June 10th-12th ALLURE part owner Hill Dishman was back down for his first trip in a couple of months, once again with son Drake, and this time brother Jamie Dishman and good friend Chris Bean. First day out looking, not many boats fishing so time to cover some ground, we got into a sailfish right off the bat though carried on out the eastern edge of the pocket and then across. We raised 4 sails got 3 bites and released 2 on the eastern edge of the pocket before running a couple of miles into some spinner dolphin, a small group loaded with birds and for the last part of the day we slammed the yellow-fin tunas. With triple and quad hook-ups every pass within an hour and half we had boated 26 tunas with the first passes giving up some nice ones in the 30lb+ class.
Another triple hook-up on the tunas
We spent the last hour cleaning fish and live baiting around the spinners, surprisingly with little luck. We were hoping for a marlin bite around such great bird/bait/tuna activity and get Jamie Dishman into his fist marlin. Jamie has been coming down to Guatemala for about the last 10yrs and has experienced some incredible fishing with a few 50+ sailfish release days, plenty of mahi's and tunas and even though we had had a couple of shots at blues in the past with him it was the big one that had eluded him. On Saturday we started on the inside this time working our way up the west side of the pocket, conditions were once again great with flat seas and beautiful blue water about 85'. Little going on inside so we pushed off-shore finding another group of spinners to the west. Once again, plenty of bait and YF tunas and also plenty of skipjack's, we bridled a couple up and fished around the group for a couple of hours hoping for the bite. Nothing going on so we did some tuna fishing boating 13 YF's, a bit smaller off this group though still some reasonable ones like this one for Drake....
We started trolling back in-shore as the tunas were taking us well off the western edge. At about 9NM off the edge we ran back to the drop-off and on the second tack raised the fish we were after. Jamie was the only one of the fishing crew on deck and the fish came in hot on the flat-line teaser, it was text-book stuff, Julio teased the fish in, Jamie dropped the mackerel into position, teaser cleared and a great bite followed. Jamie did everything right, smooth drop back and locked up to come tight to a feisty 150lb blue marlin. The fish had plenty of attitude and pulled hard everytime it got near the boat giving Jamie a good scrap and a sore back to boot on the 50lb stand-up....
On the leader
And boat-side.
Way to go Jamie, the first of many more I'm sure. About 15mins after the release we continued working the edge when a bonito tuna jumped behind our right bridge teaser about 7 feet in the air landing in front of the teaser, seconds later a huge hole and a blue of about 400lbs who had been hot on his tail. The fish dropped back on to our flat line teaser, came in hot and was in the perfect position to switch to the mackerel that Chris Bean had pitched. The teaser cleared though the fish ignored the bait and went straight for the left bridge teaser, we kept the teaser away and again had the bait in the perfect spot for the switch, though that was the end of that. Plenty of adrenaline flowing on deck after that display though as hot as the fish was it did not bite the bait.....
Enjoying cocktails on the ride in...
Sunday 12th hopes were high on getting into some marlin action after the end of the previous day´s activity that we had seen. Further to the west today, more spinners, plenty of logs and bait, we released 3 sails boated 9 mahi's to 20lbs and another 7 YF tunas without even really trying though no luck on the blues....Still an excellent trip for the guys with soft bags full of yellow-fin tuna and mahi-mahi to take home, great fishing and great weather all 3 days...
May 20th and 21st Alex Donalson threw his Bachelor Party with us at SAILFISH OASIS and 2 days of fishing with friends and uncle Drew Donalson, Bobby Woodard, Dr Joe Kenneson, Scott Asher, Patrick O'Fiel, Chris Mc Afee and Jason Rea
Alex Donalson with his first sail of the trip..
The fishing was good for the 2 days out there with plenty of mahi's boated and 43 sails released between the 2 boats as well as a blue that came up on the short teaser though did not bite. The guys had a blast here with great fishing and a great time at the SAILFISH OASIS.
Enjoying drinks back at the dock after another great day on the water...
May 13th and 14th Craig Johnson, Chief Tauzin, and Carl Oliver from Stallion Oilfield Services hosted Paul Dore, Brett Pennigton, Ken Broussaro, Dan Matthews, Clint Yeager and Andy West from Murphy Oil to 2 days of fishing on ALLURE and ADIOS and 3 nights at SAILFISH OASIS.
The guys had a great first up introduction to Guatemala, we started the trip on ALLURE with a blue marlin sailfish double!! The group released 22 sailfish and boated plenty of mahi-mahi to take back home as well. It was good action with the last day out seeing good numbers of sails and some big mahi's.
This is what they had to say about their trip down to Guatemala:
Craig,
I wanted to again take the opportunity to thank you for this past weekend's trip down to Guatemala. It was enjoyed by all and I am pleased to have been party to it.
The hospitality afforded to us by yourself, Chief, Carl, Nick, Kiwi, and the entire staff down there made this trip one to remember!
I look forward to our future encounters as the comradery doesn't get much better!
With kindest personal regards,
Paul
PAUL A. DORE
General Manager, U.S. Onshore Subsurface
JR&Blaire, David&Christina, Erin&Corey
May 6th and 7th We welcomed Corey Survant back down here on his second trip back to Guatemala this season again with his wife Erin and this time good friends David and Christina Harris and JR and Blaire Turnbull. The sailfish bite was a little slow though we had a great teaser bite of a nice blue in the 400lb+ range the fish came back on the flat though did not switch to the pitch bait....soon after we raised another blue on the flat that did not stick around for long, on the sails we released 2 from 3 bites and late in the afternoon got on to a log that was absolutely loaded with as many mahi's as I have seen here. The crew had a blast breaking out the 12lb and 8lb tackle, we ended up with 56 mahi's to 25lbs in a catching frenzy for the last couple of hours of the day. Plenty of fillets to take home!! The next day out we raised 5 sails releasing 3 from 4 bites as well as Christina hooking into a blue of about 200lbs before it threw the hook.
From aft-fwd, Corey, David and JR with one of the sails....
Previous to this Anthony Blair and Billy Herbert were down with Todd Mucha and Chief Tauzin, kind of slow though the guys got into their first Pacific sails while down here, we also got into some nice mahis and watched a 500lb blue marlin chase and eat one of our 10lb mahi's attached to the 20lb class line and 80lb leader, exciting stuff!! They enjoyed every bit of their stay here at the OASIS and aboard ALLURE.
Also way back in mid-April the Phillip Evans/ Will Cravens group was in
The father and son group got into some sails and plenty of mahi action, we also raised a couple of nice blues including one of around 450lbs plus
And some first up sails for the boys.
Right now we are still having for the most part settled weather during the days with some rain in the evenings to cool things off, still plenty of blue water out there and as with this time off year plenty of tunas, mahi's along with a good shot at a blue or 2 or 3 and sailfish are here year round. ALLURE is in the water till mid-late August before we pull her for yearly maintenance. If anyone is interested in coming down we normally have settled weather and good sail bite from early-mid July though August so get in touch and we can put it all together with some good deals available.
