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Posts Tagged ‘fishing’

Team Owner Hooks showed up to fish our tuna bite this week. Popular fishing personality, Dennis Yamamoto of Owner Hooks (middle) brought all the guys down for 3 days and got into fish between 25-45 pounds fishing with our Tailhunter Las Fleet. We had a great time with them. From left to right: Maurice Nakagawa; Ken Imoto; Gerry Koyama; Randy Kanemaki; Dennis Yamamoto; Miles Nakahara; Clark Saito; Dennis Fong...thanks guys!

Our buddy, Dan McCormick, from Oregon escaped the OR rain this week and shows off the type of quality tuna we got off Las Arenas. Dan got 5 of these slugs this day.

Lots of our veteran anglers, many with lots of tuna experience, were telling us that "These tuna were fighting like fish alot bigger!" Jeff Brown (Minnesota) , Captain Jorge, and Rod Brown (Alaska), our amigos who visit us twice a year, fished an entire week with us and spent anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or more on each hookup with yellowfin. We had some clients spent over 2 hours on their fish and lots of anglers commented that for some reason, these fish fought like tuna much much larger. It also didn't help that the fish preferred light tackle so 20-30 pound line got bit the most.

Just so you don't think we only caught tuna this week, Rich Miles from Utah justifiably shows off the beast of a bull dorado he caught north of La Paz with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. We didn't catch as many dorado this week as in the past, but the quality seemed to make up for the loss of quantity with bigger and better fish like this beast.

Like I said, these fish were "beasts in battle." Check out our great friends, Jorge Romero and Bob Duncan from Santa Barbara. Look closely at Bob's mouth. He's holding the tip of his custom rod that got snapped off while fighting a tuna.

Roger Van Steenkiste is 84-years-old often comes to visit us in La Paz twice a year and usually outfishes and out-lasts all of his younger sons and friends. Here, he's showing off some dorado with our other amigo, Jerell Mulhollan from New Jersey.

Grandpa and grandson, Jeremy and Jim Reeves at Las Arenas with Jeremy's first tuna. No word on if Grandpa Jim made him eat the heart!

Our San Diego connection for the week, amigo Jock Argust, put this nice slug yellowfin tuna in the box. The bite was really strange this week. One day there would be 1-2 fish per boat. The next day the fish would come up boiling and produce 4-6 fish per boat.

VIDEO HIGHTLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK

Got some good stuff this week.  Check out the images and video clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjzVB-7Sw6g

SCRAPPY TUNA AT LAS ARENAS PICKY BUT HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 2-9, 2011

It’s a bit difficult to characterize the week.  If you’re looking at sheer numbers, it wasn’t a very good week of fishing.  I mean, 1-5 fish per panga/day doesn’t sound like much.  And it’s not.  You’d be right. Even the dorado, which had been our bread-and-butter fish, weren’t exactly cooperative.

 

However, the other side of the coin is that the fish we DID catch…they were generally bruisers! And one or two fish could fill a cooler.

 

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, the tuna were anemic and picky but no doubt they were there.  Early in the week it started with 25-30 pound fish.  By the end of the week it was 30-45 pound fish with some 50’s, 60’s and even and estimated 140 pounder on the beach!  The fish were selective and generally only hitting light tackle in the 20-40 pound lines so that meant long drawn out battles of 45, 60, 90 or even (in two cases)…almost 3 hours on fish.  That’s a butt-kicker in the hot Baja sun.

 

So, when you look at the numbers, and that it takes that long to get a fish to the boat, not many fish show up in the counts.  Also, take into effect that you could fight a fish for an hour or so…and then BOING…YOU LOSE IT!  There goes an hour of fishing time.  GONE!  The school might be gone by then.  You don’t get many shots.  So, it’s a gamblers odds on putting fish in the panga.  If you put 3, 4, or 5 of these sluggers in the boat, you’re both good AND lucky!

 

Some notes, often the tuna bite has been late in the day.  Some days the fish are all over the waters and you can see them running under the boat.  And they won’t eat a single bait.  Also, the baits are incredibly small.  I’ve never seen baits this small. I’m not kidding.  Some of these baits are about 2-3 inches long!!!  So, if you’re coming down, you want small strong hooks.  We had  Dennis Yamamoto and the Team from Owner hooks with us and all of them are experienced tuna fishermen and they were using flyline Owner hooks and 20-30 pound lines and even they lost some fish but still took home full coolers. 

