That's My Story

DIA DE LOS PADRES – Published June 2005 – Western Outdoor News

“I’m bit!”
“Hot rail!”
“Let him into the corner!”
“Throw bait, there’s another boiler!”

The cacophony of voices; the bustle on the deck; the adrenaline and sheer electricity of the moment shot through the boat and the air sizzled with tightlines; shuffling feet; and that special energy so many of us know when the bite is on and rods go bendo. This time, in fact, it was just last week, I was about 2 miles off Punta Coyote not too far from La Paz playing deckhand on a 33’ Blackfin appropriately name “Black Magic.” I had my hands full as we had spotted 3 finning striped marlin. I had already baited one while driving the boat with one hand and handed the rod to my anxious fisherman while Captain Manny had fired another bait into the stripers and had another ready to go.

As line zipped off the first rod and the marlin lit into his first blue neon jump, the kinetics of the moment were inescapable. However, all that shouting and running around wasn’t being done by a group of grizzly Baja-rat anglers. Indeed, my “pescadores” were 5 youngsters ranging from 9 – 13 years old and I couldn’t help by give a Cheshire grin as my “training and instruction” had them moving like vets not to mention the choice “phrases” I had taught them.

“Tight lines and give him the high stick!” Mike shouted to T.J. on the rod
“You gotta lift that stick and wind down easy!” added Alex.
“ I think he’s only lip hooked!” observed Marcus
“Let him into the corner!” encouraged Mike again as he pulled his pal down the rail into the corner and the fish surged to port. (I think there’s a future deckhand pinhead in the making).
“You rock, dude!” said T.J. as he gamely handed the rod to Morgan in a tag-team effort.

They say that if you can get a kid into fishing before he’s 10 you’ll have him hooked for the rest of his life before other distractions can pull him away. I’ve known these kids for a few years now and I think they’re pretty bent in more ways than one. If you ever want to put some juice into any activity, show it to a kid. It’s like going to Disneyland. You can get bored with Mickey after so many outings, but bring some kid who has never been there before and watch ‘em get lit and hopefully you will too. You see it from a whole different angle. They say “The children will teach the teacher.”

Same thing with fishing. Bringing kids fishing never fails to get me going again, especially in Baja. It’s not just the fishing. It’s the whole experience. Just before we hooked the marlin, a routine sighting of a pod of dolphins had the boys gleefully running around the deck and an every-day experience like that had both myself and Captain Manny grinning broadly. Smiling kids on a boat is a pretty infectious thing. Like a banjo playing. You can’t help but smile. We didn’t yet have a fish on the boards, but it felt like if we did nothing else that day, just the dolphin sightings would have been a topper.

Every year this group of kids comes down with their dads and uncles and on their last day, I get the 5 youngest as my “team” and we compete against all the old dudes. We beat them most of the time too and have a blast.

We ended up hooking 2 marlin that day and a dorado. One of the fish took the boys almost 2 hours to get to leader. As we throttled back to La Paz later in the afternoon, I saw 5 very exhausted little boys passed out on every deck cushion and stateroom bunk. I couldn’t help but wonder if these kids realized just how lucky they were. As one of the dad’s said to me later, “I’d have killed to go on a trip like this when I was their age and they get to do this every year. In about 20 years, I’m going to ask for payback because I’m going to make my kid bring me as an old man down here and make him take care of me!” Amen to that.

Baja is a very special place. You can be a pirate and an explorer; conquistador or a bandito, cave-dwelling native chieftain or bone-digging archeologist. Tom Sawyer wears a sombrero here. Huck Finn pilots a Bertram ’31 instead of a plank raft. It was made for little boys no matter what age they are and even moreso, for little boys and their dads.

I haven’t been lucky enough to have any of my own and am still trying to grow up myself, but I do very much enjoy having other little boys come down with their dads. I love having my own dad come down. Rites of passage are what it’s all about. Little boys get taken care of by their dads. Hopefully, in time, dads get taken care of in return.

My own dad is sure capable of tying his own hooks, but he feigns not being able to see the line or make sure I pack the ice chest “just so.” I don’t mind doing it and remember the days he bought the hot dogs and brought the Velveeta cheese to a little kid who wouldn’t stop throwing rocks into the water and scaring all the fish that turned into a Baja rat himself.

It’s Dia de Los Padres here in Mexico this weekend and by the time you’re reading this, hopefully, you’ll have had a great Father’s Day weekend wherever you are. I miss my dad and can’t spend the weekend with him as we’re deep into the season right now, but dad rides the boat with me everyday.

I hope your dad rides with you as well and if you are a dad, you know how special it is to have the time with your kids because these are the times they’ll remember you by. Many hot rails to all you little boys no matter what age and cheers to all of us who remain little boys at heart. Vaya bien!

That’s my story..
Jonathan