That's My Story

PHOTO 1: Check out the colors on this incredible bull dorado. Shawn James of Los Angeles had just about wrapped up his day at Las Arenas with Captain Victor and were headed in. Just a few yards off the beach, the spotted a school or dorado and this big bull slammed his bait. Fish on! You won’t see many pristine dorado photos like this!

TUNA – DORADO – MARLIN TAKE CENTER STAGE (FINALLY!)

LA PAZ / LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR JULY 28, 2007

PHOTO 2: Lookie ! Lookie! Can that really be….TUNA???? Yellowfin tuna spread on the cutting table off Las Arenas. Boats did really well this week on the footballs with fish being caught by both our Las Arenas and (surprise) even our La Paz fleet too! Rob Lloyd (left) and Jan Laes had came all the way from Washington state and had some banner days with us this week getting tuna, dorado, and marlin on their first trip to La Paz.

PHOTO 3: Classic La Paz photo this week. Pristine beach. Blue water. Blue panga. Rack of nice dorado. This is Tino Fernandez holding the big bulls. He and his buddies from the Central Valley area of California (Chuck Hunter/ Chad Hunter / Randy Darnell ) beat up on some fish and get this…donated more than 100 pounds of fish to the orphanage here in La Paz!

PHOTO 4: Not bad for a first timer on her first day!!! Michelle Durston gets an assist from Captain Jorge with this big bull. That was about all the help she needed. In two days fishing she packed the coolers with alot of dorado fillets. The dorado are in full force most days right now for both my La Paz and my Las Arenas fleets.

PHOTO 5: This is Tom Moon and Captain “Pelon” Roberto Carballo. Last year, Tom had to cancel when Aero California stopped flying to La Paz, but came back this year. On his first day, he got a great mix of dorado and these yellowfin tuna fishing with his buddy Rob Wood. Both are from the Los Angeles area. Surprisingly the yellowfin are popping up for our La Paz fleet. Normally, most of our tuna bite around Las Arenas, but for the last few weeks, the tuna bite has gotten stronger and stronger. Most of the fish are coming on trolled feathers with the average size being 5-15 pounds.

THE FISHING REPORT

“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.”

FISHING THE JUG!

Originally published the week of July 22, 2007 in Western Outdoor News

Fishermen are an inventive lot. If you ever have any doubt, take a look sometime in a fishing gear catalog like Bass Pro, West Marine, Melton’s or any of a number of online websites that cater to the needs of us anglers to have the coolest gadget, device or “next hot thing.”

The best example is to just take a look in the lure section. The lure section for bass lures is a prime classic example. I mean, how many types of crankbaits, jerk baits, plastic frogs or wiggle worms can there be? How many do you really need? Ask any good bass fisher and, of course, he or she will say, “All of them!” Each touts to be the most “deadly of the deadly” or my favorite, “made for fishermen BY fishermen!” (Of course they area!)

But if any garage-tinkering angler can come up with a better idea, we certainly will! We anglers are constantly plagued by the “What if?” disease and off we go to mold, hammer, construct the “next best thing!”

Well, being down here at “ground zero” I certainly have seen some interesting inventions and gadget. Not all of them are bad either and a number of them work! Some are actually marketing commercially now, but others are as homemade as your grand daddy’s sawhorse.

One amigo came down with a pair of shorts where the clips on his fighting belt/rod holder were already built into the reinforced waistband of the shorts. When he was ready to fight, he merely clipped his fighting pad into the two drop clips on either side and he was ready to go. That was a good one.

Another guy came down who was convinced that the faster the jigging the more fish you would catch. So, he took his Penn 500 reel and turned it into a virtual dragster of 15:1 ratio! It had a sideplate that stuck out a good 2 extra inches on the side of the handle to accommodate the extra gears as well as a larger handle and the whole contraption looked every-bit like it came out’ve a high-school shop class. It sure made a lure buzz through the water. Only problem was that when it got hit by even a bonito, it was almost impossible to turn the handle and get any torque. I think he went back to the drawing board.

My vote, however, for the best and most humorous of the year (so far) is something called “jug fishing.” That got my eye-brows raised when I first heard of it. Our amigo, Bill Kennedy and his sons brought it down and swore that it slayed the fish in Panama. OK…I’m all ears and eyes!

