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Posts Tagged ‘punta arenas’

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet for Week of July 13-20, 2014

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Our amigo, Raul Chollet, here in La Paz just recently started fishing only about 2 years ago and has the “fishing bug”  big time! He’s since gotten his first marlin, roosterfish, sierra and here, his biggest dorado. It was a slow day but they got a few and this nice dorado with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. That day, some boats did OK and others, like Raul’s , had a bit more trouble locating the bite.

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Jeanette Carroll from New Mexico with Captain Victor just south of Bahia de Los Muertos caught and released this hefty 40-45 pound roosterfish on a live bait. It was her biggest and “bigger than my husband’s rooster!”

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Phil Matteson was on his 2nd trip to La Paz this week and told me they had winter in Montana that was 40 degrees below zero! Weather was’t so great in La Paz this week either as we got clouds and wind, but at least it was a tad warmer than Montana. First day out, Phil nailed this big boy bull dorado with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

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John Kennedy, our amigo from Auburn CA, had to postpone his yearly trip earlier in the year for an injury, but came roaring back with a great week of fishing topped off his last day with this nice sailfish caught and released, as well as a box of dorado, pargo, cabrilla and triggerfish releasing many.

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Dick Carroll and his wife came to visit us again this year from New Mexico and couldn’t have been a more fun couple. Both of them got roosterfish with our Las Arenas fleet on the same day including this one that Dick quickly released.

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Mark Martis from Redondo Beach CA has been fishing with us at Tailhunter since the early days in the mid-90’s. Under grey skies he still put the wood to this nice big bull dorado near Espirto Santo Island.

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Air Dorado taking off! Great shot taken by Phil Matteson of a 40-pound bull dorado ripping off line and grabbing air. As anyone knows who has tried to take one of these shots, it’s a difficult shot to take. The dorado are moving up to 30 mph!

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Happy Gal! Becky Munos from Arizona on her first day fishing and first time to La Paz just could not get enough of the fishing and beaches of La Paz. Fishing just off the beach at La Ventana, she put this nice little bull in the box. They released or donated all the the fish they caught!

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Josh Matteson on his first time ever salt water fishing is from Cascade, Montana. His first cast, he nails a 40 pound dorado….among others. The next day he battles this nice striped marlin and released it after taking this great photo with Captain Pancho. They were fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

 

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He’s just about to “heave-ho” this roostefish over the side to release it, but a good fish just-the-same, for amigo Jack Young from Arizona on his first trip with Tailhunters. He had a good week of fishing with both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleet. The roosterfish was caught his first day just off El Sargento.

 

 

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Wayne Moss, has been my Canadian amigo for many many years and is a commercial pilot in the Maldive Islands. He’s also one of the better fishermen I know. I love the look on his face here wondering if this big bull dorado is gonna make one more attempt to get back in the water! Great colors. Nice fish!

 

 

DIFFICULT WEEK STILL HAD SOME GOOD HIGHLIGHTS

La   Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-20

 

 

It was a hard week to put my finger on.  With the exception of flyfishermen, everyone got fish, but where you fished and how you fished made a huge difference. If you took our advice and did what we or the captains told you to do, you got fish and there were some nice ones to be had!   Overall, I would have to say this week was slower.  Last week we had the huge full moon and fishing was much better.  Last week we had rainy weather and fishing was better.   This week the moon was better and the weather was generally better and fishing was a bit more complicated.

Here’s the breakdown:

LAS ARENAS

The week started OK.  We got some roosters.  There were small to medium dorado around.  There were some billfish, pargo and cabrilla.  Not spectacular fishing, but it was OK.  We even had bait.  But, as the week went on, we had some of the worst fishing we’ve seen all season with our Las Arenas fleet.

On the surface, I could say it was the lack of baits.  That includes ballyhoo, sardines and mackerel that we usually use for most of the gamefish.  But, the sabalo…the big ladyfish…that we use for the bigger roosters also got hard to find.  So, naturally, lack of bait had something to do with it.

Likewise, later in the week we had some tropical storm cells pass through.  This made for some rougher and windier waters.  It got choppy.  The skies were gray.  There were little flurries of rain here and there locally.  We almost had another water spout form up one afternoon near Cerralvo Island prompting the panga fleets to head for the beach.