 

“These fish just seemed to fight larger than fish their size! I couldn’t believe it!” said one of our guys from Oregon

 

“After 3 days of fishing, not a single fish took less than an hour!” said another.  “And these fish were mostly 25-35 pounds, but fought like 50 pounders.  I do San Diego long range and have fished Baja before ,but these fish seemed like they were juiced or something!”

 

For some of our anglers, 1 or 2 of these beast tuna was enough for the day. “We decided to go fish for roosterfish after those first fish,” said one of our fishermen.  “I really wanted to experience catching a tuna and now I know.  Those things pull alot harder than salmon or halibut!”

 

Anyway, it was the same with many of our dorado as well. Fewer fish this week again.  Normally, we’ve been catching limits or near limits for the entire summer.  However, the last two weeks it’ dwindled to 2-6 dorado per boat.  However, again, it’s quality over quantity.  We’re seeing larger and stronger bulls in the mix.  A number of fish were in the 25-30 pound class and 40 pounders were caught every day with one fish estimated at over 50 pounds taken as well.

 

Not sure what the next week will bring.  It seems every week is a surprise. 

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

 

               

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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


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

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Although the main focus has been on the tuna and dorado bite, roosterfish are still around and are a great trophy catch. Trudy wanted one of these and got it just off the Las Arenas lighthouse which is a world-reknowned "roosterfish alley." The pretty fish took a live sardine and was quickly released after the photo.

Our Sacramento amigo, Wade Gomes, comes to visit us yearly and shows off one of the nicer dorado we've been getting with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. The bite was a little stickier this week than normal, but schools of dorado are definitely around and the bite got better as the week went on.

Shane Grove from Utah gets a special mention. Y'know some guys will wear our Tailhunter t-shirt. Some sport our Tailhunter stickers. Take a look at the inset photo. Shane went and got our Tailhunter logo tatooed on his shoulder! This so rocks! Thanks, Fish Brother. Oh...nice dorado too!

Our yellowfin tuna at Las Arenas were better than last week when we had the full moon, but still not exactly wide open on the bite. Our pangas averaged 1-5 tuna per boat and the bite was late in the day. Fish went 20-30 pounds on the average like the nice trio of tuna caught by our buddy, Leif Dover, who came ovef from Hong Kong where he works. This was his 2nd trip to see us in two months! He's an animal fisherman!

Over the last few weeks, the ladies have really been doing well. Marsha Barnett, on her first trip to La Paz, spent 3 days catching dorado like these. She's holding this one after her first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet.

Another of our lady anglers who had a banner week, Kathy Terbu, from Utah pulled this nice bull out of the waters west of Espiritu Santo Island. The bite for our La Paz fleet was a little off but dorado got hungier as the week went on.

Johnny Terbu had a banner week of fishing and snorkeling with us and all the while kept his flyrod handy just-in-case. On his last day, the dorado boiled up all around the boat and he was able to get in some casts hooking up on dorado like this one in the channel between Cerralvo Island and Las Cruces. Here's what John said: " Awesome trip! Best day we had was 13 Dorado! Done by 12:00 noon. Also, got the 1 tuna I wanted. Even got one onthe fly rod! 12 wt. isn't big enough. Go big or stay home.Can't wait til next trip. Thanks so much for a wonderful trip and condo!"

POST – FULL MOON BITE IMPROVES WITH BETTER DORADO AND TUNA FISHING

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 2009

It wasn’t the best of weeks for fishing, but it was certainly better than the week before when we had the full moon playing games with us.  It was still scratchy fishing but the fish were more cooperative to a degree.  But, we still had to work hard for them.  Things were compounded by the fact that many days the bite was late in the day.  So, sometimes guys would get out to the spot and sit there…and sit there…and sit there…and work the area with their captain.

 

There’s only so much patience.  And, in some cases, they’d get the captains to leave the spot and go hunt for roosterfish or cabrilla or some other species.  Those boats that stuck around would suddenly get rewards with biters of tuna or dorado.  It’s just a matter of knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em.  Of course, being fish…sometimes sitting at one spot didn’t do much good either and the guys who pulled off found some action.

