La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay / Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 8-15, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE La Paz Fishing Report
WEEK at a GLANCE
Weather – Sunny and super with highs mid-80’s, but cool enough for a light sweatshirt in the mornings and evenings
Wind – CURSED! Storm in the U.S. = winds in Baja. They were back again. Maybe only 2 days this week not windy. One day winds were gusting 20-25 knots and the port captain shut everything down in La Paz. No boats in or out . Fortunately, we have our Las Arenas fleet and our folks were able to fish, but it was still a difficult effort.
Water – Warming, but with the winds, there were strong currents and big rollers at time. Even crashing surf here in La Paz Bay which is highly unusual. On the days the wind was not blowing the waters were really turned up and cloudy from the winds.
Fishing – Dictated by the winds. Better fishing on days when it was less windy. Hard to get bait also when it’s windy.
Catching – Nice variety. Some tuna, dorado, yellowtail, several species of pargo and snapper, cabrilla and some hefty white bonito.
LAST MINUTE FLASH – Just as we were going to post this report and too late to make changes, we had a great dorado bite take off. Go figure! Will have more in next week’s report.
THE BIG PICTURE
Not sure how much longer there will be yellowtail in the water with waters getting warmer, but this forktail didn’t know that and got hammered by Chuck Toeniskoetter.
Chuck Toeniskoetter and son, Adam, from Los Gatos CA try to come down to La Paz at least once a year to fish and did relatively well despite tough conditions while fishing, once again, with the Tailhunter Fleet. This one day rack of fish shows an incredible variety including yellowfin tuna, a big yellowtail, a nice cabrilla, white bonito, pargo mulatto and a red snapper.
Captain Victor with a big cabrilla and some great reef fish including pargo liso, barred pargo and huachinango.
You remember the thrill? Big bonito for 12-year-old Nick Genovese with Captain Armando. He also had a big tuna on for awhile.
Sweet yellowfin tuna for Adam Toeniskoetter.
Couldn’t be any nicer folks! Steve Friemark with a handful of tasty white bonito and Captain Jorge on the beach at Muertos.
Just when we thought it might be mellowing out, those winds came back and hit us again this week. In fact, one day the northerns were so bad, there were surfable breakers in our normally calm La Paz Bay and the port captain closed the port for any boats leaving. As one person described it, it’s like winter all over the Northern hemisphere being like an angry boyfriend or girlfriend who stomps out’ve the room then comes back and says, “And One More Thing!!!” Blah blah blah…
Basically, as long as storms keep showing up in the U.S., it’s going to affect things in Baja and the Sea of Cortez!
So, it wasn’t the greatest week for fishing.
There was some variety, but not much for quantity although some days there was some great action on some pig bonito. Not only good fighters, but these are “white bonito.” (Bonito Diente). They have teeth, but also have some incredible great white meat for table fare. Most folks would not be able to tell it from tuna.
In addition, we did have some 15-30 pound yellowfin tuna show up around Cerralvo Island and some larger that were lost after long battles. But, the issue is getting across the channel to the island. If there’s wind and rollers happening then getting across to the island (and to get sardines) is pretty futile.
But, inshore offered alternatives like several species of pargo including pargo mulatto (barred pargo); pargo liso (mullett snapper); cubera snapper (pargo perro/ dog-tooth snapper) as well as red and yellow snapper (huachinango). We also got some action off cabrilla (seabass) and some decent triggerfish and jack crevalle.
Honestly, however, not the best fishing and kudos to our anglers who hung in there and grinned through it all the kept smiling. But, one reason, not many folks are fishing this early in the season.
BUT WAIT…Just as I was posting this up but too late to make changes, we had dorado go off in La Paz Bay! Go figure . I’ll have more on that in the next report!
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay/ Mag Bay Fishing Report for Week of April 1-8, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO REPORT
WEEK at A GLANCE
Water – Warming and better and flatter this past week. Coming week maybe not so much.
Weather – Mid 80’s now. Bring the sunscreen. Breezy at times, especially the afternoons
Fishing – Much better . Alot of vareity as warm water fish move in and mix with colder water fish
Catching – Lost alot of larger fish!
THE BIG PICTURE
Whoa! Just off the rocks, Jeff Brown and his son, Cole, were with Captain Joel Martinez from the Tailhunter Fleet in La Paz catching smaller snapper, pargo and cabrilla when this big grouper gulped Jeff’s live bait in shallow water and they were able to winch it away from the rocks! Jeff and Cole are from Minnesota and come down every year to La Paz for sunshine and fishing!
Steve and son, Ben Fox from Huntington Beach were visting La Paz for the first time and got into some of those Cerralvo Island yellowfin tuna their first day on live bait.
Good amigo from Wrangell, Alaska, Rod Brown comes down every year for about 10 days of fishing and got a variety of fish again this year. He took yellowtail, snapper, pargo, cabrilla, jacks, tuna and bonito among others while fishing north around Espirito Santo Island.
