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Posts Tagged ‘la paz’

Big league bull dorado for Mike Rossi of Santa Ana who got this big guy to chomp a live sardine near Las Arenas. It was a decent week for dorado fishing for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleet.

That's an armful! One of the largest fish of the week taken by first-timer Mike Ehrlinger, from Orange Co. CA. He took this huge bulll...his first fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.

It's great to see first timers kick butt like Mac Oudin shown with Captain Adolfo from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Mac go this first dorado; his first sailfish (40 miinute fight and he released it!) and this beautiful roosterfish that he also released. Great sportsmanship, Mac! Gracias!

Here's another good sport. Bill Hughes really wanted a roosterfish this trip (his 2nd to see us), and he tried repeatedly to revive this one (he wasn't even trying to catch a rooster at the time, but it bit the lure in deep water and they thought it was a sailfish! Most roosters are caught in shallow water.). They repeatedly tried to "swim" the big fish back and forth but were unable to revive it. But, a great catch and the folks on the beach gladly accepted the gift of the fish for making machaca and soup.

Alex Gragg (middle) has been chomping at the bit for years, but his dad, Ken, who comes down several times a year told him he had to wait until he was 12-years-old to come to La Paz. So, he finally made it! Shown here with older brother, Steve, and Tailhunter Capt. Boli, they pose with some of their dorado from a good day of fishing!

It seems we have alot of great roosterfish stories this week. Harlie Deckhard from Arizona had hooked up to this big roosterfish off Las Arenas when the reel seized up and was ready to snap the line. Quick-thinking Captain Pancho grabbed another rod and while holding both lines, cut the line hooked to the fish and in the heat-of-battle, quickly spliced on the 2nd rod-and-reel and the fight continued! Great story. Great fish...which Harlie released after the photo!

It wasn't a big week for yellowfin tuna, but every few days the fish popped up. Most were like these held by Mike Ehlinger, Bernard Jain and Joe Fuschetti on Las Arenas beach. Note the other fish on the sand.

That's Rick Gil del Monte goofing in the back of Dave and Paul Henke holding up a few of their dorado they caught after 3 days fishing with our Tailhutner Las Arenas fleet.

It's a long way and a big difference between Baja and the Arctic Circle, but that's where Lisa and Colby lives but came down where she got this trophy bull dorado fishing our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

It's good to get a little help from your friends...especially when it's your birday! Mike Demple from AZ, celebrated his big day by zooming down to La Paz on a private plane with friends for a single day of fishing...just long enough to get a load of dorado like this one Mike holds with the help of Captain Boli from the Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.

This is about as good a representation of some of the many species you can catch in a single day right now. Jon Dunn, Captain Pancho, and Mike Rossi pose with a day's catch of tuna, dorado, barred pargo, triggerfish among others!

TAILHUNTER VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Got some great images to show you this week!

Check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjgXShzWWoM

DORADO CENTER STAGE FOR THE WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 1-7, 2011

It was one of those good-steady weeks of fishing down here around La Paz. Not off-the-charts, but fun solid fishing with good weather and some of the best ocean we’ve seen in awhile. Dorado were the main attraction with about 80 percent of the catch for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and Tailhunter La Paz fleet…albeit moreso for our La Paz anglers.

If all you really wanted to do was hang some fish; have some fun; put some fillets in the ice chest, then the “no-” was to just go fish for dorado. Slow troll some sardines in an area; find some floating weeds; or look for circling birds is pretty much how to swing it, but fast trolling with feathers or slow dragging some dead bonito strips also set off the bite. Most days the boats caught dorado as small as 5 pounders and as large as 40 pounders mostly but the majority of the fish were 10-15 pound school-sized fish. The larger fish continue to be taken by our La Paz fleet.

If you wanted a bit more variety, then fishing our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet was probably better. Dorado bite was OK at best with smaller schoolies, but at least you also had the opportunity to get into some of the good roosterfish, marlin, sailfish and the occasional elusive tuna.

Oh…a sighting of wahoo…two bites this week, but for the most part, no wahoo to speak of. I think this has been one of the poorest wahoo seasons I can remember. But, prime time wahoo season is still to come possibly…October and November! We’ll keep you posted!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

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

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:

https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

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With a solid week of dorado fishing, it was a good spot for first timers to get either their first dorado or their biggest dorado. In some cases, it was BOTH. Jason Westra and captain Chito from the Tailhunter Fleet show off Jason's huge bull dorado taken near Espirito Santo Island. Rough seas left from missed hurricane Dora didn't slow down the dorado bite...much, but it was bumpy and windy many days.

