That's My Story

PHOTO 1: Steve Greanias has a banner day out of Las Arenas although he did catch more fish out’ve La Paz. It’s hard to top a 70 pound class amberjack ripped off the south side of Cerralvo Island. Usually, these bigger members of the jack family (think yellowtail on steroids) are around high spots, structure and pinnacles, but this bad boy struck a trolled lure in deep water! Great eating!

HURRICANE HENRIETTE BLOWS THROUGH AND SAME TIME MORE EARTHQUAKES GIVE US A JOLT WHILE FISHING TAKES A POWDER BUT STARTS TO BOUNCE BACK!

La Paz – Las Arenas Fishing Report for September 9, 2007

PHOTO 2: Now THIS is what a dorado is supposed to look like! What a beast! This 45 pound bull is being held by Captain Gerardo and the smiling guy is Dr. Jim Stewart who tells me during the winter he lives in Arizona and the rest of time time near Jackson Hole, Wy. The fish were scratchy after the storms disturbing the waters not to mention probably shaken by all the tremors we’ve been having. Of all the fish, the dorado seemed to come back online fastest with our best fishing being done by our La Paz fleet.

PHOTO 3 : Who said you can’t catch roosters during the fall. Steve Greanias (above with amberjack) and dad, Chris (below with chilicano) jumped on two 60-70 pound class roosters off Las Arenas. One of them was fought with the reel completely backlashed in an epic battle. Both fish were released. After the hurricane we had a nice flurry of roosters start biting along the sandy beaches between El Sargento and Punta Pescadero. The larger the bait, the better the chance at one of these big sluggers! Quite a few others were hooked this week, but over-anxious anglers didn’t let the big fish eat the big baits and dropped the fish. Gotta let the big dogs chew their bones before you set the hook!

PHOTO 4: Good frends of mine, Ivan Lau and his dad, Ivan, Sr. from El Monte CA came in right after the storm and fished 3 days with us. First day they hammered the dorado fishing out of La Paz. On their second day, they got roosters, as well as some yellowfin and dorado. The yellowfin had been on a tear before the storm, but they were harder to find after the storm. The fish are surely out there and some of the fish later in the week were in the 20-40 pound class, but a lack of bait to chum the fish up, was the most prohibitive issue. If you had the sardines to use as chum, you could get the tuna to bite the hooked baits. If you’re coming down, the sardines are small. Consider using smaller hooks like #2’s for the tinier ‘dines!

PHOTO 5: What the???? Is it a mutant sardine? Is it a big mullet? Actually, it’s a milkfish which we call chilicanos! In all my years down here this is only the second one that I’ve seen hooked on rod and reel. They often school off Cerralvo Island, but rarely take a bait. This 30 pounder inhaled a sardine fished by Chris Greanias. He said it was quite a battle with long runs and spectacular leaps!

PHOTO 6: Jamie Smith (right) from Malibu and Avo Oughourlian (left) hung these nice dorado off Las Arenas. It was encouraging that the dorado came back so fast after the storm with the fishing better at La Paz than Las Arenas. However, at the time of writing this report, there’s some magnificent debris lines forming up from all the stuff washed into the water from the hurricane. Once these form up and the water clear up, look out! Traditionally, this stuff brings in all kinds of beast that hunker down under the debris.

PHOTO 6: People come for years and years hunting the elusive wahoo and never get a sniff. Steve Button from Santa Clara CA got only 1 fish this day, but it was a fish he had been hunting. Taken on the dark purple rapala below, he said they had barely put the rods in the water and the big Hoo zipped it. Wahoo fishing after the hurricane was one of the highlights with several fish hooked.

PHOTO 7 : This is what wahoo teeth can do to a CD-18 Rapala after a single strike! This is Steve Button’s rapala after it was mauled by the sharp teeth of the wahoo in the photo above!

PHOTO 8: Orange Co, CA, John Berry of the Big Fish Electric Co. has already been here twice this year and just booked another trip for November. This bull dorado fell to a live sardine.

PHOTO 9: Look at the colors! This is the legendary pargo liso of Las Arenas. Tom Radoumi of UT is the angler and he put alot of meat in the cooler with this 30 pound hog. Everyone thinks that these big pargo are only around in the spring. We don’t catch many in the fall simply because most folks are out chasing tuna, dorado, billfish and wahoo outside. Inshore fishing during the fall can be outstanding!

PHOTO 10: Josh Thrasher brought his Oregon guys down for a few days and unfortunately, fishing was curtailed when we got slammed by the hurricane and fishing wasn’t exactly stellar immediately after the storm. However, they hung in there and did put some dorado fillets in the chest!

PHOTO 11: You have to admire the spirit of it all. Hurricane Henriette slammed into us early in the week. It was “only” a category 1 storm..mild by many standards but it did drop alot of rain and the wind blew like crazy knocking out power and flooding many areas. The hotel parking lot of La Concha Beach Resort and some of our anglers made the best of it…grabbed kayaks and broomsticks and with rain pelting down had a little kayak regatta!