First-timer with a big smile, Cole Brown, and a real colorful dorado among several he caught fishing with our La Paz fleet.
Love how he fishes! Light tackle and top-water jigs! Miles Wagner from Colorado Springs with one of his nice dorado fishing out’ve Muertos Bay/ Las Arenas.
This kind of fishing is a hoot! Like tackle right up in the rocks for cabrilla, snapper and pargo. All great eating and these are tough fish on light or heavier tackle. Larger fish all lost in the rocks! Cole and dad, Jeff Brown, with Captain Joel.
Anyone who asks me about getting bluewater fish and not believing that the fish can be caught close to shore, take a look at the rocks just behind Jeff and Cole Brown holding a legit yellowfin tuna. Yup…just a few yards off the island!
OVERALL…
Looks like the weather is clearing up just in time for the season to kick off with alot more of our fishermen now arriving in La Paz. There’s still some wind on tap for this coming week and indeed we had some this past week, but overall, a big improvement in not only the weather, but the fishing, catching, and variety! Each week seems to get a little better as things warm up! It’s all about the winds. If the winds are gone, there’s fish starting to bite.
All signs are encouraging as just to the south of us along the East Cape, things are already starting to go off with the fishing so those conditions are moving north towards us!
LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY/ SUENOS BAY
It’s not crazy good…yet! But the fishing is more like May fishing with lots of different variety in the water. Inshore, pargo liso (mullet snapper), pargo per (dog-tooth snapper) and pargo mulatto (barred pargo) are biting along with several types of snapper, jack crevalle, bonito and cabrilla.
In the deeper water but not far off, dorado are around between 5 and 20 pounds although not in great numbers plus yellowtail up to 25 pounds. Plus we found some tuna over at nearby Cerralvo Island although, again, not in great numbers. Some wahoo were seen, but didn’t bite and commercial guys said billfish look like they’re moving into the area.
LA PAZ
For the first time all year, we had some consistent fishing for our La Paz Fleet. Normally, with the winds blowing in from the north, it’s just often too rough to even get out’ve the bay or, when you get to the spots, it’s hard to fish the areas.
However, with some pretty good post-Easter conditions, I was blown away by the variety of species that ended up on the hook! We didn’t find quantity of fish, but the variety was remarkable especially for inshore species. This included several species of pargo, snapper, cabrilla, grouper, jacks and bonito. As well, we hooked some yellowtail up to about 20 pounds and even got a tuna about 50 yards from the rocks!
BAHIA MAGDALENA
Ben Fox from Huntington Beach CA shows off a nice snook he caught light tackle fishing inside the shallow waters of Bahia Magdalena with Tailhunter Sportfishing. He and his dad caught snook, snapper, pargo, cabrilla and other species using live shrimp and spinning gear.
He’s our guy! Jorge Romero with a nice snook (robabo) taken just outside the treeline in the flats off Bahia Magdalena using live shrimp.
That’s quite a box of pargo and snapper!
Almost all the fish was donated to the local church to clean and distribute.
Some video of the kind of fishing they were doing
We had anglers fishing our inshore waters with light tackle again and they scored great. Using live shrimp for bait, they rocked snook, cabrilla, corvina and several kinds of snapper working in the shallow waters and in the eddys and backbays and sandbars among the trees.
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay and Mag Bay Report for Week of March 25-April 1, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT for the WEEK
PAST WEEK AT A GLANCE
Water – Not bad. Getting warmer. Still stronger currents than we’d like
Temps – Mid 80’s day time. Pleasant nights. Still really windy about 1/2 the days
Fishing – I’d give it a 4 on a scale of 10, but 4 is better than it’s been. Alot of variety and good fish signs
Catching– I’d give it a 4 also. Could be alot better. And I think it will get better as things get warmer and water and wind settles down more and more.
What Got Caught – Dorado, yellowtail, jack crevalle, bonito, yellow snapper, red snapper, pargo liso, pargo perro, barred bargo, triggerfish, bonito,, cabrilla, palometa, pompano, corbina
THE REST OF THE STORY
Our amigo for many years, Mitch Chavira has been fishing La Paz almost as long as we’ve been there. He knows his stuff and knows his way around throwing iron too. He jigged up this toad cabrilla off Espirito Santo Island.
Gary and Miles Wagner from Colorado Springs, Colorado fished inside the mangroves of Bahia Magdalena on a day Gary said, “The winds outside were blowing 40K!” and did great on the corvina and palometa on light tackle!
Two of the best fishermen, Mitch and Charlie “Stix” McGee from San Diego working just inside of La Paz Bay put the wood to some of those nice dorado that have shown up.
All the way from Germany, Claude Demith got himself some great eating variety…dorado…dog tooth snapper (cubera)…big triggerfish…and cabrilla!
