# Cabo San Lucas Info



## Chasin Tales (Jan 20, 2006)

Wondered if anyone has fished Cabo. Looks to be a diverse fishery with lots of options.

Curious if there are any gotchas or concerns with travel to Mexico, unexpected fees or regulations etc.

Thanks!


----------



## REG (Oct 25, 2002)

Go onto the Cabo and Cabo san Lucas forum on tripadvisor and read it over well and often. The advice there can save you from a bunch of hassles. Be advised that most of the advice pertained to Cabo san Lucas area proper. We went in June and found alot of the advice to be spot on, so due diligence is highly recommended for a smooth trip. Here is some highlights I found helpful.

1) Everyone is trying to sell you something, especially time shares. They hammer people hard the minute you leave customs and walk into the shark tank, as it's called. If you don't want to be bothered, just say no.
2) If renting a car, be careful who you rent from. All of the rental agencies, including the biggies such as Hertz, Avis, etc., are franchised. Horror stories abound. Careful selection regarding rental cars outfits is paramount, and in this vein, some of the independent agencies, such as Alamo, Cactus, BBB, or Dominic car rental agencies have the better reps.
We rented from Alamo and it went well considering. 
3) You will need to buy MX required car insurance. Double check with your insurance to see if they will cover CDW and additional liability. If not, check with your credit card company as they most of the time cover CDW. This might be one time that buying all insurances might give better piece of mind.
4) The roads are mostly marked, but not always too well. They many times turn into one way streets going opposite the way you are travelling. Know where you are going.
5) Once outside of town, driving at night not recommended due to stray livestock.
6) Just because the locals may blow through stop signs or drive like F1 drivers doesn't mean you should. Shared experience has it the local cops can easily pick out gringos in their rental cars and having to deal with police in MX is well storied to be a bad experience.
7) If fishing, try line up your charters with reputable companies beforehand, or stop at their office locations. Do not buy a fishing trip from people who approach you on the street or at the marina. You are also better off arranging your own vs. allowing the hotel concierge service to set up your trip if you are staying in CSL proper. (East Cape is a different story).
8) DO NOT use any ATM besides those from an actual bank, preferably at a bank location. There are a bunch of ATM machines all around the marina, but they have been said to charge up to 20-25% of your withdrawal amount in fees. Santander and Scotiabank are good. I had no problem with Scotiabank at the Paraiso mall.
9) In the marina area, there's all sorts of street hustlers selling all sorts of goods, for example selling alleged Cuban cigars. Since I don't smoke, I just say no, but then a few of them will ask if you want to buy some weed.
Again, I have no problem telling them no. Rumor has it some of these guys are undercover cops just waiting to bust gringos.
10) When I was down there, there was a story in the ****** Gazette about a guy from California who was badly injured and taken to One World St. Lukes hospital and was basically held hostage till he paid his 50K bill. Better choices are supposed to be Amerimed or Blue Medical Net.
11) As I said, timeshares abound, but my wife and I did tour a beautiful property associated with where we were staying, which netted us 250.00 in cold hard US currency for two hours of our time. This basically paid for our car rental. Some outfits pay better. 

That's alot of stuff, but probably not too much different from other tourist hotspots in MX. Despite all of the above, I really like the Cabo area, and you're right in that there is alot of fishing variety and deep sea fishing there is comparatively a huge bargain. We paid 450.00 for a full day of deep sea fishing with a solid local outfit (thebluemarlinsportfishing.com) with good equipment (31' twin screw Bertram, Shimano Taigas and Calstar rods). He burnt up alot of gas, but got us into the YFT's real good.

Pisces, Picante and Redrum have good reps, and Dreamweaver and Renegade Mike, which are small local operators, have stellar reps for offshore charters. When we went down, I tried booking with Renegade Mike, but he was booked solid during our stay. Though he was booked, he still took the time to help us with a few details and helpful, which I thought was very classy.

However, next time I go, I would much rather hit East Cape. Quieter, even more fishing options (including some better surf/shore fishing) not having to put up with the hustlers (though sometimes amusing), and definitely not as frenetic (don't need the big time party scene) and bustling as CSL. If you don't need the night life and don't care about going to a different restaurant every night, be sure to check out Rancho Leonero, great place!


----------



## Chasin Tales (Jan 20, 2006)

Reg,

Thanks much for the detailed information. Lots of good info on the "tourist" gotchas.

My buddy and I live in Michigan and try to do a fishing trip once a year. Have done Islamorada in the Keys quite a bit and have been looking for something with some more options. Was interested in oil rig offshore fishing but the surcharge for fuel adds another $500-$600 on top of the standard charter rate.

Didn't know if the Mexico fishing would be plentiful as well as more economical.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and experience.


----------



## REG (Oct 25, 2002)

Looked into fishing the Gulf out of Venice for same thing. If it's as you say with the gas surcharge, depending on how much you tip it looks like a day out there can go north of 2K for the day. Except for that, looks like a hell of a trip.

