Part 41 A Mexican Odyssey Civilized Line Fishing

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I never cared much for line fishing, but after my near- disastrous SCUBA experience off Los Arcos, I took it up again, briefly. Surf casting at Las Animas was often sensational. One day Bill Rees and Herb Hansen pulled in 27 bonita (small tuna) right in front of the beach house, in less than 30 minutes - one every 60 seconds! It didn't matter what they threw out; bait, jig or bare hook. It was taken immediately. I thought that pretty good, and was easily persuaded by Ernesto Ramirez to accompany him on a trip for something even bigger and better.
With Ernesto and a number of other eager anglers, I went along on Tim Milham's motor cruiser for a special trip to the Islas Marias. These are islands a few hours up the coast from Vallarta, which are protected by the Mexican Coast Guard and off limits to all civilian boats. This restriction is imposed because on the largest island of the group there is located a maximum-security prison, sort of like the old Alcatraz.

Every three or four years, however, the Mexican government does give permission for small, carefully screened, groups to fish the area for one week. The Town Fathers of Vallarta had negotiated with the government for such a trip, and we were invited to go along, with perhaps six other boats. We carried with us camping equipment, our own servants and cooks, camped out for four days on a small island to the south of the restricted prison island, and fished waters that reinvented the word virgin. The wahoo fish there (60 to 80 pounders) hit with every cast.

All the boats carried block or crushed ice, and as the wahoo were hauled aboard they were cleaned, filleted, and stored in large ice bins. And diving? Awesome! Grouper there made my 90-kilo kill look like a minnow. I still wasn't ready for another SCUBA adventure however, so I went free diving only with flippers and snorkel. I brought up enough lobster and oysters to feed an army. We ate and drank like kings for four days, and took back home with us enough seafood to last another army for a week.

With us on that trip to Islas Marias was a Vallarta doctor named Efraín Calderon, who would become the presidente municipal (mayor) of Puerto Vallarta some years later. Calderon was a wild, crazy character in those days, who liked to party even more than I did. At the cockfights I saw him bet thousands of dollars on a bird, when a thousand dollars really meant something. Win or lose, he always had a smile. He was a naturally happy, funny man, and he loved fishing more than anyone I've ever known. He had a great singing voice, and each time he hooked a fish he yelled out, "Wahoooo!," then broke into song. As I said, I don't care all that much for line fishing, but I would go back to Islas Marias anytime I got a chance. It wasn't your average fishing. It was the kind of fishing some anglers would kill for.