Dan Miyake with Captain Pancho and a nice Muertos Bay yellowtail. Waters are warming so not sure how long we’ll see these YT’s around.
The right kind! Mitch looking good with one of those tough forkies. Yellowtail out’ve La Paz.
Guys from Colorado always know how to pose creatively with fish! Gary Wagner again with a palometa from Mag Bay!
Just in time for Spring Break / Semana Santa and Easter, the winds kinda gave us a bit of a break this week. There were still some really windy days, but at least there were some windows of opportunity. Definitely, more folks in town for vacation. More fishermen on the water and for sure…the beaches are just jammed.
Normally, our beaches are pretty empty, but during Semana Santa, it looks like Woodstock! Makes you wonder where everyone is the rest of the time? I mean, on some beaches, there’s not a square inch of empty space and in Mexico, the beaches are public so you can pretty much camp and picnic anywhere and anytime. Afterwards, it makes for quite a clean-up as you might imagine. At least, it’s once a year and everyone is having a good time.
Anyway, for fishing, the fish are there! If the windows of opportunity are open and the waters are fishable, the bite is there to be had! It’s far from wide-open, but fishing is alot better than might be expected with alot of variety possible.
LAS ARENAS/ MUERTOS BAY
It’s evident that the waters are changing. We have quite a bit of transition going on with both warm and cold water fish occupying the same water space! I’m surprised that this early in the year, we have some dorado, tuna and billfish around. Normally, we don’t see those until maybe a month or more from now. Not alot of these species, but any day holds its possibilities.
Likewise, there are still cold water species around as well. Cabrilla, snapper and Sierra were caught this week as well as several species of pargo (dog-tooth/ cubera snapper and barred pargo). Plus, add in the usual jack crevalle and lots of bonito on top of things and, you’re not quite sure what’s gonna bite.
Every day is not good. Every boat is not catching fish. I want to be honest about it. But there’s fish there and the signs are encouraging. It was one of the better weeks in awhile. We’re using a combination of live bait, dead bait, jigs and Rapalas for the days.
LA PAZ
With the wind having backed down a bit this past week…with no guarantees of next week…we had some boats finally able to get out. Again, just like at Muertos/ Las Arenas, there was a combination of cold and surprisingly warm water fish. A few yellowtail and pargo around but maybe we’re not going to see much of a yellowtail season this year because the waters are getting warm quick as evidenced by a few tuna popping up plus there seems to be dorado right in La Paz Bay! We don’t usually see mahi mahi in the bay until much later in the year. The ones we’re seeing now are legit 10-20 pound fish! Plus, there’s sardines around too. All good signs!
GASTRONIMICA LA PAZ 2018 – MAY 4
The 2018 La Paz Gastronomica Food Festival will be held May 4 once again on the beach in La Paz. If you’ve never been to it the massively fun food festival draws thousand of visitors and over 100 restaurants, hotels and culinary schools from La Paz as well as Todos Santos and Cabo San Lucas.
For one ticket price, you get to eat and sample all kinds of great regional Mexican foods…all you can eat…shrimps, clams, oysters, roasted pig, all types of tacos, moles, Italian food, Chinese, Thai, desserts ,baked goods…everyone has a booth. And so do the wine, tequila and beer distributors as well so it’s all the tequila, wine an cerveza you can handle as well.
Great music, bands and entertainment and it goes well past midnight and just an incredible event. Each year, Tailhunter Restaurant also has a booth among the “seafood row” vendors! Last year, we had our famous Hawaiian poke!
Tailhunters is putting together event packages with hotel, festival tickets, plus the usual great activities of fishing, diving, snorkeling and more! If you’re already booked with us during these dates and want to attend the event, we’ll be selling tickets. Contact me directly at: Jonathan@tailhunter.com
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
La Paz- Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of March 18-25, 2018
MEXICAN MINUTE VIDEO FISHING REPORT for WEEK of March 18-25, 2018
THE REST OF THE STORY…
Jorge Romero with one of the rare quality fish picked up the whole week and has a nice yellowtail in hand he caught with sardines. He also said there were quite a few bonito, but overall no one was getting too much of anything, Nice shirt!
There were few bright spots for fishing this past week as it was mostly a windy, cloudy rough time. It’s fairly common during the winter months which is why we don’t have many folks fishing during these months. We had one or two days at most that were somewhat fishable and even then, it was picky fishing at best. Some snapper…some pargo…a few cabrilla…and a few yellowtail were about it. Oh, and alot of bonito for some grateful action. And that was the whole enchilada for the week. Fortunately, not many anglers. However, with spring break and Easter on it’s way, things are going to start getting crowded and we can only hope the weather and winds drop back a notch or two. Early predictions so far look a bit iffy. Just being honest.
TAILHUNTER 2018 ROAD TOUR COMES TO AN END!
