Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘marlin’

Huge dorado almost looks pre-historic! Scott McKenzie was on his 2nd trip with us this year and was rewarded by this monster bull dorado he caught fishing with Captain Pancho and our Tailhunter Las Arena fleet. For Scott, it was his largest dorado and he had just been here 3 weeks ago with his sisters, but came back on this trip with his buddies. The dorado fishing prior to the storms was pretty steady!

What a week! This is a photo of the malecon…the waterfront road at the heart of La Paz under several feet of water after a week of suffering a partial hurricane then a tropical storm!

Huge sinkholes and potholes often were not evident under the rushing waters until someone tried to drive through them. Several times drivers and passengers had to be rescued and fortunately, no one was killed. During the final storm of Tropical Storm Norman, more than 12 inches of rain fell in 16 hours.

There’s a 4 lane highway under here someplace! One sign pointing south to Cabo about 100 miles away just on the edge of La Paz that got almost a week of heavy rains.

Good amigo, Tom Hinmon, from the Los Angeles area, shows off one of the larger bull dorado of the week he caught with our Las Arenas fleet. Unfortunately, Tom and his amigos had to cancel their 3rd day of fishing when rain washed out roads to Las Arenas.

and the next day the storm hit forcing cancelation of their 2nd day of fishing.

Derrick Tagawa and Mark Kojima teamed up for a nice day of dorado and a striped marlin fishing near Cerralvo Island. It was unfortunate that our two amigos only had two days of fishing

Chris Lynch and Pat Stoll started 3 days of fishing on a high note with a good day of dorado fishing with our Las Arenas fleet. Things went downhill from there as the rains started up that night. But the guys, to their credit, kept up the smiles and good spirits as did many of our disappointed anglers.

On his 2nd trip with us this year, Frank Vargas, came down from Seattle to enjoy some sunshine and fishing and on his 1st of 3 days of fishing started off with some great dorado fishing including this nice bull dorado.

Two of our best fish brothers from the Pacific Northwest, Rod maker Bob Solee for B & B rods in Portland and Grant Darby from Washington have fished with us so many times over all the years and never stop smiling. They started 3 days fishing with some nice dorado and Grant’s nice fat barred pargo!

Not bad for a first timer…Misty Rogers gets a hand from husband, Justin, and Captain Archangel on her big sailfish. The couple is from Idaho and were on their first visit to La Paz. Note the dark skies of the impending storms that hit soon after.

From the Sacramento CA area, Ron and Yvette Straub, had one of their better fishing trips with us showing off their first day on the water of 3. Nice bite of dorado on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

Nick Keshish, Tom Moon, Robert and Bob Connell pose at Muertos Bay with some of their first day dorado.

Our amigo, Wade Gomes, from Sacramento has been with us many times and had many good trips, but really got snakebit the first 2 days with us. However, they kept at it and worked hard and hung in there and on day 3, finally found a willing school of nice dorado they they nailed while fishing with brother Greg Gomes. They were fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island

Steve and Kevin Resky started off well with a nice day of dorado and a lost pargo, but then rains hit and lost 2 days of fishing when the storm hit. These fish were caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

There’s still roosterfish around and we got a few this week for folks who wanted to get one off their bucket list. Justin Rogers from Idaho shows off his rooster before releasing it.

Wayne Wellsandt and Curt Desjardins fishing with our Las Arenas fleet and their family pulled in some nice dorado when the fish went off early in the week.

CRAZY WEEK  WITH A HURRICANE AN EARTHQUAKE THEN ANOTHER STORM WITH DORADO BITING EARLY

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

It was one of the strangest weeks ever in years.  It was certainly one for the record books.  In a week, we got sideswiped by Hurricane Miriam.   We got hit by a 6.2 earthquake.  And we got a Tropical Storm Norman that dropped 12 inches of rain on us in less than 24 hours!  It was a crazy week. 

 

We technically didn’t take the hurricane on the nose, but it brushed us and dropped several heavy afternoons of rain with thunder and lightning.  (We were still able to fish each day as the storms did not hit until late in the afternoon!).  However, it was during one of these big thundershowers on Tuesday that one giant “thunderclap” didn’t stop.  Thinks kept rumbling and then things started falling off the wall.  The floor started jumping and walls bending and we realized EARTHQUAKE!  Our staff went flying out the door into the rain as our Tailhunter offices and restaurant are in a 3 story concrete building that’s 100 years old!  Not the funnest place to be when things are shaking! 

 

Anyway, no real damage.  No one hurt.  More laughs when it was over than anything else but quakes are so unusual here, let alone one during a rainstorm that we were all scratching our heads as we stood in the rain! 

 

Then, late in the week as Hurricane Miriam was just leaving us, Tropical Storm Norman crashed into us dropping as much as 12 inches of rain in about 18 hours and truly flooding the city.  Cars were stranded in the deep waters.  People were stranded from getting to their homes and jobs as streets flooded.  It was like a hurricane without the 50 mph winds! 

 

For the first time in 3 years, we had to cancel pangas to the disappointment of many of us, but the roads to Las Arenas become too flooded and muddy with water-filled arroyos to go out and for our La Paz fleet, the port captain closed down the port re-calling all boats or preventing watercraft from leaving.  Real disappointing 2 days. 

 

We’ve gotten more rain in 3 weeks than we’ve had in 3 years.  In fact, we’ve pretty much had zero rain here in La Paz in 3 years and were in a drought situation.  This is also the first time in 3 years we’ve canceled pangas due to the weather.  What a week!

 

More specifically for the fishing…

 

Early in the week with hurricane Miriam dropping afternoon rains on us, we were still able to fish and were doing quite well for the most part.  Not great fishing ,but we were still catching.  Dorado were the main hitters and our Las Arenas fleet was more on target than our La Paz fleet.  Again, just like the week before, there were some low spots where some boats found the fish and others virtually right next to them struggled.  But dorado in the 15-20 pound class were the norm with some larger fish up to 45 pounds.

