Jean Ann, Sarah and I just arrived home after a vacation to Cabo, Mexico. You probably can correct me on the full name. But you get it.
Tired and happy to be back in the USA. Funny thing, I got searched every step of the way, but none of the rest of the family members did. They said it was random, but it got me randomly just about everywhere, including Dallas, Los Angeles and Fayetteville. I guess I look suspicious.
Checked off another bucket list place, thanks to my brother Butch and his wife, Lynn. They invited us to join them for eight days at Villa Del Arco, luxury beach resort at Cabo. He also took us deep sea fishing in the Pacific on a 39-foot charter, The Second Chance. I put the finishing touch on the fish of the day, a 31-pound durado. We ate that – and three tunas – for the next two nights at one of the marina restaurants, Pouchos. It was fantastic.
You can call durado a lot of things, including mahi mahi and dauphin. I’ll just call it “good eating.” The fish is as beautiful as it is delicious. Some liked the tuna better, but mahi mahi dripping in garlic and butter can’t be beat. We also got blackened mahi mahi, too. Three other nights we had imperial shrimp from the Sea of Cortez. There was also a sunset dinner cruise on board the Caborey with a floor show and a fantastic band. Butch did it up right from all angles. I think he’s vacationed five or six times usually two weeks at a time at Cabo. He knew all the great places.
Maybe Matt can post a few pictures since I"m pretty weak at that sort of thing.
It was a great trip, but about two days too long. I can only lay beside the pool just a few days and we had decided on the front end not to bring golf clubs. It was tough to turn down the deck hands at the marina for more fishing trips on some of our evening strolls, but one is about all I can afford at Cabo prices. I’m used to do-it-yourself fishing.
The deck hand aboard The Second Chance was impressed at the pictures of the brown trout I’d caught at home with tiny size 22 flies on 3-pound tippet – since they don’t use anything below 50-pound test. He IDed me early on as the “fisherman” on the boat and quickly subbed me into the chair when the durado was hooked. After I showed him my fish pics, he pulled out his phone and showed me some massive tuna, several over 250 pounds. And, some marlins.
After we landed the durado and clinched that it was a good day, we headed deeper into the Pacific in search of marlin. I joined Captain Roberto Nunoz in the tower to scan for fins. I did spot a hammerhead shark that was quite big, but we didn’t entice a strike when we did a U-turn and brought seven lures over it.
The captain informed me as we were docking at day’s end that the durado was the first of the summer for his boat. There had been two or three others caught by other captains in late June. It’s really not a summer fish and this was a good sized bull durado. The captains fly the flags of the fish caught for the day on their outriggers as they come into the marina. I got the yellow durado flag to keep. Now I wish I had kept the yellow fin tuna flag, too. Not sure where my flag going to hang, but it’s a pretty neat flag to bring home. I spent a little on a silver belt buckle of the Mayan calendar that is very cool, but I think I like the durado flag better.
I’ll probably write more on all of this later in the week, including some stories from the Montana trip. I’ll just call it “the summer fishing tour.”
Now it’s time to mow some grass. I am thankful to have a riding lawn mower for days like this. I’ve been gone for 10 days – in much milder weather – and that’s too long between cuts with the rain we’ve had in my neck of the woods.
