Since 1999 a number of us have travelled the world in search of those specimen game fish. We release all fish back to the wild, unharmed but slightly tired, once the leader has been touched. Exceptions are fish which will be eaten. They will be shared amongst the anglers and crew.
The picture on the right was taken in April of 2004 in Guatemala. It's the fishing party in its entirety!
Our group is truly international and comprises the following fishing nuts:
You are the visitor to this page!
Well – the wife’s largely recovered from her ‘mishap’ of a year ago and I’m off to Guatemala in March!
We're off to Guatemala again in February, 2006 with the GreatSailFishCompany!
Watch this space!
Sadly, the 2006 trip was cancelled.
I was due to travel to to Guatemala on February 13. However, my wife was in Europe, skiing with her friends, and managed to break her leg on the penultimate day of her trip, four days before I was due to fly out to C.A..
She was layed up in the Hospital St. Roch in Nice, France for two weeks. On the plus side – if the IS a plus side – I had a two-week trip to the French Riviera!
But the fishing was lousy.
Oh well - there's always 2007! At least the rest of the boys enjoyed the 2006 trip!
|
Who Went? The arrangements made by Kev (as always!) showed that we were going to have a reduced visibility in Guatemala this year. Andy Rickard (South Africa) and Steve Tattersfield (Pakistan) were unable to make it. Andy – because of other travel arrangements and business commitments. And Steve because he forgot his wedding anniversary (definitely not good – so be warned!). Also - we enlisted a new member this year – Ged Welch (representing Scotland!). All was going well until he broke his leg skiing in the USA a week before the trip. So he was out, too! That left just the ‘Three Amigos’. Me, Kev and Jim – representing the UK, Ireland and the USA, respectively. Getting There! Well - it didn't start out too promising, Jim had flight problems that looked as they may cause him to miss connections in DFW to GUA. But he sweet talked himself instead onto a connection through Miami. I eventually met up with Kev and Jim at the gate and were off ! We all arrived earlier than expected in GUA because Jim was able to reschedule his flight. |
Sailfish on Wol's line - pictured by Kev! |
We waited a while for Les and Carlos (http://www.greatsailfishing.com/) to show up – however, it transpired that they were at the coast with other parties - so they sent this other geezer to pick us up. As taxi-cabs go, this was great - cold beers provided all the way down to the coast (after a couple on the plane). We were soon feeling much better!
We arrived at the accommodation mid-evening - a nice 4 bed, 4 bath house in the Villas Del Pacifico complex. It had a large pool out the back the same size as the one we relaxed at last year. There were 4 salads waiting for us on the table in th edining room (they weren't sure if Ged was coming or not). They had also stocked the fridge pretty well................
So we started on the beer, moved to the wine and finished on the tequila.
The Action
Got to the boat the next morning - a bit green around the gills - but full of piss and vinegar (literally).
We rode out 20 miles or so. Lines in. Waited 10mins.
|
Jim with his first catch of the day and becoming the best of friends with one of the mates!
|
............... and Jim had the first sail on !! I think it was the largest of the whole trip - estimated at 125lbs.
However, I had not travelled well during the course of the morning (to say the least), primarily due to the previous evening’s ‘consumption’. I was green earlier on and now got even greener – ending up doing, what became known as, my "Pope" impersonation - lying prostate, arms crossed, eyes closed............the whole (papal) bit!
|
|
'Pope' John
|
Then things slowed down. A lot. Not another bite for a good long while. Eventually we made a run out to other boats that were catching Mahi for dinner and amused ourselves catching them for a while. Kev had fun on the fly and less so on the 20lb outfits the boat had on hand. But we were catching. I managed to raise my head for a few snaps but wasn't up for the slaughter. That was it pretty much for the first day - slow (by GUA standards). The other boats reported the same, and it had been like this for a few days. |
Anyway – time to get back to the Casa.
Our maid had been in, collected all the laundry, tidied up, made beds, etc, etc. The cook had been busy - chicken wings appetizers were awaiting us - and the waitress duly served them with cold beers down by the pool.
We reviewed our "fishporn" on the tv., and speculated about the next day.
