Typical catch this week mixing some great-eating / good action species including, sierra, cabrilla (seabass) and small to mid-sized dorado while fishing out’ve Bahia de Los Muertos.
Matt shows off a good-sized cabrilla of the type we were catching this week. Great close inshore fishing for these right now plus one of the tastiest eating fish in our area!
NO TROPHY FISH BUT MIXED ACTION KEPT RODS BENT BETWEEN WINDS
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Jan. 27 to Feb. 3, 2013
It was a mixed week of fishing both for the weather and the catch. Early in the week, we were into dorado and yellowtail fishing as we launched our pangas from Bahia de Los Muertos. Nothing spectacular, but decent catches with lots of action if you add in the bonito, smaller pargo and cabrilla that were released. Almost all live-bait fishing.
Then, the winds came up mid-week. Fortunately, we didn’t have fisher-folks mid-week.
Winds started to diminish about Thursday so we had pangas out every day through the weekend with decent success. I was surprised by the number of dorado we’re still catching even tho’ it’s winter. Nothing big, but tasty fun-sized school fish between 10- and 15 pounds are lots of fun and great for many of our winter anglers who aren’t hard-core fisher folks and really are in town just to get some sunshine and have some fun on the water. As well, we did get into yellowtail, but they were the smaller models no more than 10 pounders plus cabrilla (many ended up at our Tailhunter Restaurant for dinner!) and smaller pargo. Plus some decent numbers of sierra. Add that to the bonito and other assorted species and it made for some OK action and fun days on the water although nothing spectacular in terms of size.
A couple of forays were made to the island to see if we could raise wahoo, but no biters.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
“NEEDLEFISH MADNESS”
I filmed this back in November, but only now had time to edit it together. Any of you that have fished with us or in Baja know that needlefish are voracious pests. They rip our lines and tear up our baits! I’ve always wanted to see what it looked like when a school of them descend on a panga! I thought you might like to see it as well. Check out the size of this school! This is what you can’t see underwater when you’re fishing! These are 3′-4′ long needlefish. Check out how they hit the sardines when the sardines get tossed in the water!
TAILHUNTER IS IN PORTLAND THIS WEEK!
We continue our swing through the great Pacific Northwest with one of our favorite stops! Jill and I will bring the Tailhunter Booth to the Pacific NW Sportsmens Show at the Portland Expo Center (in Portland…of course!). Show starts Wednesday and goes through Sunday. Come by. Say hi. Check out the new Tailhunter T-shirt designs and come talk to us about your 2013 La Paz Fishing trips! For more info click this link: http://www.thesportshows.com/pnwss/
Jilly is set up and ready to go. See you in Portland, Oregon this week!
There will be hundreds of outdoor exhibitors from around the world for fishing, hunting, camping and other outdoor activities. Tons of gear to try, check out and purchase. Seminars. Boats, RV’s and outdoor vehicles plus great food. A super event for the entire family! See you here!
Pretty good day of fishing for Amy Sheridan from Wyoming and Ashley Jerrigan from Ohio who spent the day fishing with us later in the week when the winds died down. It make all the difference! Big cabrilla and dorado get hoisted on the gaff pole while the ladies pose on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos.
Slugger-sized mossback yellowtail like this one caught by Joel Zarmati have taken up the bite around Cerralvo Island and a few other areas. Finally, the wind settled down and anglers were able to get out and rack some of these nice fish (Thanks for the photo, Roger!)
Here’s some of the best eating fish in our area! We call ’em cabrilla…Mexican seabass and this is a hefty trophy that Ashley’s holding up while famous Capt. Victor looks on.
Captain Fernando poses with anger Wayne Jarrett who stuck this big boy bull dorado out at the 88-spot. The big fish are still around, wind permitting!
From now until about mid-March, we’re running our whale watching trips from Bahia Magdalena where the whales have migrated to mate and give birth. It’s an incredible experience to get this close to these magnificent creatures and a great lifetime experience for the whole family to get right up to the whales in the shallow calm waters of the bay! Ask us for details!
Jill and I had a blast at the Washington State Fairgrounds this past week meeting lots of our amigos and Tailhunter Tribal members. We’ve been on the road now for a month and have Sacramento, Denver and now Washington under our belt. Next stop is Portland, Oregon for the Northwest Sportsmans Show at the Portland Expo Center. Come see us and let’s talk about getting you down to fish with us in La Paz!
WIND DROPS AND FISH CRANK UP ACTION!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Jan. 20-27, 2013
The beginning of the week was a continuation of last week’s strong winter winds that kept everyone off the waters and hunkered down onshore. But once the winds let up we got back on the water again and late week bites confirmed that the fish are still there and going strong!
There’s a great and rather unusual mix of fish with both warm and cooler water species mixing it up and helping fill up the boxes.
For warm water species, it’s pretty unusual for us to be finding dorado this late/early in the season. It’s hard to know if this is a continuation late season bite or just an extremely early vanguard of a new dorado season. I guess it doesn’t really matter! Dorado are dorado and everyone’s happy with them! Not many complaints when breezing dorado come running through the chum line and tear into the lines! The fish are rangy with sizes going from 5 to 30 pounds or so…a nice grade. The fish are eating sardines, mackerel, dead baits and chasing lures…willing and eating!
