The Fish Are Back! (Or are we just learning how to fish?)

Well, the last couple of weeks have been a lot better in the fishing department. We've added to our lures and fishing gear and now seem to be catching more fish. Of course, it could also be that it is a better season and there are just more fish in the water, but we'd like to think that our skill has improved considerably along with improved lures and gear. You see, the importance of good (or decent) gear is critical. We've learned this first hand: The drag on one of our rod/reels broke. The drag is the rate or amount of force required to pull line out of the reel in order to slow down the fish once hooked without snapping the line. One morning we lost three - yes three - lures, because once the fish was hooked and started swimming away it snapped the line three times. Without the drag working there was no way to slow the fish down. It was costly in the lure department. The force on one of the catches was strong enough to have the rod fling back and knock Harrison's hat into the water. That resulted in us going fishing for a hat instead!

All that said, we've generally been catching more fish than we have in the past. Mostly all Dorado (Mahi Mahi) but also a yellow tail. Needless to say we've been eating a lot of fish. Sushi (a variety of spicy and non-spicy yellow tail rolls), ceviche, fish jerky, fish tacos, fish soup, fish cakes, fish cookies, fish burgers, fish, fish fish...

Yesterday, we motor sailed from Isla Coronado (26 degrees 6.64 minutes N by 111 degrees 17.02 minutes W) (after stopping in Loreto for a third day in a row -- see blog post "Loreto - Take Three") up to La Ramada (26 degrees 22.90 minutes N by 111 degrees 25.90 minutes W) which is just on the north side of San Juanico. On our way we hooked the biggest Dorado yet. After fighting to bring it to the boat for over 45 minutes with everyone helping reel it in, we got it on board, into our net. Once on board, I was wrestling it to get control of it. In all the commotion, the hook came out and it literally slid out from under me and back into the water. Think WWF - and I had it pinned! We all said "$*#@*#&$#$" at the same time (the kids got a hall pass on that one). It really was a beauty!

That said, not five minutes later we hooked another fish on our other rod (Danielle's early birthday present - isn't that cool that that's what she wanted??!!)! We started reeling it in. Now this one seemed to behave differently in its fight. First, it did not jump out of the water the way the Dorados do but instead dove. And, it fought like nothing else we had reeled in before. What could it be? Harrison wondered if it was a Marlin -- "Dad, Dad can we keep it?" -- and Danielle wondered if it was a shark -- "Dad, Dad, we better cut the line and let it go!" After over 65 minutes of fighting to get it on board (Barb, Danielle and Harrison had given up because they got too tired), we got it close to the boat. It was still deep and all we saw was its silvery color -- "Dad its a shark" -- but finally we reeled it to the surface and saw that it was a Mexican Skipjack (a tuna but not very tasty). While we don't like eating them, we decided to practice bringing it on board using our gaffer (large fish hook) to see if we could do it correctly so as not to lose our next Dorado! Success! We got it on board, got some photos and then let it go.

With all this activity we had originally expected to get to La Ramada by 4:30 pm. Instead, we got there at 7:00 pm. We anchored in this beautiful cove and then had ceviche for dinner! Then we played Rummikub.

Fishing's been a lot more fun!

Michael
(in La Ramada)