We will never know! Salute to Ron Burgess of Temecula CA. This fish might have been a new world record roosterfish! But he released this fish knowing it was a big boy plus he and his amigos released 28 other huge roosters! This fish might have broken the IGFA record 114 pounder set in 1960. Estimated weight by captains were 120-140 pounds. It took at least 45 minutes on 40 pound test and three guys to lift it in the panga and 3 to release it where it swam away “still pissed off!”
Another view of the big rooster just put in the boat. There were few photos as they wanted to get the fish back into the water as quickly as possible. Plus Ron couldn’t hold the massive fish up high enough to photo! Captain Loreto Green helps out. The fish was caught just off Punta Perico in shallow water using a big ladyfish for bait. Full story below.
Love the pose and attitude! She’s had a great vacation catching dorado and wahoo this week, but Taylor Murphey from Lakewood CA show some game with her big bull dorado taken near Cerralvo Island. Uncle Roger holds up the fish with smiles!
Kurt Schlander lends a hand to his amigo, first timer, Bob Jennessee and another big bull dorado from Las Arenas. Kurt has been with us several times. All the dorado were big this week. Not many, but they were big models!
One signal that the waters are still chillier than normal is that we’re still getting amberjack like this big toad fish that Dave Lester holds up! These are the big cousins to yellowtail. Great eating and can go over 100 pounds. We had one several weeks ago that might have just been short of the 155 pound world record.
“Did I really catch this?” Couldn’t be a cuter photo of our amiga, Jeanine Stenzel, from Nor. Cal who got into several ice sized dorado fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. She’s holding the fish on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. Great colors!
Al Janc was fishing close to shore and got into it with another monster pez gallo roosterfish. I can’t remember a better rooster season than this one . Fish was released.
Mike Whitlow is a professional bass fisherman and specializes in using light tackle everytime he visits us from Washington. Mike got this fish north of La Paz. Fresh out’ve the water, the colors are incredible!
We got some really nice pargo this week like this hefty pargo…dog tooth snapper pulled out’ve the rocks near Las Arenas. Captain Pancho with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet does the honors on the beach.
Lucky sunglasses for Captain Adolfo and Nancy Lerch with another big-time trophy dorado and big smiles. This was one of several.
Father, Ed Vander Veer from Washington and son, Ryan show off a great pair of bull dorado standing in the waters at Balandra Bay having fished north of La Paz where some waters are finally turning blue and sargasso patches are finally producing some dorado like these!
Everyone keeps asking if there’s tuna . Well, no one has really caught any yet this season but this slug 178 pounder was taken this week off the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island by one of the commercial captains. So, I guess there’s at least one tuna out there. However, following days produced nothing. But still exciting!
Our Captain Boli makes a funny face helping first-timer visitor, Jerry Pederson, from Washington with a nice mahi taken near Espirito Santo Island. We’re hopeful that the dorado bite continues to get better . The fish are having a late start this season.
Here’s another trophy mahi that Bob Benjamin caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Bob was visiting us for the first time and has big grins.
Making a great fashion statement…cool hat…cigar…billowing guide shirt! Total GQ! Xavier Lerch has a huge bull mahi dorado he caught with out Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet on one of the days where nothing was smaller than 30 pounds.
Hooray! La Paz finally has direct flights again from Los Angeles! This past week, Aero Mexico started flights from LAX to La Paz and will be flying on Sundays and Thursdays. We have not had direct flights for months!
Usually our amigo, Roger Thompson is a virtual poster child on the Tailhunter fishing report with big fish after big fish, but this is too funny! Everyone keeps asking if there are still yellowtail around. Well…uh…yea…LOL…Roger caught this guy all the way out on the 88! Great parting shot!
VIDEO of the WEEK!
Here is some video footage of our good amigo, Roy Stenzel’s first marlin that he caught this week. It’s great! Roy sent it to me and said, “Excuse me if at the end I squeal like a little girl!” The enthusiasm sure comes through. Proudly, hat’s off…he also released the fish! It’s short and fun. Take a look!
BIG WEEK FOR FEW FISH BUT BIG FISH INCLUDING AN ALMOST WORLD RECORD ROOSTERFISH!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 17-23, 2013
What a week of fishing! In all honesty, it was not a great week of fishing. Rather, it was a week of great fish! So many large fish this week. It was literally quality over quantity. We didn’t get a lot of fish, but the fish we got were really something to see including one fish that could have been a world record but we’ll never know!
The big rooster fish was caught by Ron Burgess of Temecula CA. Ron and his group of 4 fished 5 days and boated 28 rooster fish with nothing smaller than 50 pounds. Many of the fish were 70-90 pounds plus some hefty amberjack and dog tooth snapper. They released every single one of their rooster fish so bravo to them! Just an outstanding trip.
But, Ron’s fish was something to see. Ron battled the huge rooster right off the rocks near Punta Perico next to the famous Las Arenas lighthouse which is arguably part of the “roosterfish capital of the world” which extends down to the East Cape area as well. Las Arenas produced the world record 114-pounder in 1960 and Ron’s fish was estimated by several of our captains at “55-65 kilos” which would have bested the IGFA record by 10-20 pounds!
