fin is Mark Jacklin with his 2nd rooster of the trip. The fish was released.
FULL MOON ROOSTERS AND WAHOO LEAD OFF!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 4-11, 2017
The full moon week still had more breeze than we would like, but overall pretty fishable weather and water with a good variety of fish. We’re still a little cooler than normal and seemingly still in that “transition” phase between the cooler waters of spring and the warmer conditions of summer. The fishing reflects that with both cooler and warmer water species hitting you just never know what’s going to be biting. Live bait continues to be an issue. There’s no small sardines per se, but we’ve had big sardines, caballitos and mackerel. Still losing more fish than we’re catching which is just part of the sport! Big fish are big fish for a reason and we’re still losing fish to the rocks, teeth, inexperience or just bad luck. But, if you look at the photos there’s some awfully big fish being caught as well!
TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET
This is where most of the wind was all week which had our pangas mostly fishing on the lee side of Espirito Santo Island to get away from the winds. But that was fine because inshore and up tight against the rocks, we got a great variety from dorado to amberjack and pargo to big triggerfish.
Some of the cabrilla and pargo were especially nice grade horses that the anglers were able to get out’ve the rocks, but so many others were simply unstoppable. If the winds would just give us a break, water conditions are really looking better and better and sargasso weeds are building up which should be a good sign for better dorado fishing. Also, we’ve got some nice live bait every day.
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS FLEET
This is where our big boy fishing has been. There’s no small fish for our anglers that fished with our Las Arenas Fleet. Just like the last several weeks, it’s big or go home. Hit a home run or strike out. There’s no small toy fish.
You get one or two shots at bigger fish and that’s pretty much it, but if you do get to hang one, it’s a good fish. Larger 20-35 pound dorado; rooster fish running 20-80 pounds and wahoo in the 20-50 pound class are what we were seeing this week with a smattering of jack crevalle, bonito, some big pargo, smaller cabrilla and snapper. But those were just filler. The bigger “cooler filler” fish were the norm. Good to see better dorado too!
That’s our story!
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR Top 5 – Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Happy guy…Johnny Gilbertson from the Sacramento CA area gets a hoist from Captain Chito from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Once again, dorado were the centerpiece of our bite that produced a great week until the late week storm arrived.
Kevin Shiotani has a habit of tangling with beasts! Several months ago, he caught a 135-pound estimated amberjack that might have rivaled a world record. He ripped again this week with this huge 57-pound dorado. He trolled completely around Cerralvo Island on a long day and was just about to go back to the beach when he stuck this beast dorado with his last bait of the day!
Eric Legaspi and Steve Chun got in on the big dorado bite this week showing off some of their catch of mahi. Both are from the Sacramento area. These fish were caught off Las Arenas.
It was another pretty good week for billfish with striped marlin and sailfish getting hooked every day and most getting released or breaking off. This pretty fish was taken by Rick Hosmer, our amigo from Manhattan Beach CA, who took the photos and then released the fish while fishing near Las Arenas.
Yes! At least before the storm hit, we were still catching the giant squid near Punta Arenas and areas south. Grayson Richmond has a big smile for the camera after he wrenched up this big cephlapod from the deep. Captain Adolfo helps out. The squid are great for bait, but also some brought back to be cooked up!
Debbie White from Oregon, often visits us 2 times a year here in La Paz and always does great with a habit for big fish like this beautiful dorado she caught near Cerralvo Island.
Two of our funnest recent visitors, Diane and Frank Kunze from Colorado, pose with some of their catch from Las Arenas. Fishing 3 days, they took home limits of dorado!
Check out the colors on this dorado…clearly, one of the most colorful fish in our waters with golds, yellows, greens and a myriad of other colors including this shimmering blue. Wade Gomes fishes with us every year with a great bunch of amigos and had a great several days of us. Our amigo is standing on the beach at Balandra north of La Paz.
Easy to see why these fish are so photogenic. Our Oregon, amigo, Don White was on his 2nd trip to us this year in La Paz and targets big fish. He’s usually pretty successful. He got this nice mahi off Cerralvo Island.
Sailfish were willing to bite again this week with all of them getting released. This great shot of Don Lemieux’s sail was taken just before he released it.
This 30-pound class fish by Rudy Soto from Carlsbad CA was stuck while he was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and he said, “It gave me a sore arm!”
The had several days of limits of dorado fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet where fish got closer to the bay this past week. Dean Sims (right) and Johnny Gilbert (left) hold up some of their catch.
FULL MOON AND WINDS DON’T HURT BITE…until the storm hit!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug .18-25, 2013
You would think that with some windy days…a full moon…AND a week-ending Tropical Storm named “Ivo” we’d have an off-week of fishing!
On the contrary, if you were looking for dorado and loading up on the fillets, it was a great week to be here in La Paz with Tailhunters and a rod and reel in your hands. In all honesty, there weren’t alot of BIG fish, but it made up for it in quantity and furiousness! Especially for our anglers who fished with our La Paz fleet, there were great stories of double…triple…even quadruple hook-ups with fish as fast as a line could be thrown in the water or catching-and-releasing as fast as they could go!
For the latter part of the week, the amazing thing was that several schools of 10-15 pound fish were found right IN LA PAZ bay! Literally just near the mouth of the bay by Balandra Beach. That’s only about 3 minutes from where we launch our pangas.
The guys would spend about an hour getting bait but then get on the fish schools and on several occasions be BACK on the BEACH and eating breakfast at the hotel by 10 or 11 p.m.! They’d get all the wanted. Throw back others. And tell the captain, “No mas!” and head back in.
Others would wind it up and go out towards the island to troll a little or look for other species where we encountered wahoo, billfish, sharks and even some pargo. (all billfish released…all wahoo lost…all sharks broken off!)
Even for our Las Arenas fleet, we had a better than normal week with dorado, sailfish, marlin and those big giant squid come up. What it lacked in quality like La Paz, Las Arenas has the larger fish this week with a few toads that were 30-60 pounds. One fish could fill an ice chest!
At the end of the week, Tropical Storm Ivo came up the coast and went outside into the Pacific dropping rain on Southern Baja. By Sunday it was gone. There was some flooding. We did have to cancel a day of fishing because the port captain closed the port and there were 30 knot winds outside the bay. At Las Arenas the southern swell was too big and we would not have been able to push off the beach. But the storm passed through quickly and I’m just sorry for some of the disappointed anglers, but fortunately, most of them had been fishing earlier in the week and were able to get into the fish earlier.
Joey Fuschetti and Kent Hawkins from Orange Co. California had a great 2 days fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. They got big racks of dorado, plus sailfish and pargo as well. They’re on the sand here in Balandra Bay. Joey has been fishing with Tailhunters now for 18 years! Joey has been in the fishing report for many years but says he has NEVER been the first picture! So…here you go, Joey! Thanks , guys!
From Ogden UT, Marcus Yoo, only had time to come down and squeeze in two quick days of fishing but made the most of it with 2 big days of dorado fishing and big bulls like this one…his personal best…that he caught off Las Arenas.
Finally had the big squid show up this week and there’s nothing like starting the day out pulling these bad boys up from the deep to use for bait (or saving for eating!). The dorado and tuna both love them. Big grin from Russ Blount visiting us from Oregon holding up another big beast. The squid are just off Las Arenas.
First time in Mexico. First time fishing. First fish ever…a trophy bull dorado! The smile says it all. Maricris Bugutan gets a hand from Captain Adolfo from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet in posing with her trophy bull dorado.
Our good amigo, Craig Corda, has visited us many times from his farm in the Imperial Valley CA and always seems to do well. He shows off one of his dorado with the classic pose and grin on the panga fishing off Las Arenas.
This is a big fish and you can tell because Russ Blount is also a big guy! This bull dorado was one of several he caught along with a marlin his first day fishing with us this week.
Not sure she wants to touch it! Maricris laughs at another big squid hauled aboard! This one ended up cooked up with garlic at our Tailhunter Restaurant that night for dinner!
Captain Chito poses with my long-time friend and fishing buddy, Bob “Tio” Horton from Palm Springs CA The fish were caught around Espirito Santo Island and Las Cruces on a late-day bite.
Yes…I still get out! (Thanks, Jilly) I’m showing off this bull mahi on the beach at Balandra Bay after a great day of dorado fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet We got limits that day.
One of the best highlights of the week! Paul and Mike Zech from Sacramento CA like the street-cart hot dogs we serve at our Tailhunter Restaurant and showed up with these funny shirts! Just had to take a photo!
DORADO HELP WEEK FINISH FAST!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of August 4-11, 2013
The fishing week started out OK, then got kinda picky but everyone still got fish. It was just one of those weeks where a boat would get 1 or 2 fish and the next boat got 4 or 5 fish for no rhyme or reason or you would go fishing and put 1 in the boat…then an hour later another fish…two hours later 2 fish….2 hours later 1 fish…and the day would go on like that. And you would think, “Geeze…fishing is slow!” Then you would look in the fish box or get back on the beach and realize you had nearly a limit of fish!
It might have had something to do with some strange cooler and greener water that just shows up mid-week. We didn’t have any storms. There was no strong winds. There was nothing that would tip-the-hand to show why patches of great blue water suddenly went dry on us! Conditions were otherwise great…flat glassy seas…brilliant Baja sunshine…decent bait…patches of sargasso…but strangely very reluctant or absent fish. You really had to work it hard to find them.
I made it out one day and we got a limit of nice dorado, but we must’ve put 50 miles on the panga going up, back out, in, around…we covered a lot of water. By 1 p.m. we had only 3 fish in the box. But, as our captains often do, our fleet hung out there and at 3 p.m.-4 p.m. the fish started feeding! And we put another 5 nice-sized dorado in the box that topped out the day.
That is one big difference for us…especially for our La Paz fleet. We’re out on the water at 6 a.m. and getting live bait. We see some of the other fleets…some of them…not even getting out on the water until 7 or 8 a.m. when the sun is already up blazing and you can’t get bait that late. Then, they’re back on the beach at 1 or 2 a.m. when our guys are still out there pushing to keep finding fish. It really makes a difference when the fishing is picky. And it often means the difference between 1 or 2 fish and a limit of fish…having live bait and staying out the extra time!
But, the nice thing too is that as the week went on, we got a great charge of fish at the end of the week.
Our La Paz fleet started finding better spots of dorado in the 10-20 pound class with some larger bulls to 30 pounds. Using the bait we catch…caballitos, mackerel…then some sardines as well as fresh-caught bonito, we have several options most days for offering different baits to the fish. The larger baits, I think, also are the reason we get more sailfish and marlin hook ups as we did this week with all fish being released.
For our Las Arenas fleet, it was also scratchy early-on with just a few dorado per boat, but pretty much all of them decent to monster bulls. So, what we lacked in quality, we made up for in quantity. However, later in the week the fish turned it up a notch and we not only got into dorado, but also had some wahoo hookups, some billfish hook ups and even a big 60 pound tuna found way outside.
The difference at Las Arenas, I believe, were the giant squid that finally came up out’ve the deep trenches. We started catching these beasts, which not only make for great eating, but cut up in chunks are good for chumming up dorado around the buoys and chunking for tuna. Hopefully, they’ll stick around. Historically, when the big squid come up from the deep, the tuna often follow them up as well!
Yes, Ziggy! You finally made the first photo in the fishing report! Our amigo, Ziggy Haspod from Santa Barbara spanked the nice dorado all week fishing with Captain Boli and our La Paz fleet with limits every day including this sweet bull dorado.
