VOL . 43 • ISS . 1 January 12 , 2024
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WHAT ’ S HOT continued from page 2
John , Paul and Ken strain to lift a small part of the catch on the last day of fishing . Photo by Paul Kneeland , Fish Sniffer Staff twin 225 hp Hondas . Our host Marcos was very friendly , spoke excellent English , and took care of our every need while we were there . Our cook and housekeeper Juanita made absolutely delicious meals for breakfast and dinner every day , and excellent burritos for lunch on the boats . Our first day , we were up at 5 am and treated to an excellent breakfast omelette with fresh avocado , bacon and toast . We were at the boat ramp ready to go by 6:15 and loaded into the 27 ’ Cape horn and headed to the Pacific . It is a pretty good run to the mouth of the bay , about 19 miles , but went quickly in the calm bay . Once we hit the Pacific , things were much rougher for about a half hour , then the sea calmed down as we headed out to deeper water . Quite a few miles out we slowed as we approached a pair of buoys and set out 4 trolling rods with different colored large feathers and one with a small flying fish imitation . We trolled back and forth a couple of times and suddenly one of the lines was ripped off the outrigger . Ken grabbed the rod and skillfully played a nice dorado of about 30 pounds . A few minutes later , the same rod with the big pink feather went off and I got to land another 30 pounder , a brother to the first . The bite then died , and we trolled back to the mouth and then to the ramp . We sat around the pool , and enjoyed a splash of bourbon , and a cigar for me as we recalled the day and waited for dinner . The next day we went out with Captain Juan in one of the custom 26 foot pangas . We moved through the mouth of the bay to the saltwater , but this time we turned south and trolled near the rocks , on the outside of Isla Santa Margarita . We were trolling Rapalas , Yozuri plugs and casting large Kastmasters right into the rocks crashing with surf . We caught lots of different varieties of snapper , grouper and pargo . It was a real kick in the butt , you never knew what you might land when a fish hit . These fish ran from 2 to about 10 pounds and were lots of fun . At one point as we slowly trolled along , we could hear lots of noise coming from the shore . As we approached it got louder and louder
The rugged coastline off Santa Margarita Island was home to thousands of sea lions and countless species of bottomfish . Photo by Paul Kneeland , Fish Sniffer Staff
until we could see a huge community of sea lions on the shore and basking on boulders . There had to be at least a thousand animals in the group , all barking , grunting , groaning and just generally making a ton of noise that was much louder than the crashing of the waves on the rocks ! It was an amazing sight ! We trolled to the end of Isla Santa Margarita and entered Mag Bay again . Here there were huge sandbars in the bay , all fairly shallow at 5 to 10 feet deep . We did catch a few small roosterfish to 10 pounds off the sandbars . We entered a small backwater on the west side of the island surrounded by mangroves and found the nesting area for a huge group of frigate birds . There must have been 5 thousand of them in this small bay , all yacking loudly as we got closer . We took some great photos of these prehistoric looking birds that have long , deeply forked tails , long hooked bills and can have a wingspan of 7 ½ feet ! Back at the lodge we had another fantastic , freshly prepared dinner of the local specialty – chocolate clams ! And they were stuffed with onion , cheese , tomato and the dark brown meat and very delicious . The next day we decided to stay in the bay and fish the mangroves . We headed north in the 26 ’ panga and entered the weird world of mangroves ! The upper Magdalena Bay splits in two parts and becomes very shallow with waterways tight with mangroves on both sides interspersed with sand dunes that looked like they should be on the moon ! We trolled slowly and cast as we moved slowly amongst the
Closeup of the thousands of Frigate Birds nesting in the mangroves of Magdalena Bay . Photo by Paul Kneeland , Fish Sniffer Staff
John Brassfield and Ken Kneeland show off some of the myriad bottomfish caught on jigs and lures on the Pacific side of Magdalena Bay . Photo by Paul Kneeland , Fish Sniffer Staff
dense trees . We were casting smaller rapala type plugs , plus some Krocodile and Kastmaster spoons in silver and green . We caught lots of fish of different species including spotted bay bass , corvina , jack cravelle and others not easily identified ! Unfortunately , all these were pretty small . I think the largest we caught was maybe 2 pounds . As we came out of the mangroves on the west side , we fished some shallow sand areas for halibut . I caught the smallest halibut I have ever seen – about 4 inches ! Our final day , we decided to go out to the Pacific for tuna , dorado and marlin . Captain Juan wanted to go out to Thetis Bank , which was a long way so we started early with breakfast at 4:30 and in the boat and heading out by 5:15 in the pre-dawn light . We were in the Boston Whaler Conquest which made the long ride much more comfortable . It was a 40 mile ride in the ocean , but we made it in about an hour and a half in calm seas . Thetis Bank is a unique area , offshore by at least 5 miles , the ocean all around is 500 to 900 feet deep , but the top of the bank comes up to only 90 feet deep ! Started trolling in the area with large and small trolling feathers for about an hour with no strikes . We then put on heavy jigs and started catching lots of red snapper and grouper in water about 100 feet deep . These fish were all about 3 to 8 pounds and lots of fun . Captain Juan
The custom 26 foot super panga in a small mangrove cove on the west side of Magdalena Bay . Photo by Paul Kneeland , Fish Sniffer Staff
then moved us out to about 300 feet of water trying to find larger fish . We were using Penn and Okuma large spinning reels with braided line . At one point John had dropped his jig and his line stopped about half way down to the bottom , and suddenly moved to the side . He struck hard with the rod and was rewarded with a long , line burning run towards the bottom . After a spirited fight , he landed a beautiful 35 pound yellowtail ! We caught several more red snapper of the same size and decided to go back to trolling . We put out several different color feathers and headed south off Thetis bank . After about half an hour , one of the lines was ripped off the outrigger and Ken grabbed it and fought a good fish . He fought and landed a nice yellowfin tuna of about 25 pounds , and the bite was on ! We had constant hookups , sometimes doubles , on lots of nice tuna from 15 to 35 pounds . We caught fish for at least an hour , and we were getting tired and the fish boxes were getting full when we decided with had enough fish , and put down the rods and hoisted some cervesas in salute to the fish and ocean ! A wonderful way to end our Magdalena Bay adventure !! Mag Bay Lodge is located in the town of San Carlos on the east side of Magdalena Bay . You can see them at www . magbaylodge , or contact them at info @ magbaylodge . com