MAG BAY MAGIC

Survive, is what an angler does the first few minutes after hooking a striped marlin. My friend Nick and I shout with joy, accompanied by excited words in Spanish from our new friends. We watch a reel getting emptied and watch the fish leap, flip, and dive. Thirty minutes later and it’s the post-release chatter, all high fives, and back slaps. The following day, a strong tide is rapidly dumping out of the river we’re fishing, exposing a sandy beach. So we hop out of the panga and begin casting a variety of sinking lines and Clousers into colliding currents. Soon, Nick calls out every angler’s favorite two words. “I’m on!” His ten-weight is buckled in a perfect inverse curve to his smile. Nick gets pulled slowly down the beach before putting the screws to whatever he’s hooked, stopping it just before the sandy shore merges into a mangrove wall. Winning this round, Nick holds a handsome golden trevally that has taken the place of the snook and marlin we came to catch. Landing this exotic and surprising prize opened our imaginations. What else is out here?

Magdalena Bay is the name for a 30-mile-long