I am fortunate enough to be heading down to Cabos San Lucas for a week this month. We will probably spend a coulple of days on a panga boat but I was wondering if anyone had experience beach fishing in the area. I am going to bring a medium-heavy casting rod and two reels (12lb and 25lb test), some spoons, spinners, hooks, weights, and leader. Any other suggestions? Areas? Lures? Lure size? I could always bring a flyrod.

Bring a flyrod...small jacks and small roosters are faily easy to catch from shore.

And if you are going to rent a panga....you will have no problem reaching the waters where you will find dorado, yellow fin and bonita.

Now I am not as well versed in the details of the bugrod game in Baja as others...so I can not give you specifics...but bring some standard bonefish leaders and some leaders with shock tippet...#60-80 flourocarbon.

Decievers, Sea Habit Bucktails and Poppers are all generic flies that will produce.

Do not miss out...one of these days, Ill be able to make a trip down there.

In Cabo my neighbor had some success with jointed saltwater Rapala-type lures, on the surface.

We fish about 60 north on the East Cape at El Cardinel and haven't done well at all off the beach - it seemed like we could never reel or jerk anything fast enough to elicit a strike.

The pangas may or may not be professionally outfitted - Cabo may have a little higher standards. Otherwise you may find it a little disconcerting to go miles offshore without - radio, cellphone, first aid kit, etc. etc. aboard. Bring along whatever you can.

Kaiser,
I fished the beach in PV over Thanksgiving and had moderate success. Although I brought zinger type lures to mimic sardines I had my best luck with the lead head jigs I bought down there. They were basically 3/8 to 1/2 oz lead jigs with a white head and tied with a big wad of feathers. Some had red, yellow or mylar tied into the body just behind the head. The overal length was 2-3 inchs. While there I caught torro and saw several people catch torro and mackeral. I understand its not too hard to hook into rooster fish in the right location.

Kiaser,
Baja is a great place to fish. I was there flyfishing in mid October. The jack fishing was great. No tuna or dorado this year, but lots of other action. Ended up catching twelve different species of fish. Depending on where in Baja you are staying, try fishing off Mendano Beach, which is right in Cabo San Lucas. Go early to avoid the crowds and get the early morning bite. I've never used spoons or spinners, but there is no reason why they wouldn't work. Topwater plugs would work well also. The main baitfish there are sardines, so anything that imitates a two to four inch sardine will work.
Pangas generally run $180.00 to $200.00 for 6 hours of fishing. Leave early so you can make sure that bait is available. $10-20.00 worth of sardines for chumming will keep you in action most of the day. You will be amazed at how hard a 2 to 4 LB skipjack will pull. I've had a few 10 lb'ers kick my butt on the fly rod. There should be quite a few tuna around now.
Several other things to consider.
There is a guy named Steven Janson who has a small fishing shop at the Hotel Mar de Cortez. I spoke with him, but didn't fish with him due to time constraints. He's a nice guy and will take you beach fishing for I believe $50.00. He leaves at 5AM to get on the early bite. His shop # is 011-52-624-143-5804. Leave a message at the shop and will call you back when he gets back from fishing.
Also check out www.baja-anglers.com and www.bajaonthefly.com for reports and updated info. Baja Anglers also has a shop right at the marina in Cabo San Lucas.
For some cool pics of some of the fish you might encounter down there, check out www.bajadestinations.com and check out the fish id photo gallery link.
Good luck on your trip and post a report when you get back.
Stonedfish
P.S. Take some wire leader for the toothy sierra and needlefish.

Anybody done any fishing in La Paz?

It's a few hours out of Cabo and I will probably be heading there in February.

I almost got to fish in Cabo but the dang cruise boat said the seas where to ruff to go to shore. I was bummed

My honeymoon cruise went ashore in Mazatlan and we got (2) 90lb sailfish!!! That kind of fishing was sure eye opening to me after going after trout and salmon for so many years.

Jersey Fresh, our first Baja trip was to LaPaz. This fishing there doesn't seem to be done from the bay there, but rather you do a 1 hour drive over the ridge to the south to the Bahai de Muerto, and meet your panga driver.

The quality of the fishing will depend on the water temps, it has to be warm for the fish to come up from the south.

We had a good day on dorado, bonita and a MARLIN on light tackle - I'm talking like a 160# fish on a size 1 or 2 hook. Eventually the light leader sawed through when he dove straight down under the boat. But the prior 30 minutes, when I had this huge fish greyhound leaping for the horizon, I''ll never forget!

GaryK, thanks for the La Paz info. I'll give a report when I get back.
-JF

I had alot of fun in Mazatlan fishing from shore for toritos with light tackle and castmaster lures with a little red and white feather tail.
Tie up a 8" cable leader so their teeth wouldn't slice your leader.

Watch for where the birds are feeding and cast right into the thick of them.

Wow, thanks for all the great info. I will post an update when I get back. I might bring my flyrod. I am looking for some large 3-4" poppers that weigh between 1-2oz. It might be hard in this part of the country...maybe some BIG bass poppers. I have also seen references on a lure called a "Ranger". I have seen a picture of it and is look similar to a spoon.

Thanks again.

Kaiser,
Take your fly rod! If you have a 7 to 9wt you will have a blast with the jacks. As far as poppers go, If you live in the Seattle / Bellevue area, Kaufman's carries some ready to assemble popper kits. They have both blue and white that do a good job of imitating a sardine. The kit includes the popper head and some excellent saltwater hooks. All you have to do isepoxy the hook and tie on the tail color you want.
I had great success catching jack crevelle on these in October. It is pretty cool to see schools of jacks fighting each other to get to eat the popper. The brown pelicans were even trying to get in on the action.
You could also cast these on terminal equipment.