Get Hooked: The Best Surf and Fishing Combo Locations

Northwest Australia

Quobba Station, home to legendary left-handers Red Bluff and Gnaraloo, is also known as having some of the best land-based game fishing in Australia, if not the world. “There is no better combination of big fish and big barrels in the  world,” said Anthony Walsh, who is elite at catching both. The ocean off the Western Australian desert is teeming with game fish like Spanish mackerel, broadbar mackerel, cobia, tuna, benito, sharks, and sailfish. More unusual is that you can catch them off the rocks, using ballooning, spinning, bottom bouncing, saltwater fly, and spear fishing. There's also fish like norwest snapper, pink snapper, bald chin groper, mulloway, queenfish, and trevally that dwell on the same reefs  that provide 10-second tubes at Red Bluff, or 300-yard gurgling slabs at Gnaraloo. If there is a better surf fish taco, we have yet to find it. 

Samoa

Sure, Hawaii and Tahiti are perhaps the more obvious surf and fishing destinations in the Pacific. But for something different, with the same power but less crowds, Samoa offers a similar mix of waves and sportsfishing. Like most Pacific Island nations, fishing is a way of life. For generations, the year-round warm waters of the South Pacific and the game fish it attracts have sustained the Samoan way of life. 

You too can sample catches of yellowfin tuna, mahimahi, wahoo, blue marlin, sailfish, giant trevally, and Spanish mackerel. All these are accessed from resorts like Salani surf camp, which has world-class Left and Right out the front. And like Upulo’s other best waves, like Coconuts and Boulders, the biggest fish run from November to May, the best season for waves.  

Fiji

Come for the perfection of restaurants, but stay for the wahoo, mahi mahi, and yellowfin tuna. Alternatively, crave the power of Cloudbreak, but come back for the topwater fishing at dawn and dusk. 

“The best thing about the fishing here in Fiji is just how close to the islands it is,” said Ben Wilson, a fishing, surf and kite instructor at Namotu Resort. “You can head out for a few hours fishing, then come back for lunch or when the wind or surf picks up. It means you can fit a whole lot more into each day without feeling trapped on the boat.” 

That makes for the ideal dropdown menu of surfing and fishing, where you can mix and match depending on your levels of skill and addiction.

Cabo San Lucas

Surfers don’t like to stray too far from the best waves, and Cabo has some of the closest serious blue water fishing on the planet. Not for nothing is it known as the “Marlin Capital of the World,’ and the prime offshore banks such as Golden Gate and Gordo are within a 10-mile run from shore. The fishing is year-round, though the open-ocean pelagics like sails, roosterfish, wahoo and dorado tend to bite more usually May through August, when the south swells can light up the well-known surf spots like Zippers and Monuments. Later in the year, the north swells hit the East Cape spots, and the marlin season peaks in October or November.