That's My Story

PHOTO 1: Now at your nearest music store and in concert…the “Get Bent Air Dorado Band!” Standing in the shallows at Balandra Beach, Joey Horvath, Drew Baumgartner, Joe “Pineapple” Caricugan (who is a professional musician) all from the Ventura Ca area, play some sweet music with this trio of mahi they took north of La Paz. I have no idea what the guy is doing behind Joe!

STORM HOVERS OVER US BUT TUNA AND DORADO REFUSE TO SHUT DOWN AND PROVIDE STEADY BITE FOR LAS ARENAS AND LA PAZ!

PHOTO 2: All the way from Ohio, Dave Stroud and Rich White rolled down here for their first visit and spent a few days tangling with dorado, yellowfin tuna and even the great-eating pompano Rich is holding in his left hand. Dorado and tuna were the prevailant species this past week. Nothing spectacular in terms of size, but the decent sized fish provided some solid action and good eating fillets for the freezers.

PHOTO 3: From Hacienda Heights, CA , John Ford and Bob Gonzalez are here on Arenas beach. John on the left is holding one of the larger tuna of the week. Most of the tuna were football-sized in the 10-20 pound class, but there were a few in the 30-40 pound class that kept things lively.

PHOTO 4: Every year for several years, Jeff Del Dotto and his son Chris come to visit us this time of year. This will be their first time getting their photos in the report! They’re from Tracy CA. The number of dorado that showed up around Las Arenas was surprising since Las Arenas had been “tuna land” for about the last 2 weeks. However, our boats found the fish at the buoys, as well as under a dead whale, a dead turtle and some other floating objects. A few tossed sardines at the object often got the waters boiling as the fish rose.

PHOTO 5: Randall Lee and Bob Holmberg from Los Angeles came down on a charity trip with the Catholic Big Brothers group. Their first day they fished Las Arenas and the two amigos post up several nice dorado and a tuna headed to the dinner table.

PHOTO 6: Glenn Delmendo and Scott OConnor, are from the Los Angeles area. They started off their trip finding a honey hole of dorado in the channel between Cerralvo Island and El Sargento.

PHOTO 7: Mike Alperin and his buddy in the back, Lee Cook, flew out here from the East Coast and I gotta admit…I like their style. Rather than necessarily chase the blue water species, the two amigos kept to light tackle, mostly using 8 pound test and spinning rods. Both are experienced anglers and in 4 days of fishing got over 20 species of fish including big bonito like this one held by Mike. According to Mike this bonito was just short of being a new IGFA record, “if only he had eaten a bigger piece of bait.”

PHOTO 8 : A better rack of mahi you will not see. The boys from Wayne Longs Utah group had never done anything like this but were well on their way to filling up the ice chest with this gerat rack of bull dorado.

PHOTO 9: Wayne Long from Utah brought several families to hang with us for about a week. The tuna were good to them this day. These yellowfin tuna were nice 15-25 pound “footballs.” The tuna bite has been the best in several years. Granted, the fish are not huge, but have been more solid than we’ve seen in many years with an on-again-off-again bite since July. The cool thing about the tuna is that they’re not very far from shore. There are several hot spots with some as close as within 100 yards of the beach. It’s not complicated fishing. Using live bait, just drop it into the water and hold on!

PHOTO 10: For our La Paz fleet, dorado continued to be the mainstay. If you want to specifically target dorado, then 90 percent of the catch for our La Paz boats is dorado. But marlin and big sailfish also appeared in the boat wakes as well.

PHOTO 11: Tim Eng and his son, David, from Rowland Hts. CA rolled in and quickly rolled out’ve La Paz. They got in one day of fishing and spanked the yellowfin tuna. Tim wanted to fish a second day, but David was too worn out from the first day. Tim thought they would only catch one or two fish.

THE FISH REPORT

You know…there are some weeks of fishing that are bad. There are others that are spectacular. But like life, there are some weeks that are just good. Nothing high. Nothing low. Nothing upsetting. Just a good week to cruise through.

