Fishing

Deep fishing is big business in Guatemala. It would be great for the show. I’ve always been one to leave fish alone, but I was looking forward to being out on the ocean. It was a nasty predawn departure. The sun came up a few miles later along the road.

Sailfish is what we were after. There are tons of them along the shores of Guatemala and the world record catch was caught here. It is illegal to kill a sailfish, so it’s catch and lease. We met the world record crew at the dock, loaded the gear and headed out in the ocean. The captain was looking for blue water, which lies an hour and half from the shore.

Much later the line were baited and the fishing began. The first fish caught was Dolphin fish or your mahi mahi. These dudes didn’t fair too well as they were for eating. This made for one seriously fresh sushi.

As this was going on we were over taken by hundreds of dolphins. On both sides of the boat they were porpoising, jumping, twisting in the air. Absolutely unbelievable! For five minute we were surrounded, these dark, smooth, powerful bodies frolicking around us. In the process filming the smaller of the two cameras got slashed and blinked out. That’s six thousand dollars down the tubes!

It was time to fish for sailfish. Don was doing the hero’s job, filming with the forty pound camera on his shoulder. The boat would go around in circles, driving back through it’s own wake making it rock violently and unpredictably. I am pretty sea sick proof, but my ten minutes below decks seeing to the damaged camera had given me the queeze. Don was looking pale and Walter was bent over the side “feeding the fishes”.

Keith on the other hand was reeling in an eighty pound sailfish. The massive thing was pulled aboard and sat on Keith’s lap for pictures. Kind of like a fish Santa Claus. (I’m guessing that the fishes wishes was, “Put me back in the water!”.) The fish got it’s wish as we got our fish and all was filmed.

It was an hour and a half back to the dock. The boat, now in a straight line, had a pleasant rock to it. Even the worst of us started to revive. On the way I started to notice the big sea turtles on the surface. I saw ten or twenty.

The plan was to return to the volcano Pacaya. An expert was to meet us there. We were late, which with our schedule was normal. When we arrived the volcano was in cloud. A little pointless to shoot. So it was, turn right around and come back tomorrow after another long, long day.