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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Dec. 21-28, 2014

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Captain Pancho with a nice rack of sierra and a cabrilla.

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Pretty typical inshore winter catch of some great eating, pargo, snapper, cabrilla and triggerfish.

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Incredible day trips right now to swim in La Paz Bay with the whalesharks in the shallow waters! On any given day there are up to several dozen 10-15 foot “juveniles” in the bay.

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Above or under the water, these gentle animals are a fantastic experience. This is about a 20 footer, feeding on the surface in only about 10 feet of water!

 

 

SUNS OUT BUT SO IS THE WIND!  

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 21-28, 2014

The weather was tough on us this week.  Quite a few windy days as is often the case during the winter months when the north winds come down and hit us and just make it difficult to get out or, even if we do, it’s just rugged out there or, the big waves make it tough to get bait.  And that’s the way it was for the majority of the week.

I feel badly because most of the folks that fish this time of year are snow-birds just enjoying sunshine who want a day of fishing while in La Paz.  This is unlike during the regular season when folks fish every single day of their vacation and are specifically in town to fish.  For the folks now with only one day to fish, that means we either have to cancel; or they have to just gut-it-out and have a rough day; or we have to juggle their fishing days to find a day where the winds are diminished.

More often than not, we either have to tell folks who only have one specific day to fish that it’s best they not go out, or they go out and really just have a bad time and get beat up and wet and not catch much fish…and that’s not fun either.

On the other side, at least it’s sunny!  Day time temps are in the low to mid-70’s and really pleasant.  Although it was windy, winds should calm down by the time you’re reading this.

We did get out a few times this week.  All of our fishing during the winter months are out’ve Las Arenas/ Bahia de Los Muertos areas.   Because of the winds, waters are pretty turned over and green and dirty in some of our hot spots.  However, we did get into some decent sierra along the beach drop-offs.   Some were hefty 4-5 pound chunkers and ALWAYS great eating.  There were a few small pargo, snapper and cabrilla caught.  We had some school-sized rooster fish caught and released and the bonito helped provide some action as well.

As a side note, many folks don’t know that La Paz has become quite a mecca for whalesharks which have been increasing in numbers the last few season in La Paz Bay where they’re protected.  At times there are 1/2 dozen to several dozen “juveniles” up to 15 feet long or more all in shallow water and great for snorkeling!   We’re running 2-3 hour trips to swim with the whalesharks every day that the winds are favorable.  The juveniles are just a few minutes away and it’s an incredible family once-in-a-lifetime experience.   You are NOT allowed to touch or ride the animals but still…getting just a few feet away from these gentle animals (they are true sharks with no teeth that eat plankton, krill and other small critters) is something not to be missed.

OUR YEAR IN REVIEW!  BRING ON 2015!

Well, 2014 is almost one for the books and I thought it would good to wrap up the year with a full review…

It was as crazy a year as I have ever had in my almost 20 years working here in La Paz.

With El Nino hovering, we entered the year with some trepidation.  El Nino seems to have a zillion variables that change the whole complexion of fishing and sure enough, it started right from the get-go.

El Nino conditions are characterized by warmer than normal waters.  Good in some ways, but bad in so many others.  So, crazily, our waters never really did cool down.  We started the year catching dorado which was a great surprise in some aspects, but the downside was not so good.

For one our cooler water species never really did show up.  While the dorado were biting, we never got into the good yellowtail or the amberjack, sierra or pargo that are so popular in our cooler months. We got a few, but it had to be called a big disappointment.  One aspect of the overly-warm water was the lack of bait.

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Tim Butterworth with a fat yellowtail caught with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

From Idaho taking a break from teaching school, Mandy Pollock let's Tailhunter Capt. Boli struggle with this big yellowtail from the north side of La Paz.  Still a few yellowtail around and this was Mandy's first trip to La Paz.

From Idaho taking a break from teaching school, Mandy Pollock let’s Tailhunter Capt. Boli struggle with this big yellowtail from the north side of La Paz. Still a few yellowtail around and this was Mandy’s first trip to La Paz.

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Jorge Ramiro, everyone’s amigo, with two nice spring-time dorado which showed up early this year with the warm waters!

 

Baitfish require cooler waters so that nutrients come from the deep.  The baitfish feed on the nutrients and without those necessities, bait either died off or moved away to find food.  Insofar as we’re a live bait fishery and bait is an important aspect of our sportfishing, it makes it hard to fish, let alone catch fish without bait!  This was to plague us throughout the year.

It didn’t help either that in the Bay of La Paz, bait catchers from the fish farms were scooping up what little bait was available, sometimes at night leaving virtually nothing for the sportfishing fleets and commercial local fishermen who rely on the bait to make their livings.  It wasn’t until almost mid-year that the bait catching stopped.  Surprisingly, our bait stocks suddenly increased!

But, bait was to be an issue all year long.  We made do with what we could get.  That often consisted of a mix of sardines, mackerel, caballitos, baby bonito, ballyhoo and dead bait like cut squid, cut bonito and the like.

It will produced some great catches throughout the year like the dorado, marlin, sailfish and some others.  The most remarkable catches of the year were the rooster fish and wahoo.  We had an above average year for rooster fish underscoring La Paz’s reputation as the “Roosterfish Capital of the World” with fish in the 30-80 pound class not uncommon.

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Kacie and Captain Armando put this nice big rooster in the boat for a photo then quickly released it!

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Captain Jorge and our buddy, Rick Kasper, always has the knack for big fish like this world-class huge roosterfish caught just off the shallow beach near the Las Arenas lighthouse then released.

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From Louisiana, Brian Davis stuck his giant roosterfish with Captain Pancho that might have tipped the scales into the triple digits, but was gratefully released.

As for wahoo, the cycle came around this year.  After a few years of negligible wahoo to show, we had a fairly outstanding year for wahoo with fish in the 30-50 pound class and larger often taken and the best spots around Espirito Santo Island.  For folks who had never caught a wahoo or rooster, this was the kind of year where many anglers finally got their first of each species, sometimes on the same day.

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Lots of amigos got their first wahoos this year like Rich Pomeroy from Northern California who was on his first trip to La Paz.

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Big wahoo like this one caught by Kris Honkola were a great catch this year in 2014

The biggest issue of our year was the weather.  It played havoc all year.

As is characteristic of El Nino years, storms are more common and we gritted our teeth and watched hurricanes and rainstorms threaten us and sometimes drop some rain on us and stormy conditions.  We have over a dozen come our way, but dodged almost all of them until the big one finally turned on us in a surprise of historic proportions.

