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Posts Tagged ‘Las Arenas’

Hawk Yellowtai 1-proc

Our good friend, “Hawk” Davis, was able to sqeeze out some days on the fishing grounds in between wind to get in on the yellowtail bite we got this week!

whaleswdennis 410-proc

Whale watching in Bahia Magdalena is going on full-swing right now in the bay’s shallow warm waters where the grey whales spend the winter. It’s a great experience and we’ll be running trips through March! Ask us!

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We just finished our 4th Tailhunter Show of the season at the Portland Expo Center for a great show where thouands of folks showed up for one of the largest fishing and hunting shows on the west coast! We talked to hundreds of folks each day and got great visits from so many local friends like Amy and Belmond Mann who brought the family to say hi to us! This week we head to the Yakima Sun Dome in Yakima WA for the 24th Annual Central Washington Sportsmans Show from Feb. 15-17th. Come say hi and talk to us about your 2013 La Paz fishing trip!

YELLOWTAIL HIGHLIGHT WEEK OF FISHING

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 3-10, 2013

Late week, winds finally settled down enough to make it comfortable to fish.  Earlier during the week, seasonal winds made it just too crazy for us to really put folks out on the water.  Many folks this time of year, aren’t hardcore anglers and are often folks just in town looking for a day on the water so it’s often best just to just keep an eye on the weather so that we can put them out when it’s calmest and they can enjoy themselves and get some action.  Honest, though, it it weren’t for the winds, it’s really pretty nice in La Paz with daytime temps in the mid-70’s and being in town is really enjoyable right now.  Oh, and carnaval started this week too so town is hopping and it goes on through next week!

Anyway, time on the water was productive with a nice variety of fish and some solid action.

The appearance of yellowtail again was the most welcome part of the bite.  These were some nice fish that ran 15-35 pounds!  Real slugger toads with maybe even some larger fish breaking off as they often head right back to structure and the rocks.  As I mentioned, many folks aren’t big time anglers, and when some of these freight trains hit, you don’t get a second chance to figure out what to do or make mistakes.

This is the same for the larger cabrilla as well as the pargo.  First thing they want to do is head for home in the rocks and that’s often not very deep.  So, there’s not much margin for error.  When a huge pargo, hits if you’re still fiddling with which way on the fishing rod is up, you’re toast!  I mean, that’s part of the fun.  But, it’s not like a tuna or dorado which might have a hundred feet or so of water beneath it to run or wants to rip off 300 yards of line on the uptake.  Yellowtail, pargo, cabrilla and other “rock fish” can often be in water that’s only 10 feet deep and dotted with reef and rocks!  So any hesitation and the fish simply busts you off!

So, often counts would be better except that fish are getting lost.

That being said, we did get some nice yellowtail mixed with smaller cabrilla, pargo, sierra along the beaches and good numbers of bonito which provide great action.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

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

.

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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Rack sierra dorado cabrilla

Typical catch this week mixing some great-eating / good action species including, sierra, cabrilla (seabass) and small to mid-sized dorado while fishing out’ve Bahia de Los Muertos.

cabrilla matt lewis tag 12-11

Matt shows off a good-sized cabrilla of the type we were catching this week. Great close inshore fishing for these right now plus one of the tastiest eating fish in our area!

NO TROPHY FISH BUT MIXED ACTION KEPT RODS BENT BETWEEN WINDS

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of  Jan. 27 to Feb. 3, 2013

It was a mixed week of fishing both for the weather and the catch.  Early in the week, we were into dorado and yellowtail fishing as we launched our pangas from Bahia de Los Muertos.  Nothing spectacular, but decent catches with lots of action if you add in the bonito, smaller pargo and cabrilla that were released.   Almost all live-bait fishing.

Then, the winds came up mid-week.  Fortunately, we didn’t have fisher-folks mid-week.

Winds started to diminish about Thursday so we had pangas out every day through the weekend with decent success.  I was surprised by the number of dorado we’re still catching even tho’ it’s winter.  Nothing big, but tasty fun-sized school fish between 10- and 15 pounds are lots of fun and great for many of our winter anglers who aren’t hard-core fisher folks and really are in town just to get some sunshine and have some fun on the water.  As well, we did get into yellowtail, but they were the smaller models no more than 10 pounders plus cabrilla (many ended up at our Tailhunter Restaurant for dinner!) and smaller pargo.  Plus some decent numbers of sierra.  Add that to the bonito and other assorted species and it made for some OK action and fun days on the water although nothing spectacular in terms of size.

