Posts Tagged ‘panga fishing’

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 24 to Aug. 1, 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 baja fishing, darren hanson, Dave Castanon, Doug idsinga, jonathan roldan, La Paz fishing, light tackle fishing, Marcos Holguin, Mark Holguin, panga fishing, sea of cortez, tailhunter, tailhunter international on August 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

FULL MOON GRAND SLAM for 17-year-old Marcos Holguin and 13-year-old Ricardo Gil del Montes, Jr. from Los Angeles. Captain Jorge helps out with the nice pargo (dog tooth snapper), yellowfin tuna and nice yellowtail caught while fishing with with chunked squid and our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. It was a good week for the opportunity to catch multiple high-grade sport species despite fears of the full moon. Highly unusual to find big pargo and yellowtail in these warmer months!

It's incredible that we are getting yellowtail of this quality in July. Normally, we only get these in the cooler months of February to May, but LAPD detective Mark Holguin holds a nice pair. Note the two other tails at his feet! The fish are in shallow water near shore and have averaged 15-35 pounds this week.

Even better than a grand slam (3 sport species) is a Grand Slam plus One! Northern Cal residents, Dave Tyree and Steve Artis hold up a yellowfin tuna, a yellowtail, a dorado and a barred pargo...all prized catches. They fished 5 days and encountered similar results each day.

Some of those bruiser yellowfin tuna are still around! New Mexico angler Darren Hanson holds the gaff on a fatty taken off Las Arenas. The fish were in-close most days and showed an affinity for chunks of giant squid which meant starting the day pulling up 50 pound squid from 1200 feet down...a workout!

S.Cal resident Gina Fowlkes and husband Mitch brought the family for a week of fishing and shows off a days catch with a nice mix of dorado and yellowfin tuna

Yellowtail trio on the beach for Victor, Ricardo Jr, and Ricardo Sr. Gil de Montes. Keeping it in the family.

Mahi for the coolers! Long time amigo, Dave Castanon and son Brent from La Verne CA is and fire captain and is often chasing brushfires this time of year, but got down for a quick week of fishing and started off with two good-sized dorado!

Juan Martinez says he catches all the fish...all the time! He holds up one of the yellowfin tuna caught this week near Punta Arenas.

Mean slugger tuna up to 60 pounds like this one held by Dougie Idsinga continued to battle and frustrate our anglers often taking up to 2 hours to boat them. Many larger fish were lost. That's Cerralvo Island in the background. Some of the fish were hooked within casting distance of shore or could be seen swimming in the shallows.

Marcos Holguin's dog-tooth snapper is the first picture in the report, but a solo shot was worth posting again because it's such a great fish! Surprisingly, we've got a good pargo bite going on with dog-tooth snapper, mullet snapper and barred pargo all biting!

Ernie (on the left) had some reservations fishing with newbie rookie Rick (on the left) and joking told him so. But, as you can see from the two mugging for the camera, they did just fine.

Despite all the other "glamour" species showing up these days, our bread-and-butter fish for both our La Paz and our Las Arenas Fleets continues to be the dorado which are scattered over a wide area with more sargasso weeds stacking up in the channel. Steve Artis holds up a nice bull.

NO FULL MOON BLUES! FISH BITE STRONG!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 24 to Aug. 1, 2010

In all my years here, I can remember very few times when it was possible to catch a “grand slam” of fish and where there was so much quality in the water. So much for the full moon! I was worried, but as it turns out, this has been one of the better fishing weeks of the season in terms of variety as well as quality.

When we speak of a “grand slam” it’s the fishing equivalent of taking at least three sportfishing species the same day. This week on several occasions, we had anglers nail big tuna, big yellowtail plus a marlin or a big dorado or big pargo or roosterfish all in the same day…sometimes in the same hour!

The weirdest thing is that we’re well into the thick of summer. Tuna, dorado and marlin are typical this time of year, but we’re having one of the best runs of yellowtail…a fish we normally catch in the COLDER water months of February to May…slamming baits right now!

The fish are a nice grade too. Tuna in the 40-60 pound class are not uncommon and there have been fish much much larger lost. Yellowtail are 20-40 pounds. Pargo are 10-40 pounds. Roosters up to 70 pounds were caught this week!

The best shot at this variety was with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The fish are not very far either.

One of the guys said, “We’re so close to shore we’re fishing for rooster fish one moment then the next just a few more yards out…we’re fishing for tuna!:

One big tuna bit just offshore and they fought it for two hours. By the time they got the fish to the boat, the boat was literally on the beach as the fish had towed the boat around and was now only in about 10 feet of water!

Las Arenas has been quite the surprise!

The bad news is that live bait has been very difficult to get for our pangas there. Sardines are not very plentiful. The good news is that there has been giant squid and chunks of giant squid have worked solidly all week. As long as they are around, certainly, the tuna seem to keep hanging out. But some days there are no squid!

The other problem with the giant squid is that…well…they’re giant! As one angler put it…”By 8 a.m. I’ve pulled 4 of these 50 pound squid up from as deep as 1200 feet! I’m covered in sweat. I need a beer. I just want to sit down. Instead, the captain takes a 3 pound chunk and sends it back down and I’m now bit by a 50 pound tuna that kicks my butt for another hour!” Another angler laughingly said, “I offered our captain an extra 20 bucks to do all the work to catch the squid for me! That’s too much work! The captain laughed and said I had to do it myself!”

Chunking the big squid and dropping bits in the water to drift then pinning a big slab on a huge hook has been the ticket. Or, a small weight and a strip of squid sent down nails the big pargo or yellowtail. Slow-trolled strips have been great on the dorado.

Our Tailhunter La Paz fleet has not been encountering as much variety, but there’s been no shortage of fish either. Dorado between 10 and 20 pounds have been the main target as patches of sargasso weeds normally found in the late spring are now popping up and holding fish. There have also been some jags of wahoo at the north end of Cerralvo Island as well.

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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La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 18-25, 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 baja fishing, cerralvo island fishing, darren hanson, dave van velzer, greg covello, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Paz fishing, light tackle fishing, llew williams, mark marcus, micheal harkins, mike mccort, mike van velzer, panga fishing, sea of cortez, steve hanson, tailhunter, tailhunter international, tony adamich on July 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It was a great week for larger tuna and one of the best shots and stories of the week. Jared DiFiore (16) and his brother Joseph (14) came to La Paz from New Hampshire with their family hoping to catch "just one fish.. .any kind of a fish!" They had never done this before. Their first day they fished with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and got a limit of dorado and were thrilled. The next day, they went snorkeling and ended up swimming with sealions, a whaleshark and saw porpoise a blue whale and sea turles. Then, they decided to try the big tuna at Las Arenas. They figured they were finally up to going to the big leagues. They tied into this big ahi yellowfin tuna and tag-teamed it for almost 2 hours before getting it to the boat. That was it! No more. They asked the captain to take them back to the beach with big smiles!

