“SI SE PUEDE…YOU CAN DO IT!”

Originally Published the Week of Oct. 30, 2013 in Western Outdoor News

Do you remember the days as a little kid when the Sears Christmas catalog arrived in the mail?

If you were like me, I squirreled it away.  I spent hours staring at it.  Page-after-page.  Dreaming. Longing. I would take it under the covers with my flashlight and make notes on it.  Santa, puh-LEEZE bring this… and this… and this!

Then, I got older.  And fishing magazines took over. I would save my allowance to buy “Field & Stream” and “Sports Afield” and among others.  Later, it was magazines like Western Outdoors.

Here were all the things I wanted.  And here were all the places I would visit and the fishing I was gonna do when I grew up.  Yea…that was me up there on a flying bridge with a jaunty sailor cap and some bikini gals aboard.  Being young,  I wasn’t quite sure what the bikini girls had to do with it.  But all the photos had bikini girls so I figured that it was important to have them if I was gonna do it right.

And I was surely gonna fish a “big game tournament.”  I wanted to be a fishing rock star.  I wanted to be under the lights and, of course, there’s those bikini girls that get to help you with the big check.  Yup…that was me.

And here I am…many decades later.  And yes, I’ve had the opportunity to fish and work many of these tournaments. I have caught some great fish.  I’ve enjoyed grand times with friends.  I have exceeded curfew more times than I will admit.

I never did get to be the fishing rock star.   I never got to stand under the lights and no one ever interviewed me about my big winnings let alone getting to pose with the bikini girls.

But, oh well.  I never got everything in the Sears catalog either!

But, I have always had a blast.   No regrets!

We’ve got our annual Western Outdoor News Tuna Jackpot coming up again.  And it always lives up to it’s slogan, “Fish Hard.  Party Harder.”

It’s in Cabo San Lucas and both Jill and I get to work the tournament every year and what an event it is with almost 140 teams from all over the world revved up to play.

We’re there for the whole week although the actual tournament is only a few days.  But the event brings out the whole town of Cabo San Lucas for the circus.  And, it draws so many lookie-loo tourists as well just out enjoying the day and walking the marina.

As we work the crowds, it’s hard not to easvesdrop and hear some of the conversations that take place among the bystanders as they watch the festivities…the big boats…the fish coming in to be weighed at the scales or the huge evening parties.   It’s an electric atmosphere when it’s “tournament week!”

“Someday, I gotta do that.”

“I can’t believe they catch big fish like that!”

“That fish is worth how much money?  Wow!”

“Man, that sure looks like fun.  We should try that sometime.”

There’s a lot of ooo-ing and ahhh-ing going through the crowds.

Y’know, it’s not that far outta reach to play with the big boys. It’s about dreams.   Lots of folks want to do it, but there’s a lot of hesitancy as well.

You’re worried that you don’t have much experience. Or the boat  Or the gear. And a dozen other reasons.   Or, logically, there’s the issue of money.  Especially as you watch guys in Tommy Bahama shirts and thousand-dollar sunglasses cruise by in multi-million dollar fishing-machines yachts.

Your logical mind tells you that you have no business even thinking about it!

Well, tell your logical mind to take a hike.

Most of the folks who fish these things are just ordinary Joes and Janes.  There’s tournaments to fit all budgets and tournaments to fit pretty much whatever gamefish you want to target…from billfish to tuna and yellowtail to sharks.  Heck, some of the biggest tournaments I’ve seen put together are for inshore fish like sierra and barracuda!

Sure, there’s pros and semi-pros in the lineup, but from what I’ve seen many of the folks have little or no experience at all.  They’re out there for the fun and honestly, they have as much chance of winning as anyone else.

And none of this has to break your mortgage payment either.  Entry fees for a team or individual can be just a few hundred bucks.  Get a cheap clean hotel and eat tacos and enjoy all the free banquets and you’ve got your ticket punched for a grand time.

And don’t let the size of the boats deter you either.  The big cruisers might be a bit more comfortable (understatement), but I’ve seen plenty of pangas and smaller cruisers do just fine and run circles around the larger mega yachts.

Some of the largest tournaments have been won by a couple of guys who had enough money to charter a panga for a few days.  They threw in a cooler full of beer and some sunscreen and just tore it up out there.

More important than the boat is a good skipper and/or crew.  If they know the waters, they’ll give you your best shot at doing well. I’ll take a great skipper and a so-so boat over a Gilligan and his mega-yacht.

And, that’s really what it’s about. Come play.  You can’t win and you can’t play if you’re on the outside looking in.  If you don’t wet a line, for sure you will never win.  Playing in a big game tournament is a lot like running away and joining the circus for a few days!  The most important thing to join in is just a desire to try it for once!

Hope to see you on the docks in Cabo for the tournament!  I’ll be working the scales so stop by and say hello.  Or better yet, I hope you bring me a winning fish to hoist up on the scales so the bikini girls can help you with that fat check!

Si se puede!  You can do it!

That’s our story…

Jonathan

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Jonathan Roldan has been writing the Baja Column in Western Outdoor News since 2004.  Along with his wife and fishing buddy, Jilly, they own and run the Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet in La Paz, Baja, Mexico  www.tailhunter-international.com.  They also run their Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the famous La Paz malecon waterfront.  If you’d like to contact him directly, his e-mail is riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com  or drop by the restaurant to say hi!

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“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”