Dominican Republic deep sea fishing

The Sara I was meagerly outfitted with no cushions for the bench seating, so the 25-minute ride out to sea wasn’t the most comfortable time I’ve ever spent. Once we slowed down, though, it was fine, and certainly a nice way to spend a day on the Caribbean. (I thought.)

Now, as much as I try to be prepared and educated on our activities when I travel, this excursion caught me by surprise. The barracuda fishing we were about to do wasn’t at all the kind of fishing I had hoped for and expected. As it turns out, we were just trolling. For those who may not know, trolling is where you bait your lines, cast them out to sea, place the rods in rod holders on the boat and then start cruising. You don’t hold the rod waiting to feel that telltale nibble and you don’t hook the fish by a quick jerk of your rod. You just ride around in the boat for a while and then check the lines to see if anything is on them. And, yes, I know what you’re thinking … we booked the boat for an entire day!

After just a few minutes Victor picked up on some subtle change in the line tension which made him believe we had a fish on one of the lines. My husband reeled it in, and lo and behold, there was a three-foot long barracuda on the other end. I have to admit that seeing that big fish come up out of the water was a little thrilling, and I decided maybe the trip wasn’t going to be a bust after all.

When the second barracuda was landed it was kind of cool, but not really as exciting as the first. By the time we landed the third and fourth I was wishing I had brought my computer so I could at least be writing!

I guess the moral of the story is that every vacation adventure you try isn’t going to be the experience of a lifetime. But you just have to chalk the bad ones up to lessons well learned and keep on exploring. Never stop exploring!