Happy boy "Modelo" Dave Pollard from Upland CA holds up a fat yellowfin tuna he caught with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Dave "grand slammed"...actually he did better than that nailing tuna, dorado, marlin and pargo all on the same day.

A graduation present for 17 year-old Mike Harkins who also works as a deckhand on a Los Angeles sportboat. He's been fishing with us since he was about 2 feet high and always had a knack for big fish. Over 4 days, he got yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, dorado and this big pargo and several others fishing with his dad and using live bait with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. It's been a surprsing few weeks with cold water fish like pargo and yellowtail still around.

A long way to the ocean from New Mexico, but Steve Hanson (who invented the "Steve-O-rita" while he was here...Red Bull and silver tequila!) fished with his son, Darren, (holding the tail) and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and got this blue marlin estimated at 300 pounds. The meat was donated. They also got limits of dorado. It was a good week for both species.

Dave and Mike Van Velzer had a spectacular week after fishing 4 days with both of our Tailhunter fleets. They got a variety of dorado and some of the big yellowfin tuna like the ones they are holding here at Punta Arenas Beach.

It was a good week for the youngsters! Steve Kechichian is 16-years-old and pulled on numerous big tuna and dorado like this one he caught with Captain Victor. His best stories from Steve and his dad were the numerous multi-hookups they had and couldn't stop the fish or the fish going in two different directions and unable to chase them down.

Recently retired Greg Covello (left) knew exactly what he wanted to do with his free time...catch a big pargo so he came down with amigo, Alex Bastedo. They lost alot of fish ,but did manage to pull these two trophy pargo lisos out of the rocks.

It was a pretty good week for marlin! Captain Pancho helps our amigo, Tony Adamich with this nice striper caught near Cerralvo Island. Tony released the fish that day.

After you fight a big tuna for almost 2 hours, it's not so easy to lift it up when someone wants to take your picture! Mike McCort from New York did his best and we got the photo. These fish showed a big preference for big chunks of fresh squid for bait on huge 7/0 to 9/0 hooks!

This is just one more example of our screwy season! Normally, we see yellowtail in the cooler months and cooler waters of February to May. But it's JULY!! Alex Bastedo holds up a 10 pounder, but we got some in the 30-40 pound class this week that surprised everyone!

He really wanted to try to get a tuna on a flyrod, but Professor Mark Marcus from Knoxville, Tenn., put down the flyrod when he saw the sizes of the yellowfin tuna that showed up this week.

Varton Bagdasaryan is a professional chef in the Riverside area of California and was on his first trip to fish in La Paz waters. His first two fish of the day were a striped marlin and this big tuna. He immediately went back to the hotel and mixed up some sashime! This fish bit a big chunk of fresh squid off Las Arenas.

He came all the way from Florida and ended up tangling with one of our big tuna this week. Professor Llew Williams has been fishing with us for many many years and it's always great to have him down.

BIG TUNA GIANT SQUID HUNGRY DORADO PACE THE WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 18-25, 2010

Nothing else to describe it other than a solid week of fishing. Some really incredible fishing for some of our anglers who hit some monster fish and literally filled their coolers their first day then after it was gravy! Seriously…especially for our Las Arenas fleet, big tuna showed up in the 40-80 pound class that bent anglers for 1-2 hours each.

If you looked at the scores, some days, it might look like we didn’t do that well on the tuna, but if you talked to the anglers, they’ll tell you they fought and LOST 2, 3 or more fish and only got 1 to the boat. Totally spent and thrashed anglers and captains came back with stories of fish fought for as much as 3 hours and losing them and some speculation that some of the larger gorilla tuna were in the 100-200 pound class.

On several occasions, anglers fought a single fish for an hour or two and then told the captain, “No mas, take me back to the beach!” They came back and just sat and collapsed. And it was still morning!

As one angler said, “We got one fish on 60 pound test and the trolling rod and 4/0 two-speed reel. We almost got spooled on the first run and we fired up the panga! It was like being a cowboy trying to stand up and ride a panga over the waves and hang onto the tuna. We went almost FULL speed for 20 minutes chasing the fish and it finally popped! We never even saw it, but there were some other hugs boils in the area that looked like they were half the size of the 22 foot panga!”

No way to know if the tuna will hang out, but the key seems to be the giant squid in the morning. If the squid show up and the anglers can put some in the boat, these giant squid are as big as 60 pounds and a true workout right off the bat to grind them up from the deep.

Then, using heavy rigs and 7/0 and larger hooks we pin a 3 pound chunk on the hook and send it back down! Guys were telling us that just catching the squid was hard enough. “Man, each squid was a battle to get them to the surface. These were sea monsters and even before we started fishing, we were already tuckered out and looking in the ice chest for cold beers and it wasn’t even 8 a.m. yet!”

“The bite at times was almost instant!” said another of our anglers. “Literally, within seconds of drifting that chunk down, it was like a car came by and suddenly latched on! I’ve never had line spin off my reel so fast. Then it was like I was holding a refrigerator over the side of a building or something! I immediately started wishing these were smaller tuna!” He lost 5 fish before he boated his first tuna but ended up with 3 fish over 2 days with the smallest being 65 pounds.

Now…add to that a good smattering of dorado from 5-40 pounds; marlin; roosterfish and big pargo and our Las Arenas anglers really had a super week. But…hold on…

We also got yellowtail! These are fish that are COLD water fish and we generally catch them only in February to May. Several of our fishermen got into 10-40 pound mossback yellowtail! Go figure.

For our La Paz fleet, they were hanging fish all week as well. With great weather, the dorado came to play. Most days, the boats got limits or near limits of dorado up to about 30 pounds with most fish in the 10-20 pound class. As well, several boats got into nice marlin including one 300 pound blue landed by Steve Hanson of New Mexico.

It’s been a screwy year, but this has certainly been one of the better weeks of the season!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

.
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 for Week of July 11-18, 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 baja mexico, jonathan roldan, La Paz fishing, light tackle fishing, mexico fishing, panga fishing, sea of cortez, tailhunter, tailhunter international on July 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

On and off throughout the week, flurries of 40-60 pound tuna showed up for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet which made things pretty exciting. Some bigger fish were hooked and lost too. Fish were just off the rocks at Punta Perrico and eating live bait as well as chunked squid. Dr. Desmond Sjaufoekloy from Orange Co. California plugged the boat two straight days with 8 nice fish as well as dorado and marlin!

Several big pargo were caught this week. Ray Laney, Sr. was a little upset when his son, Ray, Jr. got the first marlin of the trip, but dad more than made up for it with this huge dog tooth cubera snapper (pargo perro) he got off the rocks with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

Washington resident Ed Van der Veer fished with Captain Pancho and got one of the nicer female dorado which came on strong this week. Ed was fishing live bait and light tackle which made it even more fun on the panga.

