I find myself staring out at the water and thinking about fishing on my annual Baja trips. The thing is, I haven't done much fishing since I was a
teenager pulling panfish out of lakes in the midwest.
I have a rod and reel with sealed bearings, some braided and standard line, and a few octopus lures.
What might I find along the gulf or Pacific coasts? I'll spend time in San Felipe, Punta Final, BOLA, Bahia Concepción, Loreto, Bahia Asuncion and
maybe the Seven Sisters on my trip this March.
What should I add to my kit and what might I find fishing the surf in these areas?mtgoat666 - 3-2-2023 at 07:23 AM
Always good fishing on the rocky shores. Cast over structure. Throw 0.75 and 1 oz spoons (krokodiles, candy bars) and minnows. Can also throw
leadheads with plastic swim baits.
On pacific shores always cabrilla, sand bass, sea bass, rock fish, grouper, smelt, flounder, etc.
You don’t need a license to shore fish.
I use a spinning reel, with 25 or 30 pound braid line. Some people add leader, I rarely do.
When the fish are biting, they will bite most anything, and lure type doesn’t really matter. Best fishing mornings, evenings.
[Edited on 3-2-2023 by mtgoat666]WideAngleWandering - 3-2-2023 at 09:02 AM
Thanks for the advice. I will stop by a sporting good store and grab some basics. And I guess I need to relearn my knots. Amy thoughts on the gulf
side? Punta Final looks like a fun place to cast.
Thoughts on bait vs lures?
[Edited on 2023-3-5 by WideAngleWandering]Tommy A - 3-2-2023 at 10:09 AM
Cut squid is always a good choice, fish like it and it stays on your hook for awhile. I always take a #4 Sabiki rig to catch sardines and other bait
fish and I take a airator ( Bubble Box) to keep my bait fish alive in a bucket
Good luck bkbend - 3-2-2023 at 10:23 AM
Gulf side, krocs are good, but as mentioned, rock structure is your friend and they'll hang up on shallower water. I've had success with 4-5" floating
rapalas that only dive a few feet. Fish have a great sense of smell and it doesn't hurt to sacrifice your first fish to add a tidbit to a kroc. I've
seen people catch fish with a weight, hook, and bait but I can't sit still for that. In short, the fish will bite most anything but you may have move
around a bit to find where they are. If you aren't catching it's not due to your lure, there's no fish in that spot.
Bring extra hooks for whatever lures you have. Triggerfish destroy hooks.
[Edited on 3-2-2023 by bkbend]
[Edited on 3-2-2023 by bkbend]Lee - 3-2-2023 at 10:47 AM
Since you’re going South, go further. Santa Rosalia, etc.
Catching Sierra around San Pedrito. Others not me. I like Crocs but Matadors, more.
Baja starts at BCS.Bajazly - 3-2-2023 at 10:47 AM
Goat is spot on, pretty much all I throw is 3/4 oz krokodiles. Swim baits would work but they get destroyed pretty quick with the triggers and blowies
nipping at the tail.
Unless you need casting practice, don't bother wetting a line this side of Puertecitos. Any where south of Gonzaga you can get to the water it could
be game on. High tide seems to be better but low tide off the rocks you can walk out on could work well too. Sand bottoms near rocky outcroppings are
good for halibut.
40 or 50 lb braid with 20 or 30 yards of 15 lb mono top shot works well for me, that way I can retie after every few fish or getting caught up in the
rocks with a successful retrieval. If you have time, look here, http://www.johnnyspond.com/luhr-jensen-krocodile-lures.html for krocs, they have a lot and pretty good prices.Don Pisto - 3-2-2023 at 10:53 AM
remember the most productive lure in your box is the one you believe in, I carry nothing but a handful of krocs. mtgoat666 - 3-2-2023 at 11:14 AM
Goat is spot on, pretty much all I throw is 3/4 oz krokodiles. Swim baits would work but they get destroyed pretty quick with the triggers and blowies
nipping at the tail.
