UNEXPECTED FISHING FOR YELLOWTAIL, DORADO AND EVEN MARLIN KICKED OFF THE WEEK BUT SHUT DOWN WHEN WINDS STARTED LATER IN THE WEEK.
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for April 20, 2008
PHOTO 1: Good- sized dorado…early for the season, continued to show up in surprising numbers. Spencer Lasley (L) and Jerry Smith (R) from Santa Rosa CA packed their coolers with dorado, yellowtail and a number of other species. These dorado were picked off outside Cerrlavo Island
PHOTO 2: All the way from Kansas, Marc Richert and Chris Richert are helped by Capt. Victor with one of their dorado. The pair had never been out’ve the country and were originally thinking of going to Cancun! Insstead, they came to La Paz and got dorado, yellowtail, roosterfish and marlin. Marc fought one striped marlin almost 3 hours on 30 pound test before it broke off.
PHOTO 3: This is the “right kind!” Note the colors on this young bull dorado held by Pete Schuller of Pacific City, Oregon. Check out the flat waters too. Captain Pancho is in the background. This dorado and others were taken off the 88 spot buoys outside Cerrlavo Island. 
PHOTO 4: This is a typical nice inshore catch here by Mike Mamman and Scott Carpenter from Beaverton OR who came down for their birthdays. (They each got tatoos to commemorate the event!). In the photo you see dorado, sierra and pargo. All great eating fish!
THE FISHING REPORT
The week started off with a bang. Just like last week, the sound you heard was the sound of fish exploding at all points. The yellowtail (20-50 pounds) continued to rip at the El Bajo Seamount north of Espiritu Santo Island. Sardines worked, but if you had the bigger caballitos it was almost instant bendo as fish fought for the baits.
The surprising thing…dorado in the channel as well as marlin! This is a first for the year. Again…way earlier than normal, but just like the dorado and billfish that showed up far outside at the 88 spot, these fish are normally pretty dormant until later in May or June. However, I’ve been watching water temps and the sargasso weed building up north of town.
Wham! Sure enough, boats early in the week got into both species big time with some great battles on light tackle and some anglers getting their first dorado and marlin. So, it was a good grab bag…yellowtail in the morning then grand slam with a dorado or marlin in the afternoon!
As well for my fleet out of Muertos, early in the week, the big bite at La Reyna north of Cerralvo Island continued to kick out those monster yellowtail with boats taking 2-6 of the big fish each. Outside at the 88 and a few spots in the channel around buoys or clumps of grass, dorado were milling and ready to eat like hungry wolves!
Then the winds came up…
We’ve been living on borrowed time the last few weeks with not much in the way of winds, but late in the week, the seasonal winds we normally have started blowing making it downright uncomfortable if not impossible to get out to some of the big fish spots.
That meant back to inshore fishing.
So…roosters, sierra, cabrilla, big eye jacks, jack crevalle, bonito, skipjack punctuated by big pargo were the game toward the latter part of the week. The counts did not look good but that’s also because a lot of these fish, especially the pargo would take anglers to the rocks. So, lots of hook ups, but not so many fish brought into the boats. Lots of action! Winds will be intermittent all week so we’ll play it by ear.
It’s a warm 95 now! Break out the shorts!
ON A SADDER NOTE…
In a huge shock to all of us here in La Paz, fish brother, competitor and friend, Francisco “Pancho” Aguilar owner and operator of the Baja Pirate Fleet here in La Paz died suddenly this past week.
He was a good guy. Always smiling. He was out on the boats when hit by a massive heart attack. He was only 42 years old and left two kids including a newborn.
Pancho and I did a lot together in the mid-90’s and worked together. We’d laugh at each other seeing each other at 5 a.m. every morning then seeing each other in town at midnight the same day laughing our heads off figuring we were the only guys in town still working that long or that late.
As our respective fleets grew larger and business interests got more complicated we saw less of each other except the occasional bump into each other in town or see each other at the trade shows. But he always had a joke or we’d bitch about wind, bait or some “special” customer and again…crack up.
I will miss him. I don’t think I had seen him happier than in the last year or so after his marriage to La La.
His partner, Leonard Phillips, is setting up a educational trust fund for the two kids, Andrea (14) and Kamila (5 months). The trust is being administered by Bank of America and Bancomer for the benefit of the kids. (Andrea wants to be a chef!). You can donate by sending a check or calling in a credit card to:
Andrea & Kamila AguilarC/O Baja Pirates10016 Pioneer BoulevardSuite 110Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670Or call (866)454-5386
God bless our fish brother. Make each day special. Every day on the water is a gift.
That’s my story…
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
That's My Story 
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