As pretty a picture as you can have. This fresh bull dorado shows great colors after being caught by Mark Tefelski from Los Olivos CA near Santa Barbara. A good little run of dorado was a surprising highlight of the catch this week. Mark got this one just outside Bahia de Los Muertos.
It was another good week for late-season roosterfish like this one caught by Randy Bartholomay who visited us from Gaviotas CA. The roosterfish have been schooling near Cerralvo Island and then in the area between the Arenas lighthouse and Boca de Alamo. This guy was released.
There’s still some dorado north of La Paz although it’s getting windier and choppier as north winds increase and the season changes. But, Randy Choate and Captain Rogelio pose with a nice dorado they caught near Espirito Santo Island. Randy is from Idaho.
Our flyfishers have been having a surprisingly good time as long as the winds stay down. Tom Ames and Captain Adolfo with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet hold up another roosterfish that fell to a sardine pattern and was later released. That’s the beach at Muertos Bay in the background.
Another pretty fish held up by Larry Hildebrand from Chico CA who was on his first trip with us and picked up this and several other nice fish near Las Arenas.
It’s her first! Claire Ames from Idaho got into the nice roosterfish bite with this school-sized fighter she released after catching it in Bahia de Los Muertos.
We spent the week in Cabo San Lucas working for the 14th Annual Western Outdoor News Tuna Jackpot Tournament. It was a huge success with over $564 thousand dollars in prize money and with 121 teams making it the largest tournament in Baja this year. This was the largest fish of the tournament a 372 pound giant!
Last laugh! Don’t giggle at this tiny 30.4 pound wahoo. It is the most expensive wahoo you will ever see! It was worth almost $80 thousand dollars in prize money at the 14th Annual Western Outdoor News Tuna Jackpot Tournament when no other wahoo or dorado larger than this were brought to the scales! So…this guy was the winner…all the way to the bank!
LATE SEASON DORADO AND ROOSTERFISH KEEP RODS BENT!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 4-11, 2012
Surprisingly, given the cooler temperatures and breezier conditions, we had a nice run of top water fish including dorado. Just when I thought the season had ended for dorado, our pangas got some nice numbers and good quality fish between 10 and 30 pounds each day. Most of our fishing, however, is now with our Las Arenas fleet shoving off from Bahia de Los Muertos because the north winds are making it a bit too rough to fish out’ve La Paz. No sense in getting beat up when you get can the same fish in calmer waters fishing from the Las Arenas area.
The dorado have been coming from a variety of areas. As close as Punta Perico just a few minutes from the beach and around the lighthouse where the deeper water starts have been good areas, but to the south near Boca de Alamo and south end of Cerralvo Island have also produced schooling mahi.
In addition to the dorado, we’re getting inshore species like pargo, cabrilla and sierra and surprisingly the roosterfish are still hanging out as well near the lighthouse, in Bahia de Los Muertos and also near the island. Sierra have been increasing in numbers as the waters cool as well. We had a few knockdowns and hookups on sailfish this week also with all fish released.
Dorado were a little harder to find this week, but there were some moments as conditions cool and the season changes. But, John Kennedy from northern California shows off a nice pair of mahi he caught north of La Paz.
We have had so many great folks from Idaho this year. Many first timers like our new amiga, Barbara Choate who fished with our Captain Jorge and got his photo-perfect bull dorado just south of Bahia de Los Muertos.
Now THIS is how to do it and have some fun! On light tackle and throwing a surface popper, Tim Hildebrand from Chico CA nailed this sweet bull dorado that fought him big time on the smaller rod!
Two of our best amigos, Joe Barrera and Vic Patton, always come to see us at the end of the year. They pose with a striped marlin they pulled off the south end of Cerralvo Island. Given the cooler waters, it wasn’t a bad week for billfish with most getting released. They weren’t able to let this one go.
First timer and using a flyrod, big grins for Randy Choate who got over a dozen roosterfish on the flyroad just inside Bahia de Los Muertos. All the fish were released. Randy is from Idaho.
Tim Hildebrand from Chico CA and Ryan Chipley from Spokane WA tag-teamed for a good day of dorado fishing. They also got the big triggerfish plus a bonito that they bled out and brought to our Tailhunter Restaurant for a big plate of sashime and Hawaiian poke.. The triggerfish ended up as fresh ceviche!
Tom Ames with Captain Adolfo couldn’t stop smiling behind the great mustache. He got rooterfish, jack crevalle and several other species all on the flyrod fishing with us this past week on his first visit from Idaho.
EARLY CHANGE OF SEASONS BRINGS VARIETY OF SPECIES
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 27 to Nov. 3, 2012
Seasons have definitely changed down here! Perhaps sooner than we had expected as air temperatures are dropping and water temperatures are also diminishing with more breezy and windy conditions. It’s a really nice time to be in La Paz! But, it has surely affected our fishing. Not a bad thing. It’s just different.
It seems that in the span of 2 weeks we went from having 90 percent of our catch being dorado which are warm-water species to a nice mix of a number of species. We’re still getting dorado every day, but I counted as many as 10 different species taken as well on any given day.
For example one day among a half-dozen of our pangas they reported: dorado, sailfish, marlin, pompano, jack crevalle, wahoo, roosterfish, bonito, pargo, cabrilla and rainbow runners! It made for some great fun fishing. Quite a smorgasbord of species and lots of action. One day, one panga got 4 wahoo. Another with 2 of our flyfishers got over 20 roosterfish caught and released! Another had fun throwing surface poppers on light tackle at dorado. Another with first timers were thrilled to catch and release their first sailfish!
