LA PAZ/ LAS ARENAS FISHING REPORT FOR
THE WEEK OF SEPT 7-13, 2008
PHOTO 2: Anthony Garrett was on his first trip down to see us and had a good time. (Right Anthony?) He's holding a few of his first-day dorado here that he got on live bait off Punta Perico.
PHOTO 3: A pair of nice dorado for Brian Kam who came from the San Francisco Bay area.
PHOTO 4: Two of the funnest folks we've had in a long time are John and Dolores Ehler from Denver Colorado standing here with Captain Pancho from our Las Arenas fleet. Check out the dorado and yellowfin tuna in front of them. There weren't many tuna this week. They got elusive on us again, but there were a few. The key to them was the lightest line you dare to use!
PHOTO 5: Ian Boyd, Dave Boyd, Jeff Gilbertson and Dave Stoller do a group pose with dorado at Las Arenas Beach. Dave has a roosterfish he's cradling. (See below)
PHOTO 6: Dave Boyd wanted a rooster and got this trophy 33 pounder on live bait in shallow water off Punta Arenas. Attempts to revive the fish weren't successful, but the meat was donated. There are still quite a few roosters around. You either find some loners like this one with the larger fish going 30-70 pounds or you hit schools of smaller fun 10 pounders.
THE FISHING REPORT
I guess the story this week was Tropical Storm Lowell mucking things up. Like most storms at this time of year, it comes out of nowhere. One moment, you're looking at all the 5 day forecasts and the next, it suddenly changes and shows 5 days of storms on the horizon. Our biggest concern, of course, is whether it becomes a hurricane or not. Lowell did not get bigger and badder. When all was said and done, it messed with the fishing a bit and dropped some heavy rain for a few hours. It caused the port captain to shut down the port for the most of a day. That forced us to cancel the boats for one day. That was kind of it. We feel badly for the guys who can't fish that day, but most made good use of it...staying out later the night before to enjoy the town then getting a chance to sleep in the next day and have real breakfasts!
So, bottom line...Lowell was more a big inconvenience than an actual emergency.
As for the fishing, before the storm, we had a fairly nice bite of dorado going on. Both our fleets at Las Arenas and La Paz got into maybe 3-8 dorado per boat per day with a mix of bonito, and the occasional tuna. On the La Paz side, our boats got primarily dorado but also got to raise a few marlin and sailfish.
Most of the variety fish were caught on the Las Arenas side by our other fleet. A few tuna got into the counts with the dorado, but we got a few wahoo biters, some sailfish and pargo. Plus, our failsafe, roosterfish were pretty much good to have along the shorelines. It wasn't great fishing, but it wasn't bad either. Just kinda of mixed up and unpredictable because of the storm.
After the storm, it seemed to get a bit better everyday, but at the time of writing this, it's still a bit early to say what's up. We'll keep you posted. My suggestions if you're coming down fishing is to go with the flow. Don't be "species specific." Fish for what's there. Don't shoot for the homerun. The captains all want to catch fish so let them put you on the bite and you'll have fun. By far, the boats this past week that didn't focus on a particular species got the most bites and had the best times.
ALASKA STATE TAILHUNTERS
If you're one of our Alaskan clients, Alaska Airlines has some incredible fares and companion fare discounts if you book before Oct. 13th for a trip down here in 2009. Check it out. Some of the companion fares are as low as 50 dollars.
ALASKA AIRLINES FLIERS
This past week, Alaska Airlines started using Horizon Air (owned by Alaska Air) to start flying down here to La Paz. If you're booked on Alaska to fly down here, check your schedule to make sure it's the same flight. It may have changed slightly . Also, the Horizon planes are smaller than the Alaska planes so they're alot tighter on weight restrictions and luggage sizes. Get there early to your terminal if you're bringing gear with you!
That's our story!
Jonathan
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