That's My Story

PHOTO 1: Captain Pancho gives first-timer Scott Shiminesky from Oregon a hand with a good-looking bull dorado. There weren’t alot of dorado around this week, but some that got caught were pretty fish. A combo of full-moon and changing currents and winds might have had something to do with it.

PHOTO 2: Perfect coloration on a fresh one…a dorado caught by Becky Solee and gaffed by popular Captain Adolfo just off the Las Arenas lighthouse. Notice the proximity to the shoreline.

PHOTO 3: Larry Parnell always does well when he’s down from the Oregon coast and he hefts a nice roosterfish here before releasing it. Roosterfish are in full swing right now varying in size from 5-50 pounders.

PHOTO 4: And then there’s Angela. Always with a nice fish, Angela Farrell lets her fish speak for themselves. Captain Raymondo “Moncho” Green put her on this fish off Cerralvo Island.

PHOTO 5: Stacy Welborn fished with us for the first time. Down from Sacramento CA, she’s helpd with this nice roosterfish by Captain Pancho. The fish was released after being taken on a live sardine.

PHOTO 6: Not to be outdone by his wife (above), Al Welborn also put a roosteraboard. This past week, the area lived up to it’s reputation as the roosterfish capital of the world.

ROOSTERS COOPERATE AS DO INSHORE FISH BUT A WEIRD WEEK TO FIGURE OUT

LA PAZ LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR WEEK OF MAY 10-16, 2009

It was hard to put a finger on the fishing this week. It wasn’t great. It wasn’t bad. I don’t know if some of the lack of fish was due to inexperience of the anglers or bad luck or lack of fish. Maybe it was the big full moon which I don’t put much stock in, but perhaps a combination of the moon, stronger winds…who knows? Some very good anglers lost fish. Some rookies turned in some good catches. But, it was also hard to get a read on the fishing because there were so few anglers around. Because of the swine flu scare a few weeks ago, a number of anglers canceled trips with many of the fleets until a later date. Well…that meant that airplanes were almost bare! (Thanks to the media for scaring everyone…not a single case of swine flu reported on the entire 1000-mile-long-Baja peninsula!) So, because of the light loads, airlines canceled flights. Some airlines didn’t even tell passengers until they got to the counter. Passengers were simply told, “There’s not enough people on your flight so we are going to cancel.”

That pissed off a lot of folks as you can imagine…stranded at the airport…

Anyway, there were some nice roosters taken, but the bite seemed to be off. More were seen, but they didn’t necessarily want to eat. Most of the better fishing was with the roosters. But.. Even the jack crevalle seemed pickier. The bigger pargo were still around, but with so few anglers, it was difficult to say how good a bite took place. Bonito were rampant and some tuna ran with them in little flurries. Dorado were sketchy as were some of the other fish. It didn’t help that winds were up some of the days keeping the boats more inshore than we would have liked. Here’s the weird twist…it was actually FOGGY out on the water! Go figure!

Anyway, as the week ended, things took an upturn and it seemed the fish got more active. We’re hoping for a more lively week and we’ve got a lot more anglers this week.

So…that’s kinda the story. Honestly, it was kind of a “shrug” fishing week. I just don’t know! I can only tell you what I saw.

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

“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.”

SHHHHHH….AWFULLY QUIET DOWN HERE!

Originally Published in Western Outdoor News the Week of May 18, 2009

Well, judging from the preliminary reports this season, I would think that the Sea of Cortez and the Baja in particular are in for a pretty nice fishing season. It started early with the incredible marlin bite that was off-the-charts around Cabo San Lucas. Words like “epic” and “historic” were often attached as boats slammed striped marlin in record numbers.

Waters have warmed quickly and the body of marlin has moved up and into the Cortez early as have other pelagic species as well. So far, the reports on early season dorado, sailfish, tuna, wahoo and even blue and black marlin have locals and veteran visting anglers cocking eyebrows and rubbing chins. The bite is on and seemingly getting better. Is this going to be one of THOSE years?

Even further north towards Loreto, Bay of L.A. Concepcion, Mulege, things are percolating. There are some unusually good catches starting to bubble up and the anticipation is growing. We could be in for something special.

Just one problem…

No one is here!

I watched several planes unload here in La Paz the other day. Almost empty. Clients coming through Cabo San Lucas tell me planes had a dozen people in them. It was so empty you could lie down across several seats.

I took clients to the airport today. It was a bit like walking through a museum or a library. Awfully quiet!

Mexico, and Baja in particular, has gotten a quadruple whammy. It’s gone 4 rounds with the champ and taken it on the chin with a few too many haymakers.

First, and foremost, the economic slump in the U.S. has shut off the tourism on so many levels. Fishing, diving, hotels, restaurants, tours, gasoline…you name it. Squeezed like a lime being pressed in a margarita.

Then, it was the perception that Mexico is overrun with druggies shooting willy-nilly at each other and pegging tourists in the process. A “Crime Spree Grips the Country!” screams the TV. Of course, many people don’t realize that Mexico is bigger than the U.S. and, although bad, the actual spots are localized. But, the whole country gets painted with the same tainted paintbrush.