Best wahoo season in my memory in years! There’s still wahoo on the high spots around Cerralvo Island. Darryl and Kathy Pietek pose with Captain Armando and one of 2 skinnies they hooked. They lost another one that busted the Rapala off. The Pieteks are from Loma Rica CA.
Sometimes, when you don’t try so hard, good things come to you! Mario Salazar from the Los Angeles area was on a billfish frenzy the 3 days he fished with our Las Arenas fleet. I think the final count was 8 marlin and sailfish in 3 days. I lost count. He was fishing with our Captain Archangel with our Tailhunter Fleet. This was a release so you get the great photo of him fighting the fish! Most of the billfish we’re hooking these days are all getting released.
Richard Sellers came to visit us all the way from Australia to do some freediving and spearfishing. It started slow but by his last day he said, he had dorado and marlin swimming around him like he had never seen before. He did get this nice bull dorado and also another “mystery fish” none of us had ever seen before. Scroll down to the last photo in the report!
Big smile from Steve Heune from Modesto CA was on his first fishing trip with us. As per my report this week, his first day, he fished with our Las Arenas fleet and they ran into one of those days when the fish were lockjawed. We switched them for their 2nd day to fish with our La Paz fleet and they stuffed the fish box with a limit of dorado!
Might be my favorite photo of the week. It’s all about smiles. Dane Fuller pulling on his first marlin ever. Dane’s from Childress, Texas and was on his first trip to La Paz where he got his first marlin, and first dorado…and biggest dorado. Just a great Kodak moment in Baja. It’s not about fish in the box, it’s about smiles on the face and good times with amigos.
One of our favorites guys…Donnie “Coach” Rea from Ventura CA always does well fishing with us. He’s showing off another big bull he got this week fishing with our Captain Marcos and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
That’s alot of mahi! A thirty-pound-class dorado for Mike Figley from Arizona that he caught north of La Paz. There’s some nice big bulls around right now.
Lance Heune from Modesto CA holds the gaff on a day when he put a nice limit of dorado on the boat in short order fishing north of La Paz around Espirito Santo Island.
Late breaking news…just as I was putting together the fishing report Sunday night, our pangas hit giant Humboldt squid off Las Arenas. They made great bait for the dorado (and great eating!) and usually means that if they stay around, often the tuna rise up out’ve the trenches and follow them up! Hope they stick around. Captain Archangel hangs one of the big squirmers here!
Our Australian amigo, Richard Sellers (photo above with the dorado) shot this while spearfishing. He called it a “triple tail” but none of my captains or anyone we knew had ever seen one. In almost 30 years fishing and diving here in Baja, I’d never seen one or heard of one so we ran to the books and internet. There are very few mentions of photos of them in Baja but folks from the Atlantic and Caribbean know all about them where they are much more common and, in Australia, of course! At first, I thought I knew what it is. But, it looked like a cross mutant between a pargo and cabrilla! The triple tail was good eating!
LAS ARENAS FISHING PICKY BUT OUR LA PAZ BOATS FIND GOOD ACTION ALL WEEK!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 28 to Aug. 4, 2013
It was a pretty decent week of fishing. Not the greatest, but not bad either. Let me explain…
I have to say that I’m thankful we have our two fleets with one of them in La Paz and one of them at Las Arenas. It gives our clients some choices about where to fish and we can also move them if necessary to get them the best conditions or to find fish.
As sometimes happens, weather or fishing dictates that sometimes one side will be better than the other. It happens. Normally, this time of year both our fleets are bendo and deep into all manners of fish.
However this past week, Las Arenas really sorta dropped off the fishing map. Not one was it rougher from some long distance storms to the south that brought in some chop and swell, but there was a lack of bait. Additionally, the better fishing was either outside at the buoys or all the way out at the 88 spot.
One the good side, the buoys held some decent dorado and the 88 produced more of those monster bull dorado and a number of hooks ups on striped marlin, sailfish and even a few big blues (all billfish either released or broke off). But that’s a long way to run and if it was one of those bumpy days and you were one of the pangas that scratched, it’s a long long day.
Las Arenas just wasn’t happening. The captains worked hard and busted humps looking for fish or trolling, but it was just one of those weeks.
But, like I said, thankfully, we had our La Paz fleet. So, folks would try a day or two at Las Arenas then we’d have them switch over to our La Paz fleet.
And everyone got fish! Limits or near limits of dorado from punk-sized schoolies to 30-plus pound bull mahi as well as some stripers and sailfish and even a few sharks hooked up. The fish were well north so it was a bit of a ride and the bite was often late…well past 1 p.m. So, often I had to tell our clients, just be patient and let the captain fish. Don’t jump the gun. Sure enough…the late bite came in and there would be the feeding frenzy!
Sometimes our pangas weren’t coming back until 4 or 5 p.m., but that’s because our captains were working it hard. We go out at 6 a.m. often several hours before the other fleets and my guys are willing to stay the extra hours to wait for the bite when other fleets are coming back at 1:30 or 2 p.m. It made a difference and all of our clients this week still went home with full ice chests!
Bait as tough for our La Paz fleet as well, but going out extra early, we’re able to jig up some mackerel and caballitos then go look for some sardines. Then go hook a few small bonito. By the time you hit the fishing grounds, you’ve got 2 or 3 different types of bait aboard and gives you an edge. Add in some trolling and now you’re cooking with gas! But, as I said, we just had to tell folks “be patient.” Our captains are all working hard to find the fish. And we found them. It was just later than normal!
MORE ON MEXICAN FISHING LICENSES
A few weeks ago, we started telling you about the big SNAFU with Mexico not printing out enough fishing licenses for the whole country. Big Oops! They’re trying to find a KINKO’s to handle it, but in the meantime, everyone is scrambling.
Baja still does not have any printed fishing licenses to sell. They keep telling us “in a few weeks” but we’ve been hearing that for awhile. In the meantime, the only way to have fishing licenses is still to purchase them online or find a tackle store there in the U.S. that sells them over-the-counter or online (some will mail them to you). However, for southern Baja, they now have their own website to sell them that works pretty well. Here’s the link:
It was a banner week for wahoo fishing this past week as we are in one of the best wahoo seasons in recent years. Kirk Rose and son Ben with Captain Armando just had one day of fishing to squeeze in with us and had never fished the area before and came up with the mega hat trick of three trophy wahoo fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet off Cerralvo Island
On vacation from college at St. John’s University in New York, Marcos Holguin had two days of double wahoo fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
Mike Figley spent the week with us fishing 4 days with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. This was his 2nd trip with us and I had just been telling him how strong tuna can be. He goes out the next day and tangles with this nice yellowfin that kept him bent for almost 90 minutes! He’s a believer now. He also got some great dorado fishing in! Mike’s from Arizona.
Jorge Romero, our La Paz amigo, only had 2 hours to get in some fishing so he jumped on one of our pangas and between 9 and 11 a.m. he put 3 nice bull dorado in the box fishing north of La Paz. He was trolling some small hoochies behind the boat because he left so late there was no more live bait left.
This trio had some fun! Tom Heaslet from Oregon along with Kathy and Darryl Pietak from the San Francisco Bay area, got 2 nice wahoo off Cerralvo Island. They also fished 2 days with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and plugged the panga with dorado each day.
Dan Fuller from Childress, Texas, had a great week with us for his first visit with Tailhunters. He got his first dorado. He got his biggest dorado. He got his first billfish! He’s here with big smiles…a big bull dorado…and Captain Rogelio from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
This might be my favorite photo of the week. Big smiles from Bob and his son Bo Heinke from the Los Angeles area showing off big bull dorado on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
Steve Holguin visits us each year but missed last year. He made up for it with two days of nice wahoo like this one from his first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
These two amigos had 4 of the best days fishing…they got dorado, sailfish, marlin and several other species. Rex Smith from Arizona and Mike Sontag from N. Carolina had not shortage of big bull dorado like these two on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos.
Group shot! Mike Figley, Bo Cullwell and Dane Fuller fished four days and on their fourth day had one of those wild banner dorado days that was a complete frenzy and will make for good story-telling filling 3 pangas with limits in short order and multiple hook-ups. They’re starting to unload one of the pangas here on the beach at Balandra Bay.
SLOW START PICKS UP STEAM AS FULL MOON RECEDES
La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report For Week of July 21-28, 2013
The week started slow…picked up some steam…then sort of evened out as the week went on. It took us a bit to recover from last week’s full moon with sporadic fishing, but some good catches of billfish for both our Tailhunter La Paz and Tailhunter Las Arenas fleets as well as some big dorado and even a few nice spots of 20-50 pound tuna that showed up north of La Paz. As with previous weeks, although there might not have been a lot of fish, the quality of the fish gave many of our anglers personal bests in terms of their biggest fish ever caught or, for many, their first billfish caught and released. It still wasn’t spectacular good fishing.
Then, the week suddenly turned on a switch and boom! We had dorado going nuts for our La Paz boats where it was virtually one-stop shopping once the spots were located and dorado came crashing to the pangas with multiple hook-ups and our captains plugging the pangas within an hour of frenzied fishing and tired anglers coming back with frayed lines and big smiles plus ice chests full of fillets!
As well, we had a big-time flurry of wahoo and billfish late in the week for our Las Arenas fleets as well with some of our pangas getting 1-3 wahoo hookups per day and just as many sailfish or marlin. Overall, the fishing for our La Paz fleet was better for sheer numbers while our Las Arenas fleet produced the trophy fish.
Some fishing suggestions if you’re headed down:
Bait has been hit or miss lately. We’re doing a little more trolling than we’re used to. Our folks are doing fine with what we have and use down here, in fact, most clients bring absolutely nothing with them. However, if you’re coming down and want to fine-tune things a bit, I would suggest:
Some small trolling feathers. Not many. Surely two…a light one and a dark one with at least 60-80 pound leader
Little plastic “hoochie” skirts have been on fire. We use them to sometimes catch bonito for bait, but the bigger dorado and tuna have really shown a liking for them the last two weeks
If the tuna are around, plain unpainted cedar plugs have resulted in some nice tuna catches as was as enticing some of the larger dorado and another plus is that the bonito don’t seem to like them
If wahoo are around or you want to chase them, Yo-Zuri Magnum lures or Rapala Magnum CD’s in black/purple or black/silver/white have been hot. If you can or know how or can get your tackle store to do it, wire them up and take the treble hooks off and replace with single Siwash hook
Hook sizes for the varying types of bait we are using…#1, 1/0, 3/0 and 5/0 hooks. Not circle hooks. “J” style hooks
Flurocarbon leader in 30, 40 and 60 pound test. No spectra
FISHING LICENSES
The Mexican government at CONAPESCA keeps telling us, “maybe in a few weeks” they will have printed fishing licenses again. I guess that will happen when it happens. However, for the foreseeable few weeks, the only way to get your fishing licenses to fish down here is to purchase them online before you come down. The government did not print enough licenses for the year for the whole of Mexico so until the situation is remedied, you must purchase fishing licenses online.
You want to purchase the fishing license for the “FEDERAL ZONE.”
Do not be alarmed at the price…it’s in pesos!!! So just divide by 11 or 12 and that’s the rate in dollars and it will show up on your credit card statement in dollars.
If it’s slow or doesn’t work at first, try again later. With this announcement, everyone in the whole of Mexico has to purchase their licenses online.