Let me see if I can explain. They showed up with a 5 gallon jug. Affixed to this was a length of heavy leader. To this leader was attached either a trolling feather or hook for live bait. There was also a clip whereby this huge device could be clipped to a rod.

If they were trolling and a fish hit, the big jug would disengage itself from the rod. Same if they were drifting a live bait.

Follow me on this. The fish would grab the bait or lure. It would then go swimming off trailing this ultra buoyant jug usually unable to drag it underwater. It would go zipping off and around as it tried to escape. Do you remember the movie, “Jaws” where huge buoys were attached to the line and the shark swam off with it?
Same idea! Even if the fish pulled it down for awhile, it would eventually pop up!

In the meantime, back on the boat…

The fishermen popped beers and watched the jug go this way and that. They would high five each other and pop more beers. The “size” of the fish was described in terms of being a “1 beer,” “2 beer,” 3 beer,” etc. fish by how long the fish fought. Or judged by how deep the jug was pulled underwater via dark black hash marks on the side of the jug that could be seen from the boat.

When the jug stopped moving, they moved the boat and simply handlined the fish. No sweat! The swore they got tuna and wahoo in Panama “jug fishing” and got several dorado fishing with our own fleet here.

At some point, I think the beer drinking began to take precedence over the fishing. The clue for me was when one of them got off the boat happily proclaiming they had drank “24 beers before noon” yet only 1 medium dorado ( certainly rating no more than a “1 beer” status) was in the fish box. These guys knew how to enjoy themselves and that ultimately is what fishing is about.

Me? I prefer to battle my fish old school style. Maybe I’m just funny like that, but I like to have a bent rod in my hand. However, I can certainly think of a lot of guys who would consider any device which kept your hands free to pop another cerveza while catching fish smacks of inspired genius.

I’m sure one of you readers is now hustling down to the basement to build your own and we’ll see these in the 2008 catalogs and at all the fishing shows!

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

PHOTO 1: Now THIS is a BEAST!!! Dan Ferialdi from Pasadena pulled this bad boy off one of the many buoys off Las Arenas. He hit the honey hole as the buoy produced several huge dorado including this one that bottomed out a 50 pound scale! Take a look at the head of this bull dorado and the fact that Dan is about 5’9″ and the tail of this thing is still on the deck!

DORADO AND MARLIN SET THE PACE STILL TRYING TO GET IN GEAR WITH MORE TUNA STARTING TO POP UP!

LA PAZ- LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR JULY 22, 2007

PHOTO 2: This is a great shot for many many reasons. Bill Albright was an avid fisherman until 21 years ago when he ended up in a wheelchair. He had not been fishing since then. With the help of his family…We got him into a panga and on the water at Las Arenas with Captain Jorge and he got himself this nice bull dorado as well as some others and a pompano. The smile says it all. We were all pulling and glad he got to pull again too on some fish! Bill is a great guy being very patient with all of us. He’s out on the water again as I type this!

PHOTO 3: Jessie Pfost is 19 and just finished her first year of college and stands here with Captain Joel, one of our favorite guys. She was out for a few hours in rough conditions and got a handful of dorado although we had to work up to getting her to touch the bait! We’re working on it and she’s a great sport.

PHOTO 4: Now here’s a nice handfull of mahi mahi! Randy Darnell has 5 bull dorado he and his partner caught fishing this week on the La Paz side. The bite was anemic at times as we got more winds, but you could go all day and not find a thing then hit one spot in the last 15 minutes and all heck breaks loose! The thing to do is keep at it and keep a line in the water. As I tell guys, you are only 1 bait away from turning a good day into an awesome day and if you don’t have a rod in the water you’re DEFINITELY not going to catch a fish unless one jumps in the boat!

PHOTO 5: Pete Mason holds up a regulation keeper dorado. This is the kind of schoolie we’re getting right now…or should be! Conditions are still a few weeks behind schedule of where they should be as far as weather and water. Hence, the fish are also a little late as well, but we’re seeing a more consistent bite weekly on the nicer grade of dorado like this one held by Pete.

PHOTO 6: Roger Smith and Ralph Crayton from Los Angeles were fun to have around. They’re holding a few of their Las Arenas dorado here. The dorado are eating the sardines as well as feathers very well. The key is NOT to lose any fish! If you bust off that first fish, it will often take the rest of the school with it and you’re gonna be bummed as that might be your ONLYchance to get into the school so having your “A” game together doesn’t hurt!

