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October 8, 2006 by riplipboy

FULL MOON BITE ON DORADO AND TUNA HOWLS!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Oct. 8, 2006

Despite full moon fears, the great bite we’ve had for over a month continued…maybe not quite as strong, but folks were still getting blown away by what was happening. Basically, maybe it dropped off a litte…yea…right…from an 11 to a 10 on a scale of 1-10. Honestly, I know this can’t go on, but in my time hear in La Paz, this has to be the longest and most consistent run of fish I have ever seen!

PHOTO 1: Gary Tsunoda and Lois Masushige from Gardena CA spent 3 days of fishing with us and took him alot of mahi meat including a this pair of nice dorado taken just north of La Paz

LA PAZ FISHING

I was worried that with the approaching full moon this dorado binge of the last 6 weeks surely had to come crashing down. Well, it didn’t crash, but it dipped just a tad, but most folks didn’t notice and we had a blast!

Getting sardines then trolling up some small bonita, we still went to the SE end of Cerralvo Island and got hammered. I have no idea why these fish congregate here this time of year, but we can’t be more than a mile off the beach. There weren’t as many of the big huge bulls of the past, but there were still some big toad fish and we still got our share of 40-50 pound bulls as well as a few striped marlin and sailfish. Additionally, maybe there weren’t as many bulls, but I have never seen so many big time female mahi and let me tell ya…the ladies could fight as hard as some of the big bulls…they had game! They had attitude.

Side note: In the last two weeks alot of our anglers have been showing me burned thumbs and blisters from trying to stop charging fish. In fact, I think I’ve seen about 10 thumbs in the last two weeks where human skin was sacrificed trying to stop spinning spools attached to dorado headed for the horizon. It was funny, but not funny at the same time!

PHOTO 2: The full moon did have an effect on the big squid at Las Arenas. They either disappeared for good or were forced to deeper waters by the full moon and we just can’t hunt them that deep! However, eaerlier in the week, the big uglies were still around. Vic Ochoa is a long time amigo and lives in Lakewood CA This is a “small one.” Others were twice this size. Chunked and cut squid made excellent tuna bait all week.

LAS ARENAS FISHING

Beginning of the week, the key to everything was getting the big squid. Only problem is that the squid kept moving or going deeper and deeper. They were alot of fun to catch and surely one of the most interesting and weird creatures on the planet. Plus…the tuna love ’em.

Well, as the full moon approached it got more difficult to get the calamari. So, that meant getting live sardines. The tuna didn’t care for that much, but after a few days, they did start eating the sardines (so did the bonito and needlefish unfortunately). But it still produced 4-10 tuna per day in the 15-20 pound class with some larger fish up to 30.

First to the spot has the edge as the tuna will foam around the pangas and will eat just about anything and it’s the time to load up on the ahi!

There’s still roosterfish around along the beaches but more concentrated around Muertos Bay. As well, dorado will occasionally maraud through the tuna schools or were found south towards Cardonal.

Plenty of life in the water..blue whales, pilot whales, whale sharks, manta rays and porpoise can pop up on any given day! Water temps are in the high 80’s.

PHOTO 3 : You gotta love this. Joe Sunoda is 87-years-yound and can still put in 3 days of fishing in the hot Baja sun and put the hurt to big fat dorado like this one! He’s helped by Captain Martin on the “Mama’s Mink.” You gotta check out Joe’s great smile. May we all be so lucky to be able to do this like Joe!

FOOD THANK YOU!

Brian Cyr from San Diego brought down a topper! He and his wife got me two New York cheesecakes! Talk about a treat. I had to hoard them for a few days before deciding I could wait no longer. Incredible!

PHOTO 4: Ryan Hales was on his first trip to La Paz all the way from Utah. He slammed this bad boy at the SE corner of Espiritu Santo Island.