By That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
May 5, 2020 at 12:46 PM
Cabo San Lucas, San Jose del Cabo, and the Los Cabos area are all closed to tourism through May 2020 to prevent the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Hotels, restaurants, tours, and attractions will start gearing back up again beginning June 1, if the Coronavirus behaves in its expected patterns, and Cabo hopes to be fully operational by mid-June.
Que Pasa Baja
MEXICALI (KYMA, KECY)-Health officials reported out of 1,693 COVID-19 cases in Baja California, 243 people have recovered.
On Sunday evening, the following breakdown was reported by health officials:
Negative Cases 1,575
Suspected Cases 704
Confirmed Cases 1,693
Deaths 261
Recovered 243
Tijuana has been struck hard by COVID-19. The city has the most coronavirus-related deaths in Mexico at 173. As of Sunday, May 3, Baja California had a total of 1,693 confirmed cases.
Tijuana Bull Ring
The water at the Bull Ring is still mostly dirty – from brown to red. There are a few streaks of slightly cleaner water around, though, with a shot at some nice bonito and maybe an occasional barracuda or yellowtail where this cleaner water pushes in out on the flats.
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
There are yellowtail in the area, and where there is clean water, they have been biting a little bit, but it’s really a game of finding the cleanest water you can right, and it moves around by the hour.
Both surface iron and yo-yo iron are working well when you’re able to locate a school; you can also slow-troll sardines and Rapalas while you search around and wait for a spot of fish to pop up. The water throughout the area is streaky red, brown, green, and blueish, so you’ll need to stay mobile and be a little patient until the cleaner conditions push in and out through the day…Fish Dope
Ensenada
Closed. Only locals can fish for food.
San Quintin
Closed. Only locals can fish for food.
Bahía Ascensión
Tim Arthur and I managed to get out on the water yesterday in less than ideal conditions. Tim is a misplaced Canadian living in Southern California who came down here a couple of months ago to “mind the store” while Shari Bondy was at her Whale Camp.
Tim is lucky enough to have a job that can be handled via phone and internet, so he decided to hunker down here for the duration. We caught a few calico and some bottom fish, but Tim totally schooled me on every species…Ross Zoerhof
Bahía de Los ángeles
Although the Harbor remains closed, there is some fishing going on. We are having some great weather!…Juan Cook
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
The Authorities have been testing locals and travelers for COVID-19, resulting in 128 active cases in Los Cabos and 84 in La Paz; this is out of 287,000 people living in the area of Los Cabos.
Cabo San Lucas, San Jose del Cabo, and the Los Cabos area are all closed to tourism through May 2020 to prevent the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Hotels, restaurants, tours, and attractions will start gearing back up again beginning June 1, if the Coronavirus behaves in its expected patterns, and Cabo hopes to be fully operational by mid-June.
Loreto
Most everything has continued to be on hold this past week and it looks as though it will be.
The local police force has been busy with neighborhood patrols, and the “Federales” do spot-checks on the hotels.
Shopping continues to be well controlled, and most items are available. Payday, which falls every two weeks, tends to be the day to stay away from the big stores.
The military/Navy patrol boat has been out checking the coastlines. A handful of the commercial handline boats are out fishing along with some car topper aluminum “remnants.”
The toughest part of isolation in Loreto has to be that there is – “no beach, no ocean, no fishing.”
Summer weather is here, and the water is as smooth as glass; you can see the swirling bait schools, the splashing of big fish, and the diving birds. The sargasso is floating in clumps, and the sun has flipped on the “high power” switch. Soon, before this is over, we will see airborne dorado along the Malecon, and here I will be … sitting among a few others weeping!
There are no problems in Loreto (except for the stranded snowbirds crying about “no alcohol”)…Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
La Paz
Although no one can be out on the water sport fishing, (which is still set to change on May 30), if there is a bright side to the quarantine, it is that locals are witnessing Mother Nature on the rebound. Often throughout many places in the world, the absence of human presence has demonstrated a remarkable change in wildlife and the environment.
Local waters and skies have become among the clearest that many people can remember, and the trash on the beaches has disappeared.
There are reports of baitfish and sportfish showing up in numerous locations in sizes that haven’t been seen in many years. Also, the variety has been incredible.
Inshore rock and reef fish like pargo, yellowtail, and amberjack are crashing shallow water bait like sardina, ballyhoo, and mackerel. Yellowtail have even been seen in the marinas. Big roosterfish are cruising the beaches, and even schools of roosterfish are right along the Malecon, where normally thousands of people walk and drive every day. Schools of dorado, with fish up to 30 and 40-pounds, are wondering where everyone went. Tuna over 100-pounds are at the islands, and if you add in jack crevalle, sierra, bonito, cabrilla, and other species, it’s a remarkable thing to see…Jonathan Roldan, Tailhunter International
East Cape
Hola Amigos,
Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.
