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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Sept. 8-15, 2013

Panga sunrise braswell group 9-13 tags-proc

We could not have asked for better weather and fishing conditions this week with the end result being solid fishing action for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets. Nothing quite like a beautiful sunrise on the Sea of Cortez and getting ready to head out for fishing at Las Arenas.

 

dorado ed small  tags 8-13

Photos just don’t do justice to the magnificence of our dorado. With incredible colors and acrobatic battles, they’re hard to beat as a sportfish! Ed Vander Veer, from Washington, has already made two trips to visit us this year and loves fishing ultra light tackle taking great fish like this one off Cerralvo Island.

 

dorado big kurt small tags 8-13

It’s always great to have first-timers and getting them into the fish. Kurt Dittig, from Sacramento, was on his first trip to visit us in La Paz and spent 3 days ripping on the dorado including this 30-pound class bull taken north of La Paz.

 

Dan Brown dorado 1 tags small

It’s a long way from Wisconsin, but Dan Brown, was another of our first-timers this past week and shows off a fresh bull dorado while standing in our panga. He’s just outside the mouth of Bahia de Los Muertos.

 

dorado mary small tags 9-13

She always does so well. Our amiga, Mary Heilman Vander Veer, never fails to put fish in the boat and she usually does it with light tackle. This big bull was no exception. Mary was with us for a whole week and poses with the fish on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

 

McArthur dorado 9-13 tags

Big smiles from Mike McArthur who came in from Los Angeles to squeeze in two quick days of fishing getting into the dorado fishing and added this bull to the rack from Las Arenas.

 

SQUID 2 tags small

I”m getting lots of questions about the giant squid. Yes, we’re still getting them. They’ve been around for about 4 weeks and we catch them early in the morning as we head out. They’re fighters! But, they do make great bait, but also, folks forget that giant squid is the same as calamari! So, often they bring it back to our Tailhunter Restaurant to have us fix it up. This one is headed for some marinated calamari salad and some fried calamari plates. I’ve photographed it next to a soda can and my kitchen knife. It’s important to treat the squid meat correctly or it will come out tasting bitter.

DORADO CHARGE THE PANGAS ALL WEEK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 8-15, 2013

Overall, we probably could not have asked for better conditions this past week.  We had a few showers like the previous weeks, but nothing to keep folks off the waters and generally, the winds were kind to us as well with just some early morning and late afternoon breezes.

The good conditions made for some really excellent dorado fishing for both our Tailhunter Las Arenas as well as our Tailhunter La Paz fleets.  Here and there an occasional boat might have had an off-day, but mostly speaking, most of our amigos fish several days and one slow day was usually compensated by 1 or 2 outstanding days where the fish attacked the pangas and guys more than made up for the off-day and in some cases were catching and releasing as fast as they could go.

No really big big fish this week, but our larger fish were in the 30-pound class with some occasional 40’s and, of course, large fish have a tendency to bust off too!  That’s part of fishing and that’s why they’re bigger fish!  But, lots of medium 10-25 pounders all week.   Let me put it this way.  Everyone who wanted a cooler of fish to take home or a day of bending rods got it!

The really cool thing the past few weeks is that we have had so many first timers…couples…wives…girlfriends…kids…and watching them get into these fish and then listening to the animated stories are just the best!  But, in addition, they’re also experiencing stuff like whales and dolphin and sea turtles and manta rays as well plus just the overall experience of being in Baja and La Paz for the first time!  Many of them bring their catches to our restaurant as well so they’re getting to enjoy their fish twice in the same day!

As for other species, there’s still marlin and sailfish around and we’re getting a hook-up or two a day.  Most fish are getting busted off or released.   I’d say we’re probably releasing about 90% of the billfish that make it to the boat.  There’s also still a few rooster fish around, plus big jack crevalle and huge arm-tiring bonito that are beating up on the anglers.  As well, we are still hooking a few wahoo but not many are making it to the boats before they get busted off!

