GUATEMALA WEEKLY FISHING REPORT PACIFIC COAST SPORT-FISHING REPORT
Week ending July 10th 2008
This Guatemala fishing report is for the week ending July 10th 2008 and is prepared by The Great Marlin Fishing Company operating out of the new Pez Vela Marina .
The Running of the Bulls
As many of you who have fished in Guatemala will know, we keep a “weather eye” on two key indicators first thing in the morning on the dock.
The first is whether the volcano “Pacaya” is swathed in mist and high cloud – a sure sign of moisture at high altitude and often a cold front coming through.
The second is a quick glance at the steam rising from the condensing towers in nearby Puerto Quetzal – an obvious indicator of current wind strength and direction. The integration of these two data points generally forms the “Dock weather forecast” for the day and the successive couple of days – albeit with diminished accuracy.
This “Dock forecast” is generally very good from October until June – when the Pacific Coast of Guatemala is blessed with light winds, calm seas and mostly sunny days for weeks and months at a time…..a remarkable correlation to the weather forecast. This time of year however proves to be more of a challenge to the sages of the dock, for as fast as they can cast an eye over distant Pacaya and so voice their opinion of the weather to come………. it will have changed. The onset of the rainy season means that the winds can come up and change direction quickly – causing the bait and the billfish to scatter and much less concentrated.
Largely because of this, we have been raising only 5-10 billfish per day for the last few weeks, and the Blue Marlin have been noticeable only by their absence.
On the positive side, the rains in the mountains have caused their regular flooding of the rivers and tributaries – pushing debris out to the ocean. Trees and crates are to be found floating at 10-15 miles from the dock – and provide perfect ecosystems for juvenile fish to flourish. These in turn attract one of the most prolific and efficient predators of the ocean, Coryphaena hippurus AKA Dorado/Mahi-Mahi/Dolphin.
Once the Dorado start to feed, there is little that will stop them ! They will consume almost anything as juveniles – achieving remarkable growth rates of as much as 3 inches/week and doubling their weight every six months. This makes them not only prized fare for the table, but also a great sport fish particularly on light tackle.
This can be a great time of the year to come down and take advantage of the plethora of fishing that is available – from billfish to dorado to roosterfish…………and also to take advantage of our Summer Special :
Fish 3 or more days and receive one day FREE http://www.greatmarlinfishing.com/en/specials.htm
We are booking strongly already for some of the popular dates next year, so don’t wait, give us a call at 1-877-763-0851 or send us an email (below) to check on dates – we would look forward to welcoming you to some of the finest fishing anywhere.
Our Favorite Fishing Quote for the week :
"Some go to church and think about fishing, others
go fishing and think about God"
~ Tony Blake
Les, Carlos, Kevin and Jim
The GreatMarlinfishing Company
Contact us at :
enquiries@greatmarlinfishing.com or to register for our weekly fishing report and other information please click here :
http://www.greatmarlinfishing.com/en/register.html or contact us at greatmarlin@yahoo.com
Steve Robinson 900lb Blue Marlin!!
Once offshore and the spread running at trolling speed we hooked up with two sailfish, double header to start not even a 20 minute wait. After landing both fish and photographing, we commenced again.
15 minutes later we hooked up again, the captain saw the Marlin take the starboard outrigger bait. No time for a pitch bait on heavier tackle.
The hook up was a very large Pacific Blue Marlin. The boat was the Tranquility. (31 ft Bertram).
We estimated it to be between 300 – 500 lbs initially, that is until we got it leadered for the first time. I know enough Spanish to understand “ocho ciento cincuenta”!! Which is what the captain yelled. I have seen many fish in the 300 lbs class growing up in the Keys and this fish was… well far larger not only in length but the width was unbelievable. It was a quite a few feet longer on both sides than the width of the stern. John (the angler) said it scared him when he first saw it.
The tackle was a TLD 25 Shimano reel spooled with 20 lbs test, 80 lbs leader. It hit a rigged naked ballyhoo and not the mackerel pitch bait!
The angler was John Bottone from New Jersey, first time saltwater fishing. I talked him through the entire battle, pouring more water on the reel than John. The reel was always in motion.
The fight took more than 4.5 hours. Touched the leader 3 times but could not get the fish under control. On the last touch the 1st mate triple wrapped the leader and tried to horse it in causing the leader to brake, sounded like a 22 gun going off…
We have some video and two very poor pictures, one of the fish about 12 ft down and one on the surface.
We are trying to edit the video so we can get some still shots. We have it jumping twice on video. The size of the splash area was unbelievable.
Not a rumor….
Found out that you cannot bring any billfish to the dock, even if an IGFA world record……which at the worst would have been 800lbs Marlin on 20 lbs.
Lifetime memories.
“Its all about the experience”….. what a tag line you got!
Steve
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