Fast and very furious: Doubleheaders and even triple and quadruple hookups are the norm when striped marlin are actively feeding on bait balls near the surface. The sight of multiple tall dorsal fins cutting through bait schools is enough to get any anglers heart racing. One problem I flyfish and got a guide already. 3. This luxury fishing yacht charter with a personal chef onboard cooking meals and 2 deckhands working alongside. 1. 7) 3 days offshore one day inshore. Mostly they are out on the Ridge. Marco and others are finding a way to make both experiences happen safely and symbiotically. 2 ton central forced A/C unit. Offshore vs. Inshore Fishing in Cabo San Lucas: Which is Right for You? And yes, the snook is too big to fit between the roots.. We werent fishing, but were chasing birds and bait instead. Rarely will they even be found within 15 to 20 miles of the mouth of the bay. Magdalena Bay is the name for a 30-mile-long harbor with a collection of mangrove rivers and swamps near the bottom of Baja's Pacific Coast. The fishing in Mag Bay is diverse and plentiful. The Lodge at Mag Bay offers a truly extraordinary experience. Some of the thousands of fishing pelicans. Known locally as The Whale King, Mendoza is a pioneer of whale watching and sport fishing on the bay. Also, whats a good time (month) to fish Mag Bay? Around 12:00 noon we arrive in the small fishing town of Lopez Mateos, check-in to the hotel and get ready for an afternoon of whale . Difficult as this adventure might seem, you can catch more striped marlin in a week here than you can in a half-dozen seasons in Southern California. Jonathan. I have been visiting mag bay since my youth. Guided Beach, includes fly fishing guide, UTV rental, all fly fishing equipment and lunch: $575. There, an old and battered but serviceable red Ford pickup backed a trailer to waiting boats (artisanal fishing pangas except for us) to be shuttled a mile or so over the sand and dropped in at a beach facing the Pacific. I put a foot in the middle of the kayak and in one quick motion swiveled to plop my butt down on the seat as Larocque leaned over the side to click a Mirage pedal-drive unit into its slots. Filter results by: Price per Day. Or normally out of the bay? After more than an hour, I was able to bill the beast and work the circle hook out of its jaw, then pedaled for 10 minutes or so holding the marlin by its bill alongside until it was kicking strongly for a healthy release. 4-day fishing adventure in Quepos Costa Rica. Drake Magazine Back Issue Content: 2009 Recession Fish Birth of a Fly Tyer Winter Reds Arizona Bass Night Stripers Stoneflies and a Girlfriends guide to Flyfishing. Magdalena Bay Previous Entry. Sunglasses. Subscribe here to get the latest updates news on all things fishing and hunting right to your inbox, Some of the add-ons on this site are powered by. He runs adventure trips all over the world to photograph everything from sharks to orcas to anacondas. Striped marlin gorge on bait balls off far-flung Magdalena Bay, creating unparalleled action and record catch numbers. Or, you could be left shaking your head at the fish-filled mayhem that can turn on at any moment. Discover the amazing variety of fish Mag Bay has to offer! Many regions of Baja waters still remain untouched by the tourists so you can land upon a lot of rare catch. 4. The boats that overnighted at the bank reported 30-plus releases a day. Thank you again for everything. There are more fly anglers willing to travel now than ever before. Get over here! We watch a reel getting emptied and watch the fish leap, flip, and dive. But we had a great morning with yellowfin tuna small to maybe 20 pounds and skipjack. The extraordinary display of so many striped marlin crisscrossing and on the hunt for prey was mesmerizing. Soon, Nick calls out every anglers favorite two words. $1000 for a Cape Horn 27 and $1,750 for a Pro Cat 37. On one day last year, they raised 143 marlin and released 50, all on fly tackle. During the calving season, the gray whales migrate to the Baja waters, and so do humans. Our journey to Thetis had us leaving the lodge in two pangas at dawn for a 15-minute ride to a launch point of sorts on a shallow beach. The largest town along the bay, Puerto San Carlos, has a handful of hotels and restaurants and is a great base for whale-watching or exploring the bay. All meals and beverages as indicated on the itinerary. The local panga fishermen are mad as h*ll that the sardine and marlin are getting fished out illegally with up to 14 large industrial size boats going out of Magdalena Bay every night, each boat harvesting 100 - 200 tons of fish. By Robert Reid. Baha Magdalena is a protected bay on the Pacific coast in Baja Sur. His captain was Juan Jose Abaroa Flores, who ran the Mucho Loco for the Rolling Stones for many years back in the 1980s. from La Ventana around the waters off Cabo San Lucas and all the way up the Pacific Coast to Magdalena Bay - Wherever the fishing action is best. Ive been in the flyfishing industry my entire adult life, and I dont approach fish with trepidation. data-event-category="Navigation header guest", Full list of top fishing charters in Magdalena Bay, FishingBooker has a Shopper Approved rating of 4.8/5 based on 25793 ratings and reviews. If you are approaching from the north, the drive . . In terms of the run up, down