OWSD Member Stacy Froelich Shares Her Fishing Experience in Mexico
Stacy and her fiancé, Derek Myhre, traveled to Mexico for an ocean fishing adventure. She writes about their trip.

We flew into Los Cabos, Mexico, in the morning on November 1 and were picked up by a shuttle. We had an hour and a half trip by van to our resort. The resort was located in Los Barillas, Mexico, on the east coast of the Baja peninsula. The next morning we were met at the docks by a fishing boat, a 28-foot cruiser with a captain and a deck hand. Once the lunch was loaded onto the boat, we proceeded out into the ocean approximately one mile. At this point, we purchased bait from local fishermen. The bait was located in the middle portion of a small rowboat. The middle portion of the boat was filled with water and contained a large volume of small bait fish. We purchased 20 pieces of bait for $20 and also fished for squid to use as bait. Skewers were used to jig for the squid. We would jig until squid took the skewer and then reel up. The squid were primarily dead weight but still gave us a workout. The water was so clear that you could see the squid as they began to surface. Upon reaching the surface, the squid would release their ink. The deck hand was quick to retrieve the squid from the water with a hook and place them into the live well.

After obtaining squid, we proceeded up the coast approximately 20 miles and approximately 10 miles out. The journey took about one hour. Upon arriving, the deck hand helped bait the pole with artificial squid bait and the bait that we had purchased in the morning. Once baited, we trolled until our bait grabbed the attention of a swordfish. Upon hooking the swordfish, the deck hand strapped a belt with a pole holder onto each of us. The swordfish didn’t seem to fight too much at the beginning, but as it was brought to the surface, it became more aggressive. After reaching the surface we realized the swordfish was a blue marlin and it jumped into the air and thrashed back and forth. After immediately entering the water, the marlin took a nose-dive and line from the pole just kept coming up. After I had been fighting with the fish for approximately 20 minutes (and fighting a case of seasickness), I handed the pole to my fiancé. He continued to reel in the marlin. Once it was to the surface and next to the boat, the deck hand immediately grabbed the fish with his hook and brought it aboard. The deck hand indicated that a blue marlin was the rarest to catch; it weighed approximately 200 pounds. On the return trip to the resort, the boats raise flags to indicate the type of fish caught. We didn’t notice any other boat with a blue marlin flag.

On the second day (November 3), we again purchased bait and caught squid. This day we proceeded further up the coast approximately two and half hours away from the resort. After being on the water for about two hours, I caught a striped marlin (no seasickness today) and landed the marlin all on my own. What an exhilarating feeling plus the benefit of a real workout. My arms hurt, my legs hurt, and I was so hot. We brought the marlin beside the boat and took pictures. We did catch and release on the striped marlin, but the deck hand indicated that it weighed approximately 170 pounds. We once again prepared our poles and began trolling. We managed to hook a large sailfish and while my fiancé began reeling in the fish, the deck hand screamed that we had another one on. My fiancé and I had caught double sailfish. As we brought the sailfishes to the surface, they jumped out of the water and began crisscrossing our lines. We ran back and forth on the boat trying to untangle the lines. My fiancé brought his sailfish aboard and took pictures. The deck hand indicated that the sailfish also weighed approximately 170 pounds. This sailfish was also a catch and release. As I began to reel mine in, it seemed like dead weight. As the fish got closer to the boat, it was apparent the leader snapped and the line was wrapped around its tail. I had drowned the fish. We wanted to do catch and release but it was not an option. We determined that we already had 200 pounds of fish from the blue marlin the previous day and gave the sailfish, which I caught to the captain and deck hand to take home. Overall, the experience was wonderful and we had caught a once in a lifetime catch - a BLUE MARLIN!