Sirena - 3-22-2011 at 11:06 AM
Roger Thompson had a banner day fishing El Bajo seamount north of La Paz with our Captain Chito taking a boat load of big
yellowtail. The only reason they stopped was because they ran out've bait! The latter part of this week, yellowtail literally blew up the waters
around La Paz!
Dan Fedorka of Monrovia CA used to make yearly trips to La Paz, but hadn't made a trip in awihle, but brought his family back for spring break. Dan
took this nice pargo liso just off the rocks near Las Arenas.
Donna Thompson from Long Beach and La Ventana and Judy Davis from Hercules, CA had quite a day north of La Paz taking 11 big yellowtail like this one
between two of our super pangas.
Another shot of Donna and Judy...this time with the beach line-up of big forkies!
SLOW START TO WEEK ENDS WITH YELLOWTAIL GOING FULL TURBO IN LA PAZ WATERS!
Y'know...if it weren't for a few things like wind and bait, it would have really been a pretty outstanding week of fishing this past week! With temps
in the high 80's and mostly sunny blue flat calm waters, it could have been banner. However, there were a few days when the winds just whipped. That,
consequently makes it harder to get bait. We need those live sardines to get going. Sure, lures work, but nothing like a live squiggly to get the bite
into gear.
Our captains worked hard...the commercial guys worked hard...the clients were as patient as could be expected. But when the winds are rolling, then it
often crashes waves into the shallow beach or rocky areas where bait is netted. It scatters the bait. Makes the waters cloudy too. Or, it's so rough
the pangas can't get into the rocks to throw the nets. We did the best we could. Fortunately, not EVERY day was like that and since most of our
clients this week fished more than a day or two, well...there were some really nice fish to be caught with some great action. Especially as the week
went on...
As a matter of fact, as the week went on we had perhaps some of the best yellowtail fishing we've seen in a long time!
Yellowtail seemed to have busted out in numerous places! Nice homeguard mossbacked 25-45 pound fish! Real quality stuff.
Roger Thompson, our amigo from Ventana (photo above) had this to say:
"We caught 11 yellows today between our two boats. Bait was a struggle, but El Bajo was on fire again. If we had more bait, we would have caught more
fish for sure. No wind, temps in the low 80s on the water."
There's nothing like first-hand reports!
Another of our good Tailhunter amigos, James Davis jumped in with this:
"The weather has been fantastic and the fishing is awesome. Being down here right now is Crazy Good, wouldn't want to be anywhere else....Guys are
coming back into Muertos with so much fish that after they get their ice chests full of fillets they are giving the rest of their fist away.... More
and bigger....I weighted one 47 pound Yellowtail yesterday....Been fishing the back side of island, south side, pulling these big brutes right off the
beach.....Heard some reports of huge Tuna off the north end of the island....my neighbor and one of the captains from Muertos (Fernando) hands are
thrashed from trying to hand line them...."
For our La Paz fleet, the fish were found as far north as the El Bajo Seamount where fish were holding 30-60 feet off the top of the mount. As well,
the north end of Cerralvo Island near the drop off plus off Isla Ballena at the SW side of Espiritu Santo Island we found a nice grade of fish. (By
the way like James Davis confirmed above...commercial guys again spotted finning yellowfin tuna again at the north end of Cerralvo moving too fast to
get on top of them!)
For our Fleet operating off the Muertos Bay, Las Arenas area, the yellowtail were working off Punta Perico, the Las Arenas lighthouse where the
boulders are; and the SE corner of Cerralvo Island. In all cases the fish are eating live bait, but yo-yo ing the heavy lures in blue/white ; yellow/
green/ and yellow/white also generated some viscious hits!
In addition to the yellowtail, we're seeing increased numbers of pargo in the shallow areas by both our fleets and got action from sierra, cabrilla
and snapper.
That's our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
"When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try."
[Edited on 3-22-2011 by Sirena]