We got up at 5:30 am and met Jack, the manager of Tailhunter International, in the lobby. He walked us across the street to the water where we met our guide, Jacob. We got into Jacob's "super panga" about 6:30 and we were off to the fishing spot. The super panga was an open boat with a canvas cover--comfortable, but not nearly as nice as Ronnie's bass boat. It was cool riding the 1.5 hours to the fishing hole--we were glad to have our jackets.
The boat ride to the fishing hole was gorgeous. Ronnie and I ate our breakfast as we rode along--2 tortillas filled with scrambled eggs, some refried beans, and some pieces of fruit. We also had water and cold sodas.
The sea is surrounded by mountainous desert. The water is crystal clear, and we saw lots of porpoises, fish, birds, and even a marlin's tail fin. (We stopped to try and catch it, but it was a little early in the year.) We also saw 2 big groups of sea kayakers who were camped on two of the many islands in the bay.
We arrived at the fishing hole around 8:00 am and there were at least 10 other boats fishing the area, which was like an underwater reef. Some of the boats were pangas like ours, others were larger. One was a beautiful huge yacht from Bimini with about half a dozen people fishing off the back deck, another was a small yacht from Sitka, Alaska; and a 3rd was from Delaware. Guess they like to winter in Mexico!
We had stopped on the way and purchased $20 of live sardines for bait from a small boat. We used the sardines and heavy tackle. We drifted or trolled around the area until about 2:00 pm. It was pretty exciting. We only landed 3 fish, but had 5 others on that broke off. I hooked the biggest one, the guide took the rod from me when I couldn't handle it, handed the rod to Ronnie, who landed a 15 kilo (30+ pound) yellow tail--a really good one! The fish fought very hard for well over 10 minutes (it seemed longer). They are a type of amberjack and rarely get to 50 pounds. Since I hooked it, Ronnie and I shared the glory. To make the fishing even better, someone in one of the 10 or so boats had a yellowtail or other fish on just about the entire morning. It was fun, and we were comfortable in our long pants and short-sleeved shirts. I was glad to have my jacket along for the ride over, but didn't need it after we stopped. (Ronnie never put his on.)
All in all, it was a great day. We ate our fish taco lunch on the return ride, and were back at the hotel at around 4:00 pm.