INSHORE FISHING SETS THE PACE WITH LOTS OF VARIETY BUT BLUEWATER SPECIES STILL TEASING – NEW FISHING REGS THREATEN THE CORTEZ!
La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for May 20, 2006
PHOTO 1: Brenda Koenig from Chatsworth CA was here for her birthday and fished for the first time. She did great on these tasty pompano that suddenly showed up just off the Las Arenas Beach area.
PHOTO 2: Pound for pound it’s hard to top members of the jack family and there’s a reason why jack crevalle are called “toros” here in Mexico. “Toro” means “bull.” These chargers have two speeds. Stop and go. This 20 pounder was among several taken by Bob Duncan of Santa Barbara along the East side of Cerralvo Island including a bunch of small roosterfish, and sierra.
PHOTO 3: Jeff and Kim Howard came all the way from Portland OR to celebrate their anniversary and hang out in the sunshine for a few days and do a little fishing. Here, they’re standing at Muertos Bay with a nice cabrilla and yellow snapper.
PHOTO 4: Jillene Stevens of Alpine CA, was sure she had hooked the bottom when her rod bent over and the line wouldn’t budge! Then, “it started moving and shaking” she said. After a lengthy tussles, she pulled up this awesome pargo mulatto (barred pargo). Notice how close her panga is to the beach. Interestingly, this fish which is normally in rocky areas, hit a live sardine right off the beach where there’s nothing but sand.
THE REPORT
A good week of fishing is you liked variety down here. The fish straight out of La Paz around Espiritu Santo Island were fewer, but they were bigger! A run of very large trophy-sized cabrilla set the pace mixed with pargo, larger roosterfish and the occasional 20-40 pound yellowtail with most of our fleet fishing the southern and eastern side of the island.
For our Las Arenas fleet, I counted 15 different species of fish caught by our anglers. Big jacks remained ready eat on the eastern side of the Arenas lighthouse as well as near the island with 20 pounders not uncommon. Roosters, from little 1 pound punkers up to 50 pound sluggers could be had on any given day and there are still pargo liso, dogtooth and surprisingly a large number of barred pargo still being caught. One nice surprise were the big pompano that moved in to the shallow areas near the beach and, surprisingly, every now and then a school of dorado would shoot through as well. There are still wahoo on the south end of Cerralvo, but more hookups than catches as getting them to stick seemed to be a problem. Also, we thought it was too warm for the sierra already, but some nice fat skinnies were still being taken.
Almost all the fish were taken on live bait…mostly sardines. Nothing fancy. Flurocarbon leaders do seem to make a difference. As for the weather, it’s still transitional. Winds can be pesky, especially in the mornings, but it’s all from the south. It can start windy then settle to flat calm or…ouch…it can blow all day. No way to know. In a few weeks we’ll be praying for a breeze. However, the sun is out. Air temps are in the mid to upper 80’s and water temps on the surface are on the high 70’s.
NOTES
1. The airlines seem to be misplacing alot of luggage lately. Three out of four times, it seems to be someone who rushed on the plane at the last minute. Get to the airport with plenty of time so you AND your luggage are safely aboard or you run the risk of having your underwear in Mazatlan and I have to take you on a shopping trip here in La Paz.
2. For several years, they have been very very concerned with gringos bringing mad cow disease to Mexico. They have every right to be worried. So, when you get off the plane and you go through the agriculture inspection, be prepared to lose any food products made of beef. Your slim Jim sausage, your beef jerky, etc.
BANANA CURSE STRIKES AGAIN
Those of you who know me, know how superstitious I am about bananas. I have zero tolerance for bananas on our boats. They are bad ju-ju. Too many bad things happen with them aboard. I love the yellow fruit…just not on our boats!
