10-29-2002, 08:17 PM
This year Josh, Mike & Steve were joined by Mike Ramirez for our yearly trip to La Paz. Even though Jonathan
(http://www.tailhunterinternational.com) had warned me that the fishing has been more consistent on the Las Arenas side we chose to fish 2 days out of La Paz & 2 days out of Las Arenas. Next time I’ll listen to him! Our first day (Oct. 23rd) was out of La Paz with Josh/Steve on 1 panga & the 2 Mike’s on the other. Making bait was tough, we tried several areas for a few scoops of sm. sardines but it took a couple of hours. Mike’s Panga had finished making bait before us so they trolled a Big Hammer & a Krocodile along the island towards the pargo grounds waiting for us to catch up. The Big Hammer put a nice sierra in the boat before getting shredded by triggerfish. We set up 25 lb. rigs to slow troll sardines along the shallow rocky outcroppings. Steve hooked & lost a nice dorado right away along w/a strong pargo. Mike Ramirez caught a 30 lb. class dorado which would be the fish of the day. We each got a couple of pargo up to 10 lbs. with an assortment of trumpets, triggers & needlefish. Low on bait & tired of sm. fish we trolled offshore towards the bajo. I got a 15 lb. class dorado & Steve had a rapala buzzed off by a wahoo. Mike’s boat never got bit offshore. After hearing of 65 to 85 lb. tuna on the Las Arenas side I made desperate call to Jonathan asking if there was any way we could switch our next La Paz day over to Las Arenas. I was amazed when he told me "Consider it done, no charge" especially considering the much longer shuttle ride, THANKS!!
We met the shuttle promptly @ 5:00 am for our much anticipated trip to Las Arenas. Today Josh/Mike fished together putting Mike R. w/Steve. Our skipper made bait in the dark putting us on the tuna grounds just after first light. Mike was on solid in a matter of minutes using dead bait on 50 lb. It took me about 10 minutes to get bit after switching from live to dead sardines. I put the hurt to him pretty quick followed shortly by Mike’s fish.
http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=23052
Ready for more we fed our dead baits line to allow them to sink along w/the chum for about a minute before we’re both on again. As we’re battling these brutes the skipper’s flylined sardine gets exploded on. He just set the hook, put the rod in the holder & gave us a mischievous
. After landing my fish I went for the hooked up 40 lb. rig in the holder. These turned into long drawn out battles as Mike & I tired from 3 lg. tuna in a row. I went into do or die mode & began the short strokes & hard pulling. I was so tired there was a bit of relief when the tuna’s teeth finally cut through the 40 lb. Maxima. When Mike got his fish we decided to spare our back’s & troll for wahoo. Steve/Mike R. had a similar day & began trolling a P/B Yozuri & a Marauder. Shortly after we decided to run in to throw some Big Hammers at the roosterfish Steve hooked & landed a 45 lb. skinny on the yozuri. Mike & I stopped on some buoys on the way in to practice C&R on some sm. dorado using 4" Prizm Shad on 3/4 oz Fishco heads. This bait is a great replica of the sardines down there & got bit the best inshore. We pulled up to shore in perfect shallow blue water to find waters full of life. Boils would appear as soon as the skipper would throw a handfull of bait. The little roosterfish chased & attacked anything that moved, just pitch the swimbait back to the boils & hold on!
http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=23051
Friday we woke up to some very strange dark weather. Once we got to the beach it was obvious no one was fishing today. All the Panga Captain’s were just standing around watching the waves crash on the beach. Everyone was so excited by the previous day’s success that was very disappointing to not be fishing. Not sure what the hurricane would do people started changing flights to get out before things got ugly. Once again Jonathan came through, giving us constant satellite weather updates & our odds of getting out on the water Saturday. Thanks to his tireless effort we got out again Saturday instead of panicking & flying home on Friday.
Saturday I fished w/Mike R. leaving the hot boat to Mike & Steve. We were one of the last pangas to make enough bait but that gave us time to take advantage of the WFO sierra bite going off all along the beach. I was really surprised at how well the Big Hammers held up to those toothy critters. By the time we got out to the tuna grounds most of the boats were already on their second drift in windy conditions. Mike R. got bit at the very end of our first drift w/most of the line out on his TLD 30. I noticed the skipper was sending out my 40 lb. rig, so I went to give him a 50 lb. setup to use instead. It was too late, so my 40 lb. nightmare began again. It was a long, tough tug-o-war to get him to color where he remained for way to long. Now Mike has his fish to color also both doing huge death circles. They eventually crossed then immediately wrapped each other over & over. It was chaos but we got them apart & went back to work. Mike got his fish to the bow while I was circling in the rear of the panga. Finally my biggest yellowfin ever is right alongside the boat. The skipper sunk the gaff but couldn’t lift it out of the water. With a huge explosion of water it ripped the gaff from our skippers hands peeling half the line from my 16s. I eventually worked him back up to color where a very tired Mike was still battling his fish. We didn’t get as lucky the second time our lines crossed as mine was cut. Our next drift Mike R. hooked up again as tuna came up boiling on our chum. I noticed a sailfish cutting through the boils as my line started screaming. I set on him & he came out of the water twice before throwing the hook. Mike got his tuna right as a school of dorado came through for our light tackle delight. We finished of a day of drama by having the hook pull on a wahoo. Mike Dunlap got big fish of the trip with an 85 lb. tuna caught the last day.
http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=23050
Overall great trip considering we caught 15 tuna from 60 to 85 lbs. a bunch of dorado, a wahoo, roosterfish, pargo, cabrilla, sierra, & various reef fish.
