“JUST ASK”
Originally Published the Week of April 3, 2014 in Western Outdoor News
The pangas had all returned to the beach with happy fishermen. Fish had been cleaned and were either getting icy in the hotel freezers or were in the kitchens getting prepped for the grill and tonite’s dinner.
Most of the guys had headed to their rooms for siestas and shower.
Others, had dragged themselves directly to the pool and the margarita bar foregoing the showers…and the siestas. But, I knew that for most, one drink and they’d be passed out contentedly in a lounge chair…dreaming of the fish they caught and the ones that got away.
I was already in the office, putting away gear and breaking down the days’ events. I had to get ready for another group of anglers coming in that evening on the next flight.
I brisk knock on the office door turned out to be one of the dad’s who had been fishing that day.
“Jonathan, I can’t find my son, Joey. He helped me carry gear back to the room and I went in to take a quick shower before dinner. I came out and can’t find him anywhere. I hate to be a bother. But, I looked everywhere.”
I told him not to worry. Ten-year-olds don’t usually stray too far and many of the other anglers knew or were familiar with the youngster.
We checked the restaurant and the pool. We hit the Jacuzzi. We walked to the kid’s playground. We asked a number of other anglers. No one had seen Joey.
“Let’s walk back to the beach,” I suggested to dad. And we took a short little hike to the little cove next to the hotel where our pangas drop off the anglers.
Sure enough, there was Joey sitting in the panga with our Captain Lorenzo. We could see both of them had their heads down and were concentrating on something.
As we got closer, Dad said, “Joey, we’ve been looking all over for you. What are you doing here with Lorenzo?
Both the captains and Joey looked up with big smiles. Joey held up a hook and some line!
“I came walking back to the beach and found my friend, Lorenzo. And I asked him to show me how to tie a fishing knot! Look dad!”
He held up the hook and proudly showed off his knot.
“I did this one all by myself!”
“Wow!,” said dad with raised eyebrows. “Even I don’t know how to tie a fishing knot.”
Captain Lorenzo looked just as pleased.
In broken “Span-glish” he explained that Joey had just walked up and asked how to tie a knot. It reminded him of his own boys and how he had shown them many years ago how to tie a fishing knot.
“They are grown men now, but I remember those good days,” he said wistfully.
“You are lucky to fish with your father,” he said to young Joey.
“Captain Lorenzo, will you show me how to tie a knot also?” asked dad.
“Claro que si…of course, mi amigo. Es un placer…it is a pleasure!” replied the Captain. “Here take a hook and some line…”
And with that, I backed away smiling down the beach. The lost had been found. And perhaps some other things had been found along the way.
An hour later, I went back down to the beach and half-a-dozen guys were surrounding the panga, all intently learning to tie knots. Captain Lorenzo and Joey were “holding court.”
One thing I learned long ago was one of the fastest way to get a “group session” going was to tie a knot in front of a bunch of fishermen.
Whether it’s a “San Diego jam,” a “Palomar”, an “Albright special”, a “Cat’s Paw”…whatever-you-want-to-name-it…tie a knot.
And someone will say “Hey, can you show me that again?” Or, “But, I tie it differently, like this…”
And there you go! Instant…constructive debate discussion and discovery!
It also occurred to me that one of the least utilized sources of fishing education are the Mexican captains and deckhands who take us all out fishing.
These guys fish more days in a year than most sportfishermen and women will fish in our lives. Most of them started as commercial fishermen and have been doing nothing else their entire lives.
You get pretty good when catching a fish puts food on the table and buys clothes for the family. Often, without all the fancy technology available to the rest of us, they have to be better than the fish as well as their competitor captains and crews. Proudly so.
I talked to Captain Lorenzo a few days after the knot-tying beach party.
“Everyday, there are new gringo clients. And they all want to catch fish. They come. They go.”
“To many, I am just the Mexican captain and the guide. And that is fine. We have a good time and I have been doing this more than 40 years and I am proud of what I do.”
“But, sometimes the clients get angry because they want to do everything. That is fine too. But, then I watch them and they have many problems. And they get angry and do not catch fish. Angry clients are not happy.”
“It is OK if they know how to fish, but many make mistakes. And they do not want help.”
“I wish they would ask. I like it. I am happy to teach. Then everyone has a good time.”
“No one ever asks.” He said with a shrug. “Except one little boy.”
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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