Scott McKenzie from Seattle WA and his sisters Jana and Lauren have fished with us many times for many years and caught all kinds of fish with us including marlin that they released. But this one was quite a story. While fishing with our Tailhunter fleet at Bahia de Los Muertos, they caught a few dorado the saw a marlin on the surface. They tossed a bait at it and the fish went off. Over three hours, the three of them battled the fish on a light rod and 40-pound test. However, during the first hour they almost had the fish to the boat and it was battling down and bulldogging without doing much jumping. Suddenly the big striper went ballistic as two killer whales started to chase it! During the balance of the battle, the fish stayed largely airborne trying to avoid the killer whales which circled the marlin and the panga adding quite a measure of excitement. They finally got the fish to the boat but were not able to revive it…but the marlin probable didn’t want to go back in the water anyway. The killer whales kept circling and finally swam off.
The McKenzie marlin gets air as it’s being chased by the killer whales!
Happy Birthday to me! Our good amigo, Mike Whitlow from Kennewick, WA came down to celebrate #50 with us. He’s a spectacular light tackle fisherman and pro bass guy too! He got himself this nice rooster on light tackle and did a great release after the photo! Feliz cumpleanos, amigo!
Some images from Mike Whitlow’s 50th birthday party at Tailhunter Restaurant! Good time had by all! Thanks for sharing, Mike and Wendy!
Darryl “Buffalo Soldier” Poindexter…one of the nicest and funnest guys on his first trip regretfully, only got to fish one day before the storm hit us ,but he made the most of it with a good day of dorado fishing like this nice bull he presses overhead!
It was FUGLY! Norbert eventually turned into a Cat 3 hurricane that by now has gone up the Baja coast and is dropping rain on the SW United States, but not before doing some pretty bad damage to Baja coastal areas. Gratefully, La Paz didn’t get hit too hard, but enough to put the clamp on fishing. Better to be safe and dry with a cold one.
When you can’t fish…fishermen very often…find other means of entertainment! Thanks to everyone this week, including Alex Trasvina and his boys who kept grinning even tho’ they had only one day to fish and had to cancel. They ended up at Tailhunter Restaurant watching football and raising their glasses! Salud, Fish Brothers! The “Tequila Bandito” says you rock!
This is another great story. Adam Florence all the way from Kansas was fishing with Captain Pancho. He went to Walmart here in La Paz and got a cheapo freshwater spinning rod with 8 lb. test. He got bit big time and this bull dorado was all he could handle almost spooling him. They had to chase it down with the boat!
Great shot and super fish by Wade Ralston who visited us from Washington on his first trip down. Punta Perrico in the background right off the rocks. Wade is a light tackle guy and fishes bass tournaments professionally. He did a great catch-and-release on this pez gallo.
Nick Petrilli and his son, Nick, Jr. had a banner day out’ve Las Arenas with Captain Pancho and a slammer of mahi.
Just after the storm, the waters started to get back to normal. Dave Sundgren and Steve Rosebaugh hold up a nice pair on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos!
GOOD FISHING SLAMMED BY STORM NORBERT
ALTHOUGH LA PAZ ESCAPES DAMAGE
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-7, 2014
It was a worrisome week on alot of levels. The previous week had been one of the slowest weeks of fishing for the season for no apparent reason. All the signs were there for good fishing, yet the fish just either didn’t show up or just weren’t ready to cooperate. It wasn’t just slow, it was dead.
So, we jumped into this week not knowing what was going to happen. It was a tale of two completely different weeks…
EARLY IN THE WEEK
As it turned out, the fishing came back to life! Maybe not full blast, but compared to the previous week, we were rocking with bent rods and good variety. Both of our fleets…the Tailhunter fleet in Las Arenas and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets found dorado between 8 and 15 pounds on the average, but also some of the trophy bulls running 20-40 pounds. Limits were not uncommon and it was good to see that some times there were so many fish that anglers were releasing them as fast as they could go or at least kicking back the small ones! It’s been a few weeks since we had that kind of bite. Moreso, we often had double…triple…and quadruple hookups!
Even better, for our Las Arenas fleet where it’s really been a struggle sometimes, we not only had dorado, but a surprising number of sailfish and marlin were hooked between 70 and 200 pounds. Most were released, but really did a number for some of the guys using light tackle.
As well, rooster fish showed up again between 10 and 50 pounds and we even had a few wahoo hooked up although none made it back to the boats! Add in some big bonito…jack crevalle…some pargo and snapper and it made for a pretty decent week of fishing.
During this whole time, we were all watching the weather…and watching…and watching. Norbert started as a little blip…it got bigger and bigger…and went to tropical storm level. But like so many other storms that have appeared on the horizon down south, the tracking for the storm showed it was going out to the Pacific and wouldn’t do more than drop a little rain on us. We were sure that like all the other storms, it would continue to veer out and away from Baja.
It didn’t…
LATTER HALF OF THE WEEK
Tropical Storm Norbert became Hurricane Norbert and would eventually reach a category 3 ripper. Although La Paz did not suffer extensive damage, in areas of Cabo and along the Pacific Coast, there was extensive flooding and damage. Several thousand people had to be evacuated and over 1000 homes were damaged. At the time of writing this, there was at least 1 fatality related to the storm.
For us in La Paz, the heavy wind and rain hit us just as we were launching in the early dark of Thursday morning. Rain began to pelt and the winds began to howl. And it got stronger. We all went for cover and hunkered down. And hunkered down.
For three days pretty much everyone had to sit it out. The roads to Las Arenas got flooded. Mud everywhere. While La Paz pretty much did not flood. there were intermittent bits of heavy wind…rain…drizzle…and more rain as the storm passed. AND THE PORT WAS CLOSED! So, we couldn’t even get out if we wanted to. For safety measures, the port captain kept the port bottled up and prevented anyone from leaving until mid-morning Saturday.
It was really bad especially for some of our many anglers who never got to fish before having to go home. Or only getting to fish 1 day or 2 days. And, when they did get to fish, conditions weren’t the best. If it wasn’t windy or wet, then the waters, even after the storm passed, were turned over green and muddy. Hat’s off to so many guys who grinned and were patient and still kept smiling while we did our best to control things of which we had no control. You guys and gals are the best!
It wasn’t until Sunday that we finally started to see some changes in the water and some better fishing action with dorado, billfish and pargo waking up.
This coming week, as you’re reading this looks like it might have some of the best weather we’ve seen in awhile. Hopefully, it lets the fishing come ripping back!
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, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
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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.”
Tailhunter Fish Report 