Author: That Baja Guy-Gary Graham

It’s easy for a casual observer to assume as the 121 teams arrived to compete in the 35th Annual Bisbee’s Black & Blue Marlin Tournament in Los Cabos, that they were wealthy and experienced big game anglers. But that was definitely not the case; the diversity of the entries was astonishing – it was a mixture of people from all over the world, some of whom had never even caught a big game fish. For instance, last year’s top winner – Team Casa Hogar – was composed of 10 anglers and crew fishing on behalf of the local non-profit organization…

History of the Coronado Islands Easily spotted on a clear day from the tip of Point Loma, the Coronado Islands (Islas Coronados) are only 15 miles away … a familiar sight to local residents, though many tourists have probably never heard of them. Ahhh … so close, but so far. The Coronado Islands actually belong to Mexico and are a part of the municipality of Tijuana, State of Baja California Norte. From land, it is difficult to make out the four infertile islands that are mainly uninhabited except for a small military detachment. The North Coronado Islands has no bay, but boats can anchor…

For the past decade, there have been so few marlin in Southern California that they are barely worth the effort for most recreational anglers. This is reflected by most of the current recreational sportfishing fleet of yachts and pots that have been willingly driving over sleepers and/or tailers to get to a kelp paddy — filling their freezers with food they can eat, instead of spending hours and hours of driving aimlessly around searching for the elusive billfish. Don’t be offended, I get it. This is certainly a better return on investment. Well, here’s the deal this year. It’s nearly…

Based on data of the last decade, the last week of August and the first few days of September are the normal peak of the Baja hurricane threat with five named storms making landfall during that 10-day period. Historically, the earliest landfall of a tropical storm or hurricane on the Baja Peninsula was in mid-August. Over the last 50 years, the curve peaks in the third week of September. The threat remains high through the second week of October. Then, as clearly as the threat began, the threat drops to zero by the third week of October. The latest tropical…

Tuna Club On June 1, 1898 – 117 years ago – author, sportsman and biologist Charles Frederick Holder landed a 183-pound bluefin tuna on rod and reel, literally establishing big game fishing in California as well as in the world beyond. Holder’s catch resulted in the formation of the CATALINA TUNA CLUB, in Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, Calif., America’s oldest big-game fishing club. Other notable rod and reel catches soon followed including the first striped marlin in 1903 and the first swordfish in 1913. Today, the private clubhouse remains a beacon of sportfishing, majestically overlooking the Avalon Harbor – a…

A column written by Ray Cannon appeared in Western Outdoor News in the early 1960s describing Baja and its Sea of Cortez that was teeming with a seemingly unending supply of exotic fish.  One of Ray’s favorite places was located on the Sea’s western shore, 700 miles from the U.S. border in a village named Loreto … Ed Tabor’s Flying Sportsman Lodge. After the column appeared, a trickle of adventurous souls began arriving by road and private planes. The trickle became a flood when Mex One was completed in 1973, extending some 1,000 miles from the border to the tip…