In addition, the other inshore biters are ripping as well. Again…this seems a mite early in the season, but no one is complaining. This includes largo lisp (mullet snapper), cabrilla (sea bass) and some nice slugger yellowtail as well with fish up to 30 pounds.
As expected, the inshore fish are being found in the shallow waters around structure like reefs and rocks which help them stack odds against the angler show not only have to battle the fish, but the rocky jagged environment waiting to shred lines! North and south Cerralvo are especially good for the yellowtail as well as in Bahia de Los Muertos near the point and a tad further south near the Boca de Alamo Arroyo.
Other species have included some nice jack crevalle and bonito.
For some other great activities, the whales have shown up and are going full force out at Bahia Magdalena and we’re running our annual whale watching tours out to the bay to see the whales. The best time to see these magnificent creatures in the bay after their migration from the Bering Sea is from now to about mid-March.
TAILHUNTER ROAD TOUR
Thanks to all the friend and amigos who came to see us this past week at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington. It was great to see everyone at the Washington Sportsman’s Show especially all the new Tailhunter tribal members-to-be that came to talk to us about coming to see us in La Paz. We had a blast!
Our next stop in the 2013 Road Tour takes us to Portland, Oregon for the Northwest Sportsman’s Expo at the Portland Expo Center. We’ll be there from Feb. 6-10th (Wed. to Sunday). Come by to see us…get your 24 page Tailhunter brochure…our new DVD or pick up our new logo t-shirts that we’ve brought along in both mens and womens styles! Of course, also to talk to us about your next fishing adventure in La Paz! Come see us!
NEW TAILHUNTER U.S. MAILING ADDRESS
If you’re sending us anything, even though, we live in La Paz, we’ve changed our U.S. MAILING address! The new address is:
P.O. Box 1149
Alpine CA 91903-1149
STAY TUNED
We’re getting alot of questions about CARNIVAL week in La Paz. La Paz goes into full-party mode Feb. 6-12th. The city will be rockin’!
It wasn’t the best of weeks for fishing Strong winter winds whipped the area for several days giving even the palm trees along the La Paz Malecon on the waterfront little respite.
We know the fish are out there! Check out this big bull taken by Wayne Jarrett out at the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island…just before the winds started. Big bulls like this aren’t very typical in the winter, but various reports from several areas confirm that the dorado are still hanging around! The problem is either getting to those spots or braving the waves and big winds to get the bait to fish for the quality fish like this! (Thanks for the great shot, Hawk!)
Horse yellowtail like this one caught by our amigo, Art “Doc” Flippin who comes all the way down from his job in the Arctic to fish with us, have been very close in the shallows just south of Bahia de Los Muertos. The promising bite was shut down by the winds and we plan to recon the spot again hopefully by mid-week when the winds should diminish.
It’s whale season as the grey whales have begun returning to Bahia Magdalena to the west of La Paz! It’s an incredible experience to get this close to the gentle animals and Tailhunters is running daily trips now through March to spend a day on the bay with the whales. Just e-mail us at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com.
Thanks to all of our amigos who came to visit us at the Denver Convention Center this past week. We has a blast seeing old friends and meeting new ones and talking about fishing in La Paz. Our “tour” now takes us to Puyallup, Washington at the Washington State Fairgrounds. Jill and I will be in our booth from Wednesday to Sunday. Come say hi and let’s chat about your 2013 La Paz fishing vacation!
WORST WEEK OF WIND KEEPS EVERYONE OFF THE WATER
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of January 12-20, 2012
Not much of a week of fishing. In fact, how about zero fishing. I think that’s the first time I’ve reported that…EVER in 17 years down here in La Paz!
Cold weather and incredibly strong winds kept everyone off the water or close to shore. Certainly, not much fishing going on, but thankfully, we didn’t have anyone reserved for this week. It wasn’t just choppy, it was rough out there as it seemed the winds blew continuously as a windy front pushed through and chilled everyone! If you walked around town, everyone seemed to be bundled up although many tourists found 67 degree weather to be rather pleasant. For locals, there was a rush to put on jackets and long pants!
Commercial guys say there’s still some dorado outside at the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island but no one really wants to go out there and get smacked around on a long run. There’s also yellowtail stacking up at the north end of Cerralvo Island as well as around Bahia de Los Muertos. The week really started out promising, but then the winds came up and it wasn’t worth it to go out. Everyone just wants the winds to stop!
Typically, we do indeed get winds during the winter, but rarely is it do we get continuous winds for several days. Normally, we get it for a day or two intermittently. We’ll keep an eye out on it. According to the advisories, we’ll start to see some decrease in the velocity of the winds about mid-week. Hopefully!
TAILHUNTER TOUR ROLLS INTO WASHINGTON
We had an outstanding show at the International Sportsmens Expo at the Denver Convention Center this past week. But now, the “2013 Tailhunter Promo Tour” rolls on! We drive back west a zillion miles and will be at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington (near Seattle) from Wednesday to Sunday! For more details, click this link: http://www.thesportshows.com/wss/ Hope to see you this week! Come pick up our 24 page brochure and DVD and check out our new t-shirt styles. Plus come talk to us about setting up your 2013 La Paz fishing vacation!
