In a surprise bite considering it’s winter, we’re still pulling in dorado! Captain Jorge holds up the kind of “warm” water fish we’re getting out of Las Arenas with fish between 10 and 20 pounds! Either we’ve still got warm water left over from last season or perhaps…water is warming faster than we think and the warm water fish are already moving in? Hard to know, but no on is too upset with these great fish!
More our style for this time of year…cooler water fish like Rob’s nice fat yellowtail taken out of Bahia de Los Muertos…in between strong winter winds! When the wind lies down, we’re getting fish!
February is still prime time for our grey whale tours at Bahia Magdalena. The whales will start moving out generally in March. Don’t miss the opportunity for this great experience to get close to these incredible animals in the shallow calm waters of Baja. Ask us about trips!
Tailhunter is now leaving Yakima WA and headed to Glendale (Phoenix) Arizona for the next hunting and fishing show. We had a great time in Yakima and will be at the International Sportsmens Expo at the Phoenix University Football Stadium where the NFL Cardinals play from Thursday to Sunday. Come say hi and talk about your next La Paz fishing adventure and check out our new t-shirts like the one being modeled by our young amiga, Ellie and Jilly! Hope to see you this week!
DORADO SURPRISE ANGLERS IN WINTER BITE
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Feb. 10-17, 2013
Early week seasonal winds continued to plague the fishing, but just as well that we really didn’t have anyone wanting to go fishing, but it wouldn’t have been good anyway. But, later in the week, we did get out and the winds cooperated. It’s the northern winds that really give us the most problem making it difficult to fish as well as get bait.
However, crazily when we got out fishing we got some nice variety. I say “crazily” because it’s winter and we’re catching dorado…normally warmer water fish that we don’t see until maybe April or May. Not only did we get dorado, but some of them were really respectable-sized fish in the 10-20 pound class. Surprisingly, these fish were in the same spots as the cooler water fish, specifically, pargo and yellowtail…fish that we normally catch this time of year…colder water fish. This leads me to believe that there’s some crazy thermoclines right now with surface water temperatures much warmer than below the surface. But…hey…no one is complaining! A winter fishing day that ends up with dorado, pargo, sierra and yellowtail is a banner day no matter where and when you’re fishing!
Winds should be better this week and we’ve got folks fishing all week so we’ll hopefully have a better handle on what’s out there!
TAILHUNTER TOUR 2013
By the time you’re reading this, we’ll be on our way from Yakima WA to Phoenix AZ. Long drive! But we’re just wrapping up our 5th show of the season at the Central Washington Sportsmens Show in Yakima where we had a great time meeting all kinds of new amigos and now headed to the International Sportsmen’s Show in Phoenix at the University of Phoenix Stadium…the football stadium where the NFL Cardinals play. It’s a great venue and we always have a blast. The show starts Thursday and we’ll be in the booth through Sunday. (Feb. 21-24) Here’s more information: http://www.sportsexpos.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewlocation&locationnumber=6
Come see us and let’s set up your 2013 La Paz fishing trip! See you this week!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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
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!”
Dorado were again our bread-and-butter, especially for our clients fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Even when the weather turned, the fish continued to bite. Captain Rogelio holds up a trophy bull dorado that Mark Gilliam of Thousand Oaks stuff of Espiritu Santo Island.
Wyoming first-timer, Amy Larson, had a banner day fishing out of Las Arenas with Tailhunter captain, Jorge. Now that we’re getting some sardines for bait, the fishing has improved with dorado getting most of the attention.
Shawn Parker got a bit of a mix fishing north of La Paz. Dorado from fishing topwater and nice barred pargo fishing closer to the rocks. Shawn is from the Reno NV area.
Brennan Lowery and Roger Hayak hadn’t fished with us in quite awhile, but had 3 pretty good days playing with the dorado schools last week. The show off a double-pair of mahi they caught their first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Both are from the Newbury Park / Westlake Village CA area.
Iowa in the house! Andy Gilliam did a good job repping the mid-west this past week. It was Andy’s first trip with us and he got a number of dorado similar to this one out of La Paz and Las Arenas.
Rick Kasper has place north or La Paz and visits often. In 31 years fishing the area, he had never caught a roosterfish until this past week when he caught and released this nice one off Cerralvo Island east of Las Arenas on a live bait.
Shawn Parker had a knack for nice pargo this week and he wasn’t even fishing for pargo! He was trolling deep water for wahoo with a Rapala when somehow this big pargo came up from the bottom and whacked the lure!
We had some brief thunderstorms this week, but some of them were pretty crazy! Mid-week we got a 45 minute dambuster that had downtown La Paz under several feet of water and turned streets into rivers!
Down on the malecon on the waterfront by our Tailhunter Restaurant, within minutes of the rainstorm starting, roads were blocked by torrents of water. By the very nature of these storms, several hundred yards away it was completely dry. Not a drop had fallen.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Mark Gilliam put a big dorado in the boat this week. Check out the final moments of the battle:
THUNDERSTORMS AND SUNSHINE MIX WITH DORADO AND OTHER SPECIES
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 19-26, 2012
It was another crazy week of thundershowers on-and-off. It would rain one place, but not another. It would rain for 5 minutes or 60 minutes. One place would flood, but another place would be bone-dry! Downtown La Paz was under several feet of water early in the week as a flash downpour with thunder and lightning engulfed the commercial areas, but several blocks away, there wasn’t even any single rain-drop!
But, despite all that, we were able to continue fishing with no interruptions. Often, during this time of year, we’ll get these thunderstorms. You can often see them coming in columns of rain marching across the mountains or ocean. Pretty much all you do is either drive the boat around them or else you pull over and onto the beach …which is never far away…and wait it out for a few minutes then head back out .
Even tho’ the sun isn’t out sometimes, the fishing can still be good. The rains wash a lot of junk into the water and can really discolor the water especially with the run-off of mud from streets, ditches and arroyos. Seen from the air, it’s really a contrast between the dirty brown water and the true color of the ocean. However, the upside of that is all the debris that’s carried into the ocean as well. This includes brush, plants, trash, trees, parts of structures, branches…anything that floats.
This stuff accumulates on the surface and becomes a haven for baitfish. The baitfish, in turn, attract the larger predators, especially the dorado. So, one of the keys to fishing this time of year is to look for the current lines where the brush and debris will accumulate in long lines or just look for anything floating. Anything out there is worth investigating! Even a floating bit of styrofoam cup might be holding dorado under it. You never know! You could come up on a floating tree trunk and find dorado, tuna, wahoo and billfish all milling around it but never know it until you trolled by it or tossed some bait at it!
This past week there were some pretty decent days of fishing for both our Tailhunter La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets. The La Paz side had more fish and larger dorado but Las Arenas had some decent day as well with smaller dorado, but more variety with roosterfish, pargo, and a few billfish as well as scattered tuna. Most of the dorado were 5-15 pounds, but larger ones in the 20-30 pound class were around with some larger ones lost. Some striped marlin were also caught and released. Not many guys got roosterfish this week, but that might be because not many of our fishermen were chasing them, but the few that did go after them got some in the 15-30 pound category.
Still no wahoo to speak of and tuna remain elusive although we should be getting into them about now. September and October are usually the best part of the year for fishing !
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:
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.
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!
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
This is the kind of bite we see in March and April…maybe not even THIS good! But with water temps dropping low, the yellowtail came roaring back near Espiritu Santo Island north of La Paz. 17-year-old, Emiily Duncan poses on the beach at Balandra with the catch taken by herself, her dad and friend Jorge. They were back on the beach by 10 a.m. this morning!
From Pocatello, Idaho, on his first trip to La Paz, Troy Lenhart takes a knee on the beach in front of La Concha Beach Resort with just a portion of his catch for the day. The fish were 20-50 pound slugs and they put 11 of them in the box, and lost several others. Their captain said, “We could have had 20 fish easy!” They were done by 10:45 in the morning.
Our first official wahoo of the season…FINALLY! Also turns out to be Dave Rose’s first wahoo as well. Dave DROVE all the way down from Colorado as he does several times a year. Dave initially had one wahoo come off, but came back and gave it another shot and put this nice one in the boat just south of Cerralvo Island on a dark Rapala CD 18.
It’s always nice to put a “check mark” next to an item on the bucket list. Ed Hoffman lives just north of us in Loreto and came down specifically to catch a trophy rooster and got this beauty just of the Las Arenas lighthouse first thing in the morning! Just what he ordered! The fish was released.
First timer from Idaho, Amy Lenhart, was on her first day fishing and just off the beach at Las Arenas put the wood to this super nice grouper! The fat guy was put in the boat by Captain Victor who poses with Amy. She also got her first roosterfish as well the same day.
Our amigo, Jorge Romero, does the gaff honors with Bob Duncan of Santa Barbara on a day that they put 11 of these nice fish in the panga west of Espiritu Santo Island. Daughter, Emily, fights another fish in the stern. This week, waters were again green and dirty but for some reason, the yellowtail came roarding back!
Our buddy, retired fireman, Craig Braswell, grunts to lift up two of their limits of yellowtail as he stand in the shallows of Balandra Beach.
Sacramento amigo, Dave Frausto, should be happy about the 10 yellowtail they landed! But here he hoists two of the nice yellows they put in the box one of the banner days this week that the yellowtail went crazy.
A look at the Terrafin sea temperature satelite maps (www.terrafin.com) show some encouraging signs. Much of the water near Las Arenas is inching up into the high 70’s and low 80’s. A vast improvement over the past several weeks when the waters were in the 60’s and showing blue/green on the satellite maps. Hopefully, the warmer waters will burn off all the cloudiness in the water and also bring back the sardines as well.
YELLOWTAIL in JUNE? CRAZY BITE MARKS WEEK OF FISHING!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 3-10, 2012
Who could have imagined. It’s June. Last time I checked, it’s summertime on most people’s calendars. In southern Baja and here in La Paz this is the time when we should be sticking dorado like crazy as well as marlin, sailfish, tuna, wahoo and other warm water species. However, on the contrary, water temperatures in the Sea of Cortez and around the southern Baja fishing “hot” spots that are traditionally on fire this time of year have fallen off the charts! In a bad way. Instead of 80 degree water temperatures, anglers have been facing cold, green, dirty, cloudy waters down in the 60’s! On top of it, getting bait has been like finding a needle in a haystack!
Needless to say, like many areas, the fishing around La Paz has been less than stellar. In fact, it’s been really difficult. Using lures, larger baits like live and dead mullet, mackerel and other species, we’ve been able to scratch up roosterfish, some jacks, the occasional dorado and a few other species. And that’s been it. Lots of disappointment. But what are you gonna do?
You’re gonna keep fishing!
And then things kinda took a little upswing this week! Earlier in the week, for our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, we got into some nice jags of wahoo at the south end of Cerralvo Island. We also got some great quality roosterfish up to about 50 pounds plus got into some pretty decent pargo and cabrilla. We also hooked a few striped marlin as well. Still not up to snuff, but surely way better than what we had been doing most of May and early June.
And, with waters still cold, green and cloudy…when we were giving up on warm water species…a surprise. No warm water fish, but instead, we had a late week eruption of 20-50 pound yellowtail! This is crazy! Yellowtail season is March and April. We haven’t seen yellowtail in over a month. But this week for our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, they not only got into yellowtail, they had some of the best snaps of yellowtail we have ever seen!
Boats were coming back by 10 or 11 a.m. with limits of 10 big slugger yellowtail. They would tell me they lost 4, 5, 6…8 other fish to the rocks. Captains would tell me they could easily have taken 20 or more yellowtail. The fish were eating in about 40 feet of water and taking the larger cocineros and live mackerel we were catching in La Paz Bay. Folks didn’t know what to do with so much fish. When you have 10 fish that are 40 pounders…you suddenly find yourself with about 150 pounds of fillet! Kind of a good problem…especially when many of our anglers were geared to really having to scratch for any fish at all and finding that by 10 a.m. they were too tired to pull on another fish!
As the week closed out, the yellowtail got a bit more elusive. One day on and next day off. But, I stopped trying to guess where and when. We were just glad they showed up!
Don’t know if this will hold or it’s just a blip on the radar, but it surely saved a crazy 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
No doubt dorado…like this nice bull take between Cerralvo Island and the peninsula are around. Not in great numbers, but it’s surprising that we’re getting big bulls of this quality so early.
Two legends go fishing. On the left, Hall of Fame NBA player Rick Barry poses next to legendary owner of the Giggling Marlin Restaurant in Cabo Lucas, Gary Wagner in front of Gary’s place at Bahia de Los Muertos.
