Fishing in Mexico - it was the best and the worst of offshore fishing.

The annual December trip that Ellen and I take to Mexico every year featured a little something different this time - I actually was going to get a little work in during the process.

I had often heard about Captain Rick's Sportfishing in Puerto Aventuras - about an hour south of Cancun - and wanted to eventually go fishing with some of the company's highly praised team. At an Arena Racing event last year, I was talking to John Witte, an advertising sales manager with WVEC TV, Channel 13. Strange world that it is, his step dad owns Captain Rick's.

So he got me in touch with his step dad, Bob Uecker - no, not the famous baseball commentator, but the owner of Captain Rick's.

I set up an afternoon trip for a little reef fishing for Ellen and I, so that we could catch a few snapper, triggerfish and grouper.

When I met Bob at the marina, he was wearing an Old Dominion University football cap he had stolen from his son.

Talk about a small world.

On our way down the coast to one of the reefs where his boat captains enjoy their best reef fishing success, Bob suggested we put out a few baits and troll for sailfish. Why not, I thought, we were enjoying the warm sun, turquoise waters and a few cold cervezas.

Ten minutes into the troll, the boat captain shouted out - "sailfish, sailfish, sailfish."

A billfish had crashed into the bait spread and one of the mates skillfully played the fish into taking the hook.

Ellen - who had fought an estimated 750-pound blue marlin and several white marlin during a few all-women's tournament out of Rudee Inlet -- didn't want any parts of the fish. So in the seat I went, getting ready to fight a sailfish on a small TLD 25 reel.

The fish put on a classic sailfish show, leaping and dancing all over the place as it pulled almost all of the line off the reel.

As the designated "cranker" I was only able to watch a brief moment of the action before settling in for a bit of tug-o-war with what turned out to be about a 60-pound sailfish.

Trouble was, about 50 feet from the boat, the fish surfaced and bellied up - not a good sign of its condition.

After a quick photo, the mates released the fish. It again went belly-up. They guys tried desperately to revive the fish, holding its bill and running water through its gills for almost 30 minutes. But each time it looked like it had energy, it again went belly-up.

So instead of wasting the fish, we dragged it on board. It would be used to make smoked billfish salad.

Uecker was just as upset as I was, saying that his team on 17 boats only sees about 3 or 4 billfish kills a year. One of them had to be me. Go figure.

A hardcore animal lover and offshore angler, Ellen was equally upset.

But these things happen, often unexplainably as in this case. Everything had been done right, but the fish just didn't make it.

The rest of the outing was incredible. Yellowtail snapper, triggerfish, grouper - even a small strawberrry grouper caught by Ellen that the crew said was a rare catch.

All of the fish were brought to the dock, cleaned and put to good use by the staff and their families.

It had been an incredible afternoon outing. New friends were made, I got a good story and caught my first-ever sailfish.

It had been both the best and the worst of fishing - all in one day.

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