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Posts Tagged ‘panga fishing’

It was a pretty good week for long drawn out battles and bent rods! Rod Brown, our Alaska amigo, and popular Captain Jorge who can only watch as the minutes start to pile up!

Typical of this week's tuna, Sed Roldan and Bob Dominguez of Hacienda Hts. CA heft up a few of their yellowfin tuna taken just south of Cerralvo Island. Most days the boats averaged 1-4 of these fish per day, but the fish were a nice-grade 25-45 pound fish that often took close to an hour to put aboard, especially since the fish preferred light line!

John McVay from Valencia CA finds his way to us each year for about 5 days of hardcore fishing. Hard to argue with a first day of 8 fat tuna. Maybe one of the best days that any of our amigos have had all year with the yelllowfin. About day 3, John actually hurt his elbow on these slugger fish and had to beg off his last day to get some therapy on his arm! John's a good angler. These fish can be pretty brutal.

The last thing a sardine sees before it goes into the pie hole of a big tuna! All the way from S. Caroline, Luke strikes a pose with his yellowfin at Muertos Bay.

Most of you reading this report will see this photo and the next and say..."What in the world is THAT?" In 16 years down here, I've rarely gotten to see a photo of one myself, but these are the much sought-after fish called the SNOOK! (ROBALO). Highly treasured gamefish and great eating, they're normally found around structure or in pilings or shallow water or in the channels, of bays or in the mangroves. They are supposedly great eating and can get up to 40 or 50 pounds. In all my years here, only a handful have been caught. Rod Brown and his brother Jeff (photo below) were fishing the island with Captain Joel and they said, all of a sudden, the school of snook came up and tore into them!

Jeff Brown from Minnesota, joined his brother, Rod (photo above) and Captain Joel and show off more of the snook they caught at the island. A remarkable catch. The fish only stayed around for a short while, but you can see how close to shore they were fishing.

We keep getting asked if there are roosterfish still around. Hmmmm...you think? That's Punta Perico in the back. Thanks for our buddy, Roger Thompson, for the shot of Larry Rose from Long Beach with this bad boy that they released. We actually got some nicer grade roosters at the end of the week in the 30-60 pound class.

Oh yea...this one too! Mike Wythe and Captain Hugo with another beast. (released).

Lest you think we're not catching dorado, actually yes...we're getting good numbers of dorado with our La Paz fleet. Dorado have been our bread-and-butter fish. Pretty reliable if you want to have some fun and want some fillets for the cooler! Also, for those who wonder if I still got game and get out on the water...yes I do! This is me and my dad who visited us this week.

Cute couple of the week and also first-timers with us...Lance and Kim Miles from Utah had some good days of fishing with us!

Childhood friends who now live in 3 different states, Jonathan Duc Le, Matt Trinh and Hau Pham from Texas, Colorado and New Mexico try to get together at least once a year. This year they picked us to visit and got into some good doardo and tuna fishing.

Randy Sharon and I went to law school together and it's always great to see him. Captain Armando helps out with this thick fat yellowfin tuna.

It's a long way from S. Carolina to Baja and Jerry Wansack planned the trip for 3 years to make it down...and then made it worth his while by fishing the whole week getting tuna, dorado and roosterfish for his efforts.

WEEKLY FISHING VIDEO CLIPS!

Got some GREAT stuff this week including underwater shots of tuna and dorado.  It’s a bit longer than normal, but turn up the sound and check this out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEq_4b1gydI

FULL MOON KINDER TO US THIS TIME…FISH CHEW NICELY!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 9-16, 2011

It wasn’t too bad of a week of fishing, alll things considered. (Full moon…high tides…some winds left over from the hurricane!)  We were surely a bit nervous as the week kicked off. 

 

First, we were surely watching the full moon which was big as all get-out.  Normally, the full moon is no biggie, but this year, I don’t know what it is.  The full moon has really played games with our fishing. 

 

Second, we were glued to our web pages and weather channels following 4 different storms to the south of us (including Hurricane Jova that ended up dumping alot of water on Puerta Vallarta)  that had our phones ringing and our e-mails buzzing.  “Should we cancel our trip?”

 

Fortunately the storms failed to materialize except for one day of strong winds that stumped the fishing and the full moon didn’t yank our chain too hard…and the fish bit!

 

The tuna bite off Las Arenas was hardly over-the-top, but it was a decent week for fish in the 25-45 pound shot.  These were thick muscular stubborn growling fish.  Most folks had a shot at 1 or 2 and that was pretty much it.  No mas!  Either the bite shut off or folks were done and wanted to fish for something a little more forgiving.  I mean, most of these fish were close to an hour to put on the boat!  That’s a long time for most people.  The bite was off the south end of Cerralvo Island.  Some days it started really early.  As soon as baits were put in the water…WHAM!  Hook up! 