Most of our fishing now is with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. The waters north of La Paz are getting pretty choppy and the fish are a bit of a run around the corner to Las Cruces area. If folks want to go, we warn them it could get bumpy. Also, as mentioned above, there’s just not that many dorado around which is the main catch of our La Paz fleet this past season. So, right now, unless someone says something, most of our fishing is with our Las Arenas fleet. Fishing is closer. There’s more species and it’s just a bit more protected from the winds that will surely get stronger as we head towards the end of the year. For now, fishing is pretty good.
Rod Brown is our good amigo from Wrangell, AK. He’s already made two trips to see us this year and was one of the guys who was able to post up a nice wahoo in what has been the best wahoo week in two years! Captain Jorge helps with the photo.
Captain Gerardo lends a hand to Jeanette and “Big Jimmy” Lee Gilman from Utah. First timers to fish with us, they won the trip by guessing how many bobbers were in the ice chest photo below when they came to the ISE Sportsmans show in Salt Lake City, UT last March! Talk about beginner’s luck…they got 5 nice dorado, a wahoo AND….two roosterfish that went 40-50 pounds! And outstanding day for anyone!
Lee Gillman in the photo above attended the Salt Lake City International Sportsmens Show in March and correctly guessed that there were 1934 bobbers in the marine ice chest above and won a 5 day/ 4 nights/ 2 days fishing trip with Tailhunter here in La Paz.
Hank Gonzalez and Captain Lorenzo flank happy angler, Robert “Blue” Nuss with his personal best bull dorado he caught out of Bahia de Los Muertos.
It was a pretty good week for sailfish! Chris Pallemaerts from Washington gets his buddy Josh to give him a hand with this big sailfish he caught fishing our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of the city. They attempted to release the fish but were unable to revive it after it swallowed the hook. They donated the fish.
Our amigo, Charlie Gibson from Northern California, is here on his 2nd trip to La Paz this year and shows off one of his dorado he caught fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet north of the city.
Talk about a great day! Joe Hussin barely had a line in the water off Punta Perrico when he got his first wahoo! Then, in the next hour, he caught 2 more of the nice ‘hoo’s! Three wahoo in an hour! Best of the year so far.
We had quite a few of our amigos who were on their 2nd trip of the year to La Paz to visit us including Leif Dover who lives in Atlanta GA and “commutes” to Hong Kong, China for work! Leif crossed “sailfish” off his bucket list with his first ever sailfish fishing with Captain Pancho off Las Arenas. The fish was released.
It’s always great when the kids get their first fish! Check out the two dorado that Julian Valdez caught out of Bahia de Los Muertos! Felicidades, amigo!
Bob Solee from the Portland, Oregon area was actually on his 3rd trip of the year with us and always does well. Bob holds up one of his La Paz dorado. Bob make some incredible custom fishing rods! Check them out at http://www.bandbcustomrods.com/
Curt Desjardins from Temecula CA was fishing with us for the first time and pulled this beautiful bull dorado while fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
FISHING ATTEMPTS TO REBOUND AFTER LAST WEEK’S STORMS WITH WAHOO DORADO BILLFISH!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept 30 to Oct. 7, 2012
A week after we were hit with a hurricane, an earthquake and and floods from a tropical storm, things got back a little more to normal this past week. Temperatures and skies could not have been prettier. Definitely spectacular postcard-pretty weather. However, the waters are taking a little longer to get back on track as runoff from the big rains cooled some areas of water or made it greener or murkier.
But, as the week went on it steadily got better although fishing still did not get up to where it usually is this time of year. The biggest danger was just fishing 1 days. You COULD be the one or two boats that didn’t do well while the rest of the fleet was hooking fish. Every day, about 80 percent of the boats did OK to good and a few just couldn’t get on the bite. So, if you only fished one day, you did stand the chance of getting only a fish or two.
On the other hand, fortunately, most of our clients are here fishing 2, 3, 4 or more days and by the end of the trip, even with a slow day or two, they left with an ice chest of fillets and good Kodak moments!
There was no shortage of variety that’s for sure. I think things are changing. Of course, we had the usual dorado bite where probably 70 percent of this week’s bite were dorado. Fish ranged in the 10-15 pound class, but there were larger fish up to 40 pounds well. The problem was that there was no rhyme or reason as to where the fish would bite or why they would bite one day and not the next. One “hot” captain would just smoke the fish and the next day that same captain could not get a single biter! Or vise versa. A captain on a slump would suddenly be the king of the beach the next day.
But, in addition to the dorado, we also saw our best week of wahoo. Get this. Some of the wahoo were smaller than big sierra! I have NEVER seen some wahoo so small. They were like miniature wahoo. I’ had never seen 5 pound wahoo! So, don’t get too excited. But there were also some 20-30 pounders as well. Again, like before, some of our pangas would hit the wahoo off Punta Perico and then the next day everyone would go to that spot and they would get skunked. It was hit or miss, but given we’ve not had any wahoo for 2 seasons, we got more wahoo this week than in the past 2 years combined.
There were also some other good biters as well. Roosterfish are still prowling the shallows near the beaches and we got and released roosters in the 5-50 pound class all on live bait. Larger baits produced larger fish! There were also pargo, sierra, jack crevalle, lots of bonito and a stray tuna or two.
