The view from Bahia de Los Muertos where we launch every day for the fishing grounds. Despite the great sunshine and seemingly tranquil waters, just beyond the point, many of the days were pretty choppy. Fortunately, fishing is close!
Sierra…the speedy toothy gamefish that makes great sport and tasty ceviche was our mainstay for the week like this guy that Tim’s holding in front of the camera. Light tackle is great for these guys that can get 3 times this size.
Commercial fishermen started getting into some of our seasonal yellowtail this week as shown by some of the catch laying on the beach. Unfortunately, we were doing more fishing than catching as the powerful jacks we hooked all broke off.
Yes! Whale watching season is back at Bahia Magdalena and we’re running daily trips out to see these great creatures in th calm bay waters! The whales are usually here until mid-March so let us know if you’d like us to set up a tour for you!
ANOTHER WINDY WEEK DOESN’T
HELP COMFORT LEVEL
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of January 19-26, 2014
This past week was more typical of winter fishing in La Paz. In a word…WINDY! Northern winds kept things blustery, cool and bumpy on the water, but fortunately, being the off-season, there weren’t that many fishermen on the water and those that did fish this week have fished during this time in the past and knew what they were going to encounter or, in the alternative, were happy just to get out into some sunshine! It was sunny, no doubt and temperatures were in the 70’s, but windy by our standards and cool as well. But for folks from Canada and the mid-west, they were just looking for a day out on the water in the sunshine!
As for fishing, again, typical of this time of year when the winds blow. Sierra provided the most action inshore along the reefs and beach drop-offs. In the rock areas and reefs, smaller pargo, snapper and cabrilla (sea bass) were willing to bite chunks of dead bait like squid. We know there have been dorado the past few weeks, but nothing came up this week in the usual areas made more difficult by the bumpy waters. However, we did have some yellowtail and larger pargo hooked and lost. It’s sort of a double whammy. These fish are the season trophy fish and mean as heck and powerfully built with attitude. Rookies or folks not ready to put some bend on these fish are quickly schooled when the fish power back into the rocks and the line breaks. Still, it’s very encouraging to know these bad boys are in our waters!
THANKS WASHINGTON! TAILHUNTER NOW GOES TO PORTLAND!
So many friends visit us in our Tailhunter booth like John and Dolores Ehlers, our amigos who have fished with us for many years, but represent Eagle Point Lodge in Alaska. We just had a great week of shows in Washington and now head for Portland, Oregon!
We just wrapped up our third show of the tour season with an incredible show at the Washington Sportsman’s Show at the Puyallup Fairgrounds between Seattle and Tacoma. It was five incredible days and great to see so many of our amigos and tons of reservations for fishing with us in La Paz in 2014! We’re excited to welcome so many new folks and old tribal members who are coming to fish with us this year! Thanks to all who visited!
We move on now to the Northwest Sportsmens Expo at the Portland Expo Center right next to the Columbia River in northern Portland. This show is huge and always one of our biggest plus I think we have a huge number of amigos in the area who come to visit us. The show runs Feb. 5-9. Come see us to say hi…check out our new brochure plus new hat and t-shirt designs and set up your 2014 La Paz fishing trip. Click the link for more information and how to get discount tickets: Pacific Northwest Sportmans Show
Quite a surprise, but wahoo are still on the chew! Happy amigo, Fernando Sucre, from the San Francisco Bay area, was able to get in one day of fishing and scored this tasty wahoo near Cerralvo Island. The presence of wahoo has been a great treat so late in the season.
Recently retired amigo, Tim Zimmer, has been making the most of his free time fishing his brains out all over the country. He and his wife always make a point of visiting us in December and always do well. We had a great week of marlin fishing with most of them getting released. Check out Captain Jorge and Tim’s nice billfish.
Ken Gragg is another of our frequent amigos. This is his 3rd trip this year, and in 2 days fishing this week with Captain Gerardo scored 4 wahoo! This one seems to be missing it’s nose, but it’s a big fish. Captain Gerardo is NFL lineman-sized guy!