 

Other times, the bonito went crazy until about 11 or so then the tuna moved in.  The one hitch in everything was the sardine situation.  The sardines are smaller than your little finger.  They  are so small you can’t put them on a hook without impaling them and killing them so we’re fishing them dead.  Just chunking and drifting big handfuls in the water and making the tuna come up for them. Except for one day when we literally got only 1 bonito per boat/day, most days it’s been 1-5 yellowfin tuna per boat/day with our Las Arenas fleet.

 

With our La Paz fleet, well, the dorado were off just a tad, but overall, still pretty reliable fishing for dorado in the 10-20 pound class with occasional 30 pounders in the box.  Sometimes we’d hit a big school and it would be crazy as every rod goes off. Other times, it was a pick bite with 1 here…1 there…and at the end of the day, there would be a box of dorado on the boat.  You could never tell.  Our hot spots moved from Las Cruces off Cerralvo Island to the waters west of Espirito Santo Island. 

 

With other species we had a nice batch of sailfish and marlin hook ups this week.  No one was really fishing for them, but the billfish came up and bit.  Most of the fish were lost or released, but made for some good unexpected fun.  Also, good bites of pargo , cabrilla and roosterfish, some larger ones late in the week,  in the shallows.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

 

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 


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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Team Owner Hooks showed up to fish our tuna bite this week. Popular fishing personality, Dennis Yamamoto of Owner Hooks (middle) brought all the guys down for 3 days and got into fish between 25-45 pounds fishing with our Tailhunter Las Fleet. We had a great time with them. From left to right: Maurice Nakagawa; Ken Imoto; Gerry Koyama; Randy Kanemaki; Dennis Yamamoto; Miles Nakahara; Clark Saito; Dennis Fong...thanks guys!

Our buddy, Dan McCormick, from Oregon escaped the OR rain this week and shows off the type of quality tuna we got off Las Arenas. Dan got 5 of these slugs this day.

Lots of our veteran anglers, many with lots of tuna experience, were telling us that "These tuna were fighting like fish alot bigger!" Jeff Brown (Minnesota) , Captain Jorge, and Rod Brown (Alaska), our amigos who visit us twice a year, fished an entire week with us and spent anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or more on each hookup with yellowfin. We had some clients spent over 2 hours on their fish and lots of anglers commented that for some reason, these fish fought like tuna much much larger. It also didn't help that the fish preferred light tackle so 20-30 pound line got bit the most.

Just so you don't think we only caught tuna this week, Rich Miles from Utah justifiably shows off the beast of a bull dorado he caught north of La Paz with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. We didn't catch as many dorado this week as in the past, but the quality seemed to make up for the loss of quantity with bigger and better fish like this beast.

Like I said, these fish were "beasts in battle." Check out our great friends, Jorge Romero and Bob Duncan from Santa Barbara. Look closely at Bob's mouth. He's holding the tip of his custom rod that got snapped off while fighting a tuna.

Roger Van Steenkiste is 84-years-old often comes to visit us in La Paz twice a year and usually outfishes and out-lasts all of his younger sons and friends. Here, he's showing off some dorado with our other amigo, Jerell Mulhollan from New Jersey.

Grandpa and grandson, Jeremy and Jim Reeves at Las Arenas with Jeremy's first tuna. No word on if Grandpa Jim made him eat the heart!

Our San Diego connection for the week, amigo Jock Argust, put this nice slug yellowfin tuna in the box. The bite was really strange this week. One day there would be 1-2 fish per boat. The next day the fish would come up boiling and produce 4-6 fish per boat.

VIDEO HIGHTLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK

Got some good stuff this week.  Check out the images and video clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjzVB-7Sw6g

SCRAPPY TUNA AT LAS ARENAS PICKY BUT HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 2-9, 2011

It’s a bit difficult to characterize the week.  If you’re looking at sheer numbers, it wasn’t a very good week of fishing.  I mean, 1-5 fish per panga/day doesn’t sound like much.  And it’s not.  You’d be right. Even the dorado, which had been our bread-and-butter fish, weren’t exactly cooperative.

 

However, the other side of the coin is that the fish we DID catch…they were generally bruisers! And one or two fish could fill a cooler.

 

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, the tuna were anemic and picky but no doubt they were there.  Early in the week it started with 25-30 pound fish.  By the end of the week it was 30-45 pound fish with some 50’s, 60’s and even and estimated 140 pounder on the beach!  The fish were selective and generally only hitting light tackle in the 20-40 pound lines so that meant long drawn out battles of 45, 60, 90 or even (in two cases)…almost 3 hours on fish.  That’s a butt-kicker in the hot Baja sun.

 

So, when you look at the numbers, and that it takes that long to get a fish to the boat, not many fish show up in the counts.  Also, take into effect that you could fight a fish for an hour or so…and then BOING…YOU LOSE IT!  There goes an hour of fishing time.  GONE!  The school might be gone by then.  You don’t get many shots.  So, it’s a gamblers odds on putting fish in the panga.  If you put 3, 4, or 5 of these sluggers in the boat, you’re both good AND lucky!