That’s how it was this week. We kicked a little fish butt. Everyone got bent. Some folks got more than others. Some got less than others. But everyone had fish to bring home. Some got their first tuna or first dorado or first billfish. Most of the fish were that nice 10-30 pound grade. Certainly nothing that would put your knees, but at the same time a nice grade of fun fish to bend a rod and the fact that there were enough of them to keep you busy, meant that at the end of the day, you had some good fish in the box. At the end of the trip when you were pulling things our’ve the freezer, you realized. “Gosh, I guess I did catch a few fish!”

It was another good week of good yellowfin tuna for our Las Arenas boats. Most were footballs but a few hit into the 25-40 pound class. The bite rolled around a bit. We hit fish along the rock highway south of Cerralvo Island. There was also a good spot just off the Las Arenas lighthouse. Again, that little cove about 1/4 mile off the old Hotel Las Arenas kicked out some good fish as did Punta Perrico. The ticket is to get your bait and get to the spots before too many other boats showed up.

As far as dorado fishing, the best place would have been to fish directly north out’ve La Paz. Several areas were ripe. Around the corner at Las Cruces some of the better grade bulls were found at various times this week. Surprisingly, we even had a nice bite out at the El Bajo Seamount of dorado, some tuna and some billfish. It’s rare, but when the seamount goes off, it can be spectacular.

The cool thing was that as the week went on, dorado fishing also improved for our Las Arenas boats! Hitting spots like the buoys and from Punta Perrico down past Boca de Alama could be very productive. The larger bulls tipped in at 25-40 pounds.

Marlin are still around as are unsually large sailfish up to 150 pounds. Usually, it’s the sailfish that are smaller than the striped marlin, but this year, it’s just the oppositie. Also, yes…there’s still roostefish along the beaches. Either you will tangle with the fun 10 pounders or the big slugger 50-100 pounders will roll up in your chum line.

IF YOU ARE HEADED TO COSTCO

My amigo, Tom Gatch, who is a well-known write rand Baja sage, just completed his book called “Hooked on Baja.” I wanted to give a shout-out that the book is now available at Costco or else online at http://www.google.com/products?q=Hooked+on+Baja,+Tom+Gatch&hl=en&um=1&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title

If you go to Chapter 7, Tom has nicely stuck me in there with one of my stories. The book is filled with all kinds of fishing stuff as well as stories about and from some of the top Baja personalities (so I’m puzzled why I’d be in there, but grateful!). Check it out.

That’s my story!

Jonathan

Jonathan Roldan’s

Tailhunter International

Website: 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.”

PHOTO 1 – Michael “Flipper” Thompson and Joey “Joey 805″Horvath were on fire for few days this week nailing yellowfin and this nice sailfish off Las Arenas where we had the best tuna bite of the year. No doubt, 2007, the tuna are back on the chew after taking a few years off.

TUNA EXPLODE OFF LAS ARENAS IN BEST BITE OF THE YEAR AS FISH CHEW ONLY 100 YARDS FROM THE BEACH!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Sept. 16, 2007

PHOTO 2 – Just had to post this. It’s our friends from the Get Bent group that comes down every year. Lots of fun and always ready to accomodate with a “candid photo” if you look closely. Thanks guys! The group spanked the fish their first two days loading up on tuna. As I’m writing this, the guys are currently out on the water and have two more days hopefully to top off the ice chests with a few loads of dorado and wahoo.

PHOTO 3: This was the first time down for Shawn Dixon and Kai Lu. This is the grade of yellowfin tuna we were taking all week. Almost within minutes of hitting the spot, fish foamed and would bite almost as long as you kept the chum coming. Some guy were pulling off after an hour to go look for other things to catch having plugged the fish boxes with too many tuna!