Plus, there’s still giant squid to start the day also.  Many anglers are using part of them for bait and eating the rest!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

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

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of Sept. 1-8, 2013

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Compared to other years, this has been a banner wahoo season! Kelly SooHoo, from Pasadena CA was on her first fishing trip…on her first trip to Mexico…and first time on the ocean…and she bags a prized wahoo! She was fishing with Captain Armando off Cerralvo Island.

pargo dorado bovee jim dan tags 9-13

Good as it gets! Double trophys fish for Jim and Dan Bovee from San Diego who came back to the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos with a big dog-tooth snapper and hefty bull dorado!

wahoo ed vander veer chito tags 9-13

Our Washington amigo, Ed Vander Veer, has fished with us many times and this was his 2nd trip of 2013. But, he had never caught a wahoo. This week he was in the thick of a dorado bite fishing with Captain Chito out’ve our Tailhunter La Paz fleet when the rod goes off. He thought it might be a dorado at first, but then a tuna. As the fish got close to the boat…SURPRISE…a wahoo…on bait and with no wire! Meant to happen! Great catch!

dorado small mike 9-13 tags

With the rains just about to hit in the background, Mike McArthur, from Los Angeles, still put a limit of dorado in the panga in short order and made it back in time! Check out the colors on this fresh one!

Mary dorado pancho 1 small tags 9-13

Big smiles for Mary Heilman Vander Veer who always does well with her favorite La Paz Captain Pancho and show off a nice bull dorado she battled on light tackle!

McKenzie dorado tags 9-13

Our kinda family! Scott McKenzie and sisters Jana and Loren visit us yearly and the gals fish hardcore and are as competitive as Scott when it comes to fishing. They fished 5 straight days and pose here with some of their dorado from one day with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.

dorado jim and mike mcarthur tags 9-13 small-proc

Fun and games for Mike McArthur and his dad Jim with a boatload of dorado after fishing a day with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.

Dorado Nathalie tags small 8-13

Nathalie Espejo is always fun to have down to visit us and she loves to fish! Captain Armando helps her out with a big dorado on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.

Dorado Ray Pellegrin tags 8-13 small

Ray Pellegrin is probably happier than the dorado he’s holding, but Captain Jorge gives a thumbs-up to the pose!

dorado Lily Chung 8-13 tags

From San Jose CA, Lily Chung had never fished La Paz before but had a great several day fishing with us and she smiles with another dorado in the boat!

ANOTHER STORM PASSES THRU BUT FISH DON’T MIND GETTING WET!  BITE ON!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of  Sept. 1-8, 2013

We got another surprise storm this week with Tropical Storm Lorena suddenly rearing up and dropping some wind and rain on us.   This is the 3rd week that we’ve gotten a surprise shower or two.

However, like the other weeks, it didn’t bother the fishing!  The fish don’t mind getting wet and here in La Paz, it wasn’t that bad.  The rains mostly showed up at night and, although it rained hard here and there, the rain was mostly gone by daytime.  The biggest factor is wind when these storms hit and as long as the winds aren’t  tossing the waves around and it’s safe to get out, we’re still out there fishing, although we know of several operations that canceled their boats.

That being said, the fish continued to check quite nicely!

Both our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet did mostly limits of dorado each day.  If I had to tell you what the difference was, in La Paz, there were much more fish.  They were eager and the fish were almost right in La Paz Bay.  We didn’t have to go very far.  This was great, especially on those days when cloudbursts threatened.  So, everyone got fish!

At Las Arenas, the fish weren’t as plentiful, although fishing was good.  But the fish were generally larger than the fish at La Paz.

So, if you wanted fast and furious action with double and triple hookups, our La Paz fleet was better  If you were out to maybe get larger dorado, then our Las Arenas fleet was the better choice.  Since most of our clients fish a few days on each side, everyone was able to pack their ice chests with filets!

In addtion to dorado there were again some nice wahoo hooked although many were lost.  Often, the wahoo showed up right where the dorado were feeding and made short work of light live bait lines!  However, a few were hooked “just right” on the light tackle and made it to the pangas with much high-fiving and knuckle-bumping!

As well, we stuck a few marlin and sailfish with most of them getting released plus rooster fish, jack crevalle and some huge bonito!

