GREAT BITE CONTINUES THROUGH FEB 26th

Smooth seas and great fishing.....ALLURE on the way out.....
Friday 17th Feb, Hill Dishman arrived a couple of days before the rest of the group to get in some time on the fly and spend some time looking for the bite....We sarted the day just 8NM from the breakwall and after half an hour of pulling teasers we raised a blue marlin on the flat line teaser. The fish teased in, albeit slowly and disappeared just before casting range, we pitched the mackerel though never saw it again. For the rest of the day we trolled up the western side of the 'pocket' and found some pretty good action in the afternoon raising 16 on the teasers, mixing it up we went 4 for 6 on the fly and 8 from 8 bites on the bait.
18th, with the current pushing to the east and wanting to cover some ground we fished the majority of the day up the eastern side of the pocket looking for a 1000lber and a bunch of sails......we found neither.....raised 9 sails got 2 bites on the fly and released 1 from 3 on the bait. At least we knew where not to go the following day....

CRAIG JOHNSON GROUP 59 SAILS AND 1 BLUE MARLIN IN 2 DAYS

L-R Dean Lane, 'Goose' Lavikka, Jim Franklin, Craig Johnson, Cullen Spitzer, Matt Rotan, Hill Dishman, Beaver Alpin, Scott Cone, and Keith Porter
ALLURE owners Craig Johnson and Hill Dishman hosted the big group down for Craig's birthday February 19 and 20. Mixing it up between 2 boats, the 61ft Viking 'BOLITA' and ALLURE the group experienced good fishing and had a great time down at the 'OASIS'. Over the 2 days on the water between both boats we raised 110 sailfish with 102 bites and releasing 59 sails as well as 'Bolita' having the marlin hum raising 2 blues and releasing one 300lber for 'Goose' Lavikka. We also nailