Yellowfin Tuna Fishing in Cabo San Lucas

Why anglers come to Cabo for yellowfin tuna

Yellowfin is the fish that hurts. A striped marlin jumps and gives you a show; a yellowfin tuna goes straight down and stays there, and the last thirty feet of a 150 lb fish can take longer than the first three hundred yards. Anglers who have caught everything else in Los Cabos still book days specifically for tuna because nothing offshore pulls like one.

Cabo San Lucas sits at the corner where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez, and the banks off both sides — Golden Gate, San Jaime, the 95 and the 1150 — sit in blue water within reach of a day trip. Porpoise schools push bait to the surface here through the warm months, and yellowfin travel underneath them. Find the porpoise, find the tuna.

Then there is the table. Yellowfin is the one fish almost every guest takes back to the dock, and the marina restaurants will cook your catch the same afternoon. Sashimi on the boat with soy and lime while the crew keeps trolling is a Cabo tradition for a reason.

Best yellowfin tuna spots around Cabo San Lucas

Tuna move, so we run to where the temperature break, the bait and the birds are that week. These are the grounds we work most:

• Golden Gate Bank — 20 miles up the Pacific side; consistent summer and fall yellowfin, often mixed with striped marlin and dorado.
• San Jaime Bank — a little further out and usually holding bigger fish; a strong option when the Gate is crowded.
• The 95 Spot and the 1150 — deep offshore structure to the southeast where the cows show up in late summer and fall.
• The porpoise grounds — no fixed position; we run and look for boiling schools of spinner porpoise, which is where the biggest fish of the season come from.
• The Cortez side toward Los Frailes — a good call when a north wind flattens the inside and the Pacific is rough.
• Temperature and colour breaks — a two-degree edge with clean blue water on one side is worth more than any named bank.

Yellowfin tuna season in Cabo: month by month

You can catch yellowfin in Cabo San Lucas in almost any month, but size and numbers track water temperature and the porpoise schools. Here is what we see through the year.

How we fish for yellowfin tuna

Most days start by loading live caballito or sardina before sunrise, then running offshore and looking. Birds, porpoise and floating debris are the three things the crew scans for. When we find a school we ease alongside — never through it — and put baits out on the edge.

Kite fishing is our edge on the big fish. A live bait dangling from the kite splashes on the surface with no leader in the water, and cows that refuse everything else will eat it. It is a visual bite: you watch the fish come up, the bait scatter, and only then do you come tight.

On travelling schools we troll cedar plugs and small feathers at speed until one goes off, then throw live bait into the wash to hold the school. Football tuna will chew all day on light spinning gear, which is where most first-timers get hooked on the fishery.

• Kite fishing with live caballito or skipjack for cows over 150 lbs.
• Live bait on a free line, no weight, drifted into the porpoise school.
• Cedar plugs, feathers and small skirted lures trolled at 6–8 knots to find fish.
• Vertical jigging and surface poppers when the school is up and boiling.
• Chunking on the drift when the fish are deep and will not come up.

Yellowfin tuna gear and tackle

All tackle is included and rigged for the size class we expect. If you bring your own, this is what handles Cabo yellowfin:

• Rods: 6.5–7 ft 30–50 lb stand-up rods for bait and troll; an 8 ft popping rod if you want to throw plugs at breaking fish.
• Reels: 6000–14000 class spinning or a 30–50 class two-speed lever drag for cows, with 300+ yards of capacity.
• Line: 50–80 lb braid with a topshot of 40–60 lb mono. Cows justify 100 lb.
• Leader: 40–80 lb fluorocarbon. Tuna are leader-shy in the clear blue water — lighter fluoro gets more bites.
• Hooks: 3/0–7/0 live-bait circle hooks matched to the bait, sharpened before every drift.
• Lures: cedar plugs, feather jigs in zucchini and Mexican flag, 150–250 g vertical jigs, and 5–6 in surface poppers.
• You: a fighting belt if you own one, gloves, polarized sunglasses, sun shirt and plenty of water. A cow tuna is a full-body workout.

What a guided yellowfin tuna trip looks like

Tuna days are longer than marlin days. We leave the marina before first light, load bait, and run — sometimes 20 miles, sometimes 60 if the porpoise are down south. Full-day and extended trips are the right call; a half day rarely gives enough water to hunt schools properly.

The offshore fleet from 35 ft up handles these runs comfortably, with the larger Hatteras and Cabo Express boats best for the long days chasing cows. Your crew cleans, bags and ices the catch on the way in, and can send you to a marina restaurant that cooks it that evening.

Included: captain and mate, all rods and terminal tackle, live bait, drinking water, ice, beers, Gatorade and burritos or sandwiches, plus two Mexican fishing licences (additional licences are $25 each). No hidden fees, and multi-day discounts are available.