Nice way to start out a trip! All the way from North Carolina, Mike Sontag, visits us each year, but had an incredible week fishing with us starting right off the bat with several of these huge bull dorado that were all in the 40-50 pound class outside of Cerralvo Island.
Rex Smith has been an amigo of Tailhunters for years and has caught pretty much everything in our waters, but wahoo always eluded him until this past week when he put the wood to this nice ‘hoo off the south end of Cerralvo Island in the background. Rex is from Arizona.
Hard to find someone more fun than Alison Nagatani. It was a little rough out of Las Arenas their first day fishing but she was still got this nice bull dorado…her largest ever. Shortly after this, she accidentally fell in the water and came up laughing. She got her first billfish this week as well.
First-timer from Washington State, Colleen Russ, had a great week of fishing with big dorado and quite a few billfish like this one posed with Captain Victor from the Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. This one could not be revived and was donated. Colleen was just hoping to catch “one big fish” during the week!
From Delano CA, John Wessner was game. Even fishing with a recovering broken wrist, he did great on big dorado and billfish this week. He’s shown here with one he got north of La Paz fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
For weeks we’ve seen signs of big tuna off Cerralvo Island although hooking them has been difficult. David Vicino from Cancun MX, didn’t wait for the to come up…he went down and speared this big 180 pound yellowfin! Thanks to Tim Hatler, our amigo at Palapas Ventana for the photo. Yes…the beasts are there! For those of you not familiar with spearfishing in our waters, all of it is done by freediving…no tanks allowed. All breath-holding in whatever you can carry in your lungs!
On a well-deserved break from the Air Force, Pat Russ will be heading to officer’s candidate school when he gets back to Washington but he came down for 10 days of fishing and diving and poses with another colorful bull dorado and big grins!
Jess Escobedo from Los Angeles had never been salt-water fishing. He had never even taken a vacation in his whole life. So, it was great to have him visit Tailhunter this past week here in La Paz where he got his first dorado and billfish like this one caught near Espirito Santo Island. Check the video clip below of Jess fighting his first marlin!
Clarence Foster and his big hat pose with Allen Burgess and one of their big bulls on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. Both of our amigos are from Kansas and spent a week fishing with us.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
From our amigo, Charles Belnavis, who owns Kelp Fishing Clothing and Shogun Tatoo in Pasadena CA (he’s the best of the best for inking all of us up in the fishing industry!) http://shoguntattoo.com/
He shared this fun clip of himsel and Jess Escobedo (pictured above) getting lit up by a nice billfish! At one point, there’s a double hook-up going! Turn up the sound! This is some fun video and not very long!
BIG DORADO BILLFISH
TUNA HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-21, 2013
The week had some highs and lows, but overall, many more high spots than low spots with a solid week of fishing. We even had a little rain come in on us, but it was mostly just a little bump in the overall bite.
Again, it was a big of big fish mostly. It’s been like that the last few weeks. It’s almost like all the fish ate steroids or something. The dorado, especially for our Las Arenas fleet tended to be 30 pound line busters or bigger. It was not unusual to see fish on the beach that bottomed out our 50-pound scale! That fills up an ice chest really fast with a fillet from even a single fish. I had one panga go out and on it’s first day get 6 fish that were all around 50 pounds and they still had 3 more days to fish!
But, the size of some of these fish has been quite a story. However, the showing of billfish has also been remarkable. I’ve not seen this many marlin in our waters in many years. As one of our anglers this week said, “I had 4…5…6 billfish swimming around the boat all the time when I’m trying to catch dorado. It was really funny because we would move the boat away and they would either swim after us or would show up again! They were like pigeons waiting to be fed. My first day, I caught and released three and that was enough!”
Most of the billfish, whether marlin or sailfish, fortunately are being released by the anglers so that’s been very gratifying. Other times, the anglers go through great effort trying to revive tired fish and it’s only the rare billfish that’s being kept. Mostly because there was no other option.
However, one fish that is NOT getting released is the wahoo. Like the marlin, the wahoo bite has been far better than we have ever seen in years. The wahoo are mostly lurking on the usual high spots around Cerralvo Island and trolling early with big lures has been the most effective. The biggest hinderance can sometimes be that there’s far too much traffic out there with boats zig zagging all over the spots. But…ni modo…that’s just the way it is when the bite is hot…especially for wahoo! So, the earlier you get to the spots the better the chances!
Also, we got into several nice spots of yellowfin tuna again this week. Like last week, they popped up for a few days and went crazy then moved off, but we had spots of tuna pop up for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets which was a real welcome surprise. Nothing big, but fun 10-20 pound footballs are a hoot good time. We saw some bigger 100+ pound guys moving through the areas real fast as well, but no one could get on them, but we know they are there!
Our biggest problem has been the lack of sardines for bait. We’re going through one of those times again when sardines are hard to get. But, at least for us, we’re able to jig up larger baits like mackerel, cocineros, caballitos, zebra fish, mullet and ladyfish! That might also have something to do with why we’re getting mostly big fish! It takes a big fish to eat a big bait!
If you’re coming down, a few tips…
1. If you’re bringing stuff, this is one of the few times when I’d recommend bringing a few feathers. All you need are two. A dark one and a light-colored one Also, if the tuna are around, the plain wooden cedar plugs have been deadly and the bonito tend to leave them alone.
2. Bring a sabiki or lucky Joe rig with about a 4 oz torpedo sinker
3. I wouldn’t be out there fishing with anything less than 40 pound test, although, if you’re a light tackle fan like many of our anglers, at least use 40 pound test leader or higher
We were worried that fishing would be slow after the storm passed, but fishing jumped right back in. Showing off a day’s catch with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, George Higi, Will Klem, George Higi III and Will Klem Sr. strike a great pose with their dorado!
