December 16, 2013 by Jonathan Roldan

Tim Zimmer, Pictured above and a jubilant Captain Jorge of our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, hoist up this beefy wahoo off the south end of Cerralvo Island in the early morning. Great way to start the day and more evidence of the great blue water fish we're still experiencing this past week!

Photo #1: Can you tell it's winter in La Paz? Our Florida, amigo, Llew Williams, has been fishing with us for many years and came to fish with us in December this time. Never expecting to catch dorado, wahoo and this big trophy rooster he's trying to cradle so he can take a photo and release it. That's Punta Perrico and the old Hotel Las Arenas in the distance.

Photo #2: Captain Gerardo is a big big fella so his size somewhat dwarfs Julie Gragg and here nice wahoo she caught on her first time fishing and visiting La Paz!

Photo #3 I think this is Verda's 3rd time fishing with us this year. She's a gangbuster angler from the East Bay of San Francisco and shows off a nice rack of sierra, a dorado and a cabrila. She also got a marlin as well.

Photo #4: Great dorado photo with Steve Medley who caught this good-looking young bull just outside of Bahia de Los Muertos.

COOLER WEATHER WITH WARM WATER FISH!

As one of our fishermen this week said, "I can't believe how many marlin are in the water. It's crazy. This is December and we fished for 4 days and it was almost like we couldn't get away from them! It was like they were following us around. We hooked and released 5, but could have caught others!"

Another said, "We know it's off-season, but never expected to catch marlin, let alone 3 in two days and lost 2 more. Great fun to catch-and-release big fish!"

And another said, "Fight of my life. We were catching dorado, which we never expected in the winter so I had 30 pound test on when a marlin bit just about 100 yards from shore!"

His buddy said, "We thought we'd be fishing for sierra and maybe some cabrilla and instead we loaded a cooler with dorado and wahoo. I'm glad we released the marlin!"

And that's pretty much how it went this week! Again, another surprise fishing week. It was windy and definitely cooler with some gray skies as is typical of fishing this time of year and we highly recommend not to forget bringing a jacket aboard. But, the fishing the last few weeks has definitely NOT been seasonal.

We did get sierra and cabrilla for sure. In fact, it was one of our better weeks for the inshore fishing which combined for cabrilla, bonito and even a few smaller rooster fish.

But, I'm again surprised by the continued presence of blue water fish like marlin (never had a November and December like this!), dorado and wahoo in the area. As I've mentioned before, we're ONLY fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet. We've pretty much shuttered out Tailhunter La Paz fleet as it's usually too windy or not worth it to spend 1-2 hours getting bumped around to get to the fishing grounds. Plus the bait guys just aren't out much since there's not many folks fishing out've La Paz for the same reasons. So, it just makes more sense to keep fishing with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet where the fish are close; there's bait around; and even if it's a little brisk, we're somewhat sheltered by Bahia de Los Muertos and the lee side of Cerralvo Island.

Not many anglers around this time of year so it's kinda nice to be out there fishing and you almost have the whole Sea of Cortez all to yourself!

AIRLINE UPDATES

Just a heads-up. Looks like there's some updates for flights from the U.S. this year. Normally, Aero Mexico flies from Los Angeles to La Paz on Sundays and Thursdays. This is the ONLY flight direct to La Paz non-stop. But, it looks like they have added some Saturday flights as well! Great news.

Also, most of our amigos fly to Cabo and then we have our Tailhunter shuttle come get them. Cabo is such an easy no-brainer much of the time. There's more flights. There are daily flights. It's usually alot cheaper flying to Cabo. With the newly completed road, it's now just a bit over 2 hours now zooming up to La Paz!

Well, Alaska Air has opened routes from Boise ID to San Diego now! San Diego is a great airport and it's way better than flying into LAX any day! Several of our amigos and clients have already booked that flight from Idaho and are really happy with it. San Diego to Cabo is cake!

That's our story! Hope you're having a safe and happy Christmas holidays!