The north side of Cerralvo Island turned out to be one of the more productive places in an otherwise slow week of fishing as huge amberjack, big cousins to yellowtail, put on a bite. The largest of these three amberjack weighed out at 87 pounds!
I usually don’t post up many marlin photos over the years for several reasons. First we encourage catch and release so a majority of our hooked marlin get let go and secondly, well, many marlin bust off! We had several hooked up this week that are still swimming after breaking off. More marlin seem to be showing up, but not all are willing to take a bait or lure just yet. This striper ate a trolled jig.
Even when fishing is slow, often our fallback are the feisty tough bonito that can really chew up tackle. Captain Yofo of our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet took a shot on a flyrod and found himself in about a 15 minute battle on a 10wt fly rod. The fish was released.
SPOTTY FISHING AT BEST DURING DARK MOON AND SOLAR ECLIPSE
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 13-20, 2012
In a few words, fishing this week around La Paz was…”WEIRD…SCRATCHY…SPOTTY.” Things are definitely changing and we’re going through that transition right now between the cooler waters and spring and the warmer summer waters. The fish are going through it too and so they’re adjusting. It’s a bit like when you bring a goldfish home from the church carnival in the little plastic bag. At home, it takes awhile for them to get acclimated to their new surroundings in the home aquarium with temperatures and oxygen levels different.
I think that’s what happened this week. Every day was different. Some days the fish bit. Some days they did not and it was like pulling teeth. One day one species would be the hot species and the next day a completely different species would take center stage and the fish that were hot the day before, were nowhere to be found!
The other thing was that bait got scarce! Sardine schools, the foundation of our fishing…just vanished. We got a little, but it was like pulling teeth to find enough to fish. Even the bait guys had problems finding it or found only a handful to sell or, it took the better part of the morning looking for bait to start fishing. So, of course, that also reflected on the fishing numbers. But, I’m not sure that would have made that much of a difference either because some folks went to trolling lures in the absence of bait…and they didn’t exactly light the world on fire either!
AND THIS WAS NOT A FULL MOON! AND THERE WAS NOT MUCH WIND EITHER! So, all you folks that think the fish bite better ALL the time during a dark moon, don’t say I never told you so!
This was bad all over. I hear on the East Cape and down in Cabo, the bite just dropped off the charts all of a sudden as well. Hopefully, it’s just the little dark before the big fish explosion!
So, what did we catch?
Well a little of this and a little of that…roosterfish along the shores were still active. Pargo and cabrilla also bit, but that always works better when you have bait! We had some really exciting catches on big amberjack and some very nice dorado were picked up as well as a few marlin. Here’s one example of crazy fishing. The awesome yellowtail bite we had going for 3 months fell apart about 3 weeks ago. Waters are just too warm. We’re gearing up for the bluewater species like dorado and tuna. One of our pangas went out for dorado and came back with…two nice yellowtail! Go figure!
The guys fishing conventionally, did better since they had more to work with. I really felt badly for the flyfishers. With no bait, it’s hard to chum fish up and get them interested. Fortunately, we didn’t have any flyfishers this week, but I know other friends who were out there doing their best in a difficult situation. They resorted to trolling or else using hookless lures to tease fish within casting range.
As for what’s coming up? The conditions look ripe. The waters look good. They are already up into the low to mid-80’s on the surface. Air temperatures in in the mid-90’s. I continue to think we’re right on the cusp of some really good fishing!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
Our amigo, Chris Cribbs, who visits us twice a year is the man behind the fish…a big rooster…one of the largest of the week when the roosters seemed to be all over. That’s the sand of Las Arenas Beach behind Chris. The rooster was released.
Despite the fact that Fabio has mastered the ability to hold the fish closer to the camera to make it larger, this is still a MONSTER cabrilla! Late in the week we had trouble finding sardines for bait so Fabio dragged a big rapala over the rocks and locked into this gorgeous beast of a seabass. (Thanks for the Hawk shot!)
Maybe it was the lucky shirt! If it’s his lucky shirt, I want one! Althought it says “Colorado”…. Actually, Art lives and works above the Arctic Circle as a medic where it’s often 70 degrees below zero! Enjoying the sunshine for the 2nd time this year already, Art really got into the pargo near Espirtu Santo Island having a banner day on the rockfish…maybe the best of anyone so far this year!