PHOTO 7: Now here’s an interesting shot! Look closely. That’s my amigo, Bob Horton, maker of Toad Tamer Rods in Palm Springs CA holding the 80 pound rooster. Up front is my other good amigo, Rabbi Shelly Donnel who makes his residence in Israel these days! If you look closely at the mouth of the roosterfish and in front of the skipper’s face, you will see a huge fin and back end of a snapper. That’s about a 5 pound snapper! The darned fish inhaled the huge snapper and basically kinda choked on it while Bob fished it mightily. Talk about jamming the whole meal in your mouth!!!

THE FISHING REPORT

THE ROARING SILENCE OF BEING IGNORED

Originally Published the Week of July 15, 2007 in Western Outdoor News

The controversial Shark Norma laws that went into effect in May allowing commercial fishermen to come within 15 miles of the shore as well as indiscriminately take, kill and sell commercial fish such as tuna, dorado and marlin (not to mention turtles, sealions and rays) seems to be going nowhere fast on the political scene. However, at ground zero, the effects are difficult to ignore.

It has been almost two months since Cabo San Lucas was marked by protest marches and burning boats. It has been more than a month since delegates from Baja rushed their concerns and pleas to the federal government in Mexico asking for modifications of the Shark Norma plan which purports to save sharks, but realistically will devastate Baja’s sportfishing industry. Thousands upon thousands of letters and petitions have been sent to the Mexican government.

So far the word from Mexico City is deafening silence! Not a word. Not a howdy-doody. Not an acknowledgment that there’s trouble in River City or that Rome is burning.

In the meantime, here’s some snapshots from the trenches:

“For the first time in 25 years, my regular June fishing trip to Loreto was essentially a bust. Few billfish and few decent sized Dorado MAY have been caused by cooler than normal water temps, but I suspect that the commercial fishing fleets and Shark Norma 029 are really to blame. Specifically, I’m writing to tell you both that I actually caught them in the act at Punta Pulpito, 40 miles north of Loreto. They had virtually cleaned out the yellowtail by the time my panga (and three others) got there. Upon seeing us approaching, the commercial guys immediately recalled their six pangas back to the mother ship and weighed anchor. They headed south toward Loreto, but pulled into a bay and waited for us to leave. As soon as we did, they motored right back to Punta Pulpito and presumably resumed operations,” writes B. Summer, Las Vegas NV.

Ed Hoffman owns a place in Puerto Escondido. “The fishing here in Loreto has been terrible the last two weeks. We feel its is because of the long liners. Very few Dorado, Sails or Marlin are being caught in a 100 mile radius. . . I fished the tournament on Saturday. Did not get a bite but saw a lot of (commercial) floats. All 73 boats fished north and south up to 70 miles almost no fish.”

Fishermen vs. Fishermen. In the La Paz area, local commercial pangeros have allegedly been doing ninja work in the evenings cutting the valuable long lines of the big commercial boats who threaten the local fisheries. Reportedly the big commercials have retaliated by running over and destroying the buoys local fishermen use to attract dorado and sharks.

Off Chileno Beach east of Cabo, both the Mexican Navy and sportfishers were reportedly instrumental in chasing off an 80’ Mexican commercial boat that was laying it’s nets. There were some rumors that the sportfishers threatened to board it and burn it if it didn’t leave.

The Mexican Navy captured one commercial boat off the East Cape that had 3000 pounds of marlin and 4000 pounds of shark.

I don’t know, fish brothers. These are just the tip of what’s going on down here. The local political parties are denouncing the new laws as illegal and it seems the whole peninsula, rightfully so, has their underwear all bunched up. And still, not a word from the heartland in Mexico. Silence. Nothing like being ignored.

On another front. . .

