Fishing January 12th-18th

Just about the perfect end to Tim's first day out, he was attached to this nice blue putting on a great series of jumps and pulling hard...

Wives and girlfriends take note!! Tim Hood's wife Christine knows how to lay on the perfect surprise birthday present, she woke him on Friday morning, early, to tell him his buddies were waiting at the door to take him to Guatemala for a 3 day fishing adventure onboard ALLURE staying at the Sailfish Oasis. She organized and paid for the whole trip as a 40th birthday present for Tim who was joined by good friends Doug Shotweld, John Speights, James Barborak and Mark Ruggles. What a gift!!
First day out with the crew we went wide looking as the bite from the previous day had disappeared, a good sized mahi-mahi and only a single sail to show till around 1pm, then we got into some good action releasing 6 from 10 bites in the last 2 hours of the day to end with 7 from 11, as we trolled in up to the edge just before pulling lines in we had a nice blue pushing alot of water on a lure in the stinger position, a great bite ended in a solid hook-up to this big fish....

Tim was locked into this very tough fish for about an hour when bad luck struck and the line broke.....the fish won this time. Still it put on a great display for us and fought hard.
Day 2 proved to be pretty good and steady with 13 releases from 17 bites and the last day out ended with some great activity, a couple of singles, a triple from a quad and a double before pulling lines in with 11 from 14 bites.

Jan 15th and 16th had Tim Goudeau joined by his son Steve and friends Mike Gilbert, Howard Kemp and Jimmy Tindal. This was the guys first trip to Guatemala and their first time billfishing. They are spoiled for life now and any other bill fishing trip won't be the same unless it is back here again..... first day out ended with 10 releases from 15 bites the second turned on even more with 3 double headers adding to the 14 releases from 18 bites. Steve Goudeau also got himself this reasonable mahi...


JAN 12th & 13th HANGING ON IN GUATEMALA...

Chief Tauzin, Jim Braniff, Johnny Braniff, Tommy Fatjo and Philip Evans holding on...

Jan 12-13th the Braniff group joined us for a couple of days aboard ALLURE. The severe cold front that swept through the States hit us in the form of a very stiff ENE'er and 6-8ft very step short period waves making life tough for all on board, excluding Alex the mate/chef who can flip burgers without touching the spatula or the pan in these conditions and loves being turned in a beam sea while cooking......The rest if us had a bit of tough time in these unusual for Guatemala seas. First day out proved tough going, not with just the conditions though slow fishing as well. We worked hard to get 3 from 5 bites on the baits. The next day out we went further to the east into rougher seas though we did find a reasonable bite out there, the guys fished well and even got into bait and switching their own fish while hanging on. Good stuff guys, and great fishing with 17 from 25 bites including a quad released in the afternoon.

Also out was ADIOS with the Ed Stein group for 4 days, unlucky with the weather though what can you do except try. Any try they did with several sails released and to top things off a nice strip marlin of around 150lbs for Ed being the last fish of the trip. Congratulations Ed on a beauty stripy.

The fishing has been good and still is out there right now. In the coming week everyone here is getting ready for the main event, 3 rounds of heavyweight fishing with 11 teams shooting it out in the NO SANCOCHO SAILFISH SHOOTOUT. It is going to be huge so keep a lookout for the results of this IGFA Rolex WS Qualifying Event being held here 29th-31st of January.....