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Development of the new Calimax supermarket started last month and is expected to be finished in January 2019
 Baja Norte, Columns

Que Pasa In Baja?

New Calimax Opening In Puerto Nuevo. Don’t run to the car just yet, the new store is not expected to be open until January of next year, but we have already confirmed that this is the reason dirt is being moved around in the lot between the north and south Puerto Nuevo entrances.

Public records filed in Rosarito City Hall state that the new Calimax will have almost 22,000 square feet of construction, along with 71 parking spaces.

Although no official comment was given from Calimax headquarters in Tijuana, a city government source (who didn’t want to be named) said that the supermarket planned here is not your typical Calimax store, but a more polished version of it that the company only uses in select markets.

The store will be especially helpful for people living or staying on the south part of Rosarito and north of Ensenada, which for now, must travel several miles to the nearest supermarket in Ensenada or Rosarito or just settle buying limited groceries at OXXOs or other local mini markets.

Smoke-free beach in Ensenada. Ensenada city council has unanimously approved yesterday a new rule that will start a procedure to make Playa Hermosa the second tobacco smoke-free beach in Mexico. The first one was San Martin beach in Cozumel but the project is now abandoned in there.

ZOFEMAT (the ones in charge of the federal zone in the beach), will be in charge of certifying the beach before the COFEPRIS (The federal commission for protection against sanitary risks). COFEPRIS is the only authority that can certify a place as “smoke-free”.

Jorge Martinez, local councilman, stated that they will help organize, coordinate and implement the necessary infrastructure for this to happen. He said that signs will be installed on the beach and that a surveillance committee will be formed to enforce the new rule and get the federal certification.

The announcement comes just a few hours after Terra Peninsular stated that in their recent cleaning efforts of local beaches, they were able to gather almost a ton of trash which included 1,495 cigarette butts in just over half a mile of beach. And this wasn’t even in Playa Hermosa, which is the most visited beach in the city.

Hopefully authorities around here will keep the designation longer than San Martin in Cozumel, where now, after only 4 years, people are mostly unaware of its smoke-free designation because no one bothered to replace the decaying signs or have anyone in there to enforce the non-smoking rule.

Gendarmerie back in Baja. Just last week 130 elements of the Federal Police of the “Gendarmerie” Division, were deployed here in Baja mainly in Tijuana and San Quintin.

Juan Carlos Moran, head of the federal police in Baja, stated that the deployment of this group of police was in response to the increased requests from local authorities and the private sector regarding the increasing drug crime problems that have been going on.

Moran said that the Federal Police has been the only one in the country that has been able to increase their perception of trustworthiness and credibility between the population.

The Gendarmerie Division was created in 2014 by president Peña Nieto as part of his security strategy to combat organized crime in Mexico.

It has been widely seen as an effective police force by the general population since these officers are better prepared and better paid than almost all other police forces. In order to be accepted to the force, a candidate needs to have completed a bachelor’s degree.

ATM Bandits Are Back! A new card robbing scheme has been caught on camera recently and there are reports that is being used all over Mexico.

This is the way the scheme works: A person gets close to you while you are using the ATM so he/she can visualize your PIN number while you type it in and leaves.

A second person drops money on the floor near the victim and starts picking it up.

While the victim gets down to help the other person to pick up the money or just gets distracted on what’s going on, a third person removes the card from the ATM hides it and walks away.

In some of the videos, the victims walk to the perpetrators and confront them but when they categorically deny it, the victims just walk over to the ATM again to check if they just didn’t leave the card there.

Of course, the maximum permitted cash is withdrawn from the ATM within minutes of the card theft.

Victims have been, on the majority, women. Be careful out there, check your surroundings when typing your PIN code and don’t get distracted and leave your card unattended at any moment!

Watch out for those mosquitoes. State health authorities, headed by Guillermo Trejo, warned citizens to be aware of possible breeding places for mosquitoes that can transmit dengue fever, zika and chikungunya.

David Ibarra, head of the vectors control program for Baja, stated that all actions taken are merely preventive, as no cases of any of these diseases have been reported yet in the current year.

He did say that because of the present climate change, temperature and humidity has become ideal for the proliferation of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which has already increased its population by 30%, although they haven’t been found to carry the diseases.

“It’s important to remember that tires, flower pots and any containers that contain water, are ideal for the proliferation of the mosquito, since it looks for clean water to deposit its eggs”, said Ibarra.

