George Haddock's first blue marlin of around 300lb's.
June 26th-28th and Pacific Fins hosted a father and son group from North Carolina consisting of 8 dads and 12 boys who had just graduated from high school. An end of an era, and what a way to celebrate it than a billfishing trip to Guatemala and 3 days of friendly 'competitive' fishing. With 5 boats going out with the group it meant that at least we could get a bit of coverage and find a reasonable bite amongst the boats. On ALLURE day one we hosted father and son John and Darren Ash along with Ladd Hamrick and Matt Houchins. We fished a little away from the fleet today getting some bites inshore and to the west of the other guys and sticking to it, 16 sails raised today and 14 good bites, we had some problems getting the hooks to stick though and released 5 out of the 14 bites and boated 20 mahi mahi to 15lbs. Good light tackle fun. The other boats fishing together were on to a bit better action though a fairly similar number of bites accross the fleet with a Perla Del Mar getting the best ratio and bites releasing 16 from 18 bites, congratulations on a great day!
Day 2 Matt Houchins stuck with us and was joined by George Haddock and father and son team Jack and Jim Carrol. The blue water had moved a good 10NM to the west and it took a little time ot find it though we were the first in it and had a sail bite soon after. Working the area hard produced steady action through the day with 6 sails released from 9 bites and 14 mahi mahi. Perla Del Mar again headed out the day with 7 releases.
Day 3 Matt Houchins and George Haddock stuck with the team on ALLURE and were joined by friends Michael Watterson and Andrew Leggett. The blue water had moved today 12NM further to the west and we were 41NM from the marina when the water was good enough to put the teasers in the water. Close to the edge we headed offshore working 500 through to 1200ft of water trolling to the west, we released a sail soon after lines in and the second fish of the day was the one we were lookng for, a nice fat blue in the 300lb class came up hot on the Joe Yee Super Plunger and switched to the pitched mackeral perfectly. Solidly hooked the blue jumped more than any seen this year and didn't stop, pulling hard as well. George Haddock did a great job on the 50lb stand-up gear though and got the release after a hard workout. The guys ended up top of the comp with 3 sails released today, 1 blue and 10 mahi mahi. Good fishing all round for the group with over 60 sails released and 2 blue marlin along with plenty of mahi's.
May 4th-6th Brad Sears hosted customers Jeromiah Jones, Miller Vaughan, Sean Harigan and Craig Wieland for 3 days of offshore fishing aboard ALLURE. Finding the blue water just 10NM offshore we put them out at the bottom of the 'pocket' and trolled east along the eatern edge working the edge hard trying to find bait and bills. After lunch we'd raised 2 sails that would not switch to the baits and things were looking grim. With just and hour and half left we found some sailfish up the edge and had good action raising 9 sails and releasing 4 from 6 bites to save the day including this double:
L-R Craig Wieland, Jeromiah Jones, Brad Sears, Sean Harigan and Miller Vughan.
Small mahi's were everywhere and we boated 14 today.
A late start on the 5th and we concentrated our efforts at the bottom of the pocket and up the west side hoping for a marlin, again, plenty of small mahi's around and a fairly steady bite through the day with 5 from 7 bites though no marlin seen.
June 6th the blue water was pushing in closer everyday and with it the bite seemed to get better, we only fished a half day today with the guys opting to see Antigua in the afternoon. We had a good morning working the bottom of the pocket 10NM out releasing 6 sails from 8 bites and boating 5 mahis' to boot. A great trip with good fishing and excellent weather with the only issue being a bit of wind on the last morning. We hope to see more of this crew down here next season!
June 8th we hosted Jean Louis Trombetta from Antigua and Bob Stevenson of 'El Pescador' Fishing Lodge fame in Belize. The guys are planning flats fishing expeditions out of the Rio Dulce, Guatemala for bonefish, permitt and tarpon aboard a mothership fishing the untouched keys toward Honduras and plan to offer the incredible billfishing we have here on the Pacific side to clients as well. We left the dock at 1000 and returned at 1400 fishing the deep water out front and to the west, the water colour was good and in this short time of fishing we raised 3 sails on the teasers getting 2 bites and Bob released his Pacific sailfish on the fly.
We can offer some very good summer specials and the fishing here is Guatemala is great year round so make the most of the deals and check it out. Contact us here at Rods and Reels for more info.
