Baja's Virtual Aquarium Magdalena Bay

In addition to having released over 29,000 billfish (placing him in exclusive company with Capt. Ronnie Hamlin, Capt. Chris Sheeder, Capt. Brad Phillips, and perhaps only a few others), at last count Carter has weighed in eleven 1,000-pounders, eighteen IGFA World Records, a Fantasy Slam Five – five billfish species in one day, a Super Grand Slam in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the 2006 AFTCO trophy for the most tagged and released billfish in the world. Over four decades he has traveled to eight countries and captained seven different boats, so it is safe to say that very few captains in the world of sport fishing can match the experience, knowledge and expertise of Capt. Carter when he spoke of Mag Bay.

This is literally a “fishing proving ground,” where it is likely your crew will hook more fish in a week or two than they normally see in most areas in a fistful of seasons.

There are trophy fish cloaked in daunting challenges in this unusual fishery.

Boats and crews, stunned by the sheer volume, often think that triple-digit scores are what it’s all about. Many captains/owners wisely treat Mag Bay more like “Billfish Bootcamp” and use the opportunity to fine-tune their fishing techniques on a variety of tackle – light, heavy, spinning and fly – experimenting with their boat handling, cockpit management and fish finding capabilities.

Baja’s virtual aquarium, Magdalena Bay, is 131 miles long, is protected by five barrier islands – Isla Creciente, Isla Santa Margarita, Isla Magdalena, and two unnamed islands to the north – and is double the size of San Francisco Bay.

Approximately 800 miles below the Tijuana border by road, it is the last (and largest) remote area in Baja and is a saltwater angler’s fantasy, offering an astonishing combination of some of the finest inshore fishing from March through November. From mid- September through November, it offers the most incredible offshore action for billfish and other pelagics found anywhere in Baja, or for that matter anywhere in the world!

The area is accessible by air, with commercial flights to Loreto and transfers to either Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos, a small village (pop. 2,200) with two hotels, or Puerto San Carlos (pop. 6,000), a larger town with several hotels that is also the only deepwater port on the west coast of Baja.

DIY groups driving the 800 miles of paved road, towing boats to the paved launch ramps at either town, or the sport fishers traveling down the coast, will find fuel at Ensenada (60 miles from the border) and Turtle Bay (365 miles).

Mag Bay extends south of Puerto San Carlos about 60 miles down the Pacific Coast. Departing from San Carlos, the distance to the entrada or entrance is approximately 20 miles to reach the open waters of the Pacific. In addition, Lopez Mateos and Boca Santo Domingo are located five miles north of town offering access to the Pacific. There are anchorages at Puerto Magdalena, a small village 10 miles from the pier at Puerto San Carlos, and 5 miles farther at Belchers, a small fish camp. The second exit to the sea is 15 miles farther south through the channel between Isla Margarita and Isla Creciente.

The bay offers a variety of habitats – mangrove-lined channels, sandy beaches, rock structures, deep channels, and shallows sandbars. There are a few mangrove channels near Puerto Magdalena and down the east side of the bay, as well as all the way to the southern end of the bay; there are a few more at Isla Creciente. North of Puerto San Carlos, the wide main channel extends 60 miles and is lined with miles and miles of dense mangroves with smaller channels off the main one. However, local knowledge is essential for first-timers, and hiring a local guide for at least a few days is a must to meet the challenges of the area. If you ride with a guide in their boat, a handheld GPS is absolutely vital. The mangrove-lined channels quickly begin to look alike. It is easy to get lost.

If you are planning to fish in the entrance to the bay and in the bay itself, you must have a boat that can handle the afternoon chop caused by the prevailing winds. However, when the wind comes up in the bay, fishing inside the estero (estuary) channels throughout the area is still practical. Many of the freshwater techniques you have learned or heard about over the years will come into play: fishing the current as steelhead fishermen do, using topwater poppers like bass fishermen, and fishing different parts of the water column like trout fishermen with streamers.

Understanding tidal flow is crucial. The temptation to attempt to capitalize on high and low slack is always there, and assuming that low slack will force the fish out from the roots into the channel to feed is unlikely. Conversely, contrary to offshore behavior, the bite usually shuts off at high slack. Incoming or outgoing tide or current is an angler’s friend regardless of fishing style – live bait, artificial or fly.

Ripping current and water color are a couple of clues to find productive zones. Birds diving, baitfish on the surface and fish chasing bait are additional clues. White seabass, spotted bay bass, broomtail grouper, corvina, halibut, pompano, snappers, sierra, black snook, palometa amarilla, and a host of other species can all be players in this game, and it takes an alert angler to capitalize on the opportunity. Cast along the edges of the channel, using different lures – topwater, sub-surface or heavier gear on the bottom – until the right combination is found that the fish can’t resist.