 

Anyway, for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, tuna were the center stage again.  Fish were a bit larger this week.  Most fish were in the  20-25 pound class, which is a real bull for alot of folks, but there were others in the 30-40 pound class and some larger that anglers never saw and busted off.   If you count up 1-5 tuna per boat/day then add in a few dorado and about 20 bonito and the occasional roosterfish, it’s an arm-tiring day especially in some cases where all the pandemonimium doesn’t even start until late in the day!

 

For our La Paz fleet, well, the dorado continue to be good to us and honestly, the mahi are our bread-and-butter-fish.  All summer we could count on them to bend the rods and fill the ice chests.  This week, they were a little more reluctant.  Not so crazy, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in quality.  Quite a few fish were in that nice grade 30-40 to pound size!  So, one or two fish could stuff a fish box very easily and it wasn’t unusual to see big tails sticking out of the fix boxes because the whole fish wouldn’t fit with the lids on.

 

Knock on wood, we did dodge hurricane Hillary that kept our attention most of the week and had us answering phone calls and e-mails from clients wondering if they should still come down.  I don’t want to spit in the face of the weather-gods but Hillary fizzled and we didn’t even get any strong winds or storms.  We were pretty happy about that, needless to say.  We still have to keep an eye on the weather as we wind down the season, but it’s clear that fall is coming.  Shadows are longer.  It’s a tad cooler.  A bit breezier.  We hope the fish keep biting.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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


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

 

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First timer to La Paz, Bob Chadwick holds up a couple of his nice tuna typical of the fish we were getting this week with our Tailhunter Las Arenas flight. While not crazy biting, the fish were definitely "on-the-chew" better than the week before when a full moon seemed to keep the bite down. Bob's biggest fish here weighed 38 pounds.

Our amigo, Ken Gragg, has made three trips to fish with us this year...and the year's not done yet! He's given a hand here by Captain Victor to hoist up a big-boy bull dorado estimated at about 45-pounds.

Here's the end-result of man vs. sealion. Although the tuna came back nicely this week, it seemed that at least 1 out of 3 fish hooked was lost to a big dog sealion that parked itself in the middle of the schools and had a field-day munching hooked fish to the frustration of many of our anglers. Sealions aren't usually a problem, but this week this one pesky butthead couldn't seem to get enough as shown by Ken's "big catch."

Three days fishing with us for Ron and Lenora Kellogg resulted in a handful of tuna and dorado to bring home. These were caught their first day out with us fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

We had alot of great couples visit us this week. Kim and Matt Hoey pose with some of their catch after their first of 3 days fishing with us. Kimber has a dorado. Matt hoists a 25 pound tuna.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Well, as mentioned, I dropped my regular video cam into the water on the beach last week so this week I had to use my backup cam.  The shots are shakier than I would have liked, but you get the idea!  Click and enjoy some of the highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqHA9t18fq8

FULL MOON LEAVES AND FISH GET A BIT HUNGRIER AGAIN

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 18-25, 2011

We recovered nicely after the full moon last week.  The further we got away from it, the better we seemed to do.  It wasn’t a full recovery given what we did BEFORE the full moon, but we were definitely back on the fish bite.

 

For our Las Arenas boats, the tuna came back nicely.  They were squirrelly at times with the bite taking off early one day then very very late the next day.  Another time, they would eat only small sardines fished live and the next day they would only eat dead sardines chummed in the water.  Another day, they would eat only slow trolled sardines or larger caballitos.  Talk about picky!  The secret was just hanging in there and keep trying a bunch of things until something worked.  Also, it meant working through several dozen bites of big feisty bonito that would tear things up.  Some days, our pangas would get 2-4 (20-40 pounders)  tuna but would also nail several dozen bonito too which meant for a really tiring day!  Lots of smiles most days.

 

I guess the biggest of problems was the monster that becomes the scourge of fishermen all over.  There was one rat bastard sealion that planted itself right in the middle of the tuna school all week.  You would think the thing would be gorged after taking about 20-40 percent of all the tuna hooked…that’s alot of tuna…but every day, it was right there again torturing us!  We usually don’t have sealion problems, but this week we sure did.  Guys were doing all kinds of thing.  They were putting out dummy lines.  They were heaving dead bonito at it (mostly to no effect except straining some arm muscles) and also throwing the occasional sinker at it…also to no effect.  The best was my suggestion to two of our guys to get the hottest habanero sauce they could find and fill a dead bonito with it.  Then toss it at the sealion. 