 

As mentioned, I think this past week, our Las Arenas fleet had the edge with not only better dorado action, but also more variety.  In terms of species, we had dorado, sailfish, striped marlin, pargo, blue bonito, pacific bonito, jack crevalle, and a few stray yellowfin tuna and a wahoo.  But, what was really exciting was that for the first time in 2 years the giant squid came up.  These were the nice 30 pounders and they came up out’ve the trench in front of the old Hotel Las Arenas.  I was especially excited because usually within a few days of squid coming up from the deep, the yellowfin tuna also come up.  But then the storm hit and we had 2 days of canceled trips.  Hopefully by the time you’re reading this we’ll have some tuna in the counts.

 

La Paz fishing continued to produce dorado as well, but not as well as we’ve been doing the past few months.  Colder greener water was the problem and it appears that waters might indeed be getting colder sooner than expected.  We started catching sierra mixed with the dorado which usually don’t show up until it gets cooler in late November.  Sierra are always an indicator of the colder water.

 

Hopefully, now that the storms have passed and not a cloud in the forecast, there will be lots of debris in the water which becomes perfect habitat for dorado.  Maybe we can make up this week for having to cancel a few days of fishing this past week!

 

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 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.”

Read Full Post »

One of the better tuna of the week hoisted by Eddie Carvajal from Baldwin Park CA. First bite of the day. There weren’t many tuna, this week, but the was a nice slug yellowfin. Eddie also did great on dorado after 3 days of fishing with us for his first time.

Former firefighter Mac Treasure retired to Nevada to be a farmer, but brings his great group to see us every year to fish for a few days. On their first day of fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, Mac stuck the biggest fish of the day with this big hefty bull dorado. Las Arenas had the better fishing this week.

Nice sailfish for Wayne Jarrett from S. Dakota catch-and-release after the photo. Sailfish have been fairly active the last few weeks with most getting released. Capt. Fabio holds the fish.  (Thanks for the shot, Hawk!)

Jon Luker had a banner week of fishing with us. Our long-time amigo, fished 3 days and had big dorado as well as yellowfin tuan. He got this big female north of La Paz.

I’ve known Mike Harkins since he was a little kid coming down to fish with us in La Paz. He was always a talented fisherman and is now a sportboat captain on the “Western Pride” out of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing in Newport Beach. He holds a couple of yellowfin tuna taken off Cerralvo Island on the one day when the fish blew up…then disappeared the next day!

Musician Larry Cornwall has a house down here near La Paz but lives in near Los Angeles. Larry shows off a big time trophy bull dorado he caught just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos!

John Nagy and Rick Hosmer make several trips a year normally to La Paz from S. California. They took this photo with a pair of big dorado taken off the south end of Cerralvo Island near Las Arenas which had the much better fishing this week.

For a first timer fishing, Mayra Carvajal, had a stellar week of fishing with some big-time dorado fishing like this nice bull. She enjoyed bringing it back to our Tailhunter Restaurant to have us make them into tacos for dinner! The beach at Muertos Bay is behind her.

His personal best dorado for Tim Larsen from Dana Point, CA with some great colors fresh out of the water. Tim caught this near Espirito Santo Island. Buddy Dave Marino from Little Rock CA looks on.

Best hat-of-the-week award to Scott Luker with Captain Rogelio trying to photo-bomb from behind! Great shot of Scott and this quality bull dorado caught north of La Paz.

Barbette Davidson poses with her nice dorado she caught fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Barbette was a first-timer with us from Washington and had some great fishing with both of our fleets.

Rob Brooks checks out his catch a hot bull dorado he got just south of Muertos Bay fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. He got limits of dorado that day!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Pastor Mike Ray from California does battle with a nice trophy roosterfish in Bahia de Los Muertos.  Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNUInBioBPs&list=UUSN0xdz-El64xBXmMhl_yvg&index=1&feature=plcp

DORADO SOME TUNA GREAT WEATHER MAKE FOR STEADY FALL FISHING…SOME DAYS!

La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 16-23, 2012

Overall, a better week for fishing  and weather since the previous week.  At least on some levels.  Not only did we have literally picture-perfect sunny weather (with no afternoon thunderstorms after 3 weeks of storms!)  but dorado continued to be the solid biters, but the big change seems to be that Las Arenas is finally catching up and is turning out the better fishing.

In fact, not only did Las Arenas have the better fishing, it also had the larger fish as well. Plus there were scattered bites of yellowfin tuna as well. This is exciting given that the usually stellar fishing with our Las Arenas fleet has been scratchy all season.  It’s about time we see it catch fire a bit!

I don’t went to get too excited then have it all fall flat as it has several times this year, but the overall trend for about a week-and-a-half seems to be that the Las Arenas fishing is finally getting some legs.  La Paz fishing was a bit tougher.  In fact, perhaps some of the slowest fishing we’ve seen all season as colder and greener water pushed the La Paz bite down and our anglers had to scratch for fishing north of the city.

As mentioned, dorado were biting on both the La Paz and the Las Arenas side.  Fish were normally about 10-15 pounds for the schoolie-fish, but 20-25 pounders were not uncommon, especially around Las Arenas, Bahia de Los Muertos and Cerralvo Island.  Still, both sides produced some 30 -40 pound class fish and larger fish were also lost.  But there were some boats and some anglers that worked hard and even then…sometimes their efforts and the efforts of the captains just didn’t produce!  Alot of the success this week was just a matter of luck or being right on the right school at the right time with the right bait when they dorado wanted to bite.