It was a difficult week to get out there to fish because of the strong winter winds characteristic of this time of year, but our amiga, Donna Thompson got out and got this good-looking barred pargo (pargo mulatto) fishing the rocks near the La Reyna lighthouse in the background at the north end of Cerralvo Island. (Thanks to Roger Thompson for the photo!)
When the winds lie down, the yellowtail like this hefty forktail, fishing looks like it’s heating up. Check out the nice yellowtail taken just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos just off the shore. The fish ate a greenie mackerel.
The whales have started to show up in Bahia Magdalena once again after their migration from the Bering Sea. It’s a spectacular day in the shallow bay getting up-close to these great creatures! We’ve stared running our annual day tours to the bay for the whale trips. Just e-mail us for more details!
This week, we’re moving from the fantastic show we had at the Sacramento ISE to the Denver Convention Center in Colorado for the International Sportsman’s Expo that runs Wednesday to Sunday (Jan 17-20) for four days. Among the hundreds of exhibitors, Jill and Jonathan will be in their booth to “meet-and-great” and give you al the details about fishing in La Paz. Come get one of our 24 page brochures or our new DVD. Check out our new t-shirt designs too!
ROUGH WEEK CURTAILS MUCH OF THE FISHING
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Jan. 7-13 2013
It wasn’t a great week of fishing mainly because of the winds. That’s still the tricky part this time of year. Earlier in the week, it was just too windy to be out there and fortunately, we were able to tell our anglers to hold off for a day or two. Honestly, we could have fished, but realistically, there’s no point if it’s going to be bouncy or it’s going to be hard to get bait. No one has fun. And it’s supposed to be fun, right?
Especially, this time of year, when many of our anglers aren’t hardcore. Many are snow birds just wanting to get some sunshine an maybe a day of fishing into their vacations away from places like New Hampshire and Minnesota and Canada. So, it’s important to have a good experience.
So, putting it off for a day or two maximizes the event and makes all the difference. Because later in the week when things calmed down a bit, we got out and got a nice variety. Again, many of our anglers didn’t have a lot of experience so having a good variety made for fun days. They got into nice bunches of sierra near Las Arenas along the beaches as well as cabrilla along the Punta Perico area and some of the nicer pargo around Cerralvo Island on the east side and for one boat that went north, some decent-sized barred pargo.
A few yellowtail were hooked south towards Boca de Alamo, but again, lack of experience cost the fish, although the clients still had fun. We got a few school-sized roosters as well off south Cerralvo Island. Fun on the lighter tackle.
Hopefully, the wind will give us a break this coming week!
Tailhunter 2013 Tour Heads to the Denver ISE show in Colorado this week!
This week, we’ll be headed to Denver at the International Sportsman’s Expo at the Denver Convetion Center. This is the 36th year of this fantastico show. The show runs from Thursday to Sunday and there will be hundreds of exhibitors, demonstations, seminars and tons of gear to check out and buy for fishing, hunting, camping and all kinds of outdoor activities. Jill and I will be in our Tailhunter Booth to answer all your questions about setting up your 2013 fishing trip to La Paz. We’ll have our new t-shirts as well. You’ve gotta check out the new designs! Come say hi! For more information, just click the link:
We finally got a nice jag of yellowtail! Our ‘mano, Jorge Romero, owner of Tecolote Transportation in La Paz only had enough time to go out for 2 hours and hit 3 nice fork tail on live mackeral just south of Bahia de Los Muertos in front of Boca de Alama. Jorge told us, that no one else was even around as this is off-season!
Not bad for winter fishing! But, yes, we’ve still got dorado running around our waters surprisingly like this nice dorado that first-timer Liya Deng put in the panga fishing with Captain Victor of our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. The fish was taken just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos.
Chris Kamon of Los Angeles really wanted to get into pargo and we hadn’t gotten into too many…up to now, but Chris persisted and was rewarded with a couple of really nice pargo liso (mullet snapper) off the south end of Cerralvo Island. It appears that the much -sought snapper have moved into the shallow waters early to spawn which is a good sign!
One of the funnest light-tackle fish to catch right now are the numerous sierra that are in the shallow waters just off the beach. Gail and Jason Jacobs show off a double pair here on the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos. They also got yellowtail, dorado, roosterfish and wahoo!
SLOW START HEATS UP TO SURPRISE VARIETY FISHING!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 31 to Jan. 6, 2013
It was an interesting week of fishing. At first we thought it would pretty tough. Early weather predictions showed a week filled with strong winds as well as a chance of rain for several days. However, as we hit into the week, the rains dissipated and the winds diminished sufficiently to get out on the waters.
As has been in the past, when the winds let us out, the fish bit! And again, what a variety!
All of our fishing has been off the Muertos Bay Area SE of La Paz where we can at least fish closer to shore and have some protections from the northern winds. So, we really have not had to go out far most of the times. Certainly never out of sight of land!
Once again, we got into some decent quality-sized dorado in the 10-20 pounds class. Roosterfish up to 25 pounds. Decent numbers of sierra as well which were often taken to our Tailhunter Restaurant and showed up as ceviche for our clients!
But the most interesting news was the solid appearance of pargo liso off the south end of Cerralvo Island. These are the carp-like looking mullet snapper much craved by our anglers for their fighting ability as well as great eating fare! Fish up to about 20 pounds were caught, but several larger fish were lost. This is the time of year when the fish come into the shallow rocky areas to spawn so this could be the start of an early spawn!
As well, we started hooking yellowtail as well. We got a little smattering just before Christmas but this past week, it would appear the fish are here and ready to go. We’re fishing just south of Bahia de Los Muertos off the shallow area in front of Boca de Alamo. Using green mackerel for bait, the yellowtail were quality 15-25 pound fish. The neat thing so far…at least until word gets out…is that barely anyone is fishing the area!
ANNUAL WHALE MIGRATION HAS STARTED!
The yearly migration of the grey whales has started with the incredible animals just starting to show up in Bahia Magdalena after their trip all the way from the Bering Sea. It’s the longest migration of any of earth’s creatures and the whales will be in the warm shallow waters of the bay from January to March with February being prime time. We’re just starting to book our trips for this season so if you’d like to experience this once-in-a-lifetime-event, get in touch with us and find out the details. Great experience for the whole family!
Tailhunter 2013 Tour
We’re on the road again for our 17th year and headed your way. This week, we’ll be at the Sacramento International Sportsman’s Expo taking place at the California State Fairgrounds from Thursday to Sunday. We’ll be in our booth ready to see all our friends and clients and ready to get you set up for your La Paz fishing trip in 2013. Come by to say hi and pick up a copy of our 24 page Tailhunter brochure and DVD! We’re looking forward to seeing you!
That’s our story!
Jonathan & Jill
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.comMexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, P.O. Box 1149, Alpine CA 91903-1149Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
It’s the dead of winter and dorado are still biting! In between the winter winds, we still have quality fishing including bull dorado and other blue water species! Check this gorgeous bull in full color lit up just next to the panga.
Surprisingly some of the best wahoo fishing of the year the last few weeks! Take a look at this awesome wahoo that Jason Jacobs from Phoenix AZ pulled out during two days of fishing. Hefty ‘hoo!
I have already had several folks ask me if we took a fiberglass fish mount off the wall for this photo because of the incredible colors! This is as good a shot as it gets and Adam Smith and Captain Jorge pose it well. That’s Bahia de los Muertos in the background. Check out the calm waters. They didn’t have to go too far off the beach for this nice mahi mahi. Adam was visiting us from Arizona.
First real yellowtail of the season! Wow…big fork tail and hamachi for the grill. Jason’s got big smiles for this slug fish caught off Las Arenas. Hope this is an indication of a good yellowtail season if fish this big are already moving in!
It’s not snowing and he’s got a t-shirt on! All the way from Alaska, Tim Bowman, was fishing just off Bahia de los Muertos in great conditions when he hooked this nice bull dorado on live bait.
Hard to believe we’re getting this kind of quality fish so late in the season, but even Gail Jacobs pulled a wahoo out with help from Captain Pancho just off Isla Cerralvo. She also got dorado and sierra!
SURPRISE FISHING WHEN WINDS AREN’T BLOWING! (…but the wind blows a lot!)
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 23-30, 2012
We had a much better week of fishing this past week mainly because we had much better luck with the winds. This is, of course, that time of year when winds can get howling and it’s almost pointless to be out there and get bounced around in a panga.
Lots of snow-birds in town who decide they want to do a day of fishing and we often have to steer them to different days or postpone their trips when the winds come up. Sometimes, we just tell them, it’s better not to fish at all unfortunately.
What they don’t understand often is that even if the Bay of La Paz is calm, outside, it can often be treacherously rough and getting to the fishing grounds is almost futile. Even other times when it’s a little calmer, you still have to go find bait or the bait man has to have bait available to sell. If the waters are too rough, bait will be hard to obtain because the rough waters prevent anyone from getting to the areas where the sardines are holding.
Even other times when it seems relatively calm, there can be big swells that make it uncomfortable and dangerous. In fact, this coming week doesn’t look very promising! Pretty much if there’s storms in the western U.S. then Baja and the Sea of Cortez is very often affected by windy conditions.
So, this past week, we actually got a few days where the winds layed down enough for us to fish! Sure enough, the fish bit.
Sierra are almost a sure thing with some really quality grade sierra up to 4-6 pounds evident along the shorelines where the bottom starts to drop off. Even on the windier days, the fact that the sierra are so close to shore is a bonus as we don’t have to go out so far.
Inshore also, we’re surprisingly still getting rooster fish up to about 10 pounds which can be fun. We even had some flyfishers able to throw at roosters this past week. Pargo and cabrilla are also in the mix.
But, without having to go too much further out, we also got into some nice grade dorado in the 10-20 pound class which normally aren’t around in December. No one complained. The fish were school-sized, but I have a feeling some of the larger bulls are still around as we got into some 40 pounders less than 2 weeks ago.