CNN reports that the government has further eased the passport requirements after the FUBAR situation that was created this past January requiring EVERYONE to get passports. According to CNN, Homeland Security now says:

Travelers now have more time to gather the secure travel documents they will need at U.S. land and sea entry points when a new identification requirement plan is fully implemented.A requirement for U.S. citizens to show passports at land crossings into the United States from Canada and Mexico was scheduled to be fully implemented next January, but now will not go into full effect until summer 2008, the departments said.But the new plan includes a preliminary phase: Beginning Jan. 31, travelers will be required to present some form of government-issued photo ID at land and sea ports. New rules also will apply to residents of Canada, Mexico and Bermuda.Currently, U.S. residents arriving by land are not required to present any documentation, although driver’s licenses, passports and other government identification can greatly ease a traveler’s crossing.

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

PHOTO 1: “BIRTHDAY JACK!” Now THIS is a fish. This is an amberjack (pez fuerte). It was Wes Howard’s birthday and he said he wanted a BIG fish! Well…imagine this toad of a fish! Wes got it at the south end of Cerralvo Island fishing with Captain Ramiro. It was over 100 pounds because it was put on a 100 pound scale and bottomed out the scale! Wes is 6’2″ and weighs 340 pounds and this fish STILL looks HUGE!!!
PHOTO 2: MORE BIRTHDAY JACK! Here’s the rest of the story. This bad boy bit a sardine on a little 1/0 hook and Wes fought it out of the rocks for 2 1/2 hours on 25 pound test!!! Quite an accomplishment. After this, Wes didn’t want to fish another day. He also got dorado and rock fish as well. Great birthday fish!

DORADO FINALLY KICK IT UP A NOTCH WITH MARLIN STILL MILLING ABOUT!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for July 15, 2007

PHOTO 3: Las Arenas started kicking out more of the “right kind” of dorado this past week. Here’s a slugger bull dorado being held by “Pirate” Ed Santillan of Mira Loma CA. Punta Coyote is in the background. These bulls were sometimes freeswimmers but other times, you hopped from buoy to buoy hoping to hit the right one. You could hit 10 and find nothing or hit the right one and watch the waters explode with fish fighting to get to your bait!

PHOTO 5: These were some of the funniest guys we’ve had in a long time. Great times whenever they’re around. Here, Albert Salazar, Mike Sergiuff, Oscar Howard and Gerry Burford strike a dorado pose for us. All the guys are from the San Gabriel Valley area near Los Angeles.

PHOTO 6: Ricky Fraysure from Palmdale CA has one of the best eating fish around right now. He’s holding a big African pompano. These fishe are just about 30 yards off the beach in front of the Arenas light house and have a propensity to eat a sardine with a small weight atached. This fish is huge. Ricks a big guy and this thing is the size of an XL pizza plate that feeds 10 people.

PHOTO 7 : It’s been a great week for striped marlin around here. Multiple hook ups and multiple sightings every day. Somedays they won’t eat and others…they almost attack the boat. More than once this past week, anglers told me they were hooked up to one or two only to have others circling the boat at the same time! Most are fortunately being released.

PHOTO 8: Bob Gonzalez (right) came down this week and told me, “I just really want to catch at least ONE dorado! I’ve never caught one. If I catch just one, it will make my trip!” Well, he got more than just one. He put quite a few fillets in the ice chest. Norm Schickling shares the Kodak moment with a couple of excellent bull mahi.

PHOTO 9 : Sometimes the rookies do the best! Bill Johnson from Running Springs CA (left) and Steve Robles (right) openly told everyone, “We don’t know what the heck we’re doing! We’ll be happy to catch needlefish!” Well, on their first day each of them spent 45 minutes on each of these nice bulls in a double-hook up. “I was so tired! Crazy fish kept going round and round the boat!” said Steve. Captain Francisco stands front and center.

PHOTO 9: This is Jerry Mason’s lure showing what teeth can do to a purple Rapala! These are the big Rapalas’ I’ve been telling you to bring down for months! Jerry said it took one wahoo, but two big amberjack. This is the lure you want to keep! The more scars the better! If it’s not broke…don’t fix it!!!

PHOTO 10: Everyone asks, “What’s an amberjack?” and “What does it taste like?” Well, if you like yellowtail as a sportfish or as eating fish or you enjoy yellowtail (hamachi) at your favorite sushi restaurant…that’s AMBERJACK! The Mexicans call it “Pez Fuerte” (the strong fish) and these bronze bulldozers run from 5 to over 100 pounds and are the big cousins to yellowtail. The meat is fuller and more flavorful as it eats a variety of foods including…well, just about anything it wants like clams, mussels, crabs, lobsters, other fish….so the meat reflects all these great flavors. Dorothy Danielson of Palmdale CA put the hurt to this big boy. Captain Jaibo looks on. Dorothy got this amber off the islands. Amberjack have been a great surprise these past few weeks.

