Pete Thomas Outdoors

For some, G20 Summit in Los Cabos can't end quickly enough

The G20 Summit, which gets underway today in Los Cabos, apparently has disrupted business and tourism beyond what was expected.

Eric Brictson, who runs the Gordo Banks Pangas charter fishing operation from Puerto Los Cabos Marina, said the marina was "completely shut down" before dawn Monday, in a last-minute decision that has made Brictson and several of his clients very angry.

"We had eight charters scheduled, all far in advance," Brictson said, via email. "Some people left really early this morning to drive down from La Paz. Another group was a family of three generations who had planned their early summer vacation a year in advance, spent a small fortune in plane fares, hotel accommodations, rental cars, etc.

"They came only to fish, have no other dates where they can switch to and now are so disgruntled that they will never return to Mexico.

"This G20 Summit is supposed to promote foreign investment and more tourism and this is how they treat people that are bringing all of the money into their country... This type of decision should have been made far in advance, not in the morning when people are arriving for their much anticipated fishing trip."

Actually, it had been announced before last week that beach and nearshore portions water access would be restricted from Gordo Point north of the marina to Cabo San Lucas. Pisces Sportfishing posted a map showing the restricted area on its blog last Tuesday.

The summit of world leaders and finance ministers is being held at a new convention center in San Jose del Cabo, about 30 miles north of Cabo San Lucas.

Puerto Los Cabos Marina is located in San Jose del Cabo, just north of the Holiday Inn. About 20 charters depart from the marina each morning.

Brictson's fleet targets big-game species of fish mostly to the north of this area, at spots in the Sea of Cortez such as the Gordo Banks.

Tracy Ehrenberg, who runs Pisces Sportfishing in Cabo San Lucas, posted a story about the summit Sunday on the company blog. The Pisces yacht division will host an event for the first ladies.

Of general ocean tourism during the summit Ehrenberg stated: "Basically we can do bay cruises, go to the Pacific, or in the Sea of Cortez if we stay five miles offshore."

Ehrenberg also reported that on Sunday morning a bus carrying federal policeman overturned in the Costa Azul area of southern San Jose. "It was a horrible accident, closing down the road for a while," the report stated. "It appears at this time the accident was due to speeding. The bus was rented and flipped completely over, with its fifteen passengers. Ten policemen were injured, two seriously."

Peace and calm is expected to return to the region at midweek, after the conclusion of the summit.

-- Image showing soldiers in the hotel zone in San Jose del Cabo is courtesy of Pisces Sportfishing

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Los Cabos military presence grows in advance of G20 Summit

Frequent visitors to Los Cabos might have made plans to to avoid the Baja California Sur resort destination in the days leading to the June 18-19 G20 Summit of world leaders and finance ministers.

The gathering, at a new convention center in San Jose del Cabo, will attract thousands. A very heavy security presence already is evident.

"They have battle ships stationed off of our marina area and PT patrol boats are racing all about with heavy artillery -- they have snapped our docks' lines several times already," Eric Brictson, who runs a sportfishing business at La Playita in the San Jose area, stated via email.

Brictson continued: "Very high security in all directions, all of the military hardware, even saw a couple of tanks."

From Thursday through next June 19 (next Tuesday), the toll road will be restricted to the transportation of official delegations. Tourists and residents will need to take the old road to and from the international airport through San Jose del Cabo.

Cabo Villas has posted a list of important information for Los Cabos tourists and residents on its website.

It states that beach and ocean access will be restricted from the Holiday Inn (formerly the Presidente Intercontel Hotel) in San Jose del Cabo south to Punta Ballena just outside of Cabo San Lucas.

This probably means that surfing and snorkeling spots such as Zippers, El Tule, Chileno Bay and Santa Marina will be off-limits through at least next Tuesday.

Tourists and residents throughout the region should travel with official identification.

Those in Cabo San Lucas proper, at the tip of the peninsula, will not be as affected.

It should also be stressed that most big-game fishing areas will be accessible in the Pacific and in the Sea of Cortez.

"Some news are reporting that the port will be closed to all traffic, but the truth is there is only a small restricted area from Punta Ballena to Punta Gorda, and 5 miles from shore," stated Pisces Sportfishing on its blog. "So do not be worried, we are still going fishing, and we are still going to the good fishing grounds, all it takes is a small detour."

Brictson added that his fleet has been fishing mostly to the north of the restricted area and then echoed what many business owners in the area might bethinking: "I will be glad when it's all over with."