And then there was the tuna…

Yes, we did get some tuna as well.  Little splashes here and there of yellowfin tuna between 10 and 40 pound kept popping up around Cerralvo Island, but nothing spectacular.  Still, it’s always encouraging and we remain hopeful that the tuna will show up solidly at any time.  But, it’s only a guess.  I’m a bit worried about the water temperatures which are already starting to drop a bit closer to shore.  The way I know that is we also hooked some sierra this week which we normally don’t see until the waters get chillier in November or December.  It’s only September!

For billfish, not so great.  They just had the big La Paz Gold Cup tournament this past week and not many qualifying fish were taken.  We did get some sailfish hookups this week and some smaller striped marlin, but all either broke off or were released.

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.”

Read Full Post »

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.”

Read Full Post »

Our Amigo, Paul Nagata, from San Francisco always comes down this time of year. He toughed out a rough week. Not only did he have to fish in rough weather but the airlines also lost his fishing reels (he got them back!) but he kept a smile and got good dorado fishing all week like this solid bull north of La Paz. Note the grey skies and rougher waters behind him. That’s Tropical Storm Hector that blew through and left us with a bit of rain.

Such a beautiful fish…a big bull dorado still “lit up” straight out’ve the water posed by our Captain Joel who had been fishing with Paul Nagata that day with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.

Thankfully, we did not get flooded like other Baja cities, but we did get some very gentle rain and wind which were a nice break from the heat for a few days. It didn’t make for the best fishing conditions, although we still got some nice dorado. But this was thet wet view of the malecon in front of our Tailhunter Restaurant in the afternoon.

TV actor and TV show host, Rick Kasper fishes with us just about every-other-week during the season and never fails to do well. Check out this trophy bull dorado he caught while the sun was still shining earlier in the week fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

Old-time friends of Tailhunter, Jim Booth and Bill Sharp, wrestle with a fresh big bull dorado they just put in the boat near Cerralvo Island.

Professional chef, Vartan Bagdasaryan, put the wood to this nice roosterfish off Bahia de Los Muertos. He had a good week with roosters and dorado. This fish was released.

Daniel Compton from Arizona with Bill and grandfather, Dan Compton from Kansas wanted to get at least 1 dorado during the week. They ended up with 3 solid days of dorado fishing with both our Tailhunter La Paz and Las Arenas fleets. They are posed her at Bahia de Los Muertos near Las Arenas.

Big smiles for Greg Drezil just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos where the roosterfish continue to provide some great action on trophy fish. Greg released this one after the photo. Greg also got into some nice dorado fishing during the week as well.

I’m not sure what kind of setting he had on his camera when he took this photo, but it’s kinda cool! Burke Roble fished 4 days with us and did some damage to the dorado schools including this healthy slugger bull dorado! Check out Burke’s video clip below.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Burke Roble of Riverside had a nice bit of fishing this past week.  In addition to the nice dorado above, he got several others including the one shown in the video clip below taken near Cerralvo Island near Las Arenas.  I have it in 3 different formats for you since some players play one format, but not the other.  Click the link or any of the TV icons!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr3YB-Pz5dI&feature=plcp

TROPICAL STORM HECTOR CLOUDS SKIES BUT DORADO STILL BITE

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 12-19, 2012

We have certainly had better weeks of weather down here.  As a tropical storm pushed up the west side of the Baja Peninsula several hundred miles out it dropped some considerable rain on southern Baja.  Cabo and Todos Santos and some of those areas were flooded.  In La Paz, we got some nice gentle drizzles although some areas did get some sporadic short thundershowers that came and went.  We were still spared the brunt of what hit areas to the south of us.

Still, it made for a lot of cloudy, windy and blustery days on the water. We were pretty much not able to fish Las Arenas at all from about Tuesday on.  Too bad because the dorado and tuna bite had just kicked in.  But with the storms, it was just too windy to get off the beach or even get to Cerralvo Island for bait.  As the week went on, the road and arroyos became too slogged to get through also.

So, we had all our anglers fishing with our La Paz fleet.  They didn’t do too badly.  Most days there were limits or near limits of dorado.  Most fish were about 10-20 pounds.  Nice grade fighters ,but we also had some 30’s taken and several stories of “pilot error” on behalf of cursing fishermen who battled larger dorado only to lose the battles to fish that were easily over 40 pounds…and some larger to hear them tell!

As well, we still hooked some marlin and sailfish, but not many roosters once the storm front moved through.  By the time you’re reading this, the sunshine has returned according to the predictions, along with some great sunshine and blue skies.   However, as with any storm’s aftermath,  I’m a bit worried about high winds that follow that are tougher and have a greater effect on fish and fishermen than the rain.  As I’m writing this report, and looking out the window at the water…so far…so good!  Just a little bit of a breeze!  Fingers crossed for a good week of fishing.  You have a good week too!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

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.”

Read Full Post »

Not bad for a quick morning of fishing! TV Show host and actor, Rick Kasper from California and his amigo, Scott Behnken, all the way from Ohio on his first-ever Baja fishing trip knocked out the yellowfin tuna off Las Arenas. Hopefully, the tuna season is going to kick into gear full turbo soon! It’s that time of the year. To see more of Rick and Scott, check out this week’s video clip below!

The tuna were elusive this week, but the one day that Joe Fuschetti fished Las Arenas he found the tuna more than willing to go in a hot spot between the east side of Cerralvo Island and the 88 spot hammering nice-grade tuna like this one and back on the beach before noon. The next day, the same spot produced only a few small tuna and lots of bonito.   Joe is a high school coach in Orange Co. , California and has fished with us many times over the years.  He told me, “This was the best tuna fishing ever and my personal best tuna!”

Everytime they visit us, Jana and Lauren often outfish the guys. They come  once-a-year with brother Scott McKenzie who fishes with us several times a year from Washington. The ladies  fish every single day non-stop hardcore  and next year want a full-week of fishing!  Here,  they pose with some of the dorado they caught fishing north of La Paz.