PHOTO 11: Steve Artis was one of our first guys to sign up his reservations this year. He and his amigos really worked hard at their fishing and hung tough. Steve came from Antioch CA and holds the kind of bull dorado we’ve been known for, but have been elusive until recently as waters finally started to warm. Las Arenas waters are a good 5 degrees warmer than the waters north of La Paz which only finally turned blue.

PHOTO 12: Two sea turtles doing the “wild thing.” Absolutely no privacy these days! Unfortunately, on the darker side, these guys are endangered and even possessing a single turtle egg can result in a year in a Mexican jail. But that does not stop folks from killing and selling both the turtles and their eggs which are considered a delicacy. Turtles just doing their onw thing on the surface are especially vulnerable. The only think taken were some great photos.

PHOTO 13: Abolutely no reason for this photo other than it’s another “day at the office” and a beautiful Sea of Cortez sunrise to be thankful for with friends and family and a promising day of fishing.

PHOTO 14: Bob Ames from Texas was on his first trip with us here to La Paz and had his hands full with this jack crevalle or “toro” (bull) as the Mexicans call it for it’s feistyness. They don’t taste good, but they make up for it in brute fishing strength. Famous Captain Jorge smiles from behind.

PHOTO 15: This is Harriet. She’s with Bob, above! She’s from Texas too and Jorge is helping here with another of these great jack crevalle. Schools of these jacks up to 30 pounds have been rampaging in front of the Las Arenas beaches especially near the old lighthouse.

THE FISH REPORT

Fishing definitely got better this week as waters warmed and we lost some of the green currents that hurt us for several weeks. Lots of marlin in the area and it was not uncommon for the pangas to get multiple strikes although at times numerous marlin simply teased the boat and swam away. Dorado were biting better for both our Las Arenas and La Paz fleet. It’s still behind the curve of what we normally see, but there was a marked increase as the week went on. Lots of wahool still swimming around the S.end of Cerralvo Island, but sometimes that’s all they did was swim and not bite! Pargo, cabrila, amberjack and roosters still offering great action inshore.

Overall, I would have to say that early in the week, Las Arenas was the place to fish. Waters were easily warmer by a good 3-4 degrees around that south side of Cerralvo Island. As a result…The bite was simply more consistent and there was alot more variety. No particular fish was wide open, but as you walked the beach, you’d see that boats would have some dorado, the occasional tuna, some billfish, amberjack (see the photos above!), pompano, roosterfish, pargo, some wahoo, cabrila, jack crevalle, etc. It was a good mix. If you were out at the buoys and hit the right buoy, you could easily slam some 30-50 pound dorado. The secret was hitting the RIGHT buoy that was holding fish. There’s something like 80 buoys just offshore. You could hit 20 and find nothing, but the boat ahead of you goes to buoy 21 and finds all the fish YOU were looking for. Luck of the draw.

As the week went on, the La Paz area finally got into the program. Most of the week, it was picky. A few dorado. Quite a few marlin, but not much consistent action although alot of guys hooked their first marlin with alot of stripers. Fortunately, many of the fish were released because sometimes a boat would hook 3 or 4 stripers. The bad thing… However, that could be the ONLY bite of the day with dorado going lockjaw most of the week. Later in the week, the waters got warmer and bluer and the dorado finally jumped in and boats on the weekend hit their pace with much much better dorado action with bigger and more fish and boat taking limits or near limits. We don’t do much trolling, but many of the larger fish were taking trolling feathers or slabs of fresh bonito.

It’s HOT down here! Bring the sunscreen and big hats! I kid you not!!! It may not feel like it, but it’s 100-104 right now. It doesn’t feel like it on the water, but believe me, it sucks it outta you so drink alot of water and lather the sunscreen. I’m seeing alot of macho guys who think they “never burn” fishing without their shirts all day who turn to lobsters and pay dearly for showing off their torsos all day. It’s not fun! Sunburn hurts!

DELTA AIRLINES

OK…this is getting old. I’ve been writing about this for months and guys still show up surprised.