Ibarra also stated that his office has already installed 6,692 mosquito traps around the state and invited everyone to pitch in by not leaving any open containers with water around the house.

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 Baja Norte, Columns, Fish Report

Fish Report

Tijuana Bull Ring

There are still a few calico bass in the kelp along with an occasional yellowtail, and you might also stumble across a random bonito school outside in the flats.

Trolling small feathers and/or rapalas remains the best way to locate the schools. Once found, fly-line small sardines or cast chrome jigs like the Colt Sniper for more.

 

Coronado Islands

Heads up: Bracelets are now required to fish within Pacific Island Biosphere Reserve areas, including the Coronado Islands, Todos Santos, and San Martin Island.

You can purchase bracelets for $5 per person per day at Fisherman’s Landing Tackle Shop, Point Loma Sportfishing Tackle Shop, and Dana Landing Market & Fuel Dock. You will need to provide your boat name, boat owner’s name, number of passengers, and dates you will be in the reserve areas, but you don’t need any other special IDs or info to purchase the bracelets. Everyone on board must have a bracelet to enter the Biosphere Reserve.

Biosphere Reserve boundaries are now available on the FishDope Charts (click the “Closures” layer). For more information, please click here.

And for the full Biosphere Reserve Declaration click here.

(may need to refresh a few times to display the document – in Spanish)

 

Offshore

Lower 9 / Coronado Canyon

Jeff Mariani shared a photo of this lunker-sized yellowtail caught just before “Rosa” dumped buckets of rain on Cedros Island.
Jeff Mariani shared a photo of this lunker-sized yellowtail caught just before “Rosa” dumped buckets of rain on Cedros Island.

The area runs from just NW of North Island down the Canyon pretty much all the way south to the 425.

Conditions have been grumpy, but the yellowfin, skipjack, and bonito bite continues. The main zone of fish also slid several more miles to the south and there were a few good kelps below the 9 Mile Bank toward North Island. The yellowfin and skipjack are a few miles to the southwest in the cleaner, warmer water.

For the most part, the best yellowfin are coming from a few kelp paddies that are holding very large schools of tuna. There are also some open-water schools of bonito and skipjack, with a very occasional open-water school of yellowfin either on its own or mixed with skipjack.

It’s taking a lot of chum to get the yellowfin to bite, which favors bigger yachts and sport boats over smaller private boats. You can increase your chum capacity by taking a pass or two of bait into an empty bucket to use for chunk.

Also hang on to your used and dead bait throughout the day to chunk up for later use. Finally, be sure to cast your hook bait right at the same time as you toss a couple pieces of live chum. This will greatly increase your hookup odds.

Most of the yellowfin are in the 8- to 15-pound class but there are a few larger ones up to 30-pounds. The skippies are anywhere from 3- to almost 20l-pounds. Brightly colored feathers continue to be best for the skippies. The yellowfin tend to like the plugs better. Cedar plugs, Rapalas and Halcos are getting the majority of trolled yellowfin. Black/purple is the hot color.

 

Ensenada

Inshore surface action throughout the bay has been a steady pick for bonito, barracuda and a few yellowtail for the few boats fishing recently. However, the almost always reliable go-to bottom fishing assures limits of lingcod, reds, sand bass and rockfish to fill the coolers.

Farther offshore, outside the Islands, the kelp paddies are holding dorado, yellowtail and some yellowfin tuna down deeper in the water column — maybe 50- to 100-feet. Farther offshore, schools of yellowfin can be found (mostly of the smaller variety) with a few up to 30 pounds mixed in.

 

San Quintin

Offshore has been “hit or miss” for most. One day there will be yellowfin tuna and maybe even a dorado or two in the count and then everyone gets fired up and runs outside the 240 and comes up short.

Squirrelly weather, erratic sea-temp, off-color water all seem to get honorable mention for the condition.

So far, the inshore has been much more productive — small to medium yellowtail, and more big bonito that seem to be consistent all up and down the coast now.

 

Cedros Island

While the yellowtail and dorado on the south end high spots has been good, live bait, Rapalas, and surface iron are all working. Calico fishing is fantastic with 75- to 100-fish days not unusual. Plastics and stick bait are your best bet and bring plenty.

Along with wahoo, yellowfin are biting Rapalas at Benitos recently.

However, the recent storms have put the fishing on hold until the water cleans up.

 

Bahia de Los Angeles

Same story here as the several storm systems made their way across the peninsula. Sketchy reports of live bait being tough to come by recently.

