There's a lot of fish in the sea

Am I just slaying you with these cute post titles? No? Um, sorry. The fishing trip was absolutely amazing, and worth every one of the many pennies it cost. We basically got aboard and headed straight out to sea at about 30 miles per hour. While we were zooming out, our captain gave us the lowdown on what we had to do - where to stand, what they'd use for bait, what to look for, etc. Basically, we'd look for schools of "bait" - smaller fish like Bonito tuna (still like 10 pounds, not small in my book) - that would attract the larger fish. We were primarily looking for billfish - marlin and sailfish - but tuna and mahi-mahi were also possibilities. The key things to look for were birds circling (over bait), or lines of "trash" in the currents (logs and other floating debris), since fish seemed to congregate in these areas. About 7 miles out, we hit one of these lines, and Darren our capitan and Javier our mate set out some "teasers" and actual lures (this is actually called "bait and switch" fishing - the teasers are filled with some sort of good smelling fish parts to lure the fish in, and then you get them with the lures).

Within about 2 minutes, we had hooked something! I was astounded, given that my previous "deep sea" fishing experience was a total disaster (everyone got sick, no one caught fish). Jason hauled it in with little problem - a Dorado, or Mahi Mahi, probably about 40 pounds. Most fish in the area are catch and release, but the Mahi Mahis you keep. Javier put the whole fish in the hold. Darren took a picture but apparently didn't know how to aim it - so the picture shows only me (no Jason) and a small corner of fish mouth. A few minutes later we hooked another one and it was my turn to reel it in - not as easy as it looks, those fish are HEAVY. Another Dorado, and this one, we got a picture of!