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Posts Tagged ‘roosterfish’

As the seasons start to change, it was another good week for roosterfish along our beaches with some nice trophys making the report. Jerry Wansack came all the way from S. Carolina and fished an entire week with us and his buddy, Luke Britz. They planned the trip for 3 years and really wanted a rooster. Well, they got tuna and dorado and other species, but they didn't get roosters until their last day when persistence paid off and they got a handful of nice fish including this one taken off Punta Perico near Las Arenas. All the roosters were released.

Yes, the tuna are still biting off the south end of Cerralvo Island across from Las Arenas. Our pangas are averaging about 1-4 fish per day mixed in among all the big bonito and it can be an arm-tiring day as shown by Victor from El Monte CA who has to lean up against the panga with his duo of tuna.

Larry Wayne looks on as his amigo, Bob Sklar, holds up his yellowfin tuna. Both are from Orange Co. CA and Bob had a banner trip getting his first tuna and marlin (see below).

As shown in the photo above, Bob Sklar from Orange Co. CA got his first tuna ever fishing with us but also got his first marlin as well. In fact, he got TWO marlin...and BRAVO to him...HE RELEASED BOTH OF THEM! He took this photo just before letting the 2nd one go. It was caught off Punta Arenas. Well done, Roberto!

Like I said, a pretty nice week for roosters! Double hookup with Captain Archangel from our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and Luke Britz from S. Carolina who caught these not far from shore in shallow water. Both fish were released.

I don't often post-up photos of the pesky feisty bonito that rampage through our waters bending rods and tearing up anglers. But take a look at this huge bonito that Mimi Wayne caught! Compare that to the tuna photos in this week's report! Is that a slug bonito or what? Pound-for-pound, bonito fight alot harder than their more popular cousins the yellowfin tuna!

As the weather and waters start to get cooler, I'm not sure how much longer the dorado will be around, but for the time-being, we're still pulling them in...mostly with our pangas fishing north of La Paz around Espiritu Santo Island. However, John Mc Lucas and Bill Lee took time of from a week of light tackle fishing on pargo, cabrilla, and roosters to put a couple of dorado fillets in the box.

SEASONS CHANGING BRINGS A VARIETY OF SPECIES!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Oct. 16-23, 2011

You can tell the seasons are finally changing!  Not only has the heat and humidity been exchanged for pleasant tropical sunshine and off-shore breezes but the variety of fish we’re taking give every indication that we’re turning the corner on the season.

 

The tuna bite off S. Cerralvo we’ve had the last few weeks is still there with some nice 20-45 pound fish and our pangas averaging maybe 1-4 fish per boat/day.  Our Las Arenas fleet is still finding the best results with drifted chunking dead sardines in the area about 2 miles off the island.  In the same areas, it’s not been unusual to also get a hook up on dorado, sailfish or marlin or other species cruising through the area and having no hesitation just slurping up all the dead sardines in the areas…some of which just happen to have a hook…attached to a line…attached to a rod…in the hands of one of our anglers trying to catch a tuna!

 

For our La Paz fleet, the dorado are still the main event as well.  Western Cerralvo Island continues to be the target area.

 

It’s a pretty simple formula for the most part.  Fish with our Las Arenas fleet if you want tuna.  Fish with our La Paz fleet if you want to target dorado.

 

However, I mentioned things changing…

 

In addition to the tuna, dorado, marlin and sailfish, if you look at our fish reports, we had a great week on roosterfish as well as pargo, cabrilla and good numbers of sierra are now showing up in La Paz Bay and inshore where it’s obvious that the waters must be cooling down if the sierra are around.  Lots of fun on light tackle plus great eating!  We’ll probably see more of all these species as things change. 

 

That’s our story!

 

Jonathan and Jill

 

 

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate


“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VIDEO HIGHTLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK

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

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

SCRAPPY TUNA AT LAS ARENAS PICKY BUT HIGHLIGHT THE WEEK!

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

 

               

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate


“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

 

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate


“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

 

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First timer to La Paz, Bob Chadwick holds up a couple of his nice tuna typical of the fish we were getting this week with our Tailhunter Las Arenas flight. While not crazy biting, the fish were definitely "on-the-chew" better than the week before when a full moon seemed to keep the bite down. Bob's biggest fish here weighed 38 pounds.

Our amigo, Ken Gragg, has made three trips to fish with us this year...and the year's not done yet! He's given a hand here by Captain Victor to hoist up a big-boy bull dorado estimated at about 45-pounds.