Third, we get the pig flu. Exhale. Sigh. What the..? (I don’t even know how to say that in Spanish!)

Again, the paintbrush comes out. All of Mexico is rampant with this plague-of-a-flu. In reality, it’s about as potent as the thing your kid brings home from school. Yes, unfortunately, people have died in Mexico City. But thousands die yearly from regular flu and no one gets upset. In Baja, as of this writing, not a single person has come down with the swine flu along it’s entire 1000-mile-long state.

But, people stay home. Toursits give up. “Honey, let’s go to Disneyworld instead. We can eat Mexican food in Fronterland.”

Unofficially, I hear Cabo is at 22 percent occupancy. On the Mainland, places like Cancun usually filled with the sun-crowd is at a whopping 7 percent occupancy.

This past week, even the people that wanted to come down were thwarted. Reports of clients showing up at airline counters ready to go on their vacations being turned away were not uncommon. They were told, sometimes with no warning, that the flights were canceled simply because there weren’t enough people on the flight! “Gee, sorry about that. I’m sure the kids miss you back home anyway.”

Ridiculous. Rather ironic. The planes are empty because so many people canceled because of the swine flu. The planes aren’t flying because they are empty. Circular.

If you do come to the Mexican airport, you’ll be surprised by a little device they are using to take your temperature. No, you won’t “feel a little pressure.” It’s not that kind of a probing device! But, when you arrive and depart they touch it to your head to take your temperature to make sure you’re not running a fever. I guess you don’t get to fly if you have a bug…any bug.

Anyone noticed that all the “news” about the crime seems to have vanished for the most part? Guess the druggies are wearing surgical masks and staying indoors.

What next? Any more calamities and some of these Baja towns will look like high noon waiting for a gunfight. Just add tumbleweeds and dust blowing across the street. And a little Clint Eastwood spaghetti-western music.

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

PHOTO 1: Color-coordinated between fish and fishing shorts, Charlie McGhee from the San Diego area is one of our most prolifically good AND lucky fishermen. It’s a great combination and he makes his own luck by always working hard for his fish. But, who could have predicted this incredible catch of a gold pargo…not a golden grouper…it’s a pargo! He got it using live bait while fishing out’ve Muertos Bay.

PHOTO 2: He’s young and quiet, but don’t let that fool you. Everytime young Eric Walker comes down he pulls some surprisingly big fish out’ve the fish box that pops everyone’s eyes. Here, dad, Rick helps hoist a nice bull dorado. A live sardine did the trick fishing with Captain Romero outside of Las Arenas SE of La Paz.

PHOTO 3: Charlie McGhee again and his lucky orange shorts! Over 3 days, Charlie and his wife Jane, got 7 wahoo, numerous dorado, roosterish, jack crevalle and a number of other species. Charlie was trolling a Rapala and a wahoo bomb.

PHOTO 4: Angela Farrell has been in our fishing reports and in our magazine columns so often over the years, she’s known as TGP (The Poster Girl). And why not? She catches fish and they are usually trophies like this whopper of a pargo liso (mullet snapper) she cradles after boating it near Cerralvo Island. These fish are up and in their spawning mode right now.

PHOTO 5: Tim Farrell is not slouch either and is an experienced La Paz angler and our good amigo. Tim’s from Oceanside, CA and ripped this excellent dog-tooth snapper out of it’s cave fishing with Captain Moncho and our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 6: Stacy Amos from Harbor City CA is always just a happy guy…even moreso when he nails a big fish like this big cabrilla (Mexican Seabass). Stacy also got pargo, dorado, yellowtail, roosterfish and sierra on this trip. So he was VERY happy!

PHOTO 7: Stacy Amos is our NASCAR diva but holding this dorado she’s got a winning grin. She and her husband had a slow morning then got a radio call about a big spot of dorado and they were off to the races and simply pounded the school of big fish.

PHOTO 8: Scott Shiminesky (left) was on his first trip to La Paz from his home in Oregon and, after catching numerous species including roosterfish and dorado and now has a really healthy respect for the fighting abilities of our Baja sportfish. He’s got a lot of fishing experienc, but had never had anything pull like our fish! Larry Parnell (right) also from Oregon has been down here several times and showed Scott all about big dorado like these waiting to get filleted on Muertos Bay Beach.

PHOTO 9 – Here’s a couple of beasts! I”m talking about the dorado, not brother Charlie Marabella (left) from Riverside CA and Steve Marabella from San Pedro CA (right). It was Charlie’s first trip while Steve comes down twice a year to visit us. This particular day, they got 5 big dorado and hooked a striped marlin and a black marlin (both released) while fishing the 88 spot off Cerralvo Island.