Hopefully there will still be a last gasp of dorado before the water temps fall and send them packing down the Sea of Cortez in search of warmer water and bait schools.

The best bet is still going to be some of the rocky outcroppings along the shore line along the shore and around the islands.

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Bertoldo Garcia, fishing with Garcia’s Pangas in San Quintin, managed to find one of the elusive offshore yellowfin tuna.
 Columns, Fish Report

Fish Report

Tijuana Bull Ring

Trolling along the outer edge of the kelp beds found along the shore have been yielding an occasional yellowtail to spice up the calico bite; also, watching for the bird schools is a giveaway to where the fish are feeding — barracuda, yellowtail and bass that might be chasing the bait to the surface. From there towards the International Reef, there are scads of big bonito also feeding on the surface.

 

Coronado Islands

Good fishing for that same 5- to 7-pound bonito that has invaded the entire south coast all the way to Ensenada. Yellowtail fishing, however, isn’t very good. It is slow now after a wild spring and summer. There are no reports of bluefin recently. The last ones seen/caught came from the area between Ribbon Kelp and the 5 Minute Kelp.

 

Offshore

Lower 9 / Coronado Canyon The area runs from just NW of North Island to down the Canyon pretty much all the way south to the 425.

Boats fishing here are scoring good counts of yellowfin tuna; most are in the 8-to 15-pound range with a few showing up in the 20- to 30-pound class. Skipjack are biting also. These are mainly in the 5- to 15-pound class and are jumping on small, bright-colored feathers.

There’s an occasional dorado lurking under anything floating as well.

 

425 / 371 / Upper Hidden Bank / Hidden Bank Here is where the fleet of sportboats along with private boats are loading up on yellowfin and skipjack. Some of the better stops are coming off kelp beds but the boats are also getting plenty of jig stops, finding fish on sonar marks and from finding breezers and bird schools.

The average-size yellowfin has increased a bit. Many are now over 10-pounds with quite a few of the 15- to 25-pounders mixed in.

The northern zone is just a little east of the 425 (FMM permits required), and the southern zone is between the 425 and the Hidden Bank (outside the 12-mile FMM zone).

(Inside the 12-mile FMM zone, FMM permits required passengers on U.S. boats).

 

Ensenada

Inshore surface action throughout the bay has been a steady pick for bonito, barracuda and a few yellowtail for the few boats fishing recently. However, the almost always reliable go-to bottom fishing assures limits of lingcod, reds, sand bass and rockfish to fill the coolers.

Farther offshore, outside the Islands, the kelp paddies are holding dorado, yellowtail and some yellowfin tuna down deeper in the water column — maybe 50-to 100-feet. Farther offshore, schools of yellowfin can be found mostly of the smaller variety with a few up to 30 pounds mixed in.

For the adventurous, there are striped marlin hanging around some of the high spots to the north and south up and down the coast.

San Quintin

Offshore has been hit or miss for most. One day there will be yellowfin tuna and maybe even a dorado or two in the count and then everyone gets fired up and runs outside the 240 and comes up short.

Squirrelly weather, erratic sea-temp, off-color water all seem to get honorable mention for the condition.

So far, the inshore has been much more productive — small to medium yellowtail, and more big bonito that seem to be consistent all up and down the coast now.

And of course, for the meat fishermen, bottom fishing is always a reliable alternative with some nice-sized lingcod, reds and other rock fish to add to the catch.

 

Cedros Island

There’s great fishing at the island right now. Yellowtail and dorado on the south end high spots. Live bait, Rapalas, and surface iron are all working. Calico fishing is fantastic with 75- to 100-fish days not unusual. Plastics and stick bait are your best bet and bring plenty.

The wahoo and yellowfin are biting Rapalas at Benitos recently.

 

Bahia de Los Angeles

Hot weather seems to have thinned out the number of visitors to the area. Hence, sketchy reports would indicate that there is live bait near the launch ramp.

The dorado are still in the zone on the surface and again anything floating is the key to finding them while you are trolling lures.

Most of the yellowtail are being caught around the pinnacles around the outer islands.

Inshore along the shore trolling rapalas in shallow water can be productive, particularly during the summer when creating your own breeze helps keep you cool while you are catching cabrilla, spotted bay bass and who knows what else.

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 Columns

What’s Going On In This Country?

BY SANTIAGO VERDUGO

Another dunderhead idea. The decentralization of the federal government by moving some departments out of Mexico City will be one of the costliest projects ever undertaken in the history of Mexico, warned a business leader.

