Baja Marlin - 2025 Trip Review

It’s been on the radar for years. Watching someone battle a marlin on an old 80’s TV show is one of my earliest childhood memories. A friend once described chasing marlin on the fly as fly fishing’s “final boss,” and that’s always stuck with me.

This year, we finally made it happen—and the trip was spectacular.

Along with four friends of the shop, Victor and I headed to Baja, not knowing exactly what to expect.  We called this guide in March last year based on a loose word of mouth.  We scheduled 6 days of fishing and some very quaint accommodations.  The outfitter speaks zero English.  Luckily, Victor is our bilingual hero.  We would not have been able to arrange it without him.

Blown away.  

That’s really the only way to describe what happens out in the great Pacific during this time of year. It felt like a National Geographic episode, but happening right in front of us. As soon as we motored out to the marlin grounds, we saw everything—thousands of dolphins, sea lions, porpoises, turtles and sharks. Even humpback whales and orcas cruising through the area. At pretty much any moment you could look up and spot at least one of those species. The number of times I nearly landed a cast on a dolphin or sea lion was outrageous.

The frigates are circling and diving, so you motor toward them. The surface is boiling with sea lions, and marlin are lit up like neon signs. Dozens of them, everywhere you look. You just keep moving toward the action. It’s nonstop.

And despite numerous boats out there, it was surprisingly rare to have two working the same bait ball—though it did happen a few times. Our guide, Fernando, was great at finding our own piece of the ocean away from the main crowd. We worked bait balls for entire afternoons without being within half a mile of another boat.

We all hooked fish every day. Some of the guys were averaging two or three a day. I have no idea how—they must’ve eaten their Wheaties. Some of the battles went on for hours.  Its painful to watch this fish take you into the backing for the 8th time, knowing that its going to take another 10 minutes to get it back to where you just had him next to the boat.  I have no desire to fight a fish for 2.5 hours like Vic did with his big blue before it broke off at the boat.

Gear Reviews:

As far as the gear goes, there were some winners, some things that need some attention.  I get it.  This is the biggest, hardest-fighting fish.  This is where gear is tested to the max.

Reels

Redington Grande Reel:  You will have a hard time convincing me that there is a better reel out there.  This reel performed flawlessly for 4 anglers across a week.  I had to adjust the drag several times when fighting each fish.  These drag acted perfectly.  We were able to adjust as needed without ever encountering a problem.  When the fish "sounds" or goes straight down under the boat, we found that backing the drag off and putting the boat in reverse helps bring them back up.  We had the drag cranked down hard enough that we were almost pulled into the ocean a few times.  Back it off one click and you're set.  

I use the Grande over my Lamson Litespeed M12, which is a mighty fine reel.  However, it costs twice as much and holds less backing (and weighs about half as much).   I wanted max drag capacity.  We needed it and used it.

Big Y General 9/10:  We had a couple of days inshore, chasing roosters, corvina, sand bass and mangrove critters.  The general performed flawlessly as usual for both Victor and me.  

Fly Lines / Etc

RIO Leviathan Line:  This line worked as promised.  It did not break.  The loop wore thin after a couple of battles, so we cut it off and made our own loop which also worked just fine.  It was not terribly awkward to cast, but not the easiest line to be picking up and frantically casting while changing directions. Still a solid option.

SciAnglers Pelagic Fly Line:  I cut the front of this 500 grain line about 3 feet, and made my own front loop.  I also used the big braided loop connectors on the rear of this line.  It had no issues.  I was never worried about it breaking.  Not terribly easy to cast, but I am really glad that I cut it back 3 feet.  It cast well on the 12 and 11 weight rods.  This line requires you to do the loops on each end, so if you are not comfortable with that, skip this one.

Sci Anglers Sonar Jungle intermediate line:  This was recommended by the outfitter and pretty much everyone had one of these in our group on the first day.  All of them broke within 3 days.  We saw at least 6 of these lines break in one week including hearing about it from random anglers at the dock in the evening.  They are just not strong enough.  They cast soooo nicely though.  Easily the best casting line out there for this situation.  The guides like them for a reason, but the core is just not strong enough.