So, all that would have or could have affected fishing.  I’ve seen similar situations where we had all those conditions and we still got fish.

But beyond that, there were some other variables as well which, contributed to the lack of scores on the fish.

Later in the week we had folks specifically going for “home run” fish.  Those are fish that you either get ‘em…or you don’t. Instead of going for “action” they went for the top-shelf bad boys.   They are trophy fish for a reason.  For instance, going for wahoo.  You either get-em..or you don’t.  You can be the king of, if nothing is there, then you have a good shot of not coming back with any fish at all because you have to concentrate on the wahoo.

Same for the rooster fish.  First, you have to spend the time trying to catch the better live bait…mullet or ladyfish.  That can take time.  If the baits aren’t there or are hard to come by…that’s a whole lot of time spent.  Then, actually chasing the roosters takes time as well.  Again, there’s alot of focus and energy on them.  If they aren’t there or not biting, then you stand a good chance of getting goose-egged.  That’s what happened quite often towards the end of the week.

Frustrated anglers who came back with nothing.  But that’s what happens when you swing for the fences!  I applaud the effort.  It’s awesome.  I like that kind of fishing myself.  But, sometimes the big hitters strike out.  Part of fishing.  Part of the game. You have to be ready for disappointment.  And there were some disappointed anglers this week. Who got no fish!

About the flyfishing…Frankly, it’s been tough.  I’ve been singing that tune all season.

  No one in Baja seems to have bait for chum for the flyfishermen.  This El Nino has not been good to the flyfishers.  Normally, we have sardines to toss out and get the fish going.  The sardines are non-existent.

We have larger baits…caballito and mackerel, but you can’t chum with that.

The flyfishers who have been coming down and willing to be flexible and do some conventional fishing are all getting fish.  Everyone is catching fish.  The ones who are strictly flyfishing are not doing well.  The operators here in La Paz that are strictly flyfishers have had a terrible year because they have no other avenues to catch fish.  They are strictly flyfishing.  I did have 4 guys who just left this morning that were strictly flyfishing.

  I kept offering to switch them to fish with my La Paz fleet where we are catching fish, but they insisted on staying with my Las Arenas fleet where they has been no bait…they caught pretty much zero fish for 3 days and left pretty frustrated and angry with us.  They could have switched to bait or at least fished with my La Paz fleet and done quite well…even had a shot on the flyrod, but they were stubborn.  I wish I could have gotten them some fish.  See below…we did find some roosters.  The bonito were huge and would have been awesome on the flyrod.  They could have gotten the dorado going on the bait then tossed a flyrod into the boils.   These were all good guys and experienced fishermen, but I was as frustrated as them.They left for Loreto where I hear it’s been tough as well, but I hope they do better.

I feel for all the flyfishers I’ve seen here this year…lots of them fishing with our competitors.  I meet alot of them at our restaurant and hear the stories.   That’s fishing this year.  As I said at the beginning…it depends on where you fish and how you fish.

LA PAZ

La Paz, while not as good as last week, was still very productive.  There were some slow spots…but everyone got fish every day.  Some of our pangas would do really well one day and others not so good, but the next day the panga that did poorly would find fish and the other would have a slower day.  But the dorado were very cooperative with fish in the 5-40 pound class and some HUGE 12-15 pound dynamite bonito that put some guys on light tackle on their knees!  As well, we had several marlin and sailfish hooked up and either lost or released…even a few rooster fish…plus some nice pargo and cabrilla.

The difference is that we had more live bait…caballitos and mackerel.  Still a bit big to chum, but the baits brought the fish to the boat.  You could even catch a bonito and then chop it up and use it for chum and then that would bring even more fish to the boat.

The one drawback with the larger caballito and mackerel is that they are well…large!  One big mistake is that anglers would think they had a hookup and swing to early.  There’s alot of smaller fish out there or larger fish that eat slowly!  Swinging too early and  the bait would literally get yanked out of the fish’s mouths or resulted in alot of short bites too where the gamefish only bit off the back half of the big bait.  We missed alot of fish that way.  Some of the more experienced anglers increased their hook-up to catch ratio by tying trailer/ trap hooks onto the main rig so that there would be a second hook dangling at the back-end of the baits.