PHOTO 4: Drew Baumgartner got his first tuna ever this week despite lots of fishing experience. Lots of guys got their first tuna this week. However, true to tradition, Drew unhesitatingly ate the heart of his first tuna…and liked it so much…he did it again so we could photograph it then licked his bloody fingers! Nothing like tradition!

PHOTO 5: Mike and Julio Vega were also on their first trip with us. Holding a bunch of yellowfin tuna, the guys were literally fishing within casting distance of the beaches. Early in the morning the fish bit like mad dogs with some guys limiting in the first 60 minutes. As the boat traffic increased, the bite would diminish and the boats would depart. However, one by one, the boats would snake back into the zone. Guys using small 1 or 2 oz sinkers to get their sardines below the rampant needlefish found the bite just as hot.

PHOTO 6: Las Arenas used to be known as an incredibly fertile fishery for yellowfin tuna and made it’s name on the yellowfin as well as other species that could be caught close to shore. The bite this week has been reminiscent of the old days. In fact, there’s been an nice on again-off again tuna bite through the summer, but the last two weeks, the tuna have been biting like the old days!

PHOTO 7: Kelly Ashmore holds up on of the nicer grade tuna after his first day. The yellowfin don’t need much. Basically pin a bait in the hook Put the bait in the water. Hold on!

PHOTO 8: Since the hurricane two weeks ago it took a few days for the fish to get back to speed. This week there was no doubt, but we never expected it would be the yellowfin. Glenn and Frank Dellari from the N.Cal Area plugged an ice chest or two with fillets.

PHOTO 9: Three generations of the Van Steenkiste family. Roger on the left has already been here twice this year, but this time, brought his son Greg and his grandson Matt for their first times and did a banner number on tuna and dorado this past week.

PHOTO 10: Yes…there are still dorado around…quite a few actually, although the focus has shifted to the tuna bite this week. Las Arenas still had it’s share of dorado and for our La Paz boats, almost 90 percent of the catch has been dorado with fish ranging from 5-30 pounds, although there’s some larger bulls like this one held by Ivan Lau of El Monte CA. The larger dorado this week were willing to eat the baits, but also showed an affinity for slow trolled strips of bonito as well as trolled feathers that had dorado colors of yellow, green and red or orange.

PHOTO 11: Not all the tuna were footballs. There were some larger fish that came piling through and most of them did a number on the surprised anglers who just weren’t ready. However, this is one 45 pounder that didn’t get away.

THE FISHING REPORT

Well, if there were any doubts that the hurricane two weeks ago had done a number on the fishing season, those doubts went right out the window.

We’re back on track! Dorado continued to rip lips for our La Paz guys and we’re seeing more and more marlin again. Wahoo bit of the south side of Cerralvo Island and we just had one of the best weeks for roosterfish that we’ve had in about a month with everything from 70 pounders down to feisty 5 pounders.

However, the biggest news was the arrival…en masse…of the yellowfin tuna schools off Las Arenas. It was like the old days. Fish foaming and on the chew as soon as you pulled up the boat and stopped the motors. In a line of fish from the Las Arenas lighthouse all the way down to Boca de Alamo, all it would take is a few sardines tossed in the water to get the fish up and boiling. A few days, I could even see the fish foaming standing on the shore! The fish were literally withing casting distance of the beach on some occasions! Guys were getting plugged with all the fish they wanted in an hour or so then had to put the rods down to rest or else grabbed heavier gear and went looking for roosters or pargo or wahoo. Other guys came back with lighter and even ultra light gear and would hook fish after fish and bust them off or take longer times to battle the tuna having a blast!

If you’re coming down this week a few tips…

1. Flurocarbon leader seems to make a difference. You don’t need much. Just a few yards or 20, 25 or 30.

2. Small hooks for small baits

3. The larger dorado like dorado colored lures

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 Pichlingue KM5; Numero 205, La Paz, Baja 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.”

