LA PAZ
 

Temperatures - 75/51 with 68% humidity. Water Temps. - 73 degrees.
Seas are calm. Skies are sunny. Winds are out of the SSW at 5 mph.

Jonathan Roldan, reporting for Jonathan Roldan's Tail Hunters Fishing & Adventures.
Jonathan sends the following information for the area:

January 8, 2002

Well, I'm freezing while I'm writing this. I know you have very little sympathy especially you guys that write to me from the Midwest and tell me it's 5 degrees, but hey. . I'm and island boy and I'm here in California for the International Sportsman's Exposition this week at the Pomona Fairplex (Los Angeles County Fairgrounds) from Thursday to Sunday. I'll have my booth and I'm also supposed to be doing their Baja-ha-ha Seminars (with apologies to Fred Hoctor!). Haven't a clue about what I'm going to say yet, but I'll be ready when Showtime hits! C'mon down and say howdy, maybe see a picture of yourself. I promise if you don't make fun of me, I don't make fun of you while I'm onstage! I usually wear my bandanas and aloha shirts, but it's so cold that I may just opt for wool surfing boots and my Alaska parka!

Anyway, we've got a nice splash of tuna this past week. All coming from the Las Arenas side. Winds were a bit more tolerable, no, make that negligible for the most part during the fishing hours and the yellowfin came and chewed. Not like a spring or fall bite, but certainly enough to make the veins pop on your forearms! I didn't have anyone fishing straight out of La Paz this week so the only reports I got were from guys who fished Arenas.

Once again, I could give you another boring fish count or something like that, but instead, it's always so much better to let you guys do the reports yourselves. There are a lot of darned good writers out there! My pal, retired professor Llew Williams took time off from his sweet life in Las Vegas where he's turned to making rods and fishing gadgets to fish La Paz and cracked back to me with this report:

Fished the Cerralvo/Muertos Bay areas. Had my niece and her husband, Gale and John Danko, and their boys Michael (11) and J.T. (13) down from New Jersey to experience "our" fishing. J.T. and I fished with Yojo, the others with Victor. J.T. got the biggest fish both days (60! and 30-lb yellowfin) using the new short (4 1/2') panga rods I'm building on 20 and 30 weight blanks. He needed just a little help "mopping up" on the 60-lb "hog" but took care of the 30 pounder completely on his own after about a 50 minute battle.

Michael didn't have a strong initial outing, but he made up for it with a hot hand on Thursday that included yellowfin, yellowtail, and cabrilla. Needless to say, the "jerseyites" all went home with a real appreciation for the Sea of Cortez and our fishing paradise.

Thanks, Llew! You got to love it when kids or folks from places like the East Coast finally get ripped by one of our West Coast type critters. I've watched a lot of guys just light up when they finally pull on something like one of our bulldozing tuna or watch a big bull dorado fire up the afterburners. Then. . they get it! They understand what the heck we get all juiced about!

Other than that, still got sierra all over the place. Well, let me put it this way, if you find the spot, it's like fishing mackerel at the breakwater near your favorite bait receiver. Just hungry doggies! The sierra are member of the mack family, but have ALOT more relation to it's big brother the wahoo and taste like steak compared to mackerel on the table. One thing, you got to fish them with wire. The do have sharp choppers! Either flyline with a small wire leader and bait or my favorite to cover a lot of ground is simply to drag a shiny lure like a Krocodile or even a broken backed silver Rebel. On light tackle these guys will rock you.

Well, I’m out for now. Hopefully see you this week at Pomona and if not, then out at one of the other shows or out on the water!

That's my story!
Jonathan

Temperatures - 80/50 with 72% humidity. Water Temps. - 67 to 69 degrees.
Seas are calm. Skies are sunny. Winds are out of the S at 4 mph.

San Lucas Cove part-time resident angler ROSS WHITE said he used Jointed Rebel Fastracs to score on barracuda, yellowtail, black skipjack, spotted bay bass, sierra, halibut, and skipjack between Christmas and New Year's. White fishes Neil Kelly style--right out of The Baja Catch--trolling Rebels for a wide variety of species. He limited on 3 to 6-pound yellowtail along the back side of Isla San Marcos, and caught the halibut on blue-and-silver Rebels off San Bruno to the south.

"Others in camp were making bait in the morning and catching up to 30-pound yellowtail by going deep with live bait or yo-yoing off the north end of Isla San Marcos," White said. Air temperatures were in the 70s during the days and 50s at night.

White said that some anglers were also catching yellowtail to 25 pounds in the rocks near the lights at the north end of the island, but he went back to his usual way of fishing after losing a yo-yo jig there. "I'm a lazy fisherman," he said, "don't like to make bait, and like to troll, enjoy the ocean and boat ride and Corona. The small yellows were caught on several days at about the middle of the backside of the island, about 100 to 150 feet off shore, trolling at about 6 or 7 miles-per-hour, with the blue-and-silver Rebels, also with small Rapalas, same color."

Temperatures - 74/55, with 61% humidity. Water Temp - 65 degrees.
Seas are calm. Skies are sunny. Winds mild and variable.

Abraham Vazquez, of Camp Gecko. Doc sends the following conditions for the area:

January 9, 2002

Weather:
The temperature has been in the mid 70s and the lows at night 54-56 F the humidity is 60%, very little wind the last few days, we did have 3 days of light north wind over the last week, but nothing like a few weeks back, today has been an absolutely beautiful day, 75 and calm, the water temperature is in the mid 60s some areas as low as 63 F.

Fishing:
The fishing was excellent for Yellowtail from eight to 12-lbs at Punta Pescador, and also a number of very large yellows (over 40-lbs and some over 50-lbs) have shown up also at the Razito rock pile and at the Ventana rocks, over the shallow reef. Igor’s panga came back with three yellows again that day the biggest one over 50-lbs, and had many break-offs. All the yellows over the shallows where on casted little rubber fish (what ever their name is). This time I did get pictures for the non believers (Igor's on fire). The other picture is from the yellows up at Pescador, with guide Gabriel Vale, on blue & whites. The fishing for bottom fish continues to be good.

Temperatures - 75/48 with 63% humidity. Water Temps. - 64 degrees.
Seas are calm to choppy. Skies are sunny. Winds are calm.

The following Mag Bay report was contributed by the flyfishing experts Gary & Yvonne Graham of Baja on the Fly: Orvis-endorsed Baja on the Fly offers saltwater fly-fishing along the Mexican Peninsula's East Cape, Magdalena Bay and other locations. Family owned and operated, Baja on the Fly's Gary Graham writes timely and factual twice-weekly Condition Reports. Recently selected Orvis Expedition of the Year, Gary and his FFF-certified English-speaking guides are your best bet for marlin, dorado (mahi-mahi), roosters, tuna, snook and jacks on a fly.

January 9, 2002

IN GENERAL: Received a report from the trailer boaters who fished the week after Christmas and they encountered rough conditions that prevented them from getting all the way up to the Thetis Bank. They did catch and release one marlin and had plenty of action inside the bay catching spotted bay bass near Belcher's Point. Up further in the esteros, several of our clients took advantage of the continuing corvina and snook bite. Those, together with several palometa amarilla to 15 pounds, provided some great fishing.

After completing the International Sportsman's Exposition (ISE Show) at the Pomona Fairgrounds this weekend, I will be heading down for a three day exploratory trip to fish the esteros around Puerto San Carlos. Last year Steve Dally and I fished in the same time frame and had some of the best snook action I have ever encountered. I am going back with Don Sloan to see if Jan. is always that good. Judging from the reports we have had, it may be. If anyone is interested in making this adventuresome exploratory trip with us, call Yvonne at 800 919 2252 ASAP.

AIR & SEA: Scattered clouds, warmer daytime temps and little wind made for a pleasant week.

MARLIN - Pretty thin. I think it is time to focus on the inshore.
DORADO - Same as the marlin, but I doubt that there are many left.
TUNA - Best action is further down toward Cabo on some of the high spots.
YELLOWTAIL - Not very big, but plenty of them at the entrada and Santa Maria Bay entrance.
CORVINA - Not exactly jumping in the boat, but don't leave a chartreuse Clouser hanging over the side or you may lose it.
SNOOK - There are some trophy fish to be had right now.
HALIBUT - Don't waste your time. Stick with the snook and corvina.
SIERRA - Switch to wire tippets and look for the birds from Belchers to the entrada.

Gary

Temperatures - 73/48 with 77% humidity. Water Temps. - 61 to 64 degrees.
Seas are moderate to nasty. Skies are partly cloudy. Winds are out of the SW at 18 mph.