Puerto San Carlos, Raining, Marlin, Dorado, Wahoo, La Paz Whale Sharks too! K Padre!

Been camping on the bay at Mar Y Arenas, Puerto San Carlos almost 2 weeks now.

The saying around here is Americans bring the rains. Must be something to that. Intermittent overnight showers have developed into a steady rain this morning.

Hoping the rain lasts as long as forecast, 2 days, then moon will be waning and the wahoo will get back on the chew.

Marlin fishing has been unbelievable with lots of dorado in the mix too. Some days we bring up over 30 marlin into the spread, hook and land up to 8 is our best so far. The marlin are only about 10 miles outside the bay on the San Carlos side.

Purple and Pertrolero are the preferred colors so far, using the barb filed off hooks in the lures, heavy line to get er done quickly. C & R on the marlin, other fish am canning what I can process but runing out of jars.
I have been mostly fishing marlin and a few days fished pargo in the estuary too which was wide open on dogs and reds.

Yesterday we went to Thetis for my firt time looking for wahoo. The wahoo have been closer to Thetis which is closer to Lopez Mateo. When you fish Thetis from Puerto San Carlos in a panga or skiff you go straight to Magdalena Island, put the boat up on a trailer and they take you across the island by land to Bahia Santa Maria and there you are a straight shot to Thetis. It happens quickly and efficiently. These fisherman, commercial and sport, are real pros.

We dd not get any wahoo yesterday. in fact of the 3 boats we knew of out there no wahoo were caught. I am gong to blame it on the full moon. Of course we caught a marlin because I cannot resist dragging at least one marlin lure in any spread and also caught lots of 10 pound dorado.

It is a pleasure to be here.









[Edited on 10-29-2019 by Don Jorge]

[Edited on 10-31-2019 by Don Jorge]

[Edited on 10-31-2019 by Don Jorge]

missed you by a day

What, no picture of the boat?????

What are you dragging for wahoo? Marauder type lures, large Rapala types??? Not real familiar with wahoo fishing except casting bombs on the LR boats, many years ago.

What's the largest dorado so far?



[Edited on 10-13-2019 by Hook]

Will do Bill. They use channel 14 down here and will be sure to monitor 72 also. Agree the weather and moon did their thing and they will be back.

There was a dive boat right on the big peak at Thetis all day Saturday. They told us they saw no wahoo all day and they only shot a few small yellowtails.

PJ, how the heck are you and the missus? I did not drag a boat opting instead to drag a cargo trailer with kayaks, surfboards and quad. Fishing with the locals, about half the time on a tillered panga and the other half on a 22ft Scout center console with tee top, ie Shade!

Probably stick to the Scout rest of the trip. We finally got it dialed in after a few trips with the usual problems associated with not enough use and maintenance during the off season.

Used to be Marauders, still have a few in the bag, but its Yozuris and the like nowadays but they are just copies of Marauders more or less. I also normally put one large deep diving, dark Rapala in the spread too. Everything on cable of course.

This fishery in the fall is legendary and I should have retired years ago.

Quote: Originally posted by Don Jorge

C & R on the marlin, other fish am canning what I can process but running out of jars.

Quote: Originally posted by Don Jorge

Used to be Marauders, still have a few in the bag, but its Yozuris and the like nowadays but they are just copies of Marauders more or less. I also normally put one large deep diving, dark Rapala in the spread too. Everything on cable of course. ago.

Quote: Originally posted by Don Jorge

using the barb filed off hooks in the lures, heavy line to get er done quickly.

Quote: Originally posted by Don Jorge

Yesterday, 24 miles offshore of PSC, we came across the biggest baitball i have ever seen. https://youtu.be/enJDF6C5dTQ I managed to leader 5 stripers in 3 hours off of this and adding the 2 leadered earlier it was my best day ever on striped marlin. Just me and Captain Pepe Beto on the 23 ft Scout center console. Awesome day! https://youtu.be/KpXGShNI0vc

Quote: Originally posted by Don Jorge

When you fish Thetis from Puerto San Carlos in a panga or skiff you go straight to Magdalena Island, put the boat up on a trailer and they take you across the island by land to Bahia Santa Maria and there you are a straight shot to Thetis. It happens quickly and efficiently. These fisherman, commercial and sport, are real pros.

[/rquote]
DJ: If I understand, this means you are shore launching into the beach break and not going through the boca?[/rquote]

Not exactly beach break but yes you do bypass the boca. Both the pickup and drop in sites are in well protected bays on different sides of the isthmus of Isla Magdalena.

You call in on the radio, channel 16, Rudy or his wife answers and either one of them will be there when you arrive to ferry you across the isthmus. Commercial guys use the service mostly and they ferry an average of 6 boats daily at a cost of 600 pesos. It happen quickly and efficiently.

Pics are of pickup and drop off spots.

Fished yesterday 20 miles offshore of the southern tip of Isla Margarita in an area known as the pinnacle. We targeted wahoo and did not drag any marlin gear all day. Marlin were everywhere. We trolled using nomads, yozuri and rapala lures all day long.

No luck on the wahoo, they seem to have gone off the bite for now. got two hits but no sticks. Did manage one decent dorado and several smaller ones too which hit the rapala 18 deep diver, blue color.

A few boats get one or maybe two wahoo every so ofen but it is nowhere near a decent bite, yet. If we hear they are biting up at Thetis we will head that way but we know some divers who were there Sunday and the did not see one wahoo all day diving directly on the high spot.

We will wait a day or two and try again.

Wahoo finally and La Paz Whale Sharks. K Padre!

Using information so kindly shared with me from Bill "Wahoo Whisperer" Erhardt I made the move from PSC up the line a bit to Puerto Lopez Mateo with hopes of getting into some wahoo catching.

I drove up this past Saturday and was able o get a room at Bob Hoyt's Mag Bay Outfitters Lodge. Room was clean, $25 a night for a single. Supper was served too, lodge style,
$8 a plate and they served fresh wahoo tacos, salad and french fries. Very good!

Again under Bill E's advise I booked a boat for Sunday with Garcia's Pangas, a 23 ft SeaPro center console with a 115 Yamaha 4 stroke. Clean, roomy skiff skippered by Leonel.

Sergio Garcia, the owner, and Leonel picked me up at 6 am and Sergio launched us off the trailer at 6:15. Two hours later we were at the 23 bank where the wahoo action was concentrated the past week or so.

We managed to get one after trolling for several hours. The wahoo hit a dordo colored Yozuri jig and weighed about 40 pounds. I was happy to finally get a wahoo. We trolled a few more hours and nothing more so we made the decision to head inside a bit and fish for dorado.

The dorado were thick and every troll resulted in a hookup, sometimes doubles. Some of the fish were of a nice rade and we kept two. We also managed to catch, leader and release a striped marlin, something I was trying to avoid. Oh well, the are everywhere in Mag Bay right now and it is almost unavoidable hooking marlin if you have anything in the water besides a wahoo lure spread in the water.

I want to Thank Bill E again for helping me understand the wahoo fishing in Mag Bay. Thanks Bill


Monday I drove to La Paz, checked into the Marine Waterfront Hotel and with the their help booked a shark whale trip with Baja Tours for Wednseday. Tuesday I drove to Los Cabos airport and picked up my wife who flew in from San Clemente.

Wednesday we snorkeled with the whale sharks. All 3 jumps in the water we swam along side these gentle creatures. It was amazing and Rebecca was so happy. Me too.

That's it for now. On to PSC again, then heading back north with stops in Loreto, Concepcion and ??.

You took us on a great trip, a fine read THX Rob
BTW do you need a deck hand on your next trip? I'm handy with a gaf!