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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of 17-24, 2011

Posted in Bahia de Los Muertos, Bahia de los Suenos, Bahia de los Suenos fishing, baja fishing, Baja fishing reports, Baja sportfishing packages, Baja Vacations, Cerralvo Island Fishing, dorado, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, flyfishing, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Paz Vacations, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, marlin, Mexican sportfishing outfitters, Mexican sportfishing packages, mexico fishing, Mexico vacations, Muertos Bay Fishing, pargo, roosterfish, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tuna, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Look at the head on this bull dorado! Randy Pelcher from Bishop CA was on his first trip here and took this big guy on his first day of his trip. There's some big dorado down here right now! Randy got this on a live sardine with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

It was another week where the ladies sometimes outfished the guys! Robin Sawaske from Carpenteria CA, was on her first trip ever and took this 40-pound class dorado fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.

It wasn't a spectacular week for tuna but we did have some nice flurries of tuna off Cerralvo Island that kept the rods bent on fish in the 10-30 pound category. On break from med school in Virginia, Robert Jackson, Jr, mugs with goofball captain Victor holding up a couple of tuna at Las Arenas Beach.

This has probably been one of the slowest wahoo years I can remember. Only a handful so far this season although we've been seeing the occasional fish here and there. But no one has been catching any! At least until Kevin Davis from Mustang, Oklahoma and nephew of our La Paz amigo Hawk Davis got this sweet fish north of Cerralvo Island. I dunno...I think he flew in from Oklahoma with a horseshoe in his back pocket. In additon to this trophy wahoo, he also got a blue marlin and released an 80-pound class roosterfish! Talk about first-timer luck! Great trip!

There's still some variety down here, especially if you fish the rocks inshore like Joe Adler from Mammoth CA who pulled this hefty barred pargo off a reef near Punta Arenas!

It was a good week for our flyfishers, like Spencer Sawaske who had a banner day catching-and-releasing 12 roosters like this one working the rocky eastern shoreline of Cerralvo Island.

Ken Milici lives up in the Eastern Sierras and came down the mountain to fish with us for the first time and is all smiles with this nice Las Arenas yellowftin tuna. The tuna appear to have moved in closer to the island these days.

Incredible colors on this great shot of Dr. Bill Thomas and Captain Jorge with a fresh dorado on the gaff!

It's rare that we have to do much trolling, but Robert Jackson of San Diego, who has been an amigo for years, decided to troll a cedar plug and knocked down a yellowftin tuna and this monster bull dorado...which set off a run of folks looking for cedar plugs at the local La Paz tackle stores!

THE WEEK IN VIDEO and STILL IMAGES

Click the link:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33vtevbrNg4

DODGED A HURRICANE BUT LEFT WITH SCRATCHY FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 17-24, 2004

I guess even bigger than the fishing was the amount of focus garnered by the approach of Hurricane Dora that came up from Central America this past week that had us all watching. Reaching Category 4 status with 150 mph winds and huge seas, early predictions had southern Baja in it’s track. So we waited and watched …and waited and watched…and it’s all everyone talked about all week. At our Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the La Paz waterfront, we were getting the rain ponchos and sandbags ready. We were dreading the weekend since we’ve been full with clients all week and are in the prime of the season.

And then…well…gratefully NOTHING HAPPENED! We did some strong winds and chop with some big swell from the south, but it beat getting battered by Hurricane Dora.  At least we got out fishing and most folks still did OK with the fishing and, although we had to work hard for fish, most folks went home with a load in the coolers.

 The most consistent bite were again the dorado. More prevailant with our La Paz fleet than our Las Arenas fleet, nonetheless, most days it was limits or near limits of mahi ranging from school-sized 5-10 pounders to 20-40 pounders. There might have been some larger ones in the count, but there were some legit 40-50 pounders busted off on lighter tackle after long battles.

 Again, the weed lines north of La Paz were productive areas we as were the areas around SE Espiritu Santo Island, Las Cruces, and Punta Mejia. For our La Las Arenas fleet, dorado were found at the 88 spots, the inner and outer buoys as well as marauding in the areas between Punta Arena lighthouse and South Point of Cerralvo Island.

I don’t know about Las Arenas.  The whole year, the bite there has been anemic.  One week great…next week so-so.  One day great.  Next day we have trouble getting bait.  Hopefully, things will improve.  Some years, La Paz is the tougher side.  This year, it’s just the opposite.  Las Arenas struggles.