 

Some notes, often the tuna bite has been late in the day.  Some days the fish are all over the waters and you can see them running under the boat.  And they won’t eat a single bait.  Also, the baits are incredibly small.  I’ve never seen baits this small. I’m not kidding.  Some of these baits are about 2-3 inches long!!!  So, if you’re coming down, you want small strong hooks.  We had  Dennis Yamamoto and the Team from Owner hooks with us and all of them are experienced tuna fishermen and they were using flyline Owner hooks and 20-30 pound lines and even they lost some fish but still took home full coolers. 

 

“These fish just seemed to fight larger than fish their size! I couldn’t believe it!” said one of our guys from Oregon

 

“After 3 days of fishing, not a single fish took less than an hour!” said another.  “And these fish were mostly 25-35 pounds, but fought like 50 pounders.  I do San Diego long range and have fished Baja before ,but these fish seemed like they were juiced or something!”

 

For some of our anglers, 1 or 2 of these beast tuna was enough for the day. “We decided to go fish for roosterfish after those first fish,” said one of our fishermen.  “I really wanted to experience catching a tuna and now I know.  Those things pull alot harder than salmon or halibut!”

 

Anyway, it was the same with many of our dorado as well. Fewer fish this week again.  Normally, we’ve been catching limits or near limits for the entire summer.  However, the last two weeks it’ dwindled to 2-6 dorado per boat.  However, again, it’s quality over quantity.  We’re seeing larger and stronger bulls in the mix.  A number of fish were in the 25-30 pound class and 40 pounders were caught every day with one fish estimated at over 50 pounds taken as well.

 

Not sure what the next week will bring.  It seems every week is a surprise. 

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

 

               

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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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Although the main focus has been on the tuna and dorado bite, roosterfish are still around and are a great trophy catch. Trudy wanted one of these and got it just off the Las Arenas lighthouse which is a world-reknowned "roosterfish alley." The pretty fish took a live sardine and was quickly released after the photo.

Our Sacramento amigo, Wade Gomes, comes to visit us yearly and shows off one of the nicer dorado we've been getting with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. The bite was a little stickier this week than normal, but schools of dorado are definitely around and the bite got better as the week went on.

Shane Grove from Utah gets a special mention. Y'know some guys will wear our Tailhunter t-shirt. Some sport our Tailhunter stickers. Take a look at the inset photo. Shane went and got our Tailhunter logo tatooed on his shoulder! This so rocks! Thanks, Fish Brother. Oh...nice dorado too!

Our yellowfin tuna at Las Arenas were better than last week when we had the full moon, but still not exactly wide open on the bite. Our pangas averaged 1-5 tuna per boat and the bite was late in the day. Fish went 20-30 pounds on the average like the nice trio of tuna caught by our buddy, Leif Dover, who came ovef from Hong Kong where he works. This was his 2nd trip to see us in two months! He's an animal fisherman!

Over the last few weeks, the ladies have really been doing well. Marsha Barnett, on her first trip to La Paz, spent 3 days catching dorado like these. She's holding this one after her first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet.

Another of our lady anglers who had a banner week, Kathy Terbu, from Utah pulled this nice bull out of the waters west of Espiritu Santo Island. The bite for our La Paz fleet was a little off but dorado got hungier as the week went on.

Johnny Terbu had a banner week of fishing and snorkeling with us and all the while kept his flyrod handy just-in-case. On his last day, the dorado boiled up all around the boat and he was able to get in some casts hooking up on dorado like this one in the channel between Cerralvo Island and Las Cruces. Here's what John said: " Awesome trip! Best day we had was 13 Dorado! Done by 12:00 noon. Also, got the 1 tuna I wanted. Even got one onthe fly rod! 12 wt. isn't big enough. Go big or stay home.Can't wait til next trip. Thanks so much for a wonderful trip and condo!"

POST – FULL MOON BITE IMPROVES WITH BETTER DORADO AND TUNA FISHING

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 2009

It wasn’t the best of weeks for fishing, but it was certainly better than the week before when we had the full moon playing games with us.  It was still scratchy fishing but the fish were more cooperative to a degree.  But, we still had to work hard for them.  Things were compounded by the fact that many days the bite was late in the day.  So, sometimes guys would get out to the spot and sit there…and sit there…and sit there…and work the area with their captain.

 

There’s only so much patience.  And, in some cases, they’d get the captains to leave the spot and go hunt for roosterfish or cabrilla or some other species.  Those boats that stuck around would suddenly get rewards with biters of tuna or dorado.  It’s just a matter of knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em.  Of course, being fish…sometimes sitting at one spot didn’t do much good either and the guys who pulled off found some action.