All the way from Clovis, New Mexico, our amigo Dougie Idsinga was another of our anglers who got a personal best dorado! Check out the size. Doug's standing in Balandra Bay north of La Paz.

It wasn't a bad week for tuna, especially for our Las Arenas fishers with the bite being best at mid-week for football-sized tuna between 10-30 pounds like this one by my amigo, outdoor writer, editor and book author, Zack Thomas who came out from Arkansas. That's the tip of Cerralvo Island on the right side of the photos. Most of the tuna fishing has been taking place closer to the island now rather than running out to the 88.

Lots of amigos from all over visiting us these days. Neal Thomas all the way from New York on the left and Evan Cascio from Manhattan Beach on the right only had one day to fish with us on a quick run to La Paz, but made the most of it with a good day of dorado fishing.

This was a week when it seemed like about half the states in the U.S. were represented fishing with us...Alaska, Washington, Georgia, Texas, Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada, Idaho, Arkansas...just to name a few! Well, Miles Brown here is from Oregon and he and his dad got into some of the yellowfin tuna that bit this week for our Las Arenas fishermen.

This dorado is alot bigger than it looks because Wes Simpson from Atlanta GA, is about 6'4" tall. Wes and his amigos fished for an entire week straight hardcore.

Sam Sybesma from Long Beach CA took home a full ice chest of fillets after 3 days of fishing including this big bull dorado he's holding up after a day of fishing with our La Paz Fleet.

Another good example of the dorado bite we had this past week is Don Rea from Ventura fishing with his mom and dad for a week with us who had some banner days pulling on the dorado schools!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Click this and watch Jason Westra’s reaction to pulling in his first and biggest bull dorado:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKpvA81Ar8Y&feature=player_embedded

DORADO COME ON STRONG IN AFTERMATH OF DORA’s WINDS

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 24-31, 2011

It was a solid dorado week here in La Paz, but in all honesty, a strange strange fishing week. We dodged getting punched in the face by Hurricane Dora that came up the coast, but then veered outside with barely a cloud in the sky! But, it still left some residual effects Despite blazing hot sunshine and warm waters, it was windy enough most of the week for us to think it was spring. Winds were among the strongest we’ve seen in many a summer. It made for some unusually rough water and bouncy days not to mention uncomfortable fishing at times (mostly the winds died by noon)…but..

Thankfully the fish still bit!

For the most part, the dorado saved the week with dorado being the mainstay catch for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and Tailhunter La Paz fleets. There were some nice-sized fish also in the 30-50 pound class that turned out to be personal bests for the successful anglers, but most of the fish were in the 10-15 pound category with the occasional 20-25 pounder in the box. The fish are scattered all over. There are a number of “hot” spots that seem to hold concentrations of dorado but there’s also free-swimmers all over. Many times, the key is finding a fish willing to bite either on a slow troll or on a high spot or weed or current line then, while that fish is still on the line, toss some chum and see what else comes up. Maybe nothing. But maybe another 3, 4 , 5 or the whole school! Then, it’s hold onto your socks!

As for tuna, again up-and-down, but this past week, it was a little more up than down. No big boys, but quite a few 10 pound footballs…maybe 3-8 tuna per panga with our Las Arenas fleet. The fish are much closer near the island and high spots without having to run out to the 88 bank. Live bait and chunked dead bait work in bringing up the schools but a few guys got the schools going by trolling cedar plugs (natura color) that either hooked up to tuna or produced a dorado.

The rest of the catch was rounded out by some marlin and sailfish (most released) and quite a few fun roosterfish in the 10-20 pound class that was a great find for our flyfishers and light tackle fishers that worked Cerralvo Island this past week. No shortage of action!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

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

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:

https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE WEEK IN VIDEO and STILL IMAGES

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

DODGED A HURRICANE BUT LEFT WITH SCRATCHY FISHING!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s our story

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

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

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

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It was finally a week where the dorado decided to join the party and just-in-time for Chad Schearer's TV show "Shoot Straight" and his family to show up with the cameras. http://www.shootstraightTV.com Chad is the TV host of the program and usually travels the world with either a bow or muzzle-load rifle, but is quite a celebrity with the flyrod as well. He filmed all week with us and one of his sponsors is Cabela's Outdoor Stores. They wanted him to test out their new 6-piece travel flyrod that looked so thin and light a trout would've broken the 10 wt stick! Chad's intent was to get a big roosterfish on it, but when a big dorado charged through, it was GAME ON! Chad battled this monster 40-pound rooster on the light flygear for 1 hour and 45 minutes! He had never gotten a dorado before and this was a personal best...and all in front of the cameras!

Wahoooo! We finally got one to the boat. For weeks, I've been saying the conditions are right and Roger Thompson finally nailed one on a rapala at the north end of Cerralvo Island. He said te day was going slow (note the tuna boat in the back!) but he usually comes through and this 60 pound class speedster topped the day!

It was a stellar week for roosters for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets with fish up to 80 pounds. Sheldon "Doc" Schearer is a minister and sherrif's officer from Montana and this 60 pound rooster was a personal best. It ate a live sardine in about 10 feet of water near the Las Arenas lighthouse and took 1/2 an hour to battle. The fish was released. In fact, they caught 6 that day and all but one fish were put back in the water.

Tailhunter's own Jilly Roldan got into the nice dorado bite late this week posing with San Diego's Joe Jacobs in the blue waters of Balandra Bay north of La Paz. They also got roosterfish and small yellowtail, but ran into a spot of dorado that blew up on them and they lost count of the fish with double and triple hookups!

Tihs is the first week that dorado bit consistently. Not surprisingly, the waters edged over 80 degrees too and the winds calmed down. hmmmm...funny how that works! But the week started slowly, but by mid-week the counts were going up with mostly smaller fish in the 5-10 pound category, but as the week went on, there were more 20-40 pound fish in the counts and hardly anything prettier than a lit up mahi on the hook like this one taken off Espiritu Santo Island this week.

Even last season we didn't see many bull dorado over 20 pounds, but this week we had some fish in the 30, 40 and one that may well have been over 50 pounds! Jill got this one on the NE corner of Espiritu Santo Island just off the drop-off on live bait. Captain Joel holds it up for the photo! The waters are holding various spots of fish but they're scattered in all the usual places with many holding under building schools of sargasso weeds floating on the surface!

Even tho' waters kicked into "summer mode," there were still some "cooler water" fish around like this decent yellowtail held by Lisa Chandler of La Mesa CA. We actually took a few of these YT's this week.

Even when the fish weren't biting it seemed there were often schools of dolphin blasting through...wherever dolphin go! It was not unusual to see half the fleet suddenly stop what they were doing to follow the schools! This one was between Cerralvo and Espiritu Santo Island.

For alot of our clients and friends this week, it was their first time tangling with roosterfish and underlines why La Paz waters are called the "roosterfish capital of the world." Joe Jacobs from San Diego took this nice one in Pilot's Cove north of La Paz and released it.

The roosters were biting for BOTH our Tailhunter La Paz and Tailhunter Las Arenas fleets. Captain Jorge with our Las Arenas fleet helps Marsha Schearer pose with this slug rooster caught in shallow water just outside Bahia de Los Muertos.

SLOW START TO WEEK CRANKS UP WITH DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH!

Las Arenas/ La Paz Fishing Report for Week of May 22-29, 2011

Amazing what a difference a week can make.  Take away a
full moon; strong winds; green water; and inconsistent water
temperatures…little things like that…and WHAM…THE FISH BITE!  In
fact, water temps hit 80+ for the first time this year and it was a 180 degree
turn from the strange fishing last week.  In fact, it was a pretty decent
week of fishing!

It didn’t start out like that!  At the beginning, it was scratch fishing at
best.  I was pretty worried.  But…the conditions changed!

Hey, for the first time, dorado bit consistently with nice
patches of sargasso weed building up in the surrounding channels and while many
of the fish were firecracker punks in the 5-10 pound class, there were still
some nicer fish running in the 20-40 pound class (and even one or two that sure looked like 50-pound-class dorado)  that really got folks
excited.  In fact, we had Chad Schearer, nationally known host of the
outdoor TV show “Shoot Straight” filming the entire week  (www.shootstraightTV.com)  with us and
Chad, who had never flyfished Baja before and came to tie on a big roosterfish,
instead  threw a pattern at boiling bonito and a huge 40-pound class
dorado bit his 10wt rod and it was “fish on!”  And epic battle
lasted almost 2 hours as the fish bulldogged down on the light line but finally
Chad got the fish to the boat and was almost speechless in front of the
cameras!

As well, we got into some incredible roosterfish
action.  Some stops with both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets resulted in
double and triple roosterfish hookups.  Fish ranged from 10 to as large as
80-pounds this week with some incredible battles on light tackle, flyrods and
spinning gear when anglers fishing for smaller “fun” fish instead got
blown up on larger world-class roosters that almost brought some anglers to
their knees on the smaller gear.