Additionally, it was a good week for sailfish and marlin with several being hooked each day and most released.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill
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
One of the better tuna of the week hoisted by Eddie Carvajal from Baldwin Park CA. First bite of the day. There weren’t many tuna, this week, but the was a nice slug yellowfin. Eddie also did great on dorado after 3 days of fishing with us for his first time.
Former firefighter Mac Treasure retired to Nevada to be a farmer, but brings his great group to see us every year to fish for a few days. On their first day of fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet, Mac stuck the biggest fish of the day with this big hefty bull dorado. Las Arenas had the better fishing this week.
Nice sailfish for Wayne Jarrett from S. Dakota catch-and-release after the photo. Sailfish have been fairly active the last few weeks with most getting released. Capt. Fabio holds the fish. (Thanks for the shot, Hawk!)
Jon Luker had a banner week of fishing with us. Our long-time amigo, fished 3 days and had big dorado as well as yellowfin tuan. He got this big female north of La Paz.
I’ve known Mike Harkins since he was a little kid coming down to fish with us in La Paz. He was always a talented fisherman and is now a sportboat captain on the “Western Pride” out of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing in Newport Beach. He holds a couple of yellowfin tuna taken off Cerralvo Island on the one day when the fish blew up…then disappeared the next day!
Musician Larry Cornwall has a house down here near La Paz but lives in near Los Angeles. Larry shows off a big time trophy bull dorado he caught just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos!
John Nagy and Rick Hosmer make several trips a year normally to La Paz from S. California. They took this photo with a pair of big dorado taken off the south end of Cerralvo Island near Las Arenas which had the much better fishing this week.
For a first timer fishing, Mayra Carvajal, had a stellar week of fishing with some big-time dorado fishing like this nice bull. She enjoyed bringing it back to our Tailhunter Restaurant to have us make them into tacos for dinner! The beach at Muertos Bay is behind her.
His personal best dorado for Tim Larsen from Dana Point, CA with some great colors fresh out of the water. Tim caught this near Espirito Santo Island. Buddy Dave Marino from Little Rock CA looks on.
Best hat-of-the-week award to Scott Luker with Captain Rogelio trying to photo-bomb from behind! Great shot of Scott and this quality bull dorado caught north of La Paz.
Barbette Davidson poses with her nice dorado she caught fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Barbette was a first-timer with us from Washington and had some great fishing with both of our fleets.
Rob Brooks checks out his catch a hot bull dorado he got just south of Muertos Bay fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. He got limits of dorado that day!
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Pastor Mike Ray from California does battle with a nice trophy roosterfish in Bahia de Los Muertos. Check it out!
DORADO SOME TUNA GREAT WEATHER MAKE FOR STEADY FALL FISHING…SOME DAYS!
La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 16-23, 2012
Overall, a better week for fishing and weather since the previous week. At least on some levels. Not only did we have literally picture-perfect sunny weather (with no afternoon thunderstorms after 3 weeks of storms!) but dorado continued to be the solid biters, but the big change seems to be that Las Arenas is finally catching up and is turning out the better fishing.
In fact, not only did Las Arenas have the better fishing, it also had the larger fish as well. Plus there were scattered bites of yellowfin tuna as well. This is exciting given that the usually stellar fishing with our Las Arenas fleet has been scratchy all season. It’s about time we see it catch fire a bit!
I don’t went to get too excited then have it all fall flat as it has several times this year, but the overall trend for about a week-and-a-half seems to be that the Las Arenas fishing is finally getting some legs. La Paz fishing was a bit tougher. In fact, perhaps some of the slowest fishing we’ve seen all season as colder and greener water pushed the La Paz bite down and our anglers had to scratch for fishing north of the city.
As mentioned, dorado were biting on both the La Paz and the Las Arenas side. Fish were normally about 10-15 pounds for the schoolie-fish, but 20-25 pounders were not uncommon, especially around Las Arenas, Bahia de Los Muertos and Cerralvo Island. Still, both sides produced some 30 -40 pound class fish and larger fish were also lost. But there were some boats and some anglers that worked hard and even then…sometimes their efforts and the efforts of the captains just didn’t produce! Alot of the success this week was just a matter of luck or being right on the right school at the right time with the right bait when they dorado wanted to bite.
And then there was the tuna…
Yes, we did get some tuna as well. Little splashes here and there of yellowfin tuna between 10 and 40 pound kept popping up around Cerralvo Island, but nothing spectacular. Still, it’s always encouraging and we remain hopeful that the tuna will show up solidly at any time. But, it’s only a guess. I’m a bit worried about the water temperatures which are already starting to drop a bit closer to shore. The way I know that is we also hooked some sierra this week which we normally don’t see until the waters get chillier in November or December. It’s only September!
For billfish, not so great. They just had the big La Paz Gold Cup tournament this past week and not many qualifying fish were taken. We did get some sailfish hookups this week and some smaller striped marlin, but all either broke off or were released.
A rare and treasured fish…at least this year! There’s been a dearth of wahoo caught this year. Only a handful have shown all season when we should be really getting into them! But Harry Hsu got this 30-pound class ‘hoo fishing with our Las Arenas fleet just south of Cerralvo Island.
