Fish Report

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  Thankfully a good 10-20 degrees cooler than the last report.  Daytime temps are mostly in the mid-90’s.  Still getting rainstorms somewhere here and there in the afternoons.

WATER:  Mostly calm when it’s not raining, but fishable.  Problem is the water is over 90 degrees and that’s 10 degrees hotter than normal.  Oxygen levels for the fish is better down in cooler waters.

FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK:  baby dorado, roosterfish, 2 sailfish, 1 marlin, 2 tuna,  1 wahoo, bonito (lots of them), jacks, pompano, pargo, triggerfish

FISHING ON A SCALE of 1-10: 3

THE MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO FISHING REPORT

I suppose relatively speaking we had a better week overall than the previous week.

1.  It got cooler.  We had temps in the 120’s and 130’s for several weeks, but it “cooled” off down to the mid-90’s most days.

2.  We still got some heavy rains almost daily, but they mostly tapered off to afternoon thundershowers.  A few of them were pretty stout affairs, but most came and went within an hour with only localized flooding and only in certain areas.  All the rain was mostly in the afternoons when everyone was already off the water.

3.  We never had to cancel any fishing trips.  Everyone fished as scheduled.

With the mostly better weather, I would have to say that fishing was better.

But the bar wasn’t that high and the fishing wasn’t that great to begin with.

According to my captains, the biggest issue is that while the air temps have cooled off, the water temperatures rain incredibly high.  We’re recording surface ocean temperatures between 90-94 degrees!  That is simply unheard of and a good 10 or more degrees warmer than normal no doubt a result of the Super El Nino weather conditions being experienced this year resulting in abnormally warm waters around our side of the Pacific Ocean.

What we’re seeing is mostly only small dorado of less than 5 pounds in the water mixed with bonito and a few jacks.

…and that’s kind of it.   And some days even catching the small dorado is mind-blowingly difficult.

Fortunately, the bonito are providing some rod-bending action, but some days, we’re averaging only 1-2 dorado per angler and these fish are about 18-24 inch babies we’re calling “Trodo” (trout-sized dorado).

Overall, some of the most difficult fishing I have ever seen in 30 years here.  We did hook a few tuna and a few billfish and we lost a wahoo, but generally speaking the small dorado have been about it.

We theorize that the warm waters just don’t have enough oxygen for the larger fish which have gone to deeper and cooler waters where the oxygen is more plentiful.  The smaller fish simply don’t require as much oxygen.  Consequently, the larger fish we’ve hooked were only up on the surface to feed coming up from the deeper waters.

From what I’m hearing this same phenomenon is happening up and down the lower Baja regions and into the Sea of Cortez.   I think it will stay like this unti the ocean cools off.

If there’s a golden lining, dorado are are among the fastest growing fish in the ocean and these like punk schoolie fish will gain 10 pounds each or more in the next few months.

We can only hope.

That’s our story!

Jonathan & Jilly

Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter Sportfishing
www.tailhunter.comMexico Office: 

Tailhunter Sportfishing

755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

U.S. Mailing Address:  Tailhunter Sportfishing
8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178 La Mesa CA  91942