But, overall, the La Paz fishing took care of everyone and got fish in the boat!

One of the nice thing about having our two fleets is that as Las Arenas fishing got slower or more frustrating, or the weather got more unpredictable, we could offer to have our folks fish with our La Paz fleet and get into the fish.  That made all the difference between big smiles or frowns!

WEATHER

Normally, this time of year, there’s not much to say about the weather.  The sun comes up.  The sun goes down.  It’s hot and sunny.  End of story.

However, this year, with El Nino, we’re seeing alot of variations.  Not only is the water warmer, but the tropical humidity and conditions are tangible.  The air is generally heavier and muggier.  We’re seeing afternoon tropical rain showers come through and sometimes drop considerable rain for a few minutes then move on and the ground steams dry.  We see electrical heat storms and lightning in the afternoons, evening and early morning hours when it’s still dark.   This is more like September and October weather.    Other days, there’s no rain, but it’s cloudy most days.  Almost like the “June gloom” seen along Southern California beaches where a marine layer moves in and everything is grey until the sun burns through in the afternoons.  Crazy.  That being said, it’s still 95-100 degrees every day with cooler evenings in the 70’s.

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 That’s our story!

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Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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 Repor from Tailhunter International Fleet for Week of April 13-20, 2014

BLOOD MOON 2014

Hope you got to see it! It was pretty amazing to watch the moon go dark…then go red! It was already a HUGE full moon this week ,but extremely amazing to watch the “BLOOD MOON” eclipse! Unfortunately, combined with other factors, it might have had an affect on the fishing this past week…dangit.

 

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Captain Boli from our Tailhunter La Paz fleet helps out young Peter Koschnitzke from snowy Colorado who earned himself a cigar and a beer from dad for nailing this slugger-sized yellowtail near Espirito Santo Island. I was told it tasted great with manga salsa!

 

Pargo Tim Butterworth tags 4-14

Pargo were a good bet this week, but putting these tough good-eaters in the boat required some luck and skill as some of our anglers will tell you as they head straight back into the rockpiles! Tim Butterworth hung this fat hog north of La Paz on live bait.

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With the warmer waters, we’re already seeing some billfish around Cerralvo Island and Las Arenas. Nothing full turbo yet, by any means, but promising! This hundred-pounder was hooked and released out by the buoys east of Bahia de los Muertos.

 

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The latest satellite shot from http://www.terrafin.com shows the heavy bodies of warm water around Cerralvo Island while cooler waters still hold north of La Paz city.

BLOOD MOON WHAMMY?  TOUGH WEEK OF FISHING

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 13-20, 2014

 

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Easter week and weekend!

Well…

Not the best of weeks down here.  Kinda wacky actually.

It’s really hard to put a finger on what happened.  It was sort of a convergence of a lot of things that could have affected the fishing…a variable here and a variable there could have made the difference.

But, fishing was really down! It doesn’t happen often.  The track record here…like any other fishing destination that has a reputation…is that sure…you get the down day now and again.  But it usually bounces back pretty fast.

Well, this week we had several days that were either bad or at best…ho-hum…

But, here’s how the planets lined up that could have made a difference.  Any single one or two of these items usually makes no difference, but perhaps all of them converging at the same time?  I dunno.  Take a look.  All I know is that fishing was off.

1.  Stronger than normal winds…even for this time of year when it can get breezy.  This week we had some white-cap days!

2.  Waters got a little cooler…not warmer as has been the trend.  Maybe caused by the stronger winds!  Fish get lock-jawed when water temps change drastically…especially for the cooler.

3.  Strong winds make it harder to get bait as the shallow areas where we get bait are spanked with waves and the bait scatters or we can’t get up close to the rocks to throw nets.

4.  Combination of #2 and #1 meant clouded green and off-color waters…again affecting fish activity and feeding

5.  THE MOON!  I hardly ever blame things on a full-moon, but in combination with the other factors PLUS it was not only full, but did you see the RED MOON ECLIPSE???  The moon was not only larger than normal, but it eclipsed to dark…then went almost dirty red!  Here in La Paz everyone was out taking photos with their cell phones in the dark. It was pretty funny to see “photos flashes” going off!  (Oh sure…that flash reaches up to the moon!).  But, maybe…just maybe the fish freaked out too!

