Fishing in La Paz

In Baja, it seemed fishing was a must. I figured that we could get a trip similar to those in New England, but stuff is just a little different down here.

The trip started early as we departed the hotel at 6am. Rebecca really loves fishing, there are few things that she would wake up so early for. We climbed into a van and travelled with a couple from New York City to the Bay of the Dead/Dreams.

As our driver explained to us, the area was called The Bay of the Dead, due to a Spanish ship that was anchored there. After the Spaniards infected the Baja's Indigenous (with cholera?), the local tribes retaliated by burning their ship and killing all on board. The Bay of the Dead, however, is not a name that sells very well. So real estate excutives have changed the name to The Bay of Dreams. By any name it was a beautiful looking bay. On the way there we almost ran over a mountain lion and a horse. We could tell this was an area where adventurists came to travel.

We met our "captain", of a 12 foot outboard motor boat and set out into the bay. Clearly we were not travelling too far off shore, to be honest I was a bit concerned as to exactly what the trip would entail.

We started by catching our bait.The captain casted a net into the water and pulled up some sardines. They were kept in the bow of the boat w/fresh water. From there we travelled to the other side of the bay and our captain baited and cast our lines, I was wondering when we would start fishing, because so far the capt had done all the work. We dragged our lines as the boat motored around and as Bex asked him, in Spanish, "How do we know we have a bite?" her pole bent towards the stern. She reeled in a Snapper to start our day. There would be many more to follow.

Bex caught a Mackerel that was a good 3 feet long, definately the biggest of the day. The best fish I caught was a Gallo in Spanish. We call it a Rooster Fish in English, I prefer the Spanish name. The capt said it was bad eating, a sport fish and routinely thrown back, so we kept with tradition and set the Gallo free. It was far too beautiful to be killed by a couple of Americans on holiday.

In the end, we had six bags worth of fish fillets. The snapper, a lot of Mackeral, and a Sea Bass. We gave one bag to our capt with a tip, and another to our driver, who asked if he could have one (remember, Mexicans aren't shy about asking for things). The rest I had the resturant in the hotel prepare for us to enjoy. We asked to have ceviche made from the mackerel, and the rest of the fish could be grilled. It was a neverending feast, which was delicious and the fillets came w/3 sauces: Veracruz (onions, olives, tomato), ajillo (garlic), and salsa picanta (hot sauce). We enjoyed the fruits of our labor.