We stayed off the tequila.
|
Next morning. Sunny, calm ("F.A.C." I believe is the appropriate terminology). We headed out. Non-stop action. I think we caught about 9 sails over the course of the day. Not a massive result for the part of the world, but we had acquired the hang of doing the whole thing with teasers and flipping baits to the "lit up" sails in the wake. |
 
Non-stop action all the way | |||||||||||||||||||
| It was this day that we had the first sail ‘double’ in the boat as well. Kev and I hauled a couple into the boat simultaneously.
It's still a great buzz, despite having had a few doubles here last year! Luckily, it wasn't the last double of this trip either - we had one more later on! So we caught 9. Could have had a lot more if Kev didn't hog half the boat for the fly rod! |
First sailfish 'double' of the trip by the Styles hermanos! | |||||||||||||||||||
|
We felt a lot better that evening. Ate some nice red snapper the cook had prepared, even smiled at the maid and the waitress! Layday next day (day #3). An opportunity to negotiate the bets. Which we did. Too complicated to explain here though. Kev honed his fly-casting skills in our pool. So it wasn't ALL relaxation! |
 
No idea why the fish weren't biting! | |||||||||||||||||||
|
Got back to fishing on day #4. Headed out 35 miles or so and hooked up regularly, although not consistently, all day. Obviously the fish were moving. I think we caught 5 or so by lunch time. But we realised an error of judgement on our part (not a mistake, you understand!). We had not paid our dues to the "fish gods" So we got the beer out and started drinking heavily! And - it worked ! Cruising back to Port Quetzal late afternoon at 22 knots, the captain stooped the boat with a jolt. I thought we’d hit something and were in deep doodah. Until I saw the mates getting the heavy tackle baited with a small bonito out – in response to the captain’s cries of, "MARLEEN"! From a semi-slumbering cruise back to port at the (supposed) end to a good days fishing, the atmosphere turned from relaxed with beers – to all-action : screaming for baits in the water, super-tight turns with the roaring twin-diesels belching black smoke as the engines strained with the captain’s directive for them to engage with the Marlin! | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Jim (just out of shot) with his five-ton marlin.
Same marlin, different angle!
What was left of the marlin bait |
Jim was shoe-horned onto ‘the chair’ to commence business! No doubt the Marlin was on the end of the 80lb test. Could smell the grease burning in the multiplier as it screamed out line to the blue on the other end as it tried to make good its escape!
Jim endured a good hard fight with the fish. Not to mention the attempts of the crew to adorn him with a webbed fighting belt – the like of which would not have been out of place had he worn it as evening dress in a ‘Heddonism’ resort! 45 minutes later, the leader was touched on a large blue Marlin. Hunter and hunted both exhausted! The Marlin was like a submarine! The captain was going to try and pull it in for "peektours" until he saw it. He estimated 450lbs, Jim estimated it at 700lbs. But then again – it was Jim who pulled it in! So even if it had been five tons, that would've been okay. Impossible - but still okay!
Next day, our last day, the captain had figured out the fish movements also - so we headed out 58 miles from home port (port Quetzal). A long haul, to say the least! It started slowly, a few bites, first. Then a couple of fish. And then it built up steam steadily through the day.
| |||||||||||||||||||
|
We were catching enough, that we took some time off to try and tempt a big (BIG) mahi, that was hanging out under some flotsam, with a fly. Well, Kev did anyway! He zinged the fly right over that sucker - but Mr Mahi couldn't be tempted!
A few more pictures!
Final Count and Betting Results
The final statistics were:
Calcutta Betting :
. . . . . . .Wol took the money with closest total number of sails caught without going over Spend the last day messing around buying t-shirts etc., and headed back to GUA city. A few beers, to celebrate Kev’s birthday, bit of sleep – and up at 5am for the flight home. All in all, the arrangements all worked just fine, the house and staff were outstanding and could have easily accommodated all 8 of us and I would say worked much better than last year. If you enjoyed reading this - please sign my guest book, HERE! | ||||||||||||||||||||
Guatemala was the location of choice for the 2004 trip. "Guatemala the World Centre of Sailfishing" - boasts the tourism blurb.