Triple generation “man-cation” for Larry Bodle from Huntington Beach, his son, Ernie, and dad Jim. They blasted a nice day of dorado with us as they pose on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
San Diego in the house! Alex Trasvina (closest to the camera) gets in the line up with dad, and cousins after a solid dorado day at Las Arenas. One of their boats had limits before 11 a.m. and were back on the beach goofing for roosterfish.
Bill Hsu from Diamond Bar CA had a successful 3 days fishing with us as we had better activity than we’ve had in a long time with our Las Arenas fleet. Bill took this nice dorado on bait.
Earlier in the week, we still had lingering clouds and rain, but the dorado still cooperated. This is our son-in-law Brian Reid celebrating his birthday with us, our daughter, Jessie from Las Vegas and that’s Scottie Roughgarden from Hollywood CA playing around in the back!
People often forget that while everyone is a bit offshore chasing the “glamour” gamefish like dorado, inshore offers some great fishing. Stan Yung and his daughter Shantel spent several days working the reefs and rocks and went home with a mess of cabrilla and yellow snapper which are incredibly delicious eating! Stan was on his first trip with us and is from Glendale CA.
Gloria Paymani is a producer from Hollywood and is one of our newest fun Tailhunter amigas! She busted several days of fish and tied into this HUGE bonito that she says ran her around for “20 minutes” before she got it to the boat with a hand from smiling Capt. Alfredo with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Colorado has been well-represented this year and this week was no different. Laura and Rob Duerr from Denver rocked the boat with a load of dorado and yellow snapper and pargo this past week and pose on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
Ron Koslowski is probably wondering “How did a trigger fish end up in the fish box with all these dorado?” Fishing with Captain Pancho he and his wife stacked the panga fish box with a load of dorado to take home to Colorado.
LAST MINUTE ADDITION! Just as I was publishing this fishing report (Sunday night), Ernie Bodle and Scott Sylvester sent in their photo from Sunday’s great dorado bite! I had to get it into the report. Ernie got this nice wahoo and took the family jackpot (there were 7 of them fishing) plus Scott nailed the big bull dorado!
POST FULL MOON ANGLERS WORK HARDER FOR FISH BUT LAS ARENAS AREA WAKING UP FINALLY!
La Paz -Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 2-8, 2012
It would seem that our bite during the full moon was a lot better than our bite AFTER the full moon this past week. While there were definitely some high spots for fishing this week and some good catches, I would have to say that fishing was only spotty to good during this past week. I’m not sure whether to blame it on the after-effects of last week’s rains; clouded water in some spots; or what. I really can’t put my finger on it as there really doesn’t seem to be much different this week than last week when we had numerous afternoon showers. But, the bite definitely wasn’t as good.
Dorado were our main species again this week. Every day a few boats got into them nicely for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets. A few boats would find the right spots and get bent nicely but then other boats would scratch and scratch. The next day, it would be just the opposite. The “hot boat” or the “hot spot” would get cold and a different boat; set of anglers; or area would turn out to be the hot area. No real rhyme or reason that even our captains could discern.
Las Arenas did better than it has been. That was encouraging. Much more dorado with some nice schoolie fish. Las Arenas all year has literally been slower than slow except for roosterfish. But this week we got into some decent dorado, roosterfish plus even a (surprise) wahoo! Pargo were also a good fallback with pargo mulatto (barred pargo) and yellow snapper filling some coolers.
La Paz was OK. Steady, but as mentioned, hit-or-miss. Dorado ranged from smaller 10 pounders to some 25 pounders. A few larger ones got away. We also had a few sailfish show up in the bites with all fish released.
Hopefully, this week is just a bump in the road and we’ll be back on track by the time you’re reading this!
By the way…not sure how much of a difference it made, but some of our guys brought fresh frozen squid with them this week and swore it made a difference on the dorado so…if anyone wants to bring FRESH frozen squid (not the stuff you buy at the bait store), it wouldn’t hurt.
NEW ADDRESS
Tailhunter International has moved it’s U.S. address. While Jill and I still live full-time down here in La Paz, our U.S. office is:
TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL
3566 Quail View St.
Spring Valley, CA 91977
or
TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL
P.O. Box 1149
Alpine CA 91903-1149
TWITTER AND FACEBOOK
Don’t forget, if you need a bigger dose of our fishing and other things from down here in La Paz, you can follow me personally (Jonathan Roldan) on Facebook and Twitter then “like” TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL SPORTIFISHING and “like” TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL (the restaurant/bar).
Have a great week! This coming week is going to be crazy…MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY is like New Year’s Eve and Spring Break and 4th of July all rolled into one on the 15th/ 16th of this week!
Dorado were again our bread-and-butter, especially for our clients fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Even when the weather turned, the fish continued to bite. Captain Rogelio holds up a trophy bull dorado that Mark Gilliam of Thousand Oaks stuff of Espiritu Santo Island.
Wyoming first-timer, Amy Larson, had a banner day fishing out of Las Arenas with Tailhunter captain, Jorge. Now that we’re getting some sardines for bait, the fishing has improved with dorado getting most of the attention.
Shawn Parker got a bit of a mix fishing north of La Paz. Dorado from fishing topwater and nice barred pargo fishing closer to the rocks. Shawn is from the Reno NV area.
Brennan Lowery and Roger Hayak hadn’t fished with us in quite awhile, but had 3 pretty good days playing with the dorado schools last week. The show off a double-pair of mahi they caught their first day fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Both are from the Newbury Park / Westlake Village CA area.