ANOTHER TAKE ON FALL IN BAJA

Originally published in Western Outdoor News week of Sept. 12, 2007

Last week I wrote of my enthusiasm for this time of the year in the Baja. It’s a great time to be down here for innumerable reasons, not the least of which is the fishing.

I guess the fish gods and Mother Nature heard me and decided to tag-team and give me a bit of a “wedgie.” Just a little harmless fun to remind me that I had neglected to mention another aspect of being in Baja in the fall.

Three days after writing the last column, we were humming right along. Fishing was rocking Weather was grand. Lots of happy clients. Life was good. We could do no wrong. Notice I used the past tense.

And just like that, it changed again!

I find myself looking up at the sky like everyone else. We’re all glued to our computer screens and debating whether CNN weather website is better than the NOAA site or Weatherunderground.com. Instead of answering e-mails and phone calls asking what about the fishing and diving, I’m hearing, “Should we cancel our trip?”

Like some some boogeyman, everone wants to know whether “IT” is coming?

All because of Henriette.

One day we’re basking in sunshine and the next we’re bailing water; filling sandbags; tying down boats; looking for flashlight batteries; losing power and dodging 20 pound coconuts falling from trees!

Henriette was our first big chubasco (hurricane) of the season. I think it’s number 6 for me not to count numerous strong tropical storms. I’ve never been in anything stronger than a category 2 blow, nor do I want to, but in all seriousness, these things are darned fascinating.

I’m not making light of the seriousness of calamitous weather or what something like a Katrina-sized storm can do to life, limb and property. People get hurt and killed by these things. Lives are altered.

But, taken in a vacuum (no pun intended), there’s nothing like observing nature on the loose. It’s even better being in the center of it! Step inside the Weather Channel! The skies darken and liquefy as clouds approach with amazing speed and like an ominous blanket of grey it descends on you.

Winds take on a life of their own. Osterizing the ocean into a frenzy, they swirl and cavort and whip in sheets as thick as the rain that starts to fall driving water before it with incredible force.

Hurricane winds don’t howl. They scream like runaway trains looking for things to hit and wrap around. A tree here. Roof shingles there. There go the lawn chairs. Has anyone seen the dog?

The rain stings and goes horizontal. The wind eventually torques up like the sound of a jet engine. And if you can, stand outside in the center of the maelstrom. Raise your arms and brace against the onrushing force of elements. To scream as loud as you can is to feel something deep and primal and probably as therapueutic as 10 expensive sessions on the doctor’s couch. The sheer joy of yelling into the winds of the gods…soaked to the skin and laughing.

Imagine riding in the last car on the rollercoaster and standing up with your hands raised as it takes that first long long long long drop. It is that kind of scream. It’s visceral. It’s an emotion that we keep tucked up inside as we go through our civilized existence Screaming for fun is not allowed. Good boys and girls don’t yell.

But, stand in a hurricane and flip convention the bird and scream for awhile and watch the world literally blow by as nature reminds us that it still has the ultimate ability to kick us in our butts. Man has learned to control his environment to some degree, but he has never plugged a volcano. Never put a cork on a hurricane. Never stopped rain or snow from falling. Never turned off a heatwave.

The Baja is a great place to be in the fall and yes, storms can happen. The late summer and fall are storm season in Baja. Will it happen on YOUR vacation? It could. But not likely. It’s like asking what are the chances I’ll hit a blizzard in New York in December. It could happen, but don’t cancel your flights because of it.

I know we all like sun and all the activities that go with it. But storms are also part of it at times. It reminds of what that the wild things are not far away. And, ultimately, isn’t that what we like about Baja?

It’s not antiseptic. It’s not completely predictable. Baja is still the frontier where we can wander the deserts; explore the oceans; you cannot always get hot water and yes…occasionally you get a gully-washer of a storm. If you want predictable and safely from the wild without leaving your comfortable chair, go to Vegas and turn on the climate control.

I still like my Baja on the wilder side.

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

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.”

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.