La Paz/Las Arenas August 2nd, 2008 Fleet Report

[Keone]

PHOTO 1: These two characters have fished all over the world and are two of the funniest. Jack McGuire and Doc Moses from Southern California stopped to fish with us for the week in between a trip to Alaska and then off to Africa to fish...or something like that. I couldn't keep it straight. Anyway, they got into our best tuna bite of the season so far. Footballs like this were foaming south of Muertos Bay pretty much all week and it was easy limits!

MIXED WEEK OF FISHING WITH WEIRD WEATHER BUT TUNA FINALLY PUT ON A SHOW FOR OUR LAS ARENAS FLEET!
La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report for the week of
July 27 to Aug. 2nd, 2008

PHOTO 2: All the way from the Carolinas, the Daly family...Jim Sr., Jim Jr., Madison and mom, Lake hold just some of the yellowfin tuna and dorado they ripped fishing a day just south of Las Arenas. This has been the first sustained tuna bite of the season...football season...with football and peanut tuna from 5-15 pounders ,but willing to eat sardines, squid, iron and feathers!

PHOTO 3: A bull of a fish! Chad Everett from Los Angeles holds a huge bull dorado caught north of La Paz in the dorado grounds that stretch between the islands and down the channel. Dorado fishing was a bit chameleon. One day they were touchy and the next day they charged the boats. However, there were some huge bulls like this one caught that tore into anglers and tackle.

PHOTO 4: Every year we go to the Portland Sportsman's Show up there in Oregon. And every year, Jess Robinson (right) says he's coming down. It's been happening for about 5 years now. We'll, he finally came down! This was his first day fishing at Las Arenas. His amigo Troy King is on the left. Although it rained a bit that day, these Oregon guys didn't have a problem and got limits of tuna and a full day of action on several other varieties. Later in the week, they also got dorado as well.

PHOTO 5: Every year, our good amigo, Roger Van Steenkiste makes several trips to see us and always does well. In fact, he's coming back again in September now that he just retired this year. Probably no one catches more than Roger. He won't let them and he hangs tough no matter what. Here, he's with his daughter Judy on her first trip her with him from Arizona. Over several days they hung dozens of tuna and topped that with lots of dorado as well.

PHOTO 6: Two happy fellas...Rick Hocking and his son, Carney, had several banner days or dorado fishing with our La Paz fleet. They fished with Captain Marcos Martinez (center).

PHOTO 7: Another one of our neat Oregon amigos is Wes Perkins. Wes holds up a nice pargo mulatto (barred pargo). These fish make great eating but are tough fighters trying to yank them out of the rocks. Although they get bigger, this is a trophy.

PHOTO 8: James and dad, Roger Hall show off some of the variety we've got lately. Dad holds up a pair of delicious pompano. James holds some dorado. James had a tussle with these dorado but could hardly predict the huge dorado bulls he got the next day!

VIDEO CLIP OF THE WEEK
Just turn up the sound and click here!

YouTube - Tailhunter Fishing La Paz Clips July27 -Aug. 2, 2008

THE FISHING REPORT
Yellowfin tuna finally put on a show for us this week in the first sustained tuna bite of the season. The fish weren't big. Peanut and football sized tuna in the 5-15 pound class were the norm with some bigger fish on the fringe, but there was so much action no one really cared!

In between the foaming tuna with fish crashing all around the boats plus hungry bonito and breezing dorado, there was no shortage of action. If you're a light tackle or flyfisher this was ideal fishing.

The fish were just south of Muertos Bay and our Las Arenas fleet has been on them most of the week, but so have boats from the East Cape. At first, I thought that the bait might be a problem. The sardines are TINY!!! I mean smaller than your little finger. They barely fit on a hook. However, the tuna rolled all over them. If you tossed a handful out of the panga, the tuna could not get to them fast enough and anything with a hook got inhaled.

Flurocarbon line in 20-25 pound test leaders seemed to have an edge, but it was hard to tell. Everyone was bit!

For our La Paz fleet, it was a bit more anemic. Maybe it had something to do with the weather. It was kinda of windy most days and cloudy too. Several times, we got hit with brief showers and tropical downpours that lasted several minutes as cells moved through.

However, it was strange. One day the dorado would simply explode on anything in the water. The next, captains and clients would tell me there were dorado and marlin all around the boat and the fish would sniff the baits and go bye-bye! Really frustrating.

Several spots were productive. Despite the occasional slow day, most guys fish more than one day so even if there was a slow day, the next day probably made up for it. Find the right paddy or high spot and you could be done early. Our friend Coach Donnie Rhea had two days where they were fully loaded and plugged with dorado by 10 a.m. One-stop dorado shopping!

However even on the slow days for our La Paz Fleet, there were several HUGE bulls caught. We got a number of fish in the 40-50 pound class that fought anglers to exhaustion with battles lasting over an hour. On two occasions, dorado ripped line faster than the boats could turn and the anglers got spooled!

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Will keep you posted!
That's our story!
Jonathan

[sourcreamnjive]

Booyah! Another great report from Jonathan!