Overall, just a great week with additional species that
included some big cabrilla, jack crevalle, barred pargo, striped marlin (hooked
and lost and released); sailfish (hooked and lost and released), pompano,
bonito, barracuda and even some very very late yellowtail in the 10-15 pound
class.  We even got a huge 9-foot mako
shark that ate a small dorado hooked by one of our amigos.  They got it to the boat and wisely decided to
cut it loose!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

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

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:

https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

Read Full Post »

Tony Toven from Los Angeles had gotten enough "football tuna" and asked Captain Pancho to try for one of the bigger models. He hooked up on a big chunk of fresh squid over the trench off Las Arenas and was in for a big fight. By the time they got it to gaff, the fish had towed the panga into shallow water (see the photo below). The fish weighed in at 63 pounds (on a scale). Tuna continued to crash this past week for our anglers!

This is what a 63 pound tuna looks like at gaff next to the panga. Note the color of the water. The fish had towed the panga all the way back to shore into water that was only a few feet deep!

If you ever wanted to see what a world-class roosterfish looks like, Dave Lester from Temecula and Captain Jorge hold up a beast pez gallo just off the beach. These are the types of fish that made the Las Arenas famous. This 70 -pound class fish was one of several that he took on a special trap-hook setup using a big live bait slow trolled in the shallow water. This is the same area where the world-record 114 pound roostefish was caught...twice the size of this trophy. Dave released every one of his roosters!

Northern Cal residents Dave Tyree and Steve Artis did some serious damage to the fish population over 5 days of fishing using light rods and tackle. Here's a load of yellowfin tuna like the kind that kept crashing all week in various spots. Most fish have been in the 10-25 pound class but other larger fish continue to prowl and frustrate anglers after long battles.

Big smiles and a big fish for 12-year-old Jared Esquival from Hacienda Heights CA on his first trip with his family to fish our area. The dorado are getting bigger every month and are schooling up in various areas eating live bait, slow trolled stripped bait and chunked fresh bait.

Hard to believe, but yes, we're getting yellowtail in August. That just means there's gotta be some cold water down there mixing it up. Yellowtai are normally around for us in February to May...sometimes into June, but it's I can't remember ever catching yellowtail this deep into the summer. Joe Bishop put the hurt on this big hamachi fork-tail using a big piece of dead sqiud.

Family shot! Love this photo...From left Flower, Jorge Sr., little Mia and Jorge, Jr. Grijalva...then Vicki and her son Jared Esquival all on a family vacation and standing at Las Arenas beach. They plugged two boats with tuna and dorado over two days and had a marlin get away as well.

It was a good week for the larger roosters. Dave Wilson caught and released this fish just off the Punta Perrico rocks.

Back in the sunshine! Amigo Ron Burgess recently re-located from Brianshead Utah where he ran a ski resort back to S.California closer to his Baja fishing and shows off a nice barred pargo.

SUMMERTIME BLAST CONTINUES WITH TUNA AND DORADO BENDING RODS!

Las Arenas/ La Paz Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 1-7, 2010

It was almost like the “old days” around here this past week.  It was like the days you read about in the magazines.  Lots of guys didn’t know what to do with all the fish they caught. 

Their biggest “problem” was realizing that even after giving away fish and releasing fish when it came time to fly home, their ice chests were WAY too heavy!  It was a good problem and one that most just laughed about and chatted about having to have a quick weekend barbecue to get rid of all the excess fish that wouldn’t fit in the home freezers.

Honestly, for both our Tailhunter La Paz and our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, that bite that started during the full moon just flared bigger! 

Our Tailhunter La Paz fleet keep rolling up on the dorado schools.  Most of the fish continue to be about 10-15 pounds, but there were many other fish into the 20-30 pound class and a few larger too that were lost.  Fish were found in a scattered area, but often the bite would be slower until later then big schools would be located and it would blow into a dorado rodeo. 

“We trolled and drifted for hours without much except big bonito and needlefish.  Then, all of a sudden, we found the biggest line of sargasso weed and even before we got there, you could tell it was alive! There were flying fish around it and birds diving on it and a sea turtle swimming through it and all kinds of nervous water!”  said one of our anglers.  “We threw some sardines and chunked bonito at it and the whole thing exploded with dorado!  We had triple instant hookups that went on for a good hour until we said no more.  We released at least half the fish we hooked.”

That was pretty typical for many of our La Paz anglers.  One boat decided they had enough dorado and asked our captain to head for the rocks to look for other species and got a box load of pargo, cabrilla, roosters and jacks as well.

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, it was crazy as ever.  The bad news was that there was very little live bait in the way of sardines so the guys laughingly had to start each day pulling up giant squid from  deep deep down.  It’s quite a chore and in no time guys are drenched in sweat!

The good news however, was that EVERYTHING was eating the squid…tuna,  big yellowtail, pargo, dorado and even marlin were all hooked on squid chunks this week. 

The tuna bite changed, but no one complained.  The previous weeks BIG BIG tuna were not uncommon, but some of the fish were so big that many anglers would come back blanked after fighting the sluggers for up to 3 hours.  After awhile, that stops being fun. 

Instead this week, much more manageable football tuna between 10 and 25 pounders were the norm and many anglers got daily limits of tuna to mix up with dorado and other species such as pargo and roosterfish.   We had a number of kids fishing with us this week and this size of tuna was ideal for the youngsters to get into.

One of the largest fish of the week was a 40 pound beast of a yellowtail taken by 10-year-old Jorge Grijalva of Hacienda Heights.  It was Jorge’s first time fishing and he took the fish on 30 pound test.  Unfortunately, he also busted dad’s custom-wrapped Calstar rod on the fish!  Dad was still pretty proud.

If you check out the photos above, you’ll also see photos of a big time tuna and roosterfish.  No telling how long this bite will last.  I’m growing to expect the “unexpected” the way this season has been!

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.”

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It was a great week for larger tuna and one of the best shots and stories of the week. Jared DiFiore (16) and his brother Joseph (14) came to La Paz from New Hampshire with their family hoping to catch "just one fish.. .any kind of a fish!" They had never done this before. Their first day they fished with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and got a limit of dorado and were thrilled. The next day, they went snorkeling and ended up swimming with sealions, a whaleshark and saw porpoise a blue whale and sea turles. Then, they decided to try the big tuna at Las Arenas. They figured they were finally up to going to the big leagues. They tied into this big ahi yellowfin tuna and tag-teamed it for almost 2 hours before getting it to the boat. That was it! No more. They asked the captain to take them back to the beach with big smiles!

Happy boy "Modelo" Dave Pollard from Upland CA holds up a fat yellowfin tuna he caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Dave "grand slammed"...actually he did better than that nailing tuna, dorado, marlin and pargo all on the same day.

A graduation present for 17 year-old Mike Harkins who also works as a deckhand on a Los Angeles sportboat. He's been fishing with us since he was about 2 feet high and always had a knack for big fish. Over 4 days, he got yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, dorado and this big pargo and several others fishing with his dad and using live bait with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. It's been a surprsing few weeks with cold water fish like pargo and yellowtail still around.

A long way to the ocean from New Mexico, but Steve Hanson (who invented the "Steve-O-rita" while he was here...Red Bull and silver tequila!) fished with his son, Darren, (holding the tail) and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and got this blue marlin estimated at 300 pounds. The meat was donated. They also got limits of dorado. It was a good week for both species.

Dave and Mike Van Velzer had a spectacular week after fishing 4 days with both of our Tailhunter fleets. They got a variety of dorado and some of the big yellowfin tuna like the ones they are holding here at Punta Arenas Beach.

It was a good week for the youngsters! Steve Kechichian is 16-years-old and pulled on numerous big tuna and dorado like this one he caught with Captain Victor. His best stories from Steve and his dad were the numerous multi-hookups they had and couldn't stop the fish or the fish going in two different directions and unable to chase them down.

Recently retired Greg Covello (left) knew exactly what he wanted to do with his free time...catch a big pargo so he came down with amigo, Alex Bastedo. They lost alot of fish ,but did manage to pull these two trophy pargo lisos out of the rocks.

It was a pretty good week for marlin! Captain Pancho helps our amigo, Tony Adamich with this nice striper caught near Cerralvo Island. Tony released the fish that day.

After you fight a big tuna for almost 2 hours, it's not so easy to lift it up when someone wants to take your picture! Mike McCort from New York did his best and we got the photo. These fish showed a big preference for big chunks of fresh squid for bait on huge 7/0 to 9/0 hooks!

This is just one more example of our screwy season! Normally, we see yellowtail in the cooler months and cooler waters of February to May. But it's JULY!! Alex Bastedo holds up a 10 pounder, but we got some in the 30-40 pound class this week that surprised everyone!

He really wanted to try to get a tuna on a flyrod, but Professor Mark Marcus from Knoxville, Tenn., put down the flyrod when he saw the sizes of the yellowfin tuna that showed up this week.

Varton Bagdasaryan is a professional chef in the Riverside area of California and was on his first trip to fish in La Paz waters. His first two fish of the day were a striped marlin and this big tuna. He immediately went back to the hotel and mixed up some sashime! This fish bit a big chunk of fresh squid off Las Arenas.

He came all the way from Florida and ended up tangling with one of our big tuna this week. Professor Llew Williams has been fishing with us for many many years and it's always great to have him down.

BIG TUNA GIANT SQUID HUNGRY DORADO PACE THE WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 18-25, 2010

Nothing else to describe it other than a solid week of fishing.  Some really incredible fishing for some of our anglers who hit some monster fish and literally filled their coolers their first day then after it was gravy!  Seriously…especially for our Las Arenas fleet, big tuna showed up in the 40-80 pound class that bent anglers for 1-2 hours each. 

If you looked at the scores, some days, it might look like we didn’t do that well on the tuna, but if you talked to the anglers, they’ll tell you they fought and LOST 2, 3 or more fish and only got 1 to the boat.  Totally spent and thrashed anglers and captains came back with stories of fish fought for as much as 3 hours and losing them and some speculation that some of the larger gorilla tuna were in the 100-200 pound class. 

On several occasions, anglers fought a single fish for an hour or two and then told the captain, “No mas, take me back to the beach!”  They came back and just sat and collapsed.  And it was still morning!

As one angler said, “We got one fish on 60 pound test and the trolling rod and 4/0 two-speed reel.  We almost got spooled on the first run and we fired up the panga!  It was like being a cowboy trying to stand up and ride a panga over the waves and hang onto the tuna.  We went almost FULL speed for 20 minutes chasing the fish and it finally popped!  We never even saw it, but there were some other hugs boils in the area that looked like they were half the size of the 22 foot panga!”

No way to  know if the tuna will hang out, but the key seems to be the giant squid in the morning.  If the squid show up and the anglers can put some in the boat, these giant squid are as big as 60 pounds and a true workout right off the bat to grind them up from the deep. 

Then, using heavy rigs and 7/0 and larger hooks we pin a 3 pound chunk on the hook and send it back down!  Guys were telling us that just catching the squid was hard enough.  “Man, each squid was a battle to get them to the surface.  These were sea monsters and even before we started fishing, we were already tuckered out and looking in the ice chest for cold beers and it wasn’t even 8 a.m. yet!”

“The bite at times was almost instant!” said another of our anglers.  “Literally, within seconds of drifting that chunk down, it was like a car came by and suddenly latched on!  I’ve never had line spin off my reel so fast.  Then it was like I was holding a refrigerator over the side of a building or something!  I immediately started wishing these were smaller tuna!”   He lost 5 fish before he boated his first tuna but ended up with 3 fish over 2 days with the smallest being 65 pounds.

Now…add to that a good smattering of dorado from 5-40 pounds; marlin; roosterfish and big pargo and our Las Arenas anglers really had a super  week.  But…hold on…

We also got yellowtail!  These are fish that are COLD water fish and we generally catch them only in February to May.  Several of our fishermen got into 10-40 pound mossback yellowtail!  Go figure.

For our La Paz fleet, they were hanging fish all week as well.  With great weather, the dorado came to play.  Most days, the boats got limits or near limits of dorado up to about 30 pounds with most fish in the 10-20 pound class.   As well, several boats got into nice marlin including one 300 pound blue landed by Steve Hanson of New Mexico. 

It’s been a screwy year, but this has certainly been one of the better weeks of the season!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

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.”

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Yellowfin tuna popped up for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet with some fish in the 60-200 pound class that really chewed up anglers and spit them out, but some nice "football" sized fish in the 10-30 pound class like this one held by our amigo, Jorge Romero and assisted by Capt. Jaibo, did show up in flashes throughout the week.

Looks like big roosterfish season is here. We're not seeing so many smaller fish anymore. Most of the roosters we got this week were like this hog of a fish caught and released by BARBARA KENTSLER from Utah (Sorry for the mistake Barbara and thanks Aubrey for catching my error!) with Capt. Jorge near Las Arenas.

There are still a surprising number of pargo around. Check out the flat seas behind Randy Forestiere holding this nice pargo liso just off Muertos Bay.

I wish our friend, Rich Sawaske, and Capt. Adolfo had looked up into the camera, but they have their eyes riveted on this beautiful dorado Rich got on a live sardine just off Punta Arenas. Check out the flat ocean. They were only a few hundred yards offshore.

The water is still cold enough that we're still getting sierra which are normally cold water fish. Captain Romero holds a big one! Great eating fish.

MARLIN TUNA DORADO WAKE UP TO START SUMMER!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 26- to July 4, 2010

It was all going along really well.  Then the winds came up again…at least for our La Paz fleet.  It was like April all over again as the week came to a close, but before that, fishing had been really great. 

For the better part of the week both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets have been doing really well.  I mean, when was the last time someone said, “There are too many marlin!” 

However, that’s what I heard more than once this past week, especially for our anglers fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.  Over the last two weeks, all those lazy striped marlin and sailfish that have been sunning themselves on the surface waiting for the waters to warm finally woke up and came to the party.  It’s about time!

Here’s some of the comments from the week:

“We had 8 marlin just swimming ’round and ’round the panga!”

“Those pesky marlin were as thick and dumb as dorado and I don’t want to catch marlin. I want to catch dorado, but the marlin chased the dorado away!”

“We hooked and released 5 marlin before 10 a.m. and then got the heck out’ve there so we could try to catch something like pargo to put in the ice chest!”

“I’ve never had a triple marlin hookup on a panga before and we were only about 200 yards from the shore!”

Fortunately, most of the marlin are getting broken off or released, and it’s especially great to see so many first timers letting their fish go…especially the youngsters tying into their first billfish. 

However, in addition to the billfish, we got quite a variety of other species, especially around the south end of Cerralvo Island and Las Arenas.  More and larger dorado showed up although there’s still quite a few dinks, but we saw some fish caught in the 20-25 pound category.  As well, we’re not seeing as many roosterfish, but some really hefty big boys were caught and released up to about the 60-70 pound category as well as pargo and cabrilla.

More exciting than that, however, was that some large squid popped up south of Arenas and usually when that happens there’s tuna that come up out’ve the deep trench. Sure enough, we got into some 20-60 pound fish and several larger tuna in the 100+ pound category were hooked and lost after long long battles.  There were even some fish estimated at 200 pounds that literally gobbled up anglers and spit them out.

 There weren’t alot of tuna, but enough to get everyone excited and to see some of the larger fish pop up as well really jacked up the interest.  Only problem was that many anglers were outgunned or not experienced enough to tackle these bigger gorilla tuna or, in some cases, I heard of at least 2 anglers simply cutting themselves off when they realized what they were tied onto!

 If you can, imagine holding a 200 pound weight over the side of a 50-story building in a strong wind and you’re attached to that weight with a little tiny piece of string and a rod and reel!   How many hours can you hold that?

FIRST PERSON!

Dave Gora and his family from Dana Pt. CA were down this week and Dave does some incredible video clips!  He put this together for us from fishing two days with our Las Arenas fleet and Captain Victor. One of the best video clips I’ve ever seen down here.  Great underwater footage too!  Thanks, Dave!  Click this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkkqUUb4wws

Will keep an eye out. Have a great 4th of July holiday! 

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.”

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Spencer Sawaske from Northern California had a pretty good day. First, he released a marlin, then got this monster dorado fishing off Cerralvo Island on the south side and also near the Arenas lighthouse. Better dorado and marlin fishing were the highlight during a full-moon week.

Retired NFL linebacker and football coach...and one of Tailhunter's best amigos, Donnie Rea, shows off one of the nicer dorado taken this week with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of La Paz. Although bait continued to be slow to find, most boats did some pretty decent dorado fishing. Coach Rea was fishing with Captain Marcos.

Despite rapidly warming waters, pargo continue to be hungry and equally frustrating busting off lots of anglers. This one didn't get away. In fact, according to our amigo Dave Wehner who has been fishing with us 8 years, this big barred pargo came up and ate an entire slow trolled bonito Dave was using for bait! Later in the week, Dave nailed a 65 pound roosterfish on his itty-bitty bass rod that he fought for 90 minutes! His wife Mary then hooked up on a 150 pound blue marlin! Both fish were released!

Some nice tuna poked their heads up this week...albeit too briefly. Just enough to tease everyone . It seems everytime we get a glimpse of giant squid coming up from the deep trenches, we got some tuna following them up! We actually had a few 100 pounders hooked and lost, but this was one 50-pounder that Garden Grove amigo, Jonathan Navarro, caught near the Las Arenas lighthouse fishing with Captain Victor.

Retired firefighter Ed Basurto from Sacramento holds up one of the better bull dorado we got this week while fishing off Las Arenas near Cerralvo Island.

Rex Smith from Arizona and Fred Sontag from Arkansas and their other brothers Mike and John, had a nice day north of La Paz fishing with the Tailhunter La Paz Fleet. They released a marlin and sailfish.

Captain Armando with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet helps pose a nice dorado for Dan who had never fished before but ended up with a handful as well as a marlin on his first outing. He outfished most of his buddies and said it was because he wore his lucky wristwatch.

Grand slam for Mal Young and dad, Bob. It was a delayed high-school graduation present that Mal waited 2 years for, but it resulted in a striped marlin plus this trio that shows some of the variety...a roosterfish, a pargo liso and a dorado!

It's summer, but we're still getting some colder water fish like this sierra held by Fred Sontag from Arkanasas.

This was probably our best week so far for striped marlin. This great shot was taken by Jonathan Navarro from Los Angeles as his dad battled the fish off Cerralvo Island

Fresh one! Rich Navarro hoists a summer-time bull dorado that bit a live sardine.

SUMMERTIME CONDITIONS PROMPT DORADO AND MARLIN TO WAKE UP!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 20-27, 2010

 

Things are definitely changing here finally.  Winds have laid down quite a bit.  Waters and air temps are getting noticeably warmer too.  It finally feels like summer.  Waters are high 70’s to low 80’s  Daytime temps are high 90’s to low 100’s, but there’s still a nice breeze most times.  Our anglers are telling us it’s one of the most pleasant June’s they’ve ever experienced here.

Co-incidentally, fishing has seemingly turned the corner as well. While not wide open, the warmer conditions finally brought in more of the top-water species.  For sure, it finally kick-started all the marlin and sailfish that have been lazing around our waters for two months.  “We had 8 swimming around our panga at one time!” said one of our anglers.   It was not unusual to hook 1 or 2 this week.  Many fish broke- off on the lighter tackle, but it’s gratifying to see so many anglers…especially first timers…releasing their billfish!  Bravo!  Our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet has been seeing most of the billfish action.

As well, there’s been a smattering of tuna in the 60-100 pound class as it seems the big Humboldt squid have come up to the surface from their trenches and that usually brings the big tuna with them.  There weren’t many tuna, but here and there, they popped up and tore into a few of our pangas leaving anglers battered and bruised and, more often than not, with nothing to show after long battles where the fish broke off or got unbuttoned. 

Also, we’re seeing many more dorado all around La Paz waters, but even moreso, we’re finally seeing bigger 20-40 pound bulls instead of the little punks we’ve been dealing with since April.  Every day several fish in the 25-30 pound class have been taken at various spots.  Check out the photos this week!  Lots of dorado shots!

Bait is the biggest issue.  We’re getting bait, but it just takes time to find it or wait for the bait guys to find it so they can sell it to us.  Once you have the bait, the fish can be found.  The fish are here…no doubt.    Hopefully, that will change but we’ll keep an eye out for it. We’ve been using mostly sardines, but a few cocineros and even some big squid has been working or stripped out bonito for slow trolling the larger dorado.

FIRST PERSON REPORT

Thanks to Mike Sontag from Arizona for putting this one together!

“The fishing the week of June 25th was phenomenal. Besides having my fishing partner extraordinaire (Rex) with us, I was blessed with being able to spend quality time with my 2 brothers (both from the midwest).

 The first 2 days launched out of Los Arenas with my brother tying into a beautiful marlin within an hour of being on the water. The fight was on with the fish showing us his size and attitude with a series of surface crashing launches and acrobatics. The fish  won out after a 10 minute fight, but not without leaving a lifetime impression on my brother and me since I was able to watch the silly smirk on my brothers face for the durations of the hookup (I believe it s permanent as it still hasn’t left his face).

 Not to be outdone, within another 30 minutes I had a sailfish on the business end of the rod while my brother provided commentary and helpful hints since he was now experienced at this sort of thing. The sail was a thing of beauty and after about 25 minutes was brought up next to the boat. Our masterful Captain Ramiro estimated it’s weight at about 40-45 Kg (90-100lbs). We performed CPR (catch, photograph, release) and let it go for another day.

The rest of our day as well as the same for Rex and my other brother was rounded out with a multi-species bad of pargo, trigger, sierra, dorado, amberjack, bonita, plus several roosterfish sightings.

The cream on top of this trip was day 3 out of LaPaz with limits of dorado for both our boats. All I can say is my two brothers will never be the same when it comes to fishing experiences of a lifetime. As with our previous visits – the professional hospitality and friendliness of yourTailhunter operation and the fishing captains are second to none.”

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.”

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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.”

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