Gustavo de Hoyos, a union leader, said the relocation of the departments to other cities will cost at least US $6.5 billion. And, oh by the way, the federal employees do not want to uproot their families.

“The cost of this operation would be equivalent to the Health Secretariat’s entire 2018 budget, without tallying in additional and indirect costs,” said de Hoyos.

Among the first relocations planned are the Environment Secretariat moving to Mérida, Yucatán, and Tourism to Chetumal, Quintana Roo. The plan has been cheered on by the real estate industry. Of course. The reason given for the move is to spread out the financial gain these government offices provide from Mexico City to smaller outlying areas.

Keep your money. Apparently, Mexico has plenty. The incoming federal government will not accept funding from the United States to police and deport migrants, the incoming interior secretary has announced. However, the outgoing administration said they wouldn’t mind taking the money meant to be spent on busing Central Americans back home, through Mexico.

On the campaign trail leading up to the July 1 election, the then-candidate pledged that Mexico, “wouldn’t do the dirty work” of foreign governments, referring specifically to the deportations of Central Americans.

Mexico needs more noise. Some locals and most Gringos agree that Mexico is loud enough already, but that is not stopping electronics firm Panasonic from introducing two new, stronger speakers designed especially for Mexico.

The new speakers improve on power and sound clarity, explained Edmundo Sánchez, director of a Panasonic manufacturing plant in México state. They were designed by Mexican engineers, who aim to create speakers aligned with Mexican and Latin tastes “for more party,” said the executive.

The audio division’s production is more than 220,000 speakers, and a whopping 90% stays in Mexico.

 Another round of financing, please The U.S. Embassy has donated $200,000 dollars to restore the Franciscan convent of San Martín in Puebla that was destroyed in last September’s earthquake. This is a partial replacement for the $4.5 million in patch-up money that has gone missing. The former convent was built in 1531. More than 350 people were killed, hundreds of buildings were destroyed, and because so much money was stolen from the relief effort, thousands are still camping out one year later.

The Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, created by the United States Congress in 2000, has provided financial assistance to more than 120 countries around the world for the preservation of cultural sites and objects. Hopefully, the U.S. is not going to just mail a check.

What could go wrong there? Mexico’s president-elect kicked off a nationwide tour Sunday with his new head of security in tow: a restaurant owner who will coordinate a civilian brigade in lieu of the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Secret Service. Oh lordy, God help our new president! Did he not get the memo that almost 145 people running for July’s election were assassinated?

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office Dec. 1, introduced this restaurant guy to reporters, saying he will be charged with organizing 20 civilian assistants, who will accompany the new president five at a time, so he can get up close to his peeps without getting squashed.

The wildly popular Lopez Obrador enjoys engaging with everyday Mexicans and is mobbed by well-wishers. He shakes hands. He poses for pictures. And he pauses to listen to pleas that range from tearful requests for assistance locating kidnapped or missing loved ones to humble requests for a job.

Lopez Obrador campaigned across Mexico for 13 years with two failed bids for the presidency before winning the highest office in a landslide July vote. He visited remote and dangerous hamlets with a modest entourage and wasn’t hurt, so maybe this will work…

His head of security in the past was Polimnia Romana, a veterinarian who assembled a small group of female police to handle crowd control. The female force’s light touch with children and women who approached Lopez Obrador earned them the nickname “the gazelles.”

But Romana finds it “very worrisome” that Lopez Obrador wants to entrust his safety to someone without security experience as he nears the presidency. Lopez Obrador “cares too much about public opinion,” she said, adding that he is still “behaving like a candidate who is looking for votes.”

If something bad does happen, his spot would be filled by the interior minister or head of the Senate until general elections are held again. It’s not certain who would take over because the law is pretty loosie goosie on that. Well, what could go wrong there?

Standing before a cheering crowd of thousands in Tepic, Lopez Obrador last week said, “The people will take care of me.”

Uber all. San Miguel de Allende is a “gold mine” in Guanajuato for Uber, according to the company’s Mexico communications director. Saul Crespo told the newspaper El Financiero that San Miguel generates the highest average hourly earnings of any of Uber’s markets in the state. It is also a particularly lucrative city for Uber drivers, he said, adding that 60% of journeys in the city are requested by foreigners.

San Miguel de Allende is a large expat hub and is also a popular tourist destination.

Uber started operations in Guanajuato three years ago and now “directly generates 10,600 economic opportunities and helps transport 768,000 Guanajuato residents,” Crespo said.

