PHOTO 1: Famlies that fish together. From the left…the first four are the Barker family (Matt, Al, Big Al and Diane). Next four…the Gustafson family (Bill, Morgan, Debbie and Broc). All are from the Salt Lake City UT area and were on their first trip down to visit us. As you can see, not a bad day of dorado fishing out of Muertos Bay. The fish they’re holding are fairly representative of the type of dorado we got all week.
RESIDUE FROM THE STORM – A HUGE FULL MOON – CHANGING WINDS PUT A TRIPLE WHAMMY ON THE FISHING BUT DORADO AND BIG SQUID FILL IN THE BLANKS!
La Paz / Las Arenas Report for the Week of Oct. 12-18, 2008
PHOTO 2: YEOW! Talk about first time outta the block! Justin Wick from Alaskas holds onto the big 250 pound black marlin he nailed out of La Paz on his first day of fishing. Captain Eddy Carballo (left) was driving the panga and holds up one of his lucky orange Crocs. Seems whenever Eddy scores big he is wearing his lucky Crocs! The funny thing is that this fish was caught on a little purple and black tuna feather while trolling for bonito to use for dorado bait. Justin fought the fist for over an hour. They were going to release it, but the fish died at the end.
PHOTO 3: Here’s out amigo, Al Barker again and his son Matt from Sandy, UT. Biggest dorado of the week he got on a chunk of slow trolled squid just outside of Muertos Bay.
PHOTO 4: More long-distance amigos all the way from Kansas. In front is Al Burgess and behind him is Leroy Freeman. Both have been down numerous times and show off some of their first-day dorado. Leroy also got a marlin that day.
PHOTO 5: Rich Grigas from Northern California holds up a pair of dorado he got on bait that are fairly typical of some of the fish we were getting early in the week. 
PHOTO 6: Diane and Al Barker get an assist from Captain Armando on the beach at Muertos with a couple of their dorado they got on their first day of fishing.
VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
THE FISHING REPORT
Kind of a quiet week around here. Quite a few folks for all the fleets canceled after so many flights canceled over the previous weekend from the hurricane (that turned out to be a woosie of a hurricane…lots of wind, but not much else). Anyway, not much traffic on the water.
I kinda think we got triple whammied this past week. I don’t put much stock in any of these things that happened if taken alone, but all three of them stacked up and I think it made a big difference in the fishing. First, as mentioned, we have the hurricane (which wasn’t much of one). Then, we had the biggest and longest full moon of the season. Then, the winds shifted from the north and started blowing and made things kinda rough. Put all those together and the fish were just outta synch!
What the hurricane did was turn up the waters around La Paz. It got rough AFTER the hurricane. In fact, the waters out of La Paz AFTER the hurricane were rougher than during the hurricane! Bright sunshine and warm conditions, but there were 4 foot waves in the bay! We did put out some the day after the hurricane but fishing was off as the waters remained brown and green.
So…
We had everyone fish out of Las Arenas instead most of the week. That’s the beneifit of Tailhunter having two fleets. We fished out of Las Arenas…well, Muertos Bay to be exact (we moved the boats back there to the cove)…and surprise! We got fish!
In fact, the area barely got touched by the storm! The big squid remained there right where we left them. There were dorado scattered around the mouth of the bay including a few nice bulls there then towards Punta Perico and the lighthouse which also kicked out more cabrilla and yellowtail. It wasn’t great gonzo fishing by any stretch, but everyone got fish. We had several families and first timers so by fishing them out of Las Arenas instead of La Paz, we were able to have a good time for all.
Some other surprises as well…yellowtail popped up off Punta Perrico! There’s been some strange happenings there this pas season. Yellowtail were there in the spring…big ones!!! But usually yellowtail are around when the waters are cold. However, there’s a bunch of bait stacked up there like squid, mackeral, caballitos and sardines. Commercial guys got some 20-30 pound yellowtail early in the week then some of our anglers got some 10 and 15 pounders. We’ll have to keep an eye on that.
Additonally, some tuna popped up briefly around the south side of Cerralvo. The elusive tuna came up and went down. We’ll keep track of that as well. Who knows! It’s been a weird season for species.
By the time you’re reading this, hopefully, the La Paz side fishing will have settled and the fish come back. Tune in for the next report!
That’s our story!
Jonathan
“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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