That's My Story

November 4, 2007 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: Mark Cabantuan gets a hand from his fishing partner, Jon Luker, with Mark’s first wahoo. Mark also got his first marlin this week as well. Both anglers are from Santa Maria CA and are here for the 2nd time this year. The wahoo came up violently this week with some of the best wahoo action of the season near South Cerralvo Island.

WAHOO SLAM ANGLERS AT CERRALVO ISLAND WHILE TUNA AND DORADO REFUSE TO END THE SEASON! ONLY PROBLEM IS NOT MANY ANGLERS HERE TO SEE THIS!

PHOTO 2: Larry Mannis from Long Beach CA and Steve “The Hooter Hunter” Marabella from Wilmington CA hold up just a few of their many yellowfin tuna they hammered over 3 days of fishing out of Muertos Bay where the tuna bite continues to rage in the best tuna fishing in years.

PHOTO 3: Pro Bass Fisherman Rob McClean and his amigo, Rico, said they had some of the best fishing of their lives this week. Tuna, dorado and Rico’s big cabrilla were just some of the fish they took. Many of the fish were on light tackle. An ususally great bite of big cabrilla like the one Rico is holding tore into the pangas around Muertos Bay and Punta Perrico during mid week. It was weird. All of a sudden 12 inch cabrilla turned into 20 pount mutants that took many anglers into the rocks!

One side story on Rob and Rico…one day they hooked 4 wahoo fishing with Victor. Every single fish came off. Their last one was several yards from the boat when another panga running by and accidentally cut their line. Adios!

PHOTO 4: Nothing wrong with this dorado being held by Illeana Stevens. She was fishing live bait for tuna and was retrieving a live sardine slowly back to the boat when her rod doubled and she slammed in the hookset erupting with this nice female. Dorado were once again prevailant in many spots from La Paz all the way south and around the islands. They aren’t as big as last year’s run of giant dorado, but anglers targeting dorado are having no trouble finding fish. Some days are better than others but all it takes is one bait in the right spot and the frenzy is on!

PHOTO 5: Colton (“Cojones”) Jones and Stacy “Karaoke” were fishing with us for the first time and got into the tuna big time out of Muertos their one day out. Both are from the South Bay area near Los Angeles. With each progressing week, the tuna seem to get bigger with most fish in the 15-25 pound class and a few larger. Baits are very small so if you’re coming down, bring small #1 and #2 live bait hooks so you don’t stick a big hook through the small baits and killing them. Even so, both dead bait chummed in the current as well as live bait are the hot ticket to the tuna.

PHOTO 6: Scott Smith and John Bilbao had never been to fish in our area before and found the tuna and dorado waiting. This photo was their catch from just the first day! The yellowfin tuna seems to be gradually moving toward the south. The main body of tuna we’re fishing is now about 1 mile south of the mouth of Muertos Bay and perhaps 1/4 mile from the beach.

PHOTO 7 : Bruce Kawaguchi and Shannon Lovering hold up a few of their catches there at Muertos Bay. Bruce has alot of salt water experience, but We had quite a few folks with us this week who had not fished our area before and were surprised at how close the fish were and how uncomplicated it was to catch them. Basically, this is all flylined fishing which means, just put the bait on the hook and put it in the water! No special lures, trolling, weights or colores are needed. Just DON”T drop the rental rod in the water! The fish are in close to shore and in relatively shallow water. It’s not rocket science. I guess if you had a cane pole and a bobber you could do the same thing!

PHOTO 8: Our two Colorado amigas, Deb Pellini and Kathy St. Claire came down with family to fish a day…which turned into two…which turned into three! They sure had alot of fun. Kathy is a gourmet chef at a big resort in Colorado and had alot of tuna and dorado fillets to take home. I think we’ve almost convinced them to move down with us. They went right home and sent in reservations to bring even more family next October! These tuna kept getting bigger. They are currently all 20 pounders with some 30’s and 40’s now and then. Larger fish are getting picked up on the troll outside the channel.

PHOTO 9: Everytime I looked over at John and Barbara Waddell in their panga they were laughing. Most of the time, Barbara was bent…big time as she got fish after fish. Two of my favorite folks from the last week or so, they live in Calistoga CA . Usually fishing on the La Paz side produces the most dorado, but for the last two weeks, there’s been no shortage of dorado for our Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay anglers. If you want dorado, you can usually find dorado. The nice thing is the variety that’s also available. Tuna, sailfish, marlin, jacks, roosters and cabrilla have also been in the mix.

THE LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR NOV 4, 2007

I guess the photos kinda say it all. If you just read the captions under the photos you get a pretty good idea that fishing is still pretty solid with us as we wind down the season. It’s not that the fishing has slowed. It’s just that it’s pretty clear that our busy season is behind us as far as fishing folks are concerned. Just a week or two ago, we were popping 10-40 boats/day. Now…ahhhhhh…we can take a breath with only 2-5 boats/day. We’re walking, not running!

At some point, this tuna bite off Muertos/Las Arenas will have to end. Too bad! It’s like being at Christmas and seeing that at some point there’s nothing left to unwrap. The air is cooler. The water is cooling. The winds are more variable. The GREAT TUNA BITE OF 2007 is coming to a close. I just don’t know when! It’s been stead for 4 months now and AWESOME for almost two months! OK…the fish never got to be monsters, but how can you argue with days of foaming 10-20 pound footballs five minutes off the beach? There were and still are day when you limit in an hour or two then either come back or go hunt for other fish! Those days are fewer and fewer, but a box full of fish is still the rule rather than the exception.

For so many folks who either had not fished or had never experienced this kind of fishing, it was eye-opening and alot of fun. Hahahaha..it sure makes US look good and we really have nothing to do with it! So, for all those times when we get blamed because the fish are not biting, I guess we’ll take some credit when the fish almost jump in the boat too!

The main body of tuna continues to move south each week. Right now we’re working an area about 1-2 miles south of Muertos Bay, but about 1/4 mile from the beach. Fish have gotten progressively biggger with more 20 and 30 pounders being caught…AND LOST!

The big even this week was the best wahoo bite of the season! We had a day mid-week off the southern end of Cerralvo that was incredible. Any boat that was there can verify. Many boats had decided to stay in for the tuna and dorado, but some other boats were off working the south side of the island and came back with 2-5 wahoo EACH!!! It was incredible being on the beach that afternoon watching wahoo after wahoo being unloaded along with tuna, dorado, and other species. Again, the black and purple Rapala took most of the fish.

The next day of course…EVERYONE was out there with limited results, but everyday since then, a few other fish were still getting hooked.

Later in the week on a day when the breeze came up and the ONE day that the tuna bite got sticky…all of a sudden HUGE cabrilla showed up! Wassup with that? I mean, these were 20 pound fish! Take a look at the photo above of Rob and Rico. How did 12 inch cabrilla suddenly turn into 20 pound baby grouper in a day? I think every boat must have had 1-2 of these or else had been pulled into the rocks and lost one or more!

We’ll keep you posted!

CABO THIS WEEK

If you’re going to be in Cabo this week for the WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWS TUNA TOURNAMENT Nov. 7-11, come say hi. I write the Baja column for them the last 3 years as well as many of the Baja articles and they’ve invited me down. So, I’ll be driving down from La Paz to Cabo on the 7th. Not sure what they want me to do, but I think I get a free lunch of something. Or maybe not.

You have a great week!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://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.”