We will never know! Tailhunters has a certified IGFA scale, but Ron and his guys like true sportsmen released all of their huge rooster fish! Ron fought the fish for “better than 45 minutes” on 40 pound test using an 18-inch ladyfish for live bait. “I was a head shaker the whole time!”
It took three of them to heft the big fish as gently as possible into the panga and they tried to lip-gaff the fish with as little harm to the fish as possible. They got it in the boat; took some quick photos (which is why the photos aren’t that great and also because Ron simply could not lift the fish!) and then it took 3 of them to get it back in the water where it , “swam off strongly still pissed off” said Ron!
Ron said laughingly, “I was exhausted and beat up, but I picked up another bait and tossed it in and figured I’d rest, but another huge rooster grabbed it and I was hooked up again! What an idiot!”
This is the 2nd monster fish from our area that might have been an IGFA consideration as an amberjack estimated at 135 pounds caught by Kevin Takatani was taken just a few week ago but was cut up before it could be weighed. The IGFA record is 155 pounds. We’ll never know! But the legendary waters of La Paz and Las Arenas keep kicking out some super fish!
For the rest of the fishing, it was truthfully, hit-or-miss. Some pangas would do well while others nearby didn’t fare so well. Waters are still very turned over with warm water on the surface, but colder green water not too far below the surface. However, the fish that were caught were generally the larger models. Dorado “averaged” 20 to 40 pounds. Pargo “averaged” 30 pounds. Cabrilla “averaged 10 pounds.” Sure there were smaller fish, but overall, the fish were really bigger or pretty much nothing!
We did have some wahoo and marlin and sailfish hook-ups but overall, the warm water season is really taking it’s time to get going! Normally by this time of year, we are well into the billfish and dorado. Not so this year!
Part of the problem also is that the winds keep jumping up and pushing that cold water up and around and disturbing the water conditions. By now the winds should be long gone. It seems like things are getting better with more blue water showing up but too early to commit at this time.
But, bottom line, we’re having the best roostefish season in my 20 years here! For the last two months, La Paz had certainly been living up to it’s reputation for rooster fish. More fish and bigger roosters than we’ve ever seen!
MEXICO FLUBS FISHING LICENSES!
If you had not already heard, Mexico’s CONAPESCA committed a huge SNAFU! They failed to print out enough fishing licenses for the country and for vendors like Tailhunters to sell to their clients! That’s literally ha-zillions of licenses and lost revenue not to mention another shot-in-the-foot to the sportfishing and tourism industry making one more obstacle to come fishing!
Whereas normally, you could walk into our shop or office or most offices of outfitters in Mexico and purchase the blue tags, now one must go on line and struggle with the CONAPESCA website that often crashes and is highly unreliable. That, of course assumes that you have internet and have a printer so you can print it out! Many people still are not internet savvy or do not have online access or printers!
But, with patience, the system DOES work! Here is the link below plus a video describing how to do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueV0ov9mAxY
You can purchase the online and it is important that you buy them before coming down. Here is the website: https://www2.ebajacalifornia.gob.mx/Pesca/
- Click the American flag and it will be in English
- You want to purchase the fishing license for the “FEDERAL ZONE.”
- Do not be alarmed at the price…it’s in pesos!!! So just divide by 11 or 12 and that’s the rate in dollars and it will show up on your credit card statement in dollars.
- If it’s slow or doesn’t work at first, try again later. With this announcement, everyone in southern Baja has to purchase their licenses this way!
- Make sure you forward this to everyone in your party who is coming down or purchase the fishing licenses for them.
We found another option to the ridiculous frustration of trying to purchase fishing licenses online through the idiotic CONAPESCA Mexico website that keeps crashing!
My friend Tom Ward has a huge tackle shop in Orange Co. California and he has a stock of Mexican licenses on hand and sells them! He mails them back to your regular mail but processes them the same day he gets the request:
Here’s the info: http://www.thelongfin.com/mexican-fishing-license.html. Their phone is: 714-538-8010.
You can also get them from CONAPESCA San Diego, but must send a cashier’s check. They also process the same day. Here’s the link: http://www.conapescasandiego.org/. Their phone number is: 619-233-4324
So, unlike the Mexican CONAPESCA site, at least there’s a phone number to talk to someone who speaks English! Nuts that it is easier to purchase fishing licenses in someplace like California than in Mexico.
Landing in places like San Diego as well as many other local tackle stores, especially if you are in S. California have the licenses for sale or over the phone!
Hope that helps!!! Sorry for the craziness. We’re as frustrated as everyone else!
AERO MEXICO NOW DIRECT TO LA PAZ!
We also wanted to welcome Aero Mexico to La Paz. We finally have a new airline servicing our city! After many anticipated months, Aero Mexico started flying Sundays and Thursdays direct to La Paz from Los Angeles. Great for all of us!
That’s our story! Have a great week!
Jonathan and Jill
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, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine CA 91903-1149
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/
Tailhunter YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate
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