1. Delta airlines IS charging for rod tubes if you’ve already checked-in two bags. It’s $100 bucks EACH way!!!! Combine as many rods in a tube as you can. The folks are the check-in desk…frankly suck. I’m sorry. Sometimes they charge and the next person doesn’t get charged. There’s no rhyme or reasons. I’ve heard them tell people that they charge if the tube is over 84 inches. I’ve heard them tell people they charge if it’s over 60 inches…even if it’s not your third piece of luggage. I heard one story from an angler who was simply told that his 7 foot tube was not going to be allowed at all…”because it won’t fit in the plane!” SAY WHAT???? Just be prepared. Argue at the counter. Tell ’em their idiots. They are. Even old Aero California was not this bad.

2. Delta Airlines stands for Don’t Expect Luggage To Arrive. It also means Delta Scare-lines! It seems that every single flight arrives and several people do not have their luggage. Delta routinely lightens their plane by taking luggage off. Yes…OFF!!! Or, once they are full, that’s it. The rest of the luggage has to wait for the next plane. Do not be one of those people. Be the FIRST in line.

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 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.”

SUMMER TRAVEL HEADS UP!

Originally published week of July 9, 2007 in Western Outdoor News

I’m writing this and it’s 4th of July and I am jones-ing for a good old fashioned patriotic parade with flag waving, fried chicken, potato salad and barbecued corn and of course, fireworks. I never get to see that anymore. Say what you will about all the problems in the U.S., but from down here in Baja looking in, the U.S. still has it going on in spades. Judge a country by how many people want to get in! Much to be thankful for.

Now that the kids are outta school, summer vacation is in full swing and the bite finally seems to be on, let me throw some travel tips your way regarding Delta Airlines. We were really excited when Delta decided to bring flights into Baja. Good solid airline finally! Well, I don’t know wassup with them, but I think they are having some problems. I still have nightmares about all the problems last year with Aero California.

If you are travelling in September or October of this year on Delta, check your tickets and give your agent a call. Out of the blue, Delta canceled and changed many of it’s flights in the fall.

Interestingly, there was nothing on it’s website and several travel agents we contacted knew nothing about it. So, we got a hold of Delta’s Atlanta office. The initial agent knew nothing, but when we spoke with a supervisor, she was also surprised but after checking confirmed, “You’re right. We have canceled flights!” Oops!

Fortunately, most have not been canceled, but many more have had schedule changes or are no longer non-stop. You should check just to be safe. I’ve had several clients get refunds and book alternative flights.

Another heads up. In the last month, I have never seen an airlines lose so much luggage or plain even forget people! Even old Aero Cal wasn’t this bad when Cal’s poor service was so legendary that they got to be known as “Aero Maybe” and “Aero Scare-O” even by the Baja locals.

So many flights seem to be having trouble with missing luggage. I use the term “missing” loosely. It’s hard to call it “losing” sometimes. I don’t know if airlines are merely trying to save fuel costs or simply doesn’t anticipate that guys flying to the Baja are fishermen with ice chests and fishing rods, but some anglers have actually been sitting on the plane ready to take off and seen their ice chest and rods removed from the plane.

Some planes arrive and many of the anglers find that many of the ice chests and tubes have been left behind. That’s not “misplaced.” When one guy’s stuff doesn’t make the flight, that’s “misplaced.” When 20 guys arrive home without their rods, that’s a different story!

Insult to injury, some airlines (not all) charge as much as $100 for extra luggage and rod tubes! This is also happening for flights returning to the states as well. Ice chests filled with fish and tubes packed with rods, never make it back until days later. That does wonders for frozen fish.

As one of my amigos explained to me , who is himself a commercial airline pilot for another carrier, the planes are already packed to the max coming in. If you think about it, a Baja fisherman is now 30, 40, 50 pounds heavier with fish on the way out! He told me that it’s harder for a plane to lift off in hot weather so adjustments have to be made. Your tube full of sticks gets taken off or, heaven forbid, your ice chest full of fillets! It’s not like your trip to Alaska where fish boxes can be kept chilled at the airports.