What a great shot of a leaping striped marlin! Dan Puetz had just had full shoulder re-constructive surgery and was still nursing it but ended up with two days of pulling on fish like this one. Sore, but happy! Another shot of Dan below with one of his dorado.

Dan was supposed to fish 3 days with us, but after two solid days of pulling on dorado and marlin, he laughingly decided to put up his feet and take it easy! Here’s one of the dorado he put in the boat posed at Balandra Bay.

They have been so few and far between this year, but Joe Arata of Pacifica CA got one of the much-sought-after wahoo near Cerralvo Island this past week. All year, I think we’ve only boated about 10 wahoo. Where are they? Our divers are seeing them way way down below the thermocline. Perhaps like last year, they’re just not coming up to the surface to feed. Fingers crossed. The fall is usually prime time for the skinnies!

Our BFF from La Ventana, James “Hawk” Davis gets in the report this week showing off a slug roosterfish he slammed and then released. The big pez gallos are still out there although now that there’s sardines around, more folks are out chasing dorado and tuna. This is the type of roosterfish that made the Las Arenas/ Cerralvo Area famous!

Limits of tuna for Mike Akiyoshi and his son, Kevin, from Redondo Beach. They pose with a pair of fish but filled their box with dorado their last day fishing out’ve La Paz. Congratulations especially to Kevin…he went home and proposed to his girlfriend!

Virgil Bascos was with us for his first trip to La Paz. He was looking for tuna and didn’t do so well, the the billfish and dorado were very cooperative as she shows off one of his dorado caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

No matter the age, it’s always great to have father-son trips! Two of the funniest guys we’ve had were Paul Zech and son, Mike, who fished 3 days with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and stocked up on nice dorado like this one.

This lady not only like to fish…she CAN fish! Pam Sharp spent a week in our waters and blew up all kinds of fish like this trophy roosterfish off Cerralvo Island. Fish was released.

Roger Thompson has been in our fishing report so often, he’s a virtual poster-child. He makes the report again with another big rooster caught and released plus his classic fishing pose! Thanks, Roger!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

TV Actor and host of the outdoor hunting show, “Living on the Wild Side” , Rick Kasper fished with his amigo, Scott Behnken, a few times this week and did a great little video clip for us.  Check it out above, or see it on YOUTUBE by clicking this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeeSJ474u3w&list=UUSN0xdz-El64xBXmMhl_yvg&index=1&feature=plcp

UNEVEN FISHING BUT RODS STILL BEND ON DORADO WITH TUNA STILL TEASING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 5-12, 2012

Every day fishing this past week was at best…a surprise!  I don’t want to go so far as to say it was anemic, but maybe “inconsistent” was a better word.  I guess if you wanted to fill the ice chest, dorado continued to be solid for our anglers that fished with our La Paz fleet.

But, even for our La Paz anglers, it could be frustratingly good and bad.  One day you could hammer limits and crazy good fishing and fill the fish box with dorado between 10 and 50 pounds.  The next day..same spot…same captain….same good bait…seemingly similar conditions would produce 2 fish!  With no rhyme or reason!  Fortunately, most folks fished a number of day so the good days more than made up for the off-days!  Besides the dorado there were still the occasional marlin, sailfish, roosterfish, pargo or cabrilla to round things out.

For our Las Arenas anglers, it was perhaps even more frustrating.  Lots of finger-pointing at the yellow-“fun” tuna!  They were the source of more teeth gnashing than any other fish this week.

Several days they came up live mad dogs!  Boats plugged with fish and back on the beach before noon with no more energy or space for any more tuna.  Fish from 10-50 pounds were boiling around boats in several spots near the south and east sides of Cerralvo Island.  Everyone would go crazy.  The next day…NOTHING!  Maybe a bunch of bonito but the tuna were nowhere to be found!

On the plus-side…there were some nicer dorado if you chose not to chase the tuna and there were also our usual slugger-sized roosterfish up to 65 pounds this week.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

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.”

Read Full Post »

It was another good week to get a trophy-sized dorado, especially if you fished with our La Paz fleet. Solid good dorado fishing pretty much all of this past week, like this bull taken by Brent Fischer and posing at Balandra Beach.

Roger Thompson seems to be king of the big fish. This is not only a gorgeous giant bull dorado, but also just a great photo. The fish was taken in the channel near Cerralvo Island.

This is like a poster! James “Hawk” Davis got this photo of about a 40-pound bull dorado under his panga and the filtered light caught it just right! (Thanks, Hawk!)

Our two college-professor friends, Llew Williams from Florida and Prof. Mark Marcus from Washington, tag-teamed this big boy off Las Arenas. The fish looks like it’s ready to bite Marks face!

Don Rea is the long-tme head football coach at Pacific High School near Ventura CA and a long-time amigo of Tailhunters. He’s a hardcore fisherman and always gets into the big guys like this hug bull dorado he took fishing with Captain Marcos north of La Paz.

Here’s a pair…and I don’t mean the roosterfish! Darrell George and Bo Herrera are two of our funniest fishermen and fly out from New Mexico several times a year. They post up two of their double-hook-up roosterfish just off the rocks at Punta Perico.  They released a week’s worth of roosterfish includingthese two!

A beast of a roosterfish and the kind of fish that helps give Las Arenas the reputation of being the “roosterfish capital of the world!” John Rygiol gets a hand from Captain Pancho to take a photo of this big boy before they release it. That’s the south end of Cerralvo Island in the background.

That’s a lotta bull…dorado! Fish slam for four! From New Mexico…Darren Hanson, Darrell Hanson, Steve Hanson and Josh Van Dam!

Rob Caron and Capt. Rogelio show off another of Rob’s dorado. Rob spent over a week with us in the middle of the dorado schools limiting on the fish almost daily. Check out the flat ocean behind them. Rob’s from Boise, Idaho.

