That's My Story

April 11, 2010 by riplipboy

PHOTO 1: It wasn’t a great week of fishing but there was some great fish to be caught here and there like this most excellent yellowtail held up by Jarrett Pfost on one those rare occasions when the El Bajo Seamount north of La Paz actually kicked out some fish! The yellowtail ate a big mackeral about 100 feet down. Jarrett is from Alpine CA.

PHOTO 2: One stop shopping to fill the cooler. On their first of 4 days fishing, Mike Stevens and Jarrett Pfost from Alpine CA had a stellar day working the El Bajo Seamount on one of the few days this week when the waters flattened out. They took 4 nice yellowtail; 8 pargo; a big cabrilla and numerous other fish that they released while fishing with mackerel, sardines and dropping heavy yo-yo iron (“until our arms ached!”) down to the top of the mount. They say they lost almost as many fish as they took as there were fish “we just couldn’t stop before they rocked us!” It helps that both guys have tons of experience and are also both deckhands on the San Diego sportboats, “Daily Double” and the “Mission Belle.” (Oh…and Mike is my nephew and Jarrett is my son…wish I could say I taught ’em everything they know…but I can’t!)

PHOTO 3: One of the best fishermen and certainly one of the most photogenic amigos we have, Mitch Chavira from San Diego got in a few good days of fishing and always hits trophies like this fat yellowtail, but said he had 50 pounders on that were unstoppable. Still…even he will tell you that fishing conditions were rough and the fish were picky.

PHOTO 4 – Whooo-hoooooo!!! Kyle Yates on his first La Paz trip from Carlsbad CA shows up a good sized cabrila he picked up fishing with that iron in his right hand. Either he’s excited or he got a hook in his finger while taking the photo.

PHOTO 5: FAT FAT barred pargo (Pargo Mulatto) across the beach in a great photo with Kyle and Cole Yates from Carlsbad CA and Cole Chavirra and his dad, Mitch. The fish are great eating and I can’t remember ever seeing so many barred pargo at one time on an excellent catch of that size.

PHOTO 6: Yes…we still have sierra around here. I’ve watched Emily grow up over the years on each of her visits here to La Paz since she was about 5 years old and now she outfishes everyone. Besides the sierra held up by Captain Victor next to Cerralvo Island, Emily also got 7 others and two roosterfish. No one else caught any on her boat except pelicans and seagulls.

PHOTO 7: Mike Stevens of Alpine CA hooked his first pargo on his last trip here a year ago and got “pargo fever” and this week took several others like this big yellow, but will tell you about all the ones he missed; broke off or he simply could not stop! That’s the nature of these incredible fish which are often some of the most frustrating. Mike got this one on a sardine and a sliding sinker rig.

PHOTO 8: Sometimes they even let ME fish! Actually, I was on the water several times this week and I wish I could tell ya that I outfished everyone, but I didn’t. Still…at least I was respectable. I got this hefty cabrilla (Mexican seabass) in about 80 feet of water jigging a blue/white Tady lure on a fast retrieve when the fish came up from the bottom and inhaled it about half way up the water column!

PHOTO 9: Just to show you some of the wacky variety out right now, Mitch Chavirra holds up an African pompano taken while jig fishing off Espiritu Santo Island. Good stuff for the table. Incredible fried up!

VIDEO 1: There’s some shaky footage at the end as I had trouble with the camera, but you get the idea of some of the great yellowtail action on El Bajo during a double hookup!

FISHING NOT SO GREAT AS STRONG WINDS RIP THE AREA, BUT SOME GREAT FISH STILL CAUGHT JUST NOT MANY OF THEM!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of April 4-11, 2010

Although all the great photos might fool you…

It wasn’t really a great week of fishing down here. Some folks got some nice fish, but it started out OK, but then the weather conditions really deteriorated as winds got stronger and stronger and by mid-week the waters around here looked like an episode of “Victory at Sea.”

It was sunny and warm and a great time to be in La Paz, but not such a great time to be on the water as unusually strong winds up to 25 knots at times gusted and not only made it uncomfortable…it made getting bait really difficult to get most times…especially the sardines which are up tight against the rocks or inshore and depends on captains being able to throw their nets.

So, it was scratch fishing for the most part. Even if you got the bait, it was so bumpy that it was almost ridiculous. We still got some fish, but you either really needed to have your “A Game,” be really lucky, or have some skill and experience because the better fish that hit were mean, big and if you didn’t have one of those three things going for you, then even chances are you had a good chance of not doing very well.

That being said, we did hook a few marlin, a few yellowtail, some wahoo, a few tuna and dorado (lots of dinks around that are about 5 pounds), some roosterfish, sierra, cabrilla, pargo and amberjack. Many of these were incredibly nice fish, but I would be pulling your leader if I told you it was stellar fishing…it wasn’t even close.

Some boats did well, but most really didn’t. It was one of those rare weeks when I felt really badly for many of our fishermen because they got beat up AND didn’t catch alot of fish. As the week came to a close, however, things got better.

Winds calmed tremendously and the fish were more ready to go on the chew.

For sure…big schools of bonito started crashing. Even some squid showed up and smart anglers would catch a fish…find squid in the mouths of the bonito and rockfish and pin one of the dead squid to a hook and send it back down to an almost instant bite. Interestingly, there’s ALOT of dorado around…but many of them are really small, but still fun. Good to see most are getting released. Great on light tackle if nothing else. We spent the good part of one day fishing them with fairly ultralight salt water gear and having a great time.

Personally, I spent several days on the water this week and it really helped to have some experience to get the larger fish or you’d lose way more than you landed. But, if you wanted to just have a good time and didn’t care too much for quality eating fish or big fish, there were fish to be taken.

I would suggest several things if you come down that are hard to get down here.

1. Flurocarbon leader made a difference…20, 30 and 40 pound test. Get 80 pound if you’re going to chase the big yellowtail or pargo.

2. I’m normally not a big proponent of sinkers since we rarely use them but some of these fish were relatively deep and it helped to put some weight on to get the baits below the bonito and needlefish FAST. I would suggest torpedo, rubbercore or sliding egg sinkers of 2-4 oz size.

3. If you know how to use them and have a high speed reel, then yo-yo/ candybar type lures of the type made by Tady, Salas, Sumo, Fire, etc. in blue/ white; yellow /green ; and

white/brown/yellow would be handy to have.

4. Some small trolling feathers.

That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International

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

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report:
http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

Tailhunter YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pangapirate

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