Anyway, by the time you’re reading this, the full moon will have waned and hopefully the rest of these things will have settled back to normal. Either way, a weird week.

That being said, it was still sunny most days…although we had some weird cloudy days when I thought it would rain.  But day temps are usually in the high 80’s to low 90’s and pretty pleasant.

And, we still managed a few fish here and there.  For our La Paz anglers, yellowtail up to about 30 pounds were found around Espirito Santo Island as well as some sizable barred pargo and some dorado in the 20 pound class.

For our Las Arenas anglers, it was picky.  Some dorado up to about 15 pounds.  Some big bonito.  Some snapper and pargo and a few rooster fish (released) plus some sierra along the beaches.

Still better than working, but the fishing honestly could have been better and hopefully is back on track by the time you’re reading this!

SPOTS STILL OPEN FOR JUNE “SUMMER PANGA SLAM” WITH TAILHUNTER and WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWS

dorado Lily Chung 8-13 tags

We still have a few spots open for our 2013 Western Outdoor News/ Tailhunter Sportfishing PANGA SLAM!

The dates are June 17-21 and promises to be great fun, and it’s really GROWING!  It was going to be a fun low-key tournament and fun get-together, but word got out!  Now, it’s gotten some legs and it’s gonna be a special blast!

  • Sponsors aboard now include:  Okuma Reels, Costa Sunglasses, Yo-Zuri, Sufix, Turners Outdoors and Lazer Trokar Hooks!
  • Three full days of panga fishing at Las Arenas  (gear, breakfast and lunches included) 
  • 4 nights La Concha Beach Resort in ocean-facing room
  • Welcome dinner and Awards Dinner
  • Taco feed night and live music at famous Tailhunter Restaurant
  • Two days jackpot tournament (cash entry $100 in La Paz per team) 
  • Event t-shirts
  • Cabo San Lucas Airport Shuttles 

 

Additionally,  Tailhunter Sportfishing is now an IGFA weigh center with certified scales and will also have the new release measuring devices for the new IGFA “release categories.”  As members of the Roosterfish Foundation, we will also have devices to tag and release roosterfish in the first sanctioned roosterfish release event of it’s kind and a great opportunity to posssibly get a world record in an area that has produced arguably more world records than few other places in the fishing world.  IGFA record holder, representative, author and journalist, Gary Graham, will also be on hand.

We are limiting this to just 40 persons on 20 panga “teams.”  Couples are welcome!  Cost is $1350 per person!  For more info, contact Mike Flynn at Western Outdoor News at Flynn@wonews.com or call him at 949-366-0030 extension 30.  Or Western Outdoor News Editor, Pat McDonell at 949-366-0030 extension 33 or pat@wonews.com.

Gonna be a real kick!

That’s our story!  Happy Easter to you and your family!

combo signature 2-proc

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA  91942

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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 Oct .13-20, 2013

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Another good week of dorado fishing as the season seems to be tapering off. But, the dorado still bit strongly. Both our Las Arenas Tailhunter Fleet and La Paz Tailhunter Fleet kept finding fish some of the schools very close to shore with fish ranging from 8-40 pounds. Thanks to Gary Wagner for the great underwater shot.

George wahoo 10-14-2013 small tags

Some guys come for years trying to get one little sniff of a wahoo. George Kasee from Georgia was on his first trip and put this flyer in the box fishing off Cerralvo Island just before the storm hit. There’s still wahoo in the waters feeding off the high spots.

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Yes…thats’ our famous Captain Pancho all wrapped up in the bandana, but he’s lending a hand to Kevin wearing his lucky fishing shirt that paid off with this marlin just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos.

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Captain Gerardo with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet gives a hand to Michele Edwards from Loma Rica CA who was on her first trip with us in La Paz. She was here celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary and many thanks to them…they not only donated all their fish from the entire week of fishing but also brought down an incredible amount of toys, sporting goods, school materials and other things for the several charity groups of kids in La Paz.

squid james edwards tags 10-13

This is what we’ve been using for bait the last few weeks…giant squid! They have worked great, not to mention saving some up to have it cooked up at Tailhunter Restaurant . But this is how we have often started our days with having to catch the giant squid like James Edwards here with Captain Gerardo.