He also stated that Uber has become one of the state’s economic engines, with a total of 14% of the state’s population either using the company’s services or driving for them.

Crespo said that Uber’s goal is to continue growing in Mexico and to resolve the problems it has had in some parts of the country, like down in Southern Baja.

Better tourism through tacos. In 2010, traditional Mexican cuisine received UNESCO Heritage designation as a cultural treasure. The Mexican government’s Atlanta outpost is betting that Americans with more discriminating palates will also make more informed travelers, benefiting the tourist business here. 25 gastronomic ambassadors have been designated by Mexico’s foreign ministry to spread the word about the country’s flavors around the globe.

“Food is a very strong ingredient now for modern tourism. One of the stronger strategies to promote tourism is to promote Mexico as a gastronomic destination,” said Javier Diaz de Leon, Mexico’s consul general in Atlanta. Mexico that’s key, given that tourism accounts for 7.4 percent of gross domestic product and sustains 4 million jobs in the country.

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 Columns, Ensenada, Rosarito

Que Pasa In Baja?

Rosarito desalination plant update. Congressman Miguel Osuna sent a formal request for information regarding the new Rosarito desalt plant that was supposed to be under construction but isn’t yet, to which the state government responded by saying that the construction plan will be reanalyzed since a lot has changed since its start.

The state government said that they were mostly reviewing the finances of the project, which if concluded, will be the largest desalination plant in Latin America.

“The project has been delayed because of all the bureaucratic procedures that a project of this size requires, the amount of money being invested is considerable and that it has to be analyzed. Of course, the changes coming in the federal government are another factor”, said Ricardo Cisneros, head of the state water commission.

Pest beetles attack Baja. Ensenada municipal government announced that a plague of insects called “Ambrosia Beetles” have been found in Doña Petra Canyon and in Revolución Park.

The plague is known to affect crops so measures to cut down affected trees are being taken in an effort to contain the insects.

About 60 trees are going to be cut down in the Canyon and one more in the municipal park, stated Gabriela Sampedro, from the ecology office in Ensenada.

The beetle is originally from Asia and until recently it was only found in the USA and Israel outside of its habitat.

In 2015 it was detected in Tijuana, and just last year Rosarito and Ensenada where also affected by it.

The Rosarito Tourism and Conventions Commitee (COTUCO) has launched a new campaign to prevent car break-ins from downtown Rosarito all the way to Popotla.

Don’t leave the laptop in the car! Car break-ins have been a problem for years all along the free road, with most of the victims being tourists that forget that it’s not safe to leave your valuable belongings in sight inside your car.

Edgar Orozco, head of COTUCO, said that the campaign consists of several signs that are being installed along the Benito Juarez and Popotla Boulevards, informing people to double check their cars before leaving them unattended.

The tourism police said they would pitch in by doing more patrolling around the area. Incredibly enough, the chief of tourism police stated that “It’s important for business owners to remind their patrons to not leave their valuable stuff in their cars because opportunity makes the thief”.

Are we in or are we out? After much speculation about Ensenada being left out of the newly defined border zone that will cut taxes in half, the new Mexican president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) stated that he will review the situation.

Jorge Cortes, head of the coordinated businesses council in Ensenada (CCEE), Mario Zepeda, president of the Baja California Citizens Council and federal congressman Armando Reyes, talked at different times with AMLO regarding placing Ensenada into the tax-reduced zone and they all agreed that he was open about the idea but said that he had to review the matter thoroughly.

Although this seems like a win for Ensenada, who wants to be part of the tax-reduced area, no commitment was made by AMLO to include Ensenada in the border zone, which is comprised of every city that is within 19 miles from the border.

One of them did say that AMLO was analyzing the possibility of including Ensenada in the Border Zone in a second stage of the process.

Jorge Cortes, from CCEE, said that he delivered a letter signed by all the business councils in Ensenada that will be directly affected by the change if it goes through on December 1st, the day he starts his term.

Jacobo Zepeda stated that he delivered another letter to AMLO and about 4,000 signatures of concerned citizens.

Rosarito, on the other hand, has already secured a place in the new border zone, granting them the tax cuts for next year.

Hell in the sky. That’s what passengers from Volaris flight 423 travelling from Guadalajara to Tijuana experienced last week after suffering major “turbulence”, scaring the bejesus out of the 165 passengers and 5 crew members in there.

Sandra Sanchez, one of the passengers in the flight stated: “This definitely felt more than regular turbulence, it felt more like an impact that lasted for around 2 seconds. After that we still had to fly for more than an hour to get to Tijuana. I’m definitely thankful that we’re alive”.