Iowa in the house! Andy Gilliam did a good job repping the mid-west this past week. It was Andy’s first trip with us and he got a number of dorado similar to this one out of La Paz and Las Arenas.
Rick Kasper has place north or La Paz and visits often. In 31 years fishing the area, he had never caught a roosterfish until this past week when he caught and released this nice one off Cerralvo Island east of Las Arenas on a live bait.
Shawn Parker had a knack for nice pargo this week and he wasn’t even fishing for pargo! He was trolling deep water for wahoo with a Rapala when somehow this big pargo came up from the bottom and whacked the lure!
We had some brief thunderstorms this week, but some of them were pretty crazy! Mid-week we got a 45 minute dambuster that had downtown La Paz under several feet of water and turned streets into rivers!
Down on the malecon on the waterfront by our Tailhunter Restaurant, within minutes of the rainstorm starting, roads were blocked by torrents of water. By the very nature of these storms, several hundred yards away it was completely dry. Not a drop had fallen.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Mark Gilliam put a big dorado in the boat this week. Check out the final moments of the battle:
THUNDERSTORMS AND SUNSHINE MIX WITH DORADO AND OTHER SPECIES
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 19-26, 2012
It was another crazy week of thundershowers on-and-off. It would rain one place, but not another. It would rain for 5 minutes or 60 minutes. One place would flood, but another place would be bone-dry! Downtown La Paz was under several feet of water early in the week as a flash downpour with thunder and lightning engulfed the commercial areas, but several blocks away, there wasn’t even any single rain-drop!
But, despite all that, we were able to continue fishing with no interruptions. Often, during this time of year, we’ll get these thunderstorms. You can often see them coming in columns of rain marching across the mountains or ocean. Pretty much all you do is either drive the boat around them or else you pull over and onto the beach …which is never far away…and wait it out for a few minutes then head back out .
Even tho’ the sun isn’t out sometimes, the fishing can still be good. The rains wash a lot of junk into the water and can really discolor the water especially with the run-off of mud from streets, ditches and arroyos. Seen from the air, it’s really a contrast between the dirty brown water and the true color of the ocean. However, the upside of that is all the debris that’s carried into the ocean as well. This includes brush, plants, trash, trees, parts of structures, branches…anything that floats.
This stuff accumulates on the surface and becomes a haven for baitfish. The baitfish, in turn, attract the larger predators, especially the dorado. So, one of the keys to fishing this time of year is to look for the current lines where the brush and debris will accumulate in long lines or just look for anything floating. Anything out there is worth investigating! Even a floating bit of styrofoam cup might be holding dorado under it. You never know! You could come up on a floating tree trunk and find dorado, tuna, wahoo and billfish all milling around it but never know it until you trolled by it or tossed some bait at it!
This past week there were some pretty decent days of fishing for both our Tailhunter La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets. The La Paz side had more fish and larger dorado but Las Arenas had some decent day as well with smaller dorado, but more variety with roosterfish, pargo, and a few billfish as well as scattered tuna. Most of the dorado were 5-15 pounds, but larger ones in the 20-30 pound class were around with some larger ones lost. Some striped marlin were also caught and released. Not many guys got roosterfish this week, but that might be because not many of our fishermen were chasing them, but the few that did go after them got some in the 15-30 pound category.
Still no wahoo to speak of and tuna remain elusive although we should be getting into them about now. September and October are usually the best part of the year for fishing !
Our Amigo, Paul Nagata, from San Francisco always comes down this time of year. He toughed out a rough week. Not only did he have to fish in rough weather but the airlines also lost his fishing reels (he got them back!) but he kept a smile and got good dorado fishing all week like this solid bull north of La Paz. Note the grey skies and rougher waters behind him. That’s Tropical Storm Hector that blew through and left us with a bit of rain.
Such a beautiful fish…a big bull dorado still “lit up” straight out’ve the water posed by our Captain Joel who had been fishing with Paul Nagata that day with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet.
Thankfully, we did not get flooded like other Baja cities, but we did get some very gentle rain and wind which were a nice break from the heat for a few days. It didn’t make for the best fishing conditions, although we still got some nice dorado. But this was thet wet view of the malecon in front of our Tailhunter Restaurant in the afternoon.
TV actor and TV show host, Rick Kasper fishes with us just about every-other-week during the season and never fails to do well. Check out this trophy bull dorado he caught while the sun was still shining earlier in the week fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
Old-time friends of Tailhunter, Jim Booth and Bill Sharp, wrestle with a fresh big bull dorado they just put in the boat near Cerralvo Island.
Professional chef, Vartan Bagdasaryan, put the wood to this nice roosterfish off Bahia de Los Muertos. He had a good week with roosters and dorado. This fish was released.
Daniel Compton from Arizona with Bill and grandfather, Dan Compton from Kansas wanted to get at least 1 dorado during the week. They ended up with 3 solid days of dorado fishing with both our Tailhunter La Paz and Las Arenas fleets. They are posed her at Bahia de Los Muertos near Las Arenas.
Big smiles for Greg Drezil just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos where the roosterfish continue to provide some great action on trophy fish. Greg released this one after the photo. Greg also got into some nice dorado fishing during the week as well.
