It’s A Beautiful Marlin In Cabo San Lucas

The Baja Peninsula stretches southward from the border of California for almost 800 miles before ending at Cabo San Lucas and is separated from the rest of Mexico by the Sea of Cortez. Despite its reputation as a parched, barren desert, it is actually a very rich region with several diverse ecosystems ranging from Mediterranean to mild woodlands in the mountain ranges.

It is also next to some of the most well known saltwater fishing on the Pacific coast. The kind of fishing available from one of the peninsula’s Mexico beach rental facilities is virtually as varied as the terrain. To be sure, there are lots of deep sea charter tours with experienced guides who will be glad to take you out into the Pacific or the Gulf in search of marlin, mahi-mahi or dolphin, but it’s just as promising to take a more passive line of attack.  Many fishermen who camp out along one of Baja’s unspoiled beaches find it just as fruitfull to set up a fishing pole, a line and some bait and let the fish come to them.

When it comes to low tech fishing, the natives will definitely often teach guests a thing or two. Using nothing other than glass bottle as a float, a lead weight and most any kind of cheap hook, regional fisherman are able to cast a line a substantial distance into the water from the beach and wind up with some fine catches.

If you wind up tenting down the Sea of Cortez, you may do this kind of fishing out of necessity since markets are far apart and driving over the areas primitive roads can be a bone jarring experience to say the least.  Beach rentals with a large refrigerator and kitchen is enormously convenient so you can stock up and not have to make too many excursions into town for groceries. 

There is an additional side to Baja fishing and that is the competitive deep sea fishing tournaments that are consistently held out of San Cabo. There are three of these held each year, one of which is toward the end of July and the others which take place about the middle of October. These are serious contests with equally significant prizes.  In the 2010 East Cape Tournament, fifty six teams walked away with a total of over $304,000 in prize money, with one top prize of $64,515 going to a fisherman who reeled in a nearly 600 pound marlin.

Baja is more than fishing.  With some of the most amazing, unspoiled beaches on North America’s Pacific Coast, surfing is a prevalent activity with guests and the waves compare quite favorably with those off the coast of Hawaii. Baja ecotourism also embrace whale watching tours throughout the migration season as the California gray whales make their way to and from Alaska. The tour boats get close enough to these huge, but friendly denizens of the deep for tourists to actually stroke them. Baja Ecotours also offers scuba diving tours and photo excursions as well as eco friendly bed breakfasts that are solar and wind powered.