La Paz/Las Arenas Fleet Report July 20th, 2008

Keone · 07-20-2008, 12:44 PM

PHOTO 1: What a week for dorado! And it wasn't even full-turbo yet...it's just getting started, but take a look at some of these photos! There's some big fish running through here and here's a perfect example. Cheryl Atkinson rolled up on this 50 pound class dorado and is seen here with popular Captain Jorge with our Las Arenas Fleet. Cheryl is also one of our favorites and always does well. Scroll down and see what her husband, Len, caught!

DORADO AND BILLFISH RIP UP ANGLERS IN SOLID WEEK OF FISHING DESPITE RAINS AND CLOUDY SKIES...and EVEN A FULL MOON!

La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of July 12-19, 2008

PHOTO 2: Darned good week for marlin and sailfish. David Wight of Torrance was on his first trip with us. He nailed the dorado and got his first two marlin as well. One was released, this 300 pound blue marlin was fought for 90 minutes. Captain Miguel with our La Paz Fleet stands by. All the meat was donated to families.

PHOTO 3: Yes...spearfishers rock! Jeff Saito, Craig Nunokawa and Corey Fujita spent a week with us. Jeff and Craig are from Maui, Hawaii. Corey is from Torrance CA. These guys blew up the schools of amberjack (big cousins to yellowtail). Here, they hold up just a few of the big jacks they speared off the El Bajo Seamount north of La Paz. Spearfishing in Mexico is an incredible atheltic sport. This is all free-diving. No scuba tanks allowed! (MORE PHOTOS BELOW)

PHOTO 4: Our buddy, Len Atkinson, comes down here to La Paz with his wife, Cheryl (see photo 1) several times a year. He's always after a wahoo and so far has been unsuccessful. Well, this week he finally got one. But look closely! No one could believe the size of this wahoo! Normally, they're 40, 50...80 pounders. This little guy is about 2 feet long and hit a lure half his size! The wahoo are still out there at the south end of Cerralvo Island for our Las Arenas fleet.

PHOTO 5: One more big big bull dorado. Steve Vetrone from Monrovia CA came down for his annual summer-time trip and got into our dorado bite this past week as well. The fish are eating a variety of baits including mackerel, caballitos, sardines, stripped bait, whole small bonito and feathers.

PHOTO 6: Dave Flake from Temecula CA hold up his big bull dorado just out've the water. Great colors! Dave's the author of a number of thriller books and his book, "Tight Genes" about genetic engineering with an NFL football team is not only a great read, but is being made into a movie to be released in 2009. This was Dave's first trip with us as well.

PHOTO 6: James King from San Antonio, Texas fished off Espiritu Santo Island for this dorado. The schools are congregated in several spots north and East of La Paz.

PHOTO 7: Kodak moment for father and son. Roger Hall and his son, James, were on their first trip from Oregon down to see us. James got his first marlin as well as this bull dorado just a tad larger than dad's bull.

PHOTO 8: From San Bernardino CA, these are the Antillon boys...Merle, Jr (13)...Merle, Sr....and David (11). The boys had never caught anything larger than a trout from the mountains near their home in S.California, but got two solid days of dorado fishing in plus dad got a marlin.

PHOTO 9: Just a pretty shot of a hooked dorado getting some air. Merle Antillon (photo above) got this nice shot.

PHOTO 10: Dorado trifecta! S.Californians... Bill Swan (Santa Ana), Mark Grant (Downey)and Abe Favela (Baldwin Park) were all down on their first run with us. All bull dorado taken north of La Paz.

PHOTO 11: Craig Nunokawa from Maui, Hawaii...showing how it's done underwater with an amberjack he just speared.

PHOTO 12: Craig Nunokawa and Jeff Saito both from Hawaii pose with some of the larger amberjack they shot this past week.

PHOTO 13: Cari Casillas and Captain Victor representing! Cari gives the thumbs up on a tough jack crevalle. The jacks are still along the shorelines near the beaches and although they might not taste good, always put up excellent blazing fights.

PHOTO 14: "Iron"Dan Aguilar (left) from Riverside CA gets a hand from Captain Alfredo and somewhere behind the fish with his gut poking out is Captain Jacobo with this big time bull dorado. What a week.

THE WEEK IN VIDEO

My video footage this week wasn't very good...pilot error! So, I put basically the whole week of images on a video for you. Check it out. Turn up the sound!

Small warning...yes, you will see some billfish hung up.
Four were taken this week. The biggest one and one of the smaller ones, all the meat was donated. We realeased 8 other fish.

YouTube - Tailhunter Fishing for week of July 12-19, 2008

THE FISHING REPORT
I guess you can tell by the great photos...DORADO WEEK!!!! Except for about 1 day when it an unexpected summer storm hit us with some rain (we still fished and still got fish) and the day after when the waters were settling down (we still got fish)...it was a solid week of dorado fishing.

As you can see from the photos, there were some good bulls caught with the largest bottoming-out a 50 pound scale! But lots of fish in the 30 pounds class mixed in with smaller fish. This also resulted in a pretty good week for billfish with blues, blacks, stripers and sailfish breezing through and perhaps drawn to the area by the large number of dorado and bonito to eat like a big buffet line.

The fishing zones extended from as far north as El Bajo Seamount north of Espiritu Santo Island down to the "gap" between the south end of Espiritu Santo and north Cerralvo Island down through the channel between Cerralvo Island off Las Cruces where sargasso patches were gathering and holding fish...all the way down to Las Arenas and outside to the buoys. So much for full-moon worries!

As well, roosterfish were still hugging the beaches plus pargo, some late season yellowtail, cabrilla and we're also watching the amberjack come on stronger and stronger with seemingly larger fish every week. Some of the ambers were in the 40-50 pound class.

Most of the fish are being taken with live and dead baits (stripped bonito) so hooks are your number one weapon plus flurocarbon leaders are a plus. However, some of the larger dorado and marlin aren't real interested until you drag something fast moving by their noses...like a feather! Some of the most violent strikes have been on small to medium-sized feathers.

One alert to make. The local authorities are now checking permits to fish around Espiritu Santo Island. It's not clear to me what "around" the island means...whether that's 100 feet of 100 miles off the island, but it's a 4 dollar charge per person if they ask. Seems they are there one day checking the boats then don't show up at all for days and days. Trying to get the story on this so we can supply the "bracelets" which shows you're covered.

Also our latest column...this week about keeping the STINK off your hands and out of your fishing!
Click this: That's My Story...

Have a great week!

That's our story!
Jonathan

Surf Hunter · 07-21-2008, 07:34 AM

Man O man, twoe more days of work and my vaca begins! See you this weekend J.! I'm am totally dying here, the clock is moving backwards, all my stuff is packed and ready.
I guess I can keep unpacking and packing to get the time moving