I’m not sure what kind of setting he had on his camera when he took this photo, but it’s kinda cool! Burke Roble fished 4 days with us and did some damage to the dorado schools including this healthy slugger bull dorado! Check out Burke’s video clip below.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK:
Burke Roble of Riverside had a nice bit of fishing this past week. In addition to the nice dorado above, he got several others including the one shown in the video clip below taken near Cerralvo Island near Las Arenas. I have it in 3 different formats for you since some players play one format, but not the other. Click the link or any of the TV icons!
TROPICAL STORM HECTOR CLOUDS SKIES BUT DORADO STILL BITE
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 12-19, 2012
We have certainly had better weeks of weather down here. As a tropical storm pushed up the west side of the Baja Peninsula several hundred miles out it dropped some considerable rain on southern Baja. Cabo and Todos Santos and some of those areas were flooded. In La Paz, we got some nice gentle drizzles although some areas did get some sporadic short thundershowers that came and went. We were still spared the brunt of what hit areas to the south of us.
Still, it made for a lot of cloudy, windy and blustery days on the water. We were pretty much not able to fish Las Arenas at all from about Tuesday on. Too bad because the dorado and tuna bite had just kicked in. But with the storms, it was just too windy to get off the beach or even get to Cerralvo Island for bait. As the week went on, the road and arroyos became too slogged to get through also.
So, we had all our anglers fishing with our La Paz fleet. They didn’t do too badly. Most days there were limits or near limits of dorado. Most fish were about 10-20 pounds. Nice grade fighters ,but we also had some 30’s taken and several stories of “pilot error” on behalf of cursing fishermen who battled larger dorado only to lose the battles to fish that were easily over 40 pounds…and some larger to hear them tell!
As well, we still hooked some marlin and sailfish, but not many roosters once the storm front moved through. By the time you’re reading this, the sunshine has returned according to the predictions, along with some great sunshine and blue skies. However, as with any storm’s aftermath, I’m a bit worried about high winds that follow that are tougher and have a greater effect on fish and fishermen than the rain. As I’m writing this report, and looking out the window at the water…so far…so good! Just a little bit of a breeze! Fingers crossed for a good week of fishing. You have a good week too!
Tailhunter Captain Victor goofs with Gerry Acosta and Victor Gildelmontes who got into the nice bite of football tuna late in the week of Cerralvo Island. The guys got into the bite but ran out’ve beer and came back to shore. Then, they went back out and caught more fish! All the tuna were fun 8-12 pounders, but the first school-sized fish we’ve seen all season.
Mario Salazar and Luis Arandia started hooking tuna when this nice sailfish bit while fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Attempts to release the sail weren’t successful and the meat was donated. The guys also got some nice dorado while fishing several days with us.
Our long time amigo, Victor Ochoa with Captain Jorge. This is one of the great stories. Several years ago, Victor was fishing with us and Capt. Jorge was running the panga. As the day went on, they realized they were COUSINS! Victor’s mother had moved to California but was the cousin to Capt. Jorge’s mother! So, the two guys are related and always fish well together plus have a good time showing off one of their larger dorado of the trip.
Pam Sharp rocked her day with this trophy roosterfish that was released while she was fishing off the Ventana-Cerralvo area with Capt. Fabio. Great fish and super shot. (Thanks Hawk!)
We have sure had some good fishermen from New Mexico this season! Darren Hanson flew his own plane down and spent several days on the water with us. He took this huge bull north of La Paz near Espiritu Santo Island.
Our buddy, James “Hawk” Davis, took this incredible shot of Pam Sharp’s marlin doing the dance as it’s close to the panga. You can see her special “pink lure” on the line as the fish does it’s thing. Great shot and Pam also released the big fish.
Jim Lipkowski wanted one day to get a shot at getitng a roosterfish and successfully got this nice pez gallo of Las Arenas.
Nice buffet…yellowfin tuna…a pargo…even a small mako shark as Captain Archangel with our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet poses with Don Slaiman.
TUNA SHOW UP AT LAS ARENAS WHILE DORADO CONTINUE FULL MOON FEEDING!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 29 to Aug. 5, 2012
Despite the full moon, it wasn’t a bad week of fishing at all! The past few months, the full moon has actually been our better fishing. However, while the fishing seemed to slow just a tad, it was still pretty steady enough to fill some ice chests and keep anglers happy.
The dorado bite north of La Paz continued. Some days were better than others and some of our pangas did better than others but overall, if you fished a few days, you were going to get some nice limits of dorado that averaged about 15 pounds, but no unusual to have others in the 20-45 pound class as well. As far as I can remember this week, we had a lot of pangas out and I think pretty much everyone had shots at some of the bigger boys. Some of them caught them and some well…got away! That’s why they’re BIG! But there was some great action. The biggest factor seemed to be the wind. Some days were a little breezy and those days made finding the dorado a bit harder. The less wind…the better the dorado bite seemed to be.
The nicest surprise was the tuna boil that took place late in the week off Cerralvo Island. In spots between the island and the 88 spot to the east there were some nice boils of tuna going off. Nothing big, but for some pangas all the football sized 8-15 pounders they could handle! At the time of this writing, I don’t know if this is a fluke or the start of some nice tuna shots, but at least at the end of the week things sure looked promising. Some of the commercial guys who were out as far as 25-35 miles said there were some spots of larger fish in the 30-50 pound category.
But for our Las Arenas fleet, even if they didn’t fish for tuna, it remains the spot for roosterfish. Boy, did we have some nice roosterfish going this week. Several of the fish were in the 40-65 pound class plus a good number in the 20-30 pound class. It continues to be one of the best roosterfish seasons in a long time.
