The one that got away
14 December 2019 | Sea of Cortez, BCS, Mexico
Eric Ahlvin | Sunny 75F, calm

On 12/14 the Norther that kept us in Isla San Francisco finally calmed down and we headed back south. The previous day it’d been 25 knots and solid whitecaps in the channel, and on the 14th it was calm and glassy. We motored south from Isla San Francisco and settled in for a three-hour cruise. I started up the watermaker and Linda deployed the fishing lines. It was a perfect day for fishing, no sails to distract. We were up to 76% on the tank I was filling when Linda called “Fish on!” it was a good size Dorado. I turned off the watermaker as quickly as I could. Flushing with fresh takes 3 minutes.
These pelagic fish are big fast swimmers with a lot of blood in them and when Linda gets them aboard and kills and cleans them in the cockpit it’s like a horror movie, with gore everywhere. Last time I got major blood stains on my dayglow bicycling windbreaker, so this time I was prepared. I changed into my red swim trunks.
By this time Linda had put on her “fish” gloves and pulled in the hand line so the fish was a few feet behind the boat. I took a couple of quick pictures and offered to get the gaff. Linda was trying to pull him into the cockpit, and he was trying to stay in the water when he managed to shake out the (barbless) hook and disappear back into the water with a splash.
That night we read in “The Cruiser’s Handbook of Fishing” how to use the gaff and I showed Linda how to sharpen the cleaver for the next one that doesn’t get away.