Every angler fears bad luck. But how bad can bad get? In his essay, Salado, writer Scott Sadil confronts an epic stretch of not catching fish while living on the east coast of Baja. How bad does it get? Sadil’s slump highlights include the usual snapping tippets and hooks become unhooked, but when the local panga captains begin to turn their heads at his approach and even the local dogs give him grief, he knows something is seriously amiss.

“Hemingway called it salao, “the worst form of unlucky.”
Both verdict and curse, salao was the judgment passed on the author’s famous old man, in the grip of an epic losing streak when he finally ties into his big marlin, changing his fate and the face of American letters.

In Baja, it’s called salado.”

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