I want to thank all of our guests who rescheduled their trips this year. Your support through these unprecedented times and over the last 35 years is what keeps us going! Thank you!
We are enjoying beautiful spring weather here on the East Cape. There has been no fishing pressure since last November, over six months! The gulf is full of incredible numbers of bait. Squid is washing up on the beach, with lots of sardina and Spanish mackerel spread throughout the bay. We are looking forward to an exceptional fishing season!
The fishing so far this year has been extraordinary, with local fishermen taking full advantage! Huge yellowtail, yellowfin tuna, quite a few dorado and as usual, a wide open striped marlin bite. The residents of La Ribera are eating lots of fish!
The Mexican government has locked down all of BCS, restricting access to and travel between, all the communities in the area. So far, there have been no confirmed cases of the virus on the E Cape. All the hotels and most of the businesses have been ordered to close until May 30, and with the exception of banks, grocery stores, and pharmacies, all the Pueblos are pretty much shut down.
The hotel staff is ready to go to work and are looking forward to your next visit. With any luck, we’ll be back in business June 1…
Again, Thank You All for your support and patronage over the years!
Saludos,
John and Genie Ireland-Rancho Leonero
Illegal fishing for marlin and dorado continues in Cabo Pulmo and Cabo del Este. Conapesca “open your eyes!” …Carlos José Van Wormer
Buena Vista – It is not valid that amid the emergency season, commercial fishing predatory boats are entering the Cabo Pulmo, Cabo del Este and even El Sargento areas, capturing all the marlin and dorado in broad daylight and before the sight of the inhabitants of this region. While this is happening, the Conapesca needs to “open their eyes.”
This was denounced by the local deputy, Carlos José Van Wormer Ruiz, President of the Permanent Commission of Commerce and Tourism, and a hotel entrepreneur in the Cabo del Este area, who made a dynamic call to the Navy and Conapesca to stop this depredation of marine species in Baja California Sur.
He asserted that in the face of COVID-19, all ports are closed to navigation, and it is not acceptable that boats are illegally entering to fish in Cabo Pulmo and Cabo del Este – that they are using their nets and taking product. “They are killing marlin, dorado, and that is not allowed. It seems to me to be a very severe breach of the law and it is the culpability of the authorities that they are letting this happen,” Van Wormer said.
These are, he added, commercial ships that were allowed to enter or are doing so illegally, which is why the citizens of Cabo del Este to La Paz are outraged because they see them two miles inside the Cabo Pulmo Park, that everyone holds in high regard. “I made a spirited call for them to take action on the matter and I am going to make this call from the rostrum of the local Congress next Tuesday,” he reiterated.
He said that it is up to the Navy – to Conapesca – to intervene, to assume their responsibility and stop this situation.
“They need to see what they are doing and see what they are catching because we have received complaints from local people that they are killing a lot of marlin; when they open sport fishing and tourists come to fish, who pay their license to go fishing, and there is no need to go when there is nothing to fish for, that does concern us!”
“While this is happening, Conapesca and the Navy do not know what they are doing! They should be watching our seas, and they should be seeing what they are catching. There is real concern … mainly about the marine species, and also the future, the day that sport tourists come to fish, and what we are NOT going to have to offer them.”…Van Wormer Ruiz concluded.
Puerto Los Cabos
A few owners of boats venturing out in search of food fish for their families managed to land yellowfin tuna, along with some grouper and red snapper.
Cabo San Lucas
Rebecca Ehrenberg, Pisces Sportfishing, reported that local Captain Luis and owners of the boat “Sea Senora” fishing for food released two marlin, and caught one amberjack, two bonito, one snapper, and one trigger.
Two other boats fishing on the San Jaime Bank for food used kites with cedar plugs and feathers and found plenty of yellowfin tuna from 10- to 35-pounds which was enough to feed some of the employee’s families.
LOCATION: San Jaime, Golden Gate, Los Arcos, Las Margaritas, as well as some roosterfish, and a few wahoo on the Sea of Cortez.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Sunny skies, with stronger winds picking up midday on the Pacific side.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 70 – 71 F
BEST LURES: Live and dead mackerel and caballito bait mostly, squid, lures, chumming, cedar plugs and feathers.
Mainland México
San Carlos
Costa Rica
Catching the infamous roosterfish continues. It’s always a challenge, but what a reward. This ‘catch and release’ predictor is on the bucket list and has been from the beginning of Crocodile Bay.
Guatemala
(305) 854-4665
Kirsten@CasaViejaLodge.com