That's My Story

PHOTO 1: All hail the king! This is our new wahoo king. Darrell Manginelli from the Ventura area of S.California got SEVEN wahoo and lost others while fishing with us. One day he and his lady Christine Merriman (see photos below) got FOUR of these much-sought-after speedsters. The fish were once again near the south end of Cerralvo Island which you can see in the background and were crushing the big purple Rapalas. After one day, Darrell showed me his lure completey scarred and torn up and he was saying he was looking for a “new one.” I told him “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it! There’s a reason the wahoo love this particular lure and do NOT lose it!” In all honesty, the wahoo bite last week and earlier into this week was incredible, but tapered as a small weather front hit mid-week and had not revived by this past weekend. Hopefully, this coming week…

WELCOME TO THE MARLIN ZONE! DORADO GET SMALL! TUNA GET SCARCE! BUT BILLFISH PICK UP THE SLACK!!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Sunday Aug. 12, 2007

PHOTO 2: Captain Victor (he shows up an awful lot in these photos!) peaks from behind the big wahoo held up by Tim Sayre who came all the way out with his dad and brother from Illinois to fish Las Arenas. What a day, they got two wahoo and numerous other fish.

PHOTO 3: Pete Smigeiskit holds up another ‘hoo. This is turning into the best wahoo season in a number of years. They fish are not there every day, but at the end of the week, the numbers don’t lie. The fish will bite or 2 or 3 days, then take a powder for a few days, then come back on the chew again after kicking back. The ticket is just being there on the right day!

PHOTO 4 : Check out 18-year-old Stephanie Huth from the San Gabriel Valley area of S.California. Then chcck out the thickness of the “neck” of this huge slugger toad wahoo. What a beast. Wahoo are supposedly the fastest fish in the ocean clocked at speeds of 60-70 mph when they want to kick in their jet bursts! If you ever hook one, be prepared to MOVE! With a sleek rocket-body like you see here, these fish are built for speed. Las Arenas has been the top spot all season!

PHOTO 5: I don’t often show photos of marlin here, but this week, there were days when that’s ALL we were catching! You could not keep them off the lines! Boat were hooking 1-5 marlin a day one some days, especially mid-week when nothing else was biting! Fortunately, most of the fish were released. I can think of a number of anglers this week that caught 1, 2, 3 and even 4 marlin by themselves and let all of them go. Bravo! Others, like this great first marlin by Kevin Bell look as perfect as a fish mount on the wall. For alot of first timers, this was a big thrill this week as the marlin were eating big lure, small lures, baits and jigs! It was not uncommon to talk to an angler who would tell me they had half-a-dozen marlin surrounding the boat “like mackerel.” Pretty amazing to have big fish like this fighting to eat your little sardine! Fun week. None of the marlin that were taken were wasted. Meat was taken and even when the angler did not want the fish, it was donated to families who needed fish and some donated to the old folks home here in town.

PHOTO 6: Like I said…sheesh…there were alot of marlin this week! Brian Sayre holds up his first…a nice striper. Tales of larger blues were not uncommon either! Brian is from Illinois and this was his first time fishing our area. They also got dorado and tuna. One day on the beach, I counted 26 marlin hooked between 9 of our boats of which only 3 were kept. There were many other marlin that were also fought and broke off.

PHOTO 7 – Christina Merriman got her wahoo off of Las Arenas. This 40 pounder fell for a purple and black rapala. Christina had another fish even bigger come off just before the gaff. These wahoo weren’t shy about striking. And it didn’t matter if it was early or late in the fishing day. If the fish were ready to eat they bit!