 

Anyway, for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, tuna were the center stage again.  Fish were a bit larger this week.  Most fish were in the  20-25 pound class, which is a real bull for alot of folks, but there were others in the 30-40 pound class and some larger that anglers never saw and busted off.   If you count up 1-5 tuna per boat/day then add in a few dorado and about 20 bonito and the occasional roosterfish, it’s an arm-tiring day especially in some cases where all the pandemonimium doesn’t even start until late in the day!

 

For our La Paz fleet, well, the dorado continue to be good to us and honestly, the mahi are our bread-and-butter-fish.  All summer we could count on them to bend the rods and fill the ice chests.  This week, they were a little more reluctant.  Not so crazy, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in quality.  Quite a few fish were in that nice grade 30-40 to pound size!  So, one or two fish could stuff a fish box very easily and it wasn’t unusual to see big tails sticking out of the fix boxes because the whole fish wouldn’t fit with the lids on.

 

Knock on wood, we did dodge hurricane Hillary that kept our attention most of the week and had us answering phone calls and e-mails from clients wondering if they should still come down.  I don’t want to spit in the face of the weather-gods but Hillary fizzled and we didn’t even get any strong winds or storms.  We were pretty happy about that, needless to say.  We still have to keep an eye on the weather as we wind down the season, but it’s clear that fall is coming.  Shadows are longer.  It’s a tad cooler.  A bit breezier.  We hope the fish keep biting.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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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It was a great week for BIG dorado and probably none larger than this 45-pound best that our amigo Angela "TPG" Farrell from Oceanside CA nailed just off Cerralvo Island fisihng with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Tim, her husband, lends a hand and a big smile on ths fish. Tim got his own big fish...a huge 50 pound rooster the next day. The dorado were hungry all week and we had both quality and quantity. Angela and Tim make at least one trip a year to visit us and always do well!

Man of bronze with tuna! Steve Artis holds up a nice 20-pound class yellowfin tuna he picked off Cerralvo Island fishing with Captain Archangel. There were little flurries of football tuna every few days near the island, but nothing wide open so the few that were caught were welcome catches. Smaller sardines and cedar plugs worked well.

It was a week for some really nice quality bull dorado typical of this time of year like this big bull held by Ronnie Collins on his first trip with us at Tailhunter

Sometimes, it's not the size of the fish...it's the size of the smile and the kid in all of us, especially when it's your first fish and it's a pretty dorado like Eric Sirkow's fish with Captain Archangel.

Funny guy, our amigo, Paul Nagata from the San Francisco got some nicer tuna, but chose to pose with this bruiser of a yellowfin that he caught with our Las Arenas fleet. Everday, it seemed we got a handful of footballs and hopefully, the bite will come on stronger.

Hug your catch! Our buddy, John Pastorello from Fullerton CA hugs a real pretty dorado fresh out-of-the-water. He and his crew had banner 3 days of fishing with us. Great colors on this fish!

Speaking of great colors...Dr. Desmond Sjaufowkloy often comes to see us and comes at the last-minute to get in on a quick bite and always puts fish in the boat like this great photo of him with one of his many dorado. Again...great colors!

You will never find a better guy than Art Savedra from Las Vegas...pro race car driver and owner of ARTS off-road race car tech. The man drives and the man fishes and does both well. Using his mini Whopper Stopper rod, Art put the wood to the fish for 3 straight days then decided to try SCUBA diving with us for the first time and did that great as well!

Jon Luker has been with us many years, but Shane Foster was on his first trip and got into some great fishing over 3 days packing in dorado as well as tuna like these!

Nate and Darrell were on their first day fishing with us and had their day interrupted when we had a quick summer storm hit and everyone had to run back to the beach and wait it out. However, after about an hour we sent the boats back out and everyone got hooked up on marlin, sailfish and dorado like the ones the guys got here!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Some good footage and still images from the week!  Click the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZAsl6pdF6Q

DORADO PUT ON A SHOW FOR ANGLERS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 22-28, 2011

It was a not only a week for good dorado fishing, but a week for big dorado as well.  Especially if you were fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, the action was fast and furious.  Sometimes, our boats were back onshore at the beach by 10:30 or 11 each day with the anglers tired, laughing and saying, “no mas!”  

 

“We released twice what we caught!” said one. 

“We were barely out of the bay after getting bait,” said another of our fishermen “and in an hour it was some of the crazy fishing I have ever seen.  There were so many dorado around the boat!”

“It took us longer to catch bait than to fill up on limits plus release many other dorado.  We had some 20-40 pound fish, but there it looked like there were others in the school but the smaller fish would beat them to the bait.  We had double and triple hookups solidly for most of the time!”

 

“No sooner did my wife boat one fish then the captain was handing her another rod with another fish one while I tried to film all the action!  We caught limits then then went to catch pargo and roosterfish!  We were laughing all day!”

 

And so it went.  One angler laughingly complained that he filled his ice chest in one day and still had 4 more days to fish!

