BY MIKE STEVENS
CABO SAN LUCAS – A common thread among each Local Legend honored at the WON Cabo Tuna Jackpot is unwavering passion and energy that burns consistently over the course of decades between the day they realize they want to spend their lives woven into Cabo’s storied sportfishing fabric, and the time their hard work and dedication is being formally recognized in a room full of friends, family, peers and competitors. Pioneering Cabo businesswoman Minerva Saenz-Smith will stand as the Local Legend at the 2026 Cabo Tuna Jackpot, and it’s as well-deserved as it gets.
Born Minerva Saenz-Valenzuela in Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico, she emigrated to the United States with her parents who opened the Tamale Factory restaurant in Riverside which remains a very popular eatery to this day. Minerva met Bob Smith shortly after high school, a passionate angler with dreams of moving to the tip of Baja one day, and after returning from a trip to Cabo San Lucas, he drove straight to Minerva’s house and convinced her to pack up and make the 1,000-plus-mile drive back down. This was in the fall of 1976, and in the days following their arrival, Minerva knew she was ready to make Bob’s dream hers and make Cabo home.
In those early days, no boat rentals were available so, Bob and Minerva towed down a small trailer and parked it where today stands Maria Corona Restaurant, and they set up a home. Bob immediately left for California to get a yacht to piggyback to Cabo so he could start his dream of chartering. The boat was called No Problema, which they intended to ultimately offer for local charters. That business was flourishing by the time Minerva married Bob in 1978, and following another passion, she opened Sunset Riding Stables with 13 horses Bob purchased in California and trailered down. Among the services offered were horseback riding tours of Cabo led by Minerva herself.
About 12 years after the original charter business started, Minerva and Bob opened Minerva’s Baja Tackle in 1988 which currently stands as the most-popular tackle shop in Cabo San Lucas. The shop carried carried everything for an angler to fish the Baja, and they also offered rod and reel repair at the shop which was an invaluable service to both visiting anglers and other local operations alike. Reel parts and rod components are not easy to come by in Mexico – especially in years past – but the Smiths smartly ordered it in huge quantities to ensure it was always on hand.
Minerva and Bob continued operating a thriving charter business with multiple boats, each boasting top-notch captains and crew. That tackle shop/charter business combo results in daily fishing information delivered in as close to “real time” as possible, so Minerva’s Baja Tackle customers always knew what to buy and where to go once they hit the water. It became the epitome of a “one-stop-tackle-shop” with every visiting and local angler’s needs covered.
Next year, Minerva will be entering her 50th in the business, and she’s been hands on from the get go: rigging line, tying connection nots, filling reels, teaching knots to her charter crews and even designing live-bait leaders for wahoo that are still used to this day. She’s a real “fisherlady” who used to fish pangas alone, and just her and captain in tournaments.
“I’m not going be an owner/operator from a desk,” she told Western Outdoor News. “I’m going to run the store. I’m going to be hands on.”
Quickly recognizing the world-class potential of the fishing grounds off Cabo San Lucas, Minerva bought a pair International Game and Fish Association (IGFA) certified scales, and she successfully applied to become a regional IGFA representative as well as an IGFA-certified weigh station. Minerva has weighed and certified many qualifying world records, but the 184-pound wahoo caught by 15-year-old Sara Hayward in 2005 dramatically stands out. Minerva says “this record will never be broken” as the previous record was 15% smaller and stood for 15 years. That wahoo set three separate IGFA records. At that position, she also certified a 1,070-pound marlin in 1995, and a former world-record yellowfin tuna. And that’s just a small sample of the countless IGFA-worthy catches Minerva certified on those scales.
Minerva was selected as a tournament partner for the IGFA World Championship, a position she held for each of the 12 years Cabo hosted the event, and she was also recognized by the IGFA for her fierce conservation efforts including but not limited to removing marlin from menus in Cabo, encouraging the use of circle hooks and taking on the Mexican government in matters of flawed fisheries legislation. Minerva is also very proud of the role she played in helping propel Cabo to the forefront and catch-and-release fishing for striped marlin.
Minerva has been a key component of the Local Legend program since it started. Her knowledge of the areas fishing history and the amazing people who keep it going allows her to not only lead in the selection process, but she’s also interviewed honorees, wrote their stories and stood on stage honoring them.
Minerva’s husband, Bob Smith, passed away on August 14, 2025, just a month after the shop moved to its new location a couple blocks away to Calle Miguel Hidalgo. Yet another challenge she had to work through, but she came out the other side even stronger, and her position within the community remains as strong as ever.
She recently connected with Western Outdoor News for a quick Q&A session, shortly after it was decided that she will be the next Local Legend.
What were some of the early challenges you faced when you first arrived in Cabo through the first year after opening Minerva’s Baja Tackle?
I opened in 1988, and in those days, it was truly a man’s sport. There was so little here, and flying here got better, but it was still hard to travel. In 1982, they built the marina and the world just exploded. The woman thing was an issue that was a hurdle to get through. The challenges of being a woman in the industry bled into the early 90s, but by ‘91 I had already been an IGFA rep for about a year, and all the sudden, respect came with the name IGFA. It carried a different weight. That gave certification and credibility to my store, and that was really important. Once I had that credibility, there was nothing that vendors like Penn, Mustad, AFTCO, Calstar and Izorline would not do for me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all of them. When those guys met me, it took off. Being a woman in sportfishing was only a stumbling block only for a very short time.
In an interview with Gene Kira of WON 25 years ago, it was written that you and Bob had concerns about the possibility of development “getting out of hand.” Looking back between then and now, how do you feel it’s played out?
We get asked that every day. I think that was not a big revelation that not only we had, but everybody had it. When we saw the Marina come in in ‘82 we were quadrupling ever year with the massive growth and everybody wanting a piece of the pie. It exploded the way we knew it would, from the outside in, and we are still in the explosion stage, but I still feel very fortunate to live here. It’s still good times and a beautiful community of people.
What would you say is better today?
The store gets packed with women shoppers at times during these new women’s tournaments. We are seeing women coming with their families. We now have many more women over the last 20 years. And look at us, we hold the biggest, richest tuna tournament in the world. The six biggest weeks of my business are October 1 through mid-November, when those tournaments are here. When there is fishing excitement here, nobody can deny that the streets are full.
When you’ve been on stage with previous Local Legends, it’s clearly an emotional moment for you. Why is that?
Some of these Legends I’ve known since they were little kids. I’m so connected to them through the fishing. I feel at home with them, and they feel at home with me. I think Mexican fisherman are the greatest fishermen in the world. I watched these kids start with nothing and I’m emotionally tied to them, and I don’t want that to ever change. It’s important to me that they feel like I care.
What does it mean to you to join them as a Local Legend?
They’re all very proud, and they all still fish the old way. They know they have skill, and all this gives them a chance to prove it. It’s in their blood. I want to be an expression of them, and their parents and grandparents who gave me the love to do all this. I’m just another dimension, and I’m pretty humbled.
You certainly aren’t showing any signs of slowing down. What’s next?
I feel like I’m reinventing myself. It’s a really happy time for me. It’s a natural rebranding , and I feel refreshed, re-energized and motivated. It’s taken a natural turn for me to want to be better than ever servicing the fleets and tourism even if it has nothing to do with fishing. Nothing is going to change, but I want to be better at it.
As a pioneering woman on the Cabo San Lucas sportfishing scene, it’s very appropriate that Minerva Saenz-Smith will be the first lady recognized as a Local Legend prior to the 2026 installment of the WON Cabo Tuna Jackpot.
