Marlin Fishing

At the end of my Freshman year in collage my Dad took my brother and I on a fishing trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He thought it might be the last trip we would go on as a family since we were all starting to go our separate ways. He was right about that. He had been told by one of his co-workers that the Sea of Cortez was one of the few places big sail fish could still be caught. We flew from Chicago to L.A., then took a prop plane to Cabo San Lucas. We stayed at the Hacienda Cabo San Lucas, and took charter boats out from there.

None of the charter boats looked in great condition, but the Hacienda man said they were OK. I remembered that almost everything cost 8 pesos. It was 8 pesos for a Coke, 8 pesos for a hat, 8 pesos for sun glasses and so on…it was always 8 pesos for whatever.

The charter Captains knew what they were doing. We each caught a Marlin, two were in the 120 to 150 lbs. range. The other was about 75 lbs. The two big ones were 12’ to 15’ long and it took about an hour to land one. You would pull them in near the boat, they would see the boat and come out of the water tail walking and then take off. It was almost heart stopping. My brother caught the small sailfish and we had that one stuffed. The cost to have that done was almost unreasonable.

When it was shipped to my Dad’s house we could not believe how big this small one my brother had  caught was.  It was over 7’ long and there was only one wall in the house it would fit on. It held a place on the wall, neatly jumping over the TV in the family room till my parents died.. Everything else in the room was dwarfed by the fish.. Dad and I loved it. It is now in my house, jumping over the piano, making the piano look small. 

My brother and sister did not want the fish after my parents died and I was living on a boat. The fish was put in storage for about 10 years. My wife thought it was wonderful when she saw it and said we would have a place for it no matter what. I think I lucked out on that also.