My trip to La Paz, Baja California, Mexico (date)

    This is a report of my annual fishing trip to La Paz, BC., Mexico. Every year, my father, sister and I have been traveling to Baja California for fishing. For the last 5 or 6 years, we have been going to La Paz, the capital of Baja California. For the last few years of our reservations have been made through Aero California Travel. <ip address for aero ca>. We've stayed at a few different hotels in and around La Paz but recently have been lodging pretty regularly at La Concha Beach Resort www.laconcha.com. More specifically at "The Condos" at La Concha Beach Resort. "The Condos" offer a bit of luxury in an affordable atmosphere. Typically we've stayed in the two-bedroom condo for about $150 a night. The two-bedroom condo is a very large unit with three full baths, two queen size beds in one room and a king size bed in the master suit. A full size kitchen, formal dinning room, living room and one continuous balcony off each room facing west and the beautiful sunsets overlooking La Paz bay <picture>. This year we stayed in the three-bedroom condo. It is basically the same as the two-bedroom unit except it has an additional room with a queen size bed. Each unit has two central air-conditioning units providing excellent climate control and never a hot sweaty night. On the way to the hotel, we stop at the local supermarket and stock up on our favorite snack foods, soda and beer. The condos have full size refrigerators with freezers. This year we mistakenly purchased round trip transportation between the airport and hotel. We then had to take a van without air-conditioning, filled with as many people as possible, stop at two other hotels along the way before we were able to arrive at our hotel. It turned a 35-minute ride into a hot sweaty 1hour and 45 minute ride. The worst part was on the way home. The paid for transportation was late in arriving, had to stop at two other hotels to pick up additional passengers (one of which was late) and arrived a full hour late. Luckily the plane was delayed and we had a few minutes to sit at the bar at the airport and have a drink.

    The hotel has everything you could ever need at a resort. Beach, pool, pool bar, entertainment on the weekends, access to sail boats, and jet skis. There is an adjoining business to the hotel called Cortez Club <ip address>. They are predominantly a diving club with full accommodations for those of you who like to dive. They also have kayaks, snorkel, and small boats for rent. The club is well equipped with a very pleasant bar overlooking La Paz bay.

    There are other very nice hotels to stay at La Paz, but we find La Concha meets our needs.

    Our fishing is reserved through Aero California Travel who now offers quite a variety of fishing fleets. Our favorite is Mosquito Fleet. We feel that "Lamberto" is the best pangero in La Paz. Typically we reserved one panga for three adults which is a tight squeeze. This year, my son, Joseph, tagged along. Even though he is only ten years old, we had a traffic jam during hookups. I recommend no more than two on a super panga. Some fleets also have mini cruisers available. These can handle the extra person. Mosquito Fleet also offers a full size cruiser that can handle up to 6 people. There are other very reputable fleets in La Paz, including Pirates, but we always prefer Lamberto as our skipper. He seems to get what we want and make a bad day good and a good day better.

    The entire deal, round trip airfare, transportation to and from the hotel, three nights at the hotel, two days of fishing ended up costing around $500 per person. Not bad!

    Now, to the fishing. There are several reliable resources for finding out fishing conditions for the sea of cortez. I find Amigos de Baja http://www.bajanet.com/ most helpful. They update reports from all the fishing spots in Baja each Wednesday. Some reports are a little jaded to help promote tourism, but you can get an idea of how conditions are. Also, I recommend contacted the National Hurricane Center for updates on the local hurricane conditions. I accessed both bits of information weeks before our scheduled departure date and found that the fishing was not very good this year. Bait conditions were bad. No bait was to be found in the bay. Most were either buying bait from the locals (a very expensive proposition) or bring their own frozen mackerel and squid. Also, a hurricane (name) was bearing down on the tip of baja one week prior to our arrival date. Luckily, it veered north northwest and avoided landfall. Anyway, we came prepared with our frozen mackerel and squid in two large ice chest ready to fill them with whatever we could find.

    Lamberto meet us at the dock of the Cortez Club at a quarter to seven in the morning. We buddied up with two other pangas to hunt for bait. After a short wait, the pangeros arrived with sufficient amount of small to medium sized sardines. Perfect for catching medium to large size Dorados <picture>. Lamberto was honest and told us that fishing was difficult this year. The bait situation was poor, the water temperature was too cold and the winds were erratic. Fishing in the bay typically resulted in one or two hook-ups and choppy difficult seas. La Paz is near a famous fishing bank call "El Bajo". It is a two-hour boat ride to a shallow area in the sea of cortez famous for large game fish. Currently there was some 100-200 lb. blue fin tuna to be had. Unfortunately it is difficult to predict the outcome. Lately some days have been good and others bad. If bad, it's another two-hour boat ride back to La Paz bay fishing area. We chose to stay in the bay. Lamberto steered the boat directly west from the hotel and after about 20 minutes began to troll with two live sardines. Soon after we had something started taking our bait but we were unable to hook-up. Probably lady fish or needle fish. A pangero's nightmare. These fish strike hard and fast but are difficult to hook and end up taking your bait. After a couple of attempts, Lamberto started heading north after a frigate bird attempting to feed. About an hour later we had a big strike and immediately knew that a sailfish had hooked up. Lamberto, in is infinite wisdom and experience, gunned the boats engine to gain distance from the quickly approaching sailfish. The smart fish started towards the boat in an attempt to increase the slack in the line and make it easier to lose the hook. Lamberto made quick distance between the boat and the fish, I was able to better set the hook and begin the battle. The beautiful fish jumped some more displaying its acrobatic and colors. After about a 20-minute fight, the fish was alongside the boat. Lamberto grabbed the fish by the beak and pulled up to the side for a quick photo, released the hook, and returned the tired animal back to its home seemingly undamaged. After that excitement, beer for everyone.

    The day lingered, we continued to troll with sardines, switched to feathers and cracked the radio for ideas. Nothing.

    The next day we started a bit later. Lamberto was to get bait first, prior to picking us up. We started west-northwest to some buoys on the far side of the bay. After about an hour boat ride we arrived and trolled with feathers. After an hour of trolling we approached some white buoys and trolled with sardines. Two quick hook-ups with some good size Bonita <picture> increased the excitement. Soon after, we landed a couple of small Dorado. The day resulted in 6 small Dorado and two good size Bonita. Not the best of times but better than nothing.

    To summarize the trip:

1) Make reservations requesting transportation credit. Get your own taxi to and from the hotel.
2) Make sure you have the right size boat for the amount of people. No more than two adults per super panga, four for mini-cruiser and 6 for cruiser.
3) Check weather conditions and fishing conditions before going. If the report is not good, consider rescheduling or don't get your hopes up. Plan a day of kayaking or snorkeling instead of fishing.
4) Aero California uses older DC-9's. The seats are small and uncomfortable for large people. American Airlines now flies to La Paz. Check them out if this may be a problem for you.
5) Most taxi drivers receive a kickback for taking tourist to restaurants. You'll find this common all over the world. Don't trust their judgement for quality dinning places. Check the web pages listed or ask hotel employees or locals for better advice.

Check out these links: