La Paz/Muertos Report April 6th, 2008

Keone · 04-07-2008, 05:50 PM

PHOTO 1: The "right kind!" This is Kevin Beehn from South San Francisco CA. Kevin has been in our pages before. He's holding an El Bajo yellowtail caught this week on the seamount north of town. For the good part of last week, the winds stayed down allowing access to the distant high spots which has kicked out a consistent bite almost ever day...as long as the winds stayed down.

PHOTO 2: Two yellowtail taken by Monica who is Kevin's girlfriend from S. San Fransisco and holds up two that are almost as heavy as she is. Big fish continued to come from the area north of La Paz in perhaps the best bite of yellowtail in recent memory.

PHOTO 3: Here's Kevin again. Two more fish. Had to include this one just 'cuz I like when people take different photos with a sense of humor! Thanks, Kevin!

PHOTO 4: Cary McDermott of Las Vegas NV put this toad yellowtail on board the panga when he fished off Punta Perrico south of La Paz just outside of Muertos Bay.

PHOTO 5: Here's a fish we chase and hook, but don't often put in the boat! This is a pargo liso or "mullet snapper." Schools of these badboys are roaming the shallows in their annual spawn. This is an "average" fish. Larger fish are rarely taken simply because they go right into the rocks. Mike Mattes of the San Fernando Valley area near Los Angeles jumped in his plane on a spur-of-the-moment-trip to get in on the yellowtail and pargo fishing.

PHOTO 6: Lots of Oregon folks down here and others from the Pacific Northwest soaking up sunshine right now. Nathan and Ryan Tarbet from Portland OR, came down for a week with their family and got a variety of fish including some big yellowtail like this one off Punta Perrico.

PHOTO 7: Glen McCarthy from Las Vegas ripped up a nice sierra here. Quite a few sierra are still in the area despite warming waters. Great eating and excellent fighters with a mout full of sharp teeth, sierra are an excellent game fish and table fare despite being members of the mackerel family.

PHOTO 8: One of our favorite Oregon amigos, Bruce Tarbet goes a little sideways on us to show off a nice jack crevalle ("toro") he took. Schools of these feisty fish are up in the shallow waters offshore right now.

PHOTO 9: Just to show you the incredible variety, roosterfish have also come into the picture now. Captain Gerardo hold up a good roosterfish that Diane Tarbet caught on a day out've Muertos Bay. The roosters came a little earlier this year. Diane is from Portland OR.

MORE THAN A DOZEN VARIETIES OF FISH MARK THE WEEK WITH YELLOWTAIL, PARGO, ROOSTERS and even some DORADO (yes, that's right!) ON THE BITE!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for April 6, 2008

I guess this is one of those weeks, when I'll let the photos above do the talking!

For some folks it's probably some of the best fishing ever. Big yellowtail continued on the non-windy days north of town at the El Bajo Seamount, but with diminishing winds it allows us to check out other areas as well.

North Point at the north end of Cerralvo Island, the La Reyna light house, Punta Perrico, the Rock Highway (S. Cerralvo) and some others all produced fish this week. At times, it was a pick bite but on others, anglers described big fish simply "foaming" on the surface.

Not every day and every location was full turbo on the yellowtail, but there was enough action on enough other species to give everyone opportunities to get fish. Albeit, even if they weren't the big sluggers, there were still big pargo...sierra...skipjack...snapper...cabrilla...j ack crevalle...big eye jacks...pompano...and others! One day, I counted more than 15 species taken and not a needlefish in the bunch. If you were a light tackle angler these are some of the most sought after species on the light sticks and line.

However...that's also undergunned for most of these fish...You want the bigger artillery.

Heavy line and fluro leaders are still the inside track to the bigger fish, but Rapalas and slow trolled BIG live bait also produced panga- stopping strikes!

On the days when the wind blew, the bite dropped off and winds hampered fishing later in the week. However, overall, not many complaints about the fishing....

Oh... as I was going to press on this fishing report, we had some EARLY season bull dorado caught as well this week and 1 marlin hook up. This is dynamite winds as this means perhaps warmer water species are coming early!

That's my story! Have a great week

Jonathan