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By Tom Gatch
The La Niña conditions that began to take over in early September cooled the surface water temperatures below what is generally normal for the season, which negatively impacted the migration of exotic gamefish like dorado, yellowfin tuna, and wahoo up Baja’s Pacific coast. Although that situation created a frustrating scenario for offshore anglers in northern Baja who were hoping to cash in on a late season influx of these gamesters, it did not come without its benefits.
Unlike El Niño events that usually bring heavier storms during the winter months, seasons with a prevailing La Niña effect tend to be much milder and drier. So far, in 2025, southern California and Baja have lived up on that projection. Yes, the nights and early mornings have been quite chilly, but that has usually been giving way to sunny daytime temps in the mid 60’s to low 70’s, which has allowed more days for anglers to get out on the water and catch some fish.
Ensenada
With the exception on an occasional home guard yellowtail caught on the troll off the tip of the Punta Banda peninsula, most of the local inshore action has focused on shallow water rockfish.
The local offshore panga fleet has been doing extremely well on deep water bottom fish like reds, salmon grouper, and cow cod out at the Banda Bank, which is located about 10 miles of the coast.
Fortunately for stateside anglers who are restricted by law from taking these species during the winter months in California, they can catch and keep their fill of these tasty fish by simply driving down to Ensenada less than 100 miles south of the border.
Fishing conditions remain pretty much the same down Baja’s Pacific coast past San Quintin until you get into Baja Sur.
Bahia Magdalena
Offshore fishing for yellowfin tuna and occasional wahoo has been good offshore, although the number of visiting anglers this time of year is far below what it is in peak season.
With milder than usual weather dominating the region, the fishing inside the estero has been excellent for corvina, halibut, small grouper, and cabrilla.
Cabo San Lucas
Pisces Fleet Sportfishing in Cabo San Lucas reports that it truly was a happy holiday season this year, as all of their boats returned to the dock with exceptional catches of everything from large grouper to dorado and striped marlin. The catch percentages of all species combined were 87% Billfish, 68% Dorado 14%, Tuna 14%, and miscellaneous species 36%.
Here are a few recent examples:
Aboard the 62-foot Viking, Chasin’ Tail, Scott Elsas, visiting from Georgia, was fishing with Captain Pepe and mates, Ulises, Ramon, and Dulce. It was an exciting trip, with Elsas ending up catching and releasing four 90 to 100 pound striped marlin that he took on live mackerel. He also caught a 35-pound Wahoo on live Ballyhoo, and 5 grouper from 15 to 40 pounds on squid at the Golden Bank.
The 28-foot Uniflite, Andrea, with Captain Fernando and Mate Juan Alcaras, had a couple of anglers, Hunter Rosen and Robert Simon from Manchester, New Jersey, who were there to target marlin. They did, and ended upm catching and releasing 5 striped marlinn weighing between 90 to 140 pounds. They also took 75-pound mako shark, and a 60-pound Wahoo all on live mackerel at La Brecha.
Chartering the ‘TIBURON,’ a 31-foot Bertram, with Captain Bruce Champion running the boat and Mate Carlos Santos running the cockpit, Andy Stoker, Ashlyn Stoker, and Drew Stoker from North Carolina had a great trip catching a variety of fish. They caught and released 3 100 to 120-pound Striped Marlin, two 10 to 20-pound Grouper, a 40- pound hammerhead Shark, and a thresher shark weighing 80 pounds, all of which were caught on bait at the Golden Gate.
On the 31-foot Bertram, the “REBECCA,” Captain Orlando and Mate Jose Gomez were an excellent choice for their clients Matthew Sisco, Ryan Evans, and Sydney Sisco. As an incredibly skilled captain and mate, they know the waters around Los Cabos well and helped their group catch and release Five 100 to 120-pound Striped Marlin on mackerel. They also caught 3 grouper in the 15 to 22-pound range, one hammerhead shark weighing 60 pounds, and one 50-pound Wahoo all on mackerel at the Golden Gate.
Josie Koeshall and Samuel Koeshall, fishing with Captain Frank and Mate Arturo on the “ADRIANA,” a 28-foot Uniflite, caught Five Yellowfin Tuna in the 10 to 35-pound range on bait, 25 miles to the 240 area. It was a beautiful day on the water, and they had a great time getting to know the captain and mate. It was a fun day where they kept busy catching the hard-fighting tuna.