Hurricane Odile slammed into Baja with winds up to 150 miles per hour.  It turned out to be the biggest hurricane in Baja history causing widespread devastation.  La Paz was in it’s path and, although the fury of the storm was spent in about 6 hours, the destruction and aftermath were felt for weeks and La Paz and Baja are still in the rebuilding process.

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Hotel La Concha in La Paz just hours after hurricane Odile ripped through.

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The Cabo San Lucas Airport was brand new but left in shambles.

Power lines and debris are knocked over on a street after Hurricane Odile hit La Paz

Hurricane Odile devastated neighborhoods. Baja is still re-building but financially, recovery will be long-coming .

 

As far as fishing, we were back to fishing within a week of the storm.  However, since airports were shut down or destroyed, there was no way for clients to come into Baja and hence suffered many weeks of cancelations and lost bookings during the part of the season which is traditionally the busiest time of the year.  The ripple effect on much of the economy will take a long time to recover.

But interestingly, right after the hurricane, fishing took off!  Some of the best fishing took place in the weeks and months post-Odile with dorado, wahoo, sailfish, marlin, and other species biting better than they had at any time of the year and with continued warm waters through Christmas, continued to bite!

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Bucket list marlin for Steve Snead from Idaho who battled this guy for a long fight despite his bad back and released the fish to fight another day!

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Craig and Cathy Corda had a gigantic nice day on the water with dorado and wahoo!

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First timers, Mike and Robbi Caray with one of several big dorado caught with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

Here’s hoping for a mo’ bettah 2014, but as long as all of us are safe, happy and have each other, all  is good.  Here’s to wishing you the best with a big MUCHAS GRACIAS for being part of this great adventure!  God bless you all!

That’s our story!

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Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 20-27, 2014

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This is the best mustache of the week! Don Slaiman and Captain Pancho from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet bust out the big smiles with two nice bull dorado on the beach.

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Chris Chang owns an organic nursery in Canada and had never fished in Mexico before, but fishing with Tailhunters got plenty of dorado and, on his last day, a huge 300 pound blue marlin north of La Paz that he fought on a Penn 6/0 reel with 60 pound test and put in the boat in only about an hour. The gut hooked fish inhaled the green and orange lure all the way down it’s gullet.  He was fishing with popular Captain Rogelio “Jolly Roger” Camacho.

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There’s a zillion good things going on in this photo of Tyler Emard from Fullerton CA. Fishing with Captain Rogelio from our Taihunter La Paz fleet, Tyler fought this dorado…his first and biggest…for 20 minutes on light tackle…no belt…all arms and shoulders! He’s headed to the University of Arizona in a few weeks! Great colors on this photo!

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The skies went from clear to this…as a wave or darkness hits the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. There had been absolutely nothing on the advisories or radar about this. That’s why they are called “toritos.” (little bulls). These storms come out of nowhere with thunder, lightning, wind and rain and it’s almost like a baby hurricane. Ominous. The pangas had to scramble back to the beach for cover.

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Seven minutes after the first photo, here’s what the beach looked like at Bahia de Los Muertos…a malestrom! Thirty minutes later, the sun was out…

 

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Las Arenas provided some good action this week for Tailhunter clients including Steve Holguin from Los Angeles and his son, Marcos who is attending college in New York as the pair show off a set of dorado standing on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos with Captain Jorge of the Tailhunter fleet.

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Susie Waters had never fished La Paz or ocean-fished before, but broke into it big time with a couple of days on the water with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. This is just a super photo of her hanging the fish all by herself with big smiles.

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Long Beach fishing veteran, Zach Linden, raced down for a last-minute trip this week and a couple of days of fishing. The fish gods smiled and Zach did some great action on ultralight tackle including this pair of La Paz dorado.

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Rebecca Kendrick got into the thick of the dorado action with this nice bull mahi fishing with Captain Alfredo and deckie Blas. She had always wanted to fish Mexico and salt water and had a great first experience with a number of nice fish over several days of fishing.

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It’s got a little sand on the forehead, but a great photo of Peter Knapp and Captain Pancho on the beach at Las Arenas with this nice-sized bull.

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Grant Stark and Levi Fadoul put the wood to this thick bull dorado fishing north of La Paz last week. These two guys had too much fun all week. Always seemed to be cracking up!

 

UNPREDICTABLE EL NINO CONDITIONS AFFECT FISHING BUT DORADO DO THEIR BEST

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 20-27, 2014

With the exception of another of those surprise “torito” (little bull) storms that popped up on Thursday, it was a pretty good week of fishing for the most part.

This time of year, waters are extremely warm…actually, warmer than usual…as a result of the “el nino” situation.  This has given rise to rapidly forming storms that are not shown on weather advisories in the morning.  However, out of seemingly clear skies, huge thunderheads suddenly build and the skies grow dark within minutes.  Winds start whipping and wave emerge from calm seas turning the ocean into churning froth.  Wind-driven rain doesn’t fall so much as it shoots sideways from the gusts.  It’s time to get the heck off the water!

Several weeks ago, one of these storms turned into a huge waterspout between Cerralvo Island and El Sargento and Las Arenas.  We didn’t quite get that this week, but in the span of about 10 minutes clear skies went dark and the oceans got treacherous.  The pangas had barely been on the water, but found themselves racing back to the beach made more perilous by waves now pounding the sands where the pangas had to land.  Lighting strikes illuminated everyone scrambling around for shelter.  Cell phone and electrical power gets cut off.

As the rains hit and everyone hunkers down….that’s pretty much all you can do.  There’s a reason they call these “little bulls.”  Within an hour or two…sometimes in the span of minutes…it’s over.  The sun blazes back out.  The winds turn off.  The skies go clear and flat.  Except for puddles of water, there’s no trace.

And that’s what happened Thursday morning.

But, the rest of the week was pretty grand!

LAS ARENAS

Fishing definitely improved over the week before.  Again, dorado were center stage, but there were fewer punk 5 pound dorado and more respectable 10-20 pounders and all willing to charge pretty much water was in the water.  Some boats did better than others, but then the next day the boat that did poorly would be the big boy boat.  Consistently , ever panga we put on the water caught fish…or had opportunities to catch fish.  One of the big problems is that the baits we have tend to be large.  Hence, it takes longer than normal for the fish to really chomp the bait and get a hook down in their mouths.  Anxious anglers would often tell me they pulled the trigger too soon before the dorado could eat and they would lose the hook-set and half-a-bait would come flying back to the boat…sans dorado!