In addition to the surprising dorado, we’re still finding the occasional wahoo and billfish too, but I can tell waters are finally cooling off as some husky stray yellowtail up to 25 pounds have found their way into the fish counts as well. Hopefully, finding yellowtail of this grade is a good sign for the coming season and these are the vanguard of large fish moving into our waters.
As for the wahoo…who knows? There’s a smattering of wahoo in several areas and it’s like hitting a lottery ticket when we hook them. Or at least like finding a 20 dollar bill in your pants pocket you didn’t expect! No one is expecting them, but boy, what nice fish! Hopefully, they’ll stick around awhile longer. There’s not much traffic out there now that it’s off-season and we’re finding the fish off Cerralvo Island as well as Punta Perico.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL
Mexico office: 755 Obregon, La Paz, BCS, Mexico
Phone: 612-12-53311U.S. Office: P.O. Box 1149, Alpine CA 91903-1149
From Jill and I to all of you, we wish you a safe, happy, and peaceful Christmas! Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo from La Paz!
WINDY CONDITIONS HAMPER FISHING MOST OF WEEK BUT FISHING PICKS UP LATE WEEK!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of Dec. 17-23, 2012
A very windy week in La Paz making it a bit rough to fish. (In fact, that is also why for the first time in about 16 years of doing these weekly fishing reports…I have no photos!) But… in all honesty, perhaps this was our windiest week in a bit. Fortunately, for us, not many anglers either as we had a bit of a lull before the holidays and I think everyone was gearing up for Christmas and the influx we’ll be getting this week.
Still, because of the winds, we had to shuffle folks around to get the least windy days. For most of our visitors right now, it’s different than during the high-season when folks are here to fish literally every day of their vacation. Right now, it’s mostly folks here for the holidays to escapting colder climes to get a little sunshine and they’ll squeeze in a day of fishing or fishing is a quick after-thoughts. This means that if there’s a day when it’s too windy, we can shuffle them around a bit to a different day.
But, even then, most of our fishing was confined closer to shore than normal. Still, on the up-side, we normally don’t have to go that far anyway! We did get some dorado pretty close in. None of the larger bulls like we’ve been getting lately ,but any kind of dorado right now is a bonus and the ones we got were decent, good-eating 10-15 pound fish. Sierra also made up a nice part of the catch with pangas averaging 4-6 fish up to about 4 pounds with our best hits not too far from the Las Arenas lighthouse.
Roosterfish up to about 25 pounds were also around with our better spots right in Bahia de los Muertos (Bahia de los Suenos) and further south off Boca de Alamo. Several larger fish perhaps in the 40-60 pound range broke off before they could get near the boat, but were seen and fought for a bit.
Keep in mind this was pretty sporadic fishing compared to what we’ve been doing lately and most of the better fishing was at the end of the week. In fact, we had a little strange jag of fish on the weekend with some yellowtail…yes yellowtail (cold water fish) caught the same day as dorado (warm water fish)! But here’s the kicker, the same panga got two wahoo! Not big, but hey…18 pound ‘hoos? In December? Just another example of the wacky fishing this past week. We’ll keep an eye out.
Winds are diminishing this week so we’re looking forward to some better fishing!
Have a safe, happy and peaceful Christmas to you and yours! God bless.
It was a great week for the larger dorado! Captain Victor gives and assist to Nicki Vavao on a huge pig-of-a-bull doado! It was not unusual to see 30-50 pound fish this past week. Nicki took over an hour to put this fish aboard, but total props to her. Not only was it her first time fishing in Baja. It was her FIRST TIME fishing…EVER! And this is her FIRST FISH…EVER! That’s gonna set the bar pretty high for the future!
Once again, the ladies were on fire this week! Geri Sandstrom, is from Idaho and she’s LOVES to fish, but had never gotten anything larger than big kokanee. Needless to say, she more than topped her personal best with 3 days of solid fishing for dorado and roosterfish!
We love having father-son fishing trips! Tom Slaughter and his son, Mike, spent 3 days fishing and snorkeling with us and got into some of the nice dorado bite we had including these two while posing at Balandra Bay north of La Paz.
This has been one of the best roosterfish seasons ever! Take a look at this huge trophy roosterfish that Scott Voldness took off Las Arenas. Scott’s from Utah and the big fish was released.
From Arizona, these two were a kick to have around for 4 days of fishing. Joe Cullwell and Dylan Martin hold up a double pair of dorado after one day of fishing north of La Paz.
Sam Sybesma comes to see us every year. He spent a few days fishing with our La Paz fleet having fun with the dorado but on his last day went with our Las Arenas fleet to see if he could get a roosterfish! WINNING! That’s Punta Arenas Beach in the background.
Another one of our father-son trips this week. Lyndon Mumm and his son, Matt, pulled on some great dorado during the week. Big smiles all the way around. They also took our island snorkel trip with the sealions as well.
Our good amigo, Dick, had to cancel his trip this last year, but towed his boat down to get in on the dorado bite and shows off his first day catch with, Randy Lyons.