For the tuna bite, none of the big sluggers this week, but it seemed that every -other-day for our Las Arenas anglers, the tuna would pop up and everyone would get 3-8 football-sized tuna in the 20-40 pound class. Pretty much the perfect size for most anglers. Enough of a fight without the 1-2 hour battles often ending in heartache when it gets lost. The footballs were plenty work-out for most! Some days the fish, interestingly, would eat only live or dead sardines. The next time they would only eat trolled lures like Rapalas, feathers and for some reason…Cedar Plugs (natural colored) worked nicely when they never seemed to have been very effective before except for catching bonito.

Some other notes…our flyfishermen this week did exceptionally well. Several worked the easter-side of Cerralvo Island and found the schools of 10-15 pound roosters in the shallows that were a great battle on 8-10wt flyrods. Vicki Mitchell from Carmel CA hooked one really sweet 35 pound dorado that put up a big fight and really tore it up on the flyrod for her.

As well, it’s not been a really great wahoo season, but conditions have certainly seemed good for it. However, we’ve caught very few this year. I can only think of a handful taken, but that could also be because no one has really worked the area. Well, this past week, three were hooked and one landed at the north end of Cerralvo Island.

Still quite a few billfish in the area. Sailfish up to 100 pounds and striped marlin up to about 120 were hooked and lost. Most billfish are getting released. However, there were several blues up to about 300 pounds hooked and lost as well plus one fish estimted at possibly being a “grander” (1000 pounder) was seen by some very experienced free divers in the blue water.

That’s our story

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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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:
https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 15-22, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It's like they were just waiting and feeling ignored. The last few weeks everyone was so excited about the tuna and dorado fishing that no one went to chase the wahoo. Then, about 2 weeks ago, a few of our guys took a shot and scored big time. Since then, we're getting daily hits at both the north and south end of Cerralvo Island with fish between 20 and 50 pounds coming up on dark Rapalas and other trolled wahoo rigs. Paul Nagata had a spectacular week with tuna, dorado, pargo, roosterfish and his first wahoo shown here.

Al Cutler from Whitter CA holds up his "new best friend" a big yellowfin tuna cradled in his arm. Great shot! They had some of the "best tuna fishing ever" over three days fishing with our two fleets. The tuna varying in sizes from 5 pound peanuts to fish over 100 pounds continue to roll through our area.

Steve Uretsky and Moise Hendeles from Los Angeles made a last-minute spur-of-the-moment trip to see us and show off their first day catch of tuna and dorado at Las Arenas.

Dave Rose powered all the way down in his truck driving from Denver in two days to get in a some fishing with us when he heard the tuna were biting and was rewarded with some great yellowfin action including this thick YFT taken near the Arenas lighthouse on chunks of squid.

Just a great shot. Young Alex Kruse came fishing for the first time and got out with his family including dad, Tim. Alex struggles to lift one of his dorado he caught fishing north of La Paz with dad and in two days, "I caught all the fish!" he says.

Surprising for this time of year but big pargo have been ripping up tackle and anglers. Normally, we get most of our pargo fishing in during the spring time months, but cooler-than-normal water temps have kept fish like this pargo liso held by Randy Lyons and Captain Pancho as well as yellowtail and cabrilla on the feed in shallow waters.

Pargo and yellowtail in August? You bet! Not very typical, but John Pastorello holds up the proof.

Headed for the sashime plate! Fresh one for Paul Nagata from San Francisco holding one of several nice tuna he took during the week. This one filled up the cooler all by itself. Chunks of fresh giant squid continues to be the hot bait.

Jack Garcia almost canceled his trip when he got a new job back in San Bernardin CA, but was able to put it off as this would be his first trip to La Paz. It paid off. He shows off a nice bull dorado with fresh colors.

Oh-oh...it's that time of year again. It's feeling tropical with occasional showers now and then. Dark ominous clouds looking north off Las Arenas Beach towards Cerralvo Island. While our boats were out, a quick little storm hit that forced all the fleets to pull their boats back to the beach. We figured the storm would pass. All the other fleets called it a day and left the beach. We kept our folks waiting in the vans. In an hour the sun came back out blazing and we shoved off again to find the fishing grounds completely deserted...except for us! We blew up the fish that day! The tuna came hungry and often! Some of the anglers spent the downtime shore fishing or swimming in the warm downpour.

ANGLERS BEND RODS ON TUNA NOW SHOWING UP FOR BOTH LAS ARENAS AND TAILHUNTER FLEETS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 15-22, 2010

Other than a ripping little thundershower one day that chased everyone off the water for about an hour (and then we all went right back out to catch fish), we had some great catches and another solid week of fishing.  Again, waters are cooler than normal for the season so it’s providing us with an incredible variety of fish. 