LA PAZ

Still our most consistent area.  Our La Paz boats rocked some really nice 20-40 pound fish this week as they have now since June.  The fish extend  right from La Paz Bay towards Espirito Santo Island then around the corner to about El Rosario/ Las Cruces where the larger bulls seem to have taken residence not too far from the beach.  Co-incidentally, that’s where large schools of baitfish have been seen.  We also got some roosterfish off the beaches.

The bigger news is the increased incidence of hookups with billfish including larger-than-normal sailfish and even some blue marlin.  I don’t remember seeing so many hookups on blue marlin as I have the past two or three weeks.  Most of the sails and marlin are getting released, but one fish that couldn’t be released was a hefty 300-pound blue.

WEATHER

El Nino effects keep coming.  Days can start out with bright brilliant sunshine but by afternoon, the clouds roll in and we get tropical storms that can be pretty crazy.  It can rain in one place and 100 yards away,  it’s bone dry! And the rain can last 5 minutes of an hour.  Then the sun comes blazing out.  But, there’s some predictions of more afternoon rain this week.

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet for Week of July 13-20, 2014

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Our amigo, Raul Chollet, here in La Paz just recently started fishing only about 2 years ago and has the “fishing bug”  big time! He’s since gotten his first marlin, roosterfish, sierra and here, his biggest dorado. It was a slow day but they got a few and this nice dorado with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. That day, some boats did OK and others, like Raul’s , had a bit more trouble locating the bite.

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Jeanette Carroll from New Mexico with Captain Victor just south of Bahia de Los Muertos caught and released this hefty 40-45 pound roosterfish on a live bait. It was her biggest and “bigger than my husband’s rooster!”

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Phil Matteson was on his 2nd trip to La Paz this week and told me they had winter in Montana that was 40 degrees below zero! Weather was’t so great in La Paz this week either as we got clouds and wind, but at least it was a tad warmer than Montana. First day out, Phil nailed this big boy bull dorado with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

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John Kennedy, our amigo from Auburn CA, had to postpone his yearly trip earlier in the year for an injury, but came roaring back with a great week of fishing topped off his last day with this nice sailfish caught and released, as well as a box of dorado, pargo, cabrilla and triggerfish releasing many.

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Dick Carroll and his wife came to visit us again this year from New Mexico and couldn’t have been a more fun couple. Both of them got roosterfish with our Las Arenas fleet on the same day including this one that Dick quickly released.

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Mark Martis from Redondo Beach CA has been fishing with us at Tailhunter since the early days in the mid-90’s. Under grey skies he still put the wood to this nice big bull dorado near Espirto Santo Island.

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Air Dorado taking off! Great shot taken by Phil Matteson of a 40-pound bull dorado ripping off line and grabbing air. As anyone knows who has tried to take one of these shots, it’s a difficult shot to take. The dorado are moving up to 30 mph!

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Happy Gal! Becky Munos from Arizona on her first day fishing and first time to La Paz just could not get enough of the fishing and beaches of La Paz. Fishing just off the beach at La Ventana, she put this nice little bull in the box. They released or donated all the the fish they caught!

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Josh Matteson on his first time ever salt water fishing is from Cascade, Montana. His first cast, he nails a 40 pound dorado….among others. The next day he battles this nice striped marlin and released it after taking this great photo with Captain Pancho. They were fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

 

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He’s just about to “heave-ho” this roostefish over the side to release it, but a good fish just-the-same, for amigo Jack Young from Arizona on his first trip with Tailhunters. He had a good week of fishing with both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleet. The roosterfish was caught his first day just off El Sargento.

 

 

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Wayne Moss, has been my Canadian amigo for many many years and is a commercial pilot in the Maldive Islands. He’s also one of the better fishermen I know. I love the look on his face here wondering if this big bull dorado is gonna make one more attempt to get back in the water! Great colors. Nice fish!

 

 

DIFFICULT WEEK STILL HAD SOME GOOD HIGHLIGHTS

La   Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-20

 

 

It was a hard week to put my finger on.  With the exception of flyfishermen, everyone got fish, but where you fished and how you fished made a huge difference. If you took our advice and did what we or the captains told you to do, you got fish and there were some nice ones to be had!   Overall, I would have to say this week was slower.  Last week we had the huge full moon and fishing was much better.  Last week we had rainy weather and fishing was better.   This week the moon was better and the weather was generally better and fishing was a bit more complicated.

Here’s the breakdown:

LAS ARENAS

The week started OK.  We got some roosters.  There were small to medium dorado around.  There were some billfish, pargo and cabrilla.  Not spectacular fishing, but it was OK.  We even had bait.  But, as the week went on, we had some of the worst fishing we’ve seen all season with our Las Arenas fleet.

On the surface, I could say it was the lack of baits.  That includes ballyhoo, sardines and mackerel that we usually use for most of the gamefish.  But, the sabalo…the big ladyfish…that we use for the bigger roosters also got hard to find.  So, naturally, lack of bait had something to do with it.

Likewise, later in the week we had some tropical storm cells pass through.  This made for some rougher and windier waters.  It got choppy.  The skies were gray.  There were little flurries of rain here and there locally.  We almost had another water spout form up one afternoon near Cerralvo Island prompting the panga fleets to head for the beach.

So, all that would have or could have affected fishing.  I’ve seen similar situations where we had all those conditions and we still got fish.

But beyond that, there were some other variables as well which, contributed to the lack of scores on the fish.

Later in the week we had folks specifically going for “home run” fish.  Those are fish that you either get ‘em…or you don’t. Instead of going for “action” they went for the top-shelf bad boys.   They are trophy fish for a reason.  For instance, going for wahoo.  You either get-em..or you don’t.  You can be the king of, if nothing is there, then you have a good shot of not coming back with any fish at all because you have to concentrate on the wahoo.

Same for the rooster fish.  First, you have to spend the time trying to catch the better live bait…mullet or ladyfish.  That can take time.  If the baits aren’t there or are hard to come by…that’s a whole lot of time spent.  Then, actually chasing the roosters takes time as well.  Again, there’s alot of focus and energy on them.  If they aren’t there or not biting, then you stand a good chance of getting goose-egged.  That’s what happened quite often towards the end of the week.

Frustrated anglers who came back with nothing.  But that’s what happens when you swing for the fences!  I applaud the effort.  It’s awesome.  I like that kind of fishing myself.  But, sometimes the big hitters strike out.  Part of fishing.  Part of the game. You have to be ready for disappointment.  And there were some disappointed anglers this week. Who got no fish!

About the flyfishing…Frankly, it’s been tough.  I’ve been singing that tune all season.

  No one in Baja seems to have bait for chum for the flyfishermen.  This El Nino has not been good to the flyfishers.  Normally, we have sardines to toss out and get the fish going.  The sardines are non-existent.