Good way to start the week with a striped marlin for Al Sandstrom from Idaho. It was another good week on the billfish with most fish running 90-150 pounds. I believe we got over 20 hooked this week with all but a few released. We probably had another 10-15 break off or get unbuttoned. Al got this his first day and also got into the dorado nicely!
Jimmy Csutoras almost didn’t make it down, but got here at the last minute and slammed into nice dorado like this one. Jimmy is from Northern Cal.
Brothers Fred and Mike Sontag rolled on the dorado big time after 4 days fishing. Fred is from St. Louis and Mike is from S. Carolina. They hold up a nice pair standing on the beach at Balandra Beach north of La Paz.
BIG BITE OF BIG DORADO SET PACE FOR THE WEEK WITH ROOSTERS AND MARLIN!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 8-15, 2012
It wasn’t as spectacular as last week’s dorado slam during the full moon, but there was some excellent fishing to be had nonetheless. I was a little worried as the first 2 days of the week it was like someone turned off the mahi-mahi spigot!
Whereas the week before our anglers were reporting 10, 20…40 or more dorado hookups per day and releasing fish as fast-as-they-could-go, the first two days this past week suddenly shut down to 2 to 6 dorado per panga. That’s a huge drop in production! I was sweating!
However, as the week went on, we got into a little rhythm again. It was not wide up and there was an occasional day or panga that had an off-day, but more-often-than-not, the fishing day produced limits or near-limits of dorado. If you were only fishing 1 day, that might be the day you had the stink on you, but if you fished 2, 3 or 4 days, at the end of the trip, our clients usually still found they had more fish than they knew what to do with! They might have a day or two that was less than stellar, but then they had another day or two that was an explosion of fish that made up for the other slack times.
Often, I had to tell our anglers to just be patient. Often, the days started slow. I mean…really SLOW! It’s noon and they have 1 fish aboard! Then, at noon or 1 p.m.often when other fleets are heading in, our guys would hang out just a bit longer. It would be all the difference in the world as that late bite would turn into dorado pandemonium with double-triple-and-quadruple hookups! Often, our captains weren’t bringing in our clients until 3 or 4 p.m. or even later…giving that little bit of extra time to get onto the bite.
The coolest thing about this week that differed from last week was the appearance of some big quality bulls. Whereas last week there were just a few of the fish over 20 pounds, this week fish between 25 and 40 pounds were hooked daily and many of the larger fish were lost and the clients coming back with only wide-eyed stories of big battles or broken lines. Even some of our captains were talking about 50-pound class fish swimming out there or busting off after long fights.
Another big surprise were the marlin. I think this past week, I counted over 20 striped marlin hooked amoung our Tailhunter anglers of which almost all of them were released. There were probably as many that broke off or came unbuttoned during the battle. Personally, I think the marlin are more active because there’s not only more bait in the water (sardines, mackerel, cocineros, jacks, and caballitos), but also, there’s so many little dorado swimming around that they’re feeding on the young dorado. In fact, one of the best trolling color feathers right now just happens to be yellow and green!
One other item of big news…LAS ARENAS FINALLY TURNED ON!
That’s major headlines. After almost 3 months of some of the dreariest fishing I have seen in years with no bait, we finally got some smaller tiny sardines this week as well as the larger baits and what a difference it made! It wasn’t wide open, but our pangas were getting into some nice dorado between 10 and 15 pounds, but also some of the big slugger mahi over 30 pounds. In addition, it also produced good billfish action…I think one day 3 of our pangas hooked and released 7 marlin alone! Plus, the roosterfish continue to bite as well. So, this is all very promising and I’m glad both sides finally started to kick out some fish!
That’s our story!
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
Yes! Even we get to fish now and then and it was great to get on the water with Jilly for an epic day of non-stop dorado fishing where we hooked and released over 40 fish before noon! Great week of dorado fishing even with the full moon! Here, Jill ducks behind Captain Joel with another bull dorado that was thrashing around wildly before Joel released the fish!
The ladies were on fire this week! Especially alot of first timers like Sylva Ourghoulian from Pasadena CA who came with our long-time amigo and her new husband Avo. Avo is a great fisherman and wanted to have a good experience for Sylva. She got limits of dorado each day plus some nice roosterfish!
Like I said, the ladies were rocking this week! From Sacramento, another first-timer, Becky Csotoras, was just off the Las Arenas lighthouse when she caught and released this nice roosterfish. She and her dad also got into the dorado bite this week as well.
Every time he comes down, Fred Sontag, from St. Louis MO says, “This is the best trip ever!” Four days of hot dorado, roosterfish and marlin fishing resulted in lots of fillets headed back to the midwest including this trophy big-headed bull dorado taken near Espirito Santo Island.
Our long time friend from Colorado, Doug Oclassen got his son, Andrew out with us for a day and off Las Arenas pulled in some nice roosterfish like this one. It’s turning into thee best roosterfish season in memory. Pretty much 99 percent of all the roosters like this one are getting released. Great job, guys! Andy is looking alot like dad these days!
Not many of these in Montana! Phil Matteson said he got “everything on his bucket list” on this trip to La Paz, his first! Dorado, roosterfish and this marlin shown with Captain Boli holding on!