fishing with newbies and kids, the krocs are expensive when peeps keep losing them hooking on rocks; sometimes i use the cheaper spoons, but this may
require putting on stronger hooks. swimbaits do get destroyed, but they are pretty cheap.bajaric - 3-2-2023 at 12:05 PM
Ask the locals. Oftentimes a certain lure works best in a particular spot, for a particular fish. Once, north of Puerto Vallarta, I spent a couple
hours throwing Rapalas at boiling batfish, with no success. Back on the beach in front of the hotel I saw a local guy casting out a silver jig and
reeling it back in through the surf as fast as he could and catching ladyfish one after another. Skipjack Joe - 3-2-2023 at 03:05 PM
Best fishing in the Asuncion area is from beaches, not rocky points. Cut bait and berkeley bait sand worms work best. Fish average 14" in size. March
is not the best time of year because the sand crabs are gone.TMW - 3-3-2023 at 12:00 PM
I would suggest you get a copy of The Baja Catch by Kelly and Kira. Probably one of the best books for fishing the Baja shore line. For bait I like to
use Berkley Gulp. It's artificial bait. You don't have to mess with live bait.
TMW - 3-3-2023 at 12:17 PM
One of the best shore fishing spot in all of Baja is north of Guerrero Negro near Villa Jesus Maria. West to Laguna Manuela. Their are several coves
near the light house and north of that is a long beach (12miles) all are pretty good surf fishing. Mostly yellow fin croaker, spot fin croaker,
Halibut, and corbina. I've also caught sand shark and leopard shark in the surf at long beach if you like shark. They were about 24-30 inches long. My
dogs loved em when I cooked em, no bones to deal with.
My other favorite spot is further north along the 7 sisters at Punta Blanco. Fresh caught fish is the best. WideAngleWandering - 3-3-2023 at 01:15 PM
Thank you for all the good tips. I'll have to check out that book too - I don't think i can get my hands on it before I leave next week but
definitely for next time.Don Jorge - 3-3-2023 at 01:21 PM
Some great suggestions here both on what and where. The Pacific side between El Rosario and Guerrero Negro has great surf fishing although March is
not the best month for any type of fishing in that area.
One suggestion to add. Get a sand spike and use it for your baited surf fishing rig, that is if you are fishing a standard surf gangion with 2 hooks
and weight at the bottom.
If you are using a Carolina rig or an egg sinker, swivel and hook in the surf using sand crabs, squid, gulps etc, that is a more hands on style and
the sand spike is not needed.
But in case you do fish using a sand spike it frees you up to use another rig and throw jigs. Super fun to catch one on a jig and then see your bait
rig bend and hurry up!
Good luck. Tight lines.TMW - 3-3-2023 at 01:22 PM
The 3rd edition was the last copyright and the last printing was I think 1998. There are usually a used copy for sale on ebay but if you google it you
shouldn't have any problem finding it. Just don't pay too much. My new copy when I bought it was $21.95.WideAngleWandering - 3-3-2023 at 03:40 PM
Lotsa jargon here for me to translate lol. I ordered some cheap 3/4oz spoons and leaders to make life a bit easier. I plan to cast and reel and see
what bites.
I also ordered a copy of the 2nd edition, used, of that book. $20. A quick search had the third edition over $50. That would buy a lot of squid
hunks and fish hooks.Bajazly - 3-3-2023 at 07:59 PM
A lot of times at high tide the halibut are super close to shore so throwing straight to is a lot of wasted cranking. Throw at 45 ish degrees to the
shore and you will be in the zone longer with you retrieve. You will figure out where you are getting bit pretty quick and know where to fish.
Good luck and don't forget the wasabi and soy for some beach sashimi either. Wasabi is hard to find down here.
If you're in San Felipe for any amount of time, hit me up and we can have some tacos and BS about fishing.WideAngleWandering - 3-4-2023 at 08:51 PM
I like that idea. San Felipe will be our first stop. Am looking forward to breakfast at Chumpo's and garlic clams at Rosita's. Let's see if we can
connect.chatolj - 3-5-2023 at 07:41 PM
Low light conditions are BEST from shore. Sunrise/sunset with whatever you decide to throw at em. Suerte. Skipjack Joe - 3-6-2023 at 05:34 AM
Low light conditions are BEST from shore. Sunrise/sunset with whatever you decide to throw at em. Suerte.
