Popular SoCal YouTube Fishing Personality Found Dead After Going Missing In Baja Waters

Sad news out of Southern California: A “fishing influencer” who had.a popular YouTube channel has been found dead after being reported missing in the waters of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. NBC San Diego reported that Rijavec’s friends had been concerned given what an adventurer he’d been on the water:

“He’s an adventurer. He pushes the envelope. That’s part of what we love about him,“ said Phil Friedman, a fellow angler, podcaster and close friend.

Officials say Mikey Rijavec was fishing eight miles off the coast on Tuesday when he issued a mayday call. Over the phone, fellow anglers tried to help him with the engine trouble he was having when the call suddenly ended.

“What could have happened? Oh my God, it’s endless. It could be foul play. You never know, it’s something that happens at sea sometimes. It could be a whale, it could be a shark,” Friedman said.

A GoFundMe page that was set up to help support search efforts to find Rijavec announced that his story had come to a tragic end:

It is time for the countless people involved in the search for Mikey to finally rest and begin to find peace. Mikey’s body was found in the water near San Cristobal earlier today. As difficult as it is to accept this, we are grateful that it provides us some closure. As we begin to process and reflect on what has happened over the last several days, it is clear what was at the core of the search for Mikey: love. Everyone poured everything into finding Mikey, because whether they knew him or not, they knew a son, a brother, a friend, a fisherman, a fellow human needed help. Everyone has been extremely selfless during this time, and selflessness is one of the greatest acts of love. We were united in the search and we are united in love.

RIP and condoence to Mikey’s loved ones.