Family Outing with three generations of the Whittlesey guys including grandpa Norman (tuna and pargo); grandson Mike (striped marlin); Dad Craig (wahoo) and grandson Dan with another wahoo. The guys from Pullman Washington spent the past week fishing with us and had this great day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The bite reflected the improved fishing towards the end of the week.
Ed Johnson from S.California got into the nice jag of Cerralvo Island on the south side that went off this past week. It was his first trip and his panga got 3 wahoo and lost another. They also got dorado. The wahoo were eating trolled deep running dark colored lures early in the morning.
Making his first trip to La Paz from Colorado, Jim Schmid had an eventful week with all the different species he encountered (see account below) including this La Paz dorado as more dorado moved into the area with some larger fish like Jim's.
Leif Dover from Atlanta GA spent a week with us targeting "only big fish" and spending the time to only use larger baits and fishing larger tackle. It paid off with this beast dog-tooth cubera snapper with Captain Adolfo looking on.
Big roosterfish are still around in what has turned out to be an excellent roosterfish season. Check out Scott Damron's big fish he caught and released south of Muertos Bay.
Not a bad day at all. Early the week, the dorado bite was tough as winds pushed things around, but Cindi and Jim Schmid from Colorado still managed 4 nice mahi. As the week went on, winds diminished and dorado got more cooperative.
It's not big...but it's big news and a great catch, especially for a first timer like Mike Whittlesey from Washington who got this tuna near Cerralvo Island trolling for wahoo. Tuna keep popping up, but not staying so we have to keep an eye on this!
Captured in mid-flight during the battle, Jim Schmid's sailfish goes vertical. The fish broke off at the boat after a long fight and was "the fish of a lifetime" according to Jim. They were fishing north of La Paz with Captain Raul and our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.
SLOW START OF THE WEEK ENDS IN HIGHER NOTES BY THE END!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 12-19, 2010
The week started slow and scratchy with some really tough fishing. Winds again kept blowing erratically not only turning waters off-color, but also scattering bait and generally putting lock-jaw on the fishing. There were times early-on when even the bonito seemed dis-interested in biting and basically, we all struggled with both our Las Arenas and our La Paz fleet. How bad? Well, imagine getting excited about BIG triggerfish! Well…not quite that bad, but we sure had to work hard for the roosters, pargo, cabrilla and inshore fish that we got.
Then, just about to throw up my hands and kick sand and boom! The winds stopped for a few days…
And the fish bit!
We suddenly found dorado, wahoo, some marlin and sailfish…even some tuna bit! What a difference a day or two makes! Roosterfish kept coming on. Dorado up to 30 pounds. Every day there were a few billfish hooked (lost or released). For a few days, it seemed every boat fishing south of Cerralvo Island hooked a wahoo…not necessarily put it in the boat, but they were getting bit and several boats each day did put a wahoo in the pangas.
As of the time I’m writing this, winds have stayed relatively calm and the waters are getting clearer. Our biggest challenge is the live bait now. The winds have beat up the bait so badly over the last few months and thrashing all the usual bait spots that the bait is scattered and takes a long time to get.
For our La Paz fleet, they’re doing OK, but it’s taking almost 2-3 hours to find enough bait or waiting for the bait guys to catch enough to sell. Once they get the bait, it’s fine. For our Las Arenas fleet, as has been the case for about 3 months, the bait is all the way up the east side of Cerralvo Island. Rather than spend the time going all the way up then coming all the way back, our captains are using the time to troll around the south end of the island for wahoo and waiting for the bait guys to come back from getting bait and then buying it.
Alot of the anglers can’t understand why it takes so long or why we don’t do something else. You gotta understand, it’s pretty hard to fish without bait unless you want to troll around all day. It’s not like we can wave a magic wand and make bait suddenly appear or get easier to catch. The weird weather patterns have just made this a tougher season so far to get bait. Once you get the bait, there’s fish to be caught. It’s just trying everyone’s patience a bit more than normal.
FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT
Thank you to Jim Schmid for this!
“While the fishing was a little tougher than we hoped for, in 4 days we managed to catch 9 different species, 61 fish total, brought home a cooler full of filets, and still had extra fish to give away to Captain Raul and some of the hotel staff. I really wanted at least one BIG TROPHY FISH, and my wish was fulfilled on the last hour of the last day, when we hooked a very large sailfish. I spotted the fish behind our boat, and Capt. Raul made two quick hand thrown casts to place the sardine in the path of the fish, which cooperated by eating it. Cindy graciously offered me the opportunity to fight the fish (hooked on her rod), and 40 minutes later, we brought it to boatside. Unfortunately, when Raul grabbed the 30 # line and tried to get ahold of the fish’s bill, it thrashed and the line snapped. We were going to release it, anyway, but it would have been nice to get some better photos (Cindy got a good one of it jumping, attached here) Oh well, we will always have the memory of that huge fish jumping out of the water, over and over…a total of TEN TIMES! Raul said it was a “Very big one” and estimated the weight at 70kg.!
I never imagined the remotest chance of catching a big sailfish. I know very little about sailfish, but am guessing a person could make many trips out trying to catch one of this caliber. I certainly feel I was very fortunate to have the chance to fight a fish like this and very lucky to get the fish in, on fairly light gear. It will very likely be my “fish of a lifetime”. “
By the way, wherever you’re celebrating it, Happy Father’s Day everyone! God bless all the dads out there.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
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:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm
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.”
Tailhunter Fish Report 