La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for Sunday May 4, 2008
PHOTO 2: One of our poster-boy regulars over the years is Marty Johnson of Atascadero CA. I think he's caught about everything that has eye-balls and a face down here in our waters and comes each year specifically looking for something new. Here he holds up some of our inshore species...a barred pargo on the left (pargo mulatto) and a china maru (China face) on the right. Both great eating fish. Marty loves the flyrod and light tackle, but put them down and pulled a rapala through the rocks to get those two.
PHOTO 3: Not so many of the big pargo this week. Part of it was windier and roughter waters. Part of it was a lack of luck and fishing experience among anglers and some was just plain nastiness of these big snapper! However, Don Winklepleck from FLA holds up a slugger pargo liso.
PHOTO 4: No shortage of roosterfish for sure. All sizes and shapes. There are so many in some spots they foam to get the baits. Most are released with some of the smaller ones taken for the table which make pretty good frying or sauteeing!
PHOTO 5: Some days there are so many little roosters, they are like hungry little puppies. Other day, the big baja bad boys cruise the shores like this 50 pound class rooster Doug Shearer got fishing with Capt. Victor. You can often see these characters just on the edge of the schools of smaller fish. One of our clients, Carter Crossland (photos above) was in the middle of the smaller roosters, but had hooked a sierra mackere. Just as he was about to pull the sierra to the boat, a rooster estimated at 50 pounds came up and wolfed the sierra! Hook up on the big rooster, but Carter had on the light tackle so it didn't last long, but that's just insane fishing!
PHOTO 6: Dave Elliot and Eric Massey, hold up one of those monster pargo that are lurking off Punta Perrico and the SE corner of Cerralvo Island right now. Despite winds, they got int a variety of species, but none better than a prized pargo liso. These are hooked every day, but few are landed.
PHOTO 7 and 8 : I couldn't ignore these photos by Brent Wisniewski from Oregon. At just the right moment he hit the shutter button and caught this sailfish hooked by Pat Ireton as the fish came out of calm water and tail walked. There's quite a few billfish considering how early in the season it is. One day you'll se dozens and they won't eat a thing. The next day they are fighting to get a single piece of bait on your hook!
PHOTO 9: Yes, the rumors are true. This old guy can still catch a fish now and then. There's a spot in front of Boca de Alamo we found about 2 weeks ago. Unlimited light tackle small roosters for HOURS!!! Catch and release as fast as you can go. (But there's bigger ones hanging on the fringe, but the punk fish zip in too fast!). Anyway, I threw a white and fluro orange splasher with a small Krocodile into the melee and the fish exploded on it. This was the lucky guy...who was lucky I wasn't hungry because this size is very good eating. We released about 30 of them this round.
PHOTO 10: Texan Rob Burns showing off again the incredible variety right now. Here he holds up a toad of an African pompano. Super fighter. Great eating. Busts your chops on light tackle and capable of snapping a rod with burst of speed. Look at this guy...he still looks pissed off (the fish, not the angler!)
VIDEOS OF THE WEEK!
Click on these links to check out our video clips from the week!
1. Weekly round up of variety:
2. Sherry and Carter Crossland were hot sticks:
THE FISHING REPORT:
I won't lie. It wasn't spectacular fishing this week. It was VERY good fishing, but not like it had been with the big pargo and giant yellowtail. In fact, I'd say the great yellowtail bite of 2008 is probably over as water warm.
But...
Dang...when it was good it was good! If you wanted action, this was an incredible week when almost every bait that hit the water some days blew up with something. There were some rough spots and some days that the fish were a bit stingy, but over all, if you put in a few days at the rail, there was some good rod-bending to be had.
I lost count of some of the species... dorado, small yellowail. some marlin, some sailfish, cabrilla, sierra, big eye jacks, bonito, skipjack, roosterfish, rainbow runners, jack crevalle, barred pargo, yellow snapper, pargo liso, sabalo, pompano, china maru, chilecanos...what variety!
The biggest detriment was that there were times this week when it was too windy to go outside to the dorado or marlin spots. For sure...we almost did NOT fish the La Paz side because winds produced mostly a long boat ride for only a few yellowtail, cabrilla and alot of bonito. Almost all our fishing was from the Muertos/ Las Arenas side where even if the wind was blowing, at least the fish were close up and not to far away.
The other part is that not every fish bit every day. One day the yellowtail would foam, but the next it would be sierra day or roosterfish day. If you went out to the yellowtail spot. you might have a bum day. The guys who went for roosters or sierra would've had a banner day!
Live bait and small rapalas did the most damage. Flurocarbon leaders were definitely bit more than standard mono. Flyrodders and light tackle guys had a ball. We didn't catch alot of the big pargo this week, but that's also because so many continued to be lost in the rocks.
Water temps are moving up! Air temps are in the mid-90's now.
ALASKA AIR REDUCES RATES FOR LIMITED TIME!
Alaska Air announced another surprise sale. For a limited time, fares have dropped almost half for flights here to La Paz. Alaska flies Monday/ Wednesday and Saturaday. Seats must be purchased by May 8 and used before June 25. Their phone is 1-800- AlaskaAir. Jump on these. Seats are limted and so are our spots here for boats and rooms.
That's my story!
Jonathan
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