Lenny Salazar from Lomita came down with his “Pez Gringo” buddies for the first time to La Paz and hit quite a variety of fish including this nice dorado and football tuna not too far from the Las Arenas beach.
GREAT MIX OF FISH
Sure feels like August here! It’s hot. It’s sunny and sometimes humid too and the fishing reflects it. Fish we don’t normally see until late in the summer like big blue and black marlin have come to prowl with a number of hookups on surprised anglers who thought they were fishing light tackle for dorado only to find themselves suddenly hooked to 500 pound billfish!
The dorado have been really active for our La Paz fleet with fish scattered from El Bajo to the north end of Cerralvo to the Channel and down to Las Cruces. Sargasso weed lines have been productive and dorado in the 30-50 pound class are not uncommon. For my Las Arenas anglers, they have had more variety with not only dorado; but breezers of tuna off Punta Perrico; sailfish, marlin, roosterfish and even dog tooth (pargo perro) and mullet snapper (pargo lisa) in the rocks. Nice mix of fish!
The tuna are really a bonus. We used to have tuna frequently, but in the past few years, the bite has been pretty anemic as marine biologist tell me the fish haven’t left. They’re just way down deep and have no reason to come up because one of the big sources of food…squid are down there too.
Well, the past few weeks, the sharp rise in water temps has brought a bloom of algae resulting in a phenomenon called “red tide” where the oxygen levels become so depleted by the rise in plant life, it literally chokes off the oxygen to the larger species swimming around. It hasn’t been a problem outside in the blue water, but in the bay…whooo-weeeee…it sure gets stinky as squid, mollusk, inshore fish and other marine life wash up daily emitting a stink as they roast in the Baja sun as folks try frantically to clean it up. This is just a natural thing we get a few times a year so no big deal, but for whatever reason, as the squid have shown up with great frequency, it’s not surprising that the tuna also seem to move into shallower waters.
If you’re coming down and the tuna are still around, you want to be fishing with as light a tackle as possible. I’d suggest 20-25 pound test for these fish and a short leader of flurocarbon wouldn’t hurt either!
MEXICO ELECTIONS
July 2nd is Mexico’s national election day as President Fox only serves one 6-year term as proscribed by Mexican law. At the time of me writing this, the polls were too close to call, but locals in droves were at the polls. Be interesting to see how it comes out and what effect it will have on everything else.
AERO CALIFORNIA
Could this be the week it happens? Aero Cal has promised that right after the elections, tickets would be on sale again and flights would resume. I’m so tempted to point my finger and call…’B.S.” but I gotta try to remain optimistic. That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter InternationalWebsite: www.tailhunter-international.comPhone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.comU.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”
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