Like I mentioned above, it was a week with some especially good-looking pargo on the beach. Our good amigo, Mark Martis, always seems to do well. Although fishing wasn't particularly good on this particular day, Mark still nailed this trophy pargo liso (mullet snapper ) fishing with our Captain Archangel.

Two great looking dorado fully lit! Ray Laney, Jr. and Ray, Sr. hold up a pair that they got fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet where dorado have been the mainstay of the catch with more of the larger fish finally starting to show up.

I don't usually post up marlin photos here in the fishing report, but I just had to pop this photo of one of our best amigos, Dave Berthold, holding his first marlin. Dave comes all the way from New Jersey ever single year. He gets the prize for determination plus being a helluva good guy. He has come 12 straight years in a row sometimes fishing every single day just to catch one single marlin! He has done things like promise the captain as much as 500 tip and one year even brought down a new XBox 360 plus games as part of the bonus for the captain if he could just catch one single marlin. Well, this year, he finally got his marlin fishing with Captain Chito and donated the fish.

Yes! The big squid are back! Plus this is just a great morning shot too! The squid are not here every day, but when they are, the tuna are lurking nearby as well. The squid are as big as 60 pounders and are mean and voracious! We are using chunks of the squid for the larger tuna.

Coral and Brad spent a week with us all the way from Durango, Colorado and fished a day with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet and Captain Chito. Holding up 4 of their dorado inside Balandra Bay they had a nice day. If you look at the bottom of the photo you'll se a big tail. Coral spent 90 minutes on a striped marlin as well!

This could be a pending world-record 70-pound wahoo shot by 14-year-old freediver Lucca Perretti on his very first dive...ever! More below. (FREEDIVING...no tanks...hold your breath like a fish!)

Not bad for 14 years old! Possible world record shot right-off-the-bat! See the story below!

TUNA AND DORADO HIGHLIGHT ANOTHER CRAZY WEEK OF FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 11-18, 2010

A mixed week of fishing here…again! Still having trouble getting a handle on the fishing conditions here as wind blow one day, but not the next. Waters are blue one day, but green the next. Tuna pop up one day then disappear the next. Dorado go crazy one day then the next day it’s giant squid that pop up! One day we can find sardines for bait and the next day they are hiding or have to use squid or caballitos. Never two identical days in a row! It’s a three-wing circus!

The good thing is that most of our clients are fishing several days and the fact that we have both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets allows us to adjust where our clients fish as dictated by the weather, fishing conditions, bait, and what’s biting.

For our Las Arenas anglers the up and down appearance of yellowfin tuna has been the most exciting part of the week. The fish aren’t there everyday, but it seems that when the giant squid are around, so are the tuna. But even with the tuna, their appearance is as erratic as their size. One day, it’s all 5-10 pound footballs. The next day, it seems like they gulped steroids and they’re 40-100 pound monsters that beat up everyone! The 40-50 pounders are manageable…maybe 10-30 minute fights. The larger fish…well, no one has landed any of the 100 pounders yet. Once the battle goes towards and hour-or-more, it seems that the battle leans more in favor of the fish as the anglers and the gear wear down in the hot sun. One mistake and it’s zingpowie…bye bye tuna!
Fortunately, for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets, other species like dorado, marlin and pargo, cabrilla and roosterfish fill in the gaps most days. The dorado are the most prolific and finally we’re at least seeing some larger fish in the 20-40 pound class. Slow trolling or drifting live sardines, caballitos or strips of fresh bonito are key.

If you’re coming down, bring big squid jigs just-in-case the squid are here. They are 20-80 pound beasts! Also bring an assortment of live bait hooks to accommodate the different types of bait that might be used.

FIRST PERSON STORY FROM A 14-YEAR-OLD SPEARFISHERMAN WITH PENDING WORLD RECORD!

Lucca Perretti from Los Angeles is 14 years old and the son of champion diver John Peretti (and former cage fighter). He came down here on his first free-diving trip. On his very first day…very first shot…he nails a 70 pound wahoo that may well be a new age-group world record! Here’s his story below. Keep in mind that in Mexico, spearfishers are NOT allowed to use tanks! This is all freediving…you bring only what you can carry in a single breath of air! Check this out:

“Right after the La Paz Blue Water Invitational Championships, my father, John, Dennis Haussler, three time national Spearfishing champion and I went diving on the north end of Cerralvo. I was using a prototype Sea Sniper, 2 bander. We were flashing and got into the wahoo, my father shot and lost one after being pulled around, and then landed a 60 pounder, Dennis shot and landed a 70 pounder with ease.

Dennis beckoned me into the water, we threw flashers for 5 minutes.

With Dennis on my left and my father on my right, a big wahoo inspected my flasher, at the time I did not realize the size of it. I lined up on him and he turned out to my right, as he was swimming away I shot and let him have it. I knew I could not horse him, so I let the buoys go and my father and I chased them. We swam for what seemed like half a mile, it took us 10 minutes to finally reach them, Dennis was already there. We were all very concerned as to whether the shot would hold, Dennis swam down to 100 feet to take a peek. I used my shark clip to bow and arrow the fish up. 30 feet from the surface, the wahoo started to rip out and we did not want to lose it because it was my first, so Dennis swam down and second shot it. I was a 70 pounder, skinnier than Dennis’ but mine was 8 inches longer. I was told that most spearos wait a lifetime to shoot a wahoo like this, I am so grateful.”

VOLARIS AIRLINES SURPRISE LA PAZ AIRLINE TICKET SALE!

We just found out of a big sale that Volaris Airlines is having. Round trip to La Paz from Tijuana is only about $120 bucks! They will pick you up in San Diego and bring you right to their terminal. Lots of our clients have been using this brand new airlines for the last two years and service has been great.

Check out their website: http://www.volaris.com.mx/ or write to us directly. My e-mail is riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

You MUST purchase tickets by July 20 and travel must be between Sept. 1 and Dec. 12th.

That’s our story! Have a great week.

Jonathan and Jilly

.
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.”

Read Full Post »

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of July 4-11, 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 baja fishing, jonathan roldan, La Paz fishing, la ventana fishing, las arenas fishing, light tackle fishing, mexico fishing, mexico fishing report, muertos bay fishing, panga fishing, sea of cortez fishing, southern baja fishing, sportfishing packages, tailhunter international on July 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

First timer, Ed Vander Veer from Washington state was doing some light line fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and got a number of roosters over several days of fishing releasing them all including this nice pez gallo.

One of the larger dorado of the week! Christine Rinaldi came to see us again all the way from New Jersey and spent more than a week fishing with us and took this nice bull not far off the Las Arenas lighthouse. It was an up-and-down week for dorado fishing with fish sometimes hungry and other times completely ignoring baits.

Earlier in the week, there was a fairly nice dorado bite with our Las Arenas fleet that got chillier when colder waters moved in, but our Arizona amigo Mike Guest did put this female in the box!