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Big smiles from Tera and Virgil Redwine from Washington State hold up some of their catch fishing north of La Paz.

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It doesn’t take much in La Paz for the streets to flood. After just a few minutes, we’re plowing through several feet of water like this past week when Tropical Storm Octavo dropped rain on us for a few hours. But then, as fast as it comes, it stops and the streets dry up.

ANOTHER LITTLE STORM PASSES THRU BUT DORADO AND OTHERS STILL COME TO PLAY!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct 12-20, 2013

Well…another storm has come and gone.  “Octavo” rose up out’ve nowhere and blew in…and out.  It wasn’t as bad as anticipated. But, it still made for a day of rough seas…some crazy rain for about a day…and some winds.

Fortunately, since we have our two fleets, we were able to adjust folks and move them so that pretty much everyone who was supposed to fish got to fish instead of sit around the pool or hang out in their rooms.  Las Arenas was too muddy and too rough to launch so we had everyone fish with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and, at least we got out there and most folks were still getting fish.

And that’s the story…these storms are called “Toritos” (Little Bulls) that rise up out’ve nowhere when warm waters hit the right air and suddenly there’s a little blip on the weather screen that starts to swirl.  It’s the nature of thing down here in tropical zones.  They blow in and roar.  And just as quickly they blow out.  We had that one day and the next day the sun was out and the waters were calm and it was “fishing business as normal!”

Dorado were still the main attractant.  Most days, it was limits or near limits of the mahi for both fleets.  One day, however, it would seem like all the fish were the smaller school-sized 8-15 pounders.  The next day, the fish were all 10-20’s.  Some days the bite was late with literally nothing going on for hours then a frantic 11th hour free-for-all.  Other days, it was pick…pick…pick with a fish here and another there…and two…then one…resulting in a full box.  Other times, it would be an early melee then nothing the rest of the day resulting in searching for other species.  We generally instruct our clients to just hang in there and be patient and do what our captain suggests.  He wants to catch fish as badly as they do.  The days when folks didn’t do well were the days when folks decided to do something different an chase species that were harder to get…like cabrilla…pargo…or tuna.  But, in most cases folks know they take the chance and aren’t disappointed when they might strike out a bit.

One of those fish that is normally elusive this time of year is the rooster fish.  However, several days this week, rooster fish showed up and these were a nice-grade 20-50 pound fish.  We found these bruisers around the Arenas lighthouse area.   They weren’t there every day, but when they were there, they bit pretty readily and were a great surprise since normally, we don’t’ see roosters this time of year.  However, for alot of our clients who got them it was great for them to get one of these exotic fish!

The other big surprise were the number of marlin and sailfish we hooked this week.  I mean…wow!  Several days it seems like almost every one of our pangas hooked at least 1 or 2 billfish each.  Again, an unexpected thrill and sometimes when I would see the numbers or a panga and see that they didn’t get many dorado, I would check and it turned out they spent a good part of their day tied up on marlin fighting the fish for several hours!  Well done…most of the billfish were released also or broke off to fight another day!  I think many of these fish are in the area chomping on the small dorado in the area as well as  the squid.

A few wahoo hooked and lost as well this week so the fish are still here as well, but conditions are changing and the waters are clearly cooling down as we got a few more pargo and cabrilla as well as sierra which are all cool water fish.

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://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 Tailhunter International for Week of Aug. 4-11, 2013

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Joey Fuschetti and Kent Hawkins from Orange Co. California had a great 2 days fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. They got big racks of dorado, plus sailfish and pargo as well. They’re on the sand here in Balandra Bay. Joey has been fishing with Tailhunters now for 18 years!  Joey has been in the fishing report for many years but says he has NEVER been the first picture!  So…here you go, Joey!  Thanks , guys!

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From Ogden UT, Marcus Yoo, only had time to come down and squeeze in two quick days of fishing but made the most of it with 2 big days of dorado fishing and big bulls like this one…his personal best…that he caught off Las Arenas.

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Finally had the big squid show up this week and there’s nothing like starting the day out pulling these bad boys up from the deep to use for bait (or saving for eating!). The dorado and tuna both love them. Big grin from Russ Blount visiting us from Oregon holding up another big beast. The squid are just off Las Arenas.

dorado maricris bugatan 8-13 tags

First time in Mexico. First time fishing. First fish ever…a trophy bull dorado! The smile says it all. Maricris Bugutan gets a hand from Captain Adolfo from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet in posing with her trophy bull dorado.