80# Backing:  The reason we did not lose entire fly lines.  16-Strand, hollow-core braided PE line.  Vic got it from Reaction Tackle, I found some on Temu.  Either way, it is very strong, lays down flat and allows for maximum capacity.  Plus there is no need for fancy bimini knots.  Worth every penny.

100# test Tippet - We started the trip with 100# tippet, a swivel and 80# fluoro butt sections. That lasted a couple of hours before I went to straight 100# tippet.  I had RIO GT mono at first, but ran out and used 100# fluoro for the last few days.  We went through a lot of tippet...  

With 100# test, there is no break-off point if you hook into a monster fish, which happened.  You are tied to this fish until it cuts through the tippet with its sword.  You are now Old Man and the Sea.  Be warned

Rods

Echo Prime Fly Rod:  We had three of the 12wts as well as a 10wt for roosterfishing when the wind was up.  These rods held up well as usual.  They are strong, strong, strong.  We did break one, which is not unexpected, and we heard another making some really high-pitched cracking noises about 2 hours into Vic's fight with a monster, but overall they are a great rod that casts well and fights fish very well.  I would still recommend despite the break.  Breaking gear is part of the program...

Sage R8 Salt: I did break the butt section of a 12wt on the first fish.  It's always a tough call when writing this up.  Sage is taking care of the broken rod.  I liked casting it, I don't think it should have broke at the butt section when fighting the first fish I hooked with it.  Its light and really easy to cast.  I don't blame Sage or hold it against them, rods break.  I will take it to Christmas Island in a couple of months, but I wish it would have held up for more than one fish.

TFO Mangrove Coast Fly Rod:  I have taken this Mangrove Coast 11wt rod all over the place.  Its usually my "backup", but it gets plenty of water time.  I fished it for three days after the 12wt Sage broke.  I was surprised how nice it cast that Pelagic line and how well it fought these big fish. 

TFO Rods: Greg used a TFO Axiom II-X 11wt rod with great success over the week and Scott has a TFO Blitz that he loves.  Overall, TFO rods came through big time with nothing broken.  We were all impressed by their performance.  

So our car caught on fire when driving on Mexican dirt roads.  We stopped the car, put the fire out using the last of our fresh water, and walked the last 2.2 miles to the beach through these dunes.  Pristine rooster beach...

Flies

MFC Nayacca Baitfish - Holy Mackerel.  This was by far the most productive fly.  On the last day, we went through my entire box with nothing but rejections.  Another guide happened to motor over to say hello.  He gave us one Holy Mackerel and we hooked up within two minutes.  It just produces.

There were loads of flies that did not work well.  We changed flies a lot.  We brought a lot of flies from Rainy's that just did not work.  We had a pile of Robrahn's Bluewater flies in 4/0 - 6/0 sizes.  Every one of these flies failed to sink.  Every one laid on its side when pulled.  We cut them down significantly without any success.  They were awful to cast and did not produce any fish.  I can see how they are really just fancy trolling plugs disguised as flies.  The other Rainy's Bluewater flies were no better.  We had Rainy's poppers, teasers, bangers and Ocean Candy's that were all so difficult to cast that we left them at the hotel after the second day.  This is not Rainy's fault, those flies have a place, but its not being cast on a 12wt at feeding fish.

Beyond the Holy Mackerels, we caught fish on clouser minnows as well as some hand-tied baitfish patterns that Vic and I spun up before the trip.  The Holy Mackerel was the clear winner.  I will stack a box with those before we go next year.

We also had a great time fishing the mangroves and the beaches on a couple of windy days.  The leatherjacks and sand bass are really a ton of fun.  The love a clouser minnow on an 8wt rod. 

We can't divulge any info about where we were beyond Baja California, Mexico, but we do hope that you get a chance to try it out for yourself someday