Volaris stated that the plane “Experimented a clear air turbulence during it’s flight”.

Clear air turbulence (CAT) is dangerous as it happens in clear skies and cannot be detected with conventional radar equipment, although it can cause severe damage to the aircraft and injuries to passengers and crew.

Many videos of the aftermath are circulating online, in one of them a passenger is seen laying on the corridor while others shout for a doctor on board.

Several people were hurt, with 12 of them requiring medical attention in Tijuana hospitals.

At the time of writing 2 crew members were still recovering from their injuries, while the other passengers where all discharged from local hospitals.

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 Columns

Fish Report

Tijuana Bull Ring

There’s nothing too exciting to the south — the Point Loma kelp beds are kicking out a few bass, a few mixed-grade bonito and some small rockfish.

Coronado Islands

The poor water conditions continues to put the skids on the yellowtail and bluefin bite!  The best bet right now is the area from the Ribbon Kelp to SKR.

There are also some signs of yellows at the north end of North Island.

The fish are still around and when the water clears up, the bite will likely turn back on. Right now, however, scoring one per rod is doing good. Most years scoring an average of one per rod is outstanding.

This year it just gets a yawn!

Terry Byrns from Bajamar, shows us his yellow tail and bonito catch

Offshore

Coronado Canyon / 226-302 / 425

A few kelps in this area are holding dorado, and we hear that there is one or two near the 425. The area is loaded with skipjack and some skipjack schools also have some small 5- to 20-pound yellowfin mixed in.

371 / 390

There is a clean/dirty water’s edge that runs near the 371. Boats are reporting a lot of skipjack in that area.

Some have a few yellowfin with them and some schools are just straight skipjack. There are some kelps in the general area, too, that are holding dorado. Not all, but enough you need to check each one out when you find it.

The skipjack in this area are very eager to jump on the troll jigs.

Bright colored small jet heads are ideal. The yellowfin are more into the cedar plugs and the Halcos. The dorado don’t care what it is you are trolling; they just want it!

Upper Hidden Bank / Hidden Bank / Upper 500

This zone slowed down overall, but some boats still made big scores.

There are still lots of skipjack, yellowfin and dorado around.

Much of the better action is now coming off kelps. Most jig stops are coming from skipjack and there are fewer numbers of yellowfin mixed in.

There are a few kelps however, that are working well. These have yellowfin and dorado along with a few yellowtail. They often turn into skipjack though after a few minutes.

There is a ton of skipjack in it with some yellowfin mixed in, but the water is green, and the better concentration of fish is in the clean water below the 31.50 line.

Updated general info:

Skipjack are jumping all over trolled jigs. Cedar plugs, pink/white feathers, daisy chains, and Rapalas/Halcos are all getting bit just fine. Occasionally you might luck into a yellowfin jig stop, but most of the good yellowfin scores have come on bait either after a skipjack stop or on sonar schools or kelp paddies. Focus your efforts on general areas with good bird life. You may not see a ton of terns or bird piles, but if there are gulls and shearwaters flying around it’s a good zone to slow down and drop the jigs in for a while.

Fly-lined sardines are working great for all three species. Skipjack will key in on the hot bait, but you might be able to weed through them with a chunk or dead sardine. You’ll get fewer bites but a higher percentage of yellowfin this way. Using 20- to 25-pound test works just fine, with #2 to 1/0 hooks. You can also throw Colt Snipers, Flat Falls, surface iron, poppers, and skip jigs for the yellowfin.

Skipjack have also been eating these surprisingly often at times but in general this has also been a good way to get a higher percentage of yellowfin bites.

Ensenada

Late summer action continues to provide limits of yellowtail and calico bass. A welcome addition to the fish counts this week was not only the yellowfin tuna and dorado under kelp paddies offshore just outside the islands, but the big news was that a few 20-pound white sea bass were caught.

 San Quintin

Great fishing for home-guard yellowtail and calico bass along with yellowfin and dorado a bit farther offshore produced easy limits for locals and visitors either sportfishing or diving. Why, even the surfers are smiling these days.

Cedros Island

Most anglers were looking for yellowtail, which are very abundant, allowing easy limits for some boats. Although not as big (averaging 15- to 20-pounds), they are still lots of fun. For some, afternoons were relaxing targeting calicos, or searching for other species. Some dorado were caught when the school went by the boat, but they are still scarce, and anglers are hoping they will arrive in good numbers soon.  Best results for the yellowtail bite have varied from live bait to Rapalas and jigs. We can only recommend that you try anything in your arsenal. Make sure your lines are fresh and knots are tight.

