TOTALLY WIDE-OPEN DORADO AT LA PAZ

July 22, 2006, Christopher Bruno, World class dorado action during La Paz trip with Tailhunter International:

Life was great for catching dorado in La Paz this week. World-class, perhaps. My wife and I fished with Jonathan Roldan's Tail Hunter International for three days in millpond flat, warm water with very light fishing pressure.

Maybe the light angler pressure contributed to the phenomenal dorado bite. We caught them until we were exhausted from catching them. Big ones, little ones, it didn't matter; they all fought the same, only the big ones fought longer. Alix battled a monster for 30 or 40 minutes only to lose it 10 feet from the boat, after it had jumped probably six times twice its length out of the water.

We fished on the La Paz side in the Canal de San Lorenzo. We also fished one day in Las Arenas, but nothing was going on there.

We fished with live sardina bait, with more thrown in the water after hookups. We also hooked them on a Mexican flag spinner jet lure and a standard chugger-type lure.

We caught 25 dorado (also mahi-mahi or dolphinfish) in 2 days, including released fish. Both days we quit early. Our buddy boat caught 51 fish, including releases, in two days using heavier tackle and with the captain also fishing.

Gawd they are fast. You finally beat them into coming to the boat and as soon as they see it, they take off, going 30 yards no matter where the drag is set, before you can say, "Oh, sh___t." Literally, before you can say it.

We caught nothing else, just dorado. The dorado wouldn't let anything else near the bait. The guide would throw a handful of bait fish into the water as we were fighting fish and a whole school of dorado would churn the surface with their fins as they converged on the bait from 6 different directions going 50 m.p.h.

When we caught them, their pectoral fins would light up like a blue beer sign so you could see them glowing from 20 yards away. If we got them to the boat too soon and the guide gaffed them, they would tear the deck apart thrashing around as he frantically beat at them with a wooden club. Awesome fish.

The next day of fishing was even better, if that can be imagined. I saw eighteen boats in one two-acre spot, with every boat hooked up on dorado at the same time and continuously. It was like fishing in an aquarium. I was jerking my bait away from fish because I thought a ten-to-fifteen pounder was too small! There were so many fish on the surface that I was casting live bait to specific fish like a fly fisher! Hahahaha!

What a place! What a country! What an operation Jonathan runs. Our captain Martin was the best and I can't imagine fishing with anyone else. He was diplomatically educational to the experienced angler, while being gentle and supportive to the less experienced. I am forced to mention that his help got the "less experienced angler" more and bigger fish than me! What a great guy, she says!

On an unrelated note, we had a New York-class steak dinner at the Buffalo BBQ, a sleeper place that doesn't show its grandeur from the outside, but was filled with local and national celebs enjoying some of the best carne we have had anywhere.