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by Tom Gatch, photos courtesy of Tailhunter International, El Delfin Sportfishing, and Gordo Banks Pangas
Late Fall and Early Winter in Baja this season has featured unusually wet conditions along the southern California and northern Baja coasts; and this comes after record rainfall fell upon the regions during November.
The good news is, that not only have we needed the rain, but the sunny weather that we have been enjoying between these periodic storm fronts has been downright delightful and has resulted in some amazing sunrises and sunsets.
Especially if you have a mind to wet a line and get out there to catch a few fish.
Recent King Tides have stirred up the surf zones along Baja’s northern coast that, during their highest cycles, activate a feeding frenzy amongst near-shore species such as barred surf perch and corbina.
You don’t have to drive far, and right now, practically every sandy beach between Playas Tijuana and Ensenada can offer an exciting opportunity for knowledgeable anglers using light tackle to hook up with a couple of quality fish.
If you prefer fishing from a boat, Ensenada is the place to be. Professionally skippered craft of virtually every description can be charted for an adventurous day out on the water. The quality-grade yellowtail are already showing up in the waters between the Port of Ensenada and the Todos Santos Islands.
South of town, Punta Banda offers a variety of panga fishing services that can take you fishing just off the coast of this rocky, volcanic peninsula.
One of the oldest and most trusted is Vonny’s Fleet Sportfishing. Here, you can expect to catch big yellowtail, halibut, calico bass, and a wide variety of tasty rockfish deeper down.
Depending upon the season, many of the other panga operations in the area offer lengthier offshore trips that target tuna, dorado, or the legendary Banda Bank, which kicks out delicious Pacific red snapper, lingcod, salmon grouper, and cow cod from depths of 400 to 500 feet.
Further down the coast, Ejido Erindira, is a small fish camp known as Castro’s Fishing Place. Although a bit out of the way, over the decades, it has earned the respect of thousands of hardcore anglers from north of the border who come down to take advantage of the great bottom fishing that is available. The months of spring and summer can also produce a good surface bite for quality yellowtail and white seabass.
This year, things look particularly hopeful because they are already seeing some good catches of yellowtail up to 18 pounds or more, and it is only January.
Transitioning down the peninsula to Baja Sur, things have been typical for the season until you get to Bahia Magdalena. Although a good surface bite offshore has yet to begin, the waters inside the Magdalena Estero have been alive with a wide selection of popular gamefish such as cabrilla, small grouper, halibut, corvina, and snook.
From the docks down in Cabo, Pisces Sportfishing reports, “The holiday week delivered calm seas, clear skies, and warm water, creating ideal fishing conditions. Water temperatures ranged from 75 to 79°F, with light winds and manageable swells producing a classic Cabo pattern in which early-week Striped Marlin dominated, followed by a wide-open Yellowfin Tuna bite that surged from Sunday through Christmas Eve.”
“The final week of 2025 delivered classic winter fishing in Cabo; calm seas, clear skies, and steady action across the board. Striped Marlin dominated the offshore bite with consistent numbers from Los Arcos, Faro Viejo, Rancho San Lucas, and La Brecha.
Yellowfin Tuna remained the volume species, with boats landing anywhere from a handful to double-digit counts, especially around Jaime Bank and the 270/150 lines.
Dorado were scattered but still present, and a couple of standout Wahoo added variety to the catch. Inshore, bottom fishing produced Grouper and Ladyfish.”
Pisces added, “Friday through Sunday produced steady Marlin action at El Faro and Los Arcos, with multiple boats posting 5–13 releases per day. Dorado remained scattered but present, with pockets around Los Arcos, the Golden, and Migrino.”
Brian Bricston, of Gordo Banks Pangas, offers, “This is our final fish report for 2025, and we want to take the time to thank all of our clients for such an amazing year, packed with great catches and fun times. We had a good tuna bite throughout the year, including many in the 200–300-pound club, big black Marlin, good bottom action, and a great November for wahoo.”
Bricston continued, “Even though the year started out slow for dorado, we had good numbers in November/December, most of them good size. We hope that our live bait situation is better next year. This week was full of action; great way to end the year! We had productive days from both directions. Since sardines were netted throughout the Palmilla shoreline, most boats decided to stay within the area of The Westin, Cerro Colorado, and Palmilla Point.
On most days, most boats were able to catch their tuna limit. Most of these tuna were in the smaller side, averaging 5-8 pounds. While boats waited for sardines, they trolled lures, Rapalas, and ballyhoo for wahoo and dorado. A handful of nice dorado and wahoo were picked off this way.
We continue to see good tuna and dorado action from La Fortuna, Cardon, and Punta Gorda. We are hooking these tuna and most of the dorado while slow trolling live caballitos and sardines. This weekend, many boats tried small strips of squid, and they had good action on it as well. We have seen a good supply of caballito this week inside the marina channel, most of them small to medium size, perfect for the smaller tuna and dorado. Not many boats waited for sardines as they were coming in from the Palmilla area later in the morning.
Most of the tuna seen in these areas closer to shore are averaging 5-10 pounds, though we did see a few in the 30–40-pound range. Most of the dorado are in the range of 15-25 pounds. Many of these dorado were also hooked while fast-trolling rigged ballyhoo and lures.”
From Tailhunter International in downtown La Paz, Jonathan Roldan commented, “We’re already getting some of them like sierra, snapper, cabrilla, rainbow runners, a few yellowtail, and a couple of big pargo perro.
Lots of days are still too windy or rough to fish for most folks, but that’s fairly typical during the off-season from October to about April when the northern winds blow.
Again, like I say, not many visitors are going fishing, and I turn folks away every day when the wind forecast on the day they want to fish shows that the winds are blowing or if the port captain has shut down the port. There are some very nice days, but it can be very erratic and unpredictable.
Also, many folks who want to fish this time of year aren’t hardcore anglers like all the folks we get during the season from May to October when we have 10-30 anglers fishing each day! The folks in town now are here on vacation, just enjoying the town and the Christmas holidays because they have family with them. Suddenly, they decide they want to fish one day! Often, after I tell them about the conditions, they change their minds. Not a bad idea, especially if they have kids with them. We want everyone to have a good time, not get bounced and wet and cold and maybe even ….SEASICK!
To that point: on the non-windy days, there’s some surprisingly good fishing.
The variety is pretty surprising. Warm water species like dorado, a few tuna, and we even saw a blue marlin show up. It’s not a crazy bite, but here and there, there must be some warmer water around in spots since those are warmer water species. But the cold water species are also chewing pretty well, also. Cabrilla, snapper, sierra and smaller amberjack are feeding, but also some big cubera snapper (dog-tooth) and the big pargo liso (mullet snapper) that we usually don’t see until March or April have appeared in our waters! On top of that, there are small roosterfish feeding along the shallow sand beaches.”
This is also the time of year when we start fishing the area around Bahia Magdalena, which is about a 3-4 hour drive from La Paz on the Pacific side.” Roldan concluded by saying, “Fishing offshore on the nearby sea mounts can produce wahoo, marlin, tuna, dorado, yellowtail, grouper, and more.”
“Baja is so much more than the beaches; it has natural riches that are so diverse: it has snow-capped mountains, it has canyons, it has desert, it has so much nature and animal life that exists nowhere else.”
As you can tell, even though it is very early in the season, 2026 is already shaping up to be a classic year of fishing in Baja. Now is the time to make your sportfishing reservations while prime dates are still available. Those who hesitate may end up being left behind on the dock.
Tight lines!
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