Magdalena Bay Report

Mag Bay has been on my radar since my first trip to Baja in 2020. When a friend reached out last fall to see if I wanted to join him, it was an easy yes. The plan was 2 days of striped marlin fishing and 2 days inshore for roosters and other fun species. I woke up last Sunday to a really cool sunrise - always a good omen for my fishing trips.



We spent the night in Phoenix and flew into Loreto Monday morning.



Our ride was waiting for us when we cleared customs. Only problem was a low right rear tire. It was an interesting detour for me. I even saw some tires I worked on 30 years ago mounted up and ready to be installed - crazy.



Once in Loreto we checked into our hotel and met our guide in the terrace restaurant to discuss the plan. First day was marlin and roosters. I was hoping for a smallish marlin and a big rooster to avenge the one I lost in 2020. Two boxes checked on day 1!













Was so excited about the rooster I forgot to at least take the hood off my hat!

 

[CanoeGuy]

Day 2 was more marlin and roosters. It was another good weather day.



This is the only picture I took while fishing as I had my GoPro on my head most of the morning. I got a great video of me hooking a marlin (I could clearly see the eat) and having it break off as it jumped after a crazy first run - not sure what happened - was not putting full pressure on it at the time. And another cool video of a whale eating the bait ball we were casting to. However, I looked up too much as we were running to a bait ball and my GoPro is on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

 

[CanoeGuy]

The plan for day 3 - Thanksgiving Day - was to dredge for yellowtail and other oddities, cast to the rocks for pargo and do more teasing for roosters. My 3rd goal for the trip was to catch 14 new species to get my fly caught total to 100. I figured this would be the hardest one to achieve. With 2 days left I needed 13 new species. I lost a nice fish while dredging that the guide was pretty confident was a yellowtail - ugh. Keep stripping - don't strip set then lift your rod!

I still managed 9 species on the day with these 7 being new.

Pacific Bonito




Spotted Bay Bass


Gafftopsail Pompano


It was a bleeder so became our Thanksgiving dinner.



Sierra Mackerel


Orangeside Triggerfish


Longjaw Leatherjack


Finescale Triggerfish




We had an amazing sunset as we waited to eat our fish. Yellowtail sashimi (guide caught one on gear) and bonito ceviche appetizers before the pompano.

 

[goinoregon]

agh, sorry to hear about the camera.
so, you flew into loreto, and then drove over and fished magdelana ? did u fish out of san carlos?

 

[CanoeGuy]

Day 4 was to be a mangroves day. We got a call in the morning that the guide didn't have a good feeling about the mangroves. Often it can be a spotted bay bass fest and can be really tough if the water is clear. On the way in the previous night the water in the bay was really clear. We changed the plan and did a repeat of day 3 in a different part of the bay. I needed 6 new species and only got 1. In fact before the last beach of the day I had made 100s of casts to the rocks with maybe 1 grab - I had no idea snappers were so tough. Got one spotted bay bass dredging. Long day! I had asked about California Halibut so we went in search of them. We found them - lots of them. Problem is they were tiny.



Apparently they are easy to net and the locals have figured that out. We landed 7 or 8 in 30 or so minutes and this was the biggest one.



I would love to go back, but have many other places I want to fish. Honestly, if I do go back, I will spend more days snorkeling the bait balls than casting to them. The marlin thing is a spectacle that has to be seen to be believed - seeing it while in the water would be very cool. The divers in the hotel seemed to be having a spectacular time.

If you want to do this trip, don't wait too long. It is getting pretty crowded on the marlin grounds. Lots of boats and it is common for multiple boats to be casting at the same bait balls.

I didn't provide any details about gear and such cause there is so much to tell and I am not sure what people would find interesting. I will try to answer questions if you have them.

 

[CanoeGuy]

agh, sorry to hear about the camera.
so, you flew into loreto, and then drove over and fished magdelana ? did u fish out of san carlos?

Yes, we stayed at Lore's House in San Carlos and fished with Jeff Feczko in a boat from Mag Bay Lodge.

 

[ifsteve]

Great report!!

 

[Wade Rivers]

So many different cool species!

Fantastic

 

[adamcu280]

Maybe next year

 

[Brute]

Day 4 was to be a mangroves day. We got a call in the morning that the guide didn't have a good feeling about the mangroves. Often it can be a spotted bay bass fest and can be really tough if the water is clear. On the way in the previous night the water in the bay was really clear. We changed the plan and did a repeat of day 3 in a different part of the bay. I needed 6 new species and only got 1. In fact before the last beach of the day I had made 100s of casts to the rocks with maybe 1 grab - I had no idea snappers were so tough. Got one spotted bay bass dredging. Long day! I had asked about California Halibut so we went in search of them. We found them - lots of them. Problem is they were tiny.

View attachment 173824

Apparently they are easy to net and the locals have figured that out. We landed 7 or 8 in 30 or so minutes and this was the biggest one.