Darrell “Gomer” Oleson and his buddy, Brent, drove all the way from Utah for a few days of fishing in La Paz. This was Gomer’s first trip and they got a limit of dorado and this striped marlin. Marlin were again active all week with a number of fish hooked, lost or released.

A trophy trio for Brent, Dan and Matt Fischer who got 6 of these big dorado on a day fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet near Espirito Santo Island.

Almost too big to lift! Steve Hanson from New Mexico put the gaff to this huge bull dorado he got on live bait north of La Paz just outside the bay fishing with Captain Marcos.

It’s not the biggest, but it’s his first! Erik Peterson finally got the dorado he was looking for while fishing between Espirito Santo Island and Cerralvo Island.

One of our long-time amigos, Tim Blagen, holds up his catch-of-the day…a big bull dorado that inhaled a bait and bent the rod. Tim had a few banner days with our La Paz fleet.

BIG DORADO AGAIN PUT ON A SHOW!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 22-29, 2012

Pretty simple this week…TAKE A LOOK at the PHOTOS!

Overall, a really good dorado week, especially for our anglers that fished with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.  Fishing north of the city around Espirito Santo Island then around the tips near Las Cruces and the channel in between Espirito Santo and Cerralvo Island, nice schools of the mahi were  being found my locating floating sargasso weeds or bringing schools to the boats by slow-trolling live or dead bait; getting a hook up; then chumming the rest of the school to the panga resulting in multiple hookups.

The highlights for the past week were the continued catches of larger dorado.  Fish in the 30 to 40 pound class were not uncommon and many lost as well as the “huge giant fish that bit and broke up.”  (Or course to many anglers EVERY large fish is a “fifty pounder!”)  But, even our captains verified that there were some big boys out there that simply left the clients out-gunned.

For the most part, we had one slow-day, but almost every day our clients each got limits or, if they didn’t get limits they were really busy with the larger fish.

Plus, the bite on marlin…stripers mostly…continued.  Every day we had a few hookups on marlin with most fish being lost or released as the billfish were often found in the middle of the dorado schools often chasing the smaller baby dorado.  (Which meant trolling a yellow and green feather was a good way to hook a marlin!).

As for other species, there were more roosterfish and a smattering of tuna and pargo at Las Arenas, but the area still has not produced a consistent bite even tho’ we’re finally finding some sardines.  If you’ve been following our reports, for the last 3 months, there has been very little sardines around the Las Arenas area to use as bait.  Despite little flurries of promise, it’s just not that good for fishing there.  We keep our fingers crossed.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

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.”

Read Full Post »

Another big week for big dorado and another big week where it seems like the ladies were on fire! Debbie White from Oregon isn’t that big herself, but take a look at the size of this dorado she took off the east side of Cerralvo Island with Captain Pancho! Debbie comes down with her husband at least once-a-year and always does well. This fish is HUGE!

Big grins all around for another big dorado! Captain “Jolly Roger” Rogelio helps Mandy Carron with her first big fish of the trip. Mandy is from Boise, Idaho was on her first trip to La Paz (and is still here as I write this and out fishing!). This week fish of 30-50 pounds were no uncommon!

From New Mexico on his first trip, Dick Carroll, had 3 super days of fishing and spent one day chasing our exotic roosterish. He got this one just off Las Arenas.

This is one of the craziest fun guys who visits us every year at least once or twice! He rolls in from New Mexico and fishes hardcore and no one gets more excited about a fish. He spent 5 days riipping up on big roosterfish and added this trophy dorado with Captain Victor off Las Arenas.

It was another good week of billfish again! Quite a few fish hooked and released or lost. Many are being found around the dorado schools feeding on the same baitfish as well as the dorado themselves. Leticia Hayler holds up a nice on while posing north of La Paz.

Another hefty bull dorado off Cerralvo Island! Don White pulled this one while dragging a small pink feather trying to locate a school or tuna! Don’s our good amigo from Oregon. Take a look at the video clip below for more details.

I was hoping Jeanette Carroll was going to adopt us! No one had more fun than her fishing every day. Always laughing! Captain Victor was fishing with her just off Punta Arenas Beach (in the background) and got this nice roosterfish which she photo’d and released.

Not sure if Dr. Bo Herrera is ready to launch this roosterfish out into the water, but he did release it. Bo spent 5 days fishing and caught and released quite a few big roosters!

From Oceanside CA, Tom Slaughter and his son spent a few days fishing with us with our both Las Arenas and our La Paz fleet plus some snorkeling out at the island. Tom poses with one of his dorado north of La Paz.

As you can tell, it was a good week for roosters! For some co-incidence, we had alot of amigos from New Mexico this past week. John George was working a spot of Cerralvo Island and got his roosterfish before releasing it.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Don White boats a huge bull dorado off Cerralvo Island!  Click the screen or the YOUTUBE link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCPk8pkfZVQ&feature=plcp

BIG DORADO ROOSTERFISH AND MARLIN SET THE PACE THIS PAST WEEK!

La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-22, 2012

We just had one of the most solid and steady weeks of fishing of the season.  No down days.  It was almost like a reading a book a menu.  If you wanted roosters fish with our Las Arenas Fleet.  If you wanted dorado, you fished with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet!

Overall… Good fishing for both dorado, roosterfish and marlin.  If you fished with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, the roosterfishing was good to outstanding with 3-8 nice roosters each day ranging from 20-50 pounders (all getting released).  As well, if you went outside, there was a shot at larger bull dorado up to 50 pounds as well as striped marlin.

If you wanted dorado, you simply told us you wanted to fish with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.  It was almost like dialing in an order on the internet.  Every day most of our pangas got full limits of dorado and losing and releasing many many more fish.  We got several fish that did not fit on the 50-pound handscales and several in that class that were lost each day by the captains’ accounts!

