Big Bend Sportsman Guide Fishing Stories
"Stories from the
Caribbean"
From a
Series of Short Stories
By: Capt. "Tato" Reyes
We Beached
the Fish
It was a late, crisp September afternoon. I had
come home early from work to test some artificial baits.
I had just received two new
Kona heads from Captain’s Harry’s Catalogue that I was aching to try.
In the days long before the internet we had to order through
catalogues, and my anticipation had been building for weeks.
Once home, I called my
neighbor who was always eager to go out fishing. He was a retired chef
who studied at Cornell University and had worked for the Hilton Hotels
for over 25 years. At this time he was in his early sixties, did not
know how to swim, and had been introduced to the fishing and boating
idea two years prior to this day, when I moved next door to him. He
was a fishing novice to say the least, not to mention Blue Marlin
fishing, but he was available at any time.
It was no later than 4:30
PM when I left the marina and headed straight for deep waters. Being
that the 100-fathom curve was just half a mile offshore I had baits in
the water within 10 minutes. I am still amazed how natural these baits
run, and how much commotion they create. Just looking at the baits
move, you can anticipate the action. And so I did. Close to 5:30 PM a
small Blue Marlin crashed on my left outrigger and the famous tag line
did the trick. He gave us at least ten minutes of a stellar acrobatic
display and then he calmed down. He assumed a position of not doing
anything at all. It was as if he was determined to be the one that
called the shots. We watched him as he established a fair and perhaps
what he considered to be a safe distance from the boat.
He refused to run away
from the boat, sound deep or jump. He just stayed there looking at us
from 25 feet away. I tried to cut the distance by moving the boat
towards him, but he would anticipate our move and keep the 25 feet
distance between us.
At this point I was
almost convinced that he was not going to make it easy for me to reel
him in. Watching me, taunting me, my adversary kept his distance.
As time passed, we
decided to bring him to the beach. With the Atlantic Ocean in its full
splendor we headed back.
In the Caribbean islands,
the marinas are built in bays protected by reefs. These reefs are
normally within a mile from shore forming calm water bays that allow
for great anchorage and marinas. There is only one tricky catch and
that is figuring out how to get in and out of them in one piece. There
are very few natural passages between the reefs deep enough to allow
safe navigation. You miss the channel and you hit hard coral. These
channels in most cases are not wider than a one-lane road so you need
to be accurate. I must not forget to mention that in these beaches
there are no navigational aids like buoys or markers
On a typical day you will
have 3’-4’ footers breaking at the sides of the channel and it is kind
of easy to find your way in and out. On a big swell day, the breakers
crossover and cover the channel leaving one with the only option being
to go in and out between sets of huge 10’-12’. In the absence of waves
or swells then you don’t see the channel and you better have a good
landmark to guide you in or out.
Knowing we only have a
narrow channel to get the boat and the fish safely in we found a speed
where the fish would allow me to bring him about 15 feet from the boat
in an angle from my starboard side. I thought it was going to be
enough and it was. I kept on going slowly towards the channel and
crossed the reef without consequences. Then I directed the boat
towards the beach while my friend yelled to the people expecting us on
the beach to make room for us.
Once the boat was beached
I jumped with my gimbal and rod in hand and I put pressure on the fish
as he started a series of jumps when he found himself in shallow
water. I was lucky that he swam towards the beach and found himself
without water to swim so we jumped on him.
Depriving a fish of his
ability to swim is against IGFA regulations, to be honest I was not
even thinking about it. I wanted that fish.
Many pictures were taken and it
was even in the town’s newspaper.
What an experience.
From a series of fishing
stories submitted by Capt Tato Reyes
copyright Capt Tato Reyes
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