PHOTO 1: You've seen these two guys before. They are regular poster children with Tailhunter International because they always do so well AND take great photos. Mitch Chavira and Charlie McGhee from San Diego area are holding a few of their many yellowtail they took fishing over several days down here.
PHOTO 2: Fresh off the rail...Punta Perrico in the background. Mitch and Charlie hold two more forkies.
PHOTO 3: This is what the term "mossback" means. It's the dark green/emerald back of a big old yellowtail. Also called "homeguards" because they don't seem to migrate as much and hold "down home" in the rocks and other areas where they grow big and mean!
PHOTO 4: Helmut Tutass from the S.F. Bay area is a professional commercial diver up there and came down for some sunshine. He stands here with Captain Victor on the beach at Muertos holding a nice yellowtail.
PHOTO 6: Helmut Tutass and his wife, Mary, also spent a day fishing north of La Paz and hit El Bajo Seamount where he got 6 yellowtail and 3 other broke off.
YELLOWTAIL EXPLODE NORTH OF LA PAZ AS EL BAJO LIVES UP TO ITS REPUTATION!
La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Sunday March 30, 2007
Sure....here you go... it;s kinda hard to believe, but let me put this into context...
Normally, La Paz isn't exactly Yellowtail Central. We get our share, but the normal Meccas for yellowtail are north of here in Loreto, Mulege, Santa Rosalia, Bay of L.A., etc. Normally, when we do get the yellows, it's in late March or April.
This year, they started two months ago and the bite has just gotten better. As winter winds have given way, the yellowtail have come on like gangbusters. The initial bite was mostly off Bahia de Los Muertos in the shallow rocky waters just off Punta Perrico not 5 minutes away from where our panga fleets leave the beach. Unlike early fish, these fish kicked right off the bat with 30 and 40 pound sluggers!
And it got better from there. As the winds diminished, other spots north of La Paz around Cerralvo Island and Espiritu Santo Island joined the fray. Some days are better than others, but overall, this is possibly the best yellowtail bite we've seen in years. At El Bajo yellowtail, normally deep fish, are crashing and foaming on the surface chasing baits with bird diving on the melee. At La Reyna north of Cerralvo, the lighthouse and other high spots are producing fish tickling the 50 pound mark on big baits and iron. And, the original spot between Muertos Bay and Las Arenas seems to have that same school holding and holding. These fish are not line shy and have been hitting, 40, 50 and 60 pound test, but probably 50 percent or more of the fish are rocking anglers or busting them off. The key is to get out early and get to the fish first and before the sun gets too high.
For about 3 or 4 days this past week, the bite was just solid. El Bajo, especially, north of town was producing 5-10 fish per boat. with anglers telling me that they lost almost as many. Several rods got busted. Literally snapped. As one angler told me, "I had my Shimano 30 buttoned down in full drag with 60 pound test and could NOT stop the fish!" Another wasn't ready when he got hit and was almost yanked over the side had the captain not grabbed him.
The La Paz side was definitely the hot spot this past week, but as we got into the weekend, perhaps because of more traffic on the spot, the bite slowed. For our hot spot at Muertos, the yellows were not quite so thick...at least, not as many fish were put on the boat, but....whoaaaa...the pargo jumped into the gap!
The pargo have been getting ignored, but they came on strong this week. Lots of hookups on BIG fish, but not many made it to the boats. Perhaps 1 fish out've 10-15 hook ups! That's how powerful these fish are! But, we also had good light tackle action on a variety of other species including sierrra, big eye jacks, jack crevalle, pompano and roosterfish, not to mention bonito and skip jack. All-in-all, a pretty good week!
Tell ya what...if you're coming down...here's some tips..heavy short rods...40-60 pound test...flurocarbon leaders in 30-80 pound diameters are working well.
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
This is what Mitch Chavira had to say:
"These fish are brute's and you gotta pick up the Pace. Pro or not, if you hook a big guy and he's close to the rocks it's all you can do to stop em. You need luck and experience. We did well with our loss ratio at Punta Perrico but it was much tougher at El Bajo. The day we got 12, we were rocked on about 35% of our bites. It was a very steady bite all day. We played around with some A & B testing of fluorocarbon vs. mono and various line weights, 30, 40, 60 and it didn't seem to matter. The key to getting bit is to watch the water for boils, and chum like crazy. You gotta get em going and get bit near the surface to have the best shot at boating these slugs. We were also using short stout rods with A LOT of back bone. If you cant show these toads who's boss from the get go, you're in trouble. I think the ideal line would be 50lb maxima ultra green on a small two speed like a Shimano TLD 20 or a star drag Trinidad 40."
This is Charlie's take on it:
"We fished an hour earlier than anyone else every day and we fished twice one day. In fact, I would recommend that you put your costumers on your first boats out at Muetros as the bite is very short lived and always shut down around 8:30 when we were there. We fished with 40# Floro for the first three days at Muertos. No real problem with the rocks as the captains pull the fish into the deep water. When we got out to El Bajo, I decided to see if Floro mattered. I silently went to straight tie. No difference! It makes me think that 60 might be the call at el Bajo as the rocks got all the big ones. (You need to button it down and pull! There are some big fish there just waiting to be caught). We fished with Mustads. I think I am totally over the Owner and Gamagatsu thang! $4.95 for a pack of 20 hooks is just right for me. I'm sorry but those hooks don't make you a better fisherman.As far as iron is concerned, I am an iron guy and I tried like hell to catch a fish on iron. I hooked one on surface iron, throwing into a boil. Nothing on yoyo (iron)."
Thanks, guys!
That's my story!
Jonathan
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