CATCH 21 (Variation on a fish tale) by ALAN GOODIN
CATCH 21
(Variation on a fish tale)
I retired in 1998 and moved to Mexico. I loved to fish and finally settled in Puerto Escondito. After a few weeks of learning my way around, getting myself a new fishing pole and watching how the Mexicans fished I started fishing most every day, from the beach. It was great but I wanted more. I rented a small sailboat for about $10.00 an hour.
In less than three months I found a really great spot to catch Dorado, a tasty white, salt-water fish. In fact, the fishing was so good I bought the boat. Most of the time I had more fish than I could eat so some days I just sat in the boat and wrote and read poetry and last week I read, “The Old Man and the Sea.” It was quiet, healthy and I always caught my limit, if I wanted to.
One warm balmy morning a Gringo approached me, where I sat in my dockside boat writing a short story, a fishing story, about my experiences in the Bahia, the fine weather, surfing, pretty girls and the great fishing. I looked up at the Gringo who was busy checking out my boat, bow to stern and eyeing the sails. He nodded approvingly at me and said, “I’ll pay you $100 dollars to take me out fishing for four hours and that’s my last offer.”
I said, “OK, but I’d do it for $50, but a deals is a deal,” and we shook hands. We set out to my favorite place and dropped anchor. The Gringo looked around and somewhat smugly asked why I had chosen this particular place.
“Because this is where the fish are,” I said. Within four hours he had caught twenty-one Dorado.
I was sitting back under my Panamá hat, eating some fresh shrimp and sipping an ice-cold Corona when I sensed the Gringo staring at me. I nudged my sombrero back a little and looked at him. Staring intensely at me, cocking one eye, then looking around as if to see if anyone was listening, then back into my eyes, he said, “Hey Dude, you know this is awesome. You could make a lot of money doing this if you’d listen to me.”
I opened the ice chest, uncapped a frosty Corona, smiled and handed it to him. “Sí, Señor. Please go on.”
“Well the way I see it, if you had twenty boats like this and charged $100 for a half-day and $150 for a full day, why you could pay off all the boats in one year, retire and…”
“And what Señor? Move to México and fish all day?”
I heard his reel spinning knowing he’d just hooked Catch Twenty-Two.
© 2003 by Alan Goodin
Alan Goodin, a retired Field Parole Agent, has lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for 6 years but does research in Chiapas. He is the author of “Life Imitating Death,” a fictional autobiography of his and his alter ego, Les Barba’s and their work with the Maya in Chiapas. He is the photo editor of this issue of The Oaxaca Art and Literary Quarterly. Like Rick Nelson, his motto is, “But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well. You see, ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself.”