A couple of forays were made to the island to see if we could raise wahoo, but no biters.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

“NEEDLEFISH MADNESS”

I filmed this back in November, but only now had time to edit it together.  Any of you that have fished with us or in Baja know that needlefish are voracious pests.  They rip our lines and tear up our baits!  I’ve always wanted to see what it looked like when a school of them descend on a panga!  I thought you might like to see it as well.  Check out the size of this school!  This is what you can’t see underwater when you’re fishing!  These are 3′-4′ long needlefish.  Check out how they hit the sardines when the sardines get tossed in the water!

TAILHUNTER IS IN PORTLAND THIS WEEK!

We continue our swing through the great Pacific Northwest with one of our favorite stops!  Jill and I will  bring the Tailhunter Booth to the  Pacific NW Sportsmens Show at the Portland Expo Center (in Portland…of course!).  Show starts Wednesday and goes through Sunday.  Come by. Say hi.  Check out the new Tailhunter T-shirt designs and come talk to us about your 2013 La Paz Fishing trips!  For more info click this link:  http://www.thesportshows.com/pnwss/

Jilly is set up and ready to go.  See you in Portland, Oregon this week!

Jilly is set up and ready to go. See you in Portland, Oregon this week!

There will be hundreds of outdoor exhibitors from around the world for fishing, hunting, camping and other outdoor activities.  Tons of gear to try, check out and purchase.  Seminars. Boats, RV’s and outdoor vehicles plus great food.  A super event for the entire family!   See you here!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

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

.

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 wasn’t the best of weeks for fishing Strong winter winds whipped the area for several days giving even the palm trees along the La Paz Malecon on the waterfront little respite.

Wayne Jarrett dorado tags 1

We know the fish are out there! Check out this big bull taken by Wayne Jarrett out at the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island…just before the winds started. Big bulls like this aren’t very typical in the winter, but various reports from several areas confirm that the dorado are still hanging around! The problem is either getting to those spots or braving the waves and big winds to get the bait to fish for the quality fish like this!  (Thanks for the great shot, Hawk!)

ARt yellowtail tags

Horse yellowtail like this one caught by our amigo, Art “Doc” Flippin who comes all the way down from his job in the Arctic to fish with us, have been very close in the shallows just south of Bahia de Los Muertos. The promising bite was shut down by the winds and we plan to recon the spot again hopefully by mid-week when the winds should diminish.

whales dennis tags

It’s whale season as the grey whales have begun returning to Bahia Magdalena to the west of La Paz! It’s an incredible experience to get this close to the gentle animals and Tailhunters is running daily trips now through March to spend a day on the bay with the whales. Just e-mail us at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com.

Denver-20130120-00281-2.jpg.

Thanks to all of our amigos who came to visit us at the Denver Convention Center this past week. We has a blast seeing old friends and meeting new ones and talking about fishing in La Paz. Our “tour” now takes us to Puyallup, Washington at the Washington State Fairgrounds. Jill and I will be in our booth from Wednesday to Sunday. Come say hi and let’s chat about your 2013 La Paz fishing vacation!

WORST WEEK OF WIND KEEPS EVERYONE OFF THE WATER

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of January 12-20, 2012

Not much of a week of fishing.  In fact, how about zero fishing.  I think that’s the first time I’ve reported that…EVER in 17 years down here in La Paz!

Cold weather and incredibly strong winds kept everyone off the water or close to shore.  Certainly, not much fishing going on, but thankfully, we didn’t have anyone reserved for this week.    It wasn’t just choppy, it was rough out there as it seemed the winds blew continuously as a windy front pushed through and chilled everyone!  If you walked around town, everyone seemed to be bundled up although many tourists found 67 degree weather to be rather pleasant.  For locals, there was a rush to put on jackets and long pants!

Commercial guys say there’s still some dorado outside at the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island but no one really wants to go out there and get smacked around on a long run.  There’s also yellowtail stacking up at the north end of Cerralvo Island as well as around Bahia de Los Muertos. The week really started out promising, but then the winds came up and it wasn’t worth it to go out.   Everyone just wants the winds to stop!