Our largest that hit the scales was a slug bull of 47 pounds and that same day, I believe we had over a dozen fish that were at least 30 pounders.  There were several keys.  One was finding the right spot near Espiritu Santo Island or around the corner in the canyon or around Las Cruces.  If you found sargasso weeds, that would be a decent indicator. Second was just being patient.  Sometimes, it would literally be slack bite for hours and clients getting pretty frustrated.  Then, WHAM!  Just after 1 or so in the afternoon  the fish just blew up and it would be pandemonium in for an hour or so of double and triple hookups…catching and releasing as fast as they could go…and at the end a fish box stuffed with tails and exhausted anglers ready to head back.

All-in-all, a pretty good week!

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.”

Read Full Post »

It was a great week for the larger dorado! Captain Victor gives and assist to Nicki Vavao on a huge pig-of-a-bull doado! It was not unusual to see 30-50 pound fish this past week. Nicki took over an hour to put this fish aboard, but total props to her. Not only was it her first time fishing in Baja. It was her FIRST TIME fishing…EVER! And this is her FIRST FISH…EVER! That’s gonna set the bar pretty high for the future!

Once again, the ladies were on fire this week! Geri Sandstrom, is from Idaho and she’s LOVES to fish, but had never gotten anything larger than big kokanee. Needless to say, she more than topped her personal best with 3 days of solid fishing for dorado and roosterfish!

We love having father-son fishing trips! Tom Slaughter and his son, Mike, spent 3 days fishing and snorkeling with us and got into some of the nice dorado bite we had including these two while posing at Balandra Bay north of La Paz.

This has been one of the best roosterfish seasons ever! Take a look at this huge trophy roosterfish that Scott Voldness took off Las Arenas. Scott’s from Utah and the big fish was released.

From Arizona, these two were a kick to have around for 4 days of fishing. Joe Cullwell and Dylan Martin hold up a double pair of dorado after one day of fishing north of La Paz.

Sam Sybesma comes to see us every year. He spent a few days fishing with our La Paz fleet having fun with the dorado but on his last day went with our Las Arenas fleet to see if he could get a roosterfish! WINNING! That’s Punta Arenas Beach in the background.

Another one of our father-son trips this week. Lyndon Mumm and his son, Matt, pulled on some great dorado during the week. Big smiles all the way around. They also took our island snorkel trip with the sealions as well.

Our good amigo, Dick, had to cancel his trip this last year, but towed his boat down to get in on the dorado bite and shows off his first day catch with, Randy Lyons.

Good way to start the week with a striped marlin for Al Sandstrom from Idaho. It was another good week on the billfish with most fish running 90-150 pounds. I believe we got over 20 hooked this week with all but a few released. We probably had another 10-15 break off or get unbuttoned. Al got this his first day and also got into the dorado nicely!

Jimmy Csutoras almost didn’t make it down, but got here at the last minute and slammed into nice dorado like this one. Jimmy is from Northern Cal.

Brothers Fred and Mike Sontag rolled on the dorado big time after 4 days fishing. Fred is from St. Louis and Mike is from S. Carolina. They hold up a nice pair standing on the beach at Balandra Beach north of La Paz.

BIG BITE OF BIG DORADO SET PACE FOR THE WEEK WITH ROOSTERS AND MARLIN!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 8-15, 2012

It wasn’t as spectacular as last week’s dorado slam during the full moon, but there was some excellent fishing to be had nonetheless. I was a little worried as the first 2 days of the week it was like someone turned off the mahi-mahi spigot!

Whereas the week before our anglers were reporting 10, 20…40 or more dorado hookups per day and releasing fish as fast-as-they-could-go, the first two days this past week suddenly shut down to 2 to 6 dorado per panga.  That’s a huge drop in production!  I was sweating!

However, as the week went on, we got into a little rhythm again.  It was not wide up and there was an occasional day or panga that had an off-day, but more-often-than-not, the fishing day produced limits or near-limits of dorado.  If you were only fishing 1 day, that might be the day you had the stink on you, but if you fished 2, 3 or 4 days, at the end of the trip, our clients usually still found they had more fish than they knew what to do with!  They might have a day or two that was less than stellar, but then they had another day or two that was an explosion of fish that made up for the other slack times.

Often, I had to tell our anglers to just be patient.  Often, the days started slow.  I mean…really SLOW!  It’s noon and they have 1 fish aboard!  Then, at noon or 1 p.m.often when other fleets are heading in, our guys would hang out just a bit longer.  It would be all the difference in the world as that late bite would turn into dorado pandemonium with double-triple-and-quadruple hookups!  Often, our captains weren’t bringing in our clients until 3 or 4 p.m. or even later…giving that little bit of extra time to get onto the bite.

The coolest thing about this week that differed from last week was the appearance of some big quality bulls.  Whereas last week there were just a few of the fish over 20 pounds, this week fish between 25 and 40 pounds were hooked daily and many of the larger fish were lost and the clients coming back with only wide-eyed stories of big battles or broken lines.  Even some of our captains were talking about 50-pound class fish swimming out there or busting off after long fights.

Another big surprise were the marlin.  I think this past week, I counted over 20 striped marlin hooked amoung our Tailhunter anglers of which almost all of them were released.  There were probably as many that broke off or came unbuttoned during the battle.  Personally, I think the marlin are more active because there’s not only more bait in the water (sardines, mackerel, cocineros, jacks, and caballitos), but also, there’s so many little dorado swimming around that they’re feeding on the young dorado.  In fact, one of the best trolling color feathers right now just happens to be yellow and green!

One other item of big news…LAS ARENAS FINALLY TURNED ON!