My impression so far is the offshore fishing in the GoM offers more of a consistent captive audience clustered around the rigs and you can fish for them several different ways, including topwaters. That's got to be a blast. In MX, though there are hotspots, it's more of a search game offshore and thus they love their trolling. However, CSL does offer good opportunities for billfish and my guess is you will get a better shot at them there. When I was down there, the blues were in early and mixed in with the stripers. In a day and half of fishing, we had 5 come into the spread, but no takers, even with dropping live bait back to them. I wanted my son to get a shot at one, but the consolation prizes of YFT's and dorado we got tasted much better. When we were there in June, my plan was for me and my son to do 1 day offshore and 2 days panga, but when my wife decided to come with, thought we'd be better off with a cruiser. Inshore was kinda slow in the CSL and Cabo san Jose area according to reports we got, but heard East Cape was better.

Getting back to East Cape, the nice thing about that was the short run to offshore waters and for inshore, we pretty much started fishing right off the beach where we got picked up at Rancho. The pangas they run now are much better equiped than when I was down there and it looks like they can easily chase offshore targets too, as the water is generally calmer there than CSL.


----------



## TSS Caddis (Mar 15, 2002)

Dang, you make it sound scary lol


The hotels have shuttles, I would not bother renting a car. I think the rule down there is you have to take a shuttle to your hotel, no cab, and take a cab back to the airport, no shuttle. Probably their way of spreading the money around. A hotel will arrange a shuttle and they will help arrange cabs to the marina and back to the airport. There are a couple hotels in walking distance to the marina also. I've stayed here every time: http://www.pueblobonitosunsetbeach.com/ some friends have 2 months a year at a villa there and so we just stay with them for free.

I've had issues down there with credit card charges over a certain amount, let's say $450. Over that amount for a single charge for a fishing charter and I've had them decline it. I've argued the point while down there with the CC company to no avail, they end up ensuring me it is fixed, but then denied again! I have also called prior and they assured me they noted it and it wouldn't be an issue to no avail. Basically they perceive the odds of fraud as too high and want to limit their exposure. Hell, I've even called the CC company prior to leaving and told them that in the next 1/2 hour they would receive a charge from XYZ charter for X amount and not to reject it and they rejected it:lol: I'd try to book any fishing prior to going, that is just me. Nothing like sitting at the dock in the morning and having them try running each of your CC's and getting declined and then your spouses 2 cards having them declined and then hoping you have enough cash on you between the 2 of you. I've eventually settled on booking and paying while in the US and carrying about 2k in cash.

Fishing, if offshore, make sure you get a twin screw boat that is FAST. You don't want to waste time motoring out and back, especially to the hump. Do not book a panga. I've used Baja Anglers(Grant Hartman) quite a bit for inshore fishing roosters, sierra, etc... We only do inshore now. We typically are there in March and are hooking 20-40 roosters a day. Light tackle live anchovy fishing is the best thing going. I've caught plenty on the fly rod and it is sort of lame IMO unless you go on a beach trip with Grant and cast to them. If your intent is a pure fishing trip, I'd just call Grant and get his take, he may suggest a week living on the beech and fishing!

There are side trips you can do to San Jose Del Cabo and what not, but we always just stick around the villa or when returning from fishing get a table outside at the marina, drink beer and people watch.

Some inshore pics:










Offshore:



Some offshore boats are great at pulling Stripe's on the stern for a pic, some want to leave it in the water and have you lean over the edge for a pic. As long as you can manage 100+lbs or so of flopping fish while controlling the bill, if they want the pic on the side of the boat, I just grab the bill and pull it on board anyway:lol: Mind you it is not the safest and 100+lbs of fish is a handful to manage.


----------



## REG (Oct 25, 2002)

Nice pics! Yeah, I thought it sounded overly scary as I was writing it, but a bit of heads up can make a difference. That said, as you know, CSL is probably one of, if not the safest area in MX to travel to right now. Much less Federales and Marines riding around compared to Cancun. 

Baja Anglers looks good, much more fun to be able to do other stuff besides trolling.

Those guys in the shark tank will tell you anything, hehe. Then, even after coaching him just to walk through and not talk to any of them, I have my son telling them they need to talk to me. What a guy! :evilsmile:evilsmile:lol::lol:


----------



## TSS Caddis (Mar 15, 2002)

REG said:


> Nice pics! Yeah, I thought it sounded overly scary as I was writing it, but a bit of heads up can make a difference. That said, as you know, CSL is probably one of, if not the safest area in MX to travel to right now. Much less Federales and Marines riding around compared to Cancun.
> 
> Baja Anglers looks good, much more fun to be able to do other stuff besides trolling.
> 
> Those guys in the shark tank will tell you anything, hehe. Then, even after coaching him just to walk through and not talk to any of them, I have my son telling them they need to talk to me. What a guy! :evilsmile:evilsmile:lol::lol:


After grabbing bags, I just ignore them and walk out. I remember the first time down, we were not sure on where to catch the shuttle and those guys would just lie and say they were with your resort or were going to check you into your shuttle to get you to give them information etc... Hard to not know any different on your first trip.


----------



## REG (Oct 25, 2002)

Really getting hammered down there. Hurricane Odile just trashed CSL and now they're supposed to get sideswiped by another storm.
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/tropical-storm-polo-threatens/34164293


----------

