Fishing
Only having fished in fresh water, I was enthralled by deep-sea fishing. We went on a 4-hr trip with Driftwood Fishing Charters during their 1-5 PM slot. The cost is $400, no matter the number of people (up to 6). Our crew consisted of the Captain Doddy and First Mate Arejean, who spoke Papiamento and English. We were on the Driftwood II (Living Easy) boat. Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Your experience may vary depending on your fishing abilities. All of us being rather n00b, we mainly sat around trying not be seasick, chilling with some Balashi and Chill, hopping down from the upper deck to "help" (get in the way, really) reel in fish once they were on the line. Doddy setup all the lines and baits (ballyhoo, which look like baby swordfish) with an expert quickness on a boat that was undulating rather wildly with the Aruban wind. Both guys were happy to answer any questions and open our beer bottles, but were not too conversational. More focused on catching fish!
That day, the strategy--as explained by Arejean--was to have four lines w/ ballyhoo (trolled fairly shallow) and one deep-sea artificial set. Along the sides of the boat were long lines of squid lures w/o hooks to attract fish to the boat. The first half hour was fairly slow, mostly spent zooming out to the south side of the island. Then, suddenly,
BAM! A dorado, aka mahi mahi, aka dolphin, was on the line! All of us were sitting cozy on the top deck drinking Balashi when it happened. Captain Doddy yelled for one of us to help reel it in while he tried to tempt the school of mahi mahi (apparently they travel in schools, and apparently they mate for life and hang around in the spot where their mate gets captured, waiting for them to get back 😞) with cut ballyhoo. Doddy and Arejean yelled back and forth to each other in Papiamento (Arejean could see the mahi from the top deck and was also moving the boat to aid w/ the capture).
Apparently, the mahi were schooling around a piece of driftwood. (What a coincidence the charter company is of the same name.) Dorado are beautiful, powerful fish that are iridescent blue and green when alive. We could see them circling the boat from the top deck. Fighting for their lives, they jump and twist out of the water quite impressively. Once they get reeled in close enough, Doddy gaffed 'em with a hook attached to a pole and plopped them on board!
We circled that log in the ocean for about an hour before moving on. Must have caught an additional two or three mahi in the same spot. We then ran into some wahoo around some cargo ships further out to sea. Those bastards fight way harder than the mahi! Also beautiful with thunder-blue stripes and large expressive eyes. With 30 min left in our journey, Captain Doddy radio-ed our fruitful wahoo location to another boat, and we sailed back to Aruba. As an added bonus, a pod of spotty dolphins (the mammal type) made a surprise appearance on our return trip!
Yield: 4 wahoo, 7 mahi. Apparently, we had a very fruitful trip compared to other 4-hr charters. Hoping to catch some tuna, but we did not. (The 8-hr charter ahead of us found a good tuna spot much farther out to sea.) Arejean told us they would sell the fish for about $3-$4/lb. After our arduous afternoon of drinking Balashi and occasionally reeling in fish, we opted to go to the associated restaurant of the same name. Daaaaamn. The food was good. We got a major discount since we "caught the fish." They prepared the same species of fish we captured (five ways), $17.50 a person. So so
so good! Even if you don't catch fish, I recommend this restaurant.
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