Nica Post: Video…As the Swell Dies, So Do Fish

The swell has died, putting the barrel far out of reach in the four days of surfing we have left in Nicaragua. Undaunted, we went fishing. Video after the jump.

The ocean is trifling with us. The 300-day-a-year offshore wind has reverted on onshore blah, making Playa Santana look more like Goleta Beach in Santa Barbara: Small and mushy.

Philip, one of our hosts at Buena Onda, suggests a diversion: A fishing trip on the panga he keeps at El Astillero. Spat, the Camera Monkey, Philip, and Mitch and his daughter Mary Helen bite. Half a day on the water beats sweltering and 10 a.m. drinking in a hammock. This is natural. Who wouldn't choose 7 a.m. drinking in a boat over the hammock? ...

The trip blew the doors off all expectations. The variety and frequency of fish life off Astillero did right by us. Philip has his panga dialed in with an awning and rod holders. Dorado, Sierra Maks, bonito, needlefish and some others kept us cranking the reels all morning.

Our fishing companion Mitch is a fish wholesaler, and he did honors with the knife. Cleaned the dorado and the Sierra clean to the bone. Which enabled the ladies in the kitchen at Buena Onda to serve up fillets in butter-garlic-lime sauce for 10.

This induced a post-fishing coma that reached deep into the afternoon. No closer to the barrel, but pretty damn close to perfect.