HIGHWAY SAFETY CONCERNS AND FEW VISITORS AT L.A. BAY

Oct. 10, 2006, Jim Heath, Bahia de los Angeles, Baja California, Mexico:

I'm very sad to say that there were very few visitors at Bahia de los Angeles. I was often the only fishing boat on whatever reef we fished and some days saw no boats at all, gringos or pangueros. There was zero radio traffic. People at L.A. Bay are hurting from lack of visitors and their dollars. I hope it gets better. The people need some business.

Three of us fished 6 days the first week of October. A few smallish dorado were caught in the north bay, at Punta Remedios, Isla Smith and the northwest side of Isla Angel de la Guarda. We caught no dorado in the southern areas of Bahia de las Animas or Isla Partida, but we did not really try very hard there. Yellowtail, 10 to 15 pounds, were caught at Remedios, the Horsehead reefs and Roca Bernabe. We caught three squid at the Horsehead yellowtail reef also.

An unusual catch, for me anyway, was larger bass 5 pounds and up while trolling feathers in shallow water 25 to 50 feet deep on the west side of Angel de la Guarda, around the area of the shipwreck. We never could find the whale sharks in the south bay, even though others said they were in the area, just bad luck.

Winds most days were calm at Bahia de los Angeles with 1 day a very strong west wind in the north bay.

For the trip, my boat caught 5 dorado, 10 yellowtail, 3 Humboldt giant squid, numerous bass, triggerfish, and barracuda, a few small grouper, a few wrasse, always a joy to see, and one lizardfish, I think.

I fished my own boat. I stayed at Camp Gecko and launched there. I did not camp via Doc Vazquez, as camp Gecko is now closed to short term visitors, but with someone who leases a spot from him.

Water temperatures at Bahia de los Angeles were 81 to 83 degrees and the weather was in the low 90s with little humidity.

We were struck by the complete absence at Bahia de los Angeles of the usual snowbirds, tourists, travelers and the October crush. Nobody, and I mean nobody was in town. We only saw one other gringo boat while fishing for 6 days and very few pangas. The RV spot in town had 1 renter, the taco stands were mostly closed, and the annual summer festival was canceled.

Everyone at Bahia de los Angeles attributed this to the recent violence on the main highway. We all noticed very little US or Canadian traffic on the road.

Everyone has altered their traveling behavior, even the folks who live in the town.

There is a lot of ill will, especially from the locals, towards the authorities for allowing this situation to develop and for not showing any headway in solving it.

The entire town has completely gone off the deep end with respect to the Raquel Fife killing.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Bahia de los Angeles and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Bahia de los Angeles may be found at Mexfish.com's main Bahia de los Angeles page.