Weather has been fantastic, breezy around the corner on the fishing grounds (in the 70s).

Bahia de Los Angeles

Hot and humid seems to lead off every fishing report recently.

However, the dorado,
yellowtail and bottom fish aren’t complaining — just biting.

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 Columns

What’s Going On In This Country?

BY SANTIAGO VERDUGO

You can’t make this stuff up. Three people were struck and killed by a runaway truck whose brakes failed while they were helping themselves to the cargo aboard another truck, whose brakes had also failed. This all went down on a big highway on the mainland.

Passersby saw an opportunity after the first truck was stuck on a runaway truck ramp on a section of the highway in Veracruz. They broke into the trailer and began stealing its cargo of cleaning supplies. But minutes later a second truck barreled down the ramp, (Doesn’t anyone in Mexico maintain their brakes? Has anyone even seen a runaway truck using those sand pits?) The second runaway truck knocked over three of the looters like they were bowling pins.

But that didn’t stop fellow looters, who kept right on snatching these coveted cleaning supplies. (Maybe there are some good deals on cleaning supplies on Craig’s List in Veracruz?)

Meanwhile, others started whumping on the driver of the second truck, presumably in retaliation for hitting their fellow looters. The driver of that truck was hospitalized but is expected to recover.

Fake News. Four people were killed in a fake hysteria whipped up on social media. A fake message circulating on Facebook and Twitter and the messaging service WhatsApp, alerted people in several states that a wave of kidnappings was taking place. The gist of many messages was “don’t leave your kids alone, there’s a band of child snatchers within our midst.”

Some messages claimed that children are being abducted by organ-trafficking rings while others called for vigilante justice for anyone believed guilty of the crime. And that’s exactly what happened in two towns on consecutive days last week.

First, an uncle and his nephew were killed by an angry mob, then a man and a woman were killed in the same way the next day. Both were burned alive. In both cases, the prosecutor’s offices said there was no evidence that the victims had committed any crime. Authorities also issued statements declaring that child abduction rings were operating in each state are false and urged citizens not to spread such information.

Authorities in other states where the same fake news has flourished — Yucatán, Durango, Jalisco and Sinaloa — have issued similar statements of their own.

The mother of 21-year-old Ricardo Flores Rodríguez, who was a farmworker and a law student at a university in Veracruz, blamed the mayor of Acatlán de Osorio, because the two men were taken by force from municipal police before they were tied up, doused with gasoline and set on fire.

“I want the head of the mayor because he is responsible for the death of my son and my brother-in-law,” Rosario Rodríguez said. “Why did they kill them? Why did they [local authorities] let them?”

The mother condemned the acts of mob justice, but also recognized shortcomings in Mexico’s justice and legal systems that result in high levels of impunity. “We reproach and condemn [the serving of] justice by one’s own hands, [but we cannot] prosecute presumably illegal behavior by seeking to serve justice with our own hands. We have to recognize that there is an institutional weakness in the procurement of justice, but that must not be substituted by [serving]  justice by one’s own hands,” she said.

Commission chief Pérez warned that as long as the state does not provide  minimal security there will be distrust of institutions and desperation among citizens to see justice served. The commission said there have been 25 deaths like this so far this year.

Dark Times. These are dark times for the town of Motul, on the Yucatán, particularly at city hall. The new mayor was sworn in Saturday, but the ceremony would have been conducted in the dark were it not for rented portable generators: the electricity was cut off due to an overdue account. Incoming mayor Roger Aguilar Arroyo claimed during the swearing-in ceremony that his predecessor had left the municipality in arrears with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

The PRI mayor said the PAN  party’s mayor left an outstanding debt of US $156,000, most of which is owed to  CFE. The new mayor pledged to negotiate a payment plan with the federal utility to have the administration’s power reconnected.

The electricity was cut off four times during the previous mayor’s three-year term. He has blamed his own predecessor for the unpaid debt. This is pretty standard in an administration change.

Same shit, different government. The fine imposed on the incoming Morena party has been rescinded. The fine was for money going missing from an earthquake relief fund on its watch.

The 10.3 million dollar fine was reversed because there was not enough evidence that it was Morena’s hands in the cookie jar. The cookie jar, which was filled with about $4.1 million through donations, was for the September 17th earthquake last year. 3.37 million dollars in cash was taken out of the trust and allocated to members of the party, according to the initial charge.

