Beach Fishing the Baja

 For the past number of years I've dreamed of beach fishing the Mexican Baja Peninsula. Here on BC's west coast, beach fishing generally involves waders and sturdy footwear but the idea of fishing in shorts and barefeet for blitzing roosterfish on the Baja has captured my imagination for some time.

Last week my wife and I visited Cabo San Lucas, our first trip to the Baja, and I booked two days of guided surf fishing with Wesley Brough, aka cabosurfcaster on social media. Normally I don't book guided trips but two days of guided fishing would give me a good introduction to the gear, tactics and locations that I could then apply on my own future trips.

Wes is a native of Cabo and knows these waters. He's been guiding for 20 yrs and his social media and website are bursting with big fish. In fact, he holds the all tackle world record for pacific white snook.  I was thrilled to spend two days with him but less thrilled at the hours he keeps. Wes likes the early morning bite this time of year. That meant meeting him at 0530 in downtown Cabo. That meant catching an Uber from the hotel at 0500. That meant getting up at 0440!

We fished Pacific Ocean beaches north of the city and pacific sierra mackerel were our target species. Other species of fish (jack crevalle, roosters...) were a possibility, but we were on the hunt for sierras.

The gear we were using was unlike anything I have handled: beefy 12-13 foot surfcasting rods, big 14000 Daiwa Saltist reels, heavy braided line, heavier mono leaders, and 2 oz lures.  

When fishing sierras from the beach, casting distance is king; your gear is tweaked to wring every last inch of distance from it. And the casting mechanics...again unlike anything I have done before. Lay out the lure and about 7 feet of line on the sand behind you,  hold the rod so that tip is touching the sand behind you, take a step forward and heave the lure toward Asia as you whip the rod up with one hand while snapping the butt of the rod down to your opposite hip with the other. And the work doesn't stop there. Then you crank the reel like a madman so your lure bursts through the water like a frightened baitfish. And just when you thought your arms might fall off from casting and cranking, you do it again...and again.

Joining me on the first day of fishing was a father and son from Portland. The son caught a small saltwater catfish (a cominate sea catfish, I believe) I caught a small jack, but no sierras. Wes, and some other anglers on the beach, caught some sierras but not us rookies. You know, I may have had some hits out there early on but it was all so new to me that if they were sierras, I missed them.    

Jack crevalle

We learned to cast from the high points of sand on the "scalloped" beach, to follow the receding wave to make a cast and then retreat as the next wave broke in front of us, to move around the beach, and always be on the lookout from breaking bait or jumping gamefish. We also learned that when you spotted breaking bait or jumping fish further down the beach, you didn't walk down the beach after them.  You ran.  Wes is big man (6'5" if I recall correctly) and when he took off down the beach, it was impossible to keep up. The flurry of bait and gamefish can move out of reach, or end, quickly so you need to get your lure into the middle of the action as quickly as possible.

A Sierra. I didn't catch it though!

When the fishing slowed, Wes and his partner had an unexpected trick up their sleeve: a drone.  In these clear waters, schools of fish are clearly visible and it's easy to identify the species and size of fish in the school. It's also easy to identify and target individual fish. More on that later... 

Wes and his partner have a slick system worked out. The partner flies the drone from the truck while Wes casts from shore. They connect by cell phone and earbuds and the drone pilot can tell Wes where the fish are, how far out, and how they are responding to his casts, whether they are chasing it, indifferent or spooked. Some may think that's an unfair advantage but in my mind it's not unlike using a sounder unit in a lake. While the drone can help you find fish, it won't help you catch them. That's still up to you. 

Just a few days before this trip, the drone pilot spotted a big solitary dorado quite a distance from shore. The dorado was angling toward the beach and the pilot figured that it would get within casting range about a half mile down the beach. The pilot vectored Wes for the intercept and Wes took off on an exhausting sprint down the beach and flung a cast when the pilot told him to. The dorado chased the lure, hit at it but missed. Wes reeled in and cast again. The dorado chased it again, hit and was hooked, but was off after a short fight. All this action was filmed from above. It was pretty amazing to watch the footage.

We moved to a second beach, casted for a bit and the guys put the drone up. The was a big school of adult jack, and another of roosters, offshore; schools of hundreds of fish in the 30-50 pound range. However they are spawning at this time of year and are very skittish. A cast would need to land beyond, and be retrieved though, the school to elicit a strike. A cast that landed in the middle of the school would just spook them. The fish were so skittish that they were even spooked by the drone flying above. The fish were beyond casting range so all we could do was watch the beautiful show from above.  On Wes' Instagram page you can see the video from today.

I found this pencil popper on the beach leftover from last summer's rooster season. For perspective, it's 8" long. and weighs several ounces. 

It was quite an experience to fish these Baja beaches. Miles and miles of sandy beaches and dunes punctuated by rocky headlands, booming surf, and humpback whales migrating and breaching offshore.  But man, was I sore afterwards! The mechanics of surfcasting uses muscle groups that aren't accustomed to being used in that way.  My fishing trips were two days apart and I definitely needed that recovery time in between.  I can definitely see the value in doing some stretching exercises before an extended trip.

The second day of guided fishing was much like the first. Leave at zero dark thirty, cast your butt off for sierra, drive down the beach looking for blitzing fish, hop out if you see something, and fly the drone to see what you were missing. Mid-morning I was midway through a cast when I saw this silvery shimmering shape skim across the top of the waves. It took me a moment to recognize it as a school of bait, and then it appeared again above the waves. There must be a fish chasing that school so I hurriedly flung a cast in the school's direction. Not long into the retrieve I had a hit, but didn't connect. I kept retrieving and had a second stronger hit and this time there was an unmistakable pull and throb of a big fish on the other end. Just a few seconds into the fight, this long, almost flourescent green, fish jumped from the water. "Dorado", I yelled. Alas, our connection was brief and the fish threw the hook.  Wes said it was good size dorado in the mid 20's but that they are notoriously hard to land because of their jumping and half of them get away when hooked. The first dorado I have seen, let alone hooked. That was pretty cool.

Two days of fishing; one jack landed and one dorado lost. Slow fishing, but I chalk that up to my inexperience. Other anglers on the beach were catching sierra, but not this googan, and that's OK. New fisheries take time to learn and my main intention on these guided trips was to ask an annoying amount of questions and learn. Learn I did, and I'm much better prepared to come back to the Baja and try it again.