 

The crazy thing was that along with all the smaller schoolie sized fish there were so many more larger bulls this week.  We’ve had some great weeks of dorado fishing, but I don’t re-call having so many larger fish in any recent weeks. For many of our fishermen and fisherladies, it was their largest fish they had ever caught.  For many of our first-timers they got spoiled right out the gate with such quality as well as quantity.

 

For our Las Arenas fleet, it wasn’t quite so good.  It was a bit scratchier, but there were still some good catches in between some slower days.  A boat might do poorly, but the next boat would get into a good bite.  Dorado were the mainstay just like with our La Paz fleet, but as well, there were some good quality fish in the mix with 20-30 pounders not uncommon.  Additionally, what we lost in quanity of fish was made up for by the variety of fish that were available.  In addition to the dorado, there were some smatterings of tuna, pargo, roosterfish, cabrilla and some really nice bites on sailfish and marlin that were amongst the dorado and bonito schools feeding that seems to show no hesitation grabbing a hooked sardine.  Some anglers had some real thrills having a billfish hooked on light tackle.

 

If you’re planning on coming down in the near future, several things to mention…

 

We had some little baby tropical storms this last week.  It’s that time of the year when some pretty hard downpours come through.  It might rain for a just a few minutes most times and one panga might get wet but 100 yards away another is bone dry.  Having a cheap pancho or windbreaker isn’t a bad idea.  Several creative guys brought the big trash bags from their rooms and just cut holes in them for their heads and arms and kept on laughing and fishing in the rain!

 

For gear…plain wooden cedar plugs seem to be the rage of the season.  You might want one or two.  Also, flurocarbon leader in 20-40 pound test is a good thing to bring along as well as smaller live bait hooks for some of the smaller sardines.  A #2 and a #4 sized hook is good to have as well as 1/0, 3/0 and 5/0 hooks.  The tuna we found this week at the smaller baits.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

 

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 

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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It’s a bit of a trek from Montana and S. Dakota for Cliff Garber, Colton Nye, Chris Voller, Ryan Baumgart who were on their first trip to La Paz. Two days of good fishing produced nice catches of dorado for the guys…typical of the action this week!

Scott McKenzie from Seattle already made one trip to see us in the spring and has another trip booked next month in September, but last week brought his sisters, Jana M. and Lauren Moser down on their first trip to La Paz. Jana just took the California Bar Exam last week. Lauren is still in law school and all had an excellent trip. (See Steve’s accounts below!)

Our good buddy, Wally Lee, from San Francisco visits us yearly and shows off one of the dorado he caught during his 3 days fishing. However, he caught over a dozen species oveall including cabrilla, yellow snapper, pompano, and several species of pargo.

Yellowfin tuna were again elusive this week, but they threw a few teases at us at the south end of Cerralvo Island like this pair that Captain Victor found. (thanks for the shot, Hawk!)

Here’s at you! Jeff Lee poses with Captain Jorge and a nice big pompano caught off the sand near the Las Arenas lighthouse. Great eats! The fish tend to school right where the sand slides off into deeper water.

You don’t get many of these in Montana! Chris Voller holds up a fresh mahi on the sand at Las Arenas. Both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets did well on dorado this past week.

There weren’t alot of trophy-sized dorado this week, but nice -grade fish such as this dorado shown with Jana Moser and Captain Victor were pretty typical and it wasn’t unusual to get limits or near limits daily of the hungry colorful fish!

LATE SUMMER DORADO STILL ON THE CHEW!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 14-21, 2011

Well, the full moon didn’t play games on us this time and Hurricane Greg went wide left so all-in-all, a good week of fishing, especially if you came to load up on dorado fillets!  For both our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets, dorado were 90% of the catch most days if that’s what you wanted to do.  The fish are fast, feisty, hungry and fun!  Pretty much all you want in a sportfish and since we had so many first timers with us this week, they were perfect gamefish during a pretty solid week.

 

Most of the fish weren’t big by any means, but 10-20 pound grade fish were the norm and more than enough for some anglers to handle, especially after a full-day of rod bending.  Theere were some larger 25-35 pound fish and some larger ones lost, but most were that medium-class mahi.  Some days, the schools were even smaller with lots of 5 pounders providing crazy action as it’s amazing what a voracious dorado will hit when it’s in full turbo but as one angler told me, “They were fun and we must have caught and released a dozen for every one we kept.  It was a blast!”  So, no shortage of action.

 

I think the surprising action was found by our anglers that decided to fish inshore.  During this time of year, most fisher-folk like fishing the blue water for the “glamour species” like the dorado, tuna, marlin, wahoo, etc. ”  The inshore stuff gets ignored but since almost no one is fishing inshore, it’s a great opportunity to find spots that haven’t been hit in a long time and likewise, find yourself the only boat working the area!  In the past week or two, I’ve had several of our anglers ask me to send them inshore and they’ve done great on some great eating fish like cabrilla, pargo, snapper, parrotfish, sheephead and ambjerjack as well as fun fish like pompano and their not-so-good-eating (but still great fighters) the jack crevalle and roosterfish!

 

Tuna and wahoo remained elusive at best.  This has to be the poorest wahoo season I can remember, but no telling what will happen the next few weeks which is traditionally our best time of the year for wahoo.  The tuna are the same way.  Every few days, they pop up and everyone gets excited…then they disappear.  We’ll keep an eye out for them for sure.  We should be coming up on prime time for our yellowfin.

 

There’s still alot of billfish in the water.  We hooked, lost, and released several this week.  Check out Scott McKenzie’s  great first-person account (photo above with his sisters)…

 

“… first day out of La Paz we had about 11 beautiful dorado up to 35lbs, plenty of double and triple hookups making for a frenzy of fun on the boat with (Captain) Boli!!

Second day, out of Las Arenas, we fished with (Captain) Victor the master. Right out of the gate a sailfish lost, with yard long dorado keeping us busy regularly, and a couple of marlin lost until late in the afternoon a bonito strip-bait fell prey to a marlin (about 60-70 lbs??), 4th time was the charm as we got a good hook set, and it was on our light tackle rod to boot!! 

A long fight ensued with everyone getting a chance at working this fish to the boat where it was admired and released! Second day- 7 nice dorado to 25-30 lbs, 1 marlin caught n released, 2 marlin lost, 1 sailfish lost….. doesn’t get any bettter than that!!

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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


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Kristen Barnard from El Segundo CA was on her first trip to Baja and went fishing with Uncle Joe Barnard from Honolulu HI when they tagged into this pair of nice dorado near the Las Arenas lighthouse.

Our amiga, Marianne Sugawara visits us about 2-3 times a year and always fishes with Captain Jorge. It usually pays off like with this nice bull dorado taken south of Bahia de los Muertos!

The Kodama Men...Dad (Curtis) with Daniel and Darin...were on their first trip to visit us in La Paz and put some nice dorado in the box after their first day.

Definitely a good week for the ladies! Kelly, Kristen and Kathy Barnard pose with some of their Las Arenas catch of dorado.

It was another great week for roosterfishing off our beaches...largest being a 60-pounder and almost all of them were released. Dr. Al Yu took this one near Punta Perrico with Captain Adolfo looking on and the fish was released.

Quite a few of our clients had a blast by going to light tackle and working the inshore structure like Jeff Sakuda and Mark Aizawa who used spinning rods and flyrods to nail cabrilla, pargo and roosterfish like these!

Steve and Shirley Erquhart live in the mountains of California's Sierra Nevada off-the-grid in a log cabin he built by hand in the forrest, but came to see us and did well after 3 days of dorado fishing showing off a trio of bulls they took fishing north of La Paz.

Fred Li, had a great mix of fishing working Espiritu Santo Island where he went to knock out some pargo and cabrilla along the rocks. He did great, but then this nice 22-pound bull dorado came swimming into the shallows and ate his sardine too!

They called it a "man-cation" this year for their La Paz trip. JR Nojadera came with his dad, Al, Jordan Richards and Dennis Cudal to swing on some fish and did well on the dorado, but probably had their best time taking out the fish along the inshore waters of Ceralvo Island with roosterfish, cabrilla, and pargo like these!

WEEKLY TAILHUNTER VIDEO CLIP

Click the link to check out the weekly video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgAyHWa_GsE

DORADO KEEP IT STEADY AS FULL MOON PULLS UP

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 7-14, 2011

There was no shortage of fish if you wanted to catch dorado.  For both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleet, the dorado were again the center of attention and made up more than 90 percent of the catch.  There seem to be so many spots where the dorado are congregating some of the anglers were laughingly getting tired of finding dorado everywhere they looked. 

 

Some days were better than others, but overall, there were limits or near limits of dorado almost every day.  The only issue was whether the fish would be caught 1-by-1 over the fishing day or whether it was going to be slow all day topped off by explosion of finding a hungry school and the ensuing madness as every rod  got bent!

 

Most of the fish were in the smaller 10 pound class, but there were a few larger in the 20-30 pound class.  Larger baits usually drew the larger fish.   It was good to hear that many of the anglers either dropped to lighter tackle or else catching and releasing so many of the smaller fish or realizing they had so many fish already in the freezer they released ALL their fish.  A few of the guys even took the hooks off their surface lures just to watch the dorado slam the lures and take off with the lures only to let go and have another dorado pick it right up! 

 

For other species, there were a few marlin and sails hooked and busted off.  Roosterfishing could be as frantic as the dorado if you got into the school-sized fish.  One group of our anglers threw Shimano wax wing lures all day-long and hooked rooster and after rooster but said with bait they could have been bent on every cast.  Largest rooster of the week was a 60 pound fish taken by Tom Barnard who revived the fish and released it.