 

They did it and said the sealion went right for it and gulped it down then came up barking like it’s mouth was on fire!  It swam away to bother a different boat!

 

Anyway, the tuna seem to be back and with it there was also a decent bite of dorado as well as roosterfish and finally someone hooked a wahoo…maybe the 5th or 6th we’ve had all year in what has been a pretty sour year for wahoo. 

 

For our La Paz fleet, again, the further we got from the full moon, the better.  Limits or near limits was usually the case with decent 10-20 pound fish the norm and mostly found on the west side of Espiritu Santo Island.  The bite could be early and then everyone comes home or, on some days, it was sparse pickings until fish exploded late in the day.

One note…this time of year the heat (combined with humidity) can be really incredible.  Most of us are used to it, but we can’t stress enough about drinking liquids, especially water.  Sorry, beer and margaritas don’t count!  You can’t drink enough water here, especially when you’re on the water fishing.  The heat literally sucks the moisture from your body.  We’ve had several people feel the ills of heat stroke…headache, chills…almost like the flu. Fixed ’em up with Gatorades, water and just getting in a cooler environment.  But just a heads up that it’s important to keep hydrated!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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


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

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The yellowfin tuna came up barking this week! Nice 30-80 pound fish for our Las Arenas fleet and showing here with some of our buen amigos: Mary Heilman; Ed Vander Veer; Mike Whitlow and Bobby Whitlow. Great week of tuna fishing!

The picture is a little deceiving, but our amigo, Jorge "Campion" Romero is actually about 6' tall, but has to lean way back in order to lift this tuna estimated between 70-80 pounds that he rocked off Las Arenas on 50 pound test! He only got one but it was a horse!

In addition to the tuna, it wasn't like the dorado disappeared from the center stage! For the entire summer, the dorado have been voracious! Our popular Captain Chito has a big smile with a big dorado for Ed Vander Veer from Portland OR who nailed this big bull north of La Paz.

Captain Victor from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet flanked by Bernie Pirih and Jim Cirar from Reno NV area and a whole mess o' yellowfin tuna they hooked line live caballitos. The largest of these was scaled at 45 pounds.

It was another active week for marlin and sailfish with most fish released or busting off. However, this one could not be released. Left to right: Esteban romero, Randy Bryan from Chino Hills CA , Capitan Joel , John Nagy from Marina del Rey CA.

Like a kid with a pool toy, Mary Heilman from Oregon cradles her big bull dorado she caught fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet off Espirito Santo Island.

Mike Whitlow spent his birthday with us from Washington and spent 5 full days slamming dorado, tuna, cabrilla, pargo and other species. But what he really wanted was a big roosterfish. He finally got the big fish on the last day...at the last hour of fishing! "It made my trip," he said. The big fish was released. Captain Adolfo looks on.

Personal bests on the "bucket list" for S. Californian, Don Busse, who got his largest dorado...a 25 and 30 pounder fishing with us this past week.

Natalie Espejo probably loves to fish even more than Bob Gurbuz from Los Angeles...in fact, she's crazy to fish and, as shown in the photo, often catches the largest fish when they fish. Actually, she gets impatient with him if he takes too long to pull in his fish! Bob is actually an experienced angler but says, "She's the boss!" Fun amigos! They got into the tuna bite this week at Las Arenas with their largest fish in the 40 pound class.

It's an outstanding time to fish inshore or along the islands, largely because everyone is outside chasing the bluewater fish! However, species like cabrilla, pargo, snapper and school-sized roosters like Bobby Whitlow's fish here that he caught and released can make for an entire day with plenty of action, That's Captain Adolfo grinning in the stern of the panga.

There comes a point where your arms ache and your back screams and you have to say, "No mas! Let's go home!" That's what happened with Tom Moltzen and Al Skiff who plugged the panga with yellowfin tuna (and Captain Pancho) and were back on the beach by 10:30 a.m. off Las Arenas.

Alex Trasvina brought his dad, Victor, down for a last-minute fishing trip and got into some of the yellowfin tuna one day fishing with our Las Arenas fleet then fished their 2nd day and slammed the dorado with our La Paz fleet.