Here's the end-result of man vs. sealion. Although the tuna came back nicely this week, it seemed that at least 1 out of 3 fish hooked was lost to a big dog sealion that parked itself in the middle of the schools and had a field-day munching hooked fish to the frustration of many of our anglers. Sealions aren't usually a problem, but this week this one pesky butthead couldn't seem to get enough as shown by Ken's "big catch."

Three days fishing with us for Ron and Lenora Kellogg resulted in a handful of tuna and dorado to bring home. These were caught their first day out with us fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

We had alot of great couples visit us this week. Kim and Matt Hoey pose with some of their catch after their first of 3 days fishing with us. Kimber has a dorado. Matt hoists a 25 pound tuna.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Well, as mentioned, I dropped my regular video cam into the water on the beach last week so this week I had to use my backup cam.  The shots are shakier than I would have liked, but you get the idea!  Click and enjoy some of the highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqHA9t18fq8

FULL MOON LEAVES AND FISH GET A BIT HUNGRIER AGAIN

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 18-25, 2011

We recovered nicely after the full moon last week.  The further we got away from it, the better we seemed to do.  It wasn’t a full recovery given what we did BEFORE the full moon, but we were definitely back on the fish bite.

 

For our Las Arenas boats, the tuna came back nicely.  They were squirrelly at times with the bite taking off early one day then very very late the next day.  Another time, they would eat only small sardines fished live and the next day they would only eat dead sardines chummed in the water.  Another day, they would eat only slow trolled sardines or larger caballitos.  Talk about picky!  The secret was just hanging in there and keep trying a bunch of things until something worked.  Also, it meant working through several dozen bites of big feisty bonito that would tear things up.  Some days, our pangas would get 2-4 (20-40 pounders)  tuna but would also nail several dozen bonito too which meant for a really tiring day!  Lots of smiles most days.

 

I guess the biggest of problems was the monster that becomes the scourge of fishermen all over.  There was one rat bastard sealion that planted itself right in the middle of the tuna school all week.  You would think the thing would be gorged after taking about 20-40 percent of all the tuna hooked…that’s alot of tuna…but every day, it was right there again torturing us!  We usually don’t have sealion problems, but this week we sure did.  Guys were doing all kinds of thing.  They were putting out dummy lines.  They were heaving dead bonito at it (mostly to no effect except straining some arm muscles) and also throwing the occasional sinker at it…also to no effect.  The best was my suggestion to two of our guys to get the hottest habanero sauce they could find and fill a dead bonito with it.  Then toss it at the sealion. 

 

They did it and said the sealion went right for it and gulped it down then came up barking like it’s mouth was on fire!  It swam away to bother a different boat!

 

Anyway, the tuna seem to be back and with it there was also a decent bite of dorado as well as roosterfish and finally someone hooked a wahoo…maybe the 5th or 6th we’ve had all year in what has been a pretty sour year for wahoo. 

 

For our La Paz fleet, again, the further we got from the full moon, the better.  Limits or near limits was usually the case with decent 10-20 pound fish the norm and mostly found on the west side of Espiritu Santo Island.  The bite could be early and then everyone comes home or, on some days, it was sparse pickings until fish exploded late in the day.

One note…this time of year the heat (combined with humidity) can be really incredible.  Most of us are used to it, but we can’t stress enough about drinking liquids, especially water.  Sorry, beer and margaritas don’t count!  You can’t drink enough water here, especially when you’re on the water fishing.  The heat literally sucks the moisture from your body.  We’ve had several people feel the ills of heat stroke…headache, chills…almost like the flu. Fixed ’em up with Gatorades, water and just getting in a cooler environment.  But just a heads up that it’s important to keep hydrated!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate


“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

Read Full Post »

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

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

DORADO PUT ON A SHOW FOR ANGLERS!

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

 

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate


“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LATE SUMMER DORADO STILL ON THE CHEW!

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WEEKLY TAILHUNTER VIDEO CLIP

Click the link to check out the weekly video clip:

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

DORADO KEEP IT STEADY AS FULL MOON PULLS UP

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

 

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

 

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate


“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

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With a solid week of dorado fishing, it was a good spot for first timers to get either their first dorado or their biggest dorado. In some cases, it was BOTH. Jason Westra and captain Chito from the Tailhunter Fleet show off Jason's huge bull dorado taken near Espirito Santo Island. Rough seas left from missed hurricane Dora didn't slow down the dorado bite...much, but it was bumpy and windy many days.

All the way from Clovis, New Mexico, our amigo Dougie Idsinga was another of our anglers who got a personal best dorado! Check out the size. Doug's standing in Balandra Bay north of La Paz.