PHOTO 12: Not many folks can say the went swimming during a hurricane, but Eric Engstrom’s guys from Northern CA organized a pick-up football game in the swimming pool with the seas going nutes behind them and rain coming down in sheets!

PHOTO 13: Winds howled and rain fell. It wasn’t supposed to hit us but then it veered and jagged when it should and gone the other way and well…we were right in it’s path! Henriette was worse then we expected, but not as bad as it could have been. This photo was taken in the day during the middle of the storm when winds were 80 mph with gusts up to 100 and rain coming from all directions.

PHOTO 15: The hardest part of the storm was that so many fishing trips had to be canceled. Nothing to do but crack another beer and wish it would stop. Even in the middle of the blast, some of the guys attempted to get in a little pier fishing (and got bit!). Mind you…they are fishing when the world was crashing around them and 20 pound coconuts were falling from the trees above! To all the guys who were here this week and patiently kept smiling even when it was apparent they wouldn’t get to fish, you’re the best. We’ll grow the fish bigger when you come back!

THE FISHING REPORT

The photos pretty much tell the story, amigos. The week started with a bang. We were deep into the fish. Tuna all around Cerrlavo Island. Dorado scattered around and willing to eat just about everything. Billfish were biting everyday.

Then, a tropical storm that wasn’t supposed to hit us decided to pay a visit and that was that! Henrietta kicked in with 80 mph winds and a couple of days of rain. There was some flooding and damage about town but thankfully, it was not as bad as it could have been.

Nevertheless, it kept us all indoors twiddling our thumbs and bailing water for a few days not to mention cancel dozens of fishing trips scheduled this week.

When we did get back on the water , it was green, cloudy, colder and not very cooperative. Bait was harder to find. Fish were edgy and picky. Thankfully, the dorado around and north of La Paz got untracked within 2 days of the storm and fishing started to rip again albeit with mostly smaller fish. There were some nicer bulls taken and several billfish were also hooked.

For Las Arenas, hard times lingered. Bait that was normally caught around the island went deep and made it harder to fish. With minimal bait, it was harder to chum. The tuna are here ,but with no chum to bring them up , it was a scratch bite. Some tuna that were caught were of a better grade averging 20-40 pounds. A few dorado were taken, but nothing to write home about mostly except for some larger bulls. The nice surprise were the roosterfish that suddenly showed up off the beaches and willing to eat.

As long as the weather holds, I can only imagine that as we get further and further away from the storm, conditions will improve and we’ll be all over the fish again!

Have a great week! That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

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

Phone: (626) 333-3355

FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, 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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PRESEASON IS OVER! BRING ON THE MAIN EVENT!

Originally published the week of Sept. 3 in Western Outdoor News

It was the weirdest thing this week. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it happen so abruptly.

We were chugging along with the fishing season pretty much oblivious to the days or the seasons or anything. One day is kind of like the next when your day starts in the dark and ends in the dark seven-days-a- week.

All of a sudden summer stopped.

In the states, the transition from summer to fall is somewhat more gradual. All of a sudden you notice kids are in school or football is on TV. Stuff like that.

When you live in a resort area that relies on fishing, You don’t get much TV. We don’t see many school kids anyway. The seasons are measured in how many people get off the plane; how many coolers are stacked in hotel lobbies; the line up for margaritas at the bar and what types of fish are on the fillet table.

But this week, it was like someone threw a lightswitch. Someone threw the brakes on summer and it was eerie.

We didn’t even know it at first until someone commented that all the hotels were suddenly empty. Someone else said that only 10 people got off a normally packed flight. A drive through town showed empty restaurants. I got a few e-mails from friends in Cabo and the East Cape and Loreto noticing the same thing.

Ever see one of those old Twilght Zone shows where someone comes back from someplace and finds their whole town is empty? They later discover that some strange virus or nuclear disaster had struck. It’s that “last-person-on-the-planet-feeling.”

I finally asked one of the hotel owners in town what was up. They simply smiled and said, “It’s easy. Summer is over. It ended this week. Kids went back to school. Its like that in Mexico. ”

And just like that, it came to a screeching halt. I passed that onto my compadres in the other fishing cities who also have fishing businesses and they were also surprised. We get into our daily grind and fail to look up to see the forest for the trees. None of us had even actually realized that it was already Labor Day in the U.S. and here in Baja, it was back-to-school.

But, ahhhhh….summer…you can have it!

Yea, it’s nice and all. Families are here. Waters get warmer. Kids all over the place. Lots of tourists. Fish are nice.

But to me, summer is like pre-season football. It’s like the undercard in a big boxing match or watching the cartoons and trailers before the real show comes on. It’s entertaining. You eat a few hot dogs, some popcorn and your soda and it’s “nice.” Nobody is disappointed.

