Spring Break Surf Fishing

For many, spring is the beginning of the fishing season. As both fresh and saltwater warm, fish begin to be more active and migrate into our local waters. Fishermen eagerly await this time to dust off their gear and get back out on the water. Coincidentally, for many, this time is also their spring break. For students, parents of students, and teachers, this week-long break is a perfect time to start your fishing season off right! For my break, I chose to follow the classic migration of Southern California college students to Cabo San Lucas and do some spring break surf fishing.

For Cabo, March and April can be slower months as far as the fishing goes. Without the pelagics of the fall and the beach giants of the summer, spring fishing can be often overlooked. However, this does not mean there is not great fishing to be had from the surf.

In our last surf fishing article, Bill Varney recaps his trip to Cabo to fish with local guide Wesley Brough. Taking his advice, I decided to book a trip with Wesley too and I am glad that I did!

Wesley and I with our fish from the day

Our trip began with a 5:30 AM meeting. Wesley said that recently the fish had started feeding earlier and he wanted to make sure we were on the beach to capitalize on this bite window. This is just one of the many reasons why booking with a guide who is on the water every day is important. Wesley follows these fish up and down the coast every day so he can know exactly where and when to be in order to get his clients on fish.

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We got in his Tacoma with multiple 14′ rods hanging out the back and headed up the coast. After a brief 15-minute drive we arrived at a beach and joined a couple of other surf fishermen making their way down to the sand.

It was still dark when we started casting into the heavy shore break. We were throwing a mix of stick baits and jigs to target the whole water column. Seemingly as soon as the sun first crept over the rocks and hit the water, the bite was on. For the next hour and a half, we experienced the best spring surf fishing Cabo has to offer. The Sierra Mackerel were keyed in on the stick baits and made quite the ariel display coming fully out of the water to engulf our lures. At any given time, you could see multiple boils from the shore to just outside the break.

Wesley was able to capture some video of some of the blowups

Soon I found that I really did not need to cast too far to get a bite. With a simple sidearm cast, I was able to place my stick bait just past the first breaking wave, and with a couple of twitches and pauses the fight was on.

One of the larger Sierras I was able to catch

The grade of fish we found was really nice! Most fish were between 4 and 8 lbs with a couple of standouts that were able to go on peeling runs on 40lb mainline. One essential piece of equipment that was necessary was a heavy leader. We were using 80lb fluorocarbon to deal with the quite impressive teeth on these sierras. In one instance, as I was twitching my lure, in an instant I saw the fins of a sierra breach the surface making a b-line for my lure and before I could react my line was sheered off clean. The speed and ferocity of these fish are truly something impressive to experience.

Overall, it was incredibly fun fishing. The gear we were using was light enough to cast and handle with comfort but had enough backbone to handle some of the larger fish. Wesley was an incredible guide and offered great tips and instruction, and most importantly, he knew how to put us on fish.

If you’d like to book a trip with Wesley, you can contact him through email at [email protected] or his website www.cabosurfcaster.com.