Hardcore

I'm up at 4:00 am, this time I'm smart and have all my gear ready. At 4:30 we're on the road to Marmol only 25 miles from town but we have a lot to do to be set up and in the water at first light. Just right here past emeradl bay we go through a check point to get on the maxi pista. Through the fog we see the flashing lights so being as savy as Slah is he turns on the dome lights so the police can planely see that we're the good guys. In the 25 miles north we see every bridge has flashing lights going, lots of security and we feel good about that.

We have it set up to get through a private gate and gain beach access with a bottle of tequila but the security guard is no where around.....mmmmm....Slah and I walk through the dark to his house but he's obviously not home but his 5 or 6 howling watch dogs were, that was a bit exciting, haven't wet a line yet and already I've got a good adrenaline rush. So its plan B, park as close as we can get and hoof it down the beach to the point we want to fish, about a mile and a half.  Its just light and we start out throwing the 'small' rods. Its the perfect morning with a high tide and we're on a point in the rocks. An hour goes  by and Slah is the first to switch to the big rod and it doesn't take  him long to have our 1st corvina. Ern gaffs it for him and we're on the board.

So I start throwing the big rod and an hour in I'm happyily surprised how well it feels, no shoulder pain at all...I can do this. Heres a pic of Slah and the beach we walked to. He's throwing a home made 2 or 3 ounce jig head and I promise you...thats a legitimate 150 yard cast. Pretty cool huh?

We ended up with Slah catching 2 corvina and I caught a nice snapper. We were semi disappointed with the catching but absolutely wild eyed about the fishing, not  a soul in sight. Heres a pic of our catch, I know it looks like we don't take care of it but its the beach and well, we've got lots of stuff to carry.

This is our bivouc spot. Mid morning we sat and had breakfeast, for me it was a bag of peel and eat shrimp and an avocado which I washed down with a Jumex sports drink. Thats pretty good living if you ask me.

On the walk back we came across our watchman. I guess I missed the hand carved stairs in the early morning dark. We stopped and threw the lures a bit here but the tides leaving, parties over.

Sometimes I get to wondering....what am I doing working this hard for fish in Mexico ? Its simple, these guys are the best of the best, drawn together by a driving passion... I got to thinking about when I was learning carpentry and having trouble with heights and walking the walls, it scared me. My foreman, a wise man named Mert Gertin told me...." Jeff, you just gotta want to do it ".