Look carefully. There is supposed to be a picture of Larry Crass from Santa Maria here. He is holding a HUGE dorado. But, maybe Larry is a vampire. No matter what I did to the photo, it would NOT appear on this page! Pretty eerie. But believe me, it’s BIG FISH!!! It’s almost as big as his buddy Al Cohen’s fish (above).
The week started off incredibly well for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets. A continuation of the great full moon bite, there had been a solid rip of a bite going on. So much for theories of bad fishing during a full moon.
I would have thought that as the full moon waned and got darker that fishing would have continued strong or even gotten better. We had dorado slashing our La Paz boats and marlin suddenly showing up in the chum lines. It was almost a question of having TOO MUCH FISH!
For my La Paz fleets a smattering of dorado, but mixed with roosters, pompano, bonito, amberjack, wahoo, sailfish, and pargo made for great fishing as well.
Then, about Wednesday, clouds moved in. Winds came up. But that’s it. Not a big deal. But for whatever reason, the fish just got lockjawed. I mean, marlin could be seen and would refused to take a bait. Same with dorado. They’d swim around the boat and then look at a bait like it had stink on it or something or simply bite off the back half. That’s really frustrating to see dorado all around and then they aren’t hungry. Dorado are usually so voracious that something must be off if they’re not opening their mouths!!!
Still, there were fish to be caught. You just had to be a little more patient. You had to be persistent and you had to bring your “A” game. You might only get one flurry and you’d better not be sitting on your hands. If you missed your shot you missed your shot. Miss and go home. That big bull is only swimming by once today! But, everyone got fish. You just had to work it a bit more.
The big thing is that tuna finally made a sustained showing this past week. I’m not sure I’d get real excited just yet, but schools of small football yellowfin tuna popped up at the north and south side of Cerralvo Island. I wouldn’t have even called some of these “football fish” as they were about 5 pounders, but there were a few 10-15 pounders. We’ll have to keep an eye on that.
If you’re coming down this week, bring some patience. Some of my captains told me that the clients were too antsy and if they had just waited, the fish were coming. Let the captains do their thing. Also, flurocarbon leaders made a big difference in both the quantity and quality of the catch.
That’s my story!
Jonathan
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
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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