Typically, we do indeed get winds during the winter, but rarely is it do we get continuous winds for several days.  Normally, we get it for a day or two intermittently.    We’ll keep an eye out on it.  According to the advisories, we’ll start to see some decrease in the velocity of the winds about mid-week.  Hopefully!

TAILHUNTER TOUR ROLLS INTO WASHINGTON

We had an outstanding show at the International Sportsmens Expo at the Denver Convention Center this past week.  But now, the “2013 Tailhunter Promo Tour” rolls on!  We drive back west a zillion miles and will be at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington (near Seattle) from Wednesday to Sunday!   For more details, click this link:  http://www.thesportshows.com/wss/   Hope to see you this week!  Come pick up our 24 page brochure and DVD and check out our new t-shirt styles.  Plus come talk to us about setting up your 2013 La Paz fishing vacation!

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:

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.”

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of January 12-20

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It’s the dead of winter and dorado are still biting! In between the winter winds, we still have quality fishing including bull dorado and other blue water species! Check this gorgeous bull in full color lit up just next to the panga.

Jason Jacobs wahoo 12-12 tags

Surprisingly some of the best wahoo fishing of the year the last few weeks! Take a look at this awesome wahoo that Jason Jacobs from Phoenix AZ pulled out during two days of fishing. Hefty ‘hoo!

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I have already had several folks ask me if we took a fiberglass fish mount off the wall for this photo because of the incredible colors! This is as good a shot as it gets and Adam Smith and Captain Jorge pose it well. That’s Bahia de los Muertos in the background. Check out the calm waters. They didn’t have to go too far off the beach for this nice mahi mahi.  Adam was visiting us from Arizona.

Jason Jacobs with Yellowtail tags 12-12 1

First real yellowtail of the season! Wow…big fork tail and hamachi for the grill. Jason’s got big smiles for this slug fish caught off Las Arenas. Hope this is an indication of a good yellowtail season if fish this big are already moving in!

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It’s not snowing and he’s got a t-shirt on! All the way from Alaska, Tim Bowman, was fishing just off Bahia de los Muertos in great conditions when he hooked this nice bull dorado on live bait.

Gail Pancho with Wahoo tags 12-12 2

Hard to believe we’re getting this kind of quality fish so late in the season, but even Gail Jacobs pulled a wahoo out with help from Captain Pancho just off Isla Cerralvo. She also got dorado and sierra!

SURPRISE FISHING WHEN WINDS AREN’T BLOWING!  (…but the wind blows a lot!)

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 23-30, 2012

We had a much better week of fishing this past week mainly because we had much better luck with the winds.  This is, of course, that time of year when winds can get howling and it’s almost pointless to be out there and get bounced around in a panga.

Lots of snow-birds in town who decide they want to do a day of fishing and we often have to steer them to different days or postpone their trips when the winds come up.  Sometimes, we just tell them, it’s better not to fish at all unfortunately.

What they don’t understand often is that even if the Bay of La Paz is calm, outside, it can often be treacherously rough and getting to the fishing grounds is almost futile.  Even other times when it’s a little calmer, you still have to go find bait or the bait man has to have bait available to sell.  If the waters are too rough, bait will be hard to obtain because the rough waters prevent anyone from getting to the areas where the sardines are holding.

Even other times when it seems relatively calm, there can be big swells that make it uncomfortable and dangerous.  In fact, this coming week doesn’t look very promising!  Pretty much if there’s storms in the western U.S. then Baja and the Sea of Cortez is very often affected by windy conditions.

So, this past week, we actually got a few days where the winds layed down  enough for us to fish!  Sure enough, the fish bit.

Sierra are almost a sure thing with some really quality grade sierra up to 4-6 pounds evident along the shorelines where the bottom starts to drop off.  Even on the windier days, the fact that the sierra are so close to shore is a bonus as we don’t have to go out so far.

Inshore also, we’re surprisingly still getting rooster fish up to about 10 pounds which can be fun.  We even had some flyfishers able to throw at roosters this past week.  Pargo and cabrilla are also in the mix.

But, without having to go too much further out, we also got into some nice grade dorado in the 10-20 pound class which normally aren’t around in December.  No one complained.  The fish were school-sized, but I have a feeling some of the larger bulls are still around as we got into some 40 pounders less than 2 weeks ago.