Our normal warm water species are around such as dorado, billfish, wahoo,  roosters and tuna, but it’s also providing some outstanding and surprising catches of amberjack, pargo, cabrilla and even yellowtail. 

Tuna continue to be centerstage for most of our Las Arenas anglers who are seeing some of the best tuna fishing we’ve had all year and maybe in a long time.  Smaller football-class tuna from 10-25 pounds are close to shore near the lighthouse and south towards Muertos Bay in waters that are incredibly shallow.  As one angler said, “It was crazy.  I got hit by a 40 pound fish and instead of going down like a normal tuna, the thing zinged off about 100 yards of line straight out.  Then I realized we were only in about 20 feet of water!  I could see the bottom.  The tuna had nowhere to go!”

Indeed limits or near limits of the football tuna were available most days.  But the big boys are still around and providing the most drama.

Again, we don’t have much in the way of live sardines, but we’re catching and also buying chunks of live squid and chumming the waters  The tuna are coming to feed and when some of them show up, it’s even scaring some of the anglers.

“We were at the south end of Cerralvo Island on the high spot and were tired of fishing for the smaller tuna close to shore,” said one of our anglers.  “We started tossing chunks of squid into the current and suddenly there were swirls that were half-the-size of the panga!  Then big splashes and the back of a yellowfin about 150 pounds came right up next to the boat and inhaled a piece of squid.  You could look down and see fish that looked even bigger! Out-of-the water, backs of big tuna were rising with that big sickle yellowfin sticking out.  We’re not stupid.  I knew we were not up to fish like that. We went back to look for dorado!” 

Quite a number of anglers tangled with the larger models with battles lasting 1, 2, and even 3 hours and most of the fish breaking the lines and hearts! Most of the fish actually making it to the beach were the 50-80 pound fish. 

“We fought one fish for 3 hours and passed the rod between 4 anglers and two different pangas.  The 60 pound line just snapped!”  One disappointed fisherman said. That was their whole day and they came back with only 2 small dorado for the day.

Dorado have been evening out the catches.  However, not many big mahi.  A “large” dorado right now would only be about 20 pounds.  I don’t know where the big bull are, but there’s plenty of 10-15 pounders running around right now in various spots.  They are also eating squid and chunks of bonito.

For our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, dorado have been 90 percent of the catch.  The fish are holding in various places but the bite has normally been later in the morning or early afternoon so fishermen need to be a bit patient.  If you can find a big patch of floating weeds all the better.  Something to keep an eye on  is that in the channel later in the week, 20 pound-class yellowfin tuna showed up which was a nice topper for a day of dorado fishing. 

Other species we’re watching:

Yellowtail – every other day someone hooks a hog…20-40 pound fish only about 30-40 feet down near the reefs. 

Roosterfish – big beasts can be seen prowling the sandy beaches.  Several large fish were hooked and lost this week.  One captain estimated one fish at about 80 pounds hooked in about 5 feet of water

Wahoo – No one had been fishing for them until about a week or so ago because everyone was concentrating on tuna.  Then at both the north and south end of Cerralvo Island, trolled lures started hooking wahoo between 20 and 50 pounds.  One angler hooked 4 and two came unbuttoned, but the fish have definitely been there.  Dark trolling sub-surface lures are best that run deep.

That’s our story. Have a great week!

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.”

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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Aug. 1-7, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, Cerralvo Island Fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, jonathan roldan, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, La Ventana Fishing, Las Arenas fishing, mexico fishing, Muertos Bay Fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Tony Toven from Los Angeles had gotten enough "football tuna" and asked Captain Pancho to try for one of the bigger models. He hooked up on a big chunk of fresh squid over the trench off Las Arenas and was in for a big fight. By the time they got it to gaff, the fish had towed the panga into shallow water (see the photo below). The fish weighed in at 63 pounds (on a scale). Tuna continued to crash this past week for our anglers!

This is what a 63 pound tuna looks like at gaff next to the panga. Note the color of the water. The fish had towed the panga all the way back to shore into water that was only a few feet deep!

If you ever wanted to see what a world-class roosterfish looks like, Dave Lester from Temecula and Captain Jorge hold up a beast pez gallo just off the beach. These are the types of fish that made the Las Arenas famous. This 70 -pound class fish was one of several that he took on a special trap-hook setup using a big live bait slow trolled in the shallow water. This is the same area where the world-record 114 pound roostefish was caught...twice the size of this trophy. Dave released every one of his roosters!

