We arrived in port at Mazatlan early the next morning. Before leaving on our trip, we decided to get together and set up a deep sea fishing trip. When we got off the boat, we found a taxi that took us to the fishing boat. We left immediately after arriving. We rode the boat for about 45 minutes before doing much fishing. It was a glorious day to be on the water. We sat back and enjoyed the ride. The weather was perfect and the ocean breeze felt so nice.
Once we got out far enough, the captain started looking for fish. It was very interesting to see how it worked. Daniel speaks Spanish, so he was able to talk to our driver and learn the secrets of fishing. The two men who were in charge got on top of the boat and would watch for birds circling an area of open ocean. The birds gathered around areas where small squid were close to the surface. The squid were at the surface because the fish circled around them and drove them up to feed on them. Thus, where the birds were, was where the fish were!
Sea birds leading us to the fish
As soon as we saw the big flock of birds, they would steer the boat straight toward them and start circling the area. Usually, as we started circling, we would get a bite or two. The fishing poles at the back of the boat would start pulling, and one of us would jump into the "fighting chair." It was a relatively slow time for catching fish off of Mexico, but we got lucky and caught 10 fish throughout the 4 hours that we were out. The captain told Daniel that two boats had gone out before us and hadn't caught anything. He was quite happy that we did so well because he depended on fish for his living. We each got a chance to catch 1 or 2 fish throughout the day. Although smaller than most ocean fish, the bonita (tuna) that we caught were larger than most fish we have ever caught before. They fought hard, and it took some effort to get them aboard. They were really beautiful fish. They were so silver that they almost looked metallic and appeared to have rainbow colors when seen in the light.
The first few hours were great fishing, but it started to die down as it got later in the day. We were almost ready to head back in when the captain yelled from up top that we should look to the side of the boat. Right next to us was a huge pod of dolphins. They were rising and falling along side the boat, gliding through the waves. At times, they were so close that it seemed like we could have touched them had we been lower in the water. The captain followed the pod for 10 minutes and we exclaimed with shouts of delight many times throughout that time. There were probably 20-30 dolphins in the pod and they popped out of the water all around us. At one point, they swam under the boat and appeared on the other side. It was pretty magical. The captain definitely earned a good tip for that. It was one of the coolest things we saw on our whole trip.
We turned toward shore soon after that. It was unfortunate that we didn't get a chance to catch any huge fish like marlin, but we had such an enjoyable day on the ocean. We left the fish with the captain and headed back to the ship. I was exhausted and needed a nap, but Jonathon and Joe headed out to find some good Mexican food. That was one of the main things that Jonathon wanted to do while on the cruise, so I was glad that he got to try some good authentic food. We left Mazatlan that night, headed for another port.
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