PHOTO 10: Just to show the variety, Grant Darby didn’t quite know what this was, but everyone told him it tasted good! It’s a coveted pompano…cousin to roosterfish, jack crevalle, amberjack, permit and yellowtail. These tough fighters are holding just off the deeper ends of the sandy beaches. Grant got this off the Punta Arenas lighthouse. The next day using 17 pound test and light rigs, he and his son-in-law fought 4 sailfish (“like feeding hungry dogs!”) able to release two and donating the meat of the other two to families when they could not be revived.

PHOTO 11: We’re just not supposed to be gettting dorado of this quality this time of the year, but John Bolton, our amigo from the San Luis Obispo area holds the proof.

PHOTO 12: She is just too fun! Becky Solee from Portland never seems to stop laughing and smiling, especially when she’s fishing and evenmoreso when she pulls up a big dog-tooth like this one she got fishing with Captain Adolfo in shallow water where the big boys have moved in. Becky and her husband, Bob, also got cabrilla, snapper and big roosterfish as well.

IT FEELS LIKE SUMMERTIME AS WARM WATER PELAGIC SPECIES ROLL IN TO MIX WITH INSHORE BRUISERS!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of May 3-10, 2009

I guess this week I can almost let the this week’s pictures do the talking and end it right there!

It’s really summertime fishing right now. Waters are warm and so is the air and the fishing has so much variety to offer that as one of our clients said, “When I put a bait in the water, I never know what’s going to bite! Every hour it seemed like we caught something different. Over 4 days of fishing we got over 12 different species from roosterfish to pargo.”

And that pretty much sums it up. The warmer waters have brought in the blue water species like dorado, sailfish, blue marlin and blackmarlin. Wahoo also keep popping up every few days as well. About the only blue water fish we haven’t seen is tuna, but every few days someone keeps jumping in with a story of breezing tuna that are going to fast to jump on. (Flash…just as we were going to report on this, we did get some tuna off Cerralvo Island…more to come!)

However, the cooler waters are still around as well so, as you can see we’re still getting these HUGE pargo (dog tooth, pargo liso and barred pargo). We’re also still getting good numbers of sierra along the beaches, pompano, giant jack crevalle and the roosterfish…heck…20-80 pound fish!

You can still have a bad day…don’t get me wrong…it’s still fishing, but if you spend a few days with us here, it would be difficult NOT to get fish. It’s like standing in a rainstorm…you gotta figure you’ll get rained on. It’s like that with fishing right now. You’re gonna get bit if you have a rod with bait in the water. Really, the ONLY time someone seems to have a slow day is when they make a bad choice.

For instance, maybe the wahoo go off at South Island so the next day EVERYONE charges out there and the wahoo get lock jaw so a bunch of boats have low counts. It looks like a bad day. But, the boats who say…went after roosterfish all come back raving about wide-open bite on the beach! Since we mostly release roosters, again, the fish counts look low. So, you just have to read between the lines.

Fishing out’ve Muertos/Las Arenas provides the most variety. Big and small roosterfish, dorado, sailfish, marlin, sierra, pargo, snapper, amberjack and cabrilla are on the chew. If you fish with our La Paz fleet the waters are still on the cooler side so there are more yellowtail between 10 and 40 pounds, pargo and also large roosterfish in the 20-50 pound class.

It’s sure not a bad time to be down here!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

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

E-mail riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

FEATURED PHOTO: After more than 3 years, the TAILHUNTER and the FUBAR Cantina are finally open on the waterfront in La Paz. Jill and I finally opened the doors this past Saturday to a packed house and three stories of food and drink, a dance floor, two bars, seven sports TV’s, convenience store, offices, fish processing operation and tackle shop. We still have more to do to get fully up to speed, but the first night was incredible thanks to so many people who put in their time and energy to open a place that will offer more services to our fishing client and fun for the public.

PHOTO 1: Talk about a banner day of fishing. Charlie and Jane McGhee from the San Diego area were just here two weeks ago spanking fish. Well, in 3 days fishing, Charlie got 5 wahoo the morning of the 1st day and 2 more on day 3. These fish were all taken at the south end of Cerralvo Island while trolling. Largest fish went about 30 pounds. In addtion, the pair were on fire taking amberjack, jack crevalle (released) , a mako shark (released) , numerous roosterfish (released) and huge dorad0 (many released) .

PHOTO 2: Becky and Stacy Amos come to town twice a year from Harbor City CA. This catch of their shows the tremendous variety of fish the hit on a single day…yellowtail, dorado, cabrilla, snapper, roosterfish are in the mix plus the released many others all caught not far off shore with live bait.

PHOTO 3: Talk about a fish of a lifetime! Our good buddy, Bob Solee from Portland OR found some Baja sunshine and this BEAST of a roosterfish estimated at 70 pounds taken off the Las Arenas lighthouse. According to Bob and Captain Adolfo, there were bigger fish swimming around. Good for him…he released this fish to swim away. Not the size of the mouth as Bob’s hand is fully inside! There were LOTS of roosterfish of assorted sizes this past week ranging from 5 to 70 pounds.

PHOTO 4: A great week for dorado. Not Norm Fulco’s fish. Norm is from Los Angeles area and took this nice bull out of Muertos Bay outside. If you look carefully, Norm is holding the tip of his rod that snapped while he was battling the fish on light tackle.