Check out the roosterfish! In December!!! What’s up with that? Steve Medley got in two days of fishing and scored this trophy roosterfish just off the beach to take a great photo and release the fish to fight again! It’s been the best roosterfish season in years!
Another bucket list fish! Prof. Mark Marcus came to visit us from Washington also popped a big rooster this week. He’s kinda struggling with the hot fish to take the photo, but it’s a sweet fish and was released after the photo! He also got a wahoo as well! See the photo below! Some great fishing!
DOUBLE ‘HOO! Professor Llew Williams from Florida and Professor Mark Marcus from Washington tag teamed for this double billing of wahoo off Cerralvo Island this past week. They took chunks back to our Tailhunter Restaurant for some great eats! Nicely done!
Chris and Damon Lewis are brothers who met up in La Paz for some fishing. Chris is from Mexico City and Damon lives in Redwood City near San Francisco. Yes! There’s still dorado in our waters. Normally, warm water fish, they’re still lingering in surprising numbers!
CRAZY MARLIN AND WAHOO LIGHT IT UP!
La Paz -Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 1-8, 2014
It has truly been a surprising end of the season here in La Paz. Mainly because the season hasn’t ended!
Here it is almost Christmas. Yes, it’s getting cooler. Yes, it’s getting windier and choppier. We’re supposed to be fishing inshore right now for cabrilla, pargo, bonito, and sierra.
Instead, we’ve still got blue water pelagic species still biting. And it’s not just one or two. I mean, crazily, the fish or on a serious chew!
We had several days this week when almost every single one of our pangas hooked at least one or two striped marlin between 90 and 120 pounds. We’ve had several days where every panga hooked 1-3 wahoo each between 15 and 40 pounds. We’ve still got trophy rooster fish up on the beach up to 50 pounds. Plus, there’s schools of 10-20 pound dorado out there as well!
This is more like the kind of fishing report I’d be giving in the summer or fall. Not in December. Not just a few weeks before Christmas! It’s been a wacky year, but I would never have expected this. Some days, it’s been like a buffet line. Pick and choose what kind of fish you want to fish for! I have no idea what the inshore rock fishing is like because no one is fishing for the inshore species! Maybe there are pargo and cabrilla and sierra to be caught, but those species have to be feeling ignored because just a few further yards offshore, there’s dorado and marlin and wahoo ready to bite!
It’s been a great late season treat. No complaints!
Hope you and yours are having a good holiday season. Best fishes. Stay safe and well!
It was one of those nice tranquil holiday weeks. Not a whole lot of fishermen on the water, but a nice time to be in the area with some great weather and, not bad fishing. Here’s the morning view of Bahia de Los Muertos as we launch to go fishing for our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet.
They were a little tough to find early in the week, but the dorado bite got better as the week went on with most fish about 10-15 pounds like this decent bull held by our Captain Armando on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
Yes! It’s hard to believe, but there are still good number of striped marlin and sailfish in the area to punctuate what has been a very good year for billfish. Most of the billfish have been running about 100-130 pounds and thankfully are getting released. Most of the catches have also been unintentionally caught when guys are fishing for other species and the line gets picked up by a billfish! A nice treat and very unexpected this late in the season!
Captain Archangel hoists up another roosterfish for the camera before letting it go. Another species we don’t often see this late in the season. But, we’re finding them in the shallow waters inshore near the lighthouse. All of them are getting released.
WEEK STARTS SLOW ENDS ON UPSWING
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 24 to Dec. 1, 2013
Winds and waters got a little cooler this past week and we even had little flurries of rain that threatened. We still got some fish, but overall, being a holiday weekend there just weren’t that many anglers in town. The week started rather slowly and I figured that the season changes finally caught up with us. Fishing was slow. Just a few fish here and there.
But that’s what I had been expecting for about this time of year as the season changes to cooler conditions. Basically, that means fewer blue water fish like dorado and billfish and more inshore species like cabrilla, pargo, jack crevalle and sierra. So, after a few so-so fishing days early in the week, I was about ready to call it and say the warm-water species are gone.