We have larger baits…caballito and mackerel, but you can’t chum with that.

The flyfishers who have been coming down and willing to be flexible and do some conventional fishing are all getting fish.  Everyone is catching fish.  The ones who are strictly flyfishing are not doing well.  The operators here in La Paz that are strictly flyfishers have had a terrible year because they have no other avenues to catch fish.  They are strictly flyfishing.  I did have 4 guys who just left this morning that were strictly flyfishing.

  I kept offering to switch them to fish with my La Paz fleet where we are catching fish, but they insisted on staying with my Las Arenas fleet where they has been no bait…they caught pretty much zero fish for 3 days and left pretty frustrated and angry with us.  They could have switched to bait or at least fished with my La Paz fleet and done quite well…even had a shot on the flyrod, but they were stubborn.  I wish I could have gotten them some fish.  See below…we did find some roosters.  The bonito were huge and would have been awesome on the flyrod.  They could have gotten the dorado going on the bait then tossed a flyrod into the boils.   These were all good guys and experienced fishermen, but I was as frustrated as them.They left for Loreto where I hear it’s been tough as well, but I hope they do better.

I feel for all the flyfishers I’ve seen here this year…lots of them fishing with our competitors.  I meet alot of them at our restaurant and hear the stories.   That’s fishing this year.  As I said at the beginning…it depends on where you fish and how you fish.

LA PAZ

La Paz, while not as good as last week, was still very productive.  There were some slow spots…but everyone got fish every day.  Some of our pangas would do really well one day and others not so good, but the next day the panga that did poorly would find fish and the other would have a slower day.  But the dorado were very cooperative with fish in the 5-40 pound class and some HUGE 12-15 pound dynamite bonito that put some guys on light tackle on their knees!  As well, we had several marlin and sailfish hooked up and either lost or released…even a few rooster fish…plus some nice pargo and cabrilla.

The difference is that we had more live bait…caballitos and mackerel.  Still a bit big to chum, but the baits brought the fish to the boat.  You could even catch a bonito and then chop it up and use it for chum and then that would bring even more fish to the boat.

The one drawback with the larger caballito and mackerel is that they are well…large!  One big mistake is that anglers would think they had a hookup and swing to early.  There’s alot of smaller fish out there or larger fish that eat slowly!  Swinging too early and  the bait would literally get yanked out of the fish’s mouths or resulted in alot of short bites too where the gamefish only bit off the back half of the big bait.  We missed alot of fish that way.  Some of the more experienced anglers increased their hook-up to catch ratio by tying trailer/ trap hooks onto the main rig so that there would be a second hook dangling at the back-end of the baits.

But, overall, the La Paz fishing took care of everyone and got fish in the boat!

One of the nice thing about having our two fleets is that as Las Arenas fishing got slower or more frustrating, or the weather got more unpredictable, we could offer to have our folks fish with our La Paz fleet and get into the fish.  That made all the difference between big smiles or frowns!

WEATHER

Normally, this time of year, there’s not much to say about the weather.  The sun comes up.  The sun goes down.  It’s hot and sunny.  End of story.

However, this year, with El Nino, we’re seeing alot of variations.  Not only is the water warmer, but the tropical humidity and conditions are tangible.  The air is generally heavier and muggier.  We’re seeing afternoon tropical rain showers come through and sometimes drop considerable rain for a few minutes then move on and the ground steams dry.  We see electrical heat storms and lightning in the afternoons, evening and early morning hours when it’s still dark.   This is more like September and October weather.    Other days, there’s no rain, but it’s cloudy most days.  Almost like the “June gloom” seen along Southern California beaches where a marine layer moves in and everything is grey until the sun burns through in the afternoons.  Crazy.  That being said, it’s still 95-100 degrees every day with cooler evenings in the 70’s.

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 That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Sportfishing for Week of July 6-13, 2014

Luke Fregoso dorado 8-14 small tags

That’s the way to do it! Our Captain Eddy Carballo helps 13-year-old Luke Fregoso from Agoura Hills with his biggest dorado. The 40-pound class bull was hooked north of La Paz and Luke fought it solo all the way to the boat. He also had a fish estimated at 50 pounds on for awhile.

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Yes! There was some crazy weather this past week. Here’s a shot taken from the beach of the giant waterspout that popped up in the channel between Cerralvo Island, La Ventana and Las Arenas. No one has ever seen one this big out there.

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Fortunately, this didn’t affect the fishing! But, it was pretty fascinating to watch!

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Sam Sybesma (right) and Landon Tilema (left) have a handful of bull dorado here on the beach at Balandra after another good day of fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

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Debbie White , our amiga from Tualatin OR, spends several weeks a year with husband, Don, with us in La Paz getting in some great fishing and always taking big fish like Debbie’s massively huge bull dorado here just outside of Bahia de los Muertos!

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Wayne Moss has been my friend for many years and an exellent fisherman. He is a commercial pilot in the Maldives but took a few days to visit us and got a nice catch-and-release roosterfish just outside of Las Arenas.

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Dick Carroll and his wife, Jeanette come to us from New Mexico and pose with a really nice Las Arenas bull dorado on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos.

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Norm and Dorothy Fulco have known me since I ran JNJ Fishing Tackle in Rosemead CA some 20 years ago! The usually come to visit in July for Dorothy’s birthday and like fishing with Captain Pancho.

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“Big Fish” Don White and an incredibly-colored blue bull dorado! Don is from Tualatin, Oregon near Portland.

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Rob is looking pretty serious here but had to be one of the funniest guys this week. He took a day to give pargo fishing a shot and, while they lost several large models to the rocks, did manage this smaller one to bring back and add to the box of dorado!

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Syd De Vries from Ripon CA and Captain Rogelio put another dorado in the boat. Yes, Rogelio is shorter than Syd! They were fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.

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Not as many whalesharks around these days, but there’s a few around. This “baby” 12 footer came up in the middle of the fishing boats to check out the action.

 

FULL MOON – TROPICAL RAINS – WATERSPOUTS AND DORADO!

La Paz  – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 6-13, 2014

 

It was another one of crazy weeks.   The fish were here but the weather was crazy funky.  We had afternoon tropical storms that brought some heavy thunderstorms at times and flooding.  The nutty thing was that it would rain for 10 minutes here…but not there…30 minutes in one area and 2 blocks away, it would be totally dry.  This is normally the kind of weather we get in the fall, but El Nino conditions seem to have changed the game a bit.  Thankfully, no hurricanes and no serious damage from the flooding, but out-of-the-blue mid-week, we actually had some pretty intense water-spouts show up between El Sargento, Las Arenas and Cerralvo Island.   They looked like water tornados like the kind that would pick up your house and send you off to the Land of Oz!  Incredible to watch.

