Whenever I travel, I always take at least one rod along. Sometimes as many three. When I am heading for Belize, I will take a few, two flyrods and a spinning rod. On this trip to Zihuatanejo I just took a spinning rod along and a few lures that I felt would be good for species that hang out close to shore. One morning my wife Eileen and I walked to the far edge of the La Ropa Beach, where a breakwater met the shoreline. I tried a lure that was really made for topwater bass fishing, but when I threw it as far as I could, where I could see some rocks on the bottom, I saw something slash at it. I finally hooked something that jumped and tore off some line. When I got it to the beach, I discovered that it was a needle fish that was about 3 feet long. I released it and although I tried several more casts didn’t hook anything else. This was encouraging, though, and I thought of another spot at the opposite end of the beach that looked promising. Always the optimist!