After almost 4 months on the road and a journey that started back in December and took us through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, California, Washington and Oregon…we come to the end of the road.
Jilly wrapped things up a the Fred Hall Show in San Diego. I was out in the Phoenix, Arizona area with the International Sportsmans Expo. Both shows were super and good to see so many Tailhunter tribe members and new amigos!
Its been another epic road tour after 23 years and we are so grateful to everyone who took the time to come see us all of the hunting and fishing shows. It was great and we appreciate all the smiles and hospitality. God bless you all!
To those of you who signed up to come visit us this year fishing in La Paz, let’s get going! We’re gonna have a great season and we’re looking forward to seeing you down with us. We have to unpack the van and the cat and then saddle up and get home to La Paz right after Easter. So, we’ll see you down there! Thanks again.
Mexican Minute Fishing Report for Week of March 11-18, 2018
WINDS CUT US SOME SLACK FINALLY
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of March 11-18, 2018
A mess of great eating for Carl Bock from Puyallup Washington with Captain Pancho and some nice cabrilla and pargo lisa (mullet snapper) taken off the reefs and rocks. Typical winter fishing!
Chunky winter yellowtail for Greg Garrison of San Diego that he took off the north end of Cerralvo Island this week. Thanks for the photo, Gary!
We’d like to see a few more of these as the waters get warmer. Steve Strummell from the bay area of San Francisco poses with his bull dorado.
A hog trophy cabrilla off the north end of Cerralvo Island caught by Gary Garrison of San Diego. Thanks Gary Wagner for the photo.
Second day on the water proved a nice mix of warm and cold water fish for Carl Bock who poses with his cabrilla and dorado
Well, the good news is that after 3 weeks, the winds settled down a bit and allowed us to get to do a bit of fishing. The bad news is that well…there weren’t many fishermen. Fairly typical for this time of year. Further bad news is that the winds are supposed to jump back up this coming week!
Oh well, you just roll with it because that’s how it is during the winter months. For all the lack of fishermen right now, with Easter coming up April 1, those are the busiest times for travel to Mexico and especially places like Baja and particularly La Paz where we are. Not necessarily gringos looking to party and kick it up during spring break, but for Holy Week and the dates around Easter, these are the busiest travel times for Mexicans. Moreso than Christmas or any other time of the year, Mexicans visit and travel outside the country, but also many Mexicans living in the U.S. and other places take the time to visit their friends and relatives back home. Likewise, domestically many locals travel to visit during this time. What that means is that many otherwise “empty” beaches are going to be packed with folks camping and picnicking all week. Many will be fishing too so expect that in about 2-3 weeks, it’s going to be jammed.
Anyway, on the days we could fish, we got out and got an interesting mix. Coldwater species like snapper, cabrilla, pargo, jack crevasse and yellowtail mixed it up with warm water species like dorado and even a few tuna and lots of bonito. The better action and most consistent bite was in shallow waters over structure for the colder water species using Rapalas, live bait and dead bait. We found fish close and around Punta Perrico and also at the north and south ends of Cerralvo Island.
TAILHUNTER DOWN THE HOME STRETCH
After almost 3 1/2 months on the road with our 23rd year kicking off, we have just two more shows to do before going home. We just finished up the ISE Show in Sandy, UT, just south of Salt Lake City and a big “GRACIAS!” to everyone who came by to say hello and to those of you who booked with us, we’re sure looking forward to your visit!
So now…Jilly and I go in different directions again.
Jilly will be headed to the Fred Hall Fishing & Boating Show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego CA. Click the link:
These are our last two shows of the season then we’ll be headed home to La Paz. We’ve got alot of you reserved this year, but still have some spots open! Get in touch with us ASAP so we make sure we have you covered and you get in on this 2018 season! If you can make it to Del Mar or Scottsdale, Jilly and I will be in the booth every day and it would be great to see you!
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: https://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
Barred pargo and cabrilla (Mexican seabass) like these two nice fish taken by the Montejano Brothers (Andy and Raphael) have been biting nicely inshore lately. Typical action for this time of year and tough to get outta the rocks. But GREAT eating!
Some fat sierra and schoolie dorado are were not uncommon this week. No roosterfish to show you because all the roosters were released!
The grey whales have arrived earlier than normal and are already in good numbers at Bahia Magdalena and we’re already running day trips to get on the water with them!
POST HOLIDAY BLUES
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Jan. 11-18, 2015
There weren’t that many fishermen around this week, either because there simply weren’t that many around or those that wanted to fish were kept off the water by pesky northern winds. But, this is typical of winter fishing in our area and frankly, it’s pretty common few weeks after Christmas not to have even many tourists in town. You could almost call La Paz “sleepy.” Even the locals are keeping it low key and under the radar, perhaps still recovering from the holidays. Stores, streets and restaurants are almost empty sometimes!
We did get a few folks out on the water with air temps in the mid-70’s and a bit choppy. Sierra were biting along the drop-off points where shallow water slopes into deeper areas like near the Las Arenas lighthouse and also in the channel areas where current move between rocky spot. As well, the sloping areas also produced jack crevalle and some pompano…both related plus their more popular cousin the rooster fish with some smaller school-sized fish that might have gone about 15 pounds.
Bonito were prevailant not to far from shore either and a few stray free-swimming dorado were hooked as well.
WHALES HAVE SHOWN UP EARLY IN BAHIA MAGDALENA!
Yes, please rub my head for me! We love getting our photo taken with visitors!
Normally, from about late January to late March, the grey whales take up residence at Bahia Magdalena where they spawn, breed and give birth. In these shallow warm waters, this is the end of the largest migration of mammals on earth as they come down from the Bering Sea near Alaska. We’ve started running daily trips to the Bay to spend a day getting close to these amazing gentle animals and it’s a great life-time experience for the whole family. If ou’re interested, you can get more information by calling us at Tailhunter at 626-638-3383 or e-mailing us directly at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com for an even faster response!
THANKS DENVER AND NOW ONTO WASHINGTON!
In our booth at the Denver ISE show and a special shout-out to Kelly and Diego Jimenez, our amigos from Loveland, Colorado. Kelly made this incredible wreath for us out’ve shells and other items collected from the beaches around Las Arenas. Kelly and Diego are making their 3rd trip in a row to us this year!
From one of our favorite cities…DENVER…we just had an incredible time at the International Sportsman’s Expo at the Convention Center downtown. Thanks to everyone who came to visit us in our booth to say hi and talk about their past and future fishing adventures in La Paz. What a kick and we never tire of seeing everyone!
So now…we head to our 3rd show on the “road tour.” First was Sacramento. Now, we just finished Denver. This week we set up for the Washington Sportsmans Expo at the Puyallup Fairgrounds near Seattle, Washington! This is always a super-fun show and it’s going to be nice to be in the green trees again in a beautiful state and seeing all our amigos. The show runs from Wednesday to Sunday. Please come visit us! We’re in our booth every day. For more information and to buy tickets, click this link: http://www.thesportshows.com/shows/washington/
2015 TAILHUNTER/ WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWS PANGA SLAM & JACKPOT IS FILLING!
Captain Jorge and Verda Boyd started off the first day of last year’s Panga Slam with a nice bull dorado taken just off the area of La Ventana.
Tim Farrell took a photo of a trophy rooster fishing with Captain Archangel during last year’s Panga Slam. Tim caught several nice fish and released the all!
We just announced the dates for our 2015 Panga Slam two weeks ago nd the response was incredible! Still some spots available. Dates are June 16-21 and is gonna be a blast with 3 days fishing / hotel/ several great parties and dinners and a big island snorkel party as well. All this personally hosted by Jill and myself and Executive Editor Pat McDonell from Western Outdoor News. It promises to be another great time. For more information, contact us here at Tailhunter at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com or call 626-638-3383.
Lucie and her husband, Tom, only had one day to fish and said they’d be “happy with a small fish to eat for dinner at our Tailhunter Restaurant.” No pressure. No stress! Well, so much for that ! She caught and released this nice sailfish. See the photos below, she also got a wahoo. Plus the 3rd photo down, her husband also got several nice dorado!
One day fishing…not bad! Guys come for years trying to get a wahoo. Lucie Merkle gets a sailfish (released) plus a wahoo and some dorado!
Professor Tom Merkle from San Jose CA shows off another nice dorado fishing out’ve Bahia de Los Muertos on one of the days that the winds were down. He and his wife also got a wahoo and released a sailfish!
She is soooo good at this ! Donna Thompson got into the fishing report again with this hefty hefty roosterish in the channel between La Ventana and Cerralvo Island. This fish was released! Surprising to have such quality roosters still around this late in the season, but no complaints!
Roger Thompson is a regular poster child for fishing our area and he always sticks big fish like this trophy wahoo he tries to “curl” for the camera! Nicely done (AGAIN!), Roger!
MID-WEEK WINDS SLOW FISHING BUT FISH STILL AROUND
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 1-7, 2014
It was a tad on the breezy side this week as north winds seem to be gradually taking hold here as winter approaches. Still, some great sunny days to be in La Paz as the city takes on it’s Christmas face for the holidays.
We’ve been doing almost all our fishing out’ve Las Arenas as the waters outside of La Paz Bay continue to be on the rougher side and often turned over and murky with fishing sketchy at best the last two weeks since the winds kicked it up a notch.
However, with out Las Arenas fleet pushing off at Bahia de Los Muertos, even when it’s windy, we’re better protected and the fishing grounds are much much closer plus there’s more variety of fish.