Yes! Those are yellowfin tuna on the sand here with Steve Moratto and Rob Barton from Santa Rosa CA who squeezed in one-day of fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and had a super day with yellowfin tuna, dorado and a striped marlin that they tried to revive but were unsuccessful. The tuna popped up and were crashing for several days with all fish being about 10-20 pounders. It’s been awhile since the tuna have been this thick.
I can’t get a straight answer from my Kansas amigos as to who actually caught this fish, but it’s a beauty. Allen, Clarence and Josh all posed with it and did some pretty good fishing over the week they were here.
From Diamond Bar CA, Bill Hsu has been a Tailhunter amigo for many years. But, everytime he comes down everyone else catches the wahoo except him. He made up for it with this one he caught with Captain Archangel off the south end of Cerralvo Island and also had another nice fish come unbuttoned.
“Happy Girl!” Becky Csutoras had the best fishing trip ever with big dorado and several marlin releases. Becky is an avid hunter and fisherperson and lives near Sacramento. Captain Joel from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet helps out!
Unfortunately, because of the storm, long-time Tailhunter amigo, Sam Sybesma, only got to fish one day, but made the most of it with some great dorado fishing out’ve La Paz. He was fishing with Jeff Klassen. Their video with Captain Chito is below all this week’s photos. Check it out!
He had the knack this past week for the big fish. Will Klem from El Segundo posted up a big bull dorado with Captain Armando from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet caught at the buoys.
He’s always got the big smile for his photos. Allen Burgess from Kansas caught and released this nice roosterfish while Captain Jorge drove the panga. They were fishing near the Arenas lighthouse.
Esteban Romero does his best vaquero cowboy look while standing with a nice bull dorado. Esteban is getting really good at getting into the fishing reports lately with some great fish. Several years ago, he didn’t even like fishing! Andale, amigo!
The photo isn’t very clear, but this is no doubt a big wahoo caught in the dim light of the early sunrise near Cerralvo Island by Stan Yung who was fishing with Captain Archangel. They hooked 3 wahoo this day but one got away.
Jimmy Csutoras and Captain Joel show off another of Jimmy’s big dorado for the week.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Jeff Klassen fishing with Sam Sybesma and Tailhunters’ Captain Chito, got this clip of them sticking a big bull:
STORM PASSES AND FISHING RECOVERS NICELY WITH BILLS DORADO WAHOO & TUNA!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 7-14, 2014
The week started nervously as we waited to see what Hurricane Erick would do and it’s aftermath. Up to then, fishing had been on the upswing and just our luck, Hurricane Erick sneaks up on us! Grrrr…
Well, as it turned out, the storm blow off the west side of of Baja and into the Pacific. Some of the southern areas got some rain and winds, but for the most part, here in La Paz, all we got were some clouds. However, the storm did send some really big swells and chop our way and in one of the rare occasions, we canceled one day of fishing.
It’s rare and we could have fished. But, we COULD have fished, but most of the fishermen had extra days to make up the day so there was no sense in sending out folks to be uncomfortable and get bounced around! It’s supposed to be fun right? And if they weren’t going to catch much fish, it seemed more logical to tell folks to hang at the pool and soak up some sunshine instead. So, that’s what everyone did.
But, the downside to that is we never know how it’s going to be AFTER a storm. I am always worried that the waters can be turned over and dirty or cold water moves in or the fish are just plain skittish!
Well, as it turned out, canceling the day was a good move!
The fish came back strong right out of the chute! We got right back into a pretty solid dorado bite for our Las Arenas and La Paz fleet with some nice 30-40 pound fish. La Paz had the better dorado bite out of the two areas with some nice patches of bull dorado. But, there were some hot spots out at the 88 east of Cerralvo and at the shark buoys off Las Arenas for the nicer bulls.
But, there were some great surprises…
Wahoo popped up on the south end of Cerralvo and we had some biters each day. Dark Rapalas and Yo-Zuris trolled over the high spots were the ticket but also strangely mackerel-colored patterns also worked.
Additionally, hey…we finally got tuna!!! Football tuna in the 10-20 pound class made for some great action not too far offshore Punta Perrico and Cerralvo Island. Some pangas took limits of the flashing footballs in short order. Several of our anglers said that slow trolling Cedar Plugs and dark feathers resulted in instant hook-ups. Hopefully, this bite is just the vanguard of us finally getting into a lengthy tuna bite as we didn’t have any tuna to speak-of, last season! Also, maybe the larger models will also show up!
The other fun even was the billfish. As one of our guys told me, “Jonathan, I’ve never seen anything like it! There were sailfish and marlin literally JUMPING out of the water around the panga!” There were several days here this past week where every one of our pangas hooked at least one billfish but somedays where some of the boats hooked 2-4 billfish! Most of the billfish were 60-120 pounds with some larger and almost all of them were released!
The fish are not very far offshore and I would recommend that anyone coming down bring some marlin feathers. One color that seems really hot is a green and yellow that looks like a small baby dorado because there’s a ton of baby dorado in the waters…little itty-bitty 10-inch dorado that are like candy for some of the larger fish and even the monster dorado are also chasing the babies! Food is food, I guess! But, if you want to troll, bring 2 dark colored feathers and 2 light colored lures.
She called it her “best fishing day ever!” Rebecca Csutoras is an avid hunter and angler and was on her 2nd trip with us and dad, Jimmy Csutoras, both from the Sacramento Area. She spent the week fishing with us, but on this particular day landed a box load of big bull dorado and also released two striped marlin. It’s been a much better week of fishing this week than last.
Oh the joy! George Higi III, from the San Diego CA area, man’s-up with a double lift of a big bull dorado and his first-ever wahoo taken near Cerralvo Island. George “grand slammed” in that he got 3 trophy game fish…the wahoo…the dorado…and also a striped marlin. This was his first time fishing with Tailhunters.
He came to get a roosterfish so he came to the “roosterfish capital of the world.” Bill Lewis from San Diego CA shows off a gorgeous pez gallo with Captain Pancho taken near Las Arenas. This fish was released.
Rick Hosmer and Randy Calvert had a week full of giant dorado averaging 40-50 pounds like the ones here with a chunky yellowfin tuna tossed in for variety. Rick said, “there’s some spots of 100-pound tuna out there at the 88 bank.” He’s with Captain Mundo here on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
They only had 1 day to fish having traveled from South Africa with just a brief stop in La Paz. So, Kris and Jo Biddle made the best of it with two trophy bull dorado which they brought to our Tailhunter Restaurant for a big cook-out. This was their first time fishing…ever!
It seem the wahoo are back! We had several nice hook-ups this week south of Cerralvo Island like this one held up by our amigo, Esteban Ramiro, who took this on a dark Rapala slow trolled off the bank.
Doing it right! Not only was this her first marlin, but Becky Csutoras got it back in the water and released this fish as well with the help of Captain Joel. They got this striper north of La Paz. She also got some nice bull dorado (see photo above). Dad released his first marlin as well. See the photo below!
Jimmy Csutoras from the Sacramento area was fishing with his daughter, Rebecca, and Captain Joel and both of them got striped marlin this day (see photo above). Jimmy and Rebecca both released their marlin, and during the week also released their 3rd marlin to swim and fight another day. This as Jimmy’s first marlin.
Family shot of the Whittlesey boys! Norm Whittlesey with grandsons, Daniel and David, all from Washington areas. They didn’t get alot of fish, but made up for it with all nice quality bull mahi.
Chuck Banning, like so many others, wanted his first roosterfish and got it done with Captain Adolfo and this great-looking rooster he caught near the Las Arenas light house and released. Chuck is from the San Diego area.
Not all battles end so well! Parting shot with Rick Hosmer who battled big dorado all week, but this one got him back by busting the tip off his new Shimano stick.
BIG FISH MORE VARIETY AS WEEK FISHING GETS BACK ON TRACK!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-7, 2013
The week started somewhat shaky and with a lot of trepidation given how erratic fishing was last week with wind, cold water, an offshore storm and a historic full moon. But this, week ended up on a very optimistic note.
It seemed that with each day, conditions got better. Water got bluer. Waters got warmer. More bait areas started to show up. More sargasso weeds started to gather in the channels. Waters calmed down and the chop and swell mellowed out.
And sure enough…the fish decided to play. Not full chargers but we’ve had a very good week of fishing.
The dorado bite that has been so lacking hopefully turned a corner. Again, not many small or medium fish. Almost 90 percent of the fish were trophy 30-50 pound bulls. I’m not exaggerating. Several times we put all the fish on the beach on scales and NOTHING that came back was UNDER 40 pounds! These were all huge world-class mahi with those big heads and attitudes when hooked. I would say probably early in the week, most anglers weren’t used to the big boys and we lost 50% of the fish!
However as the week went on, we got better at it. Maybe 75% of the fish were making it to the boat. Again, not a lot of fish, but when you put 2-4 huge bulls in the boat and maybe lose another 2 or 3…that’s a helluva day of exhausting fishing.
Add to that the appearance of more marlin and sailfish to spice things up as well as flurries of 20-50 pound tuna and then roosters along the beach and for most folks that meant some tired arms and full ice chests! The marlin were almost all released and averaged about 100 pounds but we also hooked a few blues that were lost on light tackle. Roosters were very repectable 40-50 pounders on the high side and we also hooked a few 30-50 pound wahoo as well.
Hopefully, thing will only improve!
That’s our story. Hope you had a great 4th of July weekend!
P.S. At the time I’m writing this, we’re watching to see if Hurricane Erick will do anything. Probably nothing to us, but it might push up some big swells and chop from down south
He looks a little tired for good reason! Sherman McDonell from Rock Springs, Wyoming had an epic week of fishing even tho’ fishing was way off. It’s hard to argue with big fish like this dorado and with Captain Armando and armed with a spinning rod and reel and 17-30 pound test, he went hand-to-hand with big dorado and roosters fighting fish for long battles of 30 minutes to over an hour and coming back a happy bloody mess each day and a big grin! I don’t think he got a single fish under 45 pounds all week. He calls La Paz his “happy place.” Big grins from Captain Armando.
Young Dan Whittlesey from Washington just graduated from high school and came down with dad and grandpa. He toughed-out a really rough week of scattered fishing but did get this incredible bull dorado with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and Captain Victor holding up the tail.
From San Diego, Cole Chavira has been fishing our waters several times a year every single year since he was about 6 years old. He usually outfishes everyone around him and has been on these pages a zillion times! No exception here with this big rooster he caught and released off Las Arenas lighthouse.
It’s tough when you only have two hands and two big floppy heavy bull dorado, but Captain Armando helps Shelly McDonell with her catch after an epic big fish day at Las Arenas where she battled each of these fish on light tackle and spinning gear almost 2 hours each. Shelly rocks. She hunts and she fishes like crazy.
It’s always good when first-timers do well and even moreso when fishing is not that good like it was this past week. But Luke Brownlee from Green River, Wyoming put the wood to several big-time bull dorado like this one and the help of Captain Jorge from our Tailhunter fleet at Las Arenas.
When you come all the way from S. Africa and you have never ever been fishing, you make a great funny face when you land the biggest and first fish of your life like Jo Biddle holding a trophy dorado on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos! Great shot!
Vegas in the house! Sandie Herrera really wanted a rooster and got hers here fishing off Las Arenas with Captain Pancho. The fish was released.
Great pose from Mitch Chavira, our San Diego amigo who was fishing north of La Paz when he stuck this dorado and got the great shot. There weren’t alot of fish this week and you really had to work it, but the fish that were hooked were generally all quality slugs!