He's right. At my village nobody fishes during daylight hours. The first trucks appear an hour before sunset and the guys fish until dark. You catch
more fish during that hour and a half than all the rest of the day combined - from shore.
Fishing the lagoons is different. The tides determine when to fish there. Due to access. gnukid - 3-6-2023 at 10:21 AM
Shore fishing competition at Punta Arena (near Ensenada Muertos) yesterday. Lots of action.
WideAngleWandering - 3-7-2023 at 06:31 AM
Wow, those are a bit larger than the sunfish we'd pull out of the lake as a kid.
I have been reading up on rigs and knots for saltwater shore fishing. I loaded a whole mess of braided line to my reel, tied on a section of
monofilament, acquired some plastic octopus and shrimp lures, and a handful of 3/4oz spoons. I got some cable leaders and small clip on weights.
I don't have a good sense of how much weight to use to put the lures at the right depth. Any suggestions?Bajazly - 3-7-2023 at 10:09 AM
No weight needed unless you are using bait. All you really need to do is cast the lure out and reel it back in. Sometimes I will start and stop or
jerk the lure a bit but a fairly fast steady retrieve generally works well. If you are fishing a lure that floats, top water lures, a jerk and pause
works well.surfhat - 3-7-2023 at 10:24 AM
When winter campng at San Pedrito in the 70's and the early 80's for a couple of months every winter, my surf buddies who fished would share their
bounty with us, and the Sierra have to be one of the tastiest fish from shore that there is.
They also brought some aluminum skiffs along for when the surf dropped and they could make it out through the waves. They would occasionally brought
back some Ono and those steaks were the bomb, especially over an open wood camp fire.
They eventually bought property in the area, but those days of feral camping were memorable, and long gone.
Thanks guys for the memories and the fresh fish from a time when we all roughed it. There was no other choice at the time. No showers. No bathrooms.
Shovel's were a necessity tool for everyone. WideAngleWandering - 3-7-2023 at 12:13 PM
I still pack my chittin' shovel!
Sometimes better than a chit chovel
AKgringo - 3-7-2023 at 01:04 PM
If there is a fairly large rock handy, I roll it out of the way, drop the load and paper in the hole, then roll the rock back into it. That way it is
less like likely that a chit eating critter will dig up your deposit!
Now back to fishing and making bait!Hook - 3-8-2023 at 10:01 PM
I much prefer Kastmasters to Krocs, because they cast so much farther. Very similar action in the water BUT you do need to retrieve them a bit faster
to keep them out of the rocks.
I am also partial to floating Rapalas behind a short length of mono, a barrel swivel and an egg sinker above that.
Not really sure why anyone would fish Spectra on a surf rod, unless you only had one rod and it had to double as a boat rod for large fish as well.
Yeah, it's got better abrasion resistance around rocks but you always have to be careful with braid, if you dont know what you are doing.mtgoat666 - 3-8-2023 at 10:24 PM
Use big live bait to catch big fish.
You want to catch a big grouper, then put that 8-inch fish you caught on a big hook and drop it deep… Don Pisto - 3-8-2023 at 11:13 PM
Use big live bait to catch big fish.
You want to catch a big grouper, then put that 8-inch fish you caught on a big hook and drop it deep…
yeah that's what I do while shore fishing FishNTodd - 4-23-2023 at 03:44 AM
In March (and now in April), you'll find a lotta fish like halibut, corvina and maybe some roosterfish along Baja's coast. I'd suggest adding a few
poppers and swimbaits to your kit, and you'll be good to go, happy fishin! Cliffy - 4-23-2023 at 02:54 PM
Berkley sand worms stay on the hook longer if they dry out for a few hours in the sun. It doesn't hinder their effectiveness either.
