L-R Chris Badge, Caleb Wray, Phil Shildts, Alan Rothrock and Jeff Graham.
The Jeff Graham organized group of above came to Guatemala from April 28th through May 1st to celebrate Phil Shildts' bachelor weekend. It included a couple of days fishing aboard ALLURE on the 29th and 30th and finished off climbing Volcan Pacaya checking out the lava flows and a couple of nights in Antigua hitting a few local bars.
To the fishing, the first day out started well releasing a couple of sails fairly early on in the day including Phil's first sail.
Soon after the weather changed as an off-shore squall approached and we ran around the worst of it. Setting out lines in the middle of the pocket it wasn't long before Alan Rothrock was hooked into a nice marlin on the plus side of 350lbs on 20lb test.
Every fish is different and this was one tough SOB, Alan fought the fish hard putting the heat on and we pulled angles on the fish trying to get it up. Conditions weren't the easiest either in rain and a steady 5ft with the odd 6-7ft rolling through making it all a little more interesting. We did get it up jumping on 3 separate occasions, the last time just on 3 hrs into the fight we got close to the fish though she took off down sea and on the last series of jumps got the big tail wrapped in the line. From there on the fight changed and nothing we did could hurt the fish, so with extra drag and angles the line eventually broke after 3 3/4 hrs of hard work. Tough luck Al....We finished the day heading back to where we'd had some action in the morning and released another 2 sails late in the afternoon.
April 30th had far better conditions out there, with a clear day and the wind dropping down from the previous day as well. A slow start though we found an area holding fish further off-shore than the previous day and ended up releasing 6 sails from 11 bites and boating a nice mahimahi for fresh fish tacos and sashimi.
We had a blast fishing with them and the guys were amped with all of them releasing billfish and keen to get back down here.
APRIL 23rd, 24th and 25th
Enjoying the SAILFISH OASIS...
The 'Steve Goodchild Group' consisting of 3 generations of Goodchild's including Steve his dad Leslie and Steve's son John were down along with Jason and Mike Lowrey, Jonny Nobs, Tim Bucanan, Cliff Mountain, Tim Leonard and John Russel for 2 days of fishing and 3 nights at the SAILFISH OASIS. The group split up the first day between ALLURE and ADIOS. Kind of tough for some boats out there today though on ALLURE we got into some action getting 20 sailfish bites and raising a big blue that did not bite. ADIOS didn't do so well on the sails though did raise 2 blue marlin, getting a big fish in the 400lb range to bite though missed it.
John Goodchild
On the second day Hill and Donelle Dishman and Chief Tauzin and girlfriend Amber came to the Lodge to join the group, they fished ADIOS today while the Goodchild group split with half fishing on Circle Hook and half on ALLURE. The fishing slowed a little though on ALLURE we picked up on the bite ratio releasing 10 sails and getting the bite from a nice blue in the 400lb + range, she pulled the hook unfortunately. the guys on Circle Hook released 7 sails and Hill and Chief fishing ADIOS saved best for last with Chief hooking into a nice blue of around 500lb's right at the end of the day. The big fish pulled hard though they got the release after an hour plus fight, add 3 sails and nice day had by all.
On the 25th Hill and Chief were out again and released 5 from 7 bites before heading back to the dock soon after lunch.
All in all the fishing is holding, we are fishing weekends from here on in and expect the marlin bite to stay steady along with good sail-fishing and traditionally the mahi bite picks up as well. The weather the last few days has settled down and we are looking forward to getting out this weekend. Come on down, some great specials to be had in May....
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