A Fish Story

It was a dark and stormy day as we boarded our chartered 36' Bertram for a day of deep water fishing between Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. Several of our party of 6 were a little green from a night of Tequila in Playa but were determined to give it their best effort.














Pushing thru 14 to 18 foot swells and with Jim (you will learn more about him later) chumming his last 2 meals over the side of the boat, I heard the mate yell "Fish On!" I pulled back on the pole and set the hook. It was then man against fish. I was determined to win. In the 45 minutes it took to boat the 40+ lb Dorado (aka Yellow Fin) we went through a down pour of rain and increasing swells. By the time the fish was in the boat my arms were rubber and my back was
screaming uncle. By now the weather had worsened and the rest of the charter boats had headed in. We did the same.
Once tied up at the marina, we were the stars of the day. We were one of only 3 out of 14 boats out that caught fish that day. My fish was by far the largest.
The mate quickly and efficiently filleted my catch. We knew we would never be able to eat the whole thing, so we gave the other half to the captain & mate.








That evening we fired up the grill at our villa and Jim proceeded to put together a meal of saffron rice, refried beans, tortillas and, of course, grilled Dorado in a lime butter marinade. Which was washed down with ice cold Sol and tequila! It should be noted that even after grilling enough of this fish for 6, there was enough for 2 large bowls of ceviche and a breakfast.