Guys, I’m gonna cut to the chase here: I caught a freaking shark!
Kinda kills the suspense, doesn’t it?
When Villa del Palmar originally emailed, asking if I was interested in the deep sea fishing excursion with Danzante Tours, I was honestly torn. The alternative option was a boat tour of the myriad of islands in the Sea of Cortez, capped off with some snorkeling at various spots. I love snorkeling and checking out the islands sounded fun, but deep sea fishing was new to me. How could I NOT try a new sport in the name of adventure travel?
The six of us going were given an early-morning departure time of 6am. Naturally, I grumbled a bit when I rolled out of bed. That was cut short when I saw the sunrise from the back of a yacht on the Sea of Cortez!
We headed ~35 miles out to sea with a quick stop at a local fisherman’s boat. We traded him $20 for a whole bunch of bait fish before heading towards the deep blue water. Our first stop was unsuccessful, but our captain realized this pretty quickly. After five minutes, he turned the engine back on and headed towards a location even farther out in the ocean.
SUCCESS!
Roland went first and caught a medium-sized fish. Jen went next and while she managed to catch a fish, it was definitely lacking in size. In the end, we called her little guy our “bait fish” and used it to fish. There must have been something lucky in that little fish because we kept catching everything after that!
Rue was the third fisherwoman and–using Jen’s bait!– fought with a whopper for quite awhile. She was yanking and grunting, straining against the line, trying to pull up the ocean critter from the bottom of the ocean. What in the world was attached to her hook?
Finally, she managed to reel the behemoth close enough to the surface so we could see it. SHE CAUGHT A SHARK!
Y’all, I about lost my mind! I’ve seen a few smaller nurse sharks while SCUBA diving, but there is something entirely different about seeing them up close. Of course, we weren’t keeping the shark and we released it back into the ocean. The catch? Rue had to reel it close enough to the surface so that we could reach the big fellow and let him free.
I was up next and I excitedly bounced around the back of the boat, waiting for the rod to twitch, acknowledging that something was attached. Within a few minutes, I saw the top of a rod bend forward. I caught something!
Here’s the thing: I’m not a weak person. I workout a fair bit and lift some kinda heavy weights and I went into this battle thinking that a fish would be easy. Oh man, was I wrong!
I immediately realized I had a big one attached to my hook. My rod was bending like crazy and our captain helped me brace my 130-lbs against the corner of the boat. Then, he gave me a waistbelt with a cup holder-type attachment. I put the bottom of the rod into the holder, giving me something to push back against {rather than my stomach!}
I battled like this for a solid 10 minutes, running around the boat as the big fish swam around. My forearms were burning and I was seriously sweating! Every time I’d take a break from fighting the fish, he would sense it and dive back deeper into the water. Naturally, that got me fired up and I’d fight back. Grrrr!
This continued for another 10 minutes until I finally got the Big Guy close to the surface. Sure enough, I had cut another shark! This guy was bigger than the last and our captain estimated him to be 100 lbs. No wonder I was exhausted– he weighed almost as much as me!
Tragically, my work wasn’t done! Just like Rue, I had to get the shark to the surface so that we could set him free. Per local regulations, you can’t bring a shark aboard your boat, so he has to be close enough for someone to lean over the side and release him. Obviously, that has to be pretty close so I kept working. We got him close once but he managed to slide away just as the captain reached for him. Since the reel wasn’t locked, the shark managed to dive a solid thirty feet below the surface. For a moment, I felt so defeated! I finally reeled this guy to the surface just to do it all over again!
This cat-and-mouse game continued for quite awhile. After a solid 30 minutes, I managed to fight him to the surface and we let him go. And man, I was spent! My arms were burning and my legs were covered in bruises from slamming into the size of the boat. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I even had wicked bruises on the inside of my right wrist. Apparently, I propped my wrist against the fishing reel when I got tired. Whoops!
I honestly wasn’t sure how I’d feel about fishing before this trip. My sis is a fly fisherwoman and has encouraged me to try the sport for years. I’ve always argued that it’s boring; no adrenaline, no sweat and nothing really to do other than stand around and wait. Now, I can’t speak to fly fishing, but if it’s anything like deep sea fishing? I’m totally willing to give it another shot!
Huge thanks to Alexa from 52 Perfect Days for the feature photo of the shark!
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Villa del Palmar at Loreto paid for my trip to Mexico, but all adventure stories are my own! Bonus: they’re offering my readers a huge discount on reservations in their Deluxe Studio Suites. Rather than the usual price of $184 per night, y’all can get the suites for $119! If interested, book through this website using the code FAMJUL15. The code is good for stays booked before December 11, 2015 and travel before December 17, 2015. {And no, it’s not an affiliate link; it just hooks you up if you want to go on vacation!}