STRANGE DORADO STORY

June 28, 2004, Bob Blair, Fishing San Carlos, Mexico, Strange Dorado Fishing Story:

Some of you probably will not believe the story that I am about to relate and I am almost sure that it is true.

Well, Julio and I had two other anglers on board the Andale ll and it was a very slow day. The ocean was table top smooth and the water was a deep, deep blue. You could see everything going on. Off to the port side we seen a dorado, smaller than a peanut dorado, coming at a extremely high rate of speed. He was actually about half the size of a lure. It scared me to death because I didn't want this cutie to get in the hooks and possibly lose his life.

I put the boat in neutral just to be able to watch what was going to happen. I knew as soon as he got in the spread of lures it was going to scare him to death. Sure enough he picked the middle lure and when he got close to the lure he put on the breaks and did a u-turn so fast that he lost control of his bowels, really. The stuff was just going everywhere.

Well every dorado has a vent hole and the fecal matter stopped up the orifice to the outside. His air chamber is not that big and his little heart was beating SOOOOO fast that he started to swell up like a puffer fish. He looked so weird. We were on the back of the boat just a staring in misbelief.

When the airtank got up to 53 psi a small air bubble came out. and then another one. In just a little bit the orifice started clearing itself out and a steady stream of bubbles was still coming but not enough clear him out just enough to stabilize the pressure.

And then it happened the orifice cleared out and he lost all control of his rudder. You remember when you were a kid and you blew up those great big balloons and the let it go in a small room and it would just go around and around. This was what was happening to my little buddy. In fact he was totally out of control and going so fast he hit my starboard outrigger lure which was one of those HUGE black and purple marlin lures.

He knocked it off the outrigger but he didn't get hung up on the hook, thank God. Well when all the air was all gone he was just laying face down in the water with his eyes closed taking a well deserved rest. But he was laying right next to that lure with that huge eye just staring at him. In just a minute or two he opened his eyes and there it was. It was the biggest, ugliest, meanest looking thing he had ever seen and he panicked real bad.

NOW the little devil has no control over his elevator and this is the part you might not believe. He ran so fast to about 20 yards behind the boat and you could tell in his eyes he wanted to go straight down but no, I mean hell no, that little kid came out of water straight up rose to about 5 ft and was just suspended in midair.. really.

He was looking away from the boat and how he did the next move I have to clue. He turned, suspended in midair, a complete 180 degrees. Now he is looking at four of the ugliest anglers that had ever set foot on the Sea of Cortez. His pectoral fins turned bright blue and I think moving so fast it was keeping him suspended in mid air.

When our little adopted dorado seen us and then looked at that giant marlin painted on the back of Andale ll his eye got as big as quarters. His mouth got so big all you could see was see were eyes, mouth and about 2 1/2 inches of tail. All of a sudden he starts trembling violently.

Then it happened and it still gives me chills. Out of this little critters mouth came the most blood curdling scream that would put fear in all the mountain lions of the southwest. He then dropped into the water and headed west. With my 3 million dollar radar the last time we seen him he was 13.8 miles east of Santa Rosalia on a 173 heading and still did not have complete control of his bowels. I am really serious it happened just that way.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from San Carlos and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for San Carlos may be found at Mexfish.com's main San Carlos page.