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Fishing Report: TUNA GET BIGGER at LAS ARENAS - DORADO STILL BITE FOR LA PAZ - FIRST PERSON REPORTS - PHOTO GALLERY - PHOTO OF THE WEEK
TUNA NEXT TO THE BEACH!
What a nice nice week here. Clear skies...consistent sunny 92 degrees...waters about 84 and flat...warm breezy nights...the essence of fall fishing. On top of that a nice bite on both sides of the peninsula.
The tuna bite at Las Arenas got better. What can I say? It was hard not to feel like Christmas was here at times because we've wanted tuna for so danged long! There were times when the fish were so close to the beach that we could see the sand below the boats 20-30 feet down and the fish couldn't fight us vertically simply because they had no where to go! The fought up and out...uncharacteristic of tuna and great fun! Fish moved literally within casting distance of the Arenas lighthouse at times and were caught in waters that stretched from the lighthouse to Punta Perrico with fish gettting a little larger now...10-40 pounders. Several first-timer guys who had never experienced a tuna bite (I told 'em there was nothing like a tuna!) got spooled plus there seemed to be some bigger fish that left guys with some funny-looking faces as they heard the "zing powie" of a fish that they were just overmatched with! (One guy said..."I can't believe that 30 pound tuna could bust me off like that. I fish 45 salmon all the time that are weenies compared to the attitude of a tuna!) I tell you what, however...to me...the sheer excitment of watching flat blue water start exploding and foaming with breaching tuna knocking bait out've the water all around your panga in the early morning and looking around and seeing every rod doing a double bendo! Ever heard the term "morning wood?' Hahahaha...you get the idea! Check the photo...
With these tuna...The trick is figuring out what they want to eat. One day it's dead sardines. The next day it's live sardines. The next day it's chunks of fresh dead squid. Also, one day they eat at dawn. The next it's a noon bite! Still good. If you fished 3 days this week, the boats averaged 3-10 fish/day. You might have one off day (too many bonito and needlefish!), but the other two days made up for it. I will say one thing...yesterday when I was out with my amigos, Jeff Sakuda and Marianne Suguwara. We had been scratch fishing all day. Put a few fish in the boat, but it was like teeth pulling trying to figure out where the fish were and what they felt like eating. Well, late in the day, for the first time, I had one of my skippers (Jorge) say, "Do you have flurocarbon?" Whoa...in all my years here, we rarely use the fluro! In fact, light line has been the ticket on these fish. However, we've never used the F-string. It's stiffer not to mention expensive (the stiffness diminishes your bait presentation). We had already been busted off several times on 25 pound test but we put on 30 pound fluro and WHAM!!! The last 3 fish including one fish that might've gone 40 pounds and took Jeff almost a half-hour to boat were all taken on the f-string!
A few other tips...assuming this bite continues...bring SMALL hooks. Danged live bait is about as big as your little finger. Honest. Secondly...if the giant squid still stick around, whoa...these are monsters. Bring the BIGGEST squid jig you have and at least 12 oz torpedo sinkers. Man, they are beasts and it's pretty fun watching all the pangas stacked up within feet of each other and ever rod bent and the guys laughing, grunting and sweating like hell with these big things putting guys on their knees trying to drag them up from the bottom.
Some other stuff happened this week too. We've had one of the BEST years on roosterfish ever here, but in the last month, no roosters because well...no one has been fishing for them. Well, Chris Cribbs from San Gabrial CA had a few good days on the other fish and wanted to do "one day looking for the pez gallo." I was a bit skeptical but using the big baits, he and his buddy Mike nailed 4 huge roosters off Arenas with Capt. Victor with double hookups all day finally getting 4 fish to the boat that ranged 40-80 pounds each. All fish were also released! Lori Graham and her husband from Colorado also did some 40 pounders off Espiritu Santo Island. Oh...I know this is long, but we also started getting pargo again too!
Speaking of La Paz side...don't mean to discount it, but Las Arenas just had so much of our focus this week! However, fishing is not slacking.
On the La Paz side, fewer anglers with everyone trying to get on the tuna at Las Arenas, but anglers still got a nice mix of dorado from 8-20 pounds, some marlin and also late/early season pargo.
FIRST PERSON STORIES
John Niedzieko brought his group of 6 down to us and was into the middle of the tuna bite:
"I have to say, we had a very good stay at Hotel La Concha. Everyone there was very helpful and courteous. They helped in upgrading our rooms( 6th floor penthouse - very nice!), for a very reasonable rate. Kitchen staff cooked alot of our fish for us (mahi mahi vera cruz - excellent) and let us use an area for trimming down and bagging our daily catch. We would highly recommend this hotel to stay at.
Now to fishing.........
I would have to say we as a group kicked butt!!! The tuna bite in the morning at Las Arenas, was very entertaining. Using light weight rods and reels, makes catching these above average footballs very fun. Two day total for 3 boats was around 45 tunas( can't beat that). Also, Jack was great in making sure we were catching fish. He suggested that we try for rosters, pargo and squid. Well wouldn't you know it, he was right! My boat alone caught 14 pargo(red snapper) and 1-40 lb squid, on top of all the tuna. The other boats, were have fun catching and releasing the rooster fish. The final day of fishing was on the La Paz side. We were kind of skeptical about going here, because everyone we talked to, said the fishing was bad. Well we either hit a good day or they were just wrong. We knocked the crap out of the dorado(16), hooked a baby black marlin and got 3-4 major marlin strikes.
Over all the trip was successful and we had a great time. One of the highlights, everyone agreed upon, was on the Las Arenas side, when the captain speeds for the shoreline and parks the boat in the sand. Already talking about dates for next year. Thanks for setting up a great trip!"
PHOTO GALLERY
Jeff Sakuda of Monterey Park CA has come down 3 times this year and gotten a variety of fish, but this football was the first tuna of the year for him. Jeff went on to do 5 yellowfin up to 40 pounds before the day was over.
Jarrod Groff did this big old bull dorado on 25 pound test for 45 minutes around the channel buoys between Sargento and Cerralvo Island on live bait.
If you've never seen what these squid look like, here's Valerie Handzus with one of the beasts. She's being helped by Capt. Archangel. These big guys can take 15 minutes to 1/2 hour on heavy gear to pull up!
PHOTO of THE WEEK:
John McLucas was on his first trip to La Paz this week and got in on the Las Arenas tuna bite including this fatty that went 35 pounds. John is from Redwood City CA.
That's my story!
Jonathan
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