Fish Report

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  Really mostly nice. Evening and mornings can still breezy with a bit of chill, but then the sun comes up and we’re into the low to mid 80’s. Comfortably warm without the humidity!  Perfect beach weather!

WATER:  If there’s wind, it can still be a bit bumpy, but overall calm blue seas getting warmer and clearer as the temps rise.

FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK:  Dorado, roosterfish, dog-tooth snapper, yellow snapper, pargo liso, barred pargo, yellowtail, amberjack, vaquita, cabrilla, wahoo (1), rainbow runner, bonito, jack crevalle, trevally, pompano, triggerfish, sierra

FISHING ON A 1-10 SCALE:  6 (but still the best week so far of the season so far!)

MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

Oh wow!  What a week!

We’re not up to full speed yet, but by far this was the best week of the young season!

We still had some winds.

We still had some bumpy days.

Some boats did better than other boats on any given day.

But, overall what a fun fun week.  With daytime temps in the low 80’s, and sunny, everyone caught fish.  And most caught a variety of fish!   Just like I remind folks, this is “transition” time when we have cold water fish still in the area, but moving out.  And we have warm water fish starting to move in.

I lost count, but I recall we got dorado, wahoo, roosterfish, barred pargo, pargo liso (mullet snapper), dog-tooth snapper, yellow snapper, yellowtail, amberjack, jack crevalle, trevally, pompano, sierra, rainbow runner, triggerfish, cabrilla, surgeon fish…how many is that?

If you ever wanted to cross some fish. off your bucket list, this was the week.

The biggest news was the roosterfish.  In 30 years here, I have never seen anything like a few of the days this past week.  Normally, someone would come back and be happy that they caught and released 2 or maybe 3 sizeable roosters.  Good day.  Banner day!  Right?

Well, this week some of our boats were AVERAGING 6-15 roosters PER DAY!!!  These were the fun-sized 15-30 pounder class fish that had folks really enjoying themselves in some cases catches and releasing as fast as they could go!

Ray Millman caught and released 10 in a single day.  Bill Malone hooked 9!  Randy and Rick Choate each caught and released more than 15 PER PERSON over 3 days using conventional as well as fly gear.

According to our guests, there were times when the fish were “boiling and crashing” and fighting to hit the baits!  There were bigger ones on the perimeter of the school, but the “smaller ones” were so voracious that the bigger ones never got in on the feed!

But, several larger ones up to 80 pounds were hooked and lost using the larger 12″ ladyfish for bait instead of the smaller sardines.  The smaller roosters can’t eat the bigger baits.

In 30 years, I’ve not had a jag of roosterfish like this!

As well,the big pargo liso are also spawning in the shallows now.  Believe me, you will not find a tougher or more tenacious and vicious fish than these big mullet snapper.

They are balling up in big undulating schools in the shallows over the rocks and some of these fish are easily 40-60 pounders!  But, hooking and landing these fish are completely different issues!

For one, they have keen eyesight.  So using heavy line is useless.

Secondly, they have a mouth full of sharp teeth.  They have sharp fins and scales as well as gills and they live over sharp rocks.

So, even if they bite, you have all. these things already against you!  We call them “zing-powie”fish because your line goes zing.  Next thing you know your line snaps POWIE!  If you hook 5 (big if) and land 1 you are doing great!  But so frustrating because you can SEE these fish in the water swimming around and they will  constantly beat you up!

Anyway…lots of fun action!  Everyone caught fish.  Everyone brought home fish that wanted to bring home fish.  And we released alot of fish!  A nice solid week and we anticipate it will only get better as the season ramps up.  Hopefully, more dorado soon and more and bigger roosterfish!

That’s our story!

Jonathan & Jilly

Whoa!!! Now this is a toad! Randy Choate got two of these big grouper with Captain Alfredo north of La Paz near Punta Coyote. In my 30 years, I can’t remember a fish like this!

The right kind! There aren’t many in the water yet, but were expecting them soon. Ray Millman got one of the few and it’a pretty bull mahi!

Greg Gibson has some great eating yellow snapper, a cabrilla and a triggerfish waiting to get filleted and back onto the ice. He told me later his kids really love the fish tacos!

Another one of those incredibly tough pargo liso posed for the photos with some trigerifh, cabrilla and snapper on the table for Donna and Doug Fowler.

Captain Victor and Bill Malone have a nice variety including one of those tough pargo liso, yellow snapper, amberjack, cabrilla and a barred pargo.

Rick Choate seems to always keep me laughing! Right next to the beach with another really pretty roosterfish before setting it free.

A nice amberjack that Darrel brought back to our Tailhunter Restaurant to have us make sashime! Related to yellowtail and roosterfish, among others, the amberjack is very tasty and can get over 100 pounds.

The mornings are a tad chilly but heat up quickly on the fishing grounds when tangling with these roosterfish. Donna Flowler lets Captain Miko handle holding the rooster for the photo and release!

Dorado are starting to move in. Not many, but some decent quality adding variety to the fish counts. Barb Choate from Boise ID and Captain Alfredo pose with 1 of 2 mahi that Barb caught!

Brad Sleder came over from N. Carolina and was fishing deep and hooked a couple of vaquita. Great eating.

Captain Armando with Leonard Post who spent 4 days with quite a few catch-and-release roosterfish like this one!

Ray Millman from Palos Verdes sure had a banner week catching a variety of fish. I lost count of hoe many roosters he released, but one day alone, he released 10 roosterfish!

Captain Jorge with Barb Choate who is always laughing and smiling! She is a joy to have visit with us in La Paz.

Pound for pound, I don’t think there is a meaner, stronger, smarter or more vicious than the pargo liso/ mullet snapper. The schools are spawning now and will rip your heart out in frustration. If you hook 5 and get one of these beasts to the boat you’re doing great! Darrell Manginelli got 2, but lost quite a few more.

Mac Christoffersen and Tom Ames…always good to see them. Had a good day of action with Captain Armando. He’s holding a rainbow runner and I see trigerifsh, barred pargo and cabrilla on the cutting table that all went back to Idaho with the guys!