When the fine was announced in mid-July, President-Elect López Obrador, assured that this was “a vile revenge,” presumedly for winning the election.

We’re going to stop now, because we’re pretty much finished with dispensing bad news.

Wait. Here’s some semi good news. We’ll call it less bad news, as nobody is dead. Mexico’s president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) doesn’t take office until December, but he’s already got a multi-billion dollar dilemma on his hands: what to do with the country’s largest infrastructure project, already in a morass of scandals and corruption, which, if completed, will become one of the world’s most corrupt and most costly airports? Last month AMLO announced that his government would either finish it or expand a military base north of the Mexico City, depending on the results of a a review by engineering experts and a public referendum due in October.

An engineering association threw their support behind the completion of the $13 billion airport, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t also on the take. The already white elephant is in its fourth year of construction, only 30% completed, and $4 billion USD over budget.

Three big contracts, worth $5 billion, are in the hands of a consortia led by Grupo Carso, or other firms owned by Carlos Slim and his family. Slim is one of the richest men in the world, (Warren Buffet and Bill Gates keep trading places with him). Forbes says he’s worth $75 billion. Just how much money does one man need? What is he going to do with more billions? Maybe stealing is just habit with him. An addiction that could be helped with rehab. Slim is the owner of América Movil, formerly Teléfonos de Mexico, or Telmex. Telmex was the old telephone monopoly in the country, akin to America’s AT&T Inc. He was there to catch it when it was privatized.

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 Columns

Que Pasa In Baja?

Goodbye tax breaks. Ensenada can say goodbye to the proposed border tax-break that Mexico’s new president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has proposed. In a meeting with Kiko Vega, our state governor, AMLO has already confirmed that cities in the border zone that will receive these benefits will only be the ones located up to 19 miles from the US border.

There is still some confusion regarding what will happen to cities that are stuck in half, like Rosarito, that has a piece of its land out of the so-called “border zone”. If the measure is strict, everything south of K 34 would not be included; that would be El Descanso, Calafia, Las Gaviotas, El Pescador, Puerto Nuevo, Cantamar and Primo Tapia.

Our Wine Valley is getting water. An agreement has been formalized between our state government and an Israeli company in order to build a water treatment plant in Tijuana and a water line to deliver the treated water all the way to the wine valley.

The $72 million USD project will bring up to 290 gallons of water per second to the valley when the project is completed in June 2020, although it would be able to start delivering about a fourth of that amount in a little less than a year.

The Israeli company, Odis Adversa, has stated that the quality of water will be superior to the one being extracted from natural sources present in the valley.

This new endeavor will allow the valley to grow sustainably while reducing the amount of contaminated water going to the ocean in Tijuana.

More corruption, really? An elaborate network of corrupt officials and import/export companies focused on car imports has been “officially” discovered by federal authorities.

For a $300 USD “fee” per car, authorities allowed the legal importation of cars into Mexico with false documentation that stated that the cars were valued at about 10% of their real cost, thus lowering the taxes imposed on these imports by thousands of dollars per vehicle.

It is said that that up to 80,000 vehicles were imported this way, and the chiefs of the Mexican customs offices in Mexicali and Juarez were involved in the scheme.

It was a productive racket for those involved, who pocketed more than $24 million USD while it lasted.

No jail time has been announced for the corrupt officials yet, and incarceration will probably not happen.

Toll road fee increase, again. For a second time this year, there was an increase on the toll road fees, 1 more peso on the Playas and Rosarito toll booths ($36 pesos), and 3 pesos more for Ensenada ($40 pesos).

This is the second increase this year, bringing the price of traveling on the road up 14% since the start of this year.

The increase was national, with most of the toll roads in the country being subject to surges of varying percentages.

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Columns

Que Pasa in Baja?

This edition we discuss the beginning of the low season for tourism, the huge fire that broke out in Ensenada, how the Ensenada police is equipping to detect high-volume noise offenders, the new hotel being developed in Cuatro Cuatros, the donation of K-9 agents from the US to Mexico, new investments in alternative energy generation and what the SWAT spring-breakers tourism company is preparing for next year in Rosarito.

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Columns, Fish Report

Fish Report

Coronado Islands

The bite has been on the slow side again after cooler water pushed in from the southeast. Conditions across the islands dropped one or two degrees with the larger drops happening on the flats inside the islands and around South Island. Read more

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