DUST & WAVES
Originally Published the Week of March 11, 2021 in Western Outdoor Publications!
I guess there’s two stories to pass onto you this week in a round-about-kinda-way.
One actually is possibly some useful info about fishing in Baja, which is what this column is normally supposed to be about.
But, let me start with the first story!
As a kid I really only cared about three publications in my life.
One was the Sears Christmas catalog. If you were a kid, my reasons need no explanation. It was the most dazzling thing to have in your hands. I should have saved a copy or two to show to the grandkids.
Another was MAD. Don’t laugh. If any of you are old enough to remember, MAD Magazine, I think it’s how I learned how to read. It’s where I got my weird bent sense of humor.
It’s where I learned goofy songs and rhymes and things I didn’t even understand in those pre-teen years. And, of course, there was that backpage fold-out that was brilliant.
My mother, a dedicated 2nd grade teacher for 30+ years would always try to steer me towards good literature…classics…authors…etc. She was usually successful.
Except there was MAD Magazine. I don’t know how she and dad let me get away with that or knowing my allowance money was not being used very wisely.
But, there was one other magazine that I treasured and that DID receive a better nod of approval.
It was Field & Stream.
Now THAT was a magazine that I would definitely save my allowance to buy. It was everything I ever wanted to know about hunting and fishing and all the places and adventures I would someday have.
It was the Sears Catalog for the outdoors to me.
It was geography and adventures, Daniel Boone and Tom Sawyer all rolled onto the printed pages.
Cover-to-cover and back-and-forth. I would cut out articles and save them in scrap books. If I got caught under the bedsheets at night with a flashlight reading MAD Magazine or the Sears Catalog, they were confiscated.
With Field & Stream, they let me slide. Or dad would take it and read it himself.
Well…of all things…two weeks ago a writer for Field & Stream contacted me for an interview about fishing in Baja! Me? Are you kidding?
That icon of outdoor magazines wanted to know what someone like me thought? Wow! Needless to say, I was thrilled. I’m not sure how the interview went or how it will eventually look in print, but hey, I was happy to do it!
Which leads to the 2nd story of this column.
The reason they had asked me for the interview…
Apparently, I was part of a series of outfitters being asked how the Covid pandemic had affected us. As well, more importantly, they wanted to know what we thought of the coming year.
The first part was easy.
I think anyone who was in the travel industry or is still in the travel industry and didn’t get pulled down by the pandemic/ quarantine wolves will agree. Last year was devastating. It continues to be so in 2021.
It doesn’t matter if you were/are an outfitter, lodge, charter operation, guide, hotel, travel agent, airlines, cruise lines, taxi driver…If you dealt with any aspect of the travelling public, 2021 was unlike anything we had ever seen or could imagine.
Travel to Mexico? Travel abroad? Travel to another state? Travel to visit your family, kids, parents on the other side of town?
Are you kidding? We couldn’t even leave our houses, either because we couldn’t (lockdown); or were simply afraid to (contagion); or didn’t have the ways or means (no money) to travel.
No one could travel for essential things like work and school. So forget leisure travel like taking vacations or other discretionary trips.
Yea, we got hammered. Punched in the nose. Kicked in the nether regions then dog-piled while we were already on the ground. Many of our friends in the industry lost their jobs or had to find other or supplemental work.
For those of us in the travel industry still treading water, it’s not over yet.
For us in Baja, things really started to take an upswing there at the end of 2020. Americans were really scooting to Baja.
Mexico is close. It was economical. It was easy to there and get home.
Canada was a no-go because of the border closures and quarantines in place.
Going to Europe or Asia take some planning. Pack an overnight bag with shorts and t-shirts and you can fly off to Mexico.
Locally, more hotels and restaurants and other services were opening up. Airlines were having to add more flights to keep up with the demand. For us and other operators in Baja, things were looking up.
Bookings were picking up. People just wanted to get out no matter if there was vaccine or no vaccine. Covid or no covid.
Then, the new CDC rules were implemented in January of 2021. It required that everyone travelling into the U.S., including returning vacationers, have a negative Covid test within 72 hours of flying back to the U.S.
WHAM! BAM! Travel took another knee below-the-belt.
Bookings took a dive. Cancelations jumped up. Airflights got canceled. Folks not wanting to get stuck in Mexico made a mass exodus for home and left on-going vacations.
But, now things are looking up again. Whew!
Vaccines are being implemented. Moreso, Mexico got it’s game together and erected testing facilities at airport, hotels, timeshares and labs to make it cheap and convenient to get the tests. Can’t lose the all-important tourism sector again.
So, people are booking again.
But, will it be a good season?
I think so. The fish were largely left alone last year. Six to 8 months there was literally zero sportfishing traffic on the water.
Even when things opened, it was only a fraction of the usual crowds.
The fish had time to grow. The fish had time to spawn and mate without getting bonked by lures run scattered by boat motors. More importantly, their food source…the critical baitfish weren’t depleted.
I thnk this year of 2020 will be an improvement over last year. But, it still won’t see the normal numbers and the experts are saying we’re really only going to see 30-50% of the normal visitors.
So, bigger fish. Hungrier fish. More fish. More bait.
And maybe just you out there on the water!
That’s my story!
Jonathan
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Jonathan Roldan has been writing the Baja Column in Western Outdoor News since 2004. Along with his wife and fishing buddy, Jilly, they own and run the Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet in La Paz, Baja, Mexico www.tailhunter.com.
They also run their Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the famous La Paz malecon waterfront. If you’d like to contact him directly, his e-mail is: jonathan@tailhunter.com
Or drop by the restaurant to say hi. It’s right on the La Paz waterfront!
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Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website:
www.tailhunter-international.com
Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: http://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/
Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBLvdHL_p4-OAu3HfiVzW0g
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”
That's My Story 
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