Left the small anchorage at Carrizal early in the morning to head back to Banderas Bay. Sunshine and calm seas brought out the pure, crisp blue of the Pacific. As usual, we were trolling several lines and then we had a nice hit several hours out. We all rushed to our stations and as I was tending to the rod, we were startled and delighted to see what we'd hooked -- a marlin! A huge fish dancing on its tail quite close to the boat. He wasn't on long before throwing the lure (thank goodness), but gave a remarkable performance for us all to witness. We've caught sailfish, but never expected to be this close to a marlin.

A couple of hours later in the picture perfect day, a rod screamed again and we had a nice fight on our hands with Kirstin, Alec and Will working the fish and Evett manning the helm. The end result was a beautiful 4-foot dorado on the deck. Fresh fish (again) for dinner that night.

Calm seas, good current, great weather and exciting fishing made for a rapid leg back to home base in Nuevo Vallarta.