That's My Story

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PHOTO 1: This is what the Baja is about and we often take it for granted!

PHOTO 2: This is what it’s about too. Big spaces and quiet time.

PHOTO 3: And from those of us on this side of the counter, we’re blessed that we get to share the enthusiasm and invite our friends to come play!

WELCOME TO THE BIG SANDBOX!

Published in Western Outdoor News the Week of March 5, 2008

Hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, we’ll be in our booth at the Long Beach Fred Hall Fishing and Boating Show. It’s at the Long Beach Convention Center March 5-9. We’re not in the WON booth so don’t look for us there! We’re in our own booth in our usual spot on tackle row next to the Izorline, Accurate Reels and Calstar booths. Hope to see you!

We’ve been on the road now for 2 months hitting San Mateo, Sacramento, Denver, Portland and most recently, Monroe (just outside of Seattle). This is the first time in months I’ve had an opportunity to see copies of WON and read all the e-mails.

Amigos, thanks for the support and I’m glad you’ve enjoyed reading my ramblings for almost 4 years now. This was supposed to be a temporary gig until Pat could find someone else and it turned into a pleasant several years of you allowing me to spill my Baja on these pages. It’s been an honor and a pleasure to follow such grand footsteps and Gene Kira, and Fred Hoctor and Ray Cannon.

And now, my amigo, Gary Graham graces the pages. Gary rocks. He’s an IGFA record holder, a member of the Outdoor Writer’s Hall of Fame, and has forgotten more about Baja than I’ll ever know! You’ll enjoy him and his style and he has the ability to do a lot more hardcore reporting and roaming that I’m not able to do from my operations in La Paz. I’m honored to share the space with Gary and I appreciate my amigo and editor, Pat McDonell for supporting my writing all this time.

I’m getting a lot of e-mails from readers surprised to find out that I own and run a fishing operation in La Paz. Yup. That’s what I do. . .365-days-a-year. However, other than to use it as a context for a column or story, I never wanted to pimp ourselves on these pages. I never once told you to come fishing with us and probably mentioned competitors more than our own operation. I felt if I mentioned our operation, it would ruin our journalistic credibility in the column. I didn’t even advertise in the paper.

Anyway, you haven’t heard the last of me and, I’m sure Gary will be roaming the aisles at the show so you should go up and say howdy to him if you see him. He’ll probably be with his lovely wife Yvonne who has a fishing resume a mile long herself.

I’ve been doing these outdoor fishing and hunting shows now for over 20 years and if you’ve never been to something like the Fred Hall Fishing and Boating Show, you really owe it to yourself to come down.

Old Baja veterans, you can just tune out the rest of this, but in doing these shows all over the country, I am still amazed at how many folks really don’t know Baja or even realizes what it is and that it even exists. Especially if you live in Southern California or any of the American Southwest, you just take Mexico for granted. Baja and the concept of just “running across the border” is so much a part of our consciousness that we don’t think twice about what it is and what it has meant to us and is becoming.

But, run out to Denver or Seattle or talk to some Canadian folks or even folks in the San Francisco Bay area and “the Baja” is often an alien concept. Isn’t that the place were there are banditos and dark seedy bars? Isn’t that where everyone lives in shacks or time shares? You can fish there?

More than once, I’ve drawn blank stares when talking to folks about it in my booth. More than once, I’ve been asked questions like:

“Baja California is part of Mexico? I’ve been trying to find it on map of California!”

“If is really a part of Mexico, how come it’s called ‘Baja CALIFORNIA?”

“How can that long strip of land be part of Mexico when it’s not attached to Mexico?”

“Do they speak Spanish in Baja like the people in Mexico or do they speak Californian?”

You get the idea. Remember how fun it is to take kids to Disneyland the first time and watching their eyes go wide? That’s what it’s like turning new folks onto the Baja we take for granted.

They can’t believe there is a place where you can actually see the sunrise and the sunset over the ocean…on the same day. Or that all of Mexico is not like Tijuana and that white sand beaches, blue water and rolling deserts and mountains await. It’s hard to explain to them water that’s 80 or 90 degrees and Baja “formal wear” is a t-shirt under your Hawaiian shirt.

You tell them about what a giant fish boil looks like at sunrise with tuna or dorado ripping the surface chasing every bait in the ocean or and birds diving as well; or schools of dolphin as far as the eye can see; turtles swimming on the reef and grey whales playfully bumping the pangas.

And you tell them about the evenings when the sun decorates and re-paints frescoed skies every 5 minutes with a palette of purples and orange and fuschia and the aroma of sizzling carne asada and chiles wafting over the beaches. Lights begin to dot the shoreline interrupted only by the plop and hiss of another icy cerveza being opened and poured. Laughter drifts up from the somewhere down the beach and someone’s car radio plays a barely audible rancho tune that carries across the water.

