To the 14th...Fish Report

Gerald and Mark Micho, Gary Miserlian and Michael Coe with a nice sail.
The fishing here has continued to be good with an incredible amount of bait over a big area of water. The bait looks like small butterfish and it is being balled up by sails all over the place. The last few days the bonito have arrived and there have been some big 'foamers' where the bonito are pushing the bait to the surface in a feeding frenzy. It wont be long before the marlin show up with all the bonito out there. For now it is bonito and ALOT of sailfish that are feeding on the small baits. With all the bait around it has been hard to pull the sails off the balls though generally the late afternoon bite has been very good.
We just had through the Gary Miserlian group consisting of 4 father and son teams John and David Wojciechowski, Glen and Norman Korpi, Jim and Kent Daehling and Jerry and Mark Micho along with Bob Minster, Bill Whitney and Mike Coe. The group stayed at the brand new Quinta Pez Vela and fished aboard Allure, Intensity and Spindrift from the 12th through to the 14th. They released 36 billfish the first day and a nice 54 inch dorado was boated on Allure for sashimi in the evening. The same again for the group on day 2 releasing 36 sails with Intensity seeing the majority of the action today. On Allure we went out wide and came accross several large foamers, bonitos gorging themselves on the bait. With the bonito holding we live-baited a couple around the outsides and raised a marlin on the long bait that dissapointingly did not eat. Today, the 14th we fished more to the east and there were birds working the baits all over, the action was steady and very good in the afternoon with 52 sails released for the group. A grand total of 124 SAILFISH RELEASES for the group in 3 days of fishing and several slammer dorado as well. Awesome stuff!!

THE INFAMOUS WALKER GROUP

Marshal Reid, Matt Mabry, Chris Walker, Rob Bailey, Tommy Walker, Burke Lane, Frank Marquez, Ray Duerer, Keenon Raynor and Gerald King from Houston.
The guys fished aboard Allure, Intensity and Canaso for a couple of days. The first day out the action was great just 12NM from the Marina Pez Vela. The bite was good right through the day with triples and doubles for all the boats, the group ended with 54 sailfish released. There were also several big dorado boated and plenty of fresh sashimi and fish sandwiches enjoyed.

Ray Duerer took this great shot of a sail charging the boat (and himself)
The action slowed a little the second day out with 23 sails released between the boats, still a great day on the water and 77 releases in 2 days of fishing. These guys know how to have a great time and were great fun to fish with. We're looking forward to seeing them all back next year. Ray also captured this breaching humpback whale on the way back in from fishing. We have been seeing them regularly the last week or so just a few miles off the beach.


With all the bait around out there and the incredible amount of sails we are expecting the bite to continue to be outstanding. The water is a deep blue and with the amount of bonito out there as well the marlin should start to make their presence felt. There is also plenty of big dorado to mix things up, all in all great fishing. We still have some openings through to May and the later in the season traditionally the marlin bite heats up.............
Previous to this we had Jim Williams along with Don Smith and Ron Hauck from NJ. The guys were in for 3 days on the fly. With all the bait around getting them to bite the fly was a little tough, we raised over 140 fish in the 3 days and had multiple shots

To the 6th..Fishing

A quick report.....

The fishing has been outstanding. We have been fishing with Guatemalan regular Jim Williams along with Don Smith and Ron Hauck fishing on the fly. A great bite right at the bottom of the pocket yesterday intensified today, the current is pushing in and there is bait galore. It has bee making it difficult, or challenging, for those of us fishing the fly. First day out all the boats on fly raised over 30 fish releasing up to 8. The boats on bait raised up to 54 and released over 30. Yesterday was red hot from the get go, still hard to get them to tease in aggressively with all the bait around, though they did bite better today. Most boats raised over 50, we had 61 up and teased.......just 26 bites. On the fly boats released up to 14 as the bites were not that great with alot coming un-stuck mid fight. On the baits, (conventional) the guys were crushing them releasing up to 47 and raising up to 80 odd sails. Today it continued, we raised 52 fish that teased in (not counting the fish that came up and faded before 'locking' on to a teaser) and had 19 bites on the fly releasing 8. A bit of bad luck saw several store bought tippets popping at the huffnuggle knot, making it a bit frustrating esp seeing the drag's set at a less then 5lb's at the end of the day and still having problems with them. The mates here tie most of what we use with good results and we'll supply them for free if you are thinking of coming down here for fly fishing.
All in all it has been great fishing, and the body of fish is big with boats spread over several miles of water and all experiencing great action. Lot's of big dorados on the mix also.
A better report to come in the next few days.
We do have a few openings later this month from the 15th on. If you're thinking about it, just do it!!
We also have a new go fast 31 Jupiter fully equipped with experienced Capt and very competitively priced with plenty of openings

ALLURE WINS TOP BOAT IN 'NO SANCOCHO'

Jan 27th-29th, Rods and Reels Sportfishing in conjunction with Casa Vieja hosted the 5th annual 'No Sancocho Sailfish Shootout'. This is a great fun tournament with the emphasis placed on having a good time, catching fish.......and having a good time. 2008 produced a record 8 teams consisting of 4 anglers per team from Texas, Florida and New Jersey vying for daily cash pots and the overall Team Campionship trophies and cash prizes. The points system mixed it up awarding 10 pts per sailfish on 20lb test, 25pts for a sail on the fly, 75 pts for a marlin on 50lb test, 100pts for a marlin on 20lb test and 150 pts for a marlin on fly. With the points system leaning toward marlin and a slower than average sailfish bite it really made for an interesting tournament. Teams drew boats every evening at the Casa Vieja.
On day one the majority of the fleet headed out wide to around 40NM + where a slow though steady bite had Team Reel Nasty fishing aboard Escapade leading the way through the morning.

