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
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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm
Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate
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Tailhunter Fish Report 