Anyway, this past week several of my longtime friends and clients were here and rented two of our pangas to fish Las Arenas. I was enticed to join on one of the boats to guide and figuered I would be in for a nice long lazy day since these folks know how to fish; were long time veterans or our waters; and really didn’t need my help. Well, fine and good until the smack talk started between the pangas and pretty soon serious money was on the table. It was $100 per person bets and I was included into it. (Well…I don’t have $100 bucks but I wasn’t going to Nancy-out!). So, my lazy day now dictated that if I didn’t want to lose 100 bucks, I better fish hard.
So, off we went!
As we pulled off the beach, my one amigo snickered and told me not to worry because he had hidden bananas all over his compadres fishing gear and in their panga. Cool! I’m all over that.
So we fished and we did pretty good at first. Our boat was “on fire.” We got into jacks and small roosters and other species right off the bat. Then, we hooked a big big rooster. My amigo fought it for a good half-hour. Then for no reason…POP! The hook just came out! Bye bye fish!
Shortly after, we had dorado all around the boat. We hooked 1, then 2, then 3. Yea! That’s the ticket! But again…even though we had solid hook-sets, each fish came unbuttoned! No bueno.
For the rest of the afternoon, we lost fish after fish for no reason…hooks came out. Lines busted. Just plain bad luck.
The afternoon wore on and while digging for beers at the bottom of the ice chest, we found it! Those guy had planted a banana in our own ice chest! The offending piece of fruit was quickly dispatched, but by then it was too late. We now feared the worse. We had some nice jacks, a good sized pargo, some sierra…but we had not heard all day from the other guys and were certain that they must have dogged us and gotten something big and I was feeling the loss of my 100 bucks!
Well, turns out the banana curse hit them even harder. The ONLY fish they got was a needlefish for their entire day. It was basically the ONLY boat in the entire fleet that got zero fish. We won the bet but everyone was just re-affirmed that bananas are the devil’s fruit when it comes to fishing.
ON A HEAVIER NOTE WE NEED YOUR HELP!
This past week, the Mexican government passed NOM 029, the new shark regulations for commercial fishermen in the Sea of Cortez. On it’s face, it sounds great, but it’s impact will basically devastate the Sea of Cortez and all sportfishing as you know it.
It went into effect May 15th and has already resulted in huge protests in Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. More than 150 sportfishers jammed the harbor in protest and one boat was burned. Huge demonstrations have taken place. Both political parties PAN and PRI have backed the protestors. One Mexican senator has declared it illegal. Numerous unions including hotels, sportfishing, transportation and others plus the city council of Cabo San Lucas have banded together in solidarity and have acknowledged that violence is not out of the question. Already, the effects have been felt. Developers of a 200 million dollar project canceled their plans on the East Cape that same date the law went into effect.
As the new regulations went into effect on May 15th, reports of as many as 50-70 commercial boats were at the mouth of the Sea of Cortez ready to charge in and start “harvesting.”
The new law permits the more than 3000 operators with permits (each permit can have as many as 6 boats working for it) to:
1. Fish within the 50 mile protected zone from shore
2. No bag, size or weight limits on any “incidental catches (that means dorado, marlin, and other pelagic species are open game and they can take all they want)
3. Lay miles and miles of hooks up and down the Sea of Cortez
For the full blog on this, check out my webpage at: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/jonathansblog.htm
This is serious. Just yesterday, commercial boats were already setting up with the help of a spotter plane on the 88 fathom bank near Cerralvo Island as some of our boats were fishing. Reports came to me of other commercial boats setting up just 5 miles off Los Barriles on the East Cape. No limits. No discrimination on species. If it bites the hook, it’s fair.
Here’s the full breakdown of the new law: http://www.seawatch.org/mail_campaign/norma_press_release.pdf
If you want to join in and write your own letter of disgust to the Mexican government, the form letter is already there. You can alter it as you will and this form is already set up so it fires off to every agency in Mexico that can make a difference: http://www.seawatch.org/mail_campaign/norma_press_release.pdf
It will take two minutes of your time and maybe another minute to forward the link to every one you know that should be concerned about this.
Please check it out. They are already fishing!
That’s my story
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115E-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.”
That's My Story 
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