First-timers to La Paz to fish with us, brothers Steve and Glenn Libbrecht from Nevada put numerous tuna in the pangas as well as dorado. This shot is from their 2nd day fishing with Captain Jorge. All the fish were 40 pound class sluggers.

VIDEO CLIPS of the WEEK

Click here for our video and still images from the week on Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nodouT1xwE

Bonus Video Clip of the Week is Martine, the Italian opera singer who stopped by to visit us on the beach!  Turn up your volume and click the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63dtVb3ZarU

TUNA BUST UP LAS ARENAS ANGLERS WITH DORADO CONTINUING ON THE CHEW!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 4-11, 2011

Overall, despite some occasional dips, it was an incredible week of fishing for both our Tailhunter Fleets here.  Not only did the dorado keep biting fast and furious for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, but tuna popped up mid-week for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.  It was pretty good pickings.

 

The tuna were a great surprise.  On and off over the summer the tuna would tease here and there with a handful popping up every few days with nothing solid.  Well, about Wednesday about 5 miles offshore between the Punta Arenas lighthouse and the south end of Cerralvo Island the fish came charging.  Accompanied at times by the porpoise schools…and sometimes not…the yellowfin were “jumping out’ve the water all around the boats!” said one of our anglers.  “I’ve never seen 50-100 pound fish like that and after catching several 40-pounders, I’m glad we didn’t hook any larger!  One guy fought one for almost 3 hours and lost it!”  

 

The biggest problem for our Las Arenas fleet was the lack of sardines for bait so the guys had to catch caballito and also do a bit of trolling as well (cedar plugs again seem to be the hot ticket!).  But the big caballito hit the water like candy to a kindergarten class and for several days the boats put 2-10 fish aboard each day plus losing others…many much larger.  The size range of these went from 10 pound schoolie tuna up to 100-pound pigs with most of the fish in the 30-40 pound class…perfect for most anglers.  “That was plenty big for me!” said one of our anglers.  “I could not handle anything larger.  Before this a big trout had been my biggest fish!”

 

For the rest of the catch out of Las Arenas, we also hooked some marlin, sailfish, roosters and a nice smattering of pargo, cabrilla and snapper for those anglers that wanted to work inshore and along the island for fun light tackle fishing.

 

For our Tailhunter La Paz fleet…the boom on dorado continued.  It’s been bread-and-butter all summer.  If you want to put fillets in the cooler then chasing dorado north of town with our La Paz fleet has been the way to do it.  Dorado have been incredible most days with fish from 10-50 pounds.  Sometimes it’s one fish here.  One fish there.  But, often, the guys were telling me it could go from sheer boredom to pandemonium as big schools of mahi suddenly crashed and every single rod would be bent and it was frantic fishing at it’s best. Several days this week the fishermen were back on the beach cleaning their catches by 11 or 12 noon or earlier!

 

Still no wahoo in the picture or giant squid…we keep getting asked about both!  But the dorado and tuna sure kept everyone busy this week.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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


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

Read Full Post »

The better grade of tuna popped up off Las Arenas and Cerralvo Island. There weren't many of them, but the ones that did show up were in the 40-100 pound class with some larger ones mixed in. Chance Vega from Long Beach hoists up a 40 pounder that just came over the rail.

Dorado continued to be the main attraction for both our Tailhunter fleets with some really nice grade fish being about 90 percent of the weekly catch like this big bull that Captain Rogelio is helping Ron with fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

There's no question that there's alot of billfish in the water right now and the guys fishing for dorado and tuna are getting quite a few surprise hook ups. I wante to thank our amigo, Tom Beautnagel, who took some great billfish photos this past week, including this fantastic shot of our Captain Gerardo gunning the boat and trying to chase down a jumping sailfish hooked by one of his anglers. This is what we call a "Nantucket Sleigh Ride!" All you can do is hold on!

This guy never has a bad day. He is always smiling! Our good friend, Rick Kasper, actor and outdoor TV show host got into that nice jag of tuna this pas week off Las Arenas.

You gotta give this smiling gal props! Debra Guyton from Buena Park CA was fishing for the first time this week and got badly seasick, but refused to stop fishing even when she could easily have gone back to shore. She'd get sick...catch a fish...get sick...catch a fish...and kept smiling too! She got some big tuna as well as some great dorado like this one!