Here’s what we saw this week:

LAS ARENAS

Our Tailhunter fleet at Las Arenas again found lots of action on the smaller school-sized dorado in the 5-8 pound range.  They are like little squirrels all over the place.  The larger models were harder to find, but the few we got were trophy 30-40 pound slugs.     Dorado made up 80% of our Las Arenas catch.

Other species included some marlin and sailfish and roosters along the beach.  Live bait continues to be problematic, but we’re still getting fish.  No wahoo this week, but that’s because no one was really fishing for them.  However, divers say the skinnies are still out by the island.

LA PAZ

La Paz fishing has been our “cooler-filler” action.  The dorado have been 10-40 pounds regularly with a number of fish in the great 15-20 pound category.  Lots of fun.  Plenty strong without destroying anyone!   I think the fact that we have move live bait in our La Paz area has made a difference.  In addition to the dorado we are getting hookups with striped marlin and sails as well.  We did some schools of roosters along the beaches and some of our guys that went after pargo and cabrilla got schooled on some big fish that took them to the rocks!

That’s our story!

combo-signature-black letters

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Sportfishing for Week of May 18-25, 2014

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Another week of big big big roosters! Leading the way is Brian Davis with a fish estimated by Captain Pancho as 85-95 pounds and caught on live bait off Las Arenas. This beauty was released…as were all roosters this week. Brian brought a great gang of amigos with most of them from Louisiana.

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This i s just a pretty photo! I might just frame it. First-timer, amigo, Boyd Loveless from Utah brings aboard a nice dorado with a hand from Captain Raul. Check out that flat water! Water temps are almost 85 degrees now!

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Captain Armando and Kacie Ellis from Portland are all smiles as they get ready to put this big roosterfish back in the water. Kacie is from the Portland area and she was at our Tailhunter Restaurant almost every night to watch her Portland Trailblazers on our TV!

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Biggest wahoo of the week and winner of $100 best from his amigos, Eddie Flanigen posted up this nice fish he hooked off the south end of Cerralvo Island on his first day of fishing. Ed is from Louisiana and is holding his fish on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

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From Utah, Shirl Loveless just seemed to be the “hot stick” no matter where he fished or who he fished with all week! Check out the bad boy rooster he caught and released with Captain Pancho just a few yards off the sand at Punta Arenas.

SCOTT BEHNKEN pulls in a nice bull dorado!  PLAY THE VIDEO ABOVE!

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All the way from Indiana, Scott Behnken, pulled this nice bull dorado up north of La Paz. Check out the video in the photo above.

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He really wanted to get one and he stuck this trophy roosterfish near Punta Arenas. Mike Ellis from Oregon did a nice job catching-and-releasing this fish!

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The three amigos…they are funny as heck when they get together… Joey Stolarczyk, Walt Topping and Ziggy Haspod, found some nice spots of dorado just inside of La Paz Bay and put some nice fish in the box and lost other larger fish!

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Great big bull dorado for Shawn Silk from San Mateo CA. Shawn was on his first trip with us and nailed this nice fish north of La Paz just outside of La Paz Bay north of town.

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Jeff Jiles looks a bit surprised, but no doubt he’s got a trophy roosterfish with Captain Jorge just south of Bahia de Los Muetos. Jeff came to visit from Utah.

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Maybe one of the happiest guys of the week. Great fun to have Felipe Yanez with us fishing all week. He holds up a paid of dorado caught with our Las Arenas fleet.

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Ziggy and Walt…in danger of a bit of sunburn, but happy with another dorado on the gaff! Always good to have them visit!

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Not a bad day of fishing for the Loveless family. Russ Loveless…Jeff and Shirleen Jiles…Tony Loveless and dad (Shirl) in the hat with a batch of nice dorado on the beach in front of La Concha Beach Resort. Great fun family.

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Tony Loveless in on the roosterfish bite with another nice fish! Punta Perico in the background!

 

ROOSTERFISH BEASTS and SUMMERTIME DORADO!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of May 18-25, 2014

 

It’s actually been one of the hotter and more humid weeks of the year with temps every day just over 100.  It’s only May, but if felt like July. Waters were also noticeably warmer as well.  But, the good-side of that is much of the green plankton-colored water burned off and we’ve got some pretty blue stuff finally here!

Overall, another up-and-down week.  One day our Las Arenas fleet would be top-dog for fish and action.  Next day, Las Arenas would be tough and our La Paz fleet would be rocking the fishing.   Similarly, two pangas next to each other would be fishing and doing the exact same thing or working the same beach or patch of water.  One would hook up left-and-right.  The other would have guys scratching their heads wondering if they had unlucky bananas aboard.  There was just no predicting from day-to-day or from location to location.

The two biggest stars that came through were our dorado, especially for our La Paz anglers, with fish up to 40 pounds, but so so so many fish lost!  It made the counts very deceiving!  Our fishermen would come in with some sad stories and only 2 or 3 fish.  Then, I would check with our captain and he would say, “But they had lots of opportunities!  They LOST 7 fish!”  Well…that’s a big difference!

But, then on at least two days this week, our captains and anglers said, “We saw fish everywhere…dorado…roosters…jack crevalle…And they wouldn’t bite!  They would swim right by the baits uninterested!”

The best news as again, the rooster fish.  The roosters around Las Arenas have been doing really well. Again, we got some real horse-sized pez gallos.  Fish were generally 20-50 pounds which are nothing to sneeze at, but we also got some fish in the 60-70 pound class and even one estimated at 80-90 pounds!  All fish were released.

We also saw more marlin this week and are hearing stories of tuna moving into our area from the south.

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Mar. 30-April 6, 2014

 

rooster miles brown tags 3-14

Big smile for Miles! First timer to fish with us in La Paz, Miles, Brown spent the week getting some yellowtail, pargo, dorado (see below) and this nice roosterfish that he released with some help with the pose from Captain Jorge of the Tailhunter fleet. Nice to see the roosters have come in!

From Idaho taking a break from teaching school, Mandy Pollock let's Tailhunter Capt. Boli struggle with this big yellowtail from the north side of La Paz.  Still a few yellowtail around and this was Mandy's first trip to La Paz.

From Idaho taking a break from teaching school, Mandy Pollock let’s Tailhunter Capt. Boli struggle with this big yellowtail from the north side of La Paz. Still a few yellowtail around and this was Mandy’s first trip to La Paz.

