Fish Report to December 20th

The fishing has really picked up in the second half of December with some great days on the water with marlin, sailfish and plenty of mahi mahi's and the odd yellowfin tuna for the table.

On the 18th we welcomed back on ALLURE the Fred Herring group from Houston, Texas. Fred Snr and Jnr were here with great memories of last years December trip and wondering if it could be matched. They obviously have some great mojo about them because the fishing went off, again! This time they brought with them Fred Jnr's partner Mel and friends John and Nancy Keely also out of Houston for their first trip to Guatemala. Things got off to a slowish start on their first day out though picked up after Fred hooked and landed the first sail of the trip. Next up was John Keely, and what an introduction to billfishing for him as the next fish in the spread was a blue marlin pushing the 200lb mark on the short left teaser. He did an excellent job on the rod and we got the release after a short tough fight on the 50lb stand-up gear. The fishing got hot in the middle of the day with doubles, triples and a quad adding to the total of 27 sailfish releases from 38 bites and a couple of mahi mahi to 20lbs. Great job crew!!
Their last day out on the 19th was more of a challenge with a cold front moving in and making conditions a bit sloppy out there. Still they hung in with a couple of triples keeping everyone on their toes with 24 releases from 35 bites and two big mahi mahi for fresh sashimi at the end of the day. The group are finishing their trip to Guatemala in Antigua for a couple of nights enjoying the sights with a couple of organized tours around this beautiul little town. We had a good time fishing with you guys and gals and we look forward to seeing you all back next year.

Dec 15th-16th had Mike Shores with Toby Solis and Gene Roberts on ALLURE for two days of fishing. Toby and Gene were both billfish virgins and they were blown away by the quality of the fishing with 28 sails in the spread and 17 releases from 25 bites. They also got 3 nice big mahi mahi to 32lbs. The next day they figured they'd caught enough sails and wanted to try for tunas and a marlin......so we left the sailfish bite looking for spinner dolphin and the yellowfin tunas. We found two big groups of spinners through the day though the tuna weren't on the bite unfortunately. At the end of the day we found lots of bait including big blue runners and bonitos busting around a log so we tried live baiting a couple of bonito tunas on the birds working the area and got Toby on to a nice blue marlin pushing the 250lb mark. The fish put on a great display and he got the release on the 50lb stand-up tackle. A great way to end the trip! We also caught 4 out of 8 sailfish and another 3 mahi's for the day. We hope to see Mike and the crew back down here for April.

Dec 12-13th Chief Tauzin brought down clients Whitt Broussard and Joe Pappenfort for a couple of days aboard ALLURE. The fishing previous to this trip had been good though a cold front that pushed in a 20knt ENE wind changed things and the fish were not biting all that good. We did get 6 sail releases from 8 bites and caught a bunch of good sized dodado/mahi-mahi to keep the action going. All in all they guys had a blast down here and Chief is due to come back down in January with Whitt also planning a return trip early in the next year.

Dec 8th-11th. The Mike Marshall organized group consisting of himself and 3 generations of the Bockmon family with Alan and his sons Greg, Steve and Jeff and Jeff's son 13 year Ryan. The group split between the two boats ALLURE and super panga QUE VELA with Capt Tom Boice for the 4 fishing days. They came down to Guatemala with 3 coolers planning to take home as much mahi-mahi and tuna fillets that they could and they weren't let down. The mahi's were biting good with well over 20 doarado landed, all in the 15 to 25lb+ weight range. We also got into some small yellowfin tuna and of course the billfishing was good especially the last two days. Alot of goals were achieved on this trip with everyone of the group catching their first sailfish with Greg Bockmon getting a horse of a 150lb sail on the first day out with Tom on QUE VELA. They all caught multiple sails on the baits and keen fly-fisherman Alan really only wanted one on the flyrod, on his last day on ALLURE we got him a beauty that tested his indurance though after a hard 20min workout he landed the big fish. On the previous day Alan also landed a 20lb mahi-mahi on the fly while fishing with Tom on QUE VELA. Young Ryan as well as releasing the first sail of the trip after just 10mins of fishing on ALLURE, achieved his goal in landing a 20lb rooster fish while fishing inshore on QUE VELA. Mike Marshall's goal was to beat his previous biggest fish, a 320lb yellowfin tuna, on day 3 while fishing aboard ALLURE he got his wish with a solid 350lb blue marlin. It was a spectacular bite on the pitched mackeral off the short right teaser that left everyone on board open mouthed in awe of the speed and power of the fat blue. Mike did well with the Black Magic stand-up gear and we got the fish boat-side after a hard 45min fight. We raised 3 blues in the 4 days getting the one release from 2 bites with the other spitting the hook as it came jumping toward the boat. QUE VELA also raised 2 blues though did not get the bite out of either of the fish. Congratulations all round, it was a fantastic trip for the group from California with lots of billfish action and 3 coolers full of fresh iced down fish to take home!

Previous to this ALLURE owners Craig Johnson and Hill Dishman showed their skill going 11 from 12 bites while here on a short trip. Also the Jupiter took out a local group for a half day of fishing and released an est 250lb blue, a couple of sails and landed 4 dorado.....not bad for a half day with the boat being back at the dock for 12.30!! The Jupiter and ALLURE have availability through January and into April and May. Contact Rods and Reels for more info on how to charter either of these proven fish catching boats.