There was some good sporadic tuna fishing throughout the week although anglers really had to work hard to find the fish which popped up in varios places around Cerralvo Island, but were often elusive. Mary Heilman shows off one football yellowfin on the gaff fishing with Captain Pancho using live sardines.

Now THIS is a roosterfish...the kind that made Las Arenas famous! Dave Wehner really wanted to catch a rooster on light tackle. He had no idea, that a 60-pound class fish would inhale his little sardine while he was using 15 pound test and a little bass casting stick! Dave fought this fish for 90 minutes before getting it aboard for a quick photo and releasing it. Despite what it looks like, Dave said the fish swam away strongly!

Once a year, Kansas hunting guide, Don Snyder on the right gets to put on shorts and flip flops (although he gets to keep his cowboy hat) and comes to hang out with us in La Paz. He brought his buddy, Tom Carey from Colorado. (Tom...you dance great!). They're holding up some of their yellowfun tuna catch here standing at Las Arenas beach.

Everything is good when the fish are biting. Mike Whitlow (on the right) fishes professional bass tournaments and came down with his bud, Ed Vander Veer and did alot of light tackle fishing. Sometimes they really had to work hard to get the fish to bite during a week when fish were sometimes less than cooperative, but here, they hold up two nice dorado they picked up off Las Arenas.

Marlin jumping off the stern of a panga (see the photo below for the story)!

A blue marlin first for Mary Wehner looking none-the-worse for wear and tear as she's assisted by Captain Pancho with a blue estimated at 150 pounds. That's the fish in the picture above leaping off the stern! Mary hooked this fish just after her husband fought the big rooster two photos above. Bravo to Mary, she released the fish unharmed!

One of the best guys for posing with a fish, San Diego resident Mitch Chavira always gets fish whenever he comes down several times a year. He's hoisting a nice yellowfin tuna still lit up.

SOME DAYS BETTER THAN OTHERS AS ANGLERS WORK HARD BUT GET NICE TUNA, DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 11, 2010

A mixed week here for fishing. Weather and fishing were both as mercurial as the air temperature at times as the wacky unpredictable fishing season continued. The upside is that most of our folks who fished a few days all ended up with somes good fishing, but in between several good days, a really puzzling bad day could be had just as easily.

One day, the dorado or the tuna are jumping out’ve the waters and into the boat. Marlin are all over. The next day, that same panga in the same area doing the exact same thing would have a problem even getting a bonito or a needlefish to rise to a bait. Similarly, beautiful blue sunny waters one day would turn to windy chop the next and all of us would be shivering in sweatshirts and windbreakers. Go figure.

Overall, it wasn’t the best of weeks. Everyone had fish by the end, but some days it was like pulling teeth. It’s been a strange season and we seem to be about a month behind where we should be.

As well, bait continued to be an issue some days. One day it’s easily found. The next day, it would take hours.

However, like I said, if you fished at least a few days, the end result was a pretty nice stack of fish fillets! You just had to weather the slow periods. Hats off to our angler who were here this past week. Even during the tough times, they kept laughing and working it and in most cases it paid off.

For our La Paz Tailhunter fleet, dorado were mostly in the spotlight with fish being found in several area, most notably around Punta Mejia and the Las Cruces areas between Cerralvo Island and the Peninsula. Most fish were in the 10-20 pound class. We’re still seeing quite a few marlin as well. Almost all of them have been stripers in the 100-130 pound category. There were also some good spots of pargo, cabrill and amberjack.

For our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, lots of variety continued. Spots of tuna seemed to follow the big squid up from the trenches. (The squid have been as large as 60 pounders!). Tuna have likewise been as big as 60-100 pounders with several large ones hooked and lost. Our largest this week that made it into the panga was about 60 pounds. Most, however were football tuna in the 5-15 pound class and they really seemed to like eating chunks of dead squid (not surprisingly) or else the really really pin-head sized sardines.

For other species around Las Arenas, dorado keep breezing through and at least a few boats find the erratic schools with fish up to about 25 pounds. Roosterfish are in a spot near Boca de Alamo south of Muertos Bay and big pargo and cabrilla are still hanging out in the rocks.

FACEBOOK UPDATES

By the way, if you’d like to get your fishing report fix more often than every week, I post up daily fishing reports often with photos and video clips 4 or 5 times a week if you get on face book and put JONATHAN ROLDAN on as a friend.

Also, if you’d like to keep up with the crazy fun at our Tailhunter Restaurant/Bar, get on facebook and become a FAN. Easy to join.

Have a great week!

That’s our story…

Jonathan and Jill

.
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 for Week of June 26-July 4, 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 baja mexico, cerralvo island fishing, jonathan roldan, la paz, La Paz fishing, la ventana fishing, muertos bay fishing, panga fishing, sea of cortez fishing, tailhunter, tailhunter international on July 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Yellowfin tuna popped up for our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet with some fish in the 60-200 pound class that really chewed up anglers and spit them out, but some nice "football" sized fish in the 10-30 pound class like this one held by our amigo, Jorge Romero and assisted by Capt. Jaibo, did show up in flashes throughout the week.

Looks like big roosterfish season is here. We're not seeing so many smaller fish anymore. Most of the roosters we got this week were like this hog of a fish caught and released by BARBARA KENTSLER from Utah (Sorry for the mistake Barbara and thanks Aubrey for catching my error!) with Capt. Jorge near Las Arenas.

There are still a surprising number of pargo around. Check out the flat seas behind Randy Forestiere holding this nice pargo liso just off Muertos Bay.

I wish our friend, Rich Sawaske, and Capt. Adolfo had looked up into the camera, but they have their eyes riveted on this beautiful dorado Rich got on a live sardine just off Punta Arenas. Check out the flat ocean. They were only a few hundred yards offshore.

The water is still cold enough that we're still getting sierra which are normally cold water fish. Captain Romero holds a big one! Great eating fish.

MARLIN TUNA DORADO WAKE UP TO START SUMMER!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 26- to July 4, 2010

It was all going along really well. Then the winds came up again…at least for our La Paz fleet. It was like April all over again as the week came to a close, but before that, fishing had been really great.

For the better part of the week both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets have been doing really well. I mean, when was the last time someone said, “There are too many marlin!”

However, that’s what I heard more than once this past week, especially for our anglers fishing with our Las Arenas fleet. Over the last two weeks, all those lazy striped marlin and sailfish that have been sunning themselves on the surface waiting for the waters to warm finally woke up and came to the party. It’s about time!

Here’s some of the comments from the week:

“We had 8 marlin just swimming ’round and ’round the panga!”

“Those pesky marlin were as thick and dumb as dorado and I don’t want to catch marlin. I want to catch dorado, but the marlin chased the dorado away!”

“We hooked and released 5 marlin before 10 a.m. and then got the heck out’ve there so we could try to catch something like pargo to put in the ice chest!”

“I’ve never had a triple marlin hookup on a panga before and we were only about 200 yards from the shore!”

Fortunately, most of the marlin are getting broken off or released, and it’s especially great to see so many first timers letting their fish go…especially the youngsters tying into their first billfish.

However, in addition to the billfish, we got quite a variety of other species, especially around the south end of Cerralvo Island and Las Arenas. More and larger dorado showed up although there’s still quite a few dinks, but we saw some fish caught in the 20-25 pound category. As well, we’re not seeing as many roosterfish, but some really hefty big boys were caught and released up to about the 60-70 pound category as well as pargo and cabrilla.

More exciting than that, however, was that some large squid popped up south of Arenas and usually when that happens there’s tuna that come up out’ve the deep trench. Sure enough, we got into some 20-60 pound fish and several larger tuna in the 100+ pound category were hooked and lost after long long battles. There were even some fish estimated at 200 pounds that literally gobbled up anglers and spit them out.

There weren’t alot of tuna, but enough to get everyone excited and to see some of the larger fish pop up as well really jacked up the interest. Only problem was that many anglers were outgunned or not experienced enough to tackle these bigger gorilla tuna or, in some cases, I heard of at least 2 anglers simply cutting themselves off when they realized what they were tied onto!

If you can, imagine holding a 200 pound weight over the side of a 50-story building in a strong wind and you’re attached to that weight with a little tiny piece of string and a rod and reel! How many hours can you hold that?

FIRST PERSON!

Dave Gora and his family from Dana Pt. CA were down this week and Dave does some incredible video clips! He put this together for us from fishing two days with our Las Arenas fleet and Captain Victor. One of the best video clips I’ve ever seen down here. Great underwater footage too! Thanks, Dave! Click this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkkqUUb4wws

Will keep an eye out. Have a great 4th of July holiday!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

.
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 June 20-27, 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 jonathan roldan, la paz, light tackle fishing, panga fishing, sea of cortez, sea of cortez fishing, tailhunter international on June 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Spencer Sawaske from Northern California had a pretty good day. First, he released a marlin, then got this monster dorado fishing off Cerralvo Island on the south side and also near the Arenas lighthouse. Better dorado and marlin fishing were the highlight during a full-moon week.

Retired NFL linebacker and football coach...and one of Tailhunter's best amigos, Donnie Rea, shows off one of the nicer dorado taken this week with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of La Paz. Although bait continued to be slow to find, most boats did some pretty decent dorado fishing. Coach Rea was fishing with Captain Marcos.

Despite rapidly warming waters, pargo continue to be hungry and equally frustrating busting off lots of anglers. This one didn't get away. In fact, according to our amigo Dave Wehner who has been fishing with us 8 years, this big barred pargo came up and ate an entire slow trolled bonito Dave was using for bait! Later in the week, Dave nailed a 65 pound roosterfish on his itty-bitty bass rod that he fought for 90 minutes! His wife Mary then hooked up on a 150 pound blue marlin! Both fish were released!

Some nice tuna poked their heads up this week...albeit too briefly. Just enough to tease everyone . It seems everytime we get a glimpse of giant squid coming up from the deep trenches, we got some tuna following them up! We actually had a few 100 pounders hooked and lost, but this was one 50-pounder that Garden Grove amigo, Jonathan Navarro, caught near the Las Arenas lighthouse fishing with Captain Victor.

Retired firefighter Ed Basurto from Sacramento holds up one of the better bull dorado we got this week while fishing off Las Arenas near Cerralvo Island.

Rex Smith from Arizona and Fred Sontag from Arkansas and their other brothers Mike and John, had a nice day north of La Paz fishing with the Tailhunter La Paz Fleet. They released a marlin and sailfish.

Captain Armando with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet helps pose a nice dorado for Dan who had never fished before but ended up with a handful as well as a marlin on his first outing. He outfished most of his buddies and said it was because he wore his lucky wristwatch.

Grand slam for Mal Young and dad, Bob. It was a delayed high-school graduation present that Mal waited 2 years for, but it resulted in a striped marlin plus this trio that shows some of the variety...a roosterfish, a pargo liso and a dorado!

It's summer, but we're still getting some colder water fish like this sierra held by Fred Sontag from Arkanasas.

This was probably our best week so far for striped marlin. This great shot was taken by Jonathan Navarro from Los Angeles as his dad battled the fish off Cerralvo Island

Fresh one! Rich Navarro hoists a summer-time bull dorado that bit a live sardine.

SUMMERTIME CONDITIONS PROMPT DORADO AND MARLIN TO WAKE UP!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 20-27, 2010

Things are definitely changing here finally. Winds have laid down quite a bit. Waters and air temps are getting noticeably warmer too. It finally feels like summer. Waters are high 70’s to low 80’s Daytime temps are high 90’s to low 100’s, but there’s still a nice breeze most times. Our anglers are telling us it’s one of the most pleasant June’s they’ve ever experienced here.

Co-incidentally, fishing has seemingly turned the corner as well. While not wide open, the warmer conditions finally brought in more of the top-water species. For sure, it finally kick-started all the marlin and sailfish that have been lazing around our waters for two months. “We had 8 swimming around our panga at one time!” said one of our anglers. It was not unusual to hook 1 or 2 this week. Many fish broke- off on the lighter tackle, but it’s gratifying to see so many anglers…especially first timers…releasing their billfish! Bravo! Our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet has been seeing most of the billfish action.

As well, there’s been a smattering of tuna in the 60-100 pound class as it seems the big Humboldt squid have come up to the surface from their trenches and that usually brings the big tuna with them. There weren’t many tuna, but here and there, they popped up and tore into a few of our pangas leaving anglers battered and bruised and, more often than not, with nothing to show after long battles where the fish broke off or got unbuttoned.

Also, we’re seeing many more dorado all around La Paz waters, but even moreso, we’re finally seeing bigger 20-40 pound bulls instead of the little punks we’ve been dealing with since April. Every day several fish in the 25-30 pound class have been taken at various spots. Check out the photos this week! Lots of dorado shots!

Bait is the biggest issue. We’re getting bait, but it just takes time to find it or wait for the bait guys to find it so they can sell it to us. Once you have the bait, the fish can be found. The fish are here…no doubt. Hopefully, that will change but we’ll keep an eye out for it. We’ve been using mostly sardines, but a few cocineros and even some big squid has been working or stripped out bonito for slow trolling the larger dorado.

FIRST PERSON REPORT

Thanks to Mike Sontag from Arizona for putting this one together!

“The fishing the week of June 25th was phenomenal. Besides having my fishing partner extraordinaire (Rex) with us, I was blessed with being able to spend quality time with my 2 brothers (both from the midwest).

The first 2 days launched out of Los Arenas with my brother tying into a beautiful marlin within an hour of being on the water. The fight was on with the fish showing us his size and attitude with a series of surface crashing launches and acrobatics. The fish won out after a 10 minute fight, but not without leaving a lifetime impression on my brother and me since I was able to watch the silly smirk on my brothers face for the durations of the hookup (I believe it s permanent as it still hasn’t left his face).