Rex Smith has been visiting us for years. Our amigo did three days fishing with our La Paz fleet and had limits of dorado like this one every day. Rex is from the Phoenix AZ area and is posing here at Balandra Beach north of La Paz.
Big smiles for another of our ladies who had a good trip. From Utah, Kim Woodard, shows off another nice bull dorado that jumped on the line. Kim and her family had good results on dorado and roostefish over several days of fishing with us!
Fishing with grandpa, John Ehlers, from Colorado, 14-year-old Cheyenne says she cannot get enough of the ocean and was on her first trip ever to La Paz! Posing here with our popular Captain Pancho with our Las Arenas fleet, she’s holding one of several big roosterfish she caught and released. She also did several days of banner dorado fishing with grandpa, John!
One of the larger striped marlin of the week, Mike Sontag, has visited us a number of times and finally got his billfish. From North Carolina, Mike’s fish was estimated at about 150 pounds. The billfish have really gotten up to speed this past week even with the full moon and about 90 percent have been released. Mike’s panga hooked two others that got away.
More big smiles to go with a big dorado! The ladies were pulling hard on the fish all week and Karen Matteson from Montana was no exception. Nice dorado…big roosterfish…pargo…a real good trip and nice to have fun folks from Montana. I think Montana people just bring good fishing with them! Nicely done, Karen!
Dustyn Woodard is 17-years-old, and had a great trip sticking a bunch of big roosters with Captain Gerardo and releasing them all. He and his family, from Utah, also popped some great dorado. This was Dustyn’s first trip to see us.
Northern Cal resident, Jimmy Csutoras, saw an article in the S.F. Chronicle about Tailhunter and booked a trip with us. He got dorado and roosters and also got one of the only pargo we’ve seen in awhile! He got several of these nice barred pargo. That’s Punta Arenas in the background and they were very close to the beach!
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Check out this underwater clip in slo-motion of a wild dorado hooked (then released)! Turn up the sound. If you can’t see the embedded video clip, click the youtube link!
FULL MOON PRODUCES BEST DORADO BITE OF THE SEASON!
La Paz- Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of July 1-8, 2012
What’s the big deal about the full moon? I keep telling people it really doesn’t seem to make much difference down here. As a matter of fact, we just had the best dorado week of the season in the full moon. At times, folks were catching and releasing fish as fast as they could go! Somedays the bite was later in the day but other our anglers were full of fish by breakfast time! Once it started it could be pandemonium with double and triple hook ups. Some of our clients told us they released dozens of dorado each day.
Most of the dorado fishing was north of La Paz and was found in a nice wedge from the Las Cruces/ Gordo area then up to the east side of Espirito Santo Island and up to the Charo Bank. There’s a nice current line of sargasso weeds holding fish all up and down that area. There’s lots of voracious 10-15 pounders all along that area that are almost fighting each other to get to the hooks but there’s also some nicer 20-50 pound bruisers mixed in as well. In the last 2 weeks, it’s like someone threw a switch!
On Friday, Jill and I snuck out for a “quick day of fishing.” What we ran into was one of our all-time best days on the water in 16 years of living here. We ran into that line of sargasso weed along the east side of Espirito Santo Island. Just on a lark we did not follow the rest of the fleet that morning which had gone south to check out the Las Cruces area where the dorado had been biting fairly steadily.
Our first bait immediately got slammed…as did our 2nd and 3rd…by 8 a.m. we had caught and released almost 20 dorado! By 10 a.m. we had over 30 fish hooked and released. And we were still the only ones fishing the area! By 10:30 we were joined by the rest of the fleet and everyone hooked up! There were dorado everywhere. Under the boat, it looked like a fish pond! There were dorado darting in and out of the weed line and current break. Dorado were jumping following flying fish and one flying fish smacked Jill on the arm followed by a dorado that was chasing the bait that blew up in her face and narrowly missed her.
By 11 that morning we stopped counting at 40 dorado caught and released! By this time we had switched to complete circle hooks and were also using all kinds of goofy lures that were in the tackle box! Our last 3 fish were caught by us just dangling BARE HOOKS in the water and watching dorado come out from under the boat and 1…2…3…SLAM! HOOK UP! BARE HOOKS!
As we pulled off the spot at 11:30 so we could back to the office, dorado were still jumping all around the boat as if yelling, “FEED ME! “ Way fun day. Of course not every boat did that well, but more often than not all the pangas this week fishing La Paz came back with limits. And if not, a quick query would tell you that they lost quite a few fish!
In that same area, especially with all the smaller punk dorado around, marlin and sailfish have also moved in to the area and are actively feeding. We had quite a few hooked, lost and released this week with most in the 100-120 pound class.
Around Las Arenas, our fleet there continues to do well on the roosterfish. If you’ve ever wanted to check a roosterfish off your “bucket list, ” this has been the year for it. Roosters in the 20-50 pound class have not been uncommon and they’re very close to the beaches where you can visually cast to them and watch the pick up! Pretty exciting stuff to watch those huge dorsal fins cut through the water! Las Arenas also produced some marlin and sailfish for us this week as well as pargo.
