At the end of the tournament, a total of 179 sailfish had been released, including 12 blue marlin weighing under 250 lbs., three marlin over the 250 lb. mark, three tuna and 25 dorado. The derby winner was Jay Debeaubien aboard the Kahuna, who took home a $110,000 prize for first place, followed up in second place by John Pentz aboard Reel & Deel.

Just the chance of catching one big billfish was enough to get me packing my bags and boarding a plane headed down south. I was accompanied by my girlfriend, Sheri Simmons, for a supreme getaway from northern California from November 19 to November 24.

Although Sheri is not an avid angler or lover of the sea, she decided to see what I did for "work" and accompanied me aboard one of seven Aries Fleet vessels, the Aries I, for the first day of fishing with Captain Jose Zamora.

As we awoke for our six o'clock fishing trip, the weather was beautiful at a comfortable 70 degrees, with a slight breeze to cool the air. After we grabbed our lunch from the hotel's restaurant, it was time to go in search of the day's catch. Although it was a rough ride to the fishing spot, 24 miles north of the Marina El Cid Harbor, Cevallos said this was one of the week's calmer days.

However, Sheri didn't seem to think was a calm day, but she was able to find refuge inside the cabin. Being used to the bumpy ride the sea offered, I let her rest while I took the first crack at a fish. After about one hour of trolling, we hooked into an 80 pound sailfish that fell for a mullet fished on the outriggers.

This was the first time I have ever had a shot at a fish of this size. Watching the fish jump in the air numerous times, similar to the lift-off of the Space Shuttle, was great! After an arm-tiring half hour battle, I won the fight as our deckhand, Francisco, boated the 80-plus pound billfish.

Following a few quick snaps of film, the fish was released to fight another lucky angler willing to take up the challenge. Since I am a sport fishermen and not interested in eating my catch, I released the fish back into the blue water. Our captain was more than pleased with our wish to release the fish and sustain the fishery.

We trolled around through schools of porpoise in our search for another fish for several hours until we had our second hook-up of the day. Since Sheri was still "under the weather," I decided to reel in the fish. It turned out to be another sailfish, nearly the same size as the previous fish.

After a few more camera shots, it was time to release the fish and head back in, which was a relief for Sheri. When we arrived back at the marina, we still had a little time before the other boats came in for picture taking. I sat and talked with Cevallos about other fishing opportunities Mazatlan has to offer.

"When a lot of people hear about fishing here, they mainly think about deep sea fishing. They don't realize we also have some of the best surf fishing for roosterfish, corbina, snook, red snapper and grouper," explained Cevallos. "Also, just forty-five minutes away is one of the best lakes in the world for black bass, El Salto."

Cevallos recommended timing your trip depending upon the type of fishing you want to do. The months of May through December are typically the prime times for targeting sailfish, tuna, marlin, dorado and mako shark, while anglers interested in catching striped marlin, swordfish, tuna and grouper should make plans between December and April.

If you are an avid angler, the Marina El Cid, one of five El Cid Resorts located along the main strip is an ideal place to stay. The Marina offers luxurious on-the water-rooms suitable for a family's needs. I found the hotel staff very helpful at showing us around the area and making us feel at home.

One of the features I found interesting was the energy saving devices, which run the electricity only when your room card is in place. After the card is taken out of its holder, it takes five minutes for the energy-saving device to kick in and shut down all power to the room, excluding the refrigerator.

To make your stay more enjoyable, I recommend brushing up on your Spanish. Just knowing the names of a few essential items and activities will ease the trip along and make sure that you get exactly what you are asking for. Prior to our trip, I hadn't spoke Spanish for some time and was out of practice. However, after a couple of days, I picked up on the language, which helped us get where we needed more easily and made the trip more fun.

The only bad experience we had during our trip was the plane ride home, knowing we had to leave the beach and warm weather and return back to the cold, rainy conditions we left behind just a week prior!