An excellent way to determine the most likely area to target is by slowtrolling a Rapala-style swimming lure along the mangrove-lined shoreline to locate spots where the fish are schooling.

Be alert when making a move from one spot to another – it’s always worth slowing down and checking out birds diving and bait being pushed on the shallows at low tide. Often, there are corvina, sierra, spotted bay bass or something else pushing the bait. It’s easy picking with artificials.

Another visual cue is mangroves that appear to be silver at the very top branches. This is caused by strong tidal currents that create deep holes, exposing the roots of the mangroves which are ideal cover for a variety of fish while they wait and watch for bait being swept by in the tidal flow. The four entrances in Mag Bay offer some spectacular fishing as the tides ebb and flow into the bay through these shallow openings. Varying in width from 100 yards or so to almost a mile wide, these can be tricky pieces of water to fish. Ideally, an early morning incoming tide is the best. Take some time and study each entrance and determine where the deepest cut or channel is located. Due to the wind, tides and currents, the channel’s bottom configuration changes frequently.

What makes the Magdalena Bay offshore fishing so attractive is a convergence of conditions that occurs in the fall. This spectacle varies from year to year, but it often reaches truly amazing proportions in October and November when the volume of baitfish appears, attracting large packs of billfish – mostly striped marlin – and other species that can be found feeding frantically on huge bait schools.

The volume of billfish and other species that find their way into the lure pattern often exceeds the number of lures being trolled. The multiple double-digit events that occur per day demand adjustments in technique to be successful. It’s not unusual to get multiple bites from billfish, dorado and maybe a wahoo or yellowfin tuna, all at the same time.

Magdalena Bay offshore is only accessible to larger sportfishers with fuel capacity that have the ability of extended stays cruising up and down the Pacific Coast of Baja, as well as larger trailer boats. In addition, a few lucky anglers fishing in local pangas and a handful of other local trailer boats sometimes manage to fish offshore.

The Magdalena Bay offshore zone stretches from the Uncle Sam Bank to the north to below Punta Tosca on the southern end, spanning the “Ridge” with its various bumps and high spots, including the Thetis Bank, all the way to Cabo Lazaro.

When the fish are in this zone, Santa Maria Bay is the preferred anchorage. Ample mackerel are around to reload the bait tanks, which adds to the attraction of the area.

If the fish are farther down outside the entrada, Belchers, a fish camp a few miles inside the bay, offers another anchorage that is also a decent spot to load up the tanks. There is also an anchorage in front of Puerto Magdalena, although the bait fishing is not normally as good there.

If the main body of fish is in the lower zone outside of Punta Tosca at the south end of Isla Santa Margarita, your other anchoring options are either Punta Tosca or along the lee of the Santa Margarita Island, if you are adventurous and willing to run the narrow channel into the bay.

One of the mistakes often made by visiting sport fishers is heading straight for the high spots and failing to pay attention along the way. When leaving from Santa Maria, always check the 100-fathom drop-off northwest of Cabo San Lazaro for bird schools. In addition to a plethora of sea birds, this is frigate country. They are easy to spot from long distances, either high flying or in tight bunches down closer to the surface of the water – a sure sign that there is bait being pushed to the surface.

Often, fish are found inside a straight line drawn from Cabo Lazaro to Thetis Bank back toward Lopez Mateos, a zone where few boats venture.

Just because a fleet is gathered on a high spot doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s productive. This zone covers a lot of water worth checking out. However, even when the billfish are missing there are usually wahoo, dorado, tuna and grouper down deep on the high spots, offering some spectacular action.

Although local knowledge is always essential when fishing, equally important is staying in communication with other anglers, either local or visiting, who happen to be fishing offshore.

The outstanding offshore fishery in front of Magdalena Bay enjoys an almost mythical appeal and the esteros offer a quiet solitude. However, there are trophy fish cloaked in daunting challenges in this unusual fishery.

Its popularity is growing and each year the number of local boats large enough to access the offshore action comfortably has grown. Many yachts traveling to and from Cabo plan their trips to take advantage of the outstanding fall fishery off Magdalena Bay. Some yachts even travel the long distances from the East Coast, as well as South America, to take advantage of this fishery.

Yet, the number of boats fishing there is still minimal compared to other Baja destinations, and seldom is the visiting recreational fleet large enough or the area fished tight enough to cause any issues. And Magdalena Bay, with its old Mexican charm, remains unblemished by major inroads of tourism.