In addition to the surprising dorado, we’re still finding the occasional wahoo and billfish too, but I can tell waters are finally cooling off as some husky stray yellowtail up to 25 pounds have found their way into the fish counts as well.  Hopefully, finding yellowtail of this grade is a good sign for the coming season and these are the vanguard of large fish moving into our waters.

As for the wahoo…who knows?  There’s a smattering of wahoo in several areas and it’s like hitting a lottery ticket when we hook them. Or at least like finding a 20 dollar bill in your pants pocket you didn’t expect!    No one is expecting them, but boy, what nice fish!  Hopefully, they’ll stick around awhile longer.  There’s not much traffic out there now that it’s off-season and we’re finding the fish off Cerralvo Island as well as Punta Perico.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL

Mexico office: 755 Obregon, La Paz, BCS, Mexico
Phone: 612-12-53311U.S. Office: P.O. Box 1149, Alpine CA  91903-1149
Phone: 626-278-1585 or 626-333-3355

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From Jill and I to all of you, we wish you a safe, happy, and peaceful Christmas!  Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo from La Paz!

From Jill and I to all of you, we wish you a safe, happy, and peaceful Christmas! Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo from La Paz!

WINDY CONDITIONS HAMPER FISHING MOST OF WEEK BUT FISHING PICKS UP LATE WEEK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 17-23, 2012

A very windy week in La Paz making it a bit rough to fish.  (In fact, that is also why for the first time in about 16 years of doing these weekly fishing reports…I have no photos!)  But… in all honesty, perhaps this was our windiest week in a bit.  Fortunately, for us, not many anglers either as we had a bit of a lull before the holidays and I think everyone was gearing up for Christmas and the influx we’ll be getting this week. 

 Still, because of the winds, we had to shuffle folks around to get the least windy days.  For most of our visitors right now, it’s different than during the high-season when folks are here to fish literally every day of their vacation.  Right now, it’s mostly folks here for the holidays to escapting colder climes to get a little sunshine and they’ll squeeze in a day of fishing or fishing is a quick after-thoughts.  This means that if there’s a day when it’s too windy, we can shuffle them around a bit to a different day.

 But, even then, most of our fishing was confined closer to shore than normal.  Still, on the up-side, we normally don’t have to go that far anyway!  We did get some dorado pretty close in.  None of the larger bulls like we’ve been getting lately ,but any kind of dorado right now is a bonus and the ones we got were decent, good-eating 10-15 pound fish.  Sierra also made up a nice part of the catch with pangas averaging 4-6 fish up to about 4 pounds with our best hits not too far from the Las Arenas lighthouse.

 Roosterfish up to about 25 pounds were also around with our better spots right in Bahia de los Muertos (Bahia de los Suenos) and further south off Boca de Alamo.  Several larger fish perhaps in the 40-60 pound range broke off before they could get near the boat, but were seen and fought for a bit. 

Keep in mind this was pretty sporadic fishing compared to what we’ve been doing lately and most of the better fishing was at the end of the week.  In fact, we had a little strange jag of fish on the weekend with some yellowtail…yes yellowtail (cold water fish) caught the same day as dorado (warm water fish)! But here’s the kicker, the same panga got two wahoo!  Not big, but hey…18 pound ‘hoos?  In December?    Just another example of the wacky fishing this past week.  We’ll keep an eye out.

Winds are diminishing this week so we’re looking forward to some better fishing!

 

Have a safe, happy and peaceful Christmas to you and yours! God bless.

 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:  http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm 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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tags tim zimmer 12-12 dorado

This looks like a poster! The colors are incredible on this bull dorado that Tim Zimmer caught with Captain Jorge out of Bahia de Los Muertos with us. It was another week of surprising big dorado up to 40 pounds…the kind we normally get during warmer weather! We also had quite a variety of other fish as well.

cristina ainsworth sierra 12-12 tags

Big fat sierra! We’ve had some of the biggest sierra I’ve seen in a long time these past few weeks. Just check out this big sierra that Christine Ainsworth caught fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The fish are schooling in the shallows right now and can be great on light tackle!

verda tags pompano 12-12

Just to show off some of the variety these past few week, we’ve gotten pargo, cabrilla, rainbow runners, jack crevalle, roosterfish, sierra and great eating fish like Verda Boyd’s Africa pompano she’s got on the gaff here with Captain Jorge.

mike ainsworth tags rooster 12-12

Posed like a professional! That’s exactly what Mike Ainsworth does! He’s a fishing guide up in Washington and knew exactly how to hold this roosterfish he got on the flyrod just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos that can be seen just behind him in the background only yards from the beach. We’re still getting roosters in varying sizes like school-sized fish all the way up to 70 and 80 pounders!