Ron Burgess is our amigo who released that potential world record roosterfish last week. He fished with us the whole week and just was on fire! He also got his big dog-tooth snapper as well!
Norm Whittlesey has been fishing with us for many years. He hung in all week when fishing was really erratic but did manage this super dorado fishing with Captain Victor and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Check out the colors! I think I want to frame this photo!
Jason Takayoshi was down on his first trip with us. His experience was typical of how our fishing has been this past week. His first day fishing out’ve Las Arenas, they got goosed-egged. Totally skunked. Not even a bite! And Jason is an experienced angler! But, he kept up the smiles. Next day..his last chance…he fished with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and ended up high-boat for the fleet with some big dorado as well and amberjack and multiple hook ups including fish on the iron. He’s posing with two of the big dorado here on the beach at Balandra north of La Paz.
Talk about a “gamer.” Kris Brownlee gets the award this week. Wow…rough water and seasick and she still hung in there and was not going to be deterred from fishing and kept smiling the whole time during the whole week! It was her first time to visit us in La Paz and she got some nice fish pulling on her like this hefty jack crevalle she caught and released with Captain Jorge.
Marie McClelland from Park City UT was another of our visitors on her first trip fishing with us and outfished lots of the regulars! She took this bull dorado north of La Paz fishing with Captain Alfredo.
Here’s a big boy rooster! Darryl Herrera and Captain Pancho hold up the kind of rooster that made our area famous! They caught this guy just off the beach at Las Arenas (you can see the sand in the background) and released it to fight another day. Darryl is from Las Vegas.
Charlie Detrick came down to see us from Washington and although he didn’t fare well his first day, he smoked the rods on some nice dorado the 2nd day like this sweet slug of a dorado he’s holding on the beach at Balandra!
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Almost world-record rooster…Here’s a really well-produced video clip of Ron Burgess’ roosterfish he caught last week that might have been a new IGFA record. We will never know because he sportingly released it to fight another day! It’s not a long clip and well worth watching! Dave Lester, his amigo did a great job on it!
ERRATIC WEEK OF FISHING IS TOUGHEST OF SEASON
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 23-30, 2013
This past week might have been the toughest fishing week of the season. It was a difficult week on so many levels with erratic fishing and conditions that just seemed to make no sense.
We can only attribute it to a collision of the “perfect storm” of variables that all came crashing in on us…
1. Colder than normal waters brought on by late season winds turning waters murky and green. Sometimes the winds almost like “winter winds” and the waters are so green you can’t see through it. On the surface the water can be 80 degrees, but a few feet down it’s 65! We can often see fish all over, but they are just not interested in eating!
2. The “super moon.” Normally, the full moon is not a big concern for us. But, this past week, they billed it as the “SUPER MOON.” It was the largest, biggest, fullest full moon of several years. Resultingly we had incredibly low tides and strong currents. Combined with everything else, it hit us hard.
3. Hurricane COSME…it didn’t hit us and fortunately veered hundreds of miles off-shore. However, it did bring some big swell and waves from the south as well as some evening showers. This contributed to rough water conditions for a few days as well as adding more muck to the over-turned ocean that was already in bad shape.
So…that was it in a nutshell.
On a more pragmatic level, it meant lots of our amigos had some disappointing days fishing. Rough waters and no fish. Flat seas and green water. Seeing fish that didn’t want to bite. Unusual long runs to find blue water. YIKES!!!
This is the time of year when we should be and normally are slamming fish. Instead we were scrambling to find good water and fish that were interested in coming to the party.
On the upside, the fish were were hooking were BIG! Take a look at the photos! We didn’t catch many fish, but the fish were beasts! Big roosters and even bigger dorado were the rule rather than the exception. Roosters were routinely 30-50 pounds. Dorado…wow…few of them were SMALLER than 40 pounds. There were a few days where there wasn’t a dorado smaller than 45 pounds on the beach.
That created some problems of it’s own. There’s a reason fish get BIG! That’s because they are smart and tough. If we had CAUGHT as many fish as we hooked it would have surely been a better week. I mean, hey…when you come down and the biggest fish you might have caught in your life is a bass or a steelhead or a rainbow trout and suddenly you’re hooked up to the biggest fish of your life and you’re sweating and you’re now on a fish for 30 minutes…then 45 minutes…then an hour or more…in the hot sun…and you pull a little too hard…or your button down the drag…or you backlash the reel…
A 40 or 50-pound fish is not twice as strong as a 20 pound fish. It’s EXPONENTIALLY stronger! It’s a beast that EATS 20-pound fish for breakfast and takes it personally against you that you stuck a hook in his mouth! They are mean and they are pissed off and they growl. It’s not like they’re gonna let you you just pull them into the boat!
The fish is just asking to get lost!!!
Even many of our most veteran anglers were losing these big fish. And after you fight a fish that long, it’s often too late and you’ve drifted too far to find another hook-up. You get one chance at a huge fish and if that opportunity is lost…whether by angler error or simple bad luck…that’s it! You come back with nothing! We had folks fishing 1, 2, 3 days in a row with that kind of luck. Hooking several fish a day and losing the fish. Not much can be said. That’s just the way fishing was this past week.
The majority of the fish were big dorado and roosterfish, but we did have some amberjack, good numbers of jack crevalle, some marlin and sailfish (lost) and surprisingly a number of sharks pop up (and off!). Some of our catch might also have been a function of the bait we were using. Because of the conditions, bait did become a problem…especially finding sardines along the shallows. So, we used mackerel, ladyfish, small bonito, ballyhoo, small tuna, mullet and zebra fish as bait which were all effective.
Hopefully, better things this coming week even as you are reading this! As I write , conditions seem to be improving!
Tailhunter Fish Report 