We love father-son trips and when the kids outfish dad, it’s even better. Tim Stoklosa poses with his son, Sam, who blew up this huge dog-tooth snapper north of La Paz fishing with Captain Raul. It’s quite a feat to get one of these out’ve the rocks. Over two days, the guys also got some nice roosterfish as well.
On her first trip to La Paz and first time ocean-fishing, Debbie Devine got herself a nice roosterfish on the water with Captain Pancho near the Las Arenas lighthouse. The fish was released after the photo and Debbie lives in Colorado.
Mark Diehl had time for only one day of fishing on a visit from the Portland OR area and made the most of it with this trophy roosterfish that he photo’d and released. Punta Arenas in the background which was the scene of great rooster fishing all week.
The sheer cliffs of northern Cerralvo Island are the backdrop for Gonzo Rodriguez showing off one of his big mullet snapper (pargo liso) fishing with Jim “Hawk” Davis.
Love it when the youngsters are all smiles like Olivia here with Captain Victor and her first roosterfish!
ROOSTERFISH AND PARGO GO OFF BIG TIME!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 6-13, 2012
Roosterfish and pargo really kicked it into a higher gear this past week. As air and water temperatures ratchet up bit by bit and everyone is anticipating the incoming warm-water species, some days it seems like the roosters and pargo just dog-piled onto each other!
With temps in the high 80’s and into the 90’s, the roosterfish were especially voracious. I guess there’s a reason that they call this area the “Roosterfish Capital of the World.” We didn’t get any monsters, but fish in the 5-40 pound class were pretty common. Live sardines slow trolled or drifted were good as were Rapalas and other crank baits.
The roosters were in their normal spots along the sandy areas literally terrorizing schools of bait right up to and onto the sand! However, we were also getting them around the rocky areas of the islands as well as over reefs and high spots where we were fishing for pargo and cabrilla! The faster and more mobile roosters often hit the baits before the pargo or cabrilla could get to them and some of the roosters would blow up in spectacular fashion of of the water. We were even hooking some roosters just offshore in deeper water!
It’s a great time for light tackle, spinning gear and the flyrods as well.
As for the pargo, they are mixing it up with the big cabrilla (seabass) and smaller grouper…that we can stop! Remember that these fish are often in extremely shallow waters and the rocks are almost right below the boats. As soon as you hook up, you have to turn these fish or you’re done…right into the rocks and there’s just no way to win. The cabrilla and pargo we are able to stop are in the 5-20 pound class, but much much bigger fish get away with a hook in their jaws and a length of shredded line trailing behind them!
Most of the anticipation comes from the other condtions we’re seeing. As I said last week, everything just looks primed to blow up any day. Signs of roosters are just one indication, but there’s a ton of sargasso out there floating around and flurries of dorado have been seen under them. As well, schools of fast moving tuna have eluded the pangas and marlin are just starting to wake up and we had several hook ups and break offs this week or, more often, the marlin are just sitting on the surface and not much interested in anything you throw at them, short of running over them with the panga.
Sometimes you are running the panga and hit a “bump bump” and the panga takes a little hop and then there’s a marlin greyhounding away as you realize you just ran over him!
WEEKLY VIDEO
Got some video clips this week. Sorry they’ve been scarce lately, but thought you’d like to see some of our La Paz pangas coming back into Balandra Bay with some nice pargo and cabrilla. Click the link:
We have over 100 video clips on YOUTUBE so feel free to subscribe so you get all the video updates.
Also, we’re on Facebook as well under Tailhunter International Sportfishing if you’d like to see our daily updates!
Hope you all had a great Mother’s Day and have a great week!
That’s our story
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
Not much left of the massive yellowtail bite we had going on for 3 months, but we still found a few. First time angler with us from Florida Joe Hussin hefts up one of several they found fishing the west side of Espirito Santo Island.
In the past few weeks, roosterfish have really taken off. None of the big boys that La Paz has historically been known for but fun school-sized 20-40 pounders have not been uncommon. Captain Victor here helps our buddy Bob Solee of B & B Fishing Rods in Portland OR to hold up a nice pez gallo before releasing it. That’s the rocks of Punta Perico in the background about 50 yards back.