-- Image showing a navy vessel in Puerto Los Cabos is courtesy of Eric Brictson

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Massive great white shark caught in Sea of Cortez

A great white shark measuring nearly 20 feet and weighing 2,000 pounds -- according to a  local report -- was hauled up Sunday by commercial fishermen in the Sea of Cortez near Guaymas.

The massive predator was dead when it was brought to the surface in a net deployed by fishermen named Guadalupe and Baltazar, who were treated to the surprise of a lifetime when they saw what they had captured.

"We were amazed and immediately realized that we had a huge, dead, great white shark, and then we thought what are we going to do?," Guadalupe told Pisces Sportfishing, which is located in the resort city of Cabo San Lucas.

There is some dispute about the size. If, in fact, it measured six meters (19.8 feet), as Milenio News reported, it'd be one of the longest white sharks ever recorded. Also, if it measured 20 feet, it should weigh a lot more than 2,000 pounds.

Regardless, it's a humongous specimen. The fishermen, who were aboard a 22-foot skiff, towed the behemoth two miles to the beach, where dozens of people helped drag it onto dry sand.

"Guadalupe and Baltazar swore they had never seen a fish this big before in their lives," the Pisces blog stated. "Even though on March 13 of this year, some of their fellow fishermen had also caught a great white, which had weighed 990 pounds."

Adult white sharks were once believed to be rare in the Sea of Cortez, or Gulf of California, but scientists now believe parts of the gulf serve as a nursery for the species.

-- For more on this story visit GrindTv.com

-- Related story: Angler lands largest-known yellowfin tuna caught on rod and reel

-- Images are two of one of three that appear on a San Carlos Mexico online forum

First-time Cabo San Lucas visitor lands 391-pound swordfish

A Massachusetts angler on his first trip to Cabo San Lucas, to celebrate his 60th birthday, spent four wearying hours Thursday reeling in a mighty swordfish.

Al Monte was with his two sons aboard the Tracy Ann out of Pisces Sportfishing, but battled the 391-pound broadbill by himself about six miles beyond the Old Lighthouse on the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula.

Swordfish catches are rare off Cabo San Lucas, which is world-famous for its marlin fishing. Perhaps a dozen are caught each year.

The Montes earlier the same day caught and released striped marlin weighing an estimated 140 and 160 pounds.

The Tracy Ann is captained by Julio Castro, who has a knack for finding marlin and big fish. Martin Gonzalez is the regular deckhand.

Last fall this crew was aboard the same cruiser during the catch of a 749-pound blue marlin.

-- Information for this report is from the Pisces Sportfishing blog

Updated travel warning for Mexico contains no advisories for Cabo San Lucas, many other top destinations

The U.S. Department of State has updated its Travel Warning for Mexico and it's worth prominent mention that, while crime and violence remain serious problems in some parts of the country, there are no advisories in many of the top tourist destinations.

This includes Baja California Sur (Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, etc.); Quintana Roo (Cancun, Cozumel, etc.); Chiapas (San Cristobal de las Casas, etc.); Guanajuato, and cities such as Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City and Riviera Nayarit.

The expanded warning, which includes state-by-state assessments, contains its usual generalization:

"Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business, including more than 150,000 who cross the border every day.  The Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations, and there is no evidence that Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) have targeted U.S. visitors and residents based on their nationality.

"Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major trafficking routes."

But the warning adds that violence "can occur anywhere," which of course is also true in the U.S. and other countries that are presumed safe for travel.

The warning, however, contains these startling figures, via the Mexican government: 47,515 people were killed in narcotics-related violence in the country between Dec. 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2011. Most of the victims were "members of TCOs [but] innocent people have also been killed."

Border towns are the most notorious trouble spots because that's where the drug gangs compete for the best supply routes into the U.S.

On the state of Baja California (northern Baja), which includes Tijuana, the warning suggests that tourists exercise caution, particularly at night, and contains this passage:

"Targeted TCO assassinations continue to take place in Baja California. Turf battles between criminal groups proliferated and resulted in numerous assassinations in areas of Tijuana frequented by U.S. citizens.  Shooting incidents, in which innocent bystanders have been injured, have occurred during daylight hours throughout the city."

In 2011, 34 U.S. citizens were reported to have been killed in northern Baja.

U.S. citizens are advised to defer non-essential travel in parts of or all of the the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potsi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Nayarit (with the exeption of Riviera Nayarit in the southern portion of the state or to principal highways in the southern portion of the state used to travel from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta).

The popular Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo resort area is in the state of Guerrero and U.S. citizens are advised to stay within tourist areas and travel only during daylight hours on highway 95D, between Mexico City and Acapulco.