This week, there weren’t many anglers out, but there’s still some school-sized dorado meandering around. Most are about 10 pounds, but there’s an occasional 20-30 pounder still out there. Wahoo and billfish are not out’ve the question with most holding near the south end of Cerralvo Island, but there’s also been some bites just minutes outside of Bahia de Los Muertos just north of the big houses but before you reach Punta Perico.
Inshore, there’s still some nice rooster fish to 30 pounds hanging around plus cabrilla and small pargo (snapper) in the rocks and we’re seeing more jack crevalle and sierra near the beaches as well.
Scott McKenzie from Seattle WA and his sisters Jana and Lauren have fished with us many times for many years and caught all kinds of fish with us including marlin that they released. But this one was quite a story. While fishing with our Tailhunter fleet at Bahia de Los Muertos, they caught a few dorado the saw a marlin on the surface. They tossed a bait at it and the fish went off. Over three hours, the three of them battled the fish on a light rod and 40-pound test. However, during the first hour they almost had the fish to the boat and it was battling down and bulldogging without doing much jumping. Suddenly the big striper went ballistic as two killer whales started to chase it! During the balance of the battle, the fish stayed largely airborne trying to avoid the killer whales which circled the marlin and the panga adding quite a measure of excitement. They finally got the fish to the boat but were not able to revive it…but the marlin probable didn’t want to go back in the water anyway. The killer whales kept circling and finally swam off.
The McKenzie marlin gets air as it’s being chased by the killer whales!
Happy Birthday to me! Our good amigo, Mike Whitlow from Kennewick, WA came down to celebrate #50 with us. He’s a spectacular light tackle fisherman and pro bass guy too! He got himself this nice rooster on light tackle and did a great release after the photo! Feliz cumpleanos, amigo!
Some images from Mike Whitlow’s 50th birthday party at Tailhunter Restaurant! Good time had by all! Thanks for sharing, Mike and Wendy!
Darryl “Buffalo Soldier” Poindexter…one of the nicest and funnest guys on his first trip regretfully, only got to fish one day before the storm hit us ,but he made the most of it with a good day of dorado fishing like this nice bull he presses overhead!
It was FUGLY! Norbert eventually turned into a Cat 3 hurricane that by now has gone up the Baja coast and is dropping rain on the SW United States, but not before doing some pretty bad damage to Baja coastal areas. Gratefully, La Paz didn’t get hit too hard, but enough to put the clamp on fishing. Better to be safe and dry with a cold one.
When you can’t fish…fishermen very often…find other means of entertainment! Thanks to everyone this week, including Alex Trasvina and his boys who kept grinning even tho’ they had only one day to fish and had to cancel. They ended up at Tailhunter Restaurant watching football and raising their glasses! Salud, Fish Brothers! The “Tequila Bandito” says you rock!
This is another great story. Adam Florence all the way from Kansas was fishing with Captain Pancho. He went to Walmart here in La Paz and got a cheapo freshwater spinning rod with 8 lb. test. He got bit big time and this bull dorado was all he could handle almost spooling him. They had to chase it down with the boat!
Great shot and super fish by Wade Ralston who visited us from Washington on his first trip down. Punta Perrico in the background right off the rocks. Wade is a light tackle guy and fishes bass tournaments professionally. He did a great catch-and-release on this pez gallo.
Nick Petrilli and his son, Nick, Jr. had a banner day out’ve Las Arenas with Captain Pancho and a slammer of mahi.
Just after the storm, the waters started to get back to normal. Dave Sundgren and Steve Rosebaugh hold up a nice pair on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos!
GOOD FISHING SLAMMED BY STORM NORBERT
ALTHOUGH LA PAZ ESCAPES DAMAGE
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-7, 2014
It was a worrisome week on alot of levels. The previous week had been one of the slowest weeks of fishing for the season for no apparent reason. All the signs were there for good fishing, yet the fish just either didn’t show up or just weren’t ready to cooperate. It wasn’t just slow, it was dead.
So, we jumped into this week not knowing what was going to happen. It was a tale of two completely different weeks…
EARLY IN THE WEEK
As it turned out, the fishing came back to life! Maybe not full blast, but compared to the previous week, we were rocking with bent rods and good variety. Both of our fleets…the Tailhunter fleet in Las Arenas and our Tailhunter La Paz fleets found dorado between 8 and 15 pounds on the average, but also some of the trophy bulls running 20-40 pounds. Limits were not uncommon and it was good to see that some times there were so many fish that anglers were releasing them as fast as they could go or at least kicking back the small ones! It’s been a few weeks since we had that kind of bite. Moreso, we often had double…triple…and quadruple hookups!
Even better, for our Las Arenas fleet where it’s really been a struggle sometimes, we not only had dorado, but a surprising number of sailfish and marlin were hooked between 70 and 200 pounds. Most were released, but really did a number for some of the guys using light tackle.