But, then as the week went on, fishing got better. We started hitting more dorado schools. We had a few biters from billfish (sailfish and marlin) and even got a few nice-sized rooster fish! The dorado do seem a bit more scattered, but it’s great that they are still around. Likewise, the roosters are where you’d expect them…around the Las Arenas lighthouse and off Punta Perrico, but the fact that they are even here this late in the season is kinda cool! The marlin? Who knows! It seems that every day at least one of our pangas is getting hooked up and more often-than-not, several hookups a day. I think the waters are still warm enough to hold them in the area, plus there are still some big schools or bonito in the area which is perfect food for the billfish.
So, as of my writing, there’s still some pelagic species running around. Again, I’m not sure how long this will last, but we’ll enjoy it as long as we get it. The forecast for the coming week calls for some increasing winds and even a slight chance of rain so we’ll have to keep an eye out.
That’s our story! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!
Kathy Terbu has made several trips to fish with Tailhunter over the years but she timed it right to get into the big dorado bite and was fishing with light tackle when this huge sailfish estimated at 140-160 pounds slammed into her line. She fought the fish for about 90 minutes. Most sailfish in our area are half this size. Attempts to release the fish were not successful and the meat was donated to several families.
Tracy Burns came down to fish a few days with her dad. She lives in Topanga Canyon CA and while fishing north of La Paz she put this big bull dorado in the boat along with a full limit of other mahi.
Fresh one! Vince Langgle from the San Diego Area, gaffs another big bull to put in the box. Dorado fishing this past week was as fast and furious as I have ever seen it. Maybe ever.
Dave “Mahi” Hill has been our amigo for many years and came all the way out from Texas to spend the with with us. He got 4 banner days of dorado fishing in with numerous fish caught and released.
The ladies had such a big week with us. Leslie Pilkington from Orangevale CA was on her first trip to fish with us in La Paz and had a successful outing with Captain Pancho and our Tailhunter Las Arenas fishing fleet.
It was a week full of school-sized dorado….all you could want. But there were still some big bulls mixed in like this beauty bull that might have been one of the largest of the week and caught by John Terbu from Utah. He’s on the beach at Balandra north of La Paz.
Another San Diego amigo, Chris Wellons, made the best of only two days of fishing with easy limits both day with this young bull dorado among many while on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
Yes! There’s still roosterfish around. I haven’t posted up many photos the last few weeks because no one has been fishing for them. Everyone has been chasing all the pelagic species and ignoring the roosters. But there’s still some fish up on the beaches like Ted Kuhn’s 30 pounder. Ted’s from Arizona and he tried to release the fish but was unsuccessful. He also hooked a 40 pound class rooster as well.
If you fish with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, this is how your morning starts…with fishing for giant squid like our amigo, Gary Pelkington . The squid make great bait but also setting some aside is a good idea for dinner!
MAYBE THE BEST DORADO BITE…EVER!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Sept. 22-29, 2013
The last two weeks may well have been the best dorado fishing we have seen in years around here in La Paz. Basically, ever since the last storm it was as if someone turned on a switch and the school-sized dorado either woke up or someone stirred up the nest and released a ha-zillion 10-20 pound dorado!
“We caught our first limit in less than an hour and then after that, we lost count of how many we released!”
“We only stopped the panga once and never moved for the next 3 hours. It was like being in a private trout pond except these were schools of dorado everywhere under the panga! It was crazy!”
“I’ve heard people joke about fish ‘jumping into the boat’ but the dorado were so thick they would actually bump in to the panga when they were charging the chum and I hooked one and it actually DID land in the panga. We had 3-5 dorado hooked up at any one time!”
“In the middle of the frenzy I felt this big slam in my back and thought it was my buddy slapping me, it was a small dorado that hit me in the back and fell back in the water!”
“It was like someone rang a dinner bell and these fish had never been fed but they heard there was a free meal! There were so many swarming in, around and under the panga!”
These are no exaggeration. For about the last 8 or 9 days, imagine 20…30…40 or more dorado per day! Anglers losing count of how many fish they caught and released. Fish, not even hooked, jumping all around the boats. Just jumping! Fish fighting each other to grab baits. Fish bumping the pangas and slamming into the gunwales. Fish hooked on hand lines. Fish eating bits of tortilla and grabbing bear hooks tossed into the water. Hooked fish getting knocked off the hooks by other fish chasing the hooked fish and the left-over bait getting picked up by another fish!