But, now here comes the fall. This is the main event as far as my Baja fishing is concerned. Take the rent rods home. Fall is when you strap it on and you get ready for full contact. Yes, send the kids home. Bring your “A” game because the Baja is also going to throw it’s best at you.

Forget the punk school-dorado. Those little 5 pounders are what we use for bait! You want that big bull you see in all the photos? Well those little 15 pounders of June are now 40-60 pounders in September and October.

If you talk-the-talk, then walk-the-walk. You might get fewer fish in the fall, but the quality will more than make up for it and the big bulls don’t give second chances. Guys who whined in July about “too many small” fish, got to put up or shut up now when they come back for fall fishing.

Not only are the dorado bigger, but the billfish muscle up as well. Forget the little stripers and sails. Yes, they are still around, but this is man-up time. The blue marlin and black marlin that made Baja famous are in the house. These are the 200-1000 pound bad boys that won’t even know they are hooked 2 hours into the fight when you’re on you’re knees; your arms are shaking with fatigue and you’re looking to hand the rod to someone else!

There’s a reason, all the big marlin tournaments are had in the fall. They don’t put up all those big checks to catch needlefish! Guys don’t come here from Europe, Australia and Africa to catch bonito…unless it’s to cram into a tuna tube to use as a 5 pound piece of bait!

Fall is also great tuna time. It’s the “gorilla zone” in places like the Gordo Banks, Golden Gate, El Bajo, Thetis and others. These are the tuna that eat albacore for breakfast. Even in northern Baja south of San Deigo, yellowfin, big-eye and bluefin can be found. These yellowfin are the ones with those great yellow sickle fins you see in all the photos. Want your 200 pounder? Now’s the time to be in Baja.

Wahoo? Try the Gordos off San Jose del Cabo or the banks off Bahia Magdalena or the islands around La Paz. Roll north around Loreto and see what a fish that can jet to 70 mph can do to your drags!

Yup…I like the fall. Can’t wait. My fingers get itchy. Now the season begins! Bring it on!

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.

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PHOTO 1 : Possibly one of the coolest billfish photos I’ve ever seen. This is Jeff Ott’s sailfish taking flight in the early dawn against a rising sun off Las Arenas and Cerralvo Island. Jeff was on his first trip with us to the area from Utah. Note how close the fish is to the gunwale of the panga. Outstanding!

TUNA TURBULENCE AND TEMBLORS AS AUGUST CLOSES OUT!

LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR SEPT. 2, 2007

PHOTO 2 – Richard Shipley from Utah is all smiles with a bull dorado. That’s Cerralvo Island in the background. He and his group got quite a mix of fish over 3 days of fishing.

PHOTO 3: All the way from New Jersey, Chris Barnard brought all his brothers and uncles down for a big La Paz reunion this past week. They got billfish, dorado, tuna, and numerous other species. The dorado remained the most prolific fish this week with fish scattered in all the warm spots between Punta Pescadero up through Cerralvo Island and up north of La Reina lighhouse. Winds that persisted over the weekend made the fish hard to find at times after cooler waters came in or winds scattered the sargasso weeds. The key was finding blue water or pieces of debris from sporadic weekly rains that had washed junk in to the water.

PHOTO 4 – Captain Victor of our Las Arenas fleet poses with Earl Denos, our amigo from Mission Viejo CA and his fishing partner Todd McChesney from Utah. The dorado recently have been quite a variety of sizes from 5 pounders up to 40 pounds with some larger fish lost. We’re hoping that the bigger bulls start to move in now, but we’re waiting for the waters to stay consistently warmer.

PHOTO 5 : Randy Galaz and pro race car driver Art Saavedra from Las Vegas NV tore it up with a great mix of dorado and football-sized tuna. Art was most proud of doing a big 150 pound billfish on 20 pound test he fought for over an hour on the small Whopper Stopper rod he’s holding in the photo meant for ultra light big game fishing.

PHOTO 6 : For our La Paz fleets, dorado were the hot ticket early in the week when they were pushed out’ve ths spotlight by a raging tuna bite at the north end of Cerralvo Island. Joe Barnard holds up a nice pair standing at Ballandra Beach where we clean our fish. Joe and his family filled alot of ice chests fishing both La Paz and Las Arenas despite having to cancel one day due to a fast -moving rain squall.

PHOTO 7: Cory Kato from Whittier, hung tough during some tough fishing and tough weather and still got to pull on some good fish on his first trip to Baja. Here he poses with a good-sized dorado. Despite the rough conditions, Cory insisted on going out every single day!

THE FISHING REPORT

To those of you still coming down this week, bring a windbreaker or pancho. It might rain. It might not. Weather down here in the tropics is funny. It could rain buckets….50 yards away from you and you could be bone dry. Or it could rain directly on you and last 10 minutes!!! Bottom line…no matter the weather…as long as you want to go out and it’s safe (no fish is worth getting dangerous), we will find a way to fish!


We did it this week when high winds made it impossible to get our boats off of Las Arenas beach (it’s the wind that bothers us more than rain!). We put everyone back into the vans and hustled them back here to La Paz and put them on our super pangas. It was still rough, but at least they still got out fishing and still caught fish! We will always do our best.


Earlier in the week, it was pretty much a dorado bite for both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleets. Billfish mixed in as well with stripers and some really big sailfish. It was a pull at times, but if you hung in, there were fish to be caught. Where we fished and what we fished for was largely dictated by the weather which was as inconsistent as your girlfriend changing her mind on what to wear!


However, by the end of the week, the weather eased up and…TUNA!!! North and south ends of Cerralvo Island started to kick out yellowfin tuna! Fish ran 5-30 pounds. A real nice grade of fish! At times, they were foaming the pangas just like the old days!

Inshore, there’s still some good cabrilla, pargo and roosterfishing. The fish are still there, but not many anglers are fishing for them.

What will happen this week? I can only guess. Anyone with a crystal ball, please contact me!


The last part…in addition to the rain and wind that came up from time-to-time this week, we also had a 6.4 earthquake on Saturday! In over a decade here, that was my first and it rattled doors and windows pretty hard.


Centered just about 35 miles north of La Paz in the Sea of Cortez, there weren’t any injuries or damage reported, but it shook up some folks. Most of the anglers and divers had great stories to tell.

You could see the ocean actually vibrate. Folks sitting in beach chairs were actually bounced around. Divers who were underwater said they could actually feel the compression wave underwater and fish immediately disappeared into any nook and cranny! The sound was like a loud explosion. Anglers told of big rock slides as cliffs collapsed off Cerralvo Island like icebergs calving in Alaska sliding into the ocean. Pretty fantastic stuff!


That’s my story!

Have a great week!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: www.tailhunter-international.com
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115E
-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, 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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THE VILLAGE JEFE

Originally published in Western Outdoor News Aug. 28, 2007

There are certain given “truths” I have found in Mexico that are inalienable. Nothing will ever change about them and you can take it to the bank. It’s a bit like Murphy’s law.

A few examples:

The slowest car at the border crossing is always in YOUR lane on a Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.

Ice melts too fast

No one stops at stop signs in a Mexican neighborhood

The best places to eat would never get an “A” rating back home in your neighborhood from the health department

In your hotel shower, the letter “C” does not mean cold. It means “caliente” (hot) and you will burn yourself!

At the worst possible time you will find out Mexican toilet paper is really thin

Everyone loves stickers

A spanking clean house can still have dirt floors

It is better to have a bad boat and great skipper than a great boat and bad skipper

There’s no such thing as a free lunch; free fishing trip or free shopping spree at a timeshare presentation

A hot chilis eaten now bites back later in many forms. Fire in. Fire out. You are impressing no one.

One other truth I have found the longer I live down here is that if you want to get something done, fast, efficiently and with the least amount of hassle, find the neighborhood “jefe.” (boss) Every pueblo has one. Every barrio (neighborhood) has one whether you call him “jefe”, “tio” (uncle), “patron” (protector) or some other name.

The jefe is many things. I suppose in places like Sicily or New Jersey he would be called “Godfather.” The man (and sometimes a woman) makes things happen.

He is many things to many people. He probably is “uncle” to many in the neighborhood, not to mention the real godfather to half the kids. Why not? He was probably the matchmaker at some point. He knows everyone and everyone knows him.

He is sometimes judge and arbitrator between disputing neighbors. You ask him for advice and counsel. You don’t make big moves without asking the jefe.

Often one of the more affluent persons in the neighborhood, he may have a dirt floor, but he’s got a satellite dish. He is often the banker/lender when it comes to financing that new car or washer/dryer. He holds money and accounts and is asked to give counsel when folks have a problem.

He’s a grade-A hustler. Need tires? Ask him first. He’ll set you up with a friend of a friend. Concrete work? His cousin is in the business. Nintendo for Christmas? He’s got a connection up in California and someone to drive it down. Nice car for your daugther’s wedding? Juan at the Ford dealer owes the jefe a favor.

Indeed, just about everyone owes him a favor. He knows the accountants, lawyers, body shop owners; the chief of police and all the restaurant owners. He and the mayor went to school together and he can walk into the mayor’s office at any time.

Yessiree. Services are free, but tipping is welcome and a commission structure can always be organized along the guidelines of the mutual back-scratchers association. He’s worth the time and money.

You do not throw a baptism without the jefe. He’s there at every wedding and quincinera (coming out party). No social event is complete without him. He sits at the head table. There’s not too much the jefe cannot do.

For gringos trying to operate in a place where language, culture, politics, religion, and social norms are a difficult forum to navigate, finding a jefe can make life a lot easier. Try doing things yourself for awhile. Gnash your teeth. Get your blood boiling as you deal with the the frustrations of seemingly simple things like getting your car tuned up or subscribing to cable TV or how to get a dentist for a dropped filling.

Find a jefe and life suddenly gets simpler. Things and people appear by magic. Wheels get greased. Show your appreciation with returned thoughtfulness and you’ll probably make a friend for life and find your own “in” to the complexities of Mexican living.

Even if you’re not going to live or work down here, having a local jefe as a contact to help you and your buddies navigate around town is invaluable. It can be a favorite taxi driver (always well connected if he’s worth his salt) or your favorite captain or bellman. They’ll direct you to restaurants; entertainment; services and other things you might not have found on your own. Tips are appreciated and believe me, every year you come back, you’ll have a friend waiting.

Lastly…

JONATHAN got snookered. I recently touted the “fact” that on August 27th, the planet Mars would be so close to earth that it would appear 2 full moons would be in the evening sky. It would not happen again in our lifetimes. NOT! Turns out it was a hoax! I got the info from a doctor friend who got it from a scientist friend, etc. etc. All of us fell for it. Sorry! At least it’s not as bad as falling for the one where Bill Gates and Microsoft will give me a zillion dollars!

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.

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PHOTO 1: Nathan Weiner came down to put the hurt on a big fish and got this big bull dorado on 20 pound test off Las Arenas. Bigger bulls have moved in for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleets although pesky winds during the week and occasional flurries of rain resulting from southern storms kept blowing the sargasso weeds apart. Dorado still remained the main catch for most of our anglers.

TUNA SURPRISE LA PAZ ANGLERS ALTHOUGH BILLFISH AND DORADO STILL ROCK ANGLERS DESPITE TROPICAL STORM FLURRIES

LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR AUGUST 26, 2007

PHOTO 2: Lots of folks think that just because everyone is out in the blue water chasing marlin, tuna and dorado that the inshore fishing is dead. On the contrary. The inshore fishing is just being ignored! This past week we got cabrilla, pargo, roosterfish, rainbow runners and other rockies like this great snapper (huachinango) being held up by Sharon Imada of Whittier CA

PHOTO 3: Mark Aizawa from Pasadena and his family always seem to do well, not matter what’s going on. Mark is holding a nice dorado, but they also go snapper, tuna, jacks, and billfish. While the majority of the dorado fishing is north of La Paz, if you want variety, the most species can be found for our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 4: This is just too good of a photo to pass up. Joey Fuschetti and Captain Jorge hold up one of several tuna they got around the islands. Joey comes down alot and insists that chumming with chunks of papaya is the key. Hard to argue. Joey always gets the most and often the largest fish in his group by the end of the trip. Tuna have been a surprise all month. They are not always there, but doggone it…every few days they pop up and roll big time. Areas around Cerralvo Island both north and south have been holding fish between 5 and 40 pounds.

PHOTO 5: I don’t often post up photos of billfish. Actually, most times, we don’t have to, because most billfish are released, but when they are dispatched they are never wasted and this has been an incredible season for billfish. I kid you not. There are days when you can encounter billfish after billfish with multiple hookups. Take a look at these two young ladies. Alyssa Shinto and Eryn Imada from Whittier CA are two of the gamest anglers we’ve had in awhile. They had not done this kind of fishing before. Despite big seas and winds, they continued to go out every single day with no complaint. In fact, when given the option to cancel, they insisted on fishing! They did very very well!

THE FISHING REPORT!

What a week!!! I’m not sure how to explain it. If you talk to some guys, they’ll tell you fishing was off. Other guys stuffed their ice chests. It was really hit-or-miss! If you fished several days, you got fish. If you only fished a day or two, you limited yourself and you could have hit one of the days when the fishing was off. Mainly, we hit the periphery of the big storms that have been swirling around the Western Hemishphere all week creating havoc.

While we didn’t get any big storm (thankfully!), we did get flurries of strong winds; strong waves and “torito” rains hit at times that made it uncomfortable and even unfishable at times. But 10 minutes later…an hour later…the sun would break out…the winds would die…and the world would be right again and the fish would bite again!

During times like this, you could be getting drenched in the panga by rain getting miserable and 1/4 mile away your buddy could be in sunshine getting bent on fish after fish! Ten minutes later, the situation could be reveresed.

Like many things, it’s all timing. Be in the right place at the right time with the right bait in the right boat. It made all the difference.

Overall, the tuna bite sure surprised folks! We’re always wondering when they’ll show up and August has been pretty good but we just never know when and where they’ll show up. This week the 5-30 pound fish showed up at the north end of Cerralvo Island and then in various spots around the Punta Arena area. In addition to bait, the fish also hit trolled feathers.

Dorado, however, were still the spotlight. I’m sure alot of guys were a bit disappointed that there weren’t more bigger fish, as many of the fish are still in that school-sized 10-20 pound class, but larger bulls are out there up to 50 pounds and many an angler will tell you this week that they had a big fish or two on the line and farmed it!

As for billfish…what can I say? The marlin continue to be thick! Can you say “wall of marlin?” At times, they marlin are so pesky that the guys get angry because they’d rather be hooking dorado and the marlin won’t leave the baits and lures alone. However, on light tackle, these fish are sure alot of fun. Nice to see that alot of guys are releasing their fish too!

That’s my story!
Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/
Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115
E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com
U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, 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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BAJA BITS AND PIECES

Originally Published In Western Outdoor News the week of Aug. 21, 2007

Every couple of weeks, I need to clear off all the sticky-pad notes stuck on my cork board down here. Ergo… some bits and pieces from around the Baja State for you:

FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES

More signs that things will never be your daddy’s Baja any longer. Mexican President Calderon has pledged expansion of the San Jose and Loreto Airports. Additionally, remember the old runway in front of the Hotel Palmas de Cortez that got turned into a golf course? It used to be fun watching planes dodge cattle and slip down in between cars and the boat yard to land in what was basically the parking lot!

Well, there’s rumblings now of perhaps building a real life international airport on the East Cape. Just imagine! Can’t wait. Hold me back. It will be interesting to see where they put it. I can think of some residents of Los Barriles that could give you an answer as to where to put it.

WE’LL LEAVE THE LIGHT ON FOR YOU

One hotel closes and another goes on the block. The Hacienda Del Cortez Hotel that many of you may remember as the Hotel Posada de Engelbert on La Paz Bay has finally closed down. It was probably a merciful demise.

If the name sounds familiar, it’s because it was once owned by the famous singer who’s real name was Arnold George Dorsey (Engelbert Humperdink…mom loved him!) Perhaps it was for the better. In it’s day it was quite the place to stay but had languished for a number of years. Stay posted. No doubt, condos and timeshares to follow.

Conversely, Hotel Las Arenas, that grand old gem of the northern East Cape/ La Paz area is up for sale again. If you have deep pockets with about$ 36 million in it, check this out: http://www.doradoproperties.info/detalle.php?id=011-12&en=true It was always a favorite of many of us. It says it’s 9,000 acres of beachfront. If you buy it, call me!

It was a great place to stay in it’s day as well, but has been closed now for almost 5 seasons. The previous owners who purchased it from the old owners never did anything with it. While you’re at it, you can also buy adjacent Cerralvo Island which is being sold for $48 million at last check. Hasn’t every kid always wanted to own their own island? It’s just money.

SINCE NONE OF US FISH ON A FULL MOON ANYWAY…

Not a blue moon. Not a paper moon. Not a “drop trouser” moon. Actually on Aug. 27th at about 12:30 a.m. you can see something that no one alive will ever see again.

The planet Mars will be so close and so bright that it will be as large and as bright as the full moon that evening so that it will appear like Earth has two moons! Some places in Baja are selling “skywatch” evenings with which to view the phenomenon which will not be seen again the year 2287. Telescopes extra.

EVEN DOWN HERE YOU JUST CAN’T GET AHEAD

Oh-oh. So much for our Rosarito condo, Honey. The Hacienda (Mexico’s IRS) has some 60 field agents amped up and looking for foreign owners of property who rent them out and do not report the income!

Apparently, the hotel industry is ticked off at all the lost revenue so they put the screws to the Hacienda to get after all these property owners renting out vacation properties. Some agents are even going door-to-door.

Penalties could include loss of property rights. The payment is actually only a fraction, but you still have to pay it and the problem is lots of gringos just don’t know how to do it or think they had to do it. NOT! Go talk to your Mexican accountant.

GOING DOWN OVER AND UNDER

For those of you headed north or worried about those headed north, illegal border crossings have dropped sharply into the U.S. Declines are attributed to higher surveillance technology; better cooperation between the countries and their respective agencies; and 6000 National Guards troops lending a hand. (The Imperial Valley Desert beats the Iraqi desert hands down! You can always go home on the weekends!)

For those headed south, to allay the fears of gringo travelers who are paranoid that every Mexican police officer can’t wait to snag American tourists, several areas are considering the implementation of “no ticket zones.” Kind of like a “Pass Go” on the Monopoly board.

In the “zone,” they cannot give you a ticket. They can’t even stop you! Does that mean you can do what you want? Can you scream “alli alli I’m free!” when you get in “the zone?” Yell “sanctuary!” like Quasimodo when you step over the “zone line?” Conversely, are the police waiting for you when you step out?

THE COST OF A PASSPORT

With all the passport fiasco that took place this year requiring all travelers in North America to have a passport, this is what came out of a report from Washington:

“The price of a passport: $311,491 in back child support payments for a U.S. businessman now living in China; $46,000 for a musician seeking to perform overseas, and $45,849 for a man planning a Dominican Republic vacation.The new passport requirements that have complicated travel this summer also have uncovered untold numbers of child support scofflaws and forced them to pay millions.The State Department denies passports to noncustodial parents who owe more than $2,500 in child support. Once the parents make good on their debts, they can reapply for passports.”

THE LATEST ON SHARK NORMA

Not a darned thing. Nothing but silence from the feds. Fish on!

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.

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PHOTO 1: Hard to resist kid photos! This is 10 year old Bryn Parmenter and Captain Miguel. Bryn has himself a nice bull dorado. Bulls are still out there and seemingly getting bigger! They are in a wide area north of La Paz and around Cerralvo Island.

MARLIN AND DORADO BACK ON CENTER STAGE DESPITE BUMPY SUMMER WEATHER PATTERNS

La Paz / Las Arenas fishing report for August 19, 2007

PHOTO 2: Larry Crass and Al Cohen have been fishing together for many years and with us for more than I can remember. It is just like these two guys to play tug of war with a fish like this and argue about who caught it. This is a 40 pound class bull dorado caught off the Las Arenas area.

PHOTO 3: James Molina from Arizona got so many species of fish this past week including dorado, cabrilla, roosters, tuna and this striped marlin that was released. Capt. Archangel, from our Las Arenas fleet, gives a hand and a funny face pose! Marlin continued to be thick this week with most fish getting released.

PHOTO 4: This is Danny. This is his first marlin. He was so excited that by the time I reached him on the beach to warn him, he had been posing in many different poses with his fish. I tried to warn him, but it was too late. Marlin have a slime on them that when it touches bare skin can be extremely irritating and caustic. Danny had posed with his fish holding it across his bare chest; over his shoulder; carrying it on his back and here reclining in the surf. Within minutes of this shot, he was in agony. I tried to tell him, “I told you so.” A bad rash developed over his upper body that we had to scrape away with salt water and sand. I also told him that pouring cold beer on him would be good too and that the acid from the beer would counteract the stinging slime. He had several friends pour beer on him. I also said that pee works good too but he drew the line at that, no matter how painful when several generous hearted friends also offered to lend a hand at that too! The rash was gone in 20 minutes. (I knew it would all along, but it was funny watching them pour beer on him).

PHOTO 5: Kathy Newbold from Arizona is a trooper. A real gamer. She gets really seasick, but gutted it out to go out fishing almost everyday with her husband, Ken. I gotta admire someone like that. She holds a nice dorado and pargo here at Balandra Beach.

PHOTO 6: Coach Joey Fuschetti has been visiting us for years. He’s a high school coach and does alot of youth programs all year then cuts out and comes down to pull on fish. Joe has a knack for getting bigger fish than everyone else. Here he holds one of the better sized tuna taken off Las Arenas. Joe chums with pieces of cut papaya and swears by it. He did well all week chumming with papaya. Can’t argue with his results. Joey is from Orange Co. Califorania.

PHOTO 7 – Here’s James Molina again. They decided one day to fish inshore alont the islands and got all kinds of rock fish including this roosterfish that was released. Yes, roosters are still here!

PHOTO 8 : One of our best amigos is Dentist Roy Morita from Modesto CA. He always brings us See’s candy! Here he’s holding some great eating pargo which are still pretty abundant inshore. This size, while not large, is highly prized in the markets and restaurants because it fits on plates and pans whole and gets the highest market prices.

THE FISHING REPORT

We got a little sprinkle here and there and those pesky winds were back every few days, but thankfully no HURRICANES!!!

I think most folks this week would tell you it was a pretty solid week of rod bending. No one went home empty. There were alot of fish caught…alot of bigger fish lost…everyone had opportunities and alot of anglers had stories of fish that got away. It was too bad that there were some weather conditions that didn’t help things, but if you had a line in the water, you got bit!

I guess the most inconsistent thing was that the fish didn’t stay put! One day the dorado were in one spot and the next they moved somewhere else. The same could be said for just about every species…tuna, wahoo, marlin…every single species kept us guessing. A captain could be “on fire” one day and the next could look like the goat for no fault of his own except that an area teeming with fish one day would be desolate the next!

Some hot spots, however, that did produce some nice bites included the 88 spot east of Cerralvo Island….there were a few days where the tuna were to thick you could jackpole them into the boat and dangle a bait above the water and the fish would leap out of the water to grab it; Ventana Bay, Las Cruces and north of Espiritu Santo Island for dorado as well as the buoys…for dorado ranging from 5 pounders to 50 pounders. These same areas were also hot for marlin where hooking 2-5 billfish was not uncommon.

Y’know…guys will go years wanting to hook a billfish and not get a thing, but you can be a total rookie right now and end up the whole day fighting one billfish after another! Most of the striped marlin are about 100 pounds or so, but some guys fought and lost some of the big slugger blue marlin that were in the 250-350 pound class.

