Day 3 : Monday

Now this is the day I've been waiting for. This is my third trip to Mexico, and I finally get to go deep sea fishing. I could care less if I land anything. I just want a big fish on the line to fight for a little while. This day would turn out to be a kick of a lifetime.

Hiring a boat can be done in many ways, usually through tourist centers and hotels. If you can, find a local, like one of the hotel staff and see if they know anyone. You can easily save yourself $100 US or more. I chose this route and ended up hiring Capitan Conejo and his boat the Leyda.

This fishing adventure started with a taxi ride to the pier in Zihuatanejo. There I met the capitan and was shown to his boat. I'd expected one of those large deep sea fishing boats. Instead it was more like an old tour boat. Regardless, I was determined to finally go fishing. Much to my relief, capitan Conejo piloted his vessel with expertise. We started by laying out line in an attempt to catch some bonita while getting out to sea. No luck there.

After going out quite a long way, we re-rigged the line to begin trolling for marlin and sailfish (I always thought they were called swordfish). After a couple hours, our first line was hit. You can't imagine the adrenaline rush I got the first time I saw it leap out of the ocean, trying to shake the hook loose. Reeling like a fiend, keeping constant tension on the line, I finally got my first sailfish in enough to land it. It only took 20 minutes. But it felt like an hour or more. My left arm felt dead after holding a death lock on that pole.

The sailfish really have what appears as a sword and it's sharp as all get out. The capitan used a thick towel to grab this sword and then beat it over the head with a club to knock it out. We didn't want to get stabbed by it while it was thrashing about. I was drenched in sweat from the effort and feeling high as a kite. Even though it was only average in size by deep sea standards, about 120lbs, it was beautiful fighting this beast. Then, about an hour later my line was hit again with an even larger sailfish, 150lbs. It was easier to land this one since I had a better idea of what I was doing. This one had a busted sword, but still required caution bringing it in. We didn't get anymore hits that day but I couldn't have had a better time.

For dinner I decided to go find Carlos 'n Charlie's. This turned out to be a very long walk, and the food was exactly the same as Senor Frog's, literally the same menus are used.