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Jeff has fished with us many times over the years, all the way from Minnesota! He had a good week on a variety of fish while he vacationed with his brothers including this trophy roosterfish they got off Las Arenas that was photo’d and quickly released!

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Hard to believe such nice dorado are in the neighborhood, but they’ve been a welcome surprise like this nice bull taken by Miles Brown just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos. Great eating! Folks ask all the time if it’s good on the plate and then I tell them it’s “mahi mahi” on the restaurant menus!

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Rod Brown from Wrangell, Alaska is one of our Tailhunter amigos who has fished with us several times a year for many years. He always does well. On this particular day they caught and released several nice roosters right off the beach at Las Arenas which can be seen nearby in the background.

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Here’s some really good eating! Captain Joel on the right fishing out’ve La Paz near Espirito Santo Island with Jeff and Miles Brown hold up some of the toughest to catch but best to eat fish…2 barred pargo and a nice cabrilla (Mexican seabass)

 

SPRING TIME BITE HOLDS VARIETY THIS WEEK

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of March 30-April 6, 2014

This past week was a bit more typical of the kind of fishing we get during the spring time.  With air temps in the low to mid-80’s with great sunshine and cooler evenings and water temperatures in the high 70’s,  the bite reflected the normal transitional bite we see this time of the year.

We still got some breezy days that put some bump out there, but most days were not bad.  Inshore fishing showed up with the usual characters.  Some sierra, pargo and cabrilla were among this in the rocky reef and sandy areas.  A few straggler yellowtail are here and there, but largely, with the waters a bit warmer than normal, our usual yellowtail numbers are down from normal.

The best news was that we finally got into rooster fish…basically, the fish that put our Las Arenas area on the fishing map as the “rooster fish capital of the world.”  The world record 114 pound rooster fish was caught on these white-sand beaches and last year, we had one of the most spectacular rooster fish seasons in all our years down here.  Last year, our “average” rooster was 40-90 pounds and we had a number fish over 100 pounds and one fish that was released that many estimated would have been close to 150-pounds and shatter the world record.

This past week, using live bait, we finally tied into some of these exotic fish with some fish rolling right around 20-40 pounds…all released, but encouraging that the fish are in place and willing to bite.  We’ll have to keep an eye out on this, but so far pretty good news.

With other species, we’re still hitting the dorado as well which have really become our bread-and-butter these past few months.  As waters warmed faster than normal, the dorado sort of either came in early or else never left us from last season.  The fish we’re getting now are generally not schoolie-fish, but more like free swimmer solo or small group fish.  However, there’s some respectable fish.  Most are about 10 pounders, but there’s some 15-25 pounders around as well.

WANT A WORLD RECORD?  TAILHUNTERS IS OFFICIAL NEW IGFA WEIGH STATION

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Jill and I with our amigos, Pat McDonell editor for Western Outdoor New and IGFA representative; world record holder, author and journalist, Gary Graham holding one of the new official IGFA “release” scales that we now have at Tailhunters Sportfishing that can be used to officially measure catch-and-release fish. Released fish can now be submitted to the IGFA for world record status! We plan to go after a few this year. As well, our Tailhunter offices on the La Paz malecon also had a certified scale for conventionally caught fish that can be submitted for all-tackle and line-class world records.

Jacques Cousteau called the Sea of Cortez the “Aquarium of the World” and with more than 700 known species of fish and more being discovered yearly, it’s easy to see why.  The area around La Paz is considered one of the best light tackle fisheries on the planet and arguably more world records have been set in the surrounding waters than few other places!

So, Tailhunter Sportfishing is jazzed to announce that we’re an official International Fish and Game Association (IGFA) weigh station.  We have a certified scale at our headquarter offices on the La Paz waterfront and within a few months will have handheld certified scales for the beaches as well.

Even moreso, we’re  excited about the fact that the IGFA now certifies fish that are caught and released!  This is great news creating more opportunities to be a world record holder.  To that end, we’ve now got official “release scales” that can be brought out on one of our pangas for folks looking to catch-and-release a world record!  An official IGFA measuring scale MUST be used to measure and release the fish.

Additionally, given that Las Arenas is considered the roosterfish capital of the world,  Tailhunter Sportfishing is now a member of the ROOSTERFISH FOUNDATION and we’ve ordered a number of tagging guns so that released roosters can now be tagged and recorded to hopefully proliferate the resource.  We will hopefully have some of these devices in the next few weeks.

All of this is great news because our “LA PAZ PANGA SLAM” being held June 17-21 and sponsored by Western Outdoor News has now turned into a great opportunity to go after some of these world release records as well as hopefully having the first official “tag and release” roosterfish event!   (We still have some spots left if you’re interested, send us an e-mail to riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com).

There are many categories that can be attained…especially for kids and women and line class records are always a possibility as well.  Last year, we had 4 potential world record fish caught by our clients!

We’ll keep you updated as this comes along!

That’s our story!

combo signature 2-proc

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter Fleet for Week of Feb. 23 to March 2, 2014

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In 20 years running our operations in La Paz, I’ve not had anyone pull up a big broomtail grouper like this. Leif (“Don’t  call me “Garrett”) Dover from Atlanta GA has been fishing at least 2 times a year for many years and always sticks fish with us. He said this fish slammed into his jig and almost pulled him out’ve the boat. This is not just a trophy fish, it’s also an unusual catch!

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Fishermen come for years trying to stick a trophy wahoo. Don Asp came down on his first trip from Minnesota and rips this sweet ‘hoo! He’s just trying to catch some sunshine and get in a little fishing. Instead he gets on of the most prized fish in Baja. He’s on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. Lots of wahoo this week. Unbelievable.

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Ken Gragg (left) is one of our best amigos who fishes with us at Tailhunter several times a year and came down this past week with his son, Steve. They found the schools of big pargo liso off the rocks near Las Arenas. Tough fish to put in the boat!

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Brian O’Neil gets a funny look from our Tailhunter Moncho as Brian struggles with a wiggling big amberjack and not get stuck by the jig. First big amberjack of the season for Brian!

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OK…this one turned out to be the biggest amberjack of the week…maybe the year! Look at this beast that Capt. Hugo hung!   The amberjack is the delicious big cousin of the yellowtail. These are generally not caught in our waters until later in the spring!  Amigo, Roger Thompson,  was on the boat and took the photo.  Thanks, Rog!

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Shellee Mittan from northern California and her husband, Bill, only had time to squeeze in one day of fishing and got some cabrilla (released) and these two nice sierra.

