OUTDOOR NOTES / RICH ROBERTS : ‘Mr. Baja’ Blazed Trail South for Sportsfishing

Tom Miller met Baja California in 1938, when he was 10, and neither would ever be the same.

“My first remembrance of Mexico and Ensenada is standing on the pier,” Miller told The Times’ Christopher Reynolds last October. “At that time, Ensenada was just a small fishing village of maybe 10,000.”

Few Americans visited Ensenada then, and almost none ventured farther south into the trackless land. Miller would make it his life’s work to change that. His writings would introduce countless thousands to the bleak, enchanting and somewhat intimidating peninsula. He probably knew more about Baja than anybody, including the natives--hence, the sobriquet, “Mr. Baja,” which he carried on his license plates.

Miller, 64, died a week ago of lung cancer at his home in Huntington Beach.

He learned he had the disease in May of 1991, a month after he and his wife, Carol Hoffman, published the “Mexico West Book,” in which they extended their expertise to the mainland. Miller was best-known for “The Baja Book,” which he co-authored with Elmar Baxter in 1974, when Tijuana and Cabo San Lucas were first connected by a 1,059-mile paved highway. That book eventually sold 200,000 copies in 16 editions.

He also wrote “The Angler’s Guide to Baja California,” “World of the California Gray Whale” and “Eating Your Way Through Baja” and published the Mexico West bimonthly newsletter for travelers.

“He had a fabulous concept and served many, many travelers in the early years when there was no road going down,” said Carolyn Files, editor of the newsletter.

The response to Miller’s writings led to his founding in 1975 of the Mexico West Travel Club, which organizes trips to Mexico and has more than 8,000 members in the United States and Canada.

Larry Edwards of Cortez Yacht Charters, which books fishing trips in Baja, said Miller “was in the beginning phases of the Baja push . . . exploring new areas, (especially) the sportfishing.”

Baxter listed several of Miller’s less-known contributions, such as his part in founding the Ocean Fish Protective Assn., the American School in San Quintin and the Death Valley Surfcasting Club for tournament anglers. He championed the tag-and-release policy for billfish that is now standard at Cabo San Lucas, organized fishing trips for underprivileged children and collected donated goods for an orphanage in La Paz.

Said Neil Kelly, who co-published “The Baja Catch” fishing guidebook with Gene Kira: “(The) ‘Angler’s Guide to Baja California’ of 1979 was for 10 years the master guide for all of us Baja anglers. He loved to fish from the shore with light tackle, casting out scampi lures and spoons with six- and eight-pound line. He would rather catch a three- or four-pound fish than a marlin.”

Kelly and many of Miller’s other friends last saw him last summer at what he called his “100th Birthday Party.”

One friend, Walt Wheelock, wrote in the coming issue of Mexico West, “Tom said he knew he would never live to see (100) . . . so he wanted all his friends to help him enjoy it, while he was still around. . . . Tom seemed to be in remarkably good shape, considering his problem, and was a most gracious host.”

Besides his wife, Miller is survived by a son, Thomas E. Miller, of Fountain Valley; a daughter, Diana, of Buckeye, Ariz., and a brother, Chuck Miller, of Costa Rica.

Miller’s daughter, asked by Files how her father would like to be remembered, said, “He wants people to stop and look around and take plenty of time to enjoy life.”

Miller said in The Times interview last October, “I’ve had a quality of life that very few people ever attain, because I’ve done exactly what I’ve wanted to do. For the last 20 years, I’ve basically been on a full-time vacation.”

He had planned to retire to a home to be built on property he owned in Cabo where he could see the sun rise over the Sea of Cortez and set on the Pacific.

Friends and family will scatter Miller’s ashes off Cabo on March 3.

Notes

MEXICAN FISHING--Cabo San Lucas: Peggy Lawson of Denver, fishing from a panga, took a 236-pound blue marlin to highlight a slower week of activity. Boats averaged slightly better than one marlin each day, with 27 of 38 released. San Jose Del Cabo: Wahoo and dorado best at Las Salinas, a deep ledge west of Gordo Point. Striped marlin 120-130 pounds are west at Red Hill, six miles from Palmilla Point. East Cape: Hotel Spa Buenavista reports yellowtail 25-40 pounds, a few striped marlin and good numbers of small dorado.

FISHING INSTRUCTION--Bob Crupi and Dan Kadota will conduct a free trophy bass seminar at noon Saturday at the Sports Chalet, 6701 Fallbrook Ave., in West Hills. Details: (818) 710-0999. . . . Mark Kirchner will teach an intermediate fly-tying class at 9 a.m. Saturday at the East Fork Fly Fishing Store in Irvine. Fee: $50. Details: (714) 724-8840.