Although he’s not smiling, Belmond Mann and his wife Amy love fishing with Captain Archange at Las Arenas and on this particular day, Bel surprisingly outfished Amy putting this nice pargo liso in the boat. Over two days they got a variety of pargo, cabrilla and snapper. Typical of the weekly bite.
Charlie Gibson fished with us for a while week. Charlie just had his right hand (reeling hand) surgically repaired so when the yellowtail bit off Espiritu Santo Island, he struggled mightily to get the fish to the boat! But, he gritted it out and got 3 ‘tails.
Yes, marlin have started to show and, although they’re not quite in the feeding mode, it could happen any day. The three Rodriguez brothers hooked this one which was not able to be released. It was caught off Cerralvo Island. Reports say that the high spot at the 88 has stripers sitting all over it just waiting for the water temps to go up a tad!
Don and Deb White from Oregon come to see us several times a year and always do well. All week, Don was the “King of Cabrilla” taking big seabass after big seabass. Here, he and Debbie show off two huge cabrilla, a snapper and a barred pargo.
Every now and then they even let me out on the water! I wanted to stay out’ve the way our other pangas so I grabbed a flyrod and we went out to the bonito ground to experience the “pain” of pulling on 10-15 pound horse bonito on a whippy 10wt flyrod…just for fun! OUCH! I still have bruises on my knuckles and forearm. None of these fish took less than 15 minutes to put in the boat! You veteran flyfishers can attest to this! Tough tough fish! We released all of them!
Just had to share this amazing photo with you. Joe Hussin from FLA was fishing with us this week and were in Capt. Archangel’s panga and just about 200 yards of Punta Perico a huge humpback kept breaching around them to the point where they were getting sprayed and splashed. The last one was no more than 30 feet in front of the panga. At that point Capt. Archangel said, “We’re outta here!” Joe caught this amazing shot during on of the jumps…just right…with his iPad!!! It’s poster quality! The waters are full of life right now…porpoise, turtles, whales, birds…an amazing place to be this time of year!
MIXED WEATHER AND MIXED FISHING ADDS VARIETY!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 29-May 5, 2012
It was a mixed week on all levels this week. We had hot muggy sunshine to wind to rain to flat seas and bouncy rolling chop. Sometimes the fish bit better when it was rough. Sometimes they bit better when it was flat as glass. No rhyme or reason. One day , they would all chase baits. The next day the fish would turn their noses up at the bait and only want slow trolled slices of dead fish. Or they wanted only dead sardinas. As one of our clients said ,who fished with us all week, “It was like the fish were picky kids never knowing what they wanted!” The game of the week was trying to figure out where they would be….what they would want…and what they would eat.
It would help that there are so many different conditions on top of the fact that there were so many different species of fish as we hit that “transitional period” when the waters are getting warmer, but there’s some areas of cold and some areas of warmer waters. These differences in water temperatures could be horizontal where you would be in green cooler water in one spot, but move 100 yards to the side and the waters would be warm clear blue. Or, the thermoclines could be vertical. On the surface it could be 75. A few feet down it could drop 10 degrees or, the temp change might not occur for 40 feet.
I was scuba diving last week and I ran into thermoclines on many levels and saw different fish depending on the water temperatures and feeding in different thermoclines. For instance, I found 69 degree water at 25 feet down, but at 40 feet down, I found 72 degree water…it was actually warmer the further I went down. I found pargo in the cooler water swimming but bonito and jacks swimming in the warmer water further down.
Anyway, the bite reflected all the change. I gotta tell ya…the ocean is really full of life, even if you’re not fishing. But the conditions are such that all of us are saying that it just looks like it’s gonna bust open.
There’s so much variety out there. Cooler water fish like yellowtail and big amberjack are sporadically still around. Pargo and big cabrilla are feeding in the rocks and shallows. Along the beaches, the roosterfish are getting livelier as well as the jack crevalle and occasional pompano. Where the water is cooler in the shallows, there are still sierra to be caught as well.
Offshore, sargasso weed is building up and literally strewn across the ocean. Schools of dorado are starting to show although not necessarily ready to eat just yet. Same with the marlin. The big guys are sitting on the surface just sunning. Give another few degrees in water temperature and they’ll start to chew. Just a matter of time. A few were hooked! Flurries of fast moving tuna have also been spotted as well.
We’ll just have to see!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
Tailhunter Fish Report 