or across the bay to reach the fishing grounds, the ride on the pangas seldom took less than 45 minutes and often was an hour or two. The bait moves as the marlin and occasional sea lion push it forward. I never fished Mag Bay, but I want to soon. 8:15-10:15 AM Travel to Magdalena Bay. This spectacle varies from year-to-year but can often reach truly amazing proportions in October and November when the volume of baitfish appears, attracting large schools of billfish - mostly striped marlin - but additional . Looking for info on Lodgings and Panga rentals in Mag Bay for a few days in September. Swimming with the fishes in Baja By John Huber Photos by Nick Price. Hundreds of miles of Mangroves Inshore for countless species Thats all he likes to do, and he does it way better than anyone Ive ever fished with. Mag Bay offers a sweet blend of elegant modern lines and the rustic California flare. I was traveling with retired Marine Col. Hunter Ledbetter who had a friend named Jim Korchinski who owned a charter boat in Cabo. The Drake Magazine. It brings in some of the cleanest waters, fresh nutrients, and exotic fishing catch. We're hoping to fish for Wahoo. Guides here are well versed in spin and baitfishing, but not so much with flyfishing. Nick Smith has been fishing Mag Bay for years. Video by Spencer Millsap. Approx. Mexico's Magdalena "Mag" Bay is among the best and most consistent sportfishing experiences in the world. From there we start the 6 hour drive up north to Magdalena Bay, during which we pass through Todos Santos, La Paz and Constitucion. At one point there were almost 20 marlin around and below me, casually swimming along. Offshore 25 miles, the wind picks up and I hear it mix with the country music coming from our little travel speaker. Baha Magdalena is a protected bay on the Pacific coast in Baja Sur. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Magdalena Bay (often called Mag Bay by Americans, but according to the professor we heard lecture that is not preferred by Mexicans) is a gigantic natural harbor at 25 miles N-S and 13 miles E-W with multiple good anchorages. Huge fish boils are still the norm here, providing the fly fisher the opportunity to cast a fly in the churning waters with equal chance of catching dorado, tuna, wahoo or billfish. This would mean a five-hour run, and we would have to leave the dock by 4:30 a.m. Ledbetter and I jumped at the chance and we found that the long run was not a problem at allwe simply hopped in the bunks and went back to sleep. The experience is both fascinating and intriguing. The closer the big fish get to the bait, the brighter they get with excitement. Full services of our Adventure Consultants. 4) The Panga brings the kayaks out to the location so they are ready when we arrive in the boat. Promnitz said later he might have been close enough to cast a jig to them. Not much, that is, aside from an annual explosion of sardines that attracts mobs of striped marlin, piles of wahoo . How far out is the ridge? What I like most about mag bay in general is the seclusion and peace. CABO PANGA FISHING--This tasty wahoo-dorado combo came aboard the Cabo San Lucas charter panga Cheer's for anglers Renee Shattuck and Miguel Hernandez, on a day that also produced 11 more dorado and a sailfish with Capt. Once relaunched, we encountered a northwest wind, not yet brisk but enough to promise a slow, bumpy ride. We will match the rate of the other deal if the All camping equipment. The bait fish congregate as do the predators that hunt them. Because his goal is to release as many billfish as possible without permanent injury, the single hook is key: It wont impair the marlins ability to breathe or feed like a double-hook rig can. Panga $450 - Unguided Light Tackle $750 - Guided Fly Fishing. Copyright 2018 Baja Fishing Convoys - All Rights Reserved. The result is a living, moving ball of fish, with marlin and often sea lions in pursuit. One of the best parts of traveling is the pleasant surprises that come along every trip. No one plans on hopping into town for supplies or entertainment, because it just doesnt exist. Drake Magazine Back Issue Content: 2020 Summer Stranded on Socotra, Stranded on Socotra, The Quarantine and John Prine, Tarpon, A Mexican Introduction Fall Winter . Rumor has it that the record for conventional tackle releases at Mag Bay is close to 200 striped marlin in one day, which pretty much sums up this amazing fishery. T his may be their debut album, but the LA synth-pop duo Magdalena Bay already commandeer their own cinematic universe: Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin are big on TikTok and Twitch; they have . Taxes. Private TOUR. La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico. Guided Panga, includes fly fishing guide all fishing equipment, bait, lunch and water. Like most destination fisheries, there are a range of optionsfrom dirtbagging yourself down there and putting your money toward boats and guides, to going with all-inclusive, airport-to-airport services. There also were two small center-console outboard boats fishing in our vicinity. On morning number four of our trip, the cool bay air gives me goose bumps as we motor. I stayed with Wilber, and he and his son will take me out in his Panga at first light. In the bay, between 85 and 95 miles of mangrove-filled canals provide a seemingly endless source of light tackle fishing especially for groupers, snapper and snook. Cruiser rates vary. This is familiar; this pull, this need to clear my line rapidly. Our contact during the booking process was Marco: he was flexible with our requests about . For fly fishing we have a custom panga package. All rights reserved. This is the tour you came so far for ! 