Catchin’ the BIG ones!!!
Just another hot, sunny day at sea with a couple of friends. We casted off the lines to ‘Oz’, Brian’s 42 foot catamaran. The huge luxury cat left her slip and glided across the harbor at Puerto Aventuras. As we approached the narrow entrance in the port, we braced ourselves as the the hulls cut through the waves. The winds were light and coming from the northeast. As soon as Brian had the bow into the wind, Luke and I let out the jib sail. We ran to the mast then began hauling up the mainsail.
Shew!!! Luke and I looked at each other, wiped the sweat from our brow after raising the mainsail, and wonder how any old guy could “get it up” there. And with that, Brain turned the wheel until the sails filled with wind, then cut the engines. Ahhh! Peace and quiet!!! No sounds but us gibbering and the sound of waves lapping the hulls. There’s something magical about being out at sea under full sails. We popped open our first beers and got ready to fish.
Brian had been to the USA a couple weeks before and had bought some brightly colored artificial lures to fish with. So we threw those on the lines and sat down with beer in hand for some “serious” fishin’. All of us being avid divers, we got right into telling diving stories from around the globe. We each drank and listened attentively to each’s stories. Finally I felt the urge to change at least of of the lines to an artificial bait/fresh bait combo.
Right as I about to get the line in to change it, Brian cut the wheel and the whole boat changed course on a dime. “Whoa!!!”, I yelled as I grabbed at the hand line going around the boat. “Don’t want to go overboard today, thanks.” They just sat there and laughed. Quickly, a memory of my father came to mind…him telling me, “Son, always have 2 points of contact when walking around a sailboat, when you can.” I had both feet on the deck, I thought that was enough. Oh no! So I quickly….just sat down. Luke passed me my tackle box and I started to prepare my bait.
I let out about 100 foot of line then put the lock on the reel. After joining my friends, I realized by beer was empty. time for a new one! I had no longer opened my beer and …click-click-click-click-click!!!!! “FISH ON!!!” Everyone instantly put down their beers and snapped into action. “Luke this one’s you Man!”, I yelled at him. Brian quickly turned the big catamaran into the wind slowing us down and turned on the engines. Luke reeled with all his might, but the fish never broke the surface. “She’s running deep”, I said, ” Must be a barracuda or wahoo.” I ran for the gaff and went down the stairs on the back side of the catamaran to get ready to bring in the fish. Luke kept tension on the line while I lowered the large hook of the gaff below the fish. And with a quick pull up, I clean lifted the barracuda onto the deck. Barracudas are known to be good eating fish, but we decide to let it go….we were looking for something BIGGER, tastier!
I put together another bait then let the line back out. We took up our place around the table on the back deck, still buzzing from the first fish. By this time, we were getting hungry so we pulled out the sandwiches and potato chips. I had no longer finished my sandwich when we heard…Clack-clack-claaaaaaaack!!! “Its a Big one!” I yelled. I had the rod and was pulling hard to keep the fish on. Then the line went dead. “She’s swimming towards us, power up and get to movin’!” The end of the rod was against my stomach and starting to hurt badly. Luke grabbed a fighting plate and strapped it around my belly. I slipped the end of the rod down into it and began a tug-a-war against a beautiful Dorado. It jumped clean out of the water numerous time giving us a clear view of what we had on the line. Our hearts raced!
This time Brian manned the gaff and jumped down into postion. After a couple attepmts to bring it in, the dorado was bouncing on the deck. “Quick, knock it out, before it knocks me out of the boat!”, Luke yelled. And with that, the fish was put to rest. “Let’s get another on!” I announced as I rigged up another bait. I had only let out a maybe 50 feet of line when I felt something in my finger tips where I was hold the rod. It was a strike from a fish. I knew that much. But he didn’t take the bait. I pulled the rod’s tip up and down about five time then BAM!!!! FISH ON!!!! I was reeling like crazy. I told Luke to put the fighting plate on him and for him to fight the fish. I was worn out from the first one. As soon as he was strapped in, I passed the rod to him.
“WOW!!! That fish is strong!”, Luke shouted. He worked the rod tip up and down reeling each time. After about 10 minutes the fish seemed to be tiring out. It got within 30 feet of the boat and just like that…..took off into the blue almost pulling Luke off the boat. “I don’t care if you loose the fish, just don’t loose the rod”, I reminded him. The fishing line went deep into the water then started heading to the other side of the boat. In a catamaran, that’s BAD. “Engine up, go to starboard”, I told Brian. As the fish swam towards the opposite side of the catamaran, Brian kept the boat doing circles. Finally, the fish tired out and Luke began to get it closer to the boat and where I was at. Just as I started to lower the gaff into the water, the big dorado started jumping out of the water like crazy as a last attempt not to become our dinner. To say the least…he lost. We ate well that night.
We continued fishing and conitued to catch fish. Right before sunset, we called it a day. Once back in the marina, we all pitched in to help clean up the boat and finish off the beers. We sat relcined back after a hard day’s work, reflecting on what an incredlible day we had. Luke dropped me off at my house saying he would call me before he was to go out. Later that night he called, waking me, saying “Man I’m destroyed from today, I’m not going anywhere but to bed. I told him, “Good idea, I am already in bed!” That next morning, both Luke and Brian called me already reminiscing about our previous day out at sea. We were still blown away by the awesome day we had had before.