There's a reason the local name for jack crevalle is "Toro" which means "Bull" in Spanish.  These jack crevalle are among the gamest fighters in our waters.  Tim shows off one jack he got while fishing 3 days with us.

There’s a reason the local name for jack crevalle is “Toro” which means “Bull” in Spanish. These jack crevalle are among the gamest fighters in our waters. Tim shows off one jack he got while fishing 3 days with us.

SAILFISH – BIG DORADO – ROOSTERFISH SURPRISE WINTER ANGLERS!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 11-16, 201

We had some late week rains which are very unusual for this time of year when winds are usually what we have to worry about, but we had a bit of both.  As the week went on, the winds got stronger then the winds died and then the wind died and we got some crazy rains!  Nothing really strong, but enough to fall fairly steadily and get everything wet on and off for about 2 days!

However, earlier in the week, we really had some excellent fishing.  Once again the dorado were truly a surprise.  Hard to believe it’s winter when 20-40 pound dorado are ripping up the anglers and putting some big smiles on faces.  But, that’s the kind of fishing we were getting.  Limits or near limits of dorado with the larger fish and bigger schools east of Cerralvo Island.  On top of it, even-to-some-degree when the weather was a bit sour, we had sailfish and smaller striped marlin in the count! 

Closer to shore, smaller schoolie-sized dorado, but add in some solid sierra fishing plus pargo, cabrilla, a smattering of jack crevalle and pompano and bonito and it makes for some great unexpected action! Even bigger surprise, we got hammered by some really unexpected catches of roosterfish…and not just the smaller school-size fish either.  We got some 60-80 pound bruisers just off Punta Perico and the lighthouse as well as some of the roosters on the flyrod.

Hope your holidays are going well!

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:  http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm 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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Great photo! Dan Neale of La Verne CA holds up a beautiful late-season bull dorado caught just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos on a live sardine. Dan was on his first trip with Tailhunters in La Paz. The dorado are still biting!

With Captain Pancho all wrapped up (he has an allergy to dust!) he helps out my high school classmate Gary Howarth who poses with another dorado he caught south of La Paz. Don’t know how much longer the dorado will be around, but they’re a welcome catch right now with the seasons changing!

There are days when you can catch these all day or a quick limit within a short time! Sierra schools have moved into the shallow drop-off areas and live bait on a thin wire or else trolling small rapalas or yo-zuris or anything shiny will get a viscious strike! Great eating fish and a favorite for ceviche!

It’s that time of the year and one of the great draws in La Paz right now have been the whale sharks swimming in the bay in shallow water. Snorkeling with these 15-30 foot gentle giants is an incredible afternoon adventure and only several hundred yards from the city waterfront.

WARM WATER SPECIES STILL LINGER FOR ANGLERS WITH COOLER SPECIES MIXING IN

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 18-25, 2012

We hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving weekend!  We’re grateful to all our Tailhunter friends and tribal members who read our fishing report each week!

Let’s get to it…

We’re still doing some pretty good fishing for so late in the season and the mix of fish is really surprising.  With northern winds getting stronger and air temperatures getting cooler, I’m really happy to see such a great variety of species that we’re catching…most importantly the “glamour” warm water species that so many anglers come to catch!

Almost all of our fishing now is out’ve Las Arenas where even if the winds are closer, we’re more protected for launching our fleet as well as just more comfortable fishing!  When fish are as close as just a few yards from shore, there’s no reason to run way outside and get bounced around and get your kidneys shaken loose outside the wind line!

But that’s what makes it fun right now.  In addition to a decent dorado bite of 10-25 pound mahi both inshore and hear the closer buoys, the southern side of the island is still getting some late season wahoo bite with fish up toe 45 pounds.  Rapalas doing most of the damage, but several were hooked on bait while guys were fishing for other species.  The biggest hinderance is the wind which can really whip it up getting over to that side of the island from Muertos Bay ahd headed north.

But not far from shore from the Arenas lighthouse down to about Pescadero, we’re encountering dorado, roosterfish, nice batches of sierra, pargo, cabrilla, rainbow runners, pompano, bonito and jack crevalle.  All of this can make for a lot of action in a fishing day!