PHoto 5: Lots of sierra still around even though waters are getting warmer. George ” the Governor” Gill holds a nice pair taken inshore. You can spend all day catching these right now. Light tackle makes for a great fight and terrific eating!

PHOTO 6: Lloyd Newton and Ed Sussex from northern California came down this week for just two things…big dorado and a billfish. Normally, I’d tell them, they’re a bit early in the season but they not only got into some nice bull dorado, but got themselves a sailfish as well!

PHOTO 7: Nice forktails! Johnny Stoneman and Steve Sturm from Huntington Beach CA hoist these two pretty yellowtail fishing out of La Paz Bay. The big jacks are still around although seemingly diminishing as the waters warm. The ticket is to get the big baits and get to the spots fast. Big mackerel are key!

PHOTO 8: It was an outstanding week for pargo. Some of the biggest dog-tooth in recent memory were put on the decks including this hefty dog just off Cerralvo Island held by Captain Armando. As one angler said, “These are the most frustrating fish in the ocean. They are all around and you think it would be easy to catch, but it’s just the opposite. They tease and then beat you up!”

PHOTO 9: Great color on this cubera snapper (dog tooth) held by Steve Sturm of Huntington Beach CA. The fish ate a flylined sardine and schools of these guys have come up in to the high spots and shallows to spawn.

PHOTO 10: Mike McFeely from Southern CA knows yellowtail fishing and there are some nice grades of fish here right now as we head into the late spring months. Waters are getting warm so I’m not sure how long these guys will be around, but Mike put the beatdown to this nice yellowtail just off the island.

BEST WEEK OF THE SEASON MARKED BY BIG FISH AND LOTS OF VARIETY!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 26 to May 3, 2009

Just an outstanding week of fishing, amigos! Where do I start? What did you want to catch this past week? About the ONLY fish we didn’t catch were tuna, but everything else from A to Z showed up the radar at one point or another!

For our guys that fished straight north out of La Paz toward Espiritu Santo Island, they found big yellowtail and roosters. These were yellows in the 20-40 pound class and roosters up to 50 pounds although with waters warming, I can’t say how much longer the roosters will stick around. The ticket was having the big baits like mackerel to drop in front of their noses!

For our anglers that fished out’ve Muertos Bay…it was literally a fish buffet! Over the past week, we hooked blue marlin, black marlin, sailfish, wahoo, big dorado, huge roosterfish, cabrilla, pargo (dogtooth and mullet snapper) , grouper sierra, cabrilla, amberjack, pompano and snapper.

You almost never knew what was going to hit. Guys came back reporting scores of billfish circling the boat or non-stop dorado action until their arms fell off. They told of catching and releasing a dozen roosterfish in a single stop or finding a world-class gallo that had them pinned to the rails. One of our amigos, Charlie McGhee (photo above) got 5 wahoo one day and 2 wahoo the next. Others came back with eyes big as saucers when talking about “all the pargo” that were under the boat and how they couldn’t stop any of them from taking them into the rocks!

Trolled marauders and rapalas worked for the wahoo as did trolled wahoo bombs. For pretty much everthing else merely dangling a live sardine seemed to work. The dorado were a super surprise. Several of the outside buoys produced non-stop action and it didn’t hurt the day our boats found a dead whale outside just loaded with mahi up to 40 pounds.

For inshore fishing, flurocarbon leader did make a difference so bring some if you’ve got it. If you’ve got the itch to fish inshore for the numerous species, crank baits by Rapala (x-rap) and Yo-zuri models were off the charts!

That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Tailhunter International La Paz

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

“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will only have moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try. “

PHOTO 1: San Diegans Matt Muckerman and Mike McFeely started their trip out to Muertos Bay with a nice little grand slam of some dorado, cabrilla( seabass) and a really nice dog tooth snapper. Look carefully at the photo. In the background, Tom Staples puts a liplock on a dorado while Captain Archangel takes the Kodak moment!

PHOTO 2: There’s such a nice mix of fish possible right now. The waters are transitioning between winter/ spring/summer so the fishing reflects that. On the tailgate, there’s dorado, sierrra, cabrilla, and amberjack ready to be filleted! These fish were all caught on live bait taken no further out that 100 yards from the beach.

PHOTO 3: Al Tesoro comes down twice a year and loves the inshore species. This particular day he spanked the sierra big time. These are excellent light tackle fish and even better on the table! Al shows off a trigger fish to be made into ceviche and there’s also a seabass (cabrilla) trying to hide in the stack of sierra.

PHOTO 4: From Denver area, Bill Blount on the right brought his boys down to escape the recent snows of Colorado. Nice dorado for the day given it’s still springtime! Dorado have moved into the area and perhaps is a vanguard of a really good dorado season.

PHOTO 5: Just a fun photo of our Captain Armando. I saw this huge plastic Pacifico bottle in his panga and couldn’t help but laugh. He says he broke his thermos so he keeps his drinking water in it. Looks really funny when you see him drinking out of it. I imagine at one time it had beer because the street vendors sell these during the city carnivale!