 

No tuna to speak of. They popped up here and there then moved off faster then we could chase ’em.  No wahoo either.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
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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Big league bull dorado for Mike Rossi of Santa Ana who got this big guy to chomp a live sardine near Las Arenas. It was a decent week for dorado fishing for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleet.

That's an armful! One of the largest fish of the week taken by first-timer Mike Ehrlinger, from Orange Co. CA. He took this huge bulll...his first fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.

It's great to see first timers kick butt like Mac Oudin shown with Captain Adolfo from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Mac go this first dorado; his first sailfish (40 miinute fight and he released it!) and this beautiful roosterfish that he also released. Great sportsmanship, Mac! Gracias!

Here's another good sport. Bill Hughes really wanted a roosterfish this trip (his 2nd to see us), and he tried repeatedly to revive this one (he wasn't even trying to catch a rooster at the time, but it bit the lure in deep water and they thought it was a sailfish! Most roosters are caught in shallow water.). They repeatedly tried to "swim" the big fish back and forth but were unable to revive it. But, a great catch and the folks on the beach gladly accepted the gift of the fish for making machaca and soup.

Alex Gragg (middle) has been chomping at the bit for years, but his dad, Ken, who comes down several times a year told him he had to wait until he was 12-years-old to come to La Paz. So, he finally made it! Shown here with older brother, Steve, and Tailhunter Capt. Boli, they pose with some of their dorado from a good day of fishing!

It seems we have alot of great roosterfish stories this week. Harlie Deckhard from Arizona had hooked up to this big roosterfish off Las Arenas when the reel seized up and was ready to snap the line. Quick-thinking Captain Pancho grabbed another rod and while holding both lines, cut the line hooked to the fish and in the heat-of-battle, quickly spliced on the 2nd rod-and-reel and the fight continued! Great story. Great fish...which Harlie released after the photo!

It wasn't a big week for yellowfin tuna, but every few days the fish popped up. Most were like these held by Mike Ehlinger, Bernard Jain and Joe Fuschetti on Las Arenas beach. Note the other fish on the sand.

That's Rick Gil del Monte goofing in the back of Dave and Paul Henke holding up a few of their dorado they caught after 3 days fishing with our Tailhutner Las Arenas fleet.

It's a long way and a big difference between Baja and the Arctic Circle, but that's where Lisa and Colby lives but came down where she got this trophy bull dorado fishing our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

It's good to get a little help from your friends...especially when it's your birday! Mike Demple from AZ, celebrated his big day by zooming down to La Paz on a private plane with friends for a single day of fishing...just long enough to get a load of dorado like this one Mike holds with the help of Captain Boli from the Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.

This is about as good a representation of some of the many species you can catch in a single day right now. Jon Dunn, Captain Pancho, and Mike Rossi pose with a day's catch of tuna, dorado, barred pargo, triggerfish among others!

TAILHUNTER VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Got some great images to show you this week!

Check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjgXShzWWoM

DORADO CENTER STAGE FOR THE WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 1-7, 2011

It was one of those good-steady weeks of fishing down here around La Paz. Not off-the-charts, but fun solid fishing with good weather and some of the best ocean we’ve seen in awhile. Dorado were the main attraction with about 80 percent of the catch for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and Tailhunter La Paz fleet…albeit moreso for our La Paz anglers.

If all you really wanted to do was hang some fish; have some fun; put some fillets in the ice chest, then the “no-” was to just go fish for dorado. Slow troll some sardines in an area; find some floating weeds; or look for circling birds is pretty much how to swing it, but fast trolling with feathers or slow dragging some dead bonito strips also set off the bite. Most days the boats caught dorado as small as 5 pounders and as large as 40 pounders mostly but the majority of the fish were 10-15 pound school-sized fish. The larger fish continue to be taken by our La Paz fleet.

If you wanted a bit more variety, then fishing our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet was probably better. Dorado bite was OK at best with smaller schoolies, but at least you also had the opportunity to get into some of the good roosterfish, marlin, sailfish and the occasional elusive tuna.

Oh…a sighting of wahoo…two bites this week, but for the most part, no wahoo to speak of. I think this has been one of the poorest wahoo seasons I can remember. But, prime time wahoo season is still to come possibly…October and November! We’ll keep you posted!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

Website: http://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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It was finally a week where the dorado decided to join the party and just-in-time for Chad Schearer's TV show "Shoot Straight" and his family to show up with the cameras. http://www.shootstraightTV.com Chad is the TV host of the program and usually travels the world with either a bow or muzzle-load rifle, but is quite a celebrity with the flyrod as well. He filmed all week with us and one of his sponsors is Cabela's Outdoor Stores. They wanted him to test out their new 6-piece travel flyrod that looked so thin and light a trout would've broken the 10 wt stick! Chad's intent was to get a big roosterfish on it, but when a big dorado charged through, it was GAME ON! Chad battled this monster 40-pound rooster on the light flygear for 1 hour and 45 minutes! He had never gotten a dorado before and this was a personal best...and all in front of the cameras!