Live bait is not a problem most day with live sardines available for purchase although they do tend to be on the smaller side so smaller live bait hooks are suggested.  Due to the time change, I know it sounds early, but we’re leaving the hotels at 4:45 a.m. to get out at first light.  Hopefully, the bite will continue a few more weeks!

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:
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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As pretty a picture as you can have. This fresh bull dorado shows great colors after being caught by Mark Tefelski from Los Olivos CA near Santa Barbara. A good little run of dorado was a surprising highlight of the catch this week. Mark got this one just outside Bahia de Los Muertos.

It was another good week for late-season roosterfish like this one caught by Randy Bartholomay who visited us from Gaviotas CA. The roosterfish have been schooling near Cerralvo Island and then in the area between the Arenas lighthouse and Boca de Alamo. This guy was released.

There’s still some dorado north of La Paz although it’s getting windier and choppier as north winds increase and the season changes. But, Randy Choate and Captain Rogelio pose with a nice dorado they caught near Espirito Santo Island. Randy is from Idaho.

Our flyfishers have been having a surprisingly good time as long as the winds stay down. Tom Ames and Captain Adolfo with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet hold up another roosterfish that fell to a sardine pattern and was later released. That’s the beach at Muertos Bay in the background.

Another pretty fish held up by Larry Hildebrand from Chico CA who was on his first trip with us and picked up this and several other nice fish near Las Arenas.

It’s her first! Claire Ames from Idaho got into the nice roosterfish bite with this school-sized fighter she released after catching it in Bahia de Los Muertos.

We spent the week in Cabo San Lucas working for the 14th Annual Western Outdoor News Tuna Jackpot Tournament. It was a huge success with over $564 thousand dollars in prize money and with 121 teams making it the largest tournament in Baja this year. This was the largest fish of the tournament a 372 pound giant!

Last laugh! Don’t giggle at this tiny 30.4 pound wahoo. It is the most expensive wahoo you will ever see! It was worth almost $80 thousand dollars in prize money at the 14th Annual Western Outdoor News Tuna Jackpot Tournament when no other wahoo or dorado larger than this were brought to the scales! So…this guy was the winner…all the way to the bank!

LATE SEASON DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH KEEP RODS BENT!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 4-11, 2012

Surprisingly, given the cooler temperatures and breezier conditions, we had a nice run of top water fish including dorado.  Just when I thought the season had ended for dorado, our pangas got some nice numbers and good quality fish between 10 and 30 pounds each day.  Most of our fishing, however, is now with our Las Arenas fleet shoving off from Bahia de Los Muertos because the north winds are making it a bit too rough to fish out’ve La Paz.  No sense in getting beat up when you get can the same fish in calmer waters fishing from the Las Arenas area.

The dorado have been coming from a variety of areas.  As close as Punta Perico just a few minutes from the beach and around the lighthouse where the deeper water starts have been good areas, but to the south near Boca de Alamo and south end of Cerralvo Island have also produced schooling mahi.

In addition to the dorado, we’re getting inshore species like pargo, cabrilla and sierra and surprisingly the roosterfish are still hanging out as well near the lighthouse, in Bahia de Los Muertos and also near the island.  Sierra have been increasing in numbers as the waters cool as well.   We had a few knockdowns and hookups on sailfish this week also with all fish released.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

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:
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 good week for dorado fishing and this nice bull with the great colors was put in the boat by Nash Johnson from Washington with Captain Adolfo. Dorado were hot for both of our Tailhunter fleets this week.

Our La Paz fleet and our Las Arenas fleet were into dorado all week, with excellent weather most of the time. Our amiga, Donna Drucker, who visits us every year was with husband, John, and Captain Joel when she took this nice bull north of the city.

He’s usually running road construction operations in Boise, ID, but Steve Walker got down to see us on his first La Paz trip and had a tussle with this feisty jack crevalle (“toro”).

Long time Tailhunter amigos, Byron Shovlain and George Bonner, spent 3 days fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and Capt. Archangel and filled the box with some nice dorado like these!

Alaska amigo, Rod Brown, extended 3 extra days and it paid off in extra days of fishing and this fat wahoo he got on a purple Yo-Zuri.

Two of the nicest folks…Stephanie and Kelly Mizuno…always spend time with us each year from Sacramento CA. They also got into some great dorado fishing with both of our fleets. “She outfished me 5 – to -1, ” said Kelly!

