It's like they were just waiting and feeling ignored. The last few weeks everyone was so excited about the tuna and dorado fishing that no one went to chase the wahoo. Then, about 2 weeks ago, a few of our guys took a shot and scored big time. Since then, we're getting daily hits at both the north and south end of Cerralvo Island with fish between 20 and 50 pounds coming up on dark Rapalas and other trolled wahoo rigs. Paul Nagata had a spectacular week with tuna, dorado, pargo, roosterfish and his first wahoo shown here.
Al Cutler from Whitter CA holds up his "new best friend" a big yellowfin tuna cradled in his arm. Great shot! They had some of the "best tuna fishing ever" over three days fishing with our two fleets. The tuna varying in sizes from 5 pound peanuts to fish over 100 pounds continue to roll through our area.
Steve Uretsky and Moise Hendeles from Los Angeles made a last-minute spur-of-the-moment trip to see us and show off their first day catch of tuna and dorado at Las Arenas.
Dave Rose powered all the way down in his truck driving from Denver in two days to get in a some fishing with us when he heard the tuna were biting and was rewarded with some great yellowfin action including this thick YFT taken near the Arenas lighthouse on chunks of squid.
Just a great shot. Young Alex Kruse came fishing for the first time and got out with his family including dad, Tim. Alex struggles to lift one of his dorado he caught fishing north of La Paz with dad and in two days, "I caught all the fish!" he says.
Surprising for this time of year but big pargo have been ripping up tackle and anglers. Normally, we get most of our pargo fishing in during the spring time months, but cooler-than-normal water temps have kept fish like this pargo liso held by Randy Lyons and Captain Pancho as well as yellowtail and cabrilla on the feed in shallow waters.
Pargo and yellowtail in August? You bet! Not very typical, but John Pastorello holds up the proof.
Headed for the sashime plate! Fresh one for Paul Nagata from San Francisco holding one of several nice tuna he took during the week. This one filled up the cooler all by itself. Chunks of fresh giant squid continues to be the hot bait.
Jack Garcia almost canceled his trip when he got a new job back in San Bernardin CA, but was able to put it off as this would be his first trip to La Paz. It paid off. He shows off a nice bull dorado with fresh colors.
Oh-oh...it's that time of year again. It's feeling tropical with occasional showers now and then. Dark ominous clouds looking north off Las Arenas Beach towards Cerralvo Island. While our boats were out, a quick little storm hit that forced all the fleets to pull their boats back to the beach. We figured the storm would pass. All the other fleets called it a day and left the beach. We kept our folks waiting in the vans. In an hour the sun came back out blazing and we shoved off again to find the fishing grounds completely deserted...except for us! We blew up the fish that day! The tuna came hungry and often! Some of the anglers spent the downtime shore fishing or swimming in the warm downpour.
ANGLERS BEND RODS ON TUNA NOW SHOWING UP FOR BOTH LAS ARENAS AND TAILHUNTER FLEETS!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Aug. 15-22, 2010
Other than a ripping little thundershower one day that chased everyone off the water for about an hour (and then we all went right back out to catch fish), we had some great catches and another solid week of fishing. Again, waters are cooler than normal for the season so it’s providing us with an incredible variety of fish.
Our normal warm water species are around such as dorado, billfish, wahoo, roosters and tuna, but it’s also providing some outstanding and surprising catches of amberjack, pargo, cabrilla and even yellowtail.
Tuna continue to be centerstage for most of our Las Arenas anglers who are seeing some of the best tuna fishing we’ve had all year and maybe in a long time. Smaller football-class tuna from 10-25 pounds are close to shore near the lighthouse and south towards Muertos Bay in waters that are incredibly shallow. As one angler said, “It was crazy. I got hit by a 40 pound fish and instead of going down like a normal tuna, the thing zinged off about 100 yards of line straight out. Then I realized we were only in about 20 feet of water! I could see the bottom. The tuna had nowhere to go!”
Indeed limits or near limits of the football tuna were available most days. But the big boys are still around and providing the most drama.
Again, we don’t have much in the way of live sardines, but we’re catching and also buying chunks of live squid and chumming the waters The tuna are coming to feed and when some of them show up, it’s even scaring some of the anglers.
“We were at the south end of Cerralvo Island on the high spot and were tired of fishing for the smaller tuna close to shore,” said one of our anglers. “We started tossing chunks of squid into the current and suddenly there were swirls that were half-the-size of the panga! Then big splashes and the back of a yellowfin about 150 pounds came right up next to the boat and inhaled a piece of squid. You could look down and see fish that looked even bigger! Out-of-the water, backs of big tuna were rising with that big sickle yellowfin sticking out. We’re not stupid. I knew we were not up to fish like that. We went back to look for dorado!”
Quite a number of anglers tangled with the larger models with battles lasting 1, 2, and even 3 hours and most of the fish breaking the lines and hearts! Most of the fish actually making it to the beach were the 50-80 pound fish.
“We fought one fish for 3 hours and passed the rod between 4 anglers and two different pangas. The 60 pound line just snapped!” One disappointed fisherman said. That was their whole day and they came back with only 2 small dorado for the day.
Dorado have been evening out the catches. However, not many big mahi. A “large” dorado right now would only be about 20 pounds. I don’t know where the big bull are, but there’s plenty of 10-15 pounders running around right now in various spots. They are also eating squid and chunks of bonito.
For our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, dorado have been 90 percent of the catch. The fish are holding in various places but the bite has normally been later in the morning or early afternoon so fishermen need to be a bit patient. If you can find a big patch of floating weeds all the better. Something to keep an eye on is that in the channel later in the week, 20 pound-class yellowfin tuna showed up which was a nice topper for a day of dorado fishing.
Other species we’re watching:
Yellowtail – every other day someone hooks a hog…20-40 pound fish only about 30-40 feet down near the reefs.
Roosterfish – big beasts can be seen prowling the sandy beaches. Several large fish were hooked and lost this week. One captain estimated one fish at about 80 pounds hooked in about 5 feet of water
Wahoo – No one had been fishing for them until about a week or so ago because everyone was concentrating on tuna. Then at both the north and south end of Cerralvo Island, trolled lures started hooking wahoo between 20 and 50 pounds. One angler hooked 4 and two came unbuttoned, but the fish have definitely been there. Dark trolling sub-surface lures are best that run deep.
That’s our story. Have a great week!
Jonathan and Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
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Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm
Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
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Tailhunter Fish Report 