They came to get a tuna or two and Kevin Meyerhoff and Brian Hoff did get these two that ended up on their dinner plates at our Tailhunter Restaurant as ceviche, sashime and Hawaiian poke.

It's a bit hard to tell all the players behind the dorsal fin, but for sure, it's our popular Captain Pancho with Ron and maybe Tyler and the smiles. This particular day, they got the sailfish AND a marlin fishing off Las Arenas and major kudos for quickly releasing both fish to swim away! Quite a few billfish in the water many around the schools of small dorado and bonito. (Thanks for the photo, Tom!)

Showing off a nice rack of Las Arenas dorado, Capt. John Seidensticker from Huntington Beach CA shows of some good sized dorado typical of the size we're getting right now.

HOT WEATHER AND HOT DORADO FISHING PACE THE WEEK!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 28-Sept. 4, 2011

Again, it was a pretty hot week for dorado fishing around town, especially for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet where filling the coolers in a single day was sometimes the rule rather than the exception for quite a few fishermen if they wanted doado meat!  Fishing north of town, there was both quantity and quality with some 30-40 pound fish taken each day. 

 

 It wasn’t quite so frisky for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, but dorado fishing was still fairly steady but the bonus being that we found several spots of tuna that ranged from 20-100 pounds that were close to shore or to the island plus quite a few hookups on sailfish and marlin.  So, all-in-all, lots of variety.

 

Perhaps the biggest concern all week wasn’t the hot fishing.  The fish took care of themselves!  If you had lines in the water and a few days fishing like most of our clients, you were gonna put some fillets in your ice chest without really trying too hard.  However, the hottest things was the weather! 

 

We had our normally warm temps in the high 90’s and low hundreds that are tolerable to most folks.  No biggie.  However, I can’t remember when it was so humid.  For instance, one day it was 98 degrees at 3 p.m. but with the humidity, the heat index had us at 118!  Another day it was only 101 degrees, but with the humidity and the heat index it was a whopping 129 degrees at SIX P.M.!!!!!  Amazingly, as soon as the sun dipped down the afternoon Corumuel winds come up every day and immediately, the temperatures drop within 30 minutes by 20 degrees and then continue getting cooler with the breeze refreshing everything through the night.  Our biggest concern wasn’t reminding our fisher-folk to hold onto their rods…it was reminding them that they MUST drink waters!  Beer doesn’t count.  The ice in the margarita doesn’t count!  With temperatures so high, people don’t realize that the liquid in their bodies is getting sucked right out with every breath and dangerous heat stroke is a very real possibility!  In the past, we’ve had folks literally tip over and pass out and had to call the ambulance or get sick when they came back to their rooms thinking they had the flu or food poisoning with cramps and chills when, in fact, they were just heat stroking.  Fortunately, it’s not happened yet this season, but as long as you wear a hat.  Stay in the shade as much as possible and stay hydrated, folks are fine.

 

But back to the fishing…

 

Yes…dorado…dorado…dorado…Hahahahaha…(yawn).  Seriously, we’re thankful the dorado have been ripping all summer.  Great fun. Great fighters.  Great eating!  Probably 90 percent of the catch this past week has been dorado. 

 

But, the continued bites by sailfish and marlin to unsuspecting anglers who are have a little sardine out there swimming around on light tackle trying to hook a dorado or tuna then suddenly finding a 7-10 foot fish on the end is usually pretty thrilling.  Most times the fish break off after a fight or, if taken, almost all the billfish are getting released. 

 

Even moreso was the exciting appearance of the larger grade of tuna off Las Arenas.  Some of the fish were as close as Punta Perrico which is about 5 minutes down the beach from where we launch our pangas near the lighthouse.  30-40 pound models were the norm, but larger 50, 60 and a few fish over 100 pounds were hooked and most lost.   But this is definitely something to keep an eye on.  The tuna were hardly wide open, but boats that went to the tuna zone got 1-4 fish each most days.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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


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

 

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Kristen Barnard from El Segundo CA was on her first trip to Baja and went fishing with Uncle Joe Barnard from Honolulu HI when they tagged into this pair of nice dorado near the Las Arenas lighthouse.

Our amiga, Marianne Sugawara visits us about 2-3 times a year and always fishes with Captain Jorge. It usually pays off like with this nice bull dorado taken south of Bahia de los Muertos!

