Fish Report 10th Dec '07

6th Dec we were joined by Jim Gardner and Broughton Cochran for their first trip to Guatemala. We had a great day on the water raising 33 sails 3 blues releasing 10 from 26 bites on the sails and pulling the hook on the one blue of around 350lbs that did bite. The guys were keen to hook their own fish and chose a difficult day to learn with alot of the fish biting, though not 'eating' well it seemed, making the numbers a little askew..........Still it's all part of the learning curve of the bait and switch using circle hooks. There were plenty of dorado around as well for the next few days.
7th Dec and Jim was our solo angler for the day and very keen to have a go on the fly rod, having never cast a fly before, let alone to a billfish he had a great day. We were away from the fleet for the majority of the day, and showing the extent of fish around still had a great day raising 27 fish getting 10 to bite and releasing 5 on the fly. An awesome day for a first timer. There were a couple of red-hot doubles and one triple that were in the numbers raised where you wish you had another angler to cast another fly in the water. In-shore from us the fleet were on a strong bite with the guys on baits releasing up to 29 and a couple of blue marlin to boot. We never realised how good the bite was and joined the fleet late in the afternoon raising 12 fish quickly and releasing 2 from 4 bites.
8th Dec Roughton was back on board with Frank Norton. It was a different day, raising plenty of fish though having a real tough time teasing them into casting distance. We raised 24 and did have 8 very good bites on the fly, there was abit of bad luck for the first timers on the fly with popped tippets and a broken hook, still we released 2 sails and were unlucky not to get the release on a couple more. The boats on baits released up to 23 and today on the western side where we were there were no marlin seen for the first time in days. The Capt Hook went solo over to the east side of the pocket and caught a blue of the teaser in the morning. Seeing no sailfish though hordes of bonito they tried live-baiting for the last 3 hours of the day released another 3 blues.....A helluva day, nice job Ronnie. We weren't out yesterday (9th) and today though the fleet went east chasing the marlin bite that Ronnie had found and the reports are of a fantastic marlin bite that we wish we were a part of. Yesterday more than 14 marlin were released from the fleet of about 7 boats and the same thing today with the best releasing 3 blues and a black. Nearly all the fish are being caught on live bonito around the large schools in the area. Today it was more of the same with 16 marlin released among the fleet. Incredible fishing, alot of sailfish around the same schools as well. We're looking forward to getting out there in the next couple of days and will have more reports.