Also, quite few marlin and sailfish around still. We’re not specifically targeting them, but we hooked a number just while fishing for dorado or other species. Most were released.
Another big week for big dorado and another big week where it seems like the ladies were on fire! Debbie White from Oregon isn’t that big herself, but take a look at the size of this dorado she took off the east side of Cerralvo Island with Captain Pancho! Debbie comes down with her husband at least once-a-year and always does well. This fish is HUGE!
Big grins all around for another big dorado! Captain “Jolly Roger” Rogelio helps Mandy Carron with her first big fish of the trip. Mandy is from Boise, Idaho was on her first trip to La Paz (and is still here as I write this and out fishing!). This week fish of 30-50 pounds were no uncommon!
From New Mexico on his first trip, Dick Carroll, had 3 super days of fishing and spent one day chasing our exotic roosterish. He got this one just off Las Arenas.
This is one of the craziest fun guys who visits us every year at least once or twice! He rolls in from New Mexico and fishes hardcore and no one gets more excited about a fish. He spent 5 days riipping up on big roosterfish and added this trophy dorado with Captain Victor off Las Arenas.
It was another good week of billfish again! Quite a few fish hooked and released or lost. Many are being found around the dorado schools feeding on the same baitfish as well as the dorado themselves. Leticia Hayler holds up a nice on while posing north of La Paz.
Another hefty bull dorado off Cerralvo Island! Don White pulled this one while dragging a small pink feather trying to locate a school or tuna! Don’s our good amigo from Oregon. Take a look at the video clip below for more details.
I was hoping Jeanette Carroll was going to adopt us! No one had more fun than her fishing every day. Always laughing! Captain Victor was fishing with her just off Punta Arenas Beach (in the background) and got this nice roosterfish which she photo’d and released.
Not sure if Dr. Bo Herrera is ready to launch this roosterfish out into the water, but he did release it. Bo spent 5 days fishing and caught and released quite a few big roosters!
From Oceanside CA, Tom Slaughter and his son spent a few days fishing with us with our both Las Arenas and our La Paz fleet plus some snorkeling out at the island. Tom poses with one of his dorado north of La Paz.
As you can tell, it was a good week for roosters! For some co-incidence, we had alot of amigos from New Mexico this past week. John George was working a spot of Cerralvo Island and got his roosterfish before releasing it.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Don White boats a huge bull dorado off Cerralvo Island! Click the screen or the YOUTUBE link!
BIG DORADO ROOSTERFISH AND MARLIN SET THE PACE THIS PAST WEEK!
La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 14-22, 2012
We just had one of the most solid and steady weeks of fishing of the season. No down days. It was almost like a reading a book a menu. If you wanted roosters fish with our Las Arenas Fleet. If you wanted dorado, you fished with our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet!
Overall… Good fishing for both dorado, roosterfish and marlin. If you fished with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, the roosterfishing was good to outstanding with 3-8 nice roosters each day ranging from 20-50 pounders (all getting released). As well, if you went outside, there was a shot at larger bull dorado up to 50 pounds as well as striped marlin.
If you wanted dorado, you simply told us you wanted to fish with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. It was almost like dialing in an order on the internet. Every day most of our pangas got full limits of dorado and losing and releasing many many more fish. We got several fish that did not fit on the 50-pound handscales and several in that class that were lost each day by the captains’ accounts!
Our largest that hit the scales was a slug bull of 47 pounds and that same day, I believe we had over a dozen fish that were at least 30 pounders. There were several keys. One was finding the right spot near Espiritu Santo Island or around the corner in the canyon or around Las Cruces. If you found sargasso weeds, that would be a decent indicator. Second was just being patient. Sometimes, it would literally be slack bite for hours and clients getting pretty frustrated. Then, WHAM! Just after 1 or so in the afternoon the fish just blew up and it would be pandemonium in for an hour or so of double and triple hookups…catching and releasing as fast as they could go…and at the end a fish box stuffed with tails and exhausted anglers ready to head back.
All-in-all, a pretty good week!
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
Yes! Even we get to fish now and then and it was great to get on the water with Jilly for an epic day of non-stop dorado fishing where we hooked and released over 40 fish before noon! Great week of dorado fishing even with the full moon! Here, Jill ducks behind Captain Joel with another bull dorado that was thrashing around wildly before Joel released the fish!
The ladies were on fire this week! Especially alot of first timers like Sylva Ourghoulian from Pasadena CA who came with our long-time amigo and her new husband Avo. Avo is a great fisherman and wanted to have a good experience for Sylva. She got limits of dorado each day plus some nice roosterfish!
Like I said, the ladies were rocking this week! From Sacramento, another first-timer, Becky Csotoras, was just off the Las Arenas lighthouse when she caught and released this nice roosterfish. She and her dad also got into the dorado bite this week as well.
Every time he comes down, Fred Sontag, from St. Louis MO says, “This is the best trip ever!” Four days of hot dorado, roosterfish and marlin fishing resulted in lots of fillets headed back to the midwest including this trophy big-headed bull dorado taken near Espirito Santo Island.
Our long time friend from Colorado, Doug Oclassen got his son, Andrew out with us for a day and off Las Arenas pulled in some nice roosterfish like this one. It’s turning into thee best roosterfish season in memory. Pretty much 99 percent of all the roosters like this one are getting released. Great job, guys! Andy is looking alot like dad these days!