The Kodama Men...Dad (Curtis) with Daniel and Darin...were on their first trip to visit us in La Paz and put some nice dorado in the box after their first day.

Definitely a good week for the ladies! Kelly, Kristen and Kathy Barnard pose with some of their Las Arenas catch of dorado.

It was another great week for roosterfishing off our beaches...largest being a 60-pounder and almost all of them were released. Dr. Al Yu took this one near Punta Perrico with Captain Adolfo looking on and the fish was released.

Quite a few of our clients had a blast by going to light tackle and working the inshore structure like Jeff Sakuda and Mark Aizawa who used spinning rods and flyrods to nail cabrilla, pargo and roosterfish like these!

Steve and Shirley Erquhart live in the mountains of California's Sierra Nevada off-the-grid in a log cabin he built by hand in the forrest, but came to see us and did well after 3 days of dorado fishing showing off a trio of bulls they took fishing north of La Paz.

Fred Li, had a great mix of fishing working Espiritu Santo Island where he went to knock out some pargo and cabrilla along the rocks. He did great, but then this nice 22-pound bull dorado came swimming into the shallows and ate his sardine too!

They called it a "man-cation" this year for their La Paz trip. JR Nojadera came with his dad, Al, Jordan Richards and Dennis Cudal to swing on some fish and did well on the dorado, but probably had their best time taking out the fish along the inshore waters of Ceralvo Island with roosterfish, cabrilla, and pargo like these!

WEEKLY TAILHUNTER VIDEO CLIP

Click the link to check out the weekly video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgAyHWa_GsE

DORADO KEEP IT STEADY AS FULL MOON PULLS UP

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 7-14, 2011

There was no shortage of fish if you wanted to catch dorado.  For both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleet, the dorado were again the center of attention and made up more than 90 percent of the catch.  There seem to be so many spots where the dorado are congregating some of the anglers were laughingly getting tired of finding dorado everywhere they looked. 

 

Some days were better than others, but overall, there were limits or near limits of dorado almost every day.  The only issue was whether the fish would be caught 1-by-1 over the fishing day or whether it was going to be slow all day topped off by explosion of finding a hungry school and the ensuing madness as every rod  got bent!

 

Most of the fish were in the smaller 10 pound class, but there were a few larger in the 20-30 pound class.  Larger baits usually drew the larger fish.   It was good to hear that many of the anglers either dropped to lighter tackle or else catching and releasing so many of the smaller fish or realizing they had so many fish already in the freezer they released ALL their fish.  A few of the guys even took the hooks off their surface lures just to watch the dorado slam the lures and take off with the lures only to let go and have another dorado pick it right up! 

 

For other species, there were a few marlin and sails hooked and busted off.  Roosterfishing could be as frantic as the dorado if you got into the school-sized fish.  One group of our anglers threw Shimano wax wing lures all day-long and hooked rooster and after rooster but said with bait they could have been bent on every cast.  Largest rooster of the week was a 60 pound fish taken by Tom Barnard who revived the fish and released it.

 

No tuna to speak of. They popped up here and there then moved off faster then we could chase ’em.  No wahoo either.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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


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

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Look at the head on this bull dorado! Randy Pelcher from Bishop CA was on his first trip here and took this big guy on his first day of his trip. There's some big dorado down here right now! Randy got this on a live sardine with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

It was another week where the ladies sometimes outfished the guys! Robin Sawaske from Carpenteria CA, was on her first trip ever and took this 40-pound class dorado fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.

It wasn't a spectacular week for tuna but we did have some nice flurries of tuna off Cerralvo Island that kept the rods bent on fish in the 10-30 pound category. On break from med school in Virginia, Robert Jackson, Jr, mugs with goofball captain Victor holding up a couple of tuna at Las Arenas Beach.

This has probably been one of the slowest wahoo years I can remember. Only a handful so far this season although we've been seeing the occasional fish here and there. But no one has been catching any! At least until Kevin Davis from Mustang, Oklahoma and nephew of our La Paz amigo Hawk Davis got this sweet fish north of Cerralvo Island. I dunno...I think he flew in from Oklahoma with a horseshoe in his back pocket. In additon to this trophy wahoo, he also got a blue marlin and released an 80-pound class roosterfish! Talk about first-timer luck! Great trip!