PHOTO 6: Yes…the MAN is on the loose. They’re checking licenses more often these days. They’re being very nice and professional about it, but if you are at all on a fishing boat, even if you are not fishing, you’re required to have a license. It’s a pain in the butt to get licenses here in La Paz…howver…Recently, we’ve been named as one of the 5 places in La Paz that will be selling licenses directly to clients.

BIG YELLOWTAIL, ROOSTERFISH AND JAGS OF DORADO ROLL INTO ANGLERS!

The La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for the Week of April 19-26, 2009

First off, if you tried to e-mail me this week, apologies if you couldn’t reach me or I didn’t respond right away. We had some bugs in the new system we’re installing. For future reference, here’s my new e-mail address www.riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

Let’s talk fishing…

A wacky wacky week here. We had a little bit of everything it seems. No shortage of variety at all. Take a look at the pictures for a small sample of what could be caught on a given day!

Our La Paz fleet again struggled with a few days of wind which made it either hard to fish or else made it difficult to fish the mackerel which are the larger baits preferred by the big yellowtail out at the islands. However, on the day when the bait and wind were aligned, wow…some big beefy fish to be had.

In addition to 30-40 pound yellowtail, there were also some big cabrilla, pargo as well as some 30-60 pound roosterfish…clearly the largest roosters we’ve seen so far this season. As I said, the larger baits were the ticket, but sardines were available and were also effective, but to a lesser degree.

For our Las Arenas/Muertos Fleet, well…dorado were clearly here! Some times, the bite was literally only hards from the shore and the fish would slam into the fleet while guys were fishing in 20 feet of water! Other times the mahi were found outside at the buoys. Near the south end of Cerralvo, spots of wahool were seen and several hooked and lost. As well, again rumors or fast break tuna were seen moving with the dolphin, but not slowing down enough to jump on them.

Inshore, the roosters (between 5 and 30 pounds), big jack crevalle and pompano tore up the guys near the beaches. In the rocks, pargo liso and dog tooth snapper (cubera snapper) were on the hunt and were willing to bite but NOT ready to be dragged to the boat so we lost quite a few of those beasts this week. As well, mix in good numbers of sierra, snapper, and cabrilla as well as smaller yellowtail, rainbow runners, amberjack and bonito and it made for an action-packed day!

Check out this week’s video clip!

TAILHUNTER IS NOW AN AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR LICENSES

By the way, Tailunter International is now an authorized dealer to sell fishing licenses. It’s a pain in the butt to get licenses if you have ever tried in Mexico, but now, we can sell them direct!

Have a great week! That’s our story!

Jonathan and Jill

Tailhunter International

PHOTO 1: Cole Chavira from the San Diego area has been in our reports probably more than anyone over the years. This young man is GOOD! He’s often got big fish in his hands and here he holds an incredible and rare Baja Grouper. On top of it all, knowing their scarcity, he released the fish! Caught north of La Paz near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 2: No stranger to La Paz fishing, my amigo, Charlie “Stix” McGhee has fished with us many times and I’ve done quite a few long range trips with him also. Not many better! He holds up a quality La Paz yellowtail here while standing on the beach at Balandra. Charlie lives in Poway CA . Expect to see him here again in a few weeks when he comes back to La Paz for our Cabin Fever Classic.

PHOTO 3: Mitch Chavira comes down about 3 times a year. I’ve taken so many pictures of him over the time he’s one of our regular poster boys. He not only catches fish, but he looks good doing it too! He got this beast of an amberjack fishing north of La Paz while yo-yo-ing blue and white iron! Amberjack can get up to 100 pounds in our waters and are the big cousin to yellowtail.

PHOTO 4: Robinson Whitaker came all the way from Gainesville GA where he attends a military academy to come fishing with his dad. Check out the flat waters! They were able to get outside and get into some nice dorado with Captain Jorge including this nicer early season dorado.

PHOTO 5: You gotta love it! Eric Mikity from Chino CA rocked his first roosterfish this past week as well as some other fishing including dorado and got to scuba dive for the firs time as well. Great pose! He plans to come back with dad later this year and get his scuba certification with us now that he’s gotten a taste!

PHOTO 6: “There must have been 30 dorado around the boat!” said our buddy Rob McClean from S.California as he and his sister, girlfriend and uncle tore into a big school of mahi just off Las Arenas. “We had to pull away from all these fish. There were too many. We told the captain to go inside and look for pargo. The dorado were too easy!”

MORE WIND AND SOME SURPRISE BIG FISH PACE THE WEEK

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 12-18, 2009

It’s hard to describe the fishing week. Everyone got fish, but some days were better than others. Some anglers (as you can see by the photos this week), got some real NICE fish. Some boats could be right next to others and slam fish after fish while the boat 30 yards away would have a slower day.

A lot right now depends on the weather. Winds are still irregular. In the span of a day, the wind can change several times in intensity as well as direction. That makes for some churned up water so consequently, most of our fishing is out of Muertos Bay. Those who did brave the stronger winds out of La Paz, got some BIG TIME slugger fish, but some days they were bounced all over the place. It just depended on the level of discomfort you were willing to handle!

Then, some days…it was flat flat flat! It’s just that time of year.

In addition to the weather, talent and experience had a lot to do with it as well. There’s a lot of easy fun fish around…sierra, roosters, cabrilla, smaller snapper, bonito…but the bad boys…the yellowtail, the bigger pargo liso and dog tooth snapper, the amberjack…it’s not like you jump in the boat and say, “I want to catch yellowtail and pargo today!” like you’re ordering up a Happy Meal at McDonald’s. These are tough fish. They got big because they know how to attack and fight. They’re not gonna just let you pull them into the boat and they have everything in their favor like rocks and reefs.

I had two guys come back one day grumbling because all they got were some bonito and some sierra and if you looked at their scores, it seemed like they had a so-so day. They weren’t very happy. However, I talked to my captain and he told me they lost 6 bigger pargo or yellowtail and just weren’t fast enough or strong enough to rip back on the fish. These are trophy fish. Dorado are nice. It’s easier to catch them because once they are hooked they don’t try to climb back down into a cave or something. They’re generally in bluer water with nothing but blue around them so you can fight them. Even pulling a 20-pound pargo to the boat takes well…for basically all the stars lined up in your favor!

Of course, then there is always the newbie rookie that gets 4 on his first day fishing and says, “What’s the big deal?” I guess that’s fishing!

Anyway, the old adage seems to have held true this week. Fewer fish but bigger fish were found by my La Paz anglers. (Yellowtail and Roosters) More fish and more variety were caught by my anglers that fish with our Las Arenas/Muertos Bay fleet. (Sierra, bonito, smaller yellowtail, cabrilla, snapper, pargo, dorado, roosterfish)

Bait has been fine, but there’s a lot of birds right now too making it a pain to slow troll with bait somedays. I would recommend that if you can, bring some smaller Rapala-type lures. They’re effective in trolling and getting down and away from the birds.

One thing to keep an eye on…the waters are REALLY warm! I”m not sure how much longer the yellowtail and other cool water fishes will be around. It’s starting to feel alot like late spring fishing already!

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 : 626-638-3383from 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

“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.”

PHOTO 1: The hated ones! Pelicans lining up at the buffet!

PHOTO 2: Waiting below if you can just away from the birds! Lemons into lemonade?

PHOTO 3: Some of the crank baits and swim baits you can use to get below the surface and away from pesky birds.

PHOTO 1: Waters got rough late in the week as winds kicked in over Easter weekend, but Bob “Gladiator Juice” Duncan of Santa Barbara went where other pangas didn’t want to go and was rewarded. He’s seriously bent her for almost 20 minutes when he dropped a live bait over the side. Study in intensity. Captain Jorge “Moscoron” looks on.

PHOTO 2: SCORE! Big yellowtail over the side. Using his mini- Whopper Stopper rod, Bob Duncan gets that yellowtail to gaff. Goofing, Jorge Romero from La Paz, our fishing buddy tried to stay anonymous. I think he was supposed to have been at work that day! Unfortunately, he’s now on the internet and his boss in La Paz reads the fishing reports!

PHOTO 3: Getting into the spirit of the weekend, Emily Duncan and dad, Bob, hold up a couple of nice sierra at Muertos Bay Beach. Sierra were thicker early in the week before the winds came up.

PHOTO 4: For the sheer joy of it all ! The smile from Christina Moreno, fishing for the first time, even though she grew up in La Paz, just beams, as does husband, Lance Cole. They had a nice day inshore with pargo and cabrilla and here she gets to find out that even little bonito pull hard!

PHOTO 5: Doesn’t get better than a big smile and a nice cabrilla from Christina Moreno of La Paz!

PHOTO 6: If you were willing to possibly get wet and blown around, there were still big yellowtail to be had. Jess Akeroth and Steve DiGuiseppe hoist some toad-sized slugger yellowtail taken while fishing out’ve La Paz north at the island.

PHOTO 7: Pargo city! Steve Di Guiseppe, Ross Martinez and Gabe Martinez hold up their day of pargo and cabrilla fishing when they headed north to Espiritu Island. They had 3 days of this kind of fishing. Steve is an attorney from Ventura Co. CA area and Gabe is an attorney from Las Vegas. I went to law school with both amigos. Dad, Ross Martinez, has an interesting history. He owned a gas station in Vegas that is now the site of the MGM Grand Hotel!

PHOTO 8: Fat yellowtail and big smiles for Gabe Martinez and dad, Ross Martinez of Las Vegas. The fish was taken out at El Bajo seamount.

PHOTO 10: OK…were’t not officially open yet, but we’re close! But we had a surprise birthday party for Jill at the FUBAR Cantina on the ground floor. Standing room only! Mariachis showed up and tequila and cerveza flowed. Incredible evening! We hope to be “officially open” this week!