Not to be outdone, within another 30 minutes I had a sailfish on the business end of the rod while my brother provided commentary and helpful hints since he was now experienced at this sort of thing. The sail was a thing of beauty and after about 25 minutes was brought up next to the boat. Our masterful Captain Ramiro estimated it’s weight at about 40-45 Kg (90-100lbs). We performed CPR (catch, photograph, release) and let it go for another day.

The rest of our day as well as the same for Rex and my other brother was rounded out with a multi-species bad of pargo, trigger, sierra, dorado, amberjack, bonita, plus several roosterfish sightings.

The cream on top of this trip was day 3 out of LaPaz with limits of dorado for both our boats. All I can say is my two brothers will never be the same when it comes to fishing experiences of a lifetime. As with our previous visits – the professional hospitality and friendliness of yourTailhunter operation and the fishing captains are second to none.”

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

.
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 June 12-19, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, Uncategorized, tagged jonathan roldan, la paz, la paz baja mexico, La Paz fishing, light tackle fishing, panga fishing, sea of cortez, tailhunter international on June 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Family Outing with three generations of the Whittlesey guys including grandpa Norman (tuna and pargo); grandson Mike (striped marlin); Dad Craig (wahoo) and grandson Dan with another wahoo. The guys from Pullman Washington spent the past week fishing with us and had this great day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The bite reflected the improved fishing towards the end of the week.

Ed Johnson from S.California got into the nice jag of Cerralvo Island on the south side that went off this past week. It was his first trip and his panga got 3 wahoo and lost another. They also got dorado. The wahoo were eating trolled deep running dark colored lures early in the morning.

Making his first trip to La Paz from Colorado, Jim Schmid had an eventful week with all the different species he encountered (see account below) including this La Paz dorado as more dorado moved into the area with some larger fish like Jim's.

Leif Dover from Atlanta GA spent a week with us targeting "only big fish" and spending the time to only use larger baits and fishing larger tackle. It paid off with this beast dog-tooth cubera snapper with Captain Adolfo looking on.

Big roosterfish are still around in what has turned out to be an excellent roosterfish season. Check out Scott Damron's big fish he caught and released south of Muertos Bay.

Not a bad day at all. Early the week, the dorado bite was tough as winds pushed things around, but Cindi and Jim Schmid from Colorado still managed 4 nice mahi. As the week went on, winds diminished and dorado got more cooperative.

It's not big...but it's big news and a great catch, especially for a first timer like Mike Whittlesey from Washington who got this tuna near Cerralvo Island trolling for wahoo. Tuna keep popping up, but not staying so we have to keep an eye on this!

Captured in mid-flight during the battle, Jim Schmid's sailfish goes vertical. The fish broke off at the boat after a long fight and was "the fish of a lifetime" according to Jim. They were fishing north of La Paz with Captain Raul and our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.

SLOW START OF THE WEEK ENDS IN HIGHER NOTES BY THE END!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 12-19, 2010

The week started slow and scratchy with some really tough fishing. Winds again kept blowing erratically not only turning waters off-color, but also scattering bait and generally putting lock-jaw on the fishing. There were times early-on when even the bonito seemed dis-interested in biting and basically, we all struggled with both our Las Arenas and our La Paz fleet. How bad? Well, imagine getting excited about BIG triggerfish! Well…not quite that bad, but we sure had to work hard for the roosters, pargo, cabrilla and inshore fish that we got.

Then, just about to throw up my hands and kick sand and boom! The winds stopped for a few days…

And the fish bit!

We suddenly found dorado, wahoo, some marlin and sailfish…even some tuna bit! What a difference a day or two makes! Roosterfish kept coming on. Dorado up to 30 pounds. Every day there were a few billfish hooked (lost or released). For a few days, it seemed every boat fishing south of Cerralvo Island hooked a wahoo…not necessarily put it in the boat, but they were getting bit and several boats each day did put a wahoo in the pangas.

As of the time I’m writing this, winds have stayed relatively calm and the waters are getting clearer. Our biggest challenge is the live bait now. The winds have beat up the bait so badly over the last few months and thrashing all the usual bait spots that the bait is scattered and takes a long time to get.

For our La Paz fleet, they’re doing OK, but it’s taking almost 2-3 hours to find enough bait or waiting for the bait guys to catch enough to sell. Once they get the bait, it’s fine. For our Las Arenas fleet, as has been the case for about 3 months, the bait is all the way up the east side of Cerralvo Island. Rather than spend the time going all the way up then coming all the way back, our captains are using the time to troll around the south end of the island for wahoo and waiting for the bait guys to come back from getting bait and then buying it.

Alot of the anglers can’t understand why it takes so long or why we don’t do something else. You gotta understand, it’s pretty hard to fish without bait unless you want to troll around all day. It’s not like we can wave a magic wand and make bait suddenly appear or get easier to catch. The weird weather patterns have just made this a tougher season so far to get bait. Once you get the bait, there’s fish to be caught. It’s just trying everyone’s patience a bit more than normal.

FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT

Thank you to Jim Schmid for this!

“While the fishing was a little tougher than we hoped for, in 4 days we managed to catch 9 different species, 61 fish total, brought home a cooler full of filets, and still had extra fish to give away to Captain Raul and some of the hotel staff. I really wanted at least one BIG TROPHY FISH, and my wish was fulfilled on the last hour of the last day, when we hooked a very large sailfish. I spotted the fish behind our boat, and Capt. Raul made two quick hand thrown casts to place the sardine in the path of the fish, which cooperated by eating it. Cindy graciously offered me the opportunity to fight the fish (hooked on her rod), and 40 minutes later, we brought it to boatside. Unfortunately, when Raul grabbed the 30 # line and tried to get ahold of the fish’s bill, it thrashed and the line snapped. We were going to release it, anyway, but it would have been nice to get some better photos (Cindy got a good one of it jumping, attached here) Oh well, we will always have the memory of that huge fish jumping out of the water, over and over…a total of TEN TIMES! Raul said it was a “Very big one” and estimated the weight at 70kg.!

I never imagined the remotest chance of catching a big sailfish. I know very little about sailfish, but am guessing a person could make many trips out trying to catch one of this caliber. I certainly feel I was very fortunate to have the chance to fight a fish like this and very lucky to get the fish in, on fairly light gear. It will very likely be my “fish of a lifetime”. “

By the way, wherever you’re celebrating it, Happy Father’s Day everyone! God bless all the dads out there.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

.
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 for Week of May 30 to June 5, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tagged jonathan roldan, light tackle fishing, panga fishing, tailhunter international on June 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

"Tuna Tony" Frustacia was on his first trip down to La Paz and his first time ocean-fishing coming from Utah and landed this big 50 pound class tuna. He was fishing with live bait near Cerralvo Island where several others were hooked and lost with Tony being the only one who managed to put his fish in the boat. Even more incredible was that he was using a rental rod and 30 pound test and battled the beast for over an hour! (Check out the video clip of the week)

Our buddy, Don White, proudly holds up a personal best dog-tooth-snapper (cubera snapper or pargo perro) just offshore while fishing with Captain Pancho. That's Cerralvo Island in the background and Don, who came down from Oregon and spent the better part of two weeks with us, got the big dog using a live sardine.

