Cabo: To Fish or Fiesta?

© Elliot Stark / RumBum.com

Few places make the fisherman’s heart palpitate and liver tremble with the same intensity as Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Whether you're looking for Spring Break 365 days a year or you would like to catch striped marlin and roosterfish on the same day, Cabo has you covered.  When the fishing is on, it can be as good here as anywhere. There are times when boats catch upwards of 50 or even 100 striped marlin in a day. For fishermen preferring to stay on shore, roosterfish, yellowtail, and big jacks can be had throwing plugs in the surf. 

Sunrise, Sunset

Cabo San Lucas, at the southwestern extremity of the Baja Peninsula, is a geologically amazing place. Big cactus and arid mountains meet beautiful sandy beaches and deep, blue water can be found within a stone’s throw of shore. For those unaccustomed to arid scenery, looking from the cockpit of a boat back at the desert mountains can be akin to gazing upon a Martian landscape. Both sunrises and sunsets can be sites to behold. Because the region is arid and precipitation scarce, it is unlikely that rain will dampen your vacation. 

Though it doesn’t rain much, Cabo is far from dry… If binge drinking and raising hell is your style, many a Cabo bartender has made a living making sure that you can do just that. From El Squid Row to Señor Frog’s and Cabo Wabo, Cabo San Lucas is a world class party destination. The frequency, intensity and concentration of overly drunk people in Cabo can make downtown on a Saturday night look like the coupling of Mardi Gras with Cinco de Mayo. There are plenty of places happy to give you enough booze to create a hangover for yourself and you’ll meet plenty of new friends happy to join you in being hungover the next day. And because everyone there is on vacation also-- or at least forewarned of the mayhem—the atmosphere is conducive to making good stories (if you can remember them).

Offshore Abundance

The fishing in Cabo is perfectly capable of endowing you with plenty of stories as well. Offshore you’ll find some of the most accessible marlin, tuna, and dorado fishing most anywhere. The striped marlin fishery is what put Cabo San Lucas on the map. When the mackerel are around, the stripes here are thick. The Billfish Foundation’s Annual Tag and Release Awards’ Pacific Striped Marlin category routinely comes from anglers and captains plying the waters of Cabo. When hooked, the striped marlin is among the most acrobatic fighters in the sea. Commonly throwing themselves many feet out of the water, the striped marlin is known for brilliantly colored neon blue stripes and fins. 

The waters surrounding Cabo are cooled by southerly flowing currents of cold water. To warm themselves in the sun, striped marlin can often time be seen “tailing”, or swimming lazily with the top of their tail fins emerging from the ocean’s surface like a sickle. Captains scan the ocean, looking for tailers or free jumping marlin. Upon seeing one, they will race the boat to the fish and cast a live bait just in front of the fish. Often times the fish will change color right in front of you, lighting up in their excitement, before devouring the bait.

In addition to the larger blue and black marlin that can also be caught in the waters around Cabo, yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo are primary targets of the offshore fishery. With the abundance of bait often available to the pelagic predators, tuna and dorado are both plentiful and big here. Dorado upwards of 50 pounds can be encountered here and the yellowfin grow to greater than 200 pounds. The world record yellowfin, a monstrosity of 404 pounds, was recently caught in one of Mexico’s more distant Pacific islands. The world record wahoo was caught out of Cabo as well.

If you are in the market for inshore fish, those that can be found closer to the beach, Cabo San Lucas is a mecca for roosterfish. Captains targeting these brutes bump troll live mullet just past the surf zone off the beaches. This way of fishing uses the boat’s motors to slowly drive the mullet through roosterfish infested waters. When the attack is on, a crest of a dorsal fin can often be seen emerging behind the mullet, before it is engulfed in white water. This type of fishing often induces strikes by sierra mackerel and jacks and by grouper, snapper, and hawk fish when fishing near rocks.

Where You Want to Be

To fly to Cabo San Lucas, you can fly into Los Cabos International Airport – a 30 or 45 minute car ride away from downtown. There are plenty of shuttle and taxi services available and it is likely that your hotel can arrange such transportation for your journey’s beginning or end. You can also fly into the airport in La Paz, though this is about a two hour drive from Cabo. As Cabo is a pretty well known destination, it can be accessed through most international airports around the states.

As for hotels, there is a wide variety of places from five star resort types to low key, do what you want when you want mom and pop type places. A good bet is the Cabo Villas Beach Resort. This hotel, which is both reasonably priced and home to many pools, restaurants and bars, is located right on the beach in the heart of the action. You can walk down to the beach in front of your room and see the world famous Cabo Arch not more than a quarter mile away. 

As for the fishing, you can find something to match most budgets and desires. From pangas that can be chartered for $125 or so for a half day, to fully outfitted, state of the art sportfishers, they are all here. Minerva’s Tackle Shop is a pillar of the fishing community.   Minerva is a hell of a nice lady, with a great shop. She can tell you what’s biting and where and has a fleet of charter vessels right in the Marina. Picante Sportfishing is a great outfit. Picante captains are perennial winners of top tagging captain for striped marlin. They run a great outfit and are located in the marina. I had the pleasure of fishing for two days with Captain William Ceseña. Not only does Captain William have a large arsenal of fishing stories, he puts you on fish. Pisces Sportfishing is another great option if you are to fish Cabo. 

Cabo is a great time. For fishing, vacations, or just getting away from the real world for a few days, it is a good place to be. Viva Mexico.