The infamous and previous 2 time No Sancocho Champions 'Reel Nasty' consisting of from left to right Chris Bean, Brad Klein, Jamie Dishman and Mark Fertitta.

A-Fin-Ity chose to stay in-shore at around 12NM with Los Vaqueros on board and they too had steady action through the day. Team Casa Vieja consisting of owner Jim Turner, Cpt 'Haole' Chris Sheeder and from Fox Sports 'Reel Adventures' Kerri Burrus and Mike Barry fishing aboard Spindrift with Capt Nicho turned the tables early in the afternoon though with Mike releasing an est 150lb blue marlin on the 50lb gear to take the lead. Shortly after Craig Johnson from Team Tenacious aboard Allure got into a nice blue of around 375lb on the 50lb pitch bait to be right there with Casa Vieja. Team Casa Vieja and Spindrift held on to take out the $2000.00 daily with a blue and 6 sails totalling 135pts to edge out Tenacious and Allure who ended with a blue and 3 sails on 105pts to collect the $1200.00 second placed daily. Reel Nasty on Escapade released 8 sails for 80pts and Los Vaqueros aboard A-Fin-ity caught 7 for 70pts.



On day two Capt Tony Haupt's Escapade continued to be the hot boat on the sails with Team Los Vaqueros:

consisting of (left to right) Michael and Burke Lane, (Capt Tony Haupt), and Trey Strake and Dean Lane having the best of the sail action.

Lance Stanfil and Brett Crawford of Team Four Fat Boys
Team Four Fat Boys drew Canaso and Capt Jason Brice made the call in the morning and told angler Mike Fox to pitch the ballyhoo on 20lb gear to a marlin on the bridge teaser. Good work by Capt Jason and Mike saw the release of a very nice fish of around 275lb on the 20lb and an instant 100pts.

The sail action for the fleet was fairly slow though Reel Nasty with Cpt Jaunga on A-Fin-Ity stayed on the leader board with 6 sail releases. Four Fat Boys and Canaso took out the top dailies and 100pts with Los Vaqueros and Escapade taking the second placed money with 7 sail releases and 70pts. On Allure Team Penquino made the most of the little action we saw that day releasing 4 from 6 bites. We changed to the fly later in the day for the bonus points though never raised a fish.

Team Penquino (left to right) Ron Costello, Bob Smith, Jim Turner Sr and Ed van Wootenberg.
The end of day 2 had the team standings very tight with, Casa Vieja:175pts, Los Vaqueros:140pts, Reel Nasty:140pts, Four Fat Boys:140pts and Tenacious on 135pts. In the boat standings it was equally tight, Spindrift:155pts, Escapade:150pts, Allure: 145pts, and Canaso on 140pts.
Going in to the 3rd and final day a marlin release from any of the teams left the tournament wide open. On the dock the daily water ballon fight before the boats left the dock had Jim Franklin go arse over the covering board and head first into the drink attempting to dump a bucket of ice-water......On Allure we fished with Team Circle Hookers who were near the bottom of the Team Standings, so we decided to take a gamble and head way down to the west knowing that if we stayed with the fleet the chances of climbing up the leader board were slim. We found some fish in less than an hour and had fairly steady action through the day raising 19 fish and getting 17 to bite. What can only be called bad luck with 2 breaking off, one chewing through the leader and a couple pulling hooks kept things wide open to the end. Los Vaqueros on Canaso had a good run at the end of the day to really challenge Team Casa Vieja on Intensity. No marlin were caught and Los Vaqueros releasing 6 sails for the day were pipped by 5 points by Casa Vieja. Team Circle Hookers and Allure won the dailies with 8 releases and Los Vaqueros and Canaso won second daily money.

Circle Hookers Brad Kangeiser, Drew Donaldson, Hill Dishman and Ken Delery celebrate winning the daily pot.
The overall No Sancocho title going to Team Casa Vieja with 205 pts, followed closely by Los Vaqueros on 200 pts, Reel Nasty on 180pts and Tenacious on 175 pts. In the boat section Allure took it out with 225 pts with Canaso on 200 and Spindrift on 195 pts.
Casa Vieja also took out the first marlin money and Tenacious took out the dorado section with a 48.5 inch bull.

No Sancocho Champions, Team Casa Vieja's Mike Barry, Kerri Burrus, Jim Turner and Chris Sheeder enjoy the moment.
The tournament was an out and out outstanding success with everyone having a helluva good time enjoying the great hospitality of the staff and facilities at Casa Vieja and the local community.
Despite it being the 'No Sancocho', there were more than few 'sancocho's' with $20 going into a pot for every fish missed there was a couple of thousand dollars raised and donated to a local school. There were also bags and bags of clothes donated to the cause by the guys which was much appreciated by the local community.
We're all looking forward to next year and if you want to be a part of this great event get in touch with us here at Rods and Reels.
To the guys who were involved, don't hesitate ot get in touch with us of you feel the need for some practice for next years event..........
Keep an eye on Fox Sports 'Reel Adventures' who documented the event.