PHOTO 11: We had a packed house. It was marked as a “private party” but people off the street just kept stopping in so we invited ’em on in! Great vibe. Great time. We’re excited about opening after more than 2 years of work.

VARIED WEEK OF FISHING MARKED BY SOME NICE HIGHLIGHTS AS WINDS AGAIN KICK IN!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for week of April 5-12, 2009

To be honest, it wasn’t a GREAT week of fishing, but some folks had a GREAT time! Does that make sense? The bite was so-so some days and winds came up late in the week, but those of our anglers who fished several days might have had a slow day here or there, but made up for it on other days.

It was a time-place issue. Right place at the right time with the correct currents and minimal wind. I’m not a big believer in the full-moon thing, but when you combine it with strong winds that kept shifting directions, high currents and quite a bit of spring break traffic, the bite wasn’t as good as it had been.

But…

EVERYONE still got fish! If you were willing to bust out north of town with my La Paz fleet, then there were big yellowtail, big pargo, cabrilla and roosters north around Cerralvo Island. The ticket, again was minimal winds and having the big baits like mackerel.

If you fish with my Las Arenas fleet, again…a lot of variety. Some of the guys early in the week were able to get out to the 88 bank and the outter buoys and got into some dorado that were incredible. Some 40 and 50 pound fish were logged in. Interestingly, there was FOG out there on the water too which was pretty eerie until the sun burned it off. How often do you see fog in Baja waters?

Inshore fishing produced smaller yellowtail plus a collection of sierra, jacks, roosterfish (some nice sized), bonito, pargo and cabrilla. I had some flyfisher this week that got beat up nicely by bonito and roosters and had a blast. The biggest problem were the huge numbers or pelicans and other birds. Sheesh…they hit almost every bait that hit the water.

Jill and I were on the water Saturday…the windiest day of the week. After so many bird incidents, we switched over to smaller Rapala, Yo-zuri and other shallow diving lures and trolled the rocks. This got the birds off our backs and we hit cabrilla and pargo one after the other losing several lures to big fish that took us into the rocks. The blue colored lures worked better.

That’s our story! Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

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

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

Cell: (626) 278-1585

Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.com

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

Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur,

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

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

“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.”

PHOTO 1: Can this be? Dorado in April? Charline Oistad from the Sacramento CA area came down with her husband and brother for their first trip to La Paz and got into some nice fishing including this pair of spring dorado using live bait out of Muertos Bay. Read below…there were more than just dorado biting!

CRAZY FISHING MIXES WITH CRAZY WINDS!

La Paz/ Las Arenas Report for week of March 29-April 4, 2009

Not sure how to describe this past week of fishing….

As I sit here at the moment looking out at the ocean, it’s grey. So is the sky. The wind is screaming out’ve the west and I’m glad I’m not out on the water today. Weather-wise, it’s been a windy and choppy week which is not uncommon for this time of the year. You definitely want a windbreaker or sweatshirt right now. Some days are flat calm, but better to have the protection and not need it than need it and not have it. Some days it starts by ripping then settles out. Sometimes not. Guys have told me they’ve gotten wet getting out to the fishing grounds, especially those headed north out of La Paz.

But…

Some darned good fishing this week! Where do I start? Out’ve La Paz, the yellowtail continued to hammer out by the islands and at El Bajo Seamount. Mackerel and heavy iron were the ticket to these slugger fish that run into the 40 pound class. If you have a Lucky Joe rig, bring it to catch the mackerel. These are tough fish and many are getting lost to the rocks and you definitely want to use the heavy 50 and 60 pound string on these big fish!

My amigos, Steve Di Guiseppe from Ventura CA area and Gabe Martinez from Las Vegas came with dad, Ross and friend, Jess, and spent their first day pulling on the yellowtail. The next 3 days they found “the honey hole” of pargo! “Almost every drop was a hookup!” They got limits of pargo and big cabrilla almost everyday and lost many, but hauled in a bunch of fillets every day to the hotel restaurant for daily feasts that they shared with other guests.

From our Las Arenas/ Muertos fleet….

Can you say smorgasbord? What’s going on? One day it was like going down a buffet line. Incredible early season fishing. Inshore, lots of sierra, roosterfish, big cabrilla and pargo were on the chew. But offshore, spots of floating squid prompted the fish to go nuts!

“We went out to the buoys with Capt. Jorge,” said Rob McClean who’s from California and one of our regulars who fishes with us several times a year. “We got to one and there must’ve been 50 dorado there! We stopped catching and releasing after awhile. Took some for the ice chest and said, let’s get outta here. This is too much! We went inshore to catch pargo!”

Yes, dorado came out and big ones too! Some 30-50 pound fish (Captains estimates on the weights!) were caught but some striped marlin also were caught as well. Rumors of breezing tuna also came in, but no one was able to get on them as they seemed to traveling with fast-moving dolphin schools also jumping on some of the floating squid.

This is getting interesting! We’ll keep you posted.

Happy Easter Week everyone! Be safe if you’re traveling and God bless.