It wasn't a bad week for tuna, especially for our Las Arenas fishers with the bite being best at mid-week for football-sized tuna between 10-30 pounds like this one by my amigo, outdoor writer, editor and book author, Zack Thomas who came out from Arkansas. That's the tip of Cerralvo Island on the right side of the photos. Most of the tuna fishing has been taking place closer to the island now rather than running out to the 88.

Lots of amigos from all over visiting us these days. Neal Thomas all the way from New York on the left and Evan Cascio from Manhattan Beach on the right only had one day to fish with us on a quick run to La Paz, but made the most of it with a good day of dorado fishing.

This was a week when it seemed like about half the states in the U.S. were represented fishing with us...Alaska, Washington, Georgia, Texas, Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada, Idaho, Arkansas...just to name a few! Well, Miles Brown here is from Oregon and he and his dad got into some of the yellowfin tuna that bit this week for our Las Arenas fishermen.

This dorado is alot bigger than it looks because Wes Simpson from Atlanta GA, is about 6'4" tall. Wes and his amigos fished for an entire week straight hardcore.

Sam Sybesma from Long Beach CA took home a full ice chest of fillets after 3 days of fishing including this big bull dorado he's holding up after a day of fishing with our La Paz Fleet.

Another good example of the dorado bite we had this past week is Don Rea from Ventura fishing with his mom and dad for a week with us who had some banner days pulling on the dorado schools!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK

Click this and watch Jason Westra’s reaction to pulling in his first and biggest bull dorado:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKpvA81Ar8Y&feature=player_embedded

DORADO COME ON STRONG IN AFTERMATH OF DORA’s WINDS

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 24-31, 2011

It was a solid dorado week here in La Paz, but in all honesty, a strange strange fishing week. We dodged getting punched in the face by Hurricane Dora that came up the coast, but then veered outside with barely a cloud in the sky! But, it still left some residual effects Despite blazing hot sunshine and warm waters, it was windy enough most of the week for us to think it was spring. Winds were among the strongest we’ve seen in many a summer. It made for some unusually rough water and bouncy days not to mention uncomfortable fishing at times (mostly the winds died by noon)…but..

Thankfully the fish still bit!

For the most part, the dorado saved the week with dorado being the mainstay catch for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and Tailhunter La Paz fleets. There were some nice-sized fish also in the 30-50 pound class that turned out to be personal bests for the successful anglers, but most of the fish were in the 10-15 pound category with the occasional 20-25 pounder in the box. The fish are scattered all over. There are a number of “hot” spots that seem to hold concentrations of dorado but there’s also free-swimmers all over. Many times, the key is finding a fish willing to bite either on a slow troll or on a high spot or weed or current line then, while that fish is still on the line, toss some chum and see what else comes up. Maybe nothing. But maybe another 3, 4 , 5 or the whole school! Then, it’s hold onto your socks!

As for tuna, again up-and-down, but this past week, it was a little more up than down. No big boys, but quite a few 10 pound footballs…maybe 3-8 tuna per panga with our Las Arenas fleet. The fish are much closer near the island and high spots without having to run out to the 88 bank. Live bait and chunked dead bait work in bringing up the schools but a few guys got the schools going by trolling cedar plugs (natura color) that either hooked up to tuna or produced a dorado.

The rest of the catch was rounded out by some marlin and sailfish (most released) and quite a few fun roosterfish in the 10-20 pound class that was a great find for our flyfishers and light tackle fishers that worked Cerralvo Island this past week. No shortage of action!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

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

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:

https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

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Look at the head on this bull dorado! Randy Pelcher from Bishop CA was on his first trip here and took this big guy on his first day of his trip. There's some big dorado down here right now! Randy got this on a live sardine with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

It was another week where the ladies sometimes outfished the guys! Robin Sawaske from Carpenteria CA, was on her first trip ever and took this 40-pound class dorado fishing north of La Paz near Espirito Santo Island.

It wasn't a spectacular week for tuna but we did have some nice flurries of tuna off Cerralvo Island that kept the rods bent on fish in the 10-30 pound category. On break from med school in Virginia, Robert Jackson, Jr, mugs with goofball captain Victor holding up a couple of tuna at Las Arenas Beach.

This has probably been one of the slowest wahoo years I can remember. Only a handful so far this season although we've been seeing the occasional fish here and there. But no one has been catching any! At least until Kevin Davis from Mustang, Oklahoma and nephew of our La Paz amigo Hawk Davis got this sweet fish north of Cerralvo Island. I dunno...I think he flew in from Oklahoma with a horseshoe in his back pocket. In additon to this trophy wahoo, he also got a blue marlin and released an 80-pound class roosterfish! Talk about first-timer luck! Great trip!