As well, rooster fish showed up again between 10 and 50 pounds and we even had a few wahoo hooked up although none made it back to the boats! Add in some big bonito…jack crevalle…some pargo and snapper and it made for a pretty decent week of fishing.
During this whole time, we were all watching the weather…and watching…and watching. Norbert started as a little blip…it got bigger and bigger…and went to tropical storm level. But like so many other storms that have appeared on the horizon down south, the tracking for the storm showed it was going out to the Pacific and wouldn’t do more than drop a little rain on us. We were sure that like all the other storms, it would continue to veer out and away from Baja.
It didn’t…
LATTER HALF OF THE WEEK
Tropical Storm Norbert became Hurricane Norbert and would eventually reach a category 3 ripper. Although La Paz did not suffer extensive damage, in areas of Cabo and along the Pacific Coast, there was extensive flooding and damage. Several thousand people had to be evacuated and over 1000 homes were damaged. At the time of writing this, there was at least 1 fatality related to the storm.
For us in La Paz, the heavy wind and rain hit us just as we were launching in the early dark of Thursday morning. Rain began to pelt and the winds began to howl. And it got stronger. We all went for cover and hunkered down. And hunkered down.
For three days pretty much everyone had to sit it out. The roads to Las Arenas got flooded. Mud everywhere. While La Paz pretty much did not flood. there were intermittent bits of heavy wind…rain…drizzle…and more rain as the storm passed. AND THE PORT WAS CLOSED! So, we couldn’t even get out if we wanted to. For safety measures, the port captain kept the port bottled up and prevented anyone from leaving until mid-morning Saturday.
It was really bad especially for some of our many anglers who never got to fish before having to go home. Or only getting to fish 1 day or 2 days. And, when they did get to fish, conditions weren’t the best. If it wasn’t windy or wet, then the waters, even after the storm passed, were turned over green and muddy. Hat’s off to so many guys who grinned and were patient and still kept smiling while we did our best to control things of which we had no control. You guys and gals are the best!
It wasn’t until Sunday that we finally started to see some changes in the water and some better fishing action with dorado, billfish and pargo waking up.
This coming week, as you’re reading this looks like it might have some of the best weather we’ve seen in awhile. Hopefully, it lets the fishing come ripping back!
Fish were hard to come by this past week, let alone BIG fish! But Shawn Parker knocked in this big bull dorado fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. Great colors!
Big-headed bull dorado for Tony Perkins who gets a photo op hand from Captain Boli with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Check out the flat waters. Cerralvo Island in the distance.
Geri Cammack loves to fish and she always does well and I have so many photos of her laughing. But not on this one for some reason even tho’ she has a big dorado on the gaff! Geri is from Idaho and was visiting us with amigo, Al Sandstrom. (And they love eating their fish at Tailhunters Restaurant)
I love goof-ball candid shots. One of the best of the season is Captain Rogelio “Jolly Roger” Camacho who had the best week of any of our captains with stellar fishing 5 straight days with Leif Dover, our Atlanta GA amigo who visits us twice a year and shows off another big bull dorado.
One of the funnest guys, but always takes serious fishing photos, Walt Topping from the Santa Ynez Valley got into the report with a nice bull while fishing with Captain Boli and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Johnny Gilbertson hung tough all week even during difficult fishing and kept at it hard! He did get this bull dorado just off Punta Arenas one of his days fishing with our Las Arenas fleet.
CONDITIONS GOOD BUT FISH PLAY HARD-TO-GET! TOUGH WEEK OF FISHING…
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 24-31, 2014
It was a strange and not very good week on alot of levels here. It was hard to put a finger on it. Dare I say, it might have been the toughest week of fishing of the year…and maybe in many years of being down here! It was just STINKY for lack of a better word.
Early in the week, it seemed we had threats of rainstorms just about every day. Some days it would actually rain pretty hard for awhile. Other days, we got nothing but clouds. But, it surely kept us on alert and trying to figure if it would be better for our fishing clients to fish out’ve La Paz or Las Arenas.
Mostly, just to be on the safe side, we kept folks fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Dorado were more-or-less ready, willing and able and everyone was hooking fish. Not alot of big ones, but fun sized 10-20 pounders with occasional 25-30 pounders plus some billfish.
When we did fish Las Arenas, there were rooster fish and enough 10 pound dorado to at least keep it interesting.
Later in the week, it seemed that the weather pretty much cleared up. We were pretty excited after watching clouds for so many days!
The conditions looked awesome. Sunny skies…dark moon…blue water…decent bait (at least more than we had before)…good currents…warm water…but WAIT!
NO FISH!
I don’t know what happened, but the latter part of the week it was almost like a dead ocean. Not only did the dorado go lock-jaw on us, but so did the bonito and even needlefish got scarce!
