Weather – Hot and humid. In California, they call it earthquake weather. Mid-90’s during day. Mid-80’s at night. Very tropical. Some afternoon thundershowers that come and go.
Water – Warm and blue. Surface temps in the mid-80’s. Visibility 30′-50.’
Fishing – Terrible for Las Arenas. La Paz week started slow, but gathered speed and size as the week went on and dorado woke up.
THE BIG PICTURE FISHING REPORT for AUG. 6-13, 2017
The dorado bite north of La Paz kept going despite a few hiccups here and there. Check out Brian Robertson’s nice bull. Brian is from Colorado.
Dennis McLeod from Oregon with Tailhunter Captain Joel rocked this large sailfish that Dennis says is his first “big game” fish. They hooked it off Espirito Santo Island and cheers to Dennis for the quick photo and release. Another great underwater shot below of the fish taken by Roger Hall.
Underwater shot of Dennis McLeod’s sailfish taken by Roger Hall. The guys released the fish.
One of the funniest guys we’ve ever had visit on his first trip to La Paz to fish with us, Mickey Cohen, from Lake Havasu took almost an hour on this big bull dorado on light tackle. It was Mickey’s first time dorado fishing and he put the wood to a number of fish this week. Mickey is a big guy so this fish is alot larger than it might look!
Our long-time, amigo, Dave Rose, drove all the way down from Washington to spend a few days fishing with us. He shows off one of his dorado caught while fishing with Captain Pancho out’ve Muertos Bay.
I think my favorite photo of the week! This is Captain Pancho with Ruthie and her first dorado! Ruthie lives in Utah and came to visit with her family.
Kent Williamson from Colorado had a nice three day trip with us and poses with one of his dorado and Captain Rogelio from our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.
Marie McClellan from Park City UT visits us every year and never seems to have a bad day and is always smiling! She and Captain Victor were fishing out’ve Bahia de Los Muertos when she got this mahi. She ended up having a banner week on the dorado “our best fishing ever!”
Our best fishing buddy, Sherman McDonnel from Rock Springs WYO with his favorite Captain Armando loves to fish light tackle and sometimes pays for it..in a fun way…like when this huge roosterifsh hit his 17-pound test and he ended up battling the beast for an hour in the blazing sun! But, he always gets his fish. Nicely done and a nice release too!
Another of our new Colorado amigos…Nate Jarvis…got in 3 days of some pretty sweet dorado fishing especially with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
From Colorado, Brian Williamson, caught and had a nice battle with this milkfish while fishing just off Punta Arenas with the Tailhunter Fleet. It looks like a giant sardine that has been hitting the steroids. Schools often swim through the area but the fish are rarely ever hooked because they eat algae. Occasionally, one gets snagged. However, this particular one ate a mackerel! He went off the vegetarian menu and got hooked. They can grow to 5 feet long and weight up to 30 pounds. The fish was released.
They might not taste real great, but hit a few of these “toro” jack crevalle and your arms will tell you that you’ve been in a battle. Mike Hall got a big jack here!
DORADO PLAY GAMES BUT FINALLY COME AROUND!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 6-13, 2017
Given the great week of dorado a two weeks ago and all the hoopla, the current week started off with some nervousness. Sure, there was a full moon, but full moons don’t normally get us. In fact, some of our best bites are during full moons. But, the dorado had finally gone on a tear and it looked like things were finally kicked in. And we were high-fiving ourselves and then the week started and the fishing was barely lukewarm. What had changed? Where did all the dorado go? How come the dorado we were seeing looked bored? Who flipped the switch?
Fortunately, we re-bounded.
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY FLEET
Well, some parts re-bounded. I don’t know what happened with Las Arenas. Two weeks of pulling teeth that has everyone shrugging their shoulders. Clients hung tough. Captains worked like crazy. And it just wasn’t happening. Sure, there was the occasional “nice catch.” But for the most part, pangas were catching…1 dorado and a bonito. Or 2 dorado. Or 2 bonito and a cabrilla. Maybe a jack crevalle on another boat. Folks weren’t missing fish. There just weren’t any fish hitting or being found. Conditions looked good. Water seemed OK. Full moon? Will keep you posted.
Fortunately, we have two fleets…
TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET
As mentioned at the beginning, the first few days of the week were really disappointing. The WFO bite of dorado turned into a whimper. We scratched for a few dorado. After blowing my bugle that the dorado were “on” I looked like I had egg on my face.
We were seeing dorado, but they lockjawed and could care less about baits, feathers or lures.
Then, about mid-week the dorado got found and they got interested again!
The first schools we found were rats. Literally rats. It was the dorado nursery. Schools and schools of itty-bitty dorado that were about the size of planter-trout. I’m not kidding. It was Happy Jack’s Trout Farm. Except they were dorado. Sure, you could catch a couple of dozen, but the novelty wears off after the first few then you start releasing fish-after-fish. No one comes to catch 12-inch dorado.
But, at least they bit.
Then, we found the schools of bigger boys and legit 10-20 pounders started slamming like they are supposed to. Some of my captains asked me not to give away the exact area, but it’s holding loads of nice floating sargasso weeds and some lit up dorado jumping over each other to hit the baits with double, triple and quadruple hook-ups. Some boats got limits…caught and released others and made it back to La Paz in time for shrimp and beer for early lunch. Limits were more the rule rather than the exception.
Hope we can hold them now for the rest of the season!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
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Tailhunter Fish Report 