From S. Dakota, Deneen and Mark Clausen, were on their first trip and grand-slammed some great variety one day with dorado, roosterfish, cabrilla, pargo,  giant squid and bonito. Captain Jorge helps with the photo.

Captain Jorge again…poses with a nice roosterfish off Bahia de Los Muertos. The fish was released. This is typical of the rooster sizes we were hitting this week.

Steve Snead from Boise, ID, started slow but finished in full turbo mode with the dorado fishing after spending the whole week with us. Great shot of a bull dorado taken north of La Paz.

Seems like we get more and more great folks from the state of Idaho! Paul Wakagawa and Mark Echeverria (sorry  ’bout that, Mark!)  were a hoot on their first visit and show off a pair of their dorado on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos.

Nate and dad, Erick Johnson, show off a great day fishing. Check out the dorado, but also the cool “mini-wahoo!”

Utah in the house! From Salt Lake City, Lee and Jeanette Gillman pose with one of their roosterfish caught off Punta Perico. They released the fish.

Captain Rogelio tries to photo bomb Bobby Sherling holding her dorado she caught with our La Paz fleet north of town and shown here on the beach at Balandra.

Although it’s not going to hit us directly, we’re keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Paul which is going to still bring some thunder showers and strong winds Monday/ Tuesday/ Wednesday. Just when I thought all the rain was done for the year…

DORADO CRASH THE BITE AS FISH PILE UP IN THE BOXES!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 7-14, 2012

With almost perfect weather and a perfect moon, the week still started so-so, but gradually got better and better as the week went along with both our Las Arenas and our La Paz fleets pretty much firing on all cylinders and the dorado bending rods on both sides.

Not much to say!  The photos tell it all.  It was a pretty solid good week for fishing!

Our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet really hit it’s stride with some of the most consistent fishing we’ve had all season there after the first few months of the season were really slow.  Sure, there were the occasional times when this panga or that panga had some off-fishing but for the most part, it was all-around great fishing for a variety of species all well that just got better as the week went on.

Sorry, no tuna, but the dorado sure came to play with consistent 10-25 pound fish and on a few days, there were easy and early limits with dorado pandemonium hitting the fleet with double and triple hook ups ripping the anglers.  But, on top of the dorado, by the end of the week we were also getting bent by giant squid, jack crevalle, roosterfish, some wahoo, a few marlin and sailfish, pargo, cabrilla, sierra and lots of bonito.  This made for a lot of tired arms and backs by the end of the day and mostly some big grins and smiles!

For our La Paz fleet, not as many dorado as Las Arenas, but what it lacked in quantity made up for in quality.  The La Paz dorado were generally larger with some fish in the 30 pound class hitting the fish boxes.

You can tell it’s getting cooler and the seasons are starting to change a bit.  Breezes are starting to blow and the shadows are longer. Waters are getting cooler as well.  A bit early this year.  It will be interesting to see what happens to the fishing in the next few weeks.  This week is supposed to be pretty windy with a good chance of rain showers here and there.  As I write this Sunday night, we’re watching Tropical Storm Paul that’s going to give us a little brush so we’ll have to see how that plays out. Click the link for more info:

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=zmw:00000.1.76405

Hopefully, it’ll just be a nuisance.  What a crazy year it has been.

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:
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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First-time visitors from Washington and new amigos, Barbette Davidson and Robert Brooks got into a sweet dorado bite out’ve Bahia de Los Muertos early in the week with some good quality fish. The bite at Las Arenas has definitely improved since earlier in the season.

Oh the agony! Ed does his best to hold up one of his dorado  caught on his panga while  our popular driver, Carlos looks on. Nice rack of fish to take home standing there at the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos!

This was just crazy! Normally, flat and blue and pretty-as-a-postcard, two of our captains struggle to get the panga back on the trailer and out of the water. Note the chop and muddy waters from rains! Southern winds whipped the normallly calm seas into a froth on one of the few days of the season when it was just crazy to try to get fish. The sun was out but the seas were not being kind. This was the remnant of Tropical Storm Kristy that was blowing several hundred miles away.

La Paz has gotten more rain in the past 3 weeks than the last 3 years! Almost every afternoon, for about 10-30 minutes we get localized rain or thundershowers. Sometimes just breezers and sometimes gully-washers! This is the view outstide Tailhunter Restaurant. Ten minutes later the sun was out blazing again!