Acapulco, which used to be popular among U.S. tourists, is another city in which tourists are urged to exercise caution and stay within known tourist areas.

Manzanillo is a popular tourist destination in the state of Colima. Visitors should exercise extreme caution in areas that border the state of Michoacán because the they are notorious for gun battles between drug gangs and authorities.

Prospective tourists should view the warning via the link above for a more detailed assessment of regions of interest.

The warning is detailed and helpful and, thankfully, does not portray all of Mexico as a danger zone.

-- Pete Thomas

Alaska Airlines to stop distributing prayer cards to passengers

Frequent travelers who either appreciated or were offended by Alaska Airlines' practice of distributing prayer cards to passengers will be displeased, or happy, to learn that the 30-year practice will end on Feb. 1.

For the last six years, only first-class passengers were presented with the paper cards, usually at meal time.

A Seattle Times story states that Alaska Air Group CEO Bill Ayer, and Alaska Airlines President Brad Tilden, delivered this email Wednesday to regular customers:

"This difficult decision was not made lightly. Some of you enjoy the cards and associate them with our service. At the same time, we've heard from many of you who believe religion is inappropriate on an airplane, and some are offended when we hand out the cards."

The email also contained this passage: "Our priority at Alaska is to fly our passengers to their destinations safely, on time and with their bags."

The airline began passing out prayer cards in the 1970s in an effort, an Alaska spokesman once told the Christian Post, to "fancy up the meal service since many folks like to give thanks before a meal."

Cabo San Lucas tournament marlin nets team $1.1 million

A 395-pound blue marlin caught on the first day of the Bisbee's Black & Blue marlin tournament off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, was not the heaviest of the event, but it was worth more than $1.1 million.

Local angler Luis Liera was credited with the catch aboard Tiger Spirit, owned by Ned Wallace of Newport Beach, Calif. It was second in weight to a 409-pound blue caught the same day aboard Bad Medicine, but Tiger Spirit had entered more daily jackpots and claimed more than half of a total purse worth $2,173,955.

"We've been fishing the Black & Blue since 1993," Wallace said Sunday. "We've placed in the money three of the last four years, but this is our biggest fish yet. I keep the boat here in Cabo and all of our success is due to my crew. They're local boys and they really know what they're doing out there."

The Black & Blue, which is the world's richest sportfishing tournament, began last Wednesday and winners were announced during a banquet on Saturday night. Tiger Spirit earned $1,162,842.50; it was the event's first $1-million payout since Hang 'em High won $2-plus million in 2008.

Tiger Spirit was skippered by a local captain, Sergio Cota, who earned a 10% share of the team's winnings.

Team Bad Medicine won $394,090 and Pegasus was third with a 329-pound blue marlin worth $283,752.50.

The competition featured 100 teams and 529 anglers from around the world. Only marlin weighing 300 pounds or more were allowed to be killed. Teams bringing in underweight marlin were penalized.

In all, 122 billfish were caught and only seven were brought in and weighed.  Of the seven three weighed less than 300 pounds. The billfish breakdown: 56 blue marlin, 52 striped marlin, 12 sailfish and two black marlin.

-- Image shows team Tiger Spirit, and some local eye candy, posing with its million-dollar marlin

Cabo San Lucas waters yield 746-pound marlin a day before start of big-money tournament

A 746-pound blue marlin was pulled from the waters off Cabo San Lucas on Tuesday, a day before the annual big-money Bisbee's Black & Blue marlin tournament was set to begin.

The massive billfish, which died less than an hour into the fight, was caught aboard the Tracy Ann out of Pisces Sportfishing.

Had the same fish been caught during the Bisbee's event, which is billed as the world's richest billfish tournament, it could have been worth a few million dollars.

According to the Pisces blog, the marlin was hooked less than two miles offshore on the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula. A more specific location was withheld, presumably, because of the impending three-day tournament and a desire to keep top fishing locations secret.

Florida anglers Patrick Neville, his wife Jean, and Thomas Heinz and his wife Penny were credited with the catch. The 31-foot Tracy Ann is captained by popular skipper Julio Castro. 

It took nearly two hours to raise the marlin after it had sounded and perished. Oddly, the marlin lacked a bill.

Late last month, a significantly larger marlin was caught off Cabo San Lucas after a 28-hour fight.

The Black & Blue runs through Friday.

-- Image showing Florida anglers posing with 746-pound blue marlin caught Tuesday off Cabo San Lucas is courtest of Pisces Sportfishing

Giant marlin landed off Cabo San Lucas after 28-hour battle

Some reports stated that a blue marlin landed Sunday is the largest billfish ever caught off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, weighing an eye-popping 1,213 pounds. Others claimed the behemoth fell short of "grander" status, weighing only 972 pounds on a marina scale.