Just incredible dorado fishing unlike anything many of us have ever experienced.
My biggest worry is that we’ve had so many first-timers here and the think it is ALWAYS like this! The bar has been set awfully high!
On the light tackle and flyrod, these dorado have been spectacular!
Between our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets, the bite has been epic. If there was a distinction this week, it was that there were MORE fish at Las Arenas and a bit fewer fish out’ve La Paz, but bigger fish. Most of the Las Arenas fish were 8-17 pounds. The La Paz fish tended to be 10-35 pounders, just not quite as many!
As for other action, there’s been a far number of billfish hookups as sailfish and marlin cruise through the schools of dorado also eating the chum or baits or simply eating the many dorado. In the same areas, we also found wahoo again, although those hookups don’t usually last long. Finally ,contrary to the belief of many, there’s still roosterfish in the areas as we hooked several 30-40 pound fish along the beaches. No tuna to speak of except way way outside of Cerralvo Island. Waters might be getting cooler as we’re seeing a few sierra in the fishing mix. But, really hard to tell about other species since everyone has been chasing this mad dorado bite.
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.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
Ray Pellegrin is probably happier than the dorado he’s holding, but Captain Jorge gives a thumbs-up to the pose!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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!
Great photo! Dan Neale of La Verne CA holds up a beautiful late-season bull dorado caught just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos on a live sardine. Dan was on his first trip with Tailhunters in La Paz. The dorado are still biting!
With Captain Pancho all wrapped up (he has an allergy to dust!) he helps out my high school classmate Gary Howarth who poses with another dorado he caught south of La Paz. Don’t know how much longer the dorado will be around, but they’re a welcome catch right now with the seasons changing!
There are days when you can catch these all day or a quick limit within a short time! Sierra schools have moved into the shallow drop-off areas and live bait on a thin wire or else trolling small rapalas or yo-zuris or anything shiny will get a viscious strike! Great eating fish and a favorite for ceviche!
It’s that time of the year and one of the great draws in La Paz right now have been the whale sharks swimming in the bay in shallow water. Snorkeling with these 15-30 foot gentle giants is an incredible afternoon adventure and only several hundred yards from the city waterfront.
WARM WATER SPECIES STILL LINGER FOR ANGLERS WITH COOLER SPECIES MIXING IN
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Nov. 18-25, 2012
We hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving weekend! We’re grateful to all our Tailhunter friends and tribal members who read our fishing report each week!
Let’s get to it…
We’re still doing some pretty good fishing for so late in the season and the mix of fish is really surprising. With northern winds getting stronger and air temperatures getting cooler, I’m really happy to see such a great variety of species that we’re catching…most importantly the “glamour” warm water species that so many anglers come to catch!
Almost all of our fishing now is out’ve Las Arenas where even if the winds are closer, we’re more protected for launching our fleet as well as just more comfortable fishing! When fish are as close as just a few yards from shore, there’s no reason to run way outside and get bounced around and get your kidneys shaken loose outside the wind line!
But that’s what makes it fun right now. In addition to a decent dorado bite of 10-25 pound mahi both inshore and hear the closer buoys, the southern side of the island is still getting some late season wahoo bite with fish up toe 45 pounds. Rapalas doing most of the damage, but several were hooked on bait while guys were fishing for other species. The biggest hinderance is the wind which can really whip it up getting over to that side of the island from Muertos Bay ahd headed north.
But not far from shore from the Arenas lighthouse down to about Pescadero, we’re encountering dorado, roosterfish, nice batches of sierra, pargo, cabrilla, rainbow runners, pompano, bonito and jack crevalle. All of this can make for a lot of action in a fishing day!
Live bait is not a problem most day with live sardines available for purchase although they do tend to be on the smaller side so smaller live bait hooks are suggested. Due to the time change, I know it sounds early, but we’re leaving the hotels at 4:45 a.m. to get out at first light. Hopefully, the bite will continue a few more weeks!
Tailhunter Fish Report 