Cancun Mexico, Sailfish Charter

Went out for a fish fry last night with my wife. The Madison bar we ate at had a stuffed marlin or sailfish on the wall. Reminded me of a trip to Cancun back in 2006 I took with my wife, my son Chris and his girlfriend at the time. Chris and I went on a sailfish charter off the shore of Cancun one day.

There were also 3 young guys from Canada taking some time off from the oil sand jobs they had and a father and son (13 years old or so) team from the east coast, Maryland, I believe that joined us on the fishing boat with 3 crew members.

Captain, Baiter and Master Baiter....ok, old joke.

Right after we left the protected bay for the open seas the father and son got violently seasick and retired to the cabin...we never saw them again over the 3 hrs we fished till we got back to port. Felt bad for them.

The Canadians were a blast and we had a great time with them.
We all caught at least 2-3 fish each and even tried to get the father and son to come out long enough to reel one in but no dice as they were too sick. Puking in paper bags and all over themselves....uck!

The deal with the fish was that if you wanted to keep one, you had to tell the crew and then they bent the head over far enough to break it's neck/backbone. If not, they tossed it back. But, if you wanted to keep it, you had to keep it.

I think the crew had a little deal going with the local taxidermist to try to get everyone to save at least one fish. As soon as we had the first one on-line and one of the Canadians started reeling it in, the crew when bananas yelling, screaming, pointing how big it was and such. When it was landed they went even more berserk, trying to convince the guy that he landed Moby Dick or something.
That convinced the Canadian to keep it at a cost of local taxidermy, shipping to the states of the meat (if I remember, or they would keep the meat?) and then the stuffed fish later. I can't remember if they shot us a price, but it figured to add up in my mind. Plus, what do you do with a 6-7 foot sailfish when you got home? Ok, that would be cool hanging somewhere in the house.....maybe.

In any case, the first guy decided to save his, CRACK, the backbone snapped. The second fish was also landed by a Canadian with much fanfare....same HUGE size as the first one..SNAP, a 2nd fish in the cooler. By the time my son landed the 3rd one and we saw it was the same size as the other 2 it started to become apparent that these were average size sailfish, albeit great fun to catch and release, in any case. It went back in.
Chris and I decided we wouldn't save one, unless it was a monster.

As the morning went on we had a blast. The Captain was skilled at spotting the signs (baitfish on the surface, seagulls, fish finder?) of where the fish were or knowing where to troll. We watched as other boats started to follow us as they were noticing the amount of action we were having. Plus, they probably help each other out buy relaying over radio where the fish are and what they're hitting on.

After 3 hrs. of fishing we started heading back and the Crew broke out the included in the price bag lunches and beverages.
Well, even with 2 paying guests not drinking (the father and son team) 2 Wisconsinites and 3 Canadians on vacation went through the few bottles of local beer they gave us in short order. All 3 of the crew had moved up to the captains cabin, dragging a box of beer. We went up to get more beer, but they had or were drinking it all, just shrugging their shoulders and giving the look of "all gone, senior"!!
Funny how they seemed to understand English well when it benefited them...oh well.

It seemed odd that paying customers ran out, but the crew had plenty.
We were bummed, still had a half hour boat ride to shore and we all wanted to keep our buzz on.
My son had to go to the head and while down there he scrounged around in the cabin and dug out more beer!!! He was the hero! Hidden reserves unveiled!

Once landed on shore we gave the Captain a tip and ran off before they could find out we found their stash and depleted it....hey, at least we didn't fill the empty bottles back up with pee and put them back!

The Canadians knew they got bamboozled some into keeping 2 fish, so their plan was to walk off and leave them. Not sure how that went down.

1st fish landed
Chris learning how to be a masterbaiter



Chris with one of his landed

one of the Canadians

Me with one of mine on-board. Notice bait barrel off to the right.