This one was never on our list of things to do While We’re Alive, but it should have been! To be honest, we really had no idea this was something we would even want to do until Thomas started obsessing over it after booking a trip to Los Cabos, Mexico. For some strange reason, he got it into his head that he wanted to catch a MARLIN! And not any ‘ol marlin, but the largest marlin ever caught in Mexico!
First, we had to find a boat. This proved to be more difficult than we thought, because the going rate was $300-$500 for a boat, El Capitano and bait included. There was no way we were going to pay that much for something not even on our bucket list, so Thomas’ luck was running out. Until, we heard about a padango!
Padango – Small boat. Very rocky. Easy to get sea sick. One fighting chair. Includes bait, license, and El Capitano named Pablo. $180 obo. SOLD!
The first thing Thomas says to Capitano Pablo the morning of our trip is, “I want to catch a shark!”. Pablo, not knowing much English, understood the word “shark”, and simply laughed as we pull out of the marina in our sea sick inducing padango.
Not having a clue of how to go about catching a fish, let alone a shark or marlin, we left it up to Pablo to get our reels setup. We can do the reeling, we decided, but anything else and we’re pretty much useless. About an hour after casting our lines and driving further south down the peninsula, Thomas got a bite! Then Pablo did! And so did I! There was so much excitement, panic, euphoria…we had no idea what to do!! All we heard mixed in with Pablo’s Spanish was, “rrrreel, rrrreel, rrrreel!” And so we rrrreeeled, and each of us ended up with snappers. “Awesome,” we thought….until Thomas got another bite!
This was a big one. MUCH bigger than the little snappers we all had just got. Could it be a Marlin? A SHARK? Again, Pablo yelled a mix of Spanish with, “rrrreel, rrrreel, rrrreel!”, and soon enough he stabs the goofy looking fish in the side of its body and flings it into our wobbly padango. “MAHI MAHI! MAHI MAHI! Good mahi mahi. Woah, mahi mahi.” It was no marlin or shark, but it might as well have been based on Thomas’ gigantic grin!
A few more hours of hunting for marlins, and we found nothing but whales and open sea. Whales, Thomas thought, would definitely be too big to catch in our little boat. Just before pulling into the marina, Thomas came to the realization that there would be no catching of marlins (or sharks) today, and asked Pablo if we could stop to take some pictures of his prized mahi mahi. But then I saw it….my rod was bending and pulling. I had a bite! THIS WAS A BIG ONE! “Rrrreel, rrrreel, rrrreel!” Pablo yelled! Maybe I had a marlin, I kept thinking. Thomas would be so upset with me! But now I too wanted the big fish. I got sucked into this fishing thing and wanted to sail the marlin flag high atop the padango as we pulled into the marina.
Five minutes of reeling, which seemed like an eternity, my arms knew this was a big one. Pablo got his spike ready, and when the monster of a fish got closer he stabbed it in its side and flipped it into the boat. “Amberjack, Miss! Amberjack! Whoa, lucky! Woo hoo…lucky Miss. Woo!” Well, it wasn’t a marlin….but from the sounds of it, I had just caught myself a yellow tailed amberjack. And the best part….it was much bigger than Thomas’ mahi mahi!
So, we pulled into the marina without the marlins or sharks we were hunting, but just as happy, if not more, with our catches of the day. Pablo was happy too, because he knew there was no way we were keeping both of them. We fed the snappers to Pedro the sea lion, gave the amberjack to Pablo El Capitano, and kept the mahi mahi for us to eat that night.
Written by Thomas (as Katherine)…
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