WINDS DIE DOWN ! WATERS GO OFF WITH THE BEST WEEK OF FISHING FOR THE YEAR!
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Sunday April 13, 2008
Amigos…
I’m not sure where to start. What an incredible week. They say pictures are worth a thousand words so I’m gonna let this week’s photos tell the story.
For one, we had our 8th Annual Cabin Fever Classic and it was banner. Not only a great fun crowd but, more fish than we have ever seen. Remember…this is supposed to be APRIL!!! Instead of cold inshore fishing we had temperatures in the 90’s…and unbelievably HOT fishing. I counted over 15 different species taken over the course of the week.
And…these weren’t all yellowtail….DORADO…big bulls…the kind we don’t see until summer fought and charged the baits while marlin and sailfish also went after the same baits as if they hadn’t eaten all winter!!! Scroll down and read the tales!
PHOTO 1: Look VERY carefully? See some strange looking fish? Yes..those are indeed DORADO! In April! The buoys out at the 88 spot east of Cerralvo turned into a fishing honey hole this past week. Look also at all the big yellowtail too! North of Cerralvo at La Reyna lighthouse 30 and 40 pound HAWG yellowtail ripped surface baits like candy! Left to right: Pete Schuller (Pacific City OR); Larry Parnell (Pacific City Or): Pat Ireton (Pacific City OR); Jill Stevens (San Diego CA); JD Drucker (Redondo Beach CA); Bob Handigard (Portland Or); Stacy Amos (Harbor City CA); Gary Evans (Irvine CA); Bill Evans (La Paz BCS); Brett Wizniewski (Pacific City OR)
PHOTO 2: Bill Evans helps his brother Gary Evans (middle) and Captain Jorge hold up a 140 pound striper Gary fought over 3 1/2 hours on light line. It was his first trip to Baja and he got numerous species. Normally early season billfish are lethargic, but this past week marlin and sails charged the boat while dorado milled about. The dorado were so prolific that while Gary fought the marlin, Bill was able to put several bull doardo aboard. The guys had planned to release the billfish, but found it bleeding badly and instead donated the fish to the town of San Pedro. 
PHOTO 3: Check out the smile and the big pargo! Angela Farrell of Oceanside CA comes down several times a year and never fails to rip up the waters. Here she took this big pargo liso off the rocks near Punta Perico on a Whopper Stopper rod and 40 pound test with a live sardine. Numerous pargo were hooked all week but so many were lost in the rocks. At one point. several of our anglers marveled as a “river of red” seemed to rise up about 100 yards long of nothing but 20-50 pound pargo! Many fish could NOT be stopped with 60 and 80 pound test!
PHOTO 4: This was NOT taken in the summer! Look at this bull doardo! We do NOT see this kind of quality dorado normally this year. Stacy Amos hold up a quality mahi he took out at the 88 spot east of Cerralvo. Stacy got limits of dorado and said there were many others plus billfish around the boat. As long as the winds are down, there’s a warm spot out there holding these bluewater fighters and they are eager to hit about anything tossed in the water! 
PHOTO 5: Gary Palese and Bob Robins are two of our long-time amigos. Both are from Arizona. Check out the quality slugger yellowtail and the flat waters. This past week it was a bit of a ride to north Cerralvo, but anyone who went there ran into fish that were some of the biggest and baddest we’ve had in years. I personally had 3 fish on 50 pound test I could not stop before they rocked me! Air temps have been in the low to mid-90’s!
PHOTO 6: Larry Parnell and Pat Ireton from Pacific City OR were among our first pangas to find the dorado spot outside. Pretty much against all better judgement they went out there anyway and came back with tales of the big honey hole out there filled with milling dorado and billfish. These aren’t early season punk fish. These are full-grown summer swimmers!
PHOTO 7 : Lots of anglers this week got their first species ever like dorado, yellowtail, billfish, pargo and many other species. For some, it was their biggest yellowtail. Jillene Stevens, originally from San Diego grew up fishing S.California waters but never tangled with any yellowtail like this big 40 pound class forktail. She put two in the boat at the north end of Cerralvo Island off the La Reyna lighthouse in waters that were also alive with barracuda, jacks and 10 pound bonito. She yelled, “It’s a wonder!”
PHOTO 8: The tale of the “tails” just kept rolling! Steve Marabella (right from Wilmington CA) has been here plenty of times. So has Mark (“spread ’em”) Cabatuan from Santa Maria CA and seem to do better each time they roll in. This one day, the two anglers took 12 big yellowtail “until their arms fell off!” 
PHOTO 9 : JD Drucker is also one of our frequent offender amigos from Redondo Beach, but invited his pal Bob Handigard from Oregon to join out Cabin Fever Classic this past week. They both stuffed ice chests with a variety of fish!
PHOTO 10: Two of the best eating and most prized inshore fishing from our area are being held up by Stacy Amos of Harbor City CA. With al the attention on chasing the big yellowtail as well as the dorado, everyone was ignoring the great inshore bite on the rocks just outside of Muertos Bay for pargo and cabrilla like these held by Stacy. Other species this week included big-eye jacks, jack crevalle, sierra, snapper and roosterfish.
PHOTO 11: Gary Evans and Bill Evans had 3 days of off-the-charts fishing. At La Reyna, they got these nice yellowtail. The key was heavy line; short rods and FLUROCARBON LEADERS!!! Mainlines were usually 40-60 pound test minimum. No spectra needed because these fish weren’t running far, but the mono is prime to keep the baits swimming right. The problem (not really) was that there are also so many big bonito and schools of barracuda in the area that EVERY bait got eaten sometimes before the yellowtail could get them but the big homeguards were swirling on the surface.
PHOTO 12: They’ve been on these pages numerous time. Tim and Angela Farrell…always spank the fish. The Oceanside CA couple hold some BIG TIME pargo liso. The pargo are up and spawning now. Only problem is that they are in shallow waters with big rocks. 
PHOTO 13 : They are almost getting ignored, but schools of sierra are still roaming the inshore waters. Chad here is holding up a nice speedster headed to ceviche and chips! Great light tackle fare but wire is needed to guard against the teeth.
That's My Story 
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