Florida Fish Report

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN REPORT

WEATHER:  It was really good until it wasn’t.  Hot humid and crazy muggy weather.  Very very tropical.  Temps from 95-107 with the humidity, but great fishing weather if you discount the occasional thunderstorm or rain shower that come and go.  Sometimes short and violent then the sun comes out again!

WATER:  Fortunately, the runoff from the rain hasn’t been extensive because it doesn’t rain for a long time even though alot of rain comes down.  So, the water isn’t as turned over or as dirty as might be expected.  However, the water is an incredible 88-91 degrees on the surface!  I can’t even get my shower water that warm!

SPECIES HOOKED THIS WEEK:  Dorado, tuna, (1) blue marlin lost, (1) sailfish lost, (1 striped marlin (lost), wahoo, rainbow runner, jack crevalle, bonito, roosterfish, triggerfish, pompano, cabrilla, pargo

FISHING ON A SCALE of 1-10 (10 is best):  6-8 (best of the year)

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Bring a small bit of repellent (flies and mosquito hatch from the rain) and also some electrolyte packets (very hot and muggy…lots of folks affected by the heat by not staying hydrated!)

MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

This time of year, a sunny day can turn into a deluge without much notice flooding everything.  Then the sun comes back out again.  On this particular day, 4 inches of rain fell in on hour.

Another one of those tropical thunderstorms hit us mid-week and put a damper on things and we actually had to cancel boats and bring everyone back to town.  What started as a windstorm and shower turned into a Noah’s Ark event.  We got about 4 inches of rain in an hour that flooded arroyos and streets up to the car windows:

Fortunately, it was only for about an hour or so then in typical fashion, it stopped and everthing drained.  We cleaned up and the next day were thankfully able to get folks back out on the water.

However BEFORE that storm…

We may have had some of the best fishing of the year and surely the best tuna fishing that I’ve seen in maybe 10 years or so down here!

At Bahia Muertos with our Tailhunter Las Arenas fleet, the tuna came back in force and were crushing it.  Lots of fun football-sized yellowfin, plus some 10-30 pounders mixed in.  At Cerralvo Island, more tuna to be found at the south end of the point and at the north end bigger model 100+ pound fish were hitting.  Dorado mixed in as well.

Many of these fish were within 100-200 yards of the beach in shallow water.

One day alone, I think our boats took in more than 1000 pounds of fish as we spent almost 4 hours in our packing room processing over 300 pounds of fillets!  We’ve also been cooking up alot of fish at our Tailhunter Restaurant plus with the tuna making alot of sahime and poke!

Along with the tuna, there’s dorado mixed in, but for our Tailhunter La Paz Fleet, the bite is probably 90% all dorado.  Lots of little punk fish under 12″ in size that we’re releasing but some better 10-15 pound fish are keepers with the occasional 20-pounder in the mix.

Other than the tuna and dorado, there’s some smaller roosterfish around.  And some sierra and rainbow runners are showing up in the counts which means that cooler water is starting to come around as the season will start transitioning.  Normally, sierra and rainbow runners (cousin to yellowtail) are found in our winter and spring months.

We did have a handful of billfish hooked and lost caught collaterally while fishing for the other species.

Hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, we’ll be back up to full speed like before the storms.  The forecast calls for very little precipitation in the forecast for the first time in about 3 weeks!

If you are coming down, bring a little bug repellent.  With all the sporadic rainfall, the hatch of flies, mosquitoes and other flying critters can be problematic.

Also, the humidity is really oppressive with the heat.  Stay hydrated.  It would not hurt to bring some of those little packets of powdered electrolytes that you can put in a bottle of water and chug down when things get really warm.

BOOKINGS FOR 2026

We’re getting a steady stream daily of folks already booking for next season.  Many of our guests are leaving their La Paz and immediately giving me dates for next year.  Especially if they like a certain hotel or have a favorite captain, they don’t want to miss out.  Some weeks and dates are already filled or filling up.  Don’t miss out.  We’re offering our current 2025 rates if you book before the end of this year for 2026.  Reach out to me directly and I’ll get you set up with a customized trip:  tailhunterfishinglapaz@gmail.com