Given it's already June, dorado were a little harder to come by especially earlier in the week, but Chris Spagnoli from northern California holds up one of several he took while fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of town around Las Cruces.

Debbie White swore she would only fish one day and ended up with 3 days on the water and almost outfished her husband Don each day. She's shown here in a great photo with Captain Victor and her prized roosterfish just inside of Muertos Bay before releasing it.

Kristiana Frustacia from Utah says she's coming back soon after her first trip to La Paz and is all smiled holding this nice barred pargo caught fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet.

Captain Adolfo looks over the shoulder of Phil Catlin from Idianapolis, Indiana holding up one of the larger female dorado we've taken recently with Cerralvo Island in the background.

A spur-of-the-moment trip for Phil Pfifer and his wife, Gail, paid off in some nice fishing for these first timers from Utah. Our amigos were more used to cactching planted trout but had a blast with some nice varieties of pargo and reef fish and "about 40 bonito" according to Captain Armando that left them with tired arms and big grins!

For those who don't believe it's possible to pull a really monster dog-tooth out of the rocks, here's proof. If you've ever battled pargo, you know how frustrating it can be to get even a smaller fish out even though the fish are in shallow water. Well, here's a monster although in all honesty, it was taken on a handline by a commercial captain, but the picture was too cool to pass up.

VIDEO CLIP FOR THE WEEK

Click this link for some of the week’s catches:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KAK_ey5KZM

SUMMER STILL ON HOLD AS WINDS KEEP FISHING WATERS COOL BUT ROOSTERFISH AND SMALLER DORADO PROVIDE BEST ACTION

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 30- June 6, 2010

It wasn’t the greatest week for fishing. It wasn’t bad, but given it’s already June, conditions were less than stellar. Folks caught fish, but it was more like fishing in late April or early May as erratic winds persisted on-and-off throughout the week changing the water temperatures; moving the bait around; and changing the bite. Not to mention that there were a ton of boats out all week fishing both Las Arenas and La Paz areas due to several local tournaments and just alot of anglers in town.

But, there were still some very good catches!

The winds put a damper on the dorado fishing for our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet. Boats averaged about 4-6 dorado each and most were in the smaller 5-10 pound category…really small for the time of year. However, captains told me that the recent onslaught of winds made it not only choppy out there, but the bait got harder to find and some of the waters got cooler green. Still, picking around here and there, at the end of the day, most had at least a few fillets for the bucket. Occasionally, a boat would get into the wild school and go nuts, but this past week it was fewer and far between.

We’ll have to see what happens to this wind. For us down here, it seems to be a reflection of what’s going on up the western coast of the U.S. which is still getting some really wacky cool and cold weather. It seems that whenever that happens we get the winds. In town, it’s as awesome as can be. Perfect 85 degree beach weather and perfect for kicking-back on the sand or in some little cafe with chips and salsa and a cold one. But for fishing, it’s just not as good as we should be seeing.

Our Las Arenas fleet did much better. There weren’t many blue water species to speak of, but we did hit a little spot of good-grade tuna off Cerralvo Island of 25-50 pound fish. It was brief but exciting. Teasers really. No idea if this will be a consistent bite. However, inshore, the roosterfish continue to be stars.

Although not good eating, nothing is quite as fun as these jacks with the funny fin ripping into the baits! Fish from 10-60 pounds give anglers quite a range of possibilities when they’re working the beaches and the exotic species is quite a prize for any angler. Our flyfishers and light tackle anglers are especially having fun.

Also, the big pargo continue to bite, tease and frustrate. With the waters staying cooler than normal, the big red fish are hanging close to shore and guys will tell you of multiple bites that they just can’t stop. We did get a few in the 25-40 pound class that anyone will tell you are trophies, but larger fish just can’t seem to be stopped! Check out some of the photos this week and imagine stopping some of these fish in only a few feet of water before the get into the rocks.

Hopefully, the winds slow down soon!

Have a great week!

That’s our story

Jonathan and Jill

.
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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FULL MOON STRONG CURRENTS AND ERRATIC WINDS WHAMMY FISHING EFFORTS DESPITE SOME NICE CATCHES La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 23-30, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tagged jonathan roldan, light tackle fishing, panga fishing, tailhunter international on May 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Sean Tennis is a long way from Watertown, S. Dakota, but made it pay off fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and this beast of a roosterfish estimated in the 60-pound-class. In trying to hoist the fish up for a quick photo before releasing it, the fish smacked our burly Captain Archangel so hard it nearly knocked him out of the panga and hit him with enough force to smash the wind out've him. Sean and his amigo, Dan Clift, got a number of roosters of varying sizes this day. It's been great rooster fishing the last few weeks.

First timers to La Paz Joe Valenzuela and Danna Hill from Anaheim CA, got big fish-of-the-day kudos by pulling this trophy dog-tooth snapper out of the rocks near Bahia de Los Muertos. The big pargo are still around in the shallows

We haven't seen yellowtail in about 3 weeks since waters got warmer, but Bob Blodgett from the San Francisco Bay area got this 30 pound class jurel fishing with Capt. Ramiro out of Muertos Bay and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet in very windy conditions.

Windy conditions this week made outside fishing less than ideal and dorado fishing a bit tougher, but Dr. Desmond Sjauwfoekloy from Orange Co. CA got this nice one fishing north of La Paz around Espiritu Santo Island.

It's been a good season so-far for barred pargo and with erratic winds keeping alot of the action close to shore, the pargo fishing helped fill out the ice chests. Mark Bianchi fishing La Paz for his first time holds up two of his pargo standing on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos

Nice trophy cabrilla (seabass) held up by Alex Voget who was fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. It's been a nice year for big cabrilla like this one and a great catch for Alex. They took it back to their hotel and tossed the filets on the barbecue!

After 4 days of winds and scratchy fishing, Bill Burris finally got into a nice dorado bite and holds up one of his limits of fish he got later in the week.

Popular Captain Joel with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet poses next to Dr. Bruce Beckford from Colorado holding up a pair of their dorado they picked up fishing north of La Paz around the island.

She's an optometrist from Orange Co, but Stephanie Sjauwfoekloy had no trouble seeing this nice roosterfish caught just offshore from Muertos Bay with Captain Armando lending a hand.

It's been a nice few weeks for the slugger dog-tooth snapper like this big boy held onto by Captain Victor and happy angler Ray Victorino.

