That's My Story

WAHOO BOIL! MARLIN CHEW!!! BLUE WATER SPECIES FINALLY TURN OUT TO BITE!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for May 6, 2007

Whoa…what a week, amigo! Let me let the fishermen tell it…

“I’ve been coming here for 20 years and never even got on esniff of wahoo. I got two in one day!” said one of our anglers.

“It was like a boil of wahoo there at the sound end of the island!” added another.

“My buddy had never hooked an ocean fish before and he goes and ‘tail-hooks’ a marlin..not tail ‘wrap.’ The hook actually got stuck in the fish’s tail and we fought it over 2 hours!” said another.

“There were marlin everywhere. We hooked one on light tackle and the striper took us to the rack for over an hour efore busting off. We were gonna release it anyway, but that was great fun!” commented another.

Just today, I had Scott and Eric Zimbler from Los Angeles out at Las Arenas they Scott told me, “We got 12 different species today and even some that the captain couldn’t identify!”

Paul Shepherd from San Jose wrote this:

“Needless to say my bro and I had a great time . I’ve never seen him cut loose like this , ever . On our last fishing day we smoked e’m , over 25 Sierra & 20 Roosters & the 2 days prior included Amberjack , Pargo , Green Pargo , and a numerous array of other junk fish , but hell’a fun. For a grand total of 80 + fish in 3 days . John was reeling in fish all day long .” (many fish released!)

Hard to top that, amigos. I was expecting the bluewater fish to turn on any day, but you just never know. For weeks we’ve been seeing the fish around, but they just weren’t biting. Well, it’s hard to know if fishing has turned the corner or not, but for this past week it sure got my hopes up and we’ll soon find out. It’s still a bit more windy than we’d like, but for our anglers fishing this past week, what a surprise1

I think we got more wahoo this past week then we got all of last year. We had several great years but then last year, the wahoo bite tanked. I think we got 4 wahoo all season. However this past week, bait, dark Rapalas (CD 18 size in black and purple or else black and white NO WIRE) were the rig of choice!

All of this was for our Las Arenas fleet. As well, bull dorado also showed up at the outer bouys also. Say what? Yup…not alot, but the ones that were caught were quality 20-40 pound fish! Like I said, it was just a matter of time.

Inshore for our Las Arenas boats…sheesh…talk about species…roosters, cabrilla, pargo, snapper, bonito… I had Eric and Scott Zimbler out today and they got 12 different species…”Including some that even the captain couldn’t identify,” said Scott. So…offshore, blue water species. Inshore pretty much the gamut of our inshore species. This is pretty typical of this time of year…you just never know what’s gonna bite.

For our La Paz fleet…no doubt there’s fish around. Big roosters, pargo, yellowtail are around the high spots, but again that wind is just so unpredictable. When it’s rough, it’s pretty bumpy and one moment the wind are coming from the south and the next from the north. But unless you’re pretty hardcore and enjoy getting bounced and wet…we’ve been switching alot of our clients to fish Las Arenas instead. That’s the nice thing about having two fleets available to our clients. We can move folks around to the better conditions and fish. Even if the wind is blowing, at Las Arenas, the fish are more consistent, closer and the waters are calmer.

We’ll see how long this bite lasts and hopefully, we’ll keep this rolling. We’ll keep you posted, but this is pretty exciting stuff!

OTHER STUFF!

If you weren’t in La Paz this past week you missed out. Not only were were celebrating Cinco de Mayo, but it was also the celebration of the Founding of La Paz. Three straight nights they closed down the waterfront malecon and turned it into a mardi gras style street fair with booths, music, games and pretty much non-stop party. I keep forgetting that they do this every year until it suddenly drops on us. Great fun.

If you’re trying to decide whether to fly down here on Alaska or Delta, both of them have great rates, but all other things being equal and having flown both of them, I gotta give the nod to Alaska.

They have larger planes. They allow you to bring your rods with no charge. If you have overweight or extra items, it’s $50 bucks instead of the 100 dollars that Delta charges. Alaska also sells food on their flights as well.

But…there’s drawbacks…if you fly through Los Angeles you do have to stand in a few lines. You stand on one line to get your boarding pass from a machine…much like and ATM. Then, you take all your stuff into another line to show them your boarding pass. After that…it’s off to see the folks at TSA to ex-ray your gear so that’s another line. Then, off to the other line to take off your shoes and get your hairspray taken away.

Just some observations.

LASTLY

Thanks to all of you who have been reading my columns in Western Outdoor News this past 3 years. Last week we received an award from the Outdoor Writers Association for the column. Pretty neat stuff! Very honored to be in some elite company.

That’s my story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur, Mexico

“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.”