That's My Story

WHAT WOULD YOU DO? – Published July 2005 – Western Outdoor News

I’m a guy of the millennium. I believe in ecology. I believe in saving the planet. I believe in catch and release. But, I also believe in our sport. I believe there’s a way to do things. I believe I like to eat too. So, like so many people, I do the “shuffle” of wanting it all yet wanting to save it too. I’m not a tree hugger, but I like my trees. I want my grandkids to be able to catch a dorado, but love the frenzy of the Baja bite when the bloodlust and beer run with equal vigor. I hate that the netters are out there wrapping OUR tuna, but I sure love a good tuna melt. But, I’m in the unique position of owning a fishing operation in Baja.

I want everyone to have a great fishing day. But I’m also gratified to see more anglers and even the old-school skippers releasing more and more fish. I can be down with that! So, about a week ago, I get an e-mail from an angler I’ll call “Mr. M.” As with many folks he fished with a competitor which is fine. There’s plenty of biz and I consider most of my competition to be great folks who do a good job so this is no slam on them. It’s more of a dilemma. But, here’s what Mr. M wrote to me about when he went out panga fishing. I’ve deleted names of the captain and fleet:

“We had a very unpleasant experience with (Captain A.H.) who was more into himself and meat-hunting than listening to what we were there for. Aside from insulting us both verbally and bordering on physically, (Captain A.H. ) on day #1 of our trip clubbed my first sailfish before he asked me about a “billfish release”, which he claimed he would do on the next billfish. Well, 30 minutes later my brother-in-law caught a very large sailfish which (Captain A.H.) said he really wanted to keep to bring back to the dock, so we did. We told (Captain A.H.) that we would not partake in any more billfish takes and if one was caught, we wanted it released.”

“Now it’s day #2 . About 35 minutes later and we hook the largest fish of our lives and when it breaks water, it turns out to be a BLACK MARLIN! Although the battle almost killed my brother-in-law (3 hrs 45 min), the part that was crazy was that (Captain A.H.) started telling B.S. lies about wanting to feed a school of starving Catholic children, and then the story changed to something else, and so on etc… “

“This argument about releasing the fish went on for the entire battle, and at the end ( Captain A.H. ) said that he would only release the fish if it were “lip hooked”. When we got the 450 lb marlin next to the boat we saw that it was a perfect lip hook that was an easy (release). That’s when the B.S. crying started up again. (Captain A.H.) proceeded to keep the fish’s mouth out of the water in an attempt to kill the fish while we pleaded with him to revive it! He finally dropped the bill back in the water and claimed that the it was dead. He did not make any revival attempt and he just yelled at us to sit down and shut up. It was so bad that I spoke to (the manager of the fleet) and told him about what (Captain A.H.) had done. It was amazing that (Captain A.H.) managed to absolutely destroy such a wonderful moment, and if you would like any pictures or video of the event, just ask. By the way, you could always talk to (the manager of the fleet) about this story and it might be interesting to talk to (Captain A.H.) about how many lies he told in an effort to kill that fish. He even told us that because the fish died, he would have to pay some penalty to the government on Monday!”

Some story, eh? Again, this was not one of our skippers, but it is a skipper that I know to be a pretty good guy and we have used from time to time. The fleet is also stellar. But this really got to me. I think a lot of us take pride in our fishing and this has been one of the best marlin seasons here in La Paz any of us have ever seen. Clients are welcome to their fish, but gratefully, most of the fish are getting released. When fish are killed, often the client gives the whole fish or a good chunk of it to the captain. But this event just went so against my grain. I did some research.

I found out that a captain can sell the marlin to the market for about 90 pesos a kila (4 bucks a pound)! If he gets a 100 pound marlin as a gift from you, what does he care that you’re angry and withhold your 30 dollar tip? Do the math. I know that many of you will read the story and get your hackles up just like I did. So, what do we do? What would YOU do if you were Captain A.H. Be a little more discreet? Have a little more “boatside courtesy” as he sticks the gaff? I’ve seen some of you go nuts over losing the 10 dollar football office pool. Ever had hungry kids to feed and limited income? Easy to say this skipper is an idiot and should be strung up with spectra, but he just watched a wining lotto ticket swim away. What would you do? I’m very sad for everyone involved for too many different reasons and on too many different levels…the angler, the captain, the fish, the industry…our hearts.

That’s my story…
Jonathan