San Quintin, Mexico:
Low Tide Alert For Boats Fishing Near The San Quintin Sandbar

Jan. 25, 2005, Don Dickson, San Quintin sportfishing, Baja California, Mexico:

I just returned from ten days at San Quintin. I went fishing one day on Ray Williams' boat, about Jan. 16, and we caught a lot of whitefish and lingcod to 18 pounds. We fished in flat calm seas, at the 15 and 240 spots, in 150 to 250 feet of water, using single irons tipped with pieces of squid. Never saw so many whitefish caught.

We were going to go fishing again, but the big waves from Hawaii created breaking waves all across the channel, especially at low tide.

Western Outdoor News should do an article on the San Quintin "sandbar." That is a killer to say the least. I have done it a number of times in my 16-foot boat, a little scary but no serious danger unless the engine quit, but this was the first time I was at San Quintin during the extreme tide month of January. The problem is you may get to go out in the morning, with a high tide, but when you're ready to come back, you may have waves breaking across the entire mouth of the bay.

People who are new to San Quintin fishing have no idea of how bad the sandbar is. I had no idea what happens during a minus tide.

At the Wet Buzzard, there was a tide chart on the wall. This was the best looking tide chart I have ever seen. Western Outdoor News published the tide chart; see tidelines.com.