Wahoooo! We finally got one to the boat. For weeks, I've been saying the conditions are right and Roger Thompson finally nailed one on a rapala at the north end of Cerralvo Island. He said te day was going slow (note the tuna boat in the back!) but he usually comes through and this 60 pound class speedster topped the day!

It was a stellar week for roosters for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets with fish up to 80 pounds. Sheldon "Doc" Schearer is a minister and sherrif's officer from Montana and this 60 pound rooster was a personal best. It ate a live sardine in about 10 feet of water near the Las Arenas lighthouse and took 1/2 an hour to battle. The fish was released. In fact, they caught 6 that day and all but one fish were put back in the water.

Tailhunter's own Jilly Roldan got into the nice dorado bite late this week posing with San Diego's Joe Jacobs in the blue waters of Balandra Bay north of La Paz. They also got roosterfish and small yellowtail, but ran into a spot of dorado that blew up on them and they lost count of the fish with double and triple hookups!

Tihs is the first week that dorado bit consistently. Not surprisingly, the waters edged over 80 degrees too and the winds calmed down. hmmmm...funny how that works! But the week started slowly, but by mid-week the counts were going up with mostly smaller fish in the 5-10 pound category, but as the week went on, there were more 20-40 pound fish in the counts and hardly anything prettier than a lit up mahi on the hook like this one taken off Espiritu Santo Island this week.

Even last season we didn't see many bull dorado over 20 pounds, but this week we had some fish in the 30, 40 and one that may well have been over 50 pounds! Jill got this one on the NE corner of Espiritu Santo Island just off the drop-off on live bait. Captain Joel holds it up for the photo! The waters are holding various spots of fish but they're scattered in all the usual places with many holding under building schools of sargasso weeds floating on the surface!

Even tho' waters kicked into "summer mode," there were still some "cooler water" fish around like this decent yellowtail held by Lisa Chandler of La Mesa CA. We actually took a few of these YT's this week.

Even when the fish weren't biting it seemed there were often schools of dolphin blasting through...wherever dolphin go! It was not unusual to see half the fleet suddenly stop what they were doing to follow the schools! This one was between Cerralvo and Espiritu Santo Island.

For alot of our clients and friends this week, it was their first time tangling with roosterfish and underlines why La Paz waters are called the "roosterfish capital of the world." Joe Jacobs from San Diego took this nice one in Pilot's Cove north of La Paz and released it.

The roosters were biting for BOTH our Tailhunter La Paz and Tailhunter Las Arenas fleets. Captain Jorge with our Las Arenas fleet helps Marsha Schearer pose with this slug rooster caught in shallow water just outside Bahia de Los Muertos.

SLOW START TO WEEK CRANKS UP WITH DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH!

Las Arenas/ La Paz Fishing Report for Week of May 22-29, 2011

Amazing what a difference a week can make.  Take away a
full moon; strong winds; green water; and inconsistent water
temperatures…little things like that…and WHAM…THE FISH BITE!  In
fact, water temps hit 80+ for the first time this year and it was a 180 degree
turn from the strange fishing last week.  In fact, it was a pretty decent
week of fishing!

It didn’t start out like that!  At the beginning, it was scratch fishing at
best.  I was pretty worried.  But…the conditions changed!

Hey, for the first time, dorado bit consistently with nice
patches of sargasso weed building up in the surrounding channels and while many
of the fish were firecracker punks in the 5-10 pound class, there were still
some nicer fish running in the 20-40 pound class (and even one or two that sure looked like 50-pound-class dorado)  that really got folks
excited.  In fact, we had Chad Schearer, nationally known host of the
outdoor TV show “Shoot Straight” filming the entire week  (www.shootstraightTV.com)  with us and
Chad, who had never flyfished Baja before and came to tie on a big roosterfish,
instead  threw a pattern at boiling bonito and a huge 40-pound class
dorado bit his 10wt rod and it was “fish on!”  And epic battle
lasted almost 2 hours as the fish bulldogged down on the light line but finally
Chad got the fish to the boat and was almost speechless in front of the
cameras!

As well, we got into some incredible roosterfish
action.  Some stops with both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets resulted in
double and triple roosterfish hookups.  Fish ranged from 10 to as large as
80-pounds this week with some incredible battles on light tackle, flyrods and
spinning gear when anglers fishing for smaller “fun” fish instead got
blown up on larger world-class roosters that almost brought some anglers to
their knees on the smaller gear.

Overall, just a great week with additional species that
included some big cabrilla, jack crevalle, barred pargo, striped marlin (hooked
and lost and released); sailfish (hooked and lost and released), pompano,
bonito, barracuda and even some very very late yellowtail in the 10-15 pound
class.  We even got a huge 9-foot mako
shark that ate a small dorado hooked by one of our amigos.  They got it to the boat and wisely decided to
cut it loose!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR #1 Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 

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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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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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

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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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