La Paz / Las Arenas Fishing Report
for the week ending August 30th, 2008
PHOTO 2: Two of the funnest folks we've had in a long time, Sherman and Shelley McDonell left snow falling in Wyoming to come enjoy some Baja sunshine and fishing. Both are extremely experienced and figured they'd try light tackle fishing in the Tailhunter House! Well, their first day out on 17 pound test and spinning rods, they got their first taste of Baja power. Double hookup within minutes. Shelley's fish on the right was the larger of the two and in the 45 pound class and she fought it for an hour and 15 minutes! Attempts to revive the fish were unsuccessful so the meat was donated to the San Pedro pueblo.
PHOTO 3: Check this out!!! 40-pound class dorado underwater with the Mean Joe Green jig hanging on the lip. Steve Greanias stuck his camera underwater and got this spectacular shot just below the surface. The fish was hooked just north of La Paz.
PHOTO 4: Yes, another photo by Steve Greanias with his digital camera. His dad was on his first marlin (see photo below) and Steve poked his camera underwater again for this rare shot. The yellow on it's flank is the lure trailing behind the hook. They were fishing over the canyon near Espiritu Santo Island.
PHOTO 5: Here's the fish you saw underwater in the shot above. Captain Eddy Carballo helps Chris Greanias with the honors. It was Chris' first marlin and was in the 150 pound class and the fish was released and swam away.
PHOTO 6: OK, Jamie...you made the report! Jamie Smith from Malibu and his nephew Daniel Estandia from Ventura CA area hold up a nice pair. Jamie has a 15 pound yellowfin tuna, but check out the size of the bruiser bonito that Danny is holding onto! Both the bonito and the tuna got larger this week after the storm.
PHOTO 7: Yellowfin tuna weren't thick, but they were biting sporadically south of Cerralvo Island. Armen Minissian (left) came down to celebrate his birthday here in La Paz and he's flanked by amigo, Andre Kerian (right) with a pair of nice yellowfin headed to the sashime platter.
PHOTO 8: Greg Voudouris and Harry Gouma were quite a pair this week. Fishing both Las Arenas and La Paz, they had a good week on dorado. They were often high boat each day on the mahi. Here's part of their catch on day on the beach at Las Arenas.
PHOTO 9: Toros Marganian had only been trolling a feather about 15 minutes when this sailfish came up and struck the lure near Cerralvo Island. It was his first.
PHOTO 10: Bakersfield Sam Smith gets alot of credit. Despite showing up in the biggest and worst storm of the season so far, he and his dad hung in with alot of patience and kept it light and fun and still got in a bit of fishing in less than ideal conditions earlier in the week. He did get this nice dorado fishing with Captain Victor out of Las Arenas.
PHOTO 11: Steven Laurentis is our amigo from "Los Angeles and world for a big radio station there. Great guy who was on his second trip to see us here in La Paz. He's holding up a pair of yellowfin tuna, but also go his first sailfish on this trip which he released.
WEEKLY VIDEO CLIP
Click here for a little video clip of some of the week's fishing:
Have the sound up!
THE FISHING REPORT
Well, where do I start? Fishing really tanked as we began the week. Straight up...it pretty funky and that was because tropical storm Julio came through here.
It was weird. There was absolutely nothing on the radar. Then, we wake up and suddenly we have rain coming. And not just a little blow. Turns into a tropical storm named Julio. In truth, it wasn't much of a storm as storms go and thankfully, it wasn't a hurricane so thanks to all of you who wrote and wished us well.
It was just enough to get my car muddy and have to turn on the window wipers and it was bad enough that we didn't want anyone out on the water because it was rough and wet and the port captain shut things down for a bit.
But, I felt bad for the amigos that were here and lost a day of fishing and had to keep watching the weather screens like us wondering from day-to-day if they'd be able to go fishing that day. Hat's off to all of them who kept patience with us and kept smiling!
The fishing was not great as you might guess, but everyone made a go of it and did their best...captains and anglers both! They scratched up a few dorado, some bonito, a few too many needlefish and some roosters.
As the week went on, the rain left us and the winds died down, but the clouds still hung over us, but the fishing did improve seemingly with each passing day. More dorado started up in the counts including some larger 30 and 40 pounders. We saw quite a few billfish and got a few to bite. Several anglers got 2 or more billfish in a single day. Most were released. As well, roosters along the beaches kept things fun for the light tackle guys and ladies plus we're seeing more sierra which leads me to believe that there's some cooler spots of water here and there.Some of the roosters, as you can see from the photos, were the trophy-sized horses that this area is famous for. We had a few wahoo jump the lures, but nothing stuck. Tuna showed up back in the counts as well with legitimate 15-pounders at the north end of Espiritu Santo Island.
Like I said, it wasn't great fishing by any stretch, but as the week went on, things got more promising.
Hopefully, by the time you're reading this, we'll be back in the swing of things and fishing is back up to speed.
That's our story!
Jonathan
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