And, boy, were they right!
Never, ever has the fishing been as good as it was here. I'm loathed to publicise it, for fear of the location becoming spoilt! However, the Guatamalan sport fishing industry appears to have learnt from the overfishing mistakes of its neighbouring countries. It is ecologically and environmentally sound when it comes to its fishing industry.
Being unfamiliar with the country, it was thought best that our arrangements for this visit be facilitated though a local company in Guatemala.
As always, it seemed to fall on my brother Kev to co-ordinate all the arrangements and close the deal with our contacts in Guatemala who would be looking after us for the duration of our stay. Our 'contacts' were Les and Carlos of the Great Sailfishing Company.And what an awesome company they were, too. I won't repeat all our feedback about them here - rather, just go to www.greatsailfishing.com - they've published our feedback on their website!
Here are some thumbnail snaps of, inter alia, a couple of the double hook-ups which we seemed to get almost daily!
After considering the pros and cons of many worldwide destinations, we settled on the Island of Cozumel off the Mexican Carribean coast.
We were a reduced squad for this trip with the three Brits flying in from the UK meeting up with the advance party already installed on the island (flying in from Boston).
Unfortunately, the Brits' flight into Cancun was delayed, resulting in the onward flight to Cozumel being missed. And it was the last one of the day! So we had to catch a bus to the port and hoof it over to the ferry terminal where we caught the late-evening boat over to Cozumel. Meanwhile, my brother, the 'advance party', was awaiting our arrival at CZM. Only to be dissapointed by our no-show!
Disembarking at CZM port left us with a dilema. Do we hang around the port and wait for Kev to pick us up - on the off-chance he'd think to get down to the port. Or do we try to find out which hotel he's staying in by scouring the strip's accommodations? Totally knackered, we discounted both options after a couple of hours. The head-honcho-Manuel-taxi-dude, complete with Village People-style moustach, at the local rank 'knew the guy who owned a back-street hotel' and he would be able to get us a good rate!
Fast forward to next morning refreshed and mozzie-bitten. We eventually hook up with Kev and drive over to the house he's rented for us.
Cracking house. Plunge-pool surrounded by palm-trees. And garden goes right down to the beach! Cue fishing for bonefish as there was no time to waste!
We had four days charter fishing altogether. One day on the flats trying for bonefish and three days offshore.
My personal view was the fishing was not exactly overwhelming in type and amount of species caught. The flats was a waste of time, though Kev enjoyed practising his fly technigue. The offshore fishing produced mainly small tuna and dorado, but not in great quantities. We eyeballed about three sails but came nowhere near to any hook-ups.
Cozumel itself is a touristy town. Plenty of stuffed donkeys and sombreros for sale. Truly the US equivelant of Benidorm! However, it provided us with plenty of eating establishments, which were great if you headed out of the tourist drag and into the peripheral side streets.
Due to the lack of fish, the thumbnails below are self-explanatory in their lack of pezes!
As our first foray into Central America, we headed out to Costa Rica after reviewing the results of Kev’s market research. We stayed in a rented house, high up the hillside in the resort of Flamingo.
Costa Rica is home to some of the best sportfishing and deep sea fishing in the world, with over 79 world records to its credit. Be prepared to catch Yellow Fin Tuna, Black Fin Tuna, Blue Marlin, Black Marlin, Sailfish, Dolphin, Grouper, Snapper, Roosterfish, Snook, dorado and more!
Our vessel for the five days fishing was the Permit – a 47 foot Buddy Davis. It was captained by John Legrone – a man with an ego and temper which would fit a boat twice this size and a manner which may not be to everyone’s taste.
My recollection of this trip is that the accommodation was outstanding, the location and town where we stayed extremely pleasant and the fishing decidedly average.
Whilst catching innumerable tuna of all varieties, enough dorado to feed more than ‘the 5000’ , our targeted billfish were not quite as forthcoming as our earlier market research had indicated. However, this lack of billfish was probably down to seasonal conditions rather than our captain (who’s record of catches is up there with the best of them)