Tips:

Be early. Last in line stands the great chance of not getting your luggage.
Put tags on all your luggage
Carry on all important documents, medicines, money or important items. Don’t check them in.
Combine as many rods into a tube as possible so you’re not paying extra when you don’t need to

I’m not saying don’t fly. Ninety-nine percent never have problems, but I’d hate for you to be one of the unlucky ones. Just be aware so as to minimalize any potential hitches in your flights down here to Baja so you have a great vacation.

Happy 4th of July everyone. Save me some potato salad. I’ll bring you up-to-date on Shark Norma developments next column. Getting ugly.

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

PHOTO 1: What a gem of a photo and fish! No lie…we had it on a scale. This is what a 60 pound wahoo looks like! Johnny Bartee from Glendora CA is given an assist on the left by Alan Isham of Pomona CA (check out his cool shirt…”I see dead fish!”). This neat fish was taken off Las Arenas dragging the rapala you see still hanging from the mouth. It was certainly a good week for wahoo for our Las Arenas fleet although as the week went on, fishing got a bit tougher.

WEEK STARTS GOOD BUT FULL MOON, GREEN WATER, LOTS OF WATER TRAFFIC AND WINDS HAMPER THE BITE!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for July 1, 2007

Photo 2: Some really nice wahoo this week for our Las Arenas folks! Jeff Sakuda from Monterey Park comes down 3 times a year and always does well with Captain Jorge. Check out the nice wahoo. The wahoo continued to show a preference for trolled dark Rapalas and Yozuri Magnums.

PHOTO 3: OK…just had to put this in. It’s me and I do not have a hat or my bandana on so don’t be writing me about it! That’s not the point! Len and Cheryl Atkinson brought me THREE In-N-Out double-double animal style burgers in vacuum sealed bags! As much as I love Mexican food, sometimes you just GOTTA eat something not wrapped in a tortilla and covered with salsa! If only there was a way to get the hot french fries down here!

PHOTO 4: The dorado were hit and miss this week after two weeks of pretty solid fishing. The dorado bite got a bit picky. Lots of small fish, but occasionally some sweet mahi like this bull held up by our amiga “camp counselor” Marianne Sugawara from Cerritos CA. Marianne had a good few days of fishing including nailing a wahoo.

PHOTO 5: Danny Kadota, famous S.California sportfishing captain and ex-rep for Loomis rods (now with Quantum) and his brother Steve, love fishing inshore for pargo, jacks and other species. They nailed these nice amberjack in the shallows. Despite the fact that it’s July, inshore fishing remains steady for amberjack, pargo, roosterfish, cabrilla and even the occasional sierra! If you want action, just tell your skipper you want to chase some of these bad boys in the rocks!

PHOTO 6: Here’s a great story. Kasidy and Cassi Manhart came all the way from Utah. Their plane forgot them (Delta) AND lost their luggage too! But, both came with great attitudes (and Cassi is also pregnant with their first!) and they wacked fish! They got a number of species which was incredible for first times. On these wahoo…people come for years and never even get a wahoo to sniff. These two were trolling about 5 minutes into the day when WHACK! One rod goes off. While one of them is fighting it the other lure just happened to be sitting dead in the water when the second wahoo came up and blew it apart!

PHOTO 7 : It’s impossible not to post up this photo. Dorado fishing kinda tapered a bit. There’s alot of them out there the last few days, but they weren’t always very cooperative and many of those that were caught were too small to be worth keeping so thankfully, guys were throwing them back…that’s how small they were. Kasidy had no problem with this big bull. Live bait and trolled feathers did the best on these larger fish this week.

PHOTO 8: Hector Chacon from the San Gabriel Valley area in S.California came down with his family. They took two boats out one day. Fishing stunk. Nothing. Zero. Then, Hector remembered that his wife had packed BANANAS in the ice chest. He remembered that I said bananas are bad luck. So, he tossed all the bananas into the ocean. Within minutes they were hooked up. Bonito, dorado and even a mako shark were hooked. They yelled over to his father’s boat to “THROW AWAY THE BANANAS!” But, it was too late. The other boat got skunked.

“I still can’t believe we fell victim to the banana curse ! I couldn’t get what was happening, that morning, all three of our trolling lines got snagged not once but twice ! We finally threw some live bait and got lots of action but could not hook anything except a baby dorado which we let go. Finally I remembered that we had brought bananas for the kids to snack on and told my wife and daughter, to throw them over board. Not five minutes later two bonita’s hit our feathers. They became bait which enabled us to hook a small shark, and two dorado,” said Hector.