There's still some variety down here, especially if you fish the rocks inshore like Joe Adler from Mammoth CA who pulled this hefty barred pargo off a reef near Punta Arenas!

It was a good week for our flyfishers, like Spencer Sawaske who had a banner day catching-and-releasing 12 roosters like this one working the rocky eastern shoreline of Cerralvo Island.

Ken Milici lives up in the Eastern Sierras and came down the mountain to fish with us for the first time and is all smiles with this nice Las Arenas yellowftin tuna. The tuna appear to have moved in closer to the island these days.

Incredible colors on this great shot of Dr. Bill Thomas and Captain Jorge with a fresh dorado on the gaff!

It's rare that we have to do much trolling, but Robert Jackson of San Diego, who has been an amigo for years, decided to troll a cedar plug and knocked down a yellowftin tuna and this monster bull dorado...which set off a run of folks looking for cedar plugs at the local La Paz tackle stores!

THE WEEK IN VIDEO and STILL IMAGES

Click the link:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33vtevbrNg4

DODGED A HURRICANE BUT LEFT WITH SCRATCHY FISHING!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 17-24, 2004

I guess even bigger than the fishing was the amount of focus garnered by the approach of Hurricane Dora that came up from Central America this past week that had us all watching. Reaching Category 4 status with 150 mph winds and huge seas, early predictions had southern Baja in it’s track. So we waited and watched …and waited and watched…and it’s all everyone talked about all week. At our Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the La Paz waterfront, we were getting the rain ponchos and sandbags ready. We were dreading the weekend since we’ve been full with clients all week and are in the prime of the season.

And then…well…gratefully NOTHING HAPPENED! We did some strong winds and chop with some big swell from the south, but it beat getting battered by Hurricane Dora.  At least we got out fishing and most folks still did OK with the fishing and, although we had to work hard for fish, most folks went home with a load in the coolers.

 The most consistent bite were again the dorado. More prevailant with our La Paz fleet than our Las Arenas fleet, nonetheless, most days it was limits or near limits of mahi ranging from school-sized 5-10 pounders to 20-40 pounders. There might have been some larger ones in the count, but there were some legit 40-50 pounders busted off on lighter tackle after long battles.

 Again, the weed lines north of La Paz were productive areas we as were the areas around SE Espiritu Santo Island, Las Cruces, and Punta Mejia. For our La Las Arenas fleet, dorado were found at the 88 spots, the inner and outer buoys as well as marauding in the areas between Punta Arena lighthouse and South Point of Cerralvo Island.

I don’t know about Las Arenas.  The whole year, the bite there has been anemic.  One week great…next week so-so.  One day great.  Next day we have trouble getting bait.  Hopefully, things will improve.  Some years, La Paz is the tougher side.  This year, it’s just the opposite.  Las Arenas struggles.

For the tuna bite, none of the big sluggers this week, but it seemed that every -other-day for our Las Arenas anglers, the tuna would pop up and everyone would get 3-8 football-sized tuna in the 20-40 pound class. Pretty much the perfect size for most anglers. Enough of a fight without the 1-2 hour battles often ending in heartache when it gets lost. The footballs were plenty work-out for most! Some days the fish, interestingly, would eat only live or dead sardines. The next time they would only eat trolled lures like Rapalas, feathers and for some reason…Cedar Plugs (natural colored) worked nicely when they never seemed to have been very effective before except for catching bonito.

Some other notes…our flyfishermen this week did exceptionally well. Several worked the easter-side of Cerralvo Island and found the schools of 10-15 pound roosters in the shallows that were a great battle on 8-10wt flyrods. Vicki Mitchell from Carmel CA hooked one really sweet 35 pound dorado that put up a big fight and really tore it up on the flyrod for her.

As well, it’s not been a really great wahoo season, but conditions have certainly seemed good for it. However, we’ve caught very few this year. I can only think of a handful taken, but that could also be because no one has really worked the area. Well, this past week, three were hooked and one landed at the north end of Cerralvo Island.

Still quite a few billfish in the area. Sailfish up to 100 pounds and striped marlin up to about 120 were hooked and lost. Most billfish are getting released. However, there were several blues up to about 300 pounds hooked and lost as well plus one fish estimted at possibly being a “grander” (1000 pounder) was seen by some very experienced free divers in the blue water.

That’s our story

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor

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

 

Now follow us on FACEBOOK TOO

 
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”

Read Full Post »

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