For those of you who have fished with us over all the years, you know how dry our desert looks and what the drive to Las Arenas looks like! Well, after 3 weeks of rain…TAKE A LOOK! Grass is growing. Flowers are blooming. Butterflies are all overthe place. The WILD  SKINNY COWS ARE GETTING FAT! Everything is green! The mountains are sprouting jungles!  It’s like the earth has turned into a giant Chia Pet!

Our amigo, Al Yu, wasn’t trying to catch a billfish. He had a sardine out on light tackle trying to catch a dorado when this sailfish bit on 30 pound test! Fight on! They were going to release the fish, but it had swallowed the hook. Still a nice catch, Al! We did get quite a few hook ups on sails this week, all were either released or got off!

Jeanine Stenzel and her husband Roy are technically our La Paz neighbors since they completed their house in La Paz and they come to visit us every few weeks always trying to get in a day of fishing! Our amiga poses with one of several she hooked fishing with our Las Arenas fleet from Bahia de Los Muertos.

Had to post up this one of our daughter, Jessie, with another dorado and the big smile. Check out the skies. Pretty much how it looks every afternoon just before the rains come. Fortunately, most of the times everyone is already in and able to enjoy the cool downpour over a cold cerveza. Jess was fishing near Espirito Santo Island when she hooked this one!

Fred Li had a few banner days of fishing with us and really got into the dorado like this one taken north of La Paz!

WORKING A LITTLE HARDER FOR OUR FISH THIS PAST WEEK BUT DORADO AND SOME TUNA KEEP IT BENT!

La Paz-Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 9-16, 2012

It was hard to get too excited this week.  We have so many great weeks of fishing I’d have to say this week was OK.  There was some good fishing.  There was some great fishing.  And then, there were some bad days of fishing.   That about sums it up.

No way to put a finger on it.  We continued to have tropical conditions with variable weather that dropped mega sunshine on us one minute with tons of humidity followed by growing clouds in the afternoon and often heavy localized thundershowers.  (By “localized” I mean it would rain like the 2nd coming of Noah in one spots but ¼ mile away, it would be dry as toast!).  The weather might be a part of it.  We have not had a hurricane but instead have had about 3 weeks of mini-showers.  Very welcome to the area since we’ve not had pretty much any rain for about 3 years.  However, in the last 3 weeks, we’ve had more cumulative rain than in the past 3 years combined.  By most opinions, we’ll take little afternoon thundershowers over a hurricane any day!

But, it also meant variable fishing.  I mean, everyone got fish.  If you fished more than 1 days, you were gonna get fish.  Most of it was going to be dorado.  But one day, you could be absolute aces and the hero on the beach and the next day, with no changes at all, you might end up with barely one fish!   5 pangas would fish an area and 3 would get limited early and be back on the beach.  One would get 3 fish.  The last panga fishing exactly in the same spot would get one little dorado!  The next day it might be all reversed.

The highlight of the week was the tuna that blew up at Las Arenas.  In fact, it was an epic bite off Cerralvo Island that some guys described “the bite of a lifetime!”  “All we could want.”  “Just stupid good fishing!”  About mid-week the football tuna…8-12 pounders…just came boiling and biting about anything that got thrown in the water!  Just wild.  We all thought that it was finally the beginning of “tuna season.”

Well…

Not so fast.  Just like in the past when the tuna sort of peeked out…the tuna disappeared the next day in rough choppy waters spurred by high winds that made it literally crazy to even try to get to the tuna grounds.  (See the photo above of what Muertos Bay looked like!)  And that was that.  As the week went on, a few tuna popped up, but nothing to get too excited about.

So, that’s the bite.  Dorado.  Some tuna.  A few sailfish.  Oh…and a wahoo.  Dorado are still the big biters so I figure we’ll let these waters calm down from the tropical storms and they’ll come foaming back.

I did want to share one story from Barbette Davidson who fished with us this week with Rob Brooks (See the top photo with all the dorado).  She tells us that on the plane ride back to Washington Rob fell asleep.

“Robert fell asleep on the plane and was slouching forward a little bit and all of a sudden he pulled back hard against the seat with his head and lifted his arms.  This woke him up and I asked him what he was doing and he said he thought he had a “fish on”.  LOL he was dreaming of catching fish!”

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:
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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