Whatever the weight of the billfish, it was an extraordinary catch, especially considering that the struggle played out for nearly 28 hours, giving this yarn a Hemingway quality that seems more like fiction than fact.

The angler credited with the catch is Richard Biehl of Traverse City, Michigan, but he had help from the crew aboard the 31-foot yacht, Go Deep, which was plying the Pacific Ocean north of the resort destination on Baja California's tip.

After an offshore marathon that began Saturday morning at 8:20 and ended close to noon Sunday, those aboard the yacht either resembled or felt like very old men of the sea.

"That was the hardest thing I ever did in my life by far," Biehl told Pisces Sportfishing general manager Tracy Ehrenberg, who on Monday evening published the first detailed account of the remarkable episode. "I’ve shot bull moose and trekked out with 200 pounds on my back and it doesn’t even compare."

Nobody knew what was in store when the marlin attacked a trolled lure at what is known as the 95 Spot, and sped toward the horizon. They were targeting much smaller striped marlin and using only 60-pound-test line -- far too light for giant blue marlin.

When the great billfish first jumped, about 400 feet from the boat, the crew guessed its weight to be about 700 pounds.

Word of the catch didn't spread until Monday, when many in town and in the billfishing community considered the catch to be a rumor. Then photos and sparse details began to appear on Facebook. One photo showed the weight at 972 pounds, but that did not tell the story.

Ehrenberg on Monday afternoon interviewed Capt. Luis Abaroa and his crew, and briefly spoke with Biehl. (Efforts to reach Biehl for this story, via cellphone, were unsuccessful.)

Abaroa told Ehrenberg that the marlin registered only 972 pounds because the hook of the electronic scale used to weigh the fish was not high enough for all of the fish to clear the ground, so a time-tested measurement formula -- using length and girth -- was used to determine the 1,213 pounds. The marlin measured 137 inches long, or 11.4 feet, not counting its bill or tail. It was 75 inches, or 6.25 feet around.

Weight records for marlin caught off Cabo San Lucas are not kept officially, but an 1,111-pounder caught in the 1980s is believed to be the heaviest.

More recently, in this era of high-speed reels and other technological advancements, overnight struggles with giant billfish have become increasingly rare.

Biehl, bemoaning the use of light line, fought the giant blue marlin by himself until about sunset, then  relinquished the rod to a deckhand. By then food and water had been exhausted and another vessel captained by Abaroa's brother, Frankie, was summoned via radio to deliver supplies.

The marlin leaped again, closer to the boat, as darkness fell. The weight estimate was revised upward to between 800-1,000 pounds.

A long night was fitful because to keep the line from breaking the captain and crew had to keep just enough pressure on the marlin, and constant maneuvering of the boat was necessary.

At sunrise a rejuvenated Biehl reclaimed the rod and resumed the fight. With the line and leader weakening, the crew aboard the other boat had devised a snag rig and managed to setting more hooks into the cheek of the wearying marlin.

Finally, the billfish tired and was brought alonside the boat, and according to Ehrenberg, Biehl chose to have it gaffed and brought to port. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime fish. I want to take him," he said.

Surprisingly, Biehl went fishing again Monday and caught and released a striped marlin, before himself succumbing to all he had been through by coming down with a bout of seasickness.

-- Images of giant marlin are courtesy of Go Deep Sportfishing. Top image shows angler Richard Biehl (holding rod) next to his prize catch. Click here to visit Go Deep's Facebook page

Hurricane Hilary could affect parts of Baja California

It's looking increasingly like Hurricane Hilary, which on Friday was a powerful Category 4 storm, will bring more than just large waves to Baja California Sur.

The major hurricane, which on Friday boasted sustained winds of 145 mph, is off the Pacific coast of Mexico tracking toward the west-northwest, away from land. But Hilary is expected to gradually veer more to the north beginning late Monday.

It's not clear yet what areas might be most affected by rain and swells, but if it stays on its projected path significant rainfall is likely along parts of Baja California's southwestern coast.

As for waves, Surfline is reporting that large swells generated by Hilary should begin to arrive in the Cabo San Lucas area as early as Saturday, with areas farther north along the Pacific side of the peninsula receiving an increase in surf Monday and Tuesday.

The National Hurricane Center predicts that Hilary will remain a major hurricane at least until Monday morning. On Friday there were no warnings in place, but that could change over the next few days.

-- Image shows a satellite view of Hilary early Friday morning. Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project