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Our good amigo, Craig Corda, has visited us many times from his farm in the Imperial Valley CA and always seems to do well. He shows off one of his dorado with the classic pose and grin on the panga fishing off Las Arenas.

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This is a big fish and you can tell because Russ Blount is also a big guy! This bull dorado was one of several he caught along with a marlin his first day fishing with us this week.

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Not sure she wants to touch it! Maricris laughs at another big squid hauled aboard! This one ended up cooked up with garlic at our Tailhunter Restaurant that night for dinner!

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Captain Chito poses with my long-time friend and fishing buddy, Bob “Tio” Horton from Palm Springs CA The fish were caught around Espirito Santo Island and Las Cruces on a late-day bite.

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Yes…I still get out! (Thanks, Jilly) I’m showing off this bull mahi on the beach at Balandra Bay after a great day of dorado fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet We got limits that day.

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One of the best highlights of the week! Paul and Mike Zech from Sacramento CA like the street-cart hot dogs we serve at our Tailhunter Restaurant and showed up with these funny shirts! Just had to take a photo!

DORADO HELP WEEK FINISH FAST!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of August 4-11, 2013

The fishing week started out OK, then got kinda picky but everyone still got fish.  It was just one of those weeks where a boat would get 1 or 2 fish and the next boat got 4 or 5 fish for no rhyme or reason or you would go fishing and put 1 in the boat…then an hour later another fish…two hours later 2 fish….2 hours later 1 fish…and the day would go on like that.   And you would think, “Geeze…fishing is slow!”  Then you would look in the fish box or get back on the beach and realize you had nearly a limit of fish!

It might have had something to do with some strange cooler and greener water that just shows up mid-week. We didn’t have any storms.  There was no strong winds.  There was nothing that would tip-the-hand to show why patches of great blue water suddenly went dry on us!  Conditions were otherwise great…flat glassy seas…brilliant Baja sunshine…decent bait…patches of sargasso…but strangely very reluctant or absent fish.  You really had to work it hard to find them.

I made it out one day and we got a limit of nice dorado, but we must’ve put 50 miles on the panga going up, back out, in, around…we covered a lot of water.  By 1 p.m. we had only 3 fish in the box.  But, as our captains often do, our fleet hung out there and at 3 p.m.-4 p.m. the fish started feeding!  And we put another 5 nice-sized dorado in the box that topped out the day.

That is one big difference for us…especially for our La Paz fleet.  We’re out on the water at 6 a.m. and getting live bait.  We see some of the other fleets…some of them…not even getting out on the water until 7 or 8 a.m. when the sun is already up blazing and you can’t get bait that late.  Then, they’re back on the beach at 1 or 2 a.m. when our guys are still out there pushing to keep finding fish.  It really makes a difference when the fishing is picky.  And it often means the difference between 1 or 2 fish and a limit of fish…having live bait and staying out the extra time!

But, the nice thing too is that as the week went on, we got a great charge of fish at the end of the week.

Our La Paz fleet started finding better spots of dorado in the 10-20 pound class with some larger bulls to 30 pounds.  Using the bait we catch…caballitos, mackerel…then some sardines as well as fresh-caught bonito, we have several options most days for offering different baits to the fish.  The larger baits, I think, also are the reason we get more sailfish and marlin hook ups as we did this week with all fish being released.

For our Las Arenas fleet, it was also scratchy early-on with just a few dorado per boat, but pretty much all of them decent to monster bulls.  So, what we lacked in quality, we made up for in quantity.  However, later in the week the fish turned it up a notch and we not only got into dorado, but also had some wahoo hookups, some billfish hook ups and even a big 60 pound tuna found way outside.

The difference at Las Arenas, I believe, were the giant squid that finally came up out’ve the deep trenches.  We started catching these beasts, which not only make for great eating, but cut up in chunks are good for chumming up dorado around the buoys and chunking for tuna.  Hopefully, they’ll stick around.  Historically, when the big squid come up from the deep, the tuna often follow them up as well!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine  CA  91903-1149

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:  https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

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