That’s major headlines.  After almost 3 months of some of the dreariest fishing I have seen in years with no bait, we finally got some smaller tiny sardines this week as well as the larger baits and what a difference it made!  It wasn’t wide open, but our pangas were getting into some nice dorado between 10 and 15 pounds, but also some of the big slugger mahi over 30 pounds.  In addition, it also produced good billfish action…I think one day 3 of our pangas hooked and released 7 marlin alone!  Plus, the roosterfish continue to bite as well.  So, this is all very promising and I’m glad both sides finally started to kick out some fish!

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.”

Read Full Post »

Yes! Even we get to fish now and then and it was great to get on the water with Jilly for an epic day of non-stop dorado fishing where we hooked and released over 40 fish before noon! Great week of dorado fishing even with the full moon! Here, Jill ducks behind Captain Joel with another bull dorado that was thrashing around wildly before Joel released the fish!

The ladies were on fire this week! Especially alot of first timers like Sylva Ourghoulian from Pasadena CA who came with our long-time amigo and her new husband Avo. Avo is a great fisherman and wanted to have a good experience for Sylva. She got limits of dorado each day plus some nice roosterfish!

Like I said, the ladies were rocking this week! From Sacramento, another first-timer, Becky Csotoras, was just off the Las Arenas lighthouse when she caught and released this nice roosterfish. She and her dad also got into the dorado bite this week as well.

Every time he comes down, Fred Sontag, from St. Louis MO says, “This is the best trip ever!” Four days of hot dorado, roosterfish and marlin fishing resulted in lots of fillets headed back to the midwest including this trophy big-headed bull dorado taken near Espirito Santo Island.

Our long time friend from Colorado, Doug Oclassen got his son, Andrew out with us for a day and off Las Arenas pulled in some nice roosterfish like this one. It’s turning into thee best roosterfish season in memory. Pretty much 99 percent of all the roosters like this one are getting released. Great job, guys! Andy is looking alot like dad these days!

Not many of these in Montana! Phil Matteson said he got “everything on his bucket list” on this trip to La Paz, his first! Dorado, roosterfish and this marlin shown with Captain Boli holding on!

Rex Smith has been visiting us for years. Our amigo did three days fishing with our La Paz fleet and had limits of dorado like this one every day. Rex is from the Phoenix AZ area and is posing here at Balandra Beach north of La Paz.

Big smiles for another of our ladies who had a good trip. From Utah, Kim Woodard, shows off another nice bull dorado that jumped on the line. Kim and her family had good results on dorado and roostefish over several days of fishing with us!

Fishing with grandpa, John Ehlers, from Colorado, 14-year-old Cheyenne says she cannot get enough of the ocean and was on her first trip ever to La Paz! Posing here with our popular Captain Pancho with our Las Arenas fleet, she’s holding one of several big roosterfish she caught and released. She also did several days of banner dorado fishing with grandpa, John!

One of the larger striped marlin of the week, Mike Sontag, has visited us a number of times and finally got his billfish. From North Carolina, Mike’s fish was estimated at about 150 pounds. The billfish have really gotten up to speed this past week even with the full moon and about 90 percent have been released. Mike’s panga hooked two others that got away.

More big smiles to go with a big dorado! The ladies were pulling hard on the fish all week and Karen Matteson from Montana was no exception. Nice dorado…big roosterfish…pargo…a real good trip and nice to have fun folks from Montana. I think Montana people just bring good fishing with them! Nicely done, Karen!

Dustyn Woodard is 17-years-old, and had a great trip sticking a bunch of big roosters with Captain Gerardo and releasing them all. He and his family, from Utah, also popped some great dorado. This was Dustyn’s first trip to see us.

Northern Cal resident, Jimmy Csutoras, saw an article in the S.F. Chronicle about Tailhunter and booked a trip with us. He got dorado and roosters and also got one of the only pargo we’ve seen in awhile! He got several of these nice barred pargo. That’s Punta Arenas in the background and they were very close to the beach!

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Check out this underwater clip in slo-motion of a wild dorado hooked (then released)!  Turn up the sound.  If you can’t see the embedded video clip, click the youtube link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xl-JF0VOcM&feature=plcp

FULL MOON PRODUCES BEST DORADO BITE OF THE SEASON!

La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-8, 2012

What’s the big deal about the full moon?  I keep telling people it really doesn’t seem to make much difference down here. As a matter of fact, we just had the best dorado week of the season in the full moon.  At times, folks were catching and releasing fish as fast as they could go!   Somedays the bite was later in the day but other our anglers were full of fish by breakfast time!  Once it started it could be pandemonium with double and triple hook ups.  Some of our clients told us they released dozens of dorado each day.

Most of the dorado fishing was north of La Paz and was found in a nice wedge from the Las Cruces/ Gordo area then up to the east side of Espirito Santo Island and up to the Charo Bank.  There’s a nice current line of sargasso weeds holding fish all up and down that area.  There’s lots of voracious 10-15 pounders all along that area that are almost fighting each other to get to the hooks but there’s also some nicer 20-50 pound bruisers mixed in as well.  In the last 2 weeks, it’s like someone threw a switch!

On Friday, Jill and I snuck out for a “quick day of fishing.”  What we ran into was one of our all-time best days on the water in 16 years of living here.  We ran into that line of sargasso weed along the east side of Espirito Santo Island.  Just on a lark we did not follow the rest of the fleet that morning which had gone south to check out the Las Cruces area where the dorado had been biting fairly steadily.

Our first bait immediately got slammed…as did our 2nd and 3rd…by 8 a.m. we had caught and released almost 20 dorado!  By 10 a.m. we had over 30 fish hooked and released.  And we were still the only ones fishing the area!  By 10:30 we were joined by the rest of the fleet and everyone hooked up!  There were dorado everywhere.  Under the boat, it looked like a fish pond!  There were dorado darting in and out of the weed line and current break.  Dorado were jumping following flying fish and one flying fish smacked Jill on the arm followed by a dorado that was chasing the bait that blew up in her face and narrowly missed her.

