TUNA CAUGHT ON 5-DAY FISHING TRIP WITH TORTUGA SPORTFISHING

Sept. 11, 2004, Mike Hutton, Las Arenas, La Paz, Mexico Fishing with Tortuga Fleet:

We just got back from a 5 day trip to La Paz through Gerardo at Tortuga Sportfishing. We fished on the 7th, 8th, & 9th.

Bait was not a problem like last year at this time. There were plenty of Sardinas available & they now have one guy catching bait for all of the pangas. You could either go directly to him first thing in the morning or you could troll first thing & get bait from him later. He was around for most of the day everyday supplying bait to everybody.

On the 7th, we fished the Los Muertos area for yellowfin tuna first thing in the morning. There were lots of 15 - 25 lb Yellowfin jumping around all the pangas after the chum that was being thrown in the water. After about an hour the chum also attracted some Dorado, mostly in the 20 - 30 lb class, but a few 50 pounders were caught. The Dorado were right up to the pangas franticly chasing bait. Later in the day we went to the South looking for more Dorado. We did get into some, but they were much smaller then the Los Muertos Dorado & not as abundant. We were trolling Bonito strip bait. But there was to many Needlefish in that area & most our time was spent rebaiting because of them.

On the 8th, we trolled the Las Arenas fishing area between the island & the lighthouse for Wahoo. Most of the Wahoo were in the 15 - 25 lb class & the hot lure was the large purple Rapala. They were not interested in any other color we trolled. We did see several Marlin in that area, but they were not interested in any of our bait that morning. We also got into some decent size Dorado in the Los Muertos area on Sardinas. We did some bottom fishing & got some small Triggerfish as well as some small Pargo. The skies were scattered with thunder storms far to the East while we fished but did hit the La Paz area that afternoon after we arrived back to Tortuga.

On the 9th, the skies were gray for almost the entire day & rained a little mid morning. We could hear the thunder storms which seemed close, but never arrived where we were fishing. We trolled the Los Arenas in the morning for Wahoo, but they seemed to have moved on although a few pangas did get a few. We spent most of the day fishing between the island & where we launched the pangas at Los Arenas. All we got into were some small Dorado, which we released & quite a few Bonito which we later used for bait. Later in the day we fished the Los Muertos area again & got into some Yellowfin in the 15 - 25 lb range. After about an hour of fishing there the Needlefish moved in & it was more hassle than it was worth. We then asked Rigo (our captain) if we could try for some giant squid. We got one very nice size squid & a small Mako that was chasing the squid from the commercial pangas.

Overall it was a great La Paz fishing trip with a good variety of fish being caught. There are 2 Rigo's that are great captains. We had Calamar as a captain last year who is also very good, but unfortunately he is fishing the commercial panga fleet right now. I was also told that Jorge is a very good captain as well.

Thanks goes out to Gerardo and his crew at Tortuga Sportfishing for another great La Paz fishing trip & for making sure we all had a good time.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from La Paz and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for La Paz may be found at Mexfish.com's main La Paz page.