That’s our story!
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
It’s been a long time since we had a nice dorado bite as we waited for waters to clear up and get warmer! It’s about time! Dorado finally kicked it into gear! Our buddy, Len Atkinson from the Sacramento CA area hasn’t visited us in a few seasons but good to have him back as he and Captain Marcos try not to get their shins slapped by a struggling big bull dorado!
TUNA? Yes! Mary Wehner always seems to do well. She and husband, Dave, went just east of Cerralvo Island with Captain Victor and found a couple of big dorado as well as this nice slugger yellowfin tuna! Everything just seemed to finally get better about mid-week!
Early in the week, with waters still on the chilly side, we had another run of nice yellowtail around Espirito Santo Island. Check out this trophy held by Joel Ofrancia who visited us from Washington to get some sun, fishing and diving. He caught 5 of these beauties!
Talk about a fishing vacation! Larry Watkins from Los Angeles decided to go “all in” and spend two whole weeks with us to get get ONE ROOSTERFISH! Well, he picked a good time because the roosterfish were tearing it up and he got this this colorful rooster just off Cerralvo Island. Some days the boats averaged 4-8 roosters per day in the 20-60 pound class. Almost all fish, including this one were released.
Tbis is Gerda Siewart from Anaheim CA with Captain Gerardo of our Tailhunter Las Arenas Fleet. Gerda had never been fishing before. She was also nervous because she just had surgery last week. But she went out anyway…and had a blast! She says she’s hooked. First day 7 roosterfish. 2nd day 5 roosterfish. 3rd day big yellowtail and cabrilla. 4th day a box full of dorado. She just let the captains fish and said, “Let’s have some fun!” She’s never stopped smiling the whole time! This was the only rooster she couldn’t release.
Cameron Hutcheson from Orange Co, CA is another of our clients who had a great time on their first trip…roosterfish…yellowtail…dorado! All of them were on their list they were hoping to catch. Cam holds up a big bull dorado he caught north of La Paz!
It’s a long way from Michigan to La Paz! But check out this trophy bull dorado that Jim de Boer holds on the beach at Balandra. It was great to finally see some of the larger models decide to bite and we’re happy that Jim came all this way and was able to get into quality fish. He also got his first roosterfish as well!
I gottta hand it to Mike Harvey who lives in Montana. This guy busted his butt all week trying to get a roosterfish…even fishing from the beaches at night. He finally got one on his third day. In fact, he got several plus got a nice load of dorado as well when the bite turned on mid-week. Mike’s posing with this sizeable rooster right off the lighthouse at Las Arenas. Mike’s already got reservations to come back in September “when the fish are bigger!”
Marlin finally got a bit more active as well this week. We’ve been seeing them for week turn up their noses at us. Guy Petree and his buddy Oscar hold up a fish they got north of La Paz. They released the marlin after the photo. Guy is coming back later this week for more fishing!
The man behind the fish is Brian Hutcheson! He’s from Cote de Caza CA and on his first day popped this nice rooster off of Cerralvo Island. First time fishing with us, he had a banner 3 days of fishing.
Monster yellowtail for Dr. Norm Harris who gets a hand from Captain “Fettucine” Alfredo off Espiritu Santo Island. Great catch! Doc is from Santa Ana CA
BEST WEEK OF FISHING TO KICK INTO SUMMER! IT’S ABOUT TIME!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of June 17-24, 2012
It was like night and day in the difference between fishing early compared to later in the week. For 2 months, I kept saying that all we needed was a little kick in water temperature and the tough fishing would improve. Well, the water temps went up by 2 degrees this week into the low 80’s.
By the same token…it was THE BEST WEEK of the SEASON on so many levels! Still not quite up to standards, but what a difference in this week compared to the last few months! We still need to get better, but just take a look at the variety of species in the photos!
It was like someone threw light switch! The first day of summer…June 22nd…everything changed!
Early in the week, with waters still a bit chilly, our bite consisted of a very good roosterfish bite with fish between 20 and 60 pounds. Great fun but not very good eating. As well we had a pretty sweet bite of 20-40 pound yellowtail off the west end of Espiritu Santo Island. That was good for a few days and we had some fun.
But about mid-week waters started warming. We were seeing more marlin. We started seeing breezing schools of dorado. Everyone was excited. Just one problem…they wouldn’t eat. Not even remotely interested in biting! So frustrating to see so many dorado and they just had no interest in biting.
Then, about Thursday the water temps kicked up a notch. The dirty green cold water started to dissipate and BOOM! Dorado started slamming! It was like someone threw a swtich. Some of the dorado were real punk squirt fish, but others were in the 20-40 pound class and larger fish were lost. As well, marlin started to jump into the act as well as sailfish and each day we hooked, lost , caught and released several.
Not everyone caught fish everyday. Some boats did great some days then not so good the next. Also anglers lost a lot of fish as well. However, for those who fished a few days, there were definitely fish to catch and opportunities to put fish in the boat compared to what it’s been lately. All very encouraging!
Hope this is something we can finally count on. The bite has been a long time coming after a really slow spring bite.
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
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
Tailhunter Fish Report 