The surprise fish were the pargo that we were hooking including some big dog-tooth snapper and mullet snapper that we usually only see in the spring, plus also some sierra which are really rare this time of year since we only get those during the cooler months.  That leads me to believe waters might be cooling already for the season.  We’ll keep you posted!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

http://www.tailhunter-international.com

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

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

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

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La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report from Tailhunter International for Week of June 23-30, 2013

Sherman McDonell tags dorado 6-13

He looks a little tired for good reason! Sherman McDonell from Rock Springs, Wyoming had an epic week of fishing even tho’ fishing was way off. It’s hard to argue with big fish like this dorado and with Captain Armando and armed with a spinning rod and reel and 17-30 pound test, he went hand-to-hand with big dorado and roosters fighting fish for long battles of 30 minutes to over an hour and coming back a happy bloody mess each day and a big grin! I don’t think he got a single fish under 45 pounds all week. He calls La Paz his “happy place.” Big grins from Captain Armando.

Sierra Exif JPEG

Young Dan Whittlesey from Washington just graduated from high school and came down with dad and grandpa. He toughed-out a really rough week of scattered fishing but did get this incredible bull dorado with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and Captain Victor holding up the tail.

Cole tags rooster 6-13

From San Diego, Cole Chavira has been fishing our waters several times a year every single year since he was about 6 years old. He usually outfishes everyone around him and has been on these pages a zillion times! No exception here with this big rooster he caught and released off Las Arenas lighthouse.

dorado armando shelly tags 6-13

It’s tough when you only have two hands and two big floppy heavy bull dorado, but Captain Armando helps Shelly McDonell with her catch after an epic big fish day at Las Arenas where she battled each of these fish on light tackle and spinning gear almost 2 hours each. Shelly rocks. She hunts and she fishes like crazy.

dorado luke brownlee tags 6-13

It’s always good when first-timers do well and even moreso when fishing is not that good like it was this past week. But Luke Brownlee from Green River, Wyoming put the wood to several big-time bull dorado like this one and the help of Captain Jorge from our Tailhunter fleet at Las Arenas.

dorado Jo Biddle tags 7-13

When you come all the way from S. Africa and you have never ever been fishing, you make a great funny face when you land the biggest and first fish of your life like Jo Biddle holding a trophy dorado on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos! Great shot!

Herrera rooster 6-13 tags

Vegas in the house! Sandie Herrera really wanted a rooster and got hers here fishing off Las Arenas with Captain Pancho. The fish was released.

mitch chavira tags 6-13 dorado

Great pose from Mitch Chavira, our San Diego amigo who was fishing north of La Paz when he stuck this dorado and got the great shot. There weren’t alot of fish this week and you really had to work it, but the fish that were hooked were generally all quality slugs!

burgess dog tooth pargo tagsd 6-13

Ron Burgess is our amigo who released that potential world record roosterfish last week. He fished with us the whole week and just was on fire! He also got his big dog-tooth snapper as well!

Sierra Exif JPEG

Norm Whittlesey has been fishing with us for many years. He hung in all week when fishing was really erratic but did manage this super dorado fishing with Captain Victor and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Check out the colors! I think I want to frame this photo!

Jason Takayoshi tags dorado 6-13

Jason Takayoshi was down on his first trip with us. His experience was typical of how our fishing has been this past week. His first day fishing out’ve Las Arenas, they got goosed-egged. Totally skunked. Not even a bite! And Jason is an experienced angler! But, he kept up the smiles. Next day..his last chance…he fished with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet and ended up high-boat for the fleet with some big dorado as well and amberjack and multiple hook ups including fish on the iron. He’s posing with two of the big dorado here on the beach at Balandra north of La Paz.

Kris jack crevalle tags 6-13

Talk about a “gamer.” Kris Brownlee gets the award this week. Wow…rough water and seasick and she still hung in there and was not going to be deterred from fishing and kept smiling the whole time during the whole week! It was her first time to visit us in La Paz and she got some nice fish pulling on her like this hefty jack crevalle she caught and released with Captain Jorge.

McCLELLAND marie tags dorado 6-13

Marie McClelland from Park City UT was another of our visitors on her first trip fishing with us and outfished lots of the regulars! She took this bull dorado north of La Paz fishing with Captain Alfredo.

Darryl Herrera rooster 6-13 tags

Here’s a big boy rooster! Darryl Herrera and Captain Pancho hold up the kind of rooster that made our area famous! They caught this guy just off the beach at Las Arenas (you can see the sand in the background) and released it to fight another day. Darryl is from Las Vegas.

Charlie dorado tags 6-13

Charlie Detrick came down to see us from Washington and although he didn’t fare well his first day, he smoked the rods on some nice dorado the 2nd day like this sweet slug of a dorado he’s holding on the beach at Balandra!