Not many of these in Montana! Phil Matteson said he got “everything on his bucket list” on this trip to La Paz, his first! Dorado, roosterfish and this marlin shown with Captain Boli holding on!
Rex Smith has been visiting us for years. Our amigo did three days fishing with our La Paz fleet and had limits of dorado like this one every day. Rex is from the Phoenix AZ area and is posing here at Balandra Beach north of La Paz.
Big smiles for another of our ladies who had a good trip. From Utah, Kim Woodard, shows off another nice bull dorado that jumped on the line. Kim and her family had good results on dorado and roostefish over several days of fishing with us!
Fishing with grandpa, John Ehlers, from Colorado, 14-year-old Cheyenne says she cannot get enough of the ocean and was on her first trip ever to La Paz! Posing here with our popular Captain Pancho with our Las Arenas fleet, she’s holding one of several big roosterfish she caught and released. She also did several days of banner dorado fishing with grandpa, John!
One of the larger striped marlin of the week, Mike Sontag, has visited us a number of times and finally got his billfish. From North Carolina, Mike’s fish was estimated at about 150 pounds. The billfish have really gotten up to speed this past week even with the full moon and about 90 percent have been released. Mike’s panga hooked two others that got away.
More big smiles to go with a big dorado! The ladies were pulling hard on the fish all week and Karen Matteson from Montana was no exception. Nice dorado…big roosterfish…pargo…a real good trip and nice to have fun folks from Montana. I think Montana people just bring good fishing with them! Nicely done, Karen!
Dustyn Woodard is 17-years-old, and had a great trip sticking a bunch of big roosters with Captain Gerardo and releasing them all. He and his family, from Utah, also popped some great dorado. This was Dustyn’s first trip to see us.
Northern Cal resident, Jimmy Csutoras, saw an article in the S.F. Chronicle about Tailhunter and booked a trip with us. He got dorado and roosters and also got one of the only pargo we’ve seen in awhile! He got several of these nice barred pargo. That’s Punta Arenas in the background and they were very close to the beach!
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Check out this underwater clip in slo-motion of a wild dorado hooked (then released)! Turn up the sound. If you can’t see the embedded video clip, click the youtube link!
FULL MOON PRODUCES BEST DORADO BITE OF THE SEASON!
La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-8, 2012
What’s the big deal about the full moon? I keep telling people it really doesn’t seem to make much difference down here. As a matter of fact, we just had the best dorado week of the season in the full moon. At times, folks were catching and releasing fish as fast as they could go! Somedays the bite was later in the day but other our anglers were full of fish by breakfast time! Once it started it could be pandemonium with double and triple hook ups. Some of our clients told us they released dozens of dorado each day.
Most of the dorado fishing was north of La Paz and was found in a nice wedge from the Las Cruces/ Gordo area then up to the east side of Espirito Santo Island and up to the Charo Bank. There’s a nice current line of sargasso weeds holding fish all up and down that area. There’s lots of voracious 10-15 pounders all along that area that are almost fighting each other to get to the hooks but there’s also some nicer 20-50 pound bruisers mixed in as well. In the last 2 weeks, it’s like someone threw a switch!
On Friday, Jill and I snuck out for a “quick day of fishing.” What we ran into was one of our all-time best days on the water in 16 years of living here. We ran into that line of sargasso weed along the east side of Espirito Santo Island. Just on a lark we did not follow the rest of the fleet that morning which had gone south to check out the Las Cruces area where the dorado had been biting fairly steadily.
Our first bait immediately got slammed…as did our 2nd and 3rd…by 8 a.m. we had caught and released almost 20 dorado! By 10 a.m. we had over 30 fish hooked and released. And we were still the only ones fishing the area! By 10:30 we were joined by the rest of the fleet and everyone hooked up! There were dorado everywhere. Under the boat, it looked like a fish pond! There were dorado darting in and out of the weed line and current break. Dorado were jumping following flying fish and one flying fish smacked Jill on the arm followed by a dorado that was chasing the bait that blew up in her face and narrowly missed her.
By 11 that morning we stopped counting at 40 dorado caught and released! By this time we had switched to complete circle hooks and were also using all kinds of goofy lures that were in the tackle box! Our last 3 fish were caught by us just dangling BARE HOOKS in the water and watching dorado come out from under the boat and 1…2…3…SLAM! HOOK UP! BARE HOOKS!
As we pulled off the spot at 11:30 so we could back to the office, dorado were still jumping all around the boat as if yelling, “FEED ME! “ Way fun day. Of course not every boat did that well, but more often than not all the pangas this week fishing La Paz came back with limits. And if not, a quick query would tell you that they lost quite a few fish!
In that same area, especially with all the smaller punk dorado around, marlin and sailfish have also moved in to the area and are actively feeding. We had quite a few hooked, lost and released this week with most in the 100-120 pound class.
Around Las Arenas, our fleet there continues to do well on the roosterfish. If you’ve ever wanted to check a roosterfish off your “bucket list, ” this has been the year for it. Roosters in the 20-50 pound class have not been uncommon and they’re very close to the beaches where you can visually cast to them and watch the pick up! Pretty exciting stuff to watch those huge dorsal fins cut through the water! Las Arenas also produced some marlin and sailfish for us this week as well as pargo.
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 Fish Report 