We do these shows and take it for granted that everyone already KNOWS about the Baja, but so many are still just discovering it. And for those of us who get to be on the other side of those counters or who are blessed to get to write about it, it makes the Baja all that much more special. We get to tell new friends about our special sandbox just across the border and invite them to all come play. It’s fun to watch the lights come on!

See ya this week in Long Beach!

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.

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PHOTO 1: Nice rack! Not a bad day fishing for Jorge Romero. Four nice yellowtail out’ve Muertos Bay. These are some nice fish. The yellowtail bite has been on for the better part of a month now. These are actually some of the “smaller” fish as there have been others ranging over 40 pounds.

PHOTO 2: Now here’s a slugger. These yellowtail are almost close enough to shore to fish them from the rocks. This 30 pound class fish ate a sardine simply flylined on live bait, but it doesn’t take much to get them. Most of the fish have been caught either with live bait with little or no weight since the fish are in shallow water or else with iron jigs quickly retrieved.

PHOTO 3: Not one of the better photos I’ve ever posted on my fishing report. Neither Captain Mundo or Esteban Romero would look up as they were trying to hold up the slippery fish. Yes, the pargo liso are already in! They’ve been around for a few weeks now and seemingly more and more are coming into the shallows to spawn. However, so much attention has been focused on the yellowtail that not many anglers have been fishing the frustrating pargo even though the pargo are literally right under the boats sometimes and you can see them schooling through the rocks. That’s the problem…THE ROCKS! Hook one of these bad boys and you get zing-powie’d into the rocks before you can set the hook!

YELLOWTAIL – PARGO – OTHER SPECIES STILL BENDING RODS OUT OF MUERTOS BAY!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for March 2, 2008

I would hardly say fishing is “torrid” but considering it’s still winter and off-season, there’s some fairly nice fishing going on around La Paz. Once the waters warm and the winds start kicking down a few notches, no reason to believe things aren’t going to bust out nicely.

There’s sure a lot of species around!

That yellowtail bite out of Las Arenas/Muertos is still going on. It’s been rolling the last month or so. The big fish showed up earlier this season and the cool thing is that they’re literally so close! Sometimes within minutes of leaving the beach, you’re already fishing. Additionally, the quality of some of these fish has been amazing. We’re not talking little punk yellowtail. These are 20-40 pound toads!

The fact that the ‘tails are so close is almost a bit of a curse. There’s an old saying, “Don’t leave fish to find fish!” Well, with the fish being right off the beach, who knows what else might be biting in some of our other hot spots?

We do know that pargo have been in for a bit. Check out the photo above. The pargo liso schools seem to be in early and are getting thicker as they move into the shallow areas to spawn However, if you’ve ever fished pargo, you know how frustrating it can be to see these huge schools of big fish swimming by your panga and how most of the time they’ll take you right into the rocks and bust you off. Incredibily frustrating so most of the anglers have been chasing the more cooperative (I say that respectfully) yellowtail!

But, like I said, there’s other species around too. Cabrilla are around up to about 2-3 pounds (seabass) and sierra and roosters are also there to catch if you wanted to target them not to mention bonito and skipjack for fun and sport.
We’ll keep you posted!

TAILHUNTER ROAD TOUR 2008

Well, we’re headed to the big one…Long Beach Convention Center for the big Fred Hall Fishing and Boating show. It starts Wednesday the 5th of March and goes until Sunday the 9th of March. This is the big one you don’t want to miss. Come early! It’s madness and a lot of fun.
Our booth will be in it’s usual spot along tackle row near Izorline, Calstar rods and Accurate Reels. You will NOT find out over where the other travel outfitters are nor will you find me at the Western Outdoor Booth. We have always had our own Tailhunter Booth so please come by to say hi. We kick off at 2 p.m. Wednesday and it’s a great place for the whole family.

BOOKINGS for 2008

We’ve been on the road since early January doing all these outdoor fishing and hunting shows. We’ve been in 8 states in 2 months and having a blast. However, I just wanted to give a shout out to you if you’re thinking of booking with us…especially our amigos and regulars…reservations are rolling in DAILY! Let us know ASAP if you want to come down because dates are filling fast and we want to be sure we can take care of you and get you your favorite captains. Especially in the captains part…your favorite guy is also in big demand by our other clients and it’s first come-first served when someone asks for a captain so give me a shout so we can hook you up!

Hope to see you in Long Beach!

That’s my story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/

Phone: (626) 333-3355

FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, 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.”

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