Thanks again to Jonathan Roldan, the only way to do La Paz!
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(http://www.tailhunterinternational.com) had warned me that the fishing has been more consistent on the Las Arenas side we chose to fish 2 days out of La Paz & 2 days out of Las Arenas. Next time I’ll listen to him! Our first day (Oct. 23rd) was out of La Paz with Josh/Steve on 1 panga & the 2 Mike’s on the other. Making bait was tough, we tried several areas for a few scoops of sm. sardines but it took a couple of hours. Mike’s Panga had finished making bait before us so they trolled a Big Hammer & a Krocodile along the island towards the pargo grounds waiting for us to catch up. The Big Hammer put a nice sierra in the boat before getting shredded by triggerfish. We set up 25 lb. rigs to slow troll sardines along the shallow rocky outcroppings. Steve hooked & lost a nice dorado right away along w/a strong pargo. Mike Ramirez caught a 30 lb. class dorado which would be the fish of the day. We each got a couple of pargo up to 10 lbs. with an assortment of trumpets, triggers & needlefish. Low on bait & tired of sm. fish we trolled offshore towards the bajo. I got a 15 lb. class dorado & Steve had a rapala buzzed off by a wahoo. Mike’s boat never got bit offshore. After hearing of 65 to 85 lb. tuna on the Las Arenas side I made desperate call to Jonathan asking if there was any way we could switch our next La Paz day over to Las Arenas. I was amazed when he told me "Consider it done, no charge" especially considering the much longer shuttle ride, THANKS!!
We met the shuttle promptly @ 5:00 am for our much anticipated trip to Las Arenas. Today Josh/Mike fished together putting Mike R. w/Steve. Our skipper made bait in the dark putting us on the tuna grounds just after first light. Mike was on solid in a matter of minutes using dead bait on 50 lb. It took me about 10 minutes to get bit after switching from live to dead sardines. I put the hurt to him pretty quick followed shortly by Mike’s fish.
http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=23052
Ready for more we fed our dead baits line to allow them to sink along w/the chum for about a minute before we’re both on again. As we’re battling these brutes the skipper’s flylined sardine gets exploded on. He just set the hook, put the rod in the holder & gave us a mischievous
. After landing my fish I went for the hooked up 40 lb. rig in the holder. These turned into long drawn out battles as Mike & I tired from 3 lg. tuna in a row. I went into do or die mode & began the short strokes & hard pulling. I was so tired there was a bit of relief when the tuna’s teeth finally cut through the 40 lb. Maxima. When Mike got his fish we decided to spare our back’s & troll for wahoo. Steve/Mike R. had a similar day & began trolling a P/B Yozuri & a Marauder. Shortly after we decided to run in to throw some Big Hammers at the roosterfish Steve hooked & landed a 45 lb. skinny on the yozuri. Mike & I stopped on some buoys on the way in to practice C&R on some sm. dorado using 4" Prizm Shad on 3/4 oz Fishco heads. This bait is a great replica of the sardines down there & got bit the best inshore. We pulled up to shore in perfect shallow blue water to find waters full of life. Boils would appear as soon as the skipper would throw a handfull of bait. The little roosterfish chased & attacked anything that moved, just pitch the swimbait back to the boils & hold on!http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=23051
Friday we woke up to some very strange dark weather. Once we got to the beach it was obvious no one was fishing today. All the Panga Captain’s were just standing around watching the waves crash on the beach. Everyone was so excited by the previous day’s success that was very disappointing to not be fishing. Not sure what the hurricane would do people started changing flights to get out before things got ugly. Once again Jonathan came through, giving us constant satellite weather updates & our odds of getting out on the water Saturday. Thanks to his tireless effort we got out again Saturday instead of panicking & flying home on Friday.
Saturday I fished w/Mike R. leaving the hot boat to Mike & Steve. We were one of the last pangas to make enough bait but that gave us time to take advantage of the WFO sierra bite going off all along the beach. I was really surprised at how well the Big Hammers held up to those toothy critters. By the time we got out to the tuna grounds most of the boats were already on their second drift in windy conditions. Mike R. got bit at the very end of our first drift w/most of the line out on his TLD 30. I noticed the skipper was sending out my 40 lb. rig, so I went to give him a 50 lb. setup to use instead. It was too late, so my 40 lb. nightmare began again. It was a long, tough tug-o-war to get him to color where he remained for way to long. Now Mike has his fish to color also both doing huge death circles. They eventually crossed then immediately wrapped each other over & over. It was chaos but we got them apart & went back to work. Mike got his fish to the bow while I was circling in the rear of the panga. Finally my biggest yellowfin ever is right alongside the boat. The skipper sunk the gaff but couldn’t lift it out of the water. With a huge explosion of water it ripped the gaff from our skippers hands peeling half the line from my 16s. I eventually worked him back up to color where a very tired Mike was still battling his fish. We didn’t get as lucky the second time our lines crossed as mine was cut. Our next drift Mike R. hooked up again as tuna came up boiling on our chum. I noticed a sailfish cutting through the boils as my line started screaming. I set on him & he came out of the water twice before throwing the hook. Mike got his tuna right as a school of dorado came through for our light tackle delight. We finished of a day of drama by having the hook pull on a wahoo. Mike Dunlap got big fish of the trip with an 85 lb. tuna caught the last day.
http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=23050
Overall great trip considering we caught 15 tuna from 60 to 85 lbs. a bunch of dorado, a wahoo, roosterfish, pargo, cabrilla, sierra, & various reef fish.
Thanks again to Jonathan Roldan, the only way to do La Paz!
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