With the tuna…just no way to tell. Darn these fish move around alot! However, we’ve had tuna every week but not every day. That’s the problem. They pop up willy- nilly wherever they darn well please! They are also in quite a range of sizes. I kid you not…one day, the tuna are the size of trout! I would not even call them football tuna. These are like cute little pet tuna or something! Then, the next day, 20 pounders pop up. Go figure.

Anyway…hot tickets….

1. Flurocarbon line

2. Purple rapalas

3. Blue and white tuna feathers

4. Purple and black feathers

5. A windbreaker or cheap pancho…or in a pinch a trash bag with holes cut for your head and arms for 3 minutes of rain!

TWO MOONS AT YOU!

If you are out and about at 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 27th, you can see something that no one alive today has ever seen or will ever see again in their lifetimes. The planet Mars will be so close and so bright that it will seem like there are 2 moons over earth. Check it out. It won’t happen again for over 200 years. Howl while you’re at it. I bet there’s gonna be all kinds of crazy things happening!

KAYAK SHARK FISHING

You gotta check this out. These Alaska guys are fishing for salmon shark outta kayaks!

http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/9195704p-9112127c.html

That’s my story. Have a great week!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: www.tailhunter-international.com

Phone: (626) 333-3355FAX: (626) 333-0115

E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: Carr. a Pichilingue KM 5, Numero 205, 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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PHOTO 1: All hail the king! This is our new wahoo king. Darrell Manginelli from the Ventura area of S.California got SEVEN wahoo and lost others while fishing with us. One day he and his lady Christine Merriman (see photos below) got FOUR of these much-sought-after speedsters. The fish were once again near the south end of Cerralvo Island which you can see in the background and were crushing the big purple Rapalas. After one day, Darrell showed me his lure completey scarred and torn up and he was saying he was looking for a “new one.” I told him “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it! There’s a reason the wahoo love this particular lure and do NOT lose it!” In all honesty, the wahoo bite last week and earlier into this week was incredible, but tapered as a small weather front hit mid-week and had not revived by this past weekend. Hopefully, this coming week…

WELCOME TO THE MARLIN ZONE! DORADO GET SMALL! TUNA GET SCARCE! BUT BILLFISH PICK UP THE SLACK!!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Sunday Aug. 12, 2007

PHOTO 2: Captain Victor (he shows up an awful lot in these photos!) peaks from behind the big wahoo held up by Tim Sayre who came all the way out with his dad and brother from Illinois to fish Las Arenas. What a day, they got two wahoo and numerous other fish.

PHOTO 3: Pete Smigeiskit holds up another ‘hoo. This is turning into the best wahoo season in a number of years. They fish are not there every day, but at the end of the week, the numbers don’t lie. The fish will bite or 2 or 3 days, then take a powder for a few days, then come back on the chew again after kicking back. The ticket is just being there on the right day!

PHOTO 4 : Check out 18-year-old Stephanie Huth from the San Gabriel Valley area of S.California. Then chcck out the thickness of the “neck” of this huge slugger toad wahoo. What a beast. Wahoo are supposedly the fastest fish in the ocean clocked at speeds of 60-70 mph when they want to kick in their jet bursts! If you ever hook one, be prepared to MOVE! With a sleek rocket-body like you see here, these fish are built for speed. Las Arenas has been the top spot all season!

PHOTO 5: I don’t often show photos of marlin here, but this week, there were days when that’s ALL we were catching! You could not keep them off the lines! Boat were hooking 1-5 marlin a day one some days, especially mid-week when nothing else was biting! Fortunately, most of the fish were released. I can think of a number of anglers this week that caught 1, 2, 3 and even 4 marlin by themselves and let all of them go. Bravo! Others, like this great first marlin by Kevin Bell look as perfect as a fish mount on the wall. For alot of first timers, this was a big thrill this week as the marlin were eating big lure, small lures, baits and jigs! It was not uncommon to talk to an angler who would tell me they had half-a-dozen marlin surrounding the boat “like mackerel.” Pretty amazing to have big fish like this fighting to eat your little sardine! Fun week. None of the marlin that were taken were wasted. Meat was taken and even when the angler did not want the fish, it was donated to families who needed fish and some donated to the old folks home here in town.

PHOTO 6: Like I said…sheesh…there were alot of marlin this week! Brian Sayre holds up his first…a nice striper. Tales of larger blues were not uncommon either! Brian is from Illinois and this was his first time fishing our area. They also got dorado and tuna. One day on the beach, I counted 26 marlin hooked between 9 of our boats of which only 3 were kept. There were many other marlin that were also fought and broke off.

PHOTO 7 – Christina Merriman got her wahoo off of Las Arenas. This 40 pounder fell for a purple and black rapala. Christina had another fish even bigger come off just before the gaff. These wahoo weren’t shy about striking. And it didn’t matter if it was early or late in the fishing day. If the fish were ready to eat they bit!

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THE WAHOO EDGE!

Originally published the week of Aug. 7, 2007 in Western Outdoor News

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