THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

MEXICO
My first visit to Mexico was to Cabo San Lucas towards the end of the 1980's. Back then, it was still a
bit of a ramshackle fishing village stuck out on a limb at the tip of Baja California, with the Pacific
ocean on one side, and the Sea of Cortez on the other. A far cry from the plush stopover port reportedly
used by luxury cruise liners today.
I was with a group set up by Graeme
Pullen visiting around Christmas time,
which is the key period for striped
marlin, plus a whole load of other
potential goodies. But while we caught a
good variety of fish both inshore and off,
things didn't always go completely
according to plan.
Panga with Striped Marlin
The problem was twofold. Being so close
to America, having potentially excellent
fishing and consequently attracting lots
of US customers, the fishing fleet
understandably was geared up to that
particular market.
Americans as we all know want
everything done for them on a plate. The first time they touch the rod is when the crew places it in their
hands complete with ready hooked fish on the end, then moan at them every time the drag adjustment
is touched.
Difficulty number two was the fact that back then, few of the boat crews could speak any English, which
made getting our point regarding who hooks the fish across to them very difficult. A problem further
compounded by never having the same boat two days on the trot. Any progress that was made was
therefore immediately lost at the close of play.
The fishing was for striped marlin with live-baits. It couldn't have been more simple. A rubbing trace
on the end of the main line with a hook and a nose hooked scad.
The skipper would head off looking for circling frigate birds, then try to spot the sickle-like tail of a
feeding marlin protruding above the surface, at which point the crew would lob the bait out just in front
of its nose, and hopefully it would be taken. Something we could quite easily do for ourselves.
But no, we had argument after argument as the crew wanted to be in total control. So Gordon Thornes
and I went off to the booking office to try to explain that we were not Americans, and that if the crew
hooked a fish in future then they would also have to wind it in, which would mean no tip.
Not that it made any difference. Next boat we had the same again, so we refused to take part and
demanded to be taken back in.
On another occasion when it happened, we told them not to bother with any more marlin and started
fishing for other things, which included various sharks, dorado, and dog toothed tuna.
Meanwhile, the other boat parties within our group we coming in with five fish limit bags of striped
marlin every day. That's how prolific the marlin there were. But were they really catching them, or
simply winding them in?.
When we finally got the message across, we were given the freedom to use our own gear and do our
own casting, and while we had precious little to show for it by comparison to everyone else due to the
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