By 11 that morning we stopped counting at 40 dorado caught and released!  By this time we had switched to complete circle hooks and were also using all kinds of goofy lures that were in the tackle box!  Our last 3 fish were caught by us just dangling BARE HOOKS in the water and watching dorado come out from under the boat and 1…2…3…SLAM!  HOOK UP! BARE HOOKS!

As we pulled off the spot at 11:30 so we could back to the office, dorado were still jumping all around the boat as if yelling, “FEED ME! “  Way fun day.  Of course not every boat did that well, but more often than not all the pangas this week fishing La Paz came back with limits.  And if not, a quick query would tell you that they lost quite a few fish!

In that same area, especially with all the smaller punk dorado around, marlin and sailfish have also moved in to the area and are actively feeding.  We had quite a few hooked, lost and released this week with most in the 100-120 pound class.

Around Las Arenas, our fleet there continues to do well on the roosterfish.  If you’ve ever wanted to check a roosterfish off your “bucket list, ” this has been the year for it. Roosters in the 20-50 pound class have not been uncommon and they’re very close to the beaches where you can visually cast to them and watch the pick up!  Pretty exciting stuff to watch those huge dorsal fins cut through the water!  Las Arenas also produced some marlin and sailfish for us this week as well as pargo.

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.”

Read Full Post »

That’s a mouthful! Our friend, Rich Jones, from Hyrum Utah knows a photo opportunity when he catches one! Take a look at the great colors on this fresh giant bull dorado he took this week north of La Paz! It looks like dorado season finally hit!

Lots of first-timers visiting us this past week including Rob and Natalie Carroll who took advantage of the dorado bite that finally kick started with a nice roar. This big bull was caught near Espiritu Santo Island on live bait.

Yes, it is THAT big! It’s 89 pounds to be exact and Roger Thompson and Captain Hugo have a knack for big fish! Roger was fishing around Cerralvo Island and stuck FOUR big wahoo including this TREE! Of course, the next day everyone went to the same spot and nothing showed up! But, what a day for Roger!

Like I said, lots of first timers this past week and many went home with some great stories to tell. Like Kelly Jimenez, who’s been trying to fish with us for years and finally made it down from Loveland, Colorado. On her first day, she stuck this trophy roosterfish just south of Bahia de Los Muertos! The fish was released. It was just the start of a spectacular week of fishing and diving!

Ya gotta love this photo! Gerda Siewert from Anaheim CA gives and OK sign as she peeks out from behind Captain Blas holding two slug bull dorado taken out of La Paz. Gerda was on her first trip and over several days of fishing outfished many of the veterans!

He came a long way for this. All the way from Montana, Mike Harvey finally put the bend on a few roosters fishing out’ve Las Arenas. Mike’s coming back in September. The fish was released.

Big smiles for Diego Jimenez, retired firefighter from Colorado, fishing with Captain Chito who had a banner day on the dorado fishing north of La Paz towards Punta Mejia. “We had two and three fish on at the same time!” said Diego. “I would have been happy with 1 or 2. What a fun time!”

Utah in the house! Kip and Sue Slaugh spent the week with us and it’s always good to see them from Salt Lake City area. Check out the nice bull. After 6 days of fishing, they and their family went home with 125 pounds of fillets!

Our amigo from Sacramento, Jim Klein, got his first sailfish this week. Both sailfish and marlin showed alot more interest and we hooked and released several every day. Jim said he’s going to fire up his smoker and get the teriyaki brine ready!

Nice colors! A flat sea and a big colorful fish on the gaff for Makani Fisher from Salt Lake City. Makani and his dad fished 3 days with us.

A happy fella! Doc Norm Harris from Santa Ana CA got his first roosterfish out of Las Arenas and the smile shows! The fish was released.

Frequent visitor and fisherman with Tailhunter is actor and TV show host, Rick Kasper. Rick always does well and knows how to pose with a fish also showing off two of his bull dorado while on the beach at Balandra.

One of the few bright spots from Las Arenas this week that wasn’t a roosterfish, Tom Radoumis from Wyoming with Captain Archangel holds up a quality bull dorado to start off his fishing week.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Check out Jim Talley’s release of a fat striped marlin with an assist from Captain Adolfo with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.  Jim was fishing south of Ceerralvo Island.

JUNE SLIDES OUT WITH BEST DORADO FISHING OF THE SEASON!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 24 to July 1, 2012

With temperatures up to the low 100’s this week the fishing hit the red as well!  We just had the best dorado fishing week of the season.  Waters finally warmed up, cleared up, and shaped up and the dorado came to chew!

The first two days of the week I was a little worried.  Winds came up and the nice dorado bite that started last week seemed to waiver.  Oh no, I thought.  Not again just as we were kicking it into gear!  So, those first day days we scratched for 2-4 dorado per day with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

Then, the winds died down…and the ocean blew up on us!

That area north of La Paz around Espiritu Santo Island and then towards the north end of Cerralvo Island and around Punta Mejia , Coyotes and Las Cruces erupted in limites of dorado each day.  Guys were getteing 10-20 hookups per panga; losing many and releasing many more!  The larger fish kicked in at 20-45 pounds each with captains telling me larger bulls were lost or just humiliated some anglers after long battles.  This is finally the kind of fishing we’ve been waiting for.

As well, marlin and sailfish kicked it up a notch as well with several being hooked and either lost or released each day plus we had one day around Cerralvo where the wahoo decided to join the party.

Our pangas out’ve Las Arenas, were still scratching for fish unfortunately, but there’s roosterfish up to 60 pounds to be had and there were two small jags of tuna out on the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island.  Not enough action to get too excited about yet, but we’ll keep an eye out for it!

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.”

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »