Catch Report Jan 18th-19th

Bill and Kelly Munro brought down friends Butch and Gwen Boyd and Johnny and Rita Ann Smith all from Beaumont, Texas to Guatemala for 2 days of fishing and a full day in the Spanish Colonial city of Antigua for sightseeing, shopping and of course drinking beer.....
To the fishing, we went east stopping a couple of times after going through patches of green then blue water and settled on some nice water about 25NM out, getting into a fish immediately, soon after we raised a big fish, pushing alot of water on the rigger bait. We had the mackerel back there in no time and were turning when the fish came up on the flat line teaser, winding the bait up to the teaser the marlin disappeared again. Circling around one more time the fish came up on the bridge teaser, and teased us before going down and not eating the mackerel. It was a nice one of around 500lb......The rest of the day produced fairly steady action raising 24 sails, getting 21 bites and releasing 12, as well as Kelly catching a nice 20lb dorado that feed everyone for the 2 days on the water. Our second day out we stopped in a little closer at around 17NM and the first fish we had up for the day was blue marlin of around 200lb, it teased well, ate the pitch bait, pulled line, and pulled off. On the sails we raised 18 had 16 bites and released 11 before pulling in lines at 2.30, being back at the dock for 3.30 and transferring them to the Casa Vieja van and to Antigua. Dinner at the spectacular Panza Verde, a walking tour the next day and an afternoon at Casa Santa Domingo watching the Football playoffs capped off a great trip for the Munro group. We're looking forward to seeing you guys n gals back next year.



The Munro Group and crew of Allure

Fish Report 11th-15th Jan '08

11th-13th Saw the return of brothers Mark and Doug Hatter to Guatemala, this time bringing younger brother Steve who flew down from Anchorage, Alsaka. All 3 are self confessed fly fishing junkies so we were hoping to get into some good action for them. The 11th was a little slow all round though in the afternoon we got into a little action finsihing with 8 sails raised, 5 bites on the fly and released 3, Steve was the new-comer to bill-fishing with the fly rod and showed his brothers how it was done getting 2 from the 2 bites. The last fish of the day was a nice bull dorado of near 30lbs that teased in from the long flat very aggressively and engulfed the fly that Doug cast, after a breif hard fight with plenty of jumps for the camera we boated the big fish that ensured a good fresh ceviche for the following day.





A couple of shots of Dougs nice dorado taken on the fly jumping, and the end result.

On the 12th we decided to head out wide to the west seeing the current was pushing on on the edge out there and due to the slow action for the fleet inshore. Things started slowly though as soon as we got near the top of the drop off we got into a bit of action, raising a couple of doubles and singles, while fighting one of the fish we spotted some spinner dolphin acion off-shore of us and ran to it once we had released the sail. There were an incredible amount of birds on the spinners and yellow fin tuna were busting bait in front of them, on our first pass we hooked and landed a triple of nice tunas and on the second boated one from a double before putting the cedar plugs away and trolling teasers around the action hoping to raise a marlin for the fly. We raised a sail that bit and headed back to the edge to the area we had had the earlier action after seeing nothing more a round the spinners. There were fish around and Mark was in the water with his under water photography gear getting some great shots of a sail Doug had boatside.



In the afternoon we trolled teasers up the edge coming accross a log that was loaded with bait and big dorado, Mark, who is a photo-journalist was in the water again getting some great shots that we will be posting on the web-site soon. Thanks for the incredible images...! Doug and Steve got into a couple of nice 30lb+ dorado and we ended the day with 9 bites on the fly from the 14 raises.



Doug and Steve with their big dorado.

On the last day we went to where a reasonable bite had been found to the east, things started well and we were looking at a good day, though the action dried up before noon and we had a very long slow afternoon, not before raising 12 sails that were a little lazy and hard to tease in, though we did get 4 bites and raised a perfectly sized blue for the fly rod of around 150lb that teased all the way to the back of the boat though did not see the fly that was cast to it before swimming away. Very frustrating though raised the pulse levels of all on baord. There were at least a 10 marlin seen around the fleet of 12 boats, though all reported the same with the sailfish bite drying up in the afternoon. Still we had a great time with the Hatter brothers and hope to see them down here again soon.

14th Allure hosted Frank Love and Mike Seers, with the current pushing the blue water inshore to the bottom of the pocket, that's where we started and raised a finiky sail almost immediately. We then raised a nice blue of around 250lbs that teased in aggressively and crushed the bait, we were hooked solid to the fish on the pitched mackeral before it threw the hook in the third jump......bad luck Frank. The rest of the day was slow, mixing it up with the fly, baits and a bit of live-baiting that did not produce a bite. We ended up with only 5 rasied sails getting 2 from 3 on the bait and a couple of dorado to 25lb.

15th had Brad Jenkins and Denis Smith on board and we decided to head out to the west on the flats where we had seen a few jumpers and plenty of bait a couple of days prior. Mike on the Intensity started 6 miles to the west of us and was on them almost immediately. We trolled that way and had good consistent action though out the day, mixing it up on the baits first we released 12 from 18 bites and changed to the fly for the last 45 minutes of the day getting 2 from 3 bites before pulling lines in early at 1.30 so the guys could get back to the dock by 3.15. By all accounts a great day having 24 sails up in the spread.
We have a couple of days in though things are looking good out there with still a few marlin being seen and the sailfish bite picking up. More reports in a couple of days and we'll finish with this image of an incredibly lit up Guatemalan sail taken by Mark Hatter.



If you are reading this on the blog click on the images for a blown up view of these great shots............

Fish Report 6th Jan '08

January 2nd through 6th Stallion Oilfield Services were down with two groups alternating on two boats, Allure and Spindrift while staying at the Casa Vieja Lodge around the corner from Marina Pez Vela. Hill Dishman and Todd Mucha (aka Billy Backlash) came in a day early and fished the 2nd on Allure. A fairly severe cold front came through Central America producing a stiff NE wind and seas a short sharp honest 5-6ft. The fish were out wide as well and in testing conditions the guys did well releasing 13 from 20 bites. We started with the first group consisting of Tom Atkinson, Allen Herbert, Brett Agee and Hill Dishman on Allure and on Spindrift were Shawn Steffen, Mark Milleg, Sam Linden and Billy Backlash (aka Todd Mucha). With conditions predicted to get worse we decided on Rooster fishing in the morning. Spindrift headed back out to the same area we were the day previous and ended with 8 from 16 bites, on Allure we went east and stayed closer in getting a blue up of around 250lb that bit aggresively and went 3 for 6 on the sails and 3 nice dorado to 25lb's. Craig and Brett Johnson joined the crew on Allure the following day and both boats went out wide. Green water had us heading out to the edge where we found alot of bird life and bait and reasonable water and enough activity to keep us there for the day. We ended with 8 from 14 bites and a triple header of nice yellowfin tuna at the end of the day around spinner dolphin, Spindrift went 5 from 6 and 1 tuna.
The second wave came in for the last two days with Robert Polley, Mike Shores, Dan White, Hill Dishman and Craig Johnson on Allure. William Stevenson, Jed Angelle, Craig Haile and Jamie Dishman joined Capt Nicho on Spindrift. Both boats decided on looking for a bite closer than the 43NM we were out at the day before. It was fairly slow though with Spindrift getting 8 from 12 and Allure 7 from 10 and 4 nice dorado to 20+lbs. Offshore and to the west a good bite was found and thats where we ended on the last day. On Allure we had famous underwater photographer Tony Ludovico and the action was great with Tony getting in the water a dozen or more times getting some great shots including this one of Hill Dishman getting up close and personal with a sail, swimming it down prior to release:



It was a great way to finish the trip with 23 sailfish releases from 29 bites, great fishing from new comers Mike and Dan who were baiting their own fish like pros and Dan also caught a nice 41lb bull dorado......great job. Spindrift got into the action as well with 18 from 27 bites including a quad hook-up and release.
The fishing has continued to be good for the days following with the bite moving closer to shore every day and few more marlin showing up as well. More reports to follow.