10%. There was a small queue ahead of us, so we waited 20 or so minutes for each boat to be served. Expert Crew with years of experience fishing the waters surrounding La Paz.. Our stay at Magdalena Bay was both exciting and educational, but there was still more to come on this trip. Our Packages are based on 2 Anglers, notice that this is a suggestion you can add Anglers, days or combine it with other locations. Wed jump in and the bait would quickly dash over to see if our boat offered any protectionwhich it didntthen they would take off again. Chapstick. For over 18 years, family-operated Mag Bay Tours (U.S. tel. Our guests stay at the Mangrove Inn, a new facility located just outside the port town of Lopez Mateos. We are in the Bahia San Francisco, not to be confused with the Bahia San Francisquito, there is the Bahia de Los Angeles and in general the names here are very Christian: Isla Espiritu Santo, Bahia Concepcion, Santa Maria, Magdalena Bay, Isla Angel de la Guardia, Asuncion, Todos Santos. They claim that they could have caught more, but everyone got tired of rigging up flies! Please call for a quote. Seattle Times travel & outdoors editor. Wed run ahead of them and the five photographers in our group would plop into the water; the bait would swim over and use us as cover. It feels like the curiosity is mutual. The kayakers were brought offshore on pangas but fought the fish on their own. Possibly reel in until you give up for the day. Combination packages mixing cruiser, panga, kayak or beach fishing; Large groups and Seminars; Activities that include snorkeling, scuba diving, whale watching, kayaking, four wheelers, eco-touring and horseback riding . E: booking@magbaytours.com. The lodge is well maintained, has access to the swimming pool, hot tub, huge garage, workshop, tackle room, outside dining area, and more. full service galley A/C. Sport Fishing Charters. A chain of islands that serve as a barrier protect the bay from the vast Pacific Ocean, creating an ideal environment for a large population of marine life, including the most popular species of sport fishing. We hopped out and lifted the bow while the driver pulled the truck away, unhooked the trailer and soon arrived with another old trailer. Magdalena Bay Whale Watching Tours from Loreto. What to target, and where, within the greater Mag Bay system, are decisions that might leave anglers second-guessing over a vast expanse of quiet water. Anywhere from 40 to 120 miles depending on where you leave from and what part you travel too. The marlin pulled me through and over large bait balls, with frigate birds wheeling just overhead. Find frigate birds low on the water and the stripeys are sure to be there. There is nowhere else like it on Earthyou just have to figure out how to get there. What was the point? he said. The more I see this, the more I want to be back in the boat casting to them. Light jacket or sweater. The conditions of your booking with us still allow penalty-free cancellations and The bay is obviously full of fish. We would have a few moments to snap photos before everything got out of range. I dont think we ever saw more than three sport-fishing boats in a day, but there was clearly a specific area where all the action was taking place. My head snaps around to locate it. Mostly they are out on the Ridge. Day 1 - The tour departs at 6am from our office in the Cabo San Lucas Marina. Little has changed over the years in this small fishing village where the main available activities are around the fishing, whale watching and Eco Touring. It feels like the curiosity is mutual. Its a place for the most curious and adventurous people to be at. Difficult as this adventure might seem, you can catch more striped marlin in a week here than you can in a half-dozen seasons in Southern California. Jimmy is the guy! The waters are teeming with fascinating marine life, and the Baja peninsula is primarily known as a fishing paradise. 202/642-6386) has been leading whale-watching experiences. About. I even caught one on a Penn Senator 113. A surreal feeling begins setting in as the soft light of evening meets the low slack tide. There were marlin everywhere, not just on the bait balls. I wanted to take the time to give you some really good feedback on our trip with your team this year! He and his crew load two kayaks aboard each panga and head for a destination determined by anglers' goals, the season and the morning's . With us 60 years of knowledge await you as 4 generations have already passed, with great passion, respect and deep love for the impressive Magdalena Bay and its surroundings. A barbless hook also will usually fall out within a few hours. You know fishing is good when it has come to strictly catch and release on wahoo and even tuna. Cabo Fishing rentals/ Cabo fishing Charters. Professional naturalist and bi-lingual guides. Or, at least those lucky enough to find us and have the opportunity to enjoy Magdalena Bay fishing and all the beauty it has to offer.