Article by Bill Pino
Magdelena Bay, Mexico
Standing patiently on the right flat, a mind can wonder. Seems like the thoughts come in waves. I wonder if she’s behind the dredge or gonna come up on the short. Why is that porpoise doing flips? We almost hit that turtle. Was that a shadow? It can be hours of just random thoughts.
The captain turned. Why did he turn? Lunch–what time is lunch? Just give me a shot! Is the captain going somewhere, or does he think we can see the spread better with the DAMN SUN IN OUR EYES? We keep waiting and pondering, and our eyes play tricks on us. Waves start to look like dorsal fins. That frigate is doing circles. Any minute now.
Meanwhile, 50 feet back and 20 feet down, her reaction is one-track: I don’t care what it is. I’m gonna eat it. It’s that split second when our thoughts and her reaction collide that keeps me coming back. Her colors turn cobalt as our eyes grow into saucers. Her mouth opens–but we’re the ones yelling. In one swat of the bill, six hearts skip a beat.
It’s game time for us, lunchtime for her. She got me this time, but I’ll get her next time.
Now… What was I thinking about?
Magdalena Bay, Mexico, is a saline estuary that is situated about 200 miles north of Cabo San Lucas. Sardines move into the estuary to breed. The dinner bell rings when the sardines begin to migrate out of the bay. Those of us that live to target marlin consider Mag Bay the holy grail of numbers fishing.
The truth is, Mag Bay has long been known as a location to catch a variety of species in abundance. The marlin migration tends to begin in late August and can last until February. Giant yellowfin tuna also find Mag Bay to be a great dinner spot and are present in large numbers from August to September. Roosterfish migrations have been described as “biblical” during the months of June through September.
Like any Mag Bay enthusiast, my heart is starting to race, and I want to spill out all my experiences right now! I need to take a deep breath and talk about logistics first.
The phone rang on a busy day at Squidnation headquarters. When I picked it up, my friend Toby LaRocque was on the line.
He said, “The marlin are biting, get on a plane!”
So, the next day, I’m at the airport heading to Los Angeles out of BWI on American Airlines. I met Toby at the Alaska Airline gate a few hours later, and we headed off to Loreto, Mexico. From there we met our driver and headed west across the Baja Peninsula to the small port town of San Carlos.
This wasn’t my first trip to Mag Bay, but it would be my first to Toby’s lodge–and the first time not arriving by boat. Marlin enthusiasts typically board a private vessel or large local charter boat and chug all night from Cabo San Lucas. Anglers live on board, stay for a few days, then head back to Cabo. The adventure is amazing, and I’ve experienced days of releasing over one hundred striped marlin. But the idea of flying and driving directly to San Carlos seemed far more relaxing.
The next morning, Toby and I set out on his 30ft Hydrosport. A few miles outside the inlet, we found birds diving on bait balls of sardines. We set out two Squidnation teasers, one Squidnation dredge on a Ledge Logic Boom, and had two pitch baits with sardines at the ready.
The next four hours produced magnificent marlin encounters. Doubles and triple raises were the norm. The striped marlin would peel off the bait balls, light up cobalt blue, and attack our teasers on every pass.
Raising and feeding striped marlin on a small boat truly is an exciting encounter. Small boats get us closer to the waterline, and the smaller outboards allow for clearer wake, letting our teasers run closer to the boat. We had a front-row seat for every encounter. Our tally for day one was twenty-one striped marlin and a couple of dorado.
By day three, Toby asked if I was ready to go look for some wahoo.
I asked, “Why?”
He said, “How many marlin do you want to catch?”
At this point my face turned stone serious and I said, “All of them!”
And back to the bait balls we went.
Magdalena Bay is truly a special destination. Every adventure there has provided a unique experience. I have been a part of a crew that had 102 striped marlin releases in a single day on the 57’ Spencer boat, the “Tranquilo.” We’ve seen orcas attacking sea lions while striped marlin torpedoed through bait balls under the shadows of sky-rocketing manta rays. We survived a biblical invasion of tens of thousands of mahi, so ferocious we couldn’t even feed the marlin that were on our teasers.
Something special will always happen at Magdalena Bay, Mexico.
There are numerous large-boat operations that sail from Cabo San Lucas for a minimum of three days. Those trips typically run between $7,000 and $11,000 per night. Mag Bay Lodge offers a unique, exciting experience at a fraction of that cost. The boats are smaller and far less luxurious, but I promise you, the marlin will be plentiful. It will be a hands-on experience, and memories to last a lifetime.
To book a trip to Mag Bay Lodge, check out:
magbaylodge.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1-805-757-4999