Many of our ace captains who NEVER get shut out were coming back with nothing or only 1 or 2 fish. Maybe one day that can happen, but 2, 3, 4 days in a row?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many days go dead on us. At least not that many consecutive days.
Hopefully, but the time you’re reading this, things will have turned on again! Any day now! But we have to keep an eye out…MORE RAIN IS PREDICTED THIS WEEK! NO HURRICANES BUT THUNDERSHOWERS PREDICTED!
Thanks to all the amigos who fished this week and kept the smiles. You’re all champs! Even when the fish weren’t biting, you kept at it and were all great sports!
This is the “OH NO” moment when your reel is screeching…your arms are aching…your rod is bent when you see the big monster 45-pound dorado and you realize you only have 30-pound equipment! Becky Csutoras took this great shot of her dad’s fish as it made that big jump. Yes, he did get the fish. See the tired angler below…he fought it for 45 minutes!
Don White always does well. He was just off Punta Perico with Captain Pancho when he tied into this baby blue marlin. Happily released! Check out the video below of the unceremonious, but successful release. The marlin was not complaining. Congrats to our amigo, Don, who visits from Oregeon each year!
Becky Csutoras, is normally travellng all over the country as an accountant, but she takes some time each year to get in some fishing with us at Tailhunters. She has to be one of the happiest fisher people we ever see. Every day is a “GREAT DAY!” Check our this fine dorado she caught off Las Arenas! She did well all week!
Start ’em young! Six-year-old Roman, gets a hand from his grandma, Kelly Jimenez, with a nice bull dorado standing on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. “Romo” had himself a great time all week helping grandma and grandpa to fish!
John Russell told me, “They fight harder than salmon!” He used to be a salmon fishing guide. Visiting us from Milpitas CA, he put the hurt on this colorful big bull dorado fishing near Espirito Santo Island north of La Paz. Great colors…big fish!
My old classmate from law school, Skip Coomber in the center with friends and family got out for a day even during the ugly cloudy weather and got a few dorado. Skips daughter, Amelia, in the gray t-shirt is with her girlfriends Haleigh and Isabella…all 3 girls on a last hurrah before staring their respective college careers in several weeks!
She never fails to get big fish! Oregon in the house, Debbie White in flat water with another big dorado on her scoreboard! Punta Arenas in the background. Each year, Debbie makes us the best homemade moonshine “Apple Pie” for our Oregon show.
John Gothie had just a few days to spend with us, but made the most of it with a nice wahoo plus some fun dorado while fishing with Captain Adolfo and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
Another youngster headed to college for the first time…Brian Russell will be headed to Arizona State in just a few weeks, but got his first striped marlin here with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet.
TROPICAL STORM DROPS SOME RAIN AND DAMPENS FISHING
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 30-July 6, 2014
Rain cells moving through the area and bringing a mix of some thundershowers, drizzle, wave surge and winds marred some of the fishing. Fortunately, it wasn’t a hurricane, but just some tropical storms. In most cases, the rain didn’t get anyone wet until the afternoons when the fishermen were already back and it really cooled things off, but it did rob sunshine from vacationers looking for more sunshine than we got this week.
It was very tropical. It could rain for 5 minutes or two hours. It could rain on one spot but then 200 yards away, it would be bone dry. An hour later, it would change again. Or not rain at all until the next day.
Again, the most cooperative species were the dorado. Both our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet and our Tailhunter La Paz fleet had some good results that differed from day-to-day and boat-to-boat.
LAS ARENAS
At Las Arenas, there was again, no shortage of little firecracker 3-10 pound dorado. Some days, all you wanted. There were some billfish hooked and we did get a few wahoo and pargo. The big roosterfish are still around, but most of the focus has been on the bluewater species.
The week started OK, but then the skies would darken and each day, the winds and waters got a little rougher as we got the tail end of the storm and the periphery of the rain. At least, there wasn’t alot of wind, but it still wasn’t real comfortable towards the end of the week. We actually, had most of our fishermen move over to fish with our La Paz fleet where the fish were at least a big larger.
LA PAZ
For our Tailhunter La Paz fleet, the dorado were a bit bigger and went normally 10-30 pounds and were in areas scattered around Espirito Santo Island and the western side of Cerralvo Island. After the storm clouds moved off, waters went back to calm and flat pretty quickly. We did get some dorado up to the 40-pound class and other large ones lost. Billfish were also in the area with most fish getting released. Decent live caballitos for bait.
Keep an eye out. There’s alot of sealife out. Turtles…manta rays…whale sharks…blue whales were all seen this week! Water’s 85 degrees. Jump in!
According to the forecast, we’re gonna get a little more rain at times at least through next week. But, every day the forecast changes. As of writing this, there’s not a cloud in the sky and it’s brilliant sunshine and now they are saying no rain! Just come fish!
Tailhunter Fish Report 