Took the family down to a Club Med in Ixtapa, Mexico, a couple hundred miles north of Acapulco for a week of too much sun, food, and booze. My youngest son's been hitting on me to go deep sea fishing for quite awhile, so I swung by the club excursions office to check out the local action, hoping a day off the beach would give his sunburn a chance to settle down a bit.
Billfish seasons in Mexico are typically during the winter months, but the office assured me there was a chance to get into a Sailfish or Marlin. There always seems to be a few around. I took the bait and paid $300 for a half-day boat trip on a Panga, the typical small fishing boat used by small charters. I've done these trips before without any real luck other than just a small inshore fish, a skipjack and other small tuna, barracuda, and the like. I downplayed the chances of having great fishing so the boys wouldn't get their hopes up.
We headed out at 0700 and just went a few miles offshore and started trolling. We didn't go more than 15 minutes until the oldest boy landed a Skipjack, which the captain promptly re-hooked and trolled it as bait behind the boat. Perhaps a half hour later, my youngest son hooked and landed a second Skipjack. Not red hot fishing, but at least the boys had each had a chance to get hooked up and land a small fish. We trolled out to about 10 miles offshore, and around 0830, the one live bait started showing his frantic swimming motions on the tip of the rod he was attached to. After a minute or so, he settled back to just swimming normally off the stern of the boat.
Ten or so minutes later, that bait was showing a lot of activity again, and a single larger bump on the rod tip was enough information to cause the captain to click the reel to freespool for about 5 seconds. He then dropped the reel back into gear. The result was immediate: rod tip dives straight down, then the big Sailfish explodes on the surface. Thankfully, it's dad's turn at the rod and I was reeling before the kids even knew we were hooked up. Thirty minutes and eight jumps later, this monster Sail gave up the ghost at the side of boat. The skipper had successfully removed the swallowed hook, but the damage to it's gills had caused too much blood loss for us to successfully release him. The rest of the morning brought only a single small Yellow Fin Tuna, which the club chef grilled for us the following evening.
I've lost track over the years; I think this is my fourth or fifth Sailfish, and largest by about thirty pounds. The skipper believed he was eight feet long and weighed about one hundred pounds. I agree one hundred percent. A superb trophy for a half-day of fishing that began with guarded expectations, and a wonderful lifetime deep sea fishing memory for the boys!
