PHOTO 1: Cole Chavira from the San Diego area has been in our reports probably more than anyone over the years. This young man is GOOD! He's often got big fish in his hands and here he holds an incredible and rare Baja Grouper. On top of it all, knowing their scarcity, he released the fish! Caught north of La Paz near Espiritu Santo Island.

PHOTO 2: No stranger to La Paz fishing, my amigo, Charlie "Stix" McGhee has fished with us many times and I've done quite a few long range trips with him also. Not many better! He holds up a quality La Paz yellowtail here while standing on the beach at Balandra. Charlie lives in Poway CA . Expect to see him here again in a few weeks when he comes back to La Paz for our Cabin Fever Classic.

PHOTO 3: Mitch Chavira comes down about 3 times a year. I've taken so many pictures of him over the time he's one of our regular poster boys. He not only catches fish, but he looks good doing it too! He got this beast of an amberjack fishing north of La Paz while yo-yo-ing blue and white iron! Amberjack can get up to 100 pounds in our waters and are the big cousin to yellowtail.

PHOTO 4: Robinson Whitaker came all the way from Gainesville GA where he attends a military academy to come fishing with his dad. Check out the flat waters! They were able to get outside and get into some nice dorado with Captain Jorge including this nicer early season dorado.

PHOTO 5: You gotta love it! Eric Mikity from Chino CA rocked his first roosterfish this past week as well as some other fishing including dorado and got to scuba dive for the firs time as well. Great pose! He plans to come back with dad later this year and get his scuba certification with us now that he's gotten a taste!

PHOTO 6: "There must have been 30 dorado around the boat!" said our buddy Rob McClean from S.California as he and his sister, girlfriend and uncle tore into a big school of mahi just off Las Arenas. "We had to pull away from all these fish. There were too many. We told the captain to go inside and look for pargo. The dorado were too easy!"

MORE WIND AND SOME SURPRISE BIG FISH PACE THE WEEK

La Paz/ Las Arenas Fishing Report for Week of April 12-18, 2009

It's hard to describe the fishing week. Everyone got fish, but some days were better than others. Some anglers (as you can see by the photos this week), got some real NICE fish. Some boats could be right next to others and slam fish after fish while the boat 30 yards away would have a slower day.

A lot right now depends on the weather. Winds are still irregular. In the span of a day, the wind can change several times in intensity as well as direction. That makes for some churned up water so consequently, most of our fishing is out of Muertos Bay. Those who did brave the stronger winds out of La Paz, got some BIG TIME slugger fish, but some days they were bounced all over the place. It just depended on the level of discomfort you were willing to handle!

Then, some days...it was flat flat flat! It's just that time of year.

In addition to the weather, talent and experience had a lot to do with it as well. There's a lot of easy fun fish around...sierra, roosters, cabrilla, smaller snapper, bonito...but the bad boys...the yellowtail, the bigger pargo liso and dog tooth snapper, the amberjack...it's not like you jump in the boat and say, "I want to catch yellowtail and pargo today!" like you're ordering up a Happy Meal at McDonald's. These are tough fish. They got big because they know how to attack and fight. They're not gonna just let you pull them into the boat and they have everything in their favor like rocks and reefs.

I had two guys come back one day grumbling because all they got were some bonito and some sierra and if you looked at their scores, it seemed like they had a so-so day. They weren't very happy. However, I talked to my captain and he told me they lost 6 bigger pargo or yellowtail and just weren't fast enough or strong enough to rip back on the fish. These are trophy fish. Dorado are nice. It's easier to catch them because once they are hooked they don't try to climb back down into a cave or something. They're generally in bluer water with nothing but blue around them so you can fight them. Even pulling a 20-pound pargo to the boat takes well...for basically all the stars lined up in your favor!

Of course, then there is always the newbie rookie that gets 4 on his first day fishing and says, "What's the big deal?" I guess that's fishing!

Anyway, the old adage seems to have held true this week. Fewer fish but bigger fish were found by my La Paz anglers. (Yellowtail and Roosters) More fish and more variety were caught by my anglers that fish with our Las Arenas/Muertos Bay fleet. (Sierra, bonito, smaller yellowtail, cabrilla, snapper, pargo, dorado, roosterfish)

Bait has been fine, but there's a lot of birds right now too making it a pain to slow troll with bait somedays. I would recommend that if you can, bring some smaller Rapala-type lures. They're effective in trolling and getting down and away from the birds.

One thing to keep an eye on...the waters are REALLY warm! I"m not sure how much longer the yellowtail and other cool water fishes will be around. It's starting to feel alot like late spring fishing already!

That's our story!
Jonathan and Jill



Jonathan Roldan's

Tailhunter International

Website: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/

U.S. Office: 3319 White Cloud Drive, Suite A, Hacienda Hts. CA 91745

Mexico Office: 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

Phones: from USA : 626-638-3383from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863

Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: http://www.tailhunter-international.com/fishreport.htm

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