PHOTO 10: We encourage the release of our billfish, but sometimes the fish dies and it can’t be released. The meat is never wasted! For both our La Paz and Las Arenas fleet, they are seeing tons of marlin out here, but they don’t often go for the bait or lures. Other times, they charge the boat like mad dogs. I’m happy to say that we’re releasing about 85 percent of our billfish catch. This sailfish was caught by Captain Victor and John Berry, from Los Angeles, who owns the Big Fish Electric Company.

PHOTO 11: Like I said, considering we’re deep into summer (It’s in the 100’s already), the inshore fishing is still pretty strong for some great eaters. Rob Marcereau from Newport Beach CA poses with a colorful red snapper perfect for the barbecue. You can tell some of the water is still on the cooler side that so many of these are still inshore.
PHOTO 12: Chris Sena from Lafayette CA hung this big headed wahoo with our Las Arenas fleet. That’s S.Cerralvo Island in the background. There were a few days early in the week where there were spots of wahoo so thick and free-swimming that the commercial pangeros were actually harpooning them with sharpened rebar tied to a rope! Talk about cowboy fishing!

PHOTO 13: Tony Adamich and Brendan hold a pargo, a tuna and a striped marlin. I’ll let Tony tell it: “…in two days we caught eight Dorado, 5 tuna, 3 Red Snapper and too many dorado to even count and released…and that was during a supposed slow week.”

PHOTO 14: Folks ask about flyfishing all the time down here and it’s getting more and more popular. Chris Anderson from Brentwood CA shows the power of our fish. He hooked a striped marlin on his flyrod and fought it for quite sometime. That is…until the marlin straightened the hook! Epic! I believe he told me it was a Gamakatsu or Owner hook which are some of the strongest you can tie on!

THE FISH REPORT:

For once, maybe the photos don’t tell all the story. Some great fish caught, no doubt, but most of the time this week, we really had to work at it.

It wasn’t easy. You could work it all over the ocean and then hit a productive spot at the very end or nothing at all. It was weird. If you fish a couple of days, everyone still got fish and believe me there were some banner wahoo, billfish, dorado and roosters caught, but if you were only fishing one day…you could hit a rough spot!

Normally at this time, we’re pretty much great guns on the dorado and most of the bluewater species, but lingering winds pushed up some cold green waters from down deep turning much of the water chilly. Let me put it this way. On the surface, it would be 80 degrees but only 15 or 20 feet below, there’s a thermocline that’s 65 degrees and COLD!

The fish are confused or lockjawed! The water temps change from day to day almost and you could see dozens of marlin sitting lazily on the surface or else tons of dorado that won’t bite. The next day at the same spot it’s utter chaos! It’s just really hard to know.

Cold green water combined with a few other factors as well…I hate to admit it, but this WAS the full moon plus there’s a ton of water traffic out there. As the week went on we started out with some pretty decent fishing but as the weekend drew nearer and the city got more crowded so did the traffic on the water PLUS there was a big local dorado tournament over the weekend.

None of these things by itself would have done much to impact the fish, but all together…the put a whammy on the bite!

But, enough of the negative…here’s some positive stuff…

1. At Las Arenas, our fleets still got some great inshore fishing for pargo, amberjack, roosters and jack crevalle as well as big bonito plus offshore species like wahoo and dorado. It’s not wide open, but this past week, Las Arenas was the better place to be so we switched alot of our clients over to Las Arenas. There’s definitely more action at Las Arenas.

2. Marlin marlin marlin…everywhere. Sometimes the bite and other times you’d think you threw a stinky sock at them. They swim away Of the ones we have hooked this week, most are getting released but our biggest was a 350 pounder and a 150. Many first timers hooked their first marlin this week.

4. Lots of mako sharks around. Great eating and we’re putting a few on the boat, but most times, they bite through the line like it was a wet noodle.

5. More sargasso weed buildging up which heralds some great dorado season upcoming

6. Bait has been tougher to get with the winds so get loaded; get on board; be the first one to get to the fishing grounds. That means if you dawdle, you might be SOL on getting bait.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

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

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“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: NOM-029 is the official designation for the Shark Norma legislation that allows commercial boats to lay long lines closer to shore and keep and sell all by-catch.