Fish Report

La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay Fishing Report for Week of May 23-June 1, 2025

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  We had a little anxiety as Tropical Storm Alvin made it’s way up the coast towards us ,but thankfully, we dodged the bullet.  A little wind.  A little drizzle and lots of humidity.  We were still able to fish.  It’s warm now for sure.  Temps in the mid-90’s during the day and don’t be a dummy…put the sunscreen on!  Had some painful lessons this week.

WATER:  Warmer and bluer, but there’s still some chilly stuff deeper below the thermocline judging by the colder water species we hooked at times.

FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK:  Where to start…

Roosterfish, dorado, barred pargo, dog-tooth snapper, silver snapper, pargo liso (mullet snapper), trevally, green palometa,  black palometa, pompano, amberjack, sierra, wahoo, bonito, jack crevalle, triggerfish, cabrilla, grouper.

FISHING ON THE 1-10 SCALE:  7 plus!

MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO FISHING REPORT

Finally! Chad Schearer, our long-time amigo from Montana and host of the long-running famous “Shoot Straight” TV show got his big rooster on the flyrod! In fact, he caught and released two with Captain Moncho running the boat! If you look carefully in the background, that ripple of water is a school of roosterfish boiling!

Well…last week’s report during the full moon was pretty hard to top.  I had never had such a large report in 30 years down here.  So much info…so many photos.

…until this past week!

Listen…if you were here this last week and I missed your photo and you don’t see yourself here, I really apologize!  I tried to get everyone in and probably had over 100 photos this week to try edit and squeeze in.  I try to get everyone!

MORE AND BIGGER…

Wow!  Compared to the last report… It kinda got better.  Maybe not in terms of numbers of fish, but yes more fish were caught this past week (and released), but it also seems THE FISH GOT BIGGER!

Even my captains are commenting on the size of the fish!

The first several weeks of the season, OK, we got some big fish. There are always the occasional catch that raises an eyebrow and gets a big high-five.  But after about 6 weeks into the season, it seems the fish are consistently larger than normal.  And then there are the numbers!

The roosterfish bite has been the best in all my years down here!

I mean, a good day in the past meant maybe 2-4 roosters per boat per day.  But these past 2-3 weeks, singular anglers (not per boat)…singular anglers are telling me they are getting 2-12 roosters in the 10-40 pound class.  Some boats getting up to 20 fish per day and anglers telling me “We could have sat on the school all day and caught dozens more…it was stupid fun!”  One angler told me, “I just had the finest 5 hours of fishing in my life!”

Not only are folks catching alot of roosterfish, but also landing personal best with fish ranging from 50-to possibly over 100 pounds!  (Just check the photos above).

They are telling me that once you get into the schools, the roosterfish are literally boiling.  You can see the roosterfish under the boat and they are foaming on baits as soon as the baits hit the water!

I dunno…maybe there is too much of a good thing?  It’s getting to the point where some of our guests are getting spoiled.  “We got tired of roosterish!  We wanna catch something else.”  or “Oh man, we caught roosterfish again (bored voice).”

Enjoy it while you can.  This is the kind of bite we may never see again!

MORE and BIGGER…WORLD RECORD?

The pargo liso are spawning in the shallow and these are ferocious frustrating tenacious sluggers.  Again, never seen so many or so big.  I tell folks if you get one to the boat after 5 hits, you’re doing pretty good.

Three years ago, we got the IGFA record at 46 pounds.  A beast.

Well, Captain Pancho fishing with one of our long-time anglers and amigos, Leif Dover sent me a photos from the beach which simply said, “New world record?”  I saw the photo and told them to rush it back and DO NOT CUT IT UP.  They raced back to La Paz with the fish wrapped up in wet blankets and ice.

Three years ago, we got the IGFA world record 46 pound pargo liso. When we saw Leif Dover’s big fish, we quickly ran it to the scales, but it was “only ” 42 pounds, but a heck of a fish and catch!

Well, we got it on the scale and unfortunately, “only 42 pounds!”  Close, but not quite, but unquestionably and beast and trophy!

I tell you what…it took me over an hour to clean this thing and after cutting through all the armor plating, huge bones, tough scales and sharp teeth and fins using 3 different knives, a hammer, a saw, a wire cutter and industrial sheers and a small hatchet…this 42 pound fish yielded only 12 pounds of meat!  It was a tank!

MORE and BIGGER…

Every year at this time, we catch alot of cabrilla (seabass).  Tasty fun fish.  Most are about 12-18 inches long.  But this year holy cow…they are grouper sized fish!  They must’ve been eating steroids in the off-season because they yoked out.  We’re catching 24-36 inch long fish!

…and we are losing probably even bigger fish in the rocks!

MORE and BIGGER…

Other species this week…overall, I think I counted 21 different species!

Wahoo are getting cuaght finally off the south end of Cerralvo Island.  Not many.  I think 8 were hooked and 3 got to the boats.  All caught on deep-running Rapalas and Nomads, but we’re also losing some big boys . The largest this week went about 50 pounds.

More dorado are coming in.  We’re far from WFO on the mahi and only getting about 3-5 per day now for my whole fleet, but they are legit sized 10-30 pounders and I saw one fish that scaled at 49 pounds!  As the waters get warmer we anticipate more coming in.  Give it another 2 weeks or so.  North of the city, the sargasso weed starting to bunch up and forming into paddies and that will get the dorado schooling up.

Other remarkable stuff…so many pompano and trevally this past week.  I have never seen black trevally in 30 years here, but we had whole schools tearing it up like piranhas!  Most fish about 5 pounds, but easy limits and these are great eating.

We also caught big jack crevalle that are probably 50% larger than normal.  They are really beating folks up and giving folks more than a run for their money!

Add in bonito, barred pargo, dog-tooth snapper, rainbow runners, sierra, amberjack and more.  It was a full full week of fun.  Just look at the photos!

We did dodge Tropical Storm Alvin that had as a bit nervous as it marched up the Pacific towards Baja that promised high winds and rain.  But fortunately, it petered out and gave us a few days of clouds, humidity and just enough of a sprinkle to mess up the dust on my car windshield.

That’s my story!

Jonathan & Jilly

Our regular weekly fishing video report for La Paz
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A prize catch no matter how you look at it. These pargo liso are the toughest, meanest and most viciously frustrating fish we have, but Lori Baydo got a trophy! Captain Victor helps with the photo!

Yea..this is a dog-tooth snapper with a mouth full of choppers! Randy Choate from Boise ID has been with us for a month getting bent on all manners of fish. It was his retirement gift to himself!

First-timer with us Rawley Thackery has a big bull dorado in hand. More dorado are showing up although not yet at full speed. They’re coming! Rawley is from Utah.

Mike Bies caught this Baja Grouper/ Golden Grouper which is really a cabrilla. We only see about 1 of these a year. Mike was first-time with us from Denver.

The Holy Grail of fish! Doug Fowler finally got his wahoo and it’s a fatty at the south end of Cerralvo Island with Captain Hugo.