It's a BIG fish, but not THAT big! Sean Tennis is goofing with the camera by holding his fish really really really close to the camera to make it look larger. However, it is still a BIG pargo in his hands.

A long way from New Mexico, Dan Clift was fishing around Espiritu Santo Island with Captain Chito and holds up a nice bull dorado. Winds this past week seemed to have scattered the dorado schools.

FULL MOON STRONG CURRENTS AND ERRATIC WINDS WHAMMY FISHING EFFORTS DESPITE SOME NICE CATCHES

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 23-30, 2010

I’m don’t normally make a big deal of the full moon, but it seemed to definitely have an effect this past week. Actually, it was the triple-whammy that made it hard. A full moon coupled with big tides/currents accompanied by strong erratic winds really made for some scratchy fishing. Our anglers gamely hung in, but sometimes it wasn’t pretty and, although everyone got fish, some days were better than others and some anglers did better than others. Not much to do about the full moon, but to get winds so strong this late in the season is pretty uncommon.

That being said, roosterfish at least continued their power charge along the beaches. For the last month or so, roosterfish have come on strong with some anglers getting either their first roosters or some of their largest roosters. School-sized fish in the 5-10 pound class were great fun for guys fishing light tackle, but some hog-sized pez gallo up to 60 pounds were also taken that just broke a few anglers who didn’t know what they were in for! Roosters in the more manageable 30-40 pound class weren’t uncommon.

Dorado were still the primary catch for our La Paz fleet, but bigger seas generated by the stronger winds scattered the bite and caused our captains to really have to scour for a pick bite. There were a few fish in the 20-30 pound class, but those were the exception. Most of the fish were schoolie 5-10 pound fish. The bite has spread out a bit more, however. Previously, the fish were concentrated around Espiritu Santo Island, but we picked up more fish in the channel between Las Cruces/ Punta Coyote and the north end of Cerralvo Island.

As for other species, we did get a surprise yellowtail. A surprise insofar that we’ve not seen much in the way of yellowtail for almost two weeks. There were a few lazy marlin hooked/snagged that quickly broke off, but the inshore fishing for species like pargo and cabrilla and even some sierra made up the bulk of what came back in the ice chests this week.

GOODBYE to another LA PAZ ICON

For generations, the Centro Commercial Market “C.C.C.” has been a headquarters for groceries and other purchases and especially for gringos and tourists. It was really the first big super market in town long before Walmart, Sam’s Club and other big box stores arrived. As of this past week, it was purchased by a big mainland Mexico chain and many of the employees lost their jobs. Many of them had decades of employment. Like Hotel Los Arcos, Carlos and Charlie’s Restaurant and several other iconic landmarks in La Paz, another one is gone.

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.htmTailhunter 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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DORADO GO OFF FOR LA PAZ ANGLERS WHILE ROOSTERS AND BIG PARGO TANGLE WITH LAS ARENAS ANGLERS! Report for week of May 16-23, 2010

Posted in baja fishing, fish report, fishing charters, fishing tackle, fishing videos, la paz baja sur, la paz fishing, mexico fishing, sea of cortez, sportfishing packages, tailhunter, tagged jonathan roldan, La Paz fishing, light tackle fishing, panga fishing, tailhunter international on May 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

What a great way to spend your honeymoon fishing in Baja! Chanpen Suwannate (now Blackard) spent her honeymoon with us fishing and got this nice dorado fishing with Captain Armando and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

Great week again for roosterfish! The exotic fish have been solid now for several weeks with fish between 5 and 50 pounds along the beach areas. John "JD" Drucker from Redondo Beach comes down twiced a year and has had some great trips and had a banner week and shows off a nice rooster he released. He also got a number of wahoo (see below!)

Sacramento visitors Adolfo Cisnero and Kurt "I have another joke for you" Vorpagel show off a great mix of fish taken with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet from Muertos Bay. They're holding a dorado (and lost several others!) and have a mix of pargo, cabrilla and sierra at their feet as well which is very typical of the type of fishing right now as waters transition between cool and warm.

He has a horseshoe hidden somewhere! Guys come down here trying to hook just one wahooo in their lifetime! John Drucker hooked 6 of these over two days with three busting off but putting three into the boat. Captain Victor strains to help him for the photo op!

These sierra are normally cold-water fish, yet even though waters are getting warmer, we're getting sierra in fairly decent numbers and most of them are pretty nice-sized like this one being shown off by Ryan Blackard. He got married and came down the next day for his honeymoon to go fishing with his new wife! That's Punta Perrico in the background.

Bill "Pancho" Evans enjoyed himself so much fishing down here, he moved here last year and has become quite a hot stick with the fishing especially taking trophy pargo like this excellent dog-tooth snapper!

Some nice pargo stuck into the fish boxes this week! Yes, the big red fish are still in the shallows! Jim Brignall from Arizona holds up a nice doggie.

DORADO GO OFF FOR LA PAZ ANGLERS WHILE ROOSTERS AND BIG PARGO TANGLE WITH LAS ARENAS ANGLERS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 16-23, 2010

We had a full solid week of great weather. It was the kind of weather you put on postcards. But fishing has been like night and day between our Las Arenas and La Paz fleet. It’s so different between what we’re catching around Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay and south Cerralvo Island compared to what our other fleet is catching around Espirito Santo Island and the waters north of La Paz!

Basically, al week, I’ve been telling our anglers, if you want variety of species, fish with our Las Arenas fleet. For inshore fishing, you just can’t beat it with a dead needlefish! Big pargo, cabrilla, snapper and even still some sierra and rainbow runners are in the rocky areas mixing it up with the “beach species” like pompano, jack crevalle (big ones!) and roosterfish.

For one thing, if you’ve ever wanted a roosterfish, the stellar bite on the pez gallos has been in full swing for our Las Arenas fleet and boats fishing that area. It’s two-sides of the spectrum. You can get into a school of the 5-10 pounders and have a blast or go for the home run and try to nail one of the 30-60 pound beasts prowling the sandy spots. For the last 3 or 4 weeks these big guys have been showing up and powering their way onto live bait, flies and even lures. And, they get bigger!

The world record was taken on this beach at 114 pounds and over the years, we’ve had fish approach that size. I’ve personally seen fish close to the 100 pound mark (we will never know since we released them, but even the captains verified the sizes) but it’s pretty hard to fathom fish that large swimming around in sometimes only a few feet of water.

Anyway, the problem with fishing with our Las Arenas fleet is that this past week, other than bonito or the occasional dorado (very occasional) there was very little surface bite! Very few dorado; no tuna to speak of and although we saw billfish, they were about as interested in biting as cat wanting to attend a dog show.

Contrast that with our La Paz fleet that fished north of La Paz and found dorado consistently almost every day. Most days there were limits or near limits on all our boats. Many of the fish were about 10 pounders and many were released, but there were still some 30-40 pound bulls in the box that really tore up some of our first-timers! As an aside, we also got more of those big cabrilla and some pargo mulatto.

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

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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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