March 1st-8th 2010

Team 'Senior Citizens' Tom Bender, Tom Hudson, David Johnson and Earl Long.

March 1st we welcomed to Guatemala for their first visit Tom and Dina Bender and Tom and Mimi Hudson who were down visiting with the Johnson's and the Long's......Team Long Johnson consisted of the Seniors Mr David and Sally Johnson and Mr Earl and Betty Ann Long, along with sons (owner) Craig and Clayton Johnson and Forrest and Bennett Long. The Seniors fished with us aboard ALLURE while the Juniors fished ADIOS with Capt Julio. The wives enjoyed their stay visiting Antigua, shopping, seeing the sights and enjoying great lunches at Casa Santa Domingo while returning each night to the Sailfish Oasis.
First day out it was a matter of finding them, and it didn't take long for the crew on ADIOS to get into the action with a sailfish and then a strike on the rigger bait for Craig Johnson which turned out to be a nice blue marlin of around 200lbs. On the 20lb tackle it was quite a battle though Craig got the release in a little under an hour. It was a slow start for us in ALLURE though after working to the east we found some reasonable action and Tom Bender and Tom Hudson were into it and had the technique down in a short matter of time missing only a few fish, we ended the day with 7 releases from 10 bites and a nice mahi-mahi for Earl Long while on ADIOS the guys had the marlin and 3 from 5 bites on the sailfish.

Earl Long with his beauty mahi.
The next day in flat seas we knew where to run and started getting into the fish right off the bat. A steady morning saw the Snr's dropping back and hooking up like pro's, things slowed down some in the middle of the day though we got into some good action in the afternoon with a few multiples coming into the spread. A great day for the guys to finish their trip with 16 releases from 24 bites and a couple of nice mahi's. On ADIOS the action was hot in the middle of the day though slowed down in the afternoon and released 8 from the 16 bites from the 20 sailfish raised. A good day all 'round. The next day the Snr's left to Antigua for a couple of days while the ADIOS went out for another day. They kept their red-hot marlin streak up raising another blue that didn't bite and released another 8 sailfish and landed a nice mahi of around 35lbs.

On the 5th we welcomed Bruce Aikens and good friend Scott Adams from Michigan to Guatemala for 4 days of fly-fishing. You got to tell it how it is and the fishing turned off unfortunately for their stay here, we tried like hell and covered alot of water for little action. On their first day we worked up the eastern edge though could not get a fish to tease in, late in the afternoon we ran to where the guys on baits found a little late in the day bite and decided to change to conventional fishing with the baits to get a little action. In the last hour and half we released 5 sails on the baits to make something from the day.

Scott Adams with one of the many sails......
The sailfish were lethargic and not even coming up on the teasers so the next day we went wide to the west and trolled the whole way down the edge looking for better action and aggressive fish. Beautiful blue water, birds, bonitos, and lots of blue runners were busting though we only raised one sail that did not tease in. The guys fishing baits back to the east had a little action going though it was very slow fishing all round. Back on the baits the next day we raised 4 sails and released 2. For the final day it was back in the fly and we worked hard to raise 4 sails, 2 teased all the way to the back of the boat and we got one to bite the fly. It is what it is and sometimes it turns like that. We still had a great time with Bruce and Scott even though the fishing was tough and the guys humor helped to ease the pain. It was hard work for the whole fleet out there though there were a few marlin seen so it looks like the marlin bite maybe on the turn as it traditionally gets better through the spring and into summer. Right now there is plenty of great water and the current is pushing in so we are expecting things to turn around soon. No worries!!