View attachment 173825

I would love to go back, but have many other places I want to fish. Honestly, if I do go back, I will spend more days snorkeling the bait balls than casting to them. The marlin thing is a spectacle that has to be seen to be believed - seeing it while in the water would be very cool. The divers in the hotel seemed to be having a spectacular time.

If you want to do this trip, don't wait too long. It is getting pretty crowded on the marlin grounds. Lots of boats and it is common for multiple boats to be casting at the same bait balls.

I didn't provide any details about gear and such cause there is so much to tell and I am not sure what people would find interesting. I will try to answer questions if you have them.

Fyi…marlin are very aggressive, especially if they think you are competing with their food source…more than one spearfisherman has had a marlin bill in their chest…

 

[troutpocket]

Great report!

I visited Mag Bay 20 years ago. Had no specific plans to fish but had my 8wt and a box of clousers. I met a panga operator in town who took me out for a day. Caught a few small bass in the mangroves and some CA halibut near the beach. Better than the fishing were the fresh scallops. Incredible ceviche!!

 

[Brian in OR.]

Which top 3 fish fought the best?

 

[CanoeGuy]

Which top 3 fish fought the best?

No doubt the first marlin I hooked was the craziest fight I have ever had. It went airborne right away and didn't stop jumping for a good long time. I remember having little to no tension on the line at least twice. At one point it tail walked into the back of the boat a few feet from me. It probably took a couple minutes to even get it on the reel. All this while my buddy is hooked up at the front of the boat. His fish took off instead of jumping. My fish finally took some line then went down. Fortunately it was going the opposite direction of the fish in front. We chased the fish in front while I held on. This pulled my fish back to the surface. Unfortunately, when my buddies fish finally jumped it came unbuttoned. My fish went down again. After a short time I started gaining line and soon had it close enough for Jeff to grab the line and get it in the rest of the way. Once he grabbed the line the fish started jumping again. It was chaos, but from the time my buddy lost his fish and started taking pictures to when the fish was landed was 7 minutes. I am guessing the total fight was 10-12 minutes.

The rooster was between 25 and 30 pounds - by far the 2nd biggest fish for the trip. I was using my 12 wt and 40 pound leader so I was able to put a ton of pressure on it and got it in the boat pretty quickly. Still the first run was impressive and lifting it back up after it dove was work.

The most impressive of the smaller fish was the pacific bonito. We were dredging with 12 wts and that little guy had it bent to the cork several times. I would have loved to have targeted them with 8wts.

The triggers pulled hard too, but not nearly the speed of the bonitos.

Not counting the spotted bay bass, the least impressive fight was the sierras. Fishing for them was a hoot cause they are just so fast. We found a good pod of them. When we were right on top of them it never took more than two strips to get eaten. They would just appear from the depths at light speed. My buddy was throwing a popper to them. He got eaten so many times but never hooked up. I probably hooked 6 to 8 and landed 2 - one foul hooked. Several bit me off - one even after we went up to 50 pound leader. Once I didn't hook one that didn't bite me off, I was shocked they didn't pull drag. We were snapper fishing with 10wts so I guess the gear was overkill for the fish. Still the grab from them was so fun I was having a ball fishing for them.

 

[Brian in OR.]

I assume the triggers were a byproduct and you weren't actually targeting them?

 

[dbaken]

A friend starts 4 days of marlin fishing tomorrow in Mag Bay. I'm jealous of you all. Should probably go back next year.

 

[adamcu280]

A friend starts 4 days of marlin fishing tomorrow in Mag Bay. I'm jealous of you all. Should probably go back next year.

I want in.

 

[Cabezon]

I'm game!!!
Steve

 

[CanoeGuy]

I assume the triggers were a byproduct and you weren't actually targeting them?

I had a lot of time to think about this trip. One of the things I did to "prepare" was make a list of potential species. The finescale triggers were on the list to get me the 14 new ones. The orangeside I had never heard of. Day 3 was kind of a species bashing day - we fished a lot of different habitats.

There are so many species down there you never know what you will catch. Others on the probable list that didn't happen were

orangemouth corvina
shortfin corvina - this may have been a bit optimistic - they never got mentioned
dorado - still a score I need to settle after having it high on my list for 2 trips
broomtail grouper
golden trevally
barred pargo
Colorado snapper
black snook

A lot of those are mangrove fish. I would very much like to go down and do a DIY trip focused on the mangroves and rocks from the beach. Sounds like fishing from my canoe in the mangroves could be very productive. The big pangas make it tougher.

Anyone ever do a camping trip to remote corners of Baja? Places like Laguna San Ignacio and Punta Abreojos?

 

[Wasatchangler]

Anyone ever do a camping trip to remote corners of Baja? Places like Laguna San Ignacio and Punta Abreojos?

I used to instruct sea kayaking courses out of Bahia de Los Angeles in college. In the winter we would drive over to San Ignacio to see the grey whales that birth their calves in the lagoon. They were very curious and would often swim right up to the pangas. They would get so thick in there we started referring to it as whale soup. Most of my fishing was on the gulf side for yellowtail and dorado.

 

[Paige]

I want in too!