There's still some variety down here, especially if you fish the rocks inshore like Joe Adler from Mammoth CA who pulled this hefty barred pargo off a reef near Punta Arenas!

It was a good week for our flyfishers, like Spencer Sawaske who had a banner day catching-and-releasing 12 roosters like this one working the rocky eastern shoreline of Cerralvo Island.

Ken Milici lives up in the Eastern Sierras and came down the mountain to fish with us for the first time and is all smiles with this nice Las Arenas yellowftin tuna. The tuna appear to have moved in closer to the island these days.

Incredible colors on this great shot of Dr. Bill Thomas and Captain Jorge with a fresh dorado on the gaff!

It's rare that we have to do much trolling, but Robert Jackson of San Diego, who has been an amigo for years, decided to troll a cedar plug and knocked down a yellowftin tuna and this monster bull dorado...which set off a run of folks looking for cedar plugs at the local La Paz tackle stores!

THE WEEK IN VIDEO and STILL IMAGES

Click the link:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33vtevbrNg4

DODGED A HURRICANE BUT LEFT WITH SCRATCHY FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 17-24, 2004

I guess even bigger than the fishing was the amount of focus garnered by the approach of Hurricane Dora that came up from Central America this past week that had us all watching. Reaching Category 4 status with 150 mph winds and huge seas, early predictions had southern Baja in it’s track. So we waited and watched …and waited and watched…and it’s all everyone talked about all week. At our Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the La Paz waterfront, we were getting the rain ponchos and sandbags ready. We were dreading the weekend since we’ve been full with clients all week and are in the prime of the season.

And then…well…gratefully NOTHING HAPPENED! We did some strong winds and chop with some big swell from the south, but it beat getting battered by Hurricane Dora.  At least we got out fishing and most folks still did OK with the fishing and, although we had to work hard for fish, most folks went home with a load in the coolers.

 The most consistent bite were again the dorado. More prevailant with our La Paz fleet than our Las Arenas fleet, nonetheless, most days it was limits or near limits of mahi ranging from school-sized 5-10 pounders to 20-40 pounders. There might have been some larger ones in the count, but there were some legit 40-50 pounders busted off on lighter tackle after long battles.

 Again, the weed lines north of La Paz were productive areas we as were the areas around SE Espiritu Santo Island, Las Cruces, and Punta Mejia. For our La Las Arenas fleet, dorado were found at the 88 spots, the inner and outer buoys as well as marauding in the areas between Punta Arena lighthouse and South Point of Cerralvo Island.

I don’t know about Las Arenas.  The whole year, the bite there has been anemic.  One week great…next week so-so.  One day great.  Next day we have trouble getting bait.  Hopefully, things will improve.  Some years, La Paz is the tougher side.  This year, it’s just the opposite.  Las Arenas struggles.

For the tuna bite, none of the big sluggers this week, but it seemed that every -other-day for our Las Arenas anglers, the tuna would pop up and everyone would get 3-8 football-sized tuna in the 20-40 pound class. Pretty much the perfect size for most anglers. Enough of a fight without the 1-2 hour battles often ending in heartache when it gets lost. The footballs were plenty work-out for most! Some days the fish, interestingly, would eat only live or dead sardines. The next time they would only eat trolled lures like Rapalas, feathers and for some reason…Cedar Plugs (natural colored) worked nicely when they never seemed to have been very effective before except for catching bonito.

Some other notes…our flyfishermen this week did exceptionally well. Several worked the easter-side of Cerralvo Island and found the schools of 10-15 pound roosters in the shallows that were a great battle on 8-10wt flyrods. Vicki Mitchell from Carmel CA hooked one really sweet 35 pound dorado that put up a big fight and really tore it up on the flyrod for her.

As well, it’s not been a really great wahoo season, but conditions have certainly seemed good for it. However, we’ve caught very few this year. I can only think of a handful taken, but that could also be because no one has really worked the area. Well, this past week, three were hooked and one landed at the north end of Cerralvo Island.

Still quite a few billfish in the area. Sailfish up to 100 pounds and striped marlin up to about 120 were hooked and lost. Most billfish are getting released. However, there were several blues up to about 300 pounds hooked and lost as well plus one fish estimted at possibly being a “grander” (1000 pounder) was seen by some very experienced free divers in the blue water.

That’s our story

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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

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

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