Jonathan and Jill

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/
Phone: (626) 333-3355
FAX: (626) 333-0115
Cell: (626) 278-1585
Mex. Cell: 044-612-114-17176
E-Mail: Riplipboy@aol.comU.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Dr., Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745
Mexico Office: , 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Cal Sur,

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

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

PHOTO 1: The tranquil La Paz Malecon waterfront. Pretty much peaceful as ever. 1000 miles away from what’s happening up north. I did see some violence last week…two people arguing over a parking space in front of a popular fish taco stand…

BETTER TO LIGHT ONE CANDLE?

Originally published the week of April 7, 2009 in Western Outdoor News

This is your friendly public service announcement.

Obviously, unless you’ve lived on another planet or been in an isolation booth the last 6 months, you’ve heard about the crime issues faced in Mexico. It’s seemingly in every newspaper. CNN runs specials. The internet carries every act of violence and zips it around the planet to more people in shorter time than it takes me to type this sentence.

However, speed does not always equate with clarity. Sensationalism often trumps good accurate reporting.

Our own modern high-tech brains are only as focused as our dwindling attention spans. We blackberry, blog and twitter now. We get our dose of news in 100-word headlines with not much content. We can barely absorb the 6 o’clock news with nothing more taxing to our busy day than 20-second sound bites. We get headlines from talking heads with only a modicum of facts used as filler between the next 20-second-soundbite/headline. I know. I spent many years as a reporter.

Even here in this column, the limits of space prevent more than a smidgen of comment about what’s going on in Mexico and the media-driven perceptions. So, I’m guilty as well. But, I could write a thesis paper on what I know and what I think about the current crime situation.

But, suffice to say, there is indeed a problem.

Yes, it is serious.

No, it’s not all over Mexico

It’s not even all over Baja.

What a lot of folks don’t realize, even frequent long-time Baja visitors, is that Baja is 2 separate states…Baja Norte (Northern Baja) and Baja Sur (Southern Baja). Ensenada is the capital of the former and La Paz is the capital of the latter.

Ninety-nine percent of the violent crime is along the border. It’s not even ALL of northern Baja. Surprise, it’s not even all of Tijuana!
However, Baja Sur wants to keep as much of the ugly stuff out of it’s turf. It’s like Oregon implementing strategies to keep tainted California fruit from coming across.

So, Baja Sur has implemented an extensive three-pronged plan to hopefully keep the bad guys out. It might be like barring the gate when the fox is already in the henhouse, but it’s like that saying “better to light one candle than curse the darkness.”

The moves are meant to keep the barbarians outside the city walls, but also to hopefully instill confidence in locals and travelers that the government is trying. It’s surely got a catchy name/motto titled “Baja California Sur, Estado Seguro.” (Baja Sur, the Safe State). Like Missouri…the “Can Do” state or something like that.

What’s involved is an extensive search and i.d. program at three major areas of entry to the state involving land, sea, and air. . One is at San Ignacio near the border with Northern Baja along the Transpeninsular Highway. The other has been implemented at the busy Cabo Airport.

The third is at the ferry terminal in La Paz to check motorists coming by boat from Sinaloa, home of the notorious Sinaloan drug cartels.

Essentially, both locals and tourists must produce extensive i.d., vehicle registration and are subject to being photographed and fingerprinted. While so far, most tourists have experienced very few problems or been detained, others have been surprised and angered by the searches that can take an hour-or-more. The process is extensive and intrusive.

I applaud the efforts. They are well-intentioned. Mexico needs to clamp down on the crime and it also needs to assure it’s citizens and it’s visitors that it’s safe to travel.

But, I’m not sure how effective this will be. Mexico is caught between a rock and a hard place.

If you’ve ever traveled in other countries, many other nations are used to seeing police presence and searches are not uncommon. Police with guns are normal.

Gringos don’t like being searched. We’re all about “personal space” and we’re really uncomfortable when it’s violated. We don’t like our bags being opened or people poking in our cars. Heck, we surely hate taking our shoes off at the airport, gringos surely aren’t going to like being photographed and fingerprinted just to come down to fish, swim and romp in margaritaville. Oh the indignity. Americans don’t like being touched.

They are also really uncomfortable seeing people…even legit police and army guys…holding automatic weapons. I’ve been searched so many times in 15 years it’s not big deal. I laugh. They laugh. They’re just doing their job. Tourists don’t like that.

So, will this really help keep the tourists coming?

On the other side, with thousands of people traveling in and out of Southern Baja daily, how effective is this? I don’t think they have the resources to detain, search, photo and fingerprint everyone. And so far, the searches have basically turned up car thieves and minor bad guys.

But, they’re trying. I like that they’ve lit a candle. I just hope I’m not in a hurry when I get stopped and I’m having a “good hair” day when I get photographed.

Many thanks to my amigo Pete Thomas of the Los Angeles Times who has written a great sports and outdoor column for years and for keeping us posted and who has a great blog about all this: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/03/many-arent-awar.html

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