Believe it or not, these were just a few of the exceptional catches that have been taken by our charter boats over the past few weeks. There’s no doubt about it, if you are looking for some hot action on yellowfin tuna, striped marlin or wahoo, pay us a visit at Pisces Sportfishing in Cabo San Lucas.
San Jose del Cabo
As we head into the new year, fishing seems to have slow down significantly. The main highlight this week was the dorado bite. This bite has spread out more as we have seen decent action at Iman, La Fortuna, 25, Cerro, and both Gordo Banks.
Most boats are starting their day at the Gordo as they look for small skipjacks and bulito to put in their tuna tubes. We continue to see big dorado at the Gordo, though only a few per day. Most of these dorado are on the bigger side, averaging 25-40 pounds.
As we head closer to shore, we see better numbers, though they are not as big, still decent size though. No big tuna were reported at the Gordo this week. This weekend, most boats concentrated at Iman Bank and they hooked some nicer yellowfin on strips of squid. The tuna bite has been spotty, with most of them being small footballs. We did see 4 or 5 fish this weekend in the range of 60-100 pounds in the same area.
While drifting strips of squid, a few nice dorado were also landed. Live sardines could have a big impact on this high spot. The sardine supply remains an issue as we don’t see them on most days. The few sardines that are netted are on the smaller side and are mostly used to fish inshore.
Not many wahoo this week either. We did see a couple nice ones (40-45 pounders) towards the end of the week at Iman on live skipjacks. Some captains reported these wahoo being very finicky as they spotted them following the bait for long periods of time. The bites were not as aggressive as they usually are; some of these wahoo lost interest after following the bait for a long time. One captains tried a bait with no wire leader and it still wouldn’t get hit.
The marlin bite at the Gordo also slowed down significantly. Only a few marlin were reported this weekend. Reports indicate more marlin action was taking place towards Cabo San Lucas.
La Paz
From Tailhunter International in La Paz, Jonathan Roldan checks in with holiday greetings. “Happy New Year Everyone! Hope the holidays are going well and you had a great Christmas day. Christmas week was another hit-or-miss fishing week in La Paz.
Again, the winds were pretty blustery so had to cancel a few potential bookings for fishing and snorkeling and warn folks away from rough weather. We did get a few boats out, but that was also before winds kicked up later.
As I often mention, not much of anyone really on the water during the winter months except the windsurfers. Winds were up to 20-30 mph gusts at times this past week. La Paz, however, was pretty busy with visitors as is usually the case during the holidays.
If you’re not on the water, it’s a nice time to be in the area. Daytime temps were as high as 82 and the nights are a cooler, but pleasant 55 degrees or so. It beats being in chillier parts of the continent this time of year!
Once, again very surprising to find dorado still in the area. Dorado are a warm water species that we usually see in numbers from about late May to October. It’s rare to see any in the winter so that leads me to believe that there’s still warm water patches of ocean around. Normally, waters are not only rough, but cold and green this time of year. The dorado are a fun-sized 10-15 pound class mahi right now.
The commercial guys are reporting some tuna and wahoo around Cerralvo Island, but attempts to get across the channel were too difficult because of the winds and waves so there was no way to verify the stories. Commercial fishermen are working for a living so they go where the fish are no matter the conditions! They’re not out on the ocean for fun.
Inshore, there’s a good variety and action. Surprisingly, small roosterfish around 5 pounds continue to be caught around Bahia Muertos and Punta Arenas. Normally, this is another species we don’t see in the winter. As well, the colder water fish like pargo, cabrilla, snapper, sierra and amberjack are also being hooked. Live bait and jigs are working well. Big bonito are also in the mix. Looking at the extended forecast, the first few days of the new year look like strong winds again!
Roldan concluded his report by saying, “We’ve been hitting the road for our show tour now for over 30 years. Our schedule and logistics are only allowing us to do 4 shows this year, but all are huge fun shows. We will be at the Pacific Coast Sportfishing Show at the Orange County Fairgrounds between March 6th and 9th”.
As you can tell, the fact that the calendar may say that it is winter has little to do with the willingness of the fish surrounding the Baja peninsula to attack your bait or lure. It simply means that there will not be as much competition to contend with as during the summer season.
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Michelle is so efficient and thorough.