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Almost world-record rooster…Here’s a really well-produced video clip of Ron Burgess’ roosterfish he caught last week that might have been a new IGFA record.  We will never know because he sportingly released it to fight another day!  It’s not a long clip and well worth watching!  Dave Lester, his amigo did a great job on it!

ERRATIC WEEK OF FISHING IS TOUGHEST OF SEASON

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 23-30, 2013

This past week might have been the toughest fishing week of the season.  It was a difficult week on so many levels with erratic fishing and conditions that just seemed to make no sense.

We can only attribute it to a collision of the “perfect storm” of variables that all came crashing in on us…

1.  Colder than normal waters brought on by late season winds turning waters murky and green.  Sometimes the winds almost like “winter winds” and the waters are so green you can’t see through it.  On the surface the water can be 80 degrees, but a few feet down it’s 65!  We can often see fish all over, but they are just not interested in eating!

2.  The “super moon.”  Normally, the full moon is not a big concern for us.  But, this past week, they billed it as the “SUPER MOON.”  It was the largest, biggest, fullest full moon of several years.  Resultingly we had incredibly low tides and strong currents.  Combined with everything else, it hit us hard.

3.  Hurricane COSME…it didn’t hit us and fortunately veered hundreds of miles off-shore.  However, it did bring some big swell and waves from the south as well as some evening showers.  This contributed to rough water conditions for a few days as well as adding more muck to the over-turned ocean that was already in bad shape.

So…that was it in a nutshell.

On a more pragmatic level, it meant lots of our amigos had some disappointing days fishing.  Rough waters and no fish.  Flat seas and green water.  Seeing fish that didn’t want to bite.  Unusual long runs to find blue water.  YIKES!!!

This is the time of year when we should be and normally are slamming fish.  Instead we were scrambling to find good water and fish that were interested in coming to the party.

On the upside, the fish were were hooking were BIG!  Take a look at the photos!  We didn’t catch many fish, but the fish were beasts!  Big roosters and even bigger dorado were the rule rather than the exception.  Roosters were routinely 30-50 pounds.  Dorado…wow…few of them were SMALLER than 40 pounds.  There were a few days where there wasn’t a dorado smaller than 45 pounds on the beach.

That created some problems of it’s own.  There’s a reason fish get BIG!  That’s because they are smart and tough.   If we had CAUGHT as many fish as we hooked it would have surely been a better week. I mean, hey…when you come down and the biggest fish you might have caught in your life is a bass or a steelhead or a rainbow trout and suddenly you’re hooked up to the biggest fish of your life and you’re sweating and you’re now on a fish for 30 minutes…then 45 minutes…then an hour or more…in the hot sun…and you pull a little too hard…or your button down the drag…or you backlash the reel…

A 40  or 50-pound fish is not twice as strong as a 20 pound fish.  It’s EXPONENTIALLY stronger!  It’s a beast that EATS 20-pound fish for breakfast and takes it personally against you that you stuck a hook in his mouth!  They are mean and they are pissed off and they growl.  It’s not like they’re gonna let you you just pull them into the boat!

The fish is just asking to get lost!!!

Even many of our most veteran anglers were losing these big fish.  And after you fight a fish that long, it’s often too late and you’ve drifted too far to find another hook-up.  You get one chance at a huge fish and if that opportunity is lost…whether by angler error or simple bad luck…that’s it!  You come back with nothing!  We had folks fishing 1, 2, 3 days in a row with that kind of luck.  Hooking several fish a day and losing the fish.   Not much can be said.  That’s just the way fishing was this  past week.

The majority of the fish were big dorado and roosterfish, but we did have some amberjack, good numbers of jack crevalle, some marlin and sailfish (lost) and surprisingly a number of sharks pop up (and off!).  Some of our catch might also have been a function of the bait we were using.  Because of the conditions, bait did become  a problem…especially finding sardines along the shallows.  So, we used mackerel, ladyfish, small bonito, ballyhoo, small tuna, mullet and zebra fish as bait which were all effective.

Hopefully, better things this coming week even as you are reading this!  As I write , conditions seem to be improving!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 

www.tailhunter-international.com

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

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

Phones:

from USA : 626-638-3383

from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

.

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

Tailhunter YouTube Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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

Read Full Post »

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