Northern Cal residents Dave Tyree and Steve Artis did some serious damage to the fish population over 5 days of fishing using light rods and tackle. Here's a load of yellowfin tuna like the kind that kept crashing all week in various spots. Most fish have been in the 10-25 pound class but other larger fish continue to prowl and frustrate anglers after long battles.

Big smiles and a big fish for 12-year-old Jared Esquival from Hacienda Heights CA on his first trip with his family to fish our area. The dorado are getting bigger every month and are schooling up in various areas eating live bait, slow trolled stripped bait and chunked fresh bait.

Hard to believe, but yes, we're getting yellowtail in August. That just means there's gotta be some cold water down there mixing it up. Yellowtai are normally around for us in February to May...sometimes into June, but it's I can't remember ever catching yellowtail this deep into the summer. Joe Bishop put the hurt on this big hamachi fork-tail using a big piece of dead sqiud.

Family shot! Love this photo...From left Flower, Jorge Sr., little Mia and Jorge, Jr. Grijalva...then Vicki and her son Jared Esquival all on a family vacation and standing at Las Arenas beach. They plugged two boats with tuna and dorado over two days and had a marlin get away as well.

It was a good week for the larger roosters. Dave Wilson caught and released this fish just off the Punta Perrico rocks.

Back in the sunshine! Amigo Ron Burgess recently re-located from Brianshead Utah where he ran a ski resort back to S.California closer to his Baja fishing and shows off a nice barred pargo.

SUMMERTIME BLAST CONTINUES WITH TUNA AND DORADO BENDING RODS!

Las Arenas/ La Paz Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 1-7, 2010

It was almost like the “old days” around here this past week.  It was like the days you read about in the magazines.  Lots of guys didn’t know what to do with all the fish they caught. 

Their biggest “problem” was realizing that even after giving away fish and releasing fish when it came time to fly home, their ice chests were WAY too heavy!  It was a good problem and one that most just laughed about and chatted about having to have a quick weekend barbecue to get rid of all the excess fish that wouldn’t fit in the home freezers.

Honestly, for both our Tailhunter La Paz and our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, that bite that started during the full moon just flared bigger! 

Our Tailhunter La Paz fleet keep rolling up on the dorado schools.  Most of the fish continue to be about 10-15 pounds, but there were many other fish into the 20-30 pound class and a few larger too that were lost.  Fish were found in a scattered area, but often the bite would be slower until later then big schools would be located and it would blow into a dorado rodeo. 

“We trolled and drifted for hours without much except big bonito and needlefish.  Then, all of a sudden, we found the biggest line of sargasso weed and even before we got there, you could tell it was alive! There were flying fish around it and birds diving on it and a sea turtle swimming through it and all kinds of nervous water!”  said one of our anglers.  “We threw some sardines and chunked bonito at it and the whole thing exploded with dorado!  We had triple instant hookups that went on for a good hour until we said no more.  We released at least half the fish we hooked.”

That was pretty typical for many of our La Paz anglers.  One boat decided they had enough dorado and asked our captain to head for the rocks to look for other species and got a box load of pargo, cabrilla, roosters and jacks as well.

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, it was crazy as ever.  The bad news was that there was very little live bait in the way of sardines so the guys laughingly had to start each day pulling up giant squid from  deep deep down.  It’s quite a chore and in no time guys are drenched in sweat!

The good news however, was that EVERYTHING was eating the squid…tuna,  big yellowtail, pargo, dorado and even marlin were all hooked on squid chunks this week. 

The tuna bite changed, but no one complained.  The previous weeks BIG BIG tuna were not uncommon, but some of the fish were so big that many anglers would come back blanked after fighting the sluggers for up to 3 hours.  After awhile, that stops being fun. 

Instead this week, much more manageable football tuna between 10 and 25 pounders were the norm and many anglers got daily limits of tuna to mix up with dorado and other species such as pargo and roosterfish.   We had a number of kids fishing with us this week and this size of tuna was ideal for the youngsters to get into.

One of the largest fish of the week was a 40 pound beast of a yellowtail taken by 10-year-old Jorge Grijalva of Hacienda Heights.  It was Jorge’s first time fishing and he took the fish on 30 pound test.  Unfortunately, he also busted dad’s custom-wrapped Calstar rod on the fish!  Dad was still pretty proud.

If you check out the photos above, you’ll also see photos of a big time tuna and roosterfish.  No telling how long this bite will last.  I’m growing to expect the “unexpected” the way this season has been!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate


“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

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