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We have missed our amigo, Daryl Valdez from Bakersfield CA who usually visits us every year, but hasn’t been down in a bit. Great to see him and he got the largest pargo of the week…this fish estimated at 20-25 pounds.

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Nice forktail! Joe Arata from Pacifca CA dropped a blue and white iron overboard and stuck it to this fat yellowtail off Cerralvo Island. The yellowtail haven’t been as prevailant as normal as water temps and bait conditions have been variable.

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Dave Lue and Chad Gagnier were visiting us for the first time and fishing with Tailhunter and show off their first day of fishing with 2 wahoo plus dorado. The anglers are from Georgia.

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First day hot stick, Leif Dover and Captain Moncho pose with another wahoo taken off Cerralvo Island.

THE MOST AMAZING CRAZY WINTER WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 23 to March , 2014

This might have been the craziest week of winter fishing we’ve seen in our many years here.  Mainly, it’s because it wasn’t winter fishing! I’m not sure what to call it or what to say about it!

In all honesty, the fishing action was really only so-so.  We had a good number of anglers out there and it wasn’t crazy wide-open by any stretch.  And it was better earlier in the week than later when it seemed to taper off.

However, what it lacked in numbers was made up for in quality.  Great quality. Unbelievable quality.  Just look at the photos!

Now, normally this time of year, we’re chasing cold water inshore fish.  Species like sea bass (cabrilla), pargo (snapper), jack crevalle, pompano, sierra and the like.  If conditions are right, we’re also getting the big pig yellowtail as well.

Well, the last few weeks we started getting some really strange biters and I think it culminated this week.  In fact, it was a great indescribable week relatively speaking.

We did find the pargo.  Some big ones right off Punta Perrico.  But, we also got…get this..(drumroll)….wahoo!  Dorado!  A 180-pound striped marlin!  Amberjack!  And even a huge broom tail grouper!

What’s going on?

Maybe it’s the water temps being a little warmer than normal.  Maybe it’s the lack of mackerel that usually draw the yellowtail up from the trenches.  But, I have never seen a winter like this where we’re getting these species.  Sure, every now and then someone gets one, but to have all of these species biting at the same time?  Literally unheard of!

But, the anglers sure stuck some fish.  Bait was still an issue, but using ballyhoo and slow trolling Rapalas and also those guys who dropped yo yo iron did well.   Hot spots were all around Cerralvo Island, around the north and south ends were especially good.  But also around Punta Perico fish were found.  We’ll just have to keep an eye on things!

BRING ON THE BIG SHOW – TAILHUNTER HEADS TO LONG BEACH FRED HALL SHOW

Jilly n JR Long Beach booth

Thanks to all of our new and old amigos in Boise who came to see us at the Idaho Sportsmans Show! We were slammed and had the best show of our 2014 sports tour! Lots of reservations for fishing with us this year and we’re looking forward to all the visit!
But now…we head to the big boy show of shows…the FRED HALL FISHING and HUNTING SHOW at the Long Beach Convention Center starting this Wednesday to Sunday!

We can’t say enough about this past week show at the Idaho Sportsmans’ Show in Boise Idaho.  Thanks to everyone!  The show was packed and our Tailhunter booth was slammed.  We had some of our best day of the 2014 tour this past week and booked lots of new reservations for fishing this year!  Just spectacular!

And now….

We head to the grand-daddy of shows!  The Fred Hall Fishing and Hunting Show starts Wednesday and goes through Sunday at the Long Beach Convention Center.  This show is huge so bring your walking shoes!  There’s tons to see for the whole family.  It takes some folks several days to walk through all the displays; check out all the gear for sale; check out the seminars and make their way through the whole show.  This is a huge party.  If you’ve never attended it’s the Woodstock of fishing shows on the West Coast.  Come see us.  We’ll be in our booth in our usual place in the middle of tackle row, next to Izorline fishing line and Whopper Stopper fishing rods.   This is gonna be fun!

Here’s more details:  Fred Hall Fishing Show

That’s our story!

combo signature 2-proc

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Dec. 1-8, 2013

Wahoo Fernando Sucre 12-13 tags small

Quite a surprise, but wahoo are still on the chew! Happy amigo, Fernando Sucre, from the San Francisco Bay area, was able to get in one day of fishing and scored this tasty wahoo near Cerralvo Island. The presence of wahoo has been a great treat so late in the season.

Tim Zimmer marlin tags small 12-13

Recently retired amigo, Tim Zimmer, has been making the most of his free time fishing his brains out all over the country. He and his wife always make a point of visiting us in December and always do well. We had a great week of marlin fishing with most of them getting released. Check out Captain Jorge and Tim’s nice billfish.

wahoo ken gragg tags 12-13

Ken Gragg is another of our frequent amigos. This is his 3rd trip this year, and in 2 days fishing this week with Captain Gerardo scored 4 wahoo! This one seems to be missing it’s nose, but it’s a big fish. Captain Gerardo is NFL lineman-sized guy!

Rooster Steve Medley 12-13 tags

Check out the roosterfish! In December!!! What’s up with that? Steve Medley got in two days of fishing and scored this trophy roosterfish just off the beach to take a great photo and release the fish to fight again! It’s been the best roosterfish season in years!

rooster mark marcus tags small 12-13

Another bucket list fish! Prof. Mark Marcus came to visit us from Washington also popped a big rooster this week. He’s kinda struggling with the hot fish to take the photo, but it’s a sweet fish and was released after the photo! He also got a wahoo as well! See the photo below! Some great fishing!

wahoo 1 Llew and Mark tags 12-13

DOUBLE ‘HOO! Professor Llew Williams from Florida and Professor Mark Marcus from Washington tag teamed for this double billing of wahoo off Cerralvo Island this past week. They took chunks back to our Tailhunter Restaurant for some great eats! Nicely done!

dorado tags small 12-13 sucre

Chris and Damon Lewis are brothers who met up in La Paz for some fishing. Chris is from Mexico City and Damon lives in Redwood City near San Francisco. Yes! There’s still dorado in our waters. Normally, warm water fish, they’re still lingering in surprising numbers!


CRAZY MARLIN AND WAHOO LIGHT IT UP!

La Paz -Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 1-8, 2014

It has truly been a surprising end of the season here in La Paz.  Mainly because the season hasn’t ended!

Here it is almost Christmas.  Yes, it’s getting cooler.  Yes, it’s getting windier and choppier.  We’re supposed to be fishing inshore right now for cabrilla, pargo, bonito, and sierra.

Instead, we’ve still got blue water pelagic species still biting.  And it’s not just one or two.  I mean, crazily, the fish or on a serious chew!

We had several days this week when almost every single one of our pangas hooked at least one or two striped marlin between 90 and 120 pounds.   We’ve had several days where every panga hooked 1-3 wahoo each between 15 and 40 pounds.  We’ve still got trophy rooster fish up on the beach up to 50 pounds.  Plus, there’s schools of 10-20 pound dorado out there as well!

This is more like the kind of fishing report I’d be giving in the summer or fall.  Not in December.  Not just a few weeks before Christmas!  It’s been a wacky year, but I would never have expected this.  Some days, it’s been like a buffet line.  Pick and choose what kind of fish you want to fish for!  I have no idea what the inshore rock fishing is like because no one is fishing for the inshore species!  Maybe there are pargo and cabrilla and sierra to be caught, but those species have to be feeling ignored because just a few further yards offshore, there’s dorado and marlin and wahoo ready to bite!

It’s been a great late season treat.  No complaints!

Hope you and yours are having a good holiday season.  Best fishes.  Stay safe and well!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

combo signature 2-proc

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

http://www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Sept 22-29, 2013

Kathys Sailfish in boat tags 9-13 small

Kathy Terbu has made several trips to fish with Tailhunter over the years but she timed it right to get into the big dorado bite and was fishing with light tackle when this huge sailfish estimated at 140-160 pounds slammed into her line. She fought the fish for about 90 minutes. Most sailfish in our area are half this size. Attempts to release the fish were not successful and the meat was donated to several families.

Tracy burns dorado 9-13 tags

Tracy Burns came down to fish a few days with her dad. She lives in Topanga Canyon CA and while fishing north of La Paz she put this big bull dorado in the boat along with a full limit of other mahi.

Vince small dorado 9-13 tags

Fresh one! Vince Langgle from the San Diego Area, gaffs another big bull to put in the box. Dorado fishing this past week was as fast and furious as I have ever seen it. Maybe ever.

DORADO DAVE 1 gaff tags 9-13 small

Dave “Mahi” Hill has been our amigo for many years and came all the way out from Texas to spend the with with us. He got 4 banner days of dorado fishing in with numerous fish caught and released.

dorado leslie pilkington 9-13 tags

The ladies had such a big week with us. Leslie Pilkington from Orangevale CA was on her first trip to fish with us in La Paz and had a successful outing with Captain Pancho and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fishing fleet.

Johns Dorado Horizontal small tags 8-13

It was a week full of school-sized dorado….all you could want. But there were still some big bulls mixed in like this beauty bull that might have been one of the largest of the week and caught by John Terbu from Utah. He’s on the beach at Balandra north of La Paz.

Chris tags dorado 8-13 small

Another San Diego amigo, Chris Wellons, made the best of only two days of fishing with easy limits both day with this young bull dorado among many while on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

roosterfish kuhn small 9-13 tags

Yes! There’s still roosterfish around. I haven’t posted up many photos the last few weeks because no one has been fishing for them. Everyone has been chasing all the pelagic species and ignoring the roosters. But there’s still some fish up on the beaches like Ted Kuhn’s 30 pounder. Ted’s from Arizona and he tried to release the fish but was unsuccessful. He also hooked a 40 pound class rooster as well.

Gary Pilkington tags squid 9-13

If you fish with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, this is how your morning starts…with fishing for giant squid like our amigo, Gary Pelkington . The squid make great bait but also setting some aside is a good idea for dinner!

MAYBE THE BEST DORADO BITE…EVER!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 22-29, 2013

The last two weeks may well have been the best dorado fishing we have seen in years around here in La Paz.  Basically, ever since the last storm it was as if someone turned on a switch and the school-sized dorado either woke up or someone stirred up the nest and released a ha-zillion 10-20 pound dorado!

“We caught our first limit in less than an hour and then after that, we lost count of how many we released!”

“We only stopped the panga once and never moved for the next 3 hours.  It was like being in a private trout pond except these were schools of dorado everywhere under the panga!  It was crazy!”

“I’ve heard people joke about fish ‘jumping into the boat’ but the dorado were so thick they would actually bump in to the panga when they were charging the chum and I hooked one and it actually DID land in the panga.  We had 3-5 dorado hooked up at any one time!”

“In the middle of the frenzy I felt this big slam in my back and thought it was my buddy slapping me, it was a small dorado that hit me in the back and fell back in the water!”

“It was like someone rang a dinner bell and these fish had never been fed but they heard there was a free meal! There were so many swarming in, around and under the panga!” 

These are no exaggeration. For about the last 8 or 9 days, imagine 20…30…40 or more dorado per day!  Anglers losing count of how many fish they caught and released.  Fish, not even hooked, jumping all around the boats.  Just jumping!  Fish fighting each other to grab baits.  Fish bumping the pangas and slamming into the gunwales.  Fish hooked on hand lines.  Fish eating bits of tortilla and grabbing bear hooks tossed into the water.  Hooked fish getting knocked off the hooks by other fish chasing the hooked fish and the left-over bait getting picked up by another fish!

Just incredible dorado fishing unlike anything many of us have ever experienced.

My biggest worry is that we’ve had so many first-timers here and the think it is ALWAYS like this!  The bar has been set awfully high!

On the light tackle and flyrod, these dorado have been spectacular!

Between our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets, the bite has been epic.  If there was a distinction this week, it was that there were MORE fish at Las Arenas and a bit fewer fish out’ve La Paz, but bigger fish.  Most of the Las Arenas fish were 8-17 pounds.  The La Paz fish tended to be 10-35 pounders, just not quite as many!

As for other action, there’s been a far number of billfish hookups as sailfish and marlin cruise through the schools of dorado also eating the chum or baits or simply eating the many dorado.  In the same areas, we also found wahoo again, although those hookups don’t usually last long. Finally ,contrary to the belief of many, there’s still roosterfish in the areas as we hooked several 30-40 pound fish along the beaches.  No tuna to speak of except way way outside of Cerralvo Island.  Waters might be getting cooler as we’re seeing a few sierra in the fishing mix.  But, really hard to tell about other species since everyone has been chasing this mad dorado bite.

Hope this keeps up!

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Aug. 18-25, 2013

JOHN AND CHEETO small tags 8-13

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.

dorado kevin big tags 8-13

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!

Chun Legaspi small dorado 8-13 tags

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.

marlin hosmer small 8-13 tags

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.

P8140050

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 dorado 8-13 small tags

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.

FRank and Diane small 8-13 tags

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!

Wade dorado Big Blue 8-13 small tags

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.

don dorado 8-13 small tags

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 tags small 8-13

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.

Dorado rudy tags 8-13

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!”

J&D DORADO  samll mini tags 8-13

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.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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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