Mr. Jeffrey John Waters

I could never catch a fish, but JJ couldn’t keep ‘em off his hook. So when he invited me to head down to Ensenada for off-shore yellow tail, I figured this was my best chance at ever enjoying the sport. We headed down the night before, got faced at a some dive he knew, and finally crashed in someone’s house (shack) at about 3:00 am. About 127 minutes later he was up and yelling, “let’s go!” and I knew I was in for a memorable day.

Out at sea the anglers started laying lines out. JJ and I had 5 poles active. After getting them set, JJ reached into his wallet and pulled out some cash for “the pool”… the prize money for biggest fish on the boat that day. I matched his amount with a smile (due to the effects of the tequila I’d stopped drinking only 4 hours before). Then we hit a school of yellowtail and the lines started whipping around. I successfully brought in a couple, but realized we’d make more landings if I just let JJ handle all the poles and I just un-hooked the fish he brought up. It was crazy: guys stepping all over each other, yelling, crossing lines, cursing… a hell of a day at sea.

Then JJ pulled up a monster….the biggest one of the day. It landed with a thud and stopped moving. It was so big I couldn’t “one-hand” it like the others, so I held it down with one hand put my foot on its tail. I got the hook out and handed it to JJ who turned to get it back into action. When I lifted the prize to give to a deck hand for storage the beast came back alive…big time. I tried holding on but “Pescado Diablo” whacked my chest with its tail and launched itself toward the boat’s open stern with more air time than a Chargers field goal. It landed two feet short of its goal, but this time it didn’t just lay there, it flailed like Linda Blair in The Exorcist. Yeah I dove for it but, after all, I was just trying to save my pride while he was trying to save his life. He won. His belly flop splash got me in the face.

I turned toward JJ, hoping he had missed this humiliation: nope, he was staring right at me silently mouthing, “what the f ?” He gave me that look, the one that comes with a little grimace, half a shot of eye-roll, and dash of head-shake. But then the cloud passed and he smiled, shrugged his shoulders, said “Oh, well!” and set off to catch more fish. I’ll never forget that image for as long as I live.

Oh, yeah…JJ won the pool that day anyway. After he sold our catch to the locals back on the pier he bought us dinner at La Fonda on the way back to San Diego. Between the sale and the pool money our entire trip to Mexico cost us nothing. I’ve been down the Baja many times, but going fishing with “The Man” is the most memorable trip of them all. God Bless you forever, JJ.

I could never catch a fish, but JJ couldn’t keep ‘em off his hook. So when he invited me to head down to Ensenada for off-shore yellow tail, I figured this was my best chance at ever enjoying the sport. We headed down the night before, got faced at a some dive he knew, and finally crashed in someone’s house (shack) at about 3:00 am. About 127 minutes later he was up and yelling, “let’s go!” and I knew I was in for a memorable day.

Out at sea the anglers started laying lines out. JJ and I had 5 poles active. After getting them set, JJ reached into his wallet and pulled out some cash for “the pool”… the prize money for biggest fish on the boat that day. I matched his amount with a smile (due to the effects of the tequila I’d stopped... READ MORE →