Las Arenas....

[Darian]

Just back from a trip to Las Arenas/La Ventana.... It was a week of mixed action/successes/failures. The weeks weather started out hot/humid (I mean really hot :evil: ). it ended with reduced air temps and north winds.

Fishing was good everyday (as usual). The catching wasn't so good after the winds came up. Plus the panga rides in the wind generated swells were exciting to say the least. A wind surfers dream. :shock:

Lots of good sized and even large Dorado were around during the first few days but mostly in singles and doubles. When you could locate a school, they were smaller and catching them wasn't always easy. They seemed to key on the really small sized bait. (I've never seen Sardinas that small before....) Found it difficult to get strikes until we started reducing the size of our flies. Then the strikes would follow. :nod:

Lost a bunch of flies and farmed a bunch of fish. My fishing partner hooked/l'dred a Sail Fish while trolling. I think that fish may've out weighed her. Certainly was longer than she is tall. It was a beauty. 8)

No photo's yet. My camera is still with my partner. She's probably busy photoshoppin' that sail into the size of a Blue Whale (I'll never hear the end of it). :lol: I'll post some photos and more details when I retrieve the camera.... :nod:

[Jay Murakoshi]

Well here's my report.... I had to take a nap.
Like Darian said, it was HOT and HUMID. Probably the hottest October I've seen in years and lot's of humidity. On the hot days, the waters were flat and very little wind except the wind that was generated from moving the boats.
Our first day, we ventured to the buoys in the channel and found a few dorado, small ones to say the least. Then we ventured down to Punta Gorda while others went towards Punta Perico and Muertos. We hit a few small schools of decent size dorado and ended up boating 5 that day. Had some shots at a marlin that was eating but not flies only the small baits.
On the way back in, we stopped at one of the beaches around Punta Gorda and found some baits that were even smaller than the ones we bought about an inch in length.
On the way back we stopped at most of the buoys and found fish but not in large numbers or size.
Day two found us heading south towards punta perico where we found some dorado with some size but wouldn't eat but only a few small sardina's. They wanted nothing to do with flies. Headed to the buoy off the "big house" and nobody home. We needed some air so we motored south towards Boca del Alamo, no fish to be found. We headed back and stopped at Punta Perico again and huge schools of needle fish.. The count that day "0"for me 1 for my partner. But there was a bright light, Ann from ABQ, NM caught a YFT that weighed 24lbs and at the end of the day right off the hotel she landed a dorado almost 27lbs.
Day three, out to Roca Montana for some yellow fin. The fishing had started to pick up for the YF. The conventional guys were hooking up but smaller tuna than we had in June. These tuna were running aroud 25 to 40lbs, not bad. We tried for a couple hours for the tuna and I had a couple shots at a sail fish.

Long story short, towards the end of the week the dorado fishing picked up and so did the winds. Thursday was blowing as we came back to the beach around 1pm. It was a north wind so on the way back from La Ventana we were going with the wind and didn't have that bad of a ride. But Friday, the wind came up around 9:30am and it blew hard. After catching a few dorado at Punta Perico, which by the way there was a big school of dorado and some YFT hanging around we started heading back around noon. From Punta Perico to the beach looked like victory at sea. The bow of the panga was up and down, up and down. When we hit the light house point and the heavy current, damn there were some huge swells. There was a couple times I thought it was coming over the bow of the boat. They had to be 6'+ and one long wall of water with 1 sec intervals. These conditions also made for a rough beach landing.
What a big difference between last October and this October... Would I go back, you bet.
Conditions change daily, weekly, monthly and yearly

It all those small dorado survive, there should be massive schools come May, June, July
and for the sardina's, next season shouldn't be too hard to make bait.

I don't even know if I have any photo's of fish. I shot a lot of video

If you're interested in a trip for next year, better think about signing up right now. I have a lot of guys returning for next year and also have a few shops organizing groups for the month of June

Later

Jay

[Darian]

After retrieving my camera and looking over the photo's, there's lots of scenery but only a few that have any fish in them. So, I'll spare you the "slide show". Just a few additional comments about the trip.

We fished a bit near the area where the bait guys were netting Sardinas (at the Island) and caught a few Cabrilla, Snappers and a Gaff Top Sail Pompano, all on small clousers. The Pompano is a very sleek and good looking fish. It was a good way to start the day. The balance of each day was spent hunting fish at the bouy's or at the Tuna grounds. :)

We ranged from north of Punta Gorda south to Punta Pericco covering a lot of water. Most places (bouy's) we stopped at, nobody was home. The few that held fish were tough at best. we'd pick up one fish and then they would leave or we would cast into fish boiling on the surface only to have them rush and refuse the fly. Frustrating.... We still managed to catch several. Many of the Dorado were very small (15"). :neutral:

As mentioned earlier, we caught fish trolling, bait fishing and on flies. After reading my original post, my partner reminded me that she caught the Sailfish (mentioned in that post) while bait fishing at the Tuna grounds (not trolling). She did manage to hook up with a Marlin (not landed) and a good sized Dorado (landed) while trolling. So, the trip was pretty good to her. 8)

I've never seen Sardinas that small before. They measured an average of 1 1/2" in length. I'm not sure how the bait guys kept the bait in their cast nets.... :confused: When bait fishing, our captain would put 2 or 3 on a hook at a time. Now imagine a Sailfish taking that bait.... Considering this, I've decided the best fly would've been a Gummy Minnow. :lol:

I was snake bit when it came to keeping larger Dorado on. I broke off a few when the tippet broke, problems with knots and had the running line wrap around the rod butt. Even with all of the that, I still managed to land some fish. So, other than being bored out of my skull while trolling, it was a good trip for me as well. 8)

The various sizes of the fish that were there indicates that the fishery is healthy and will be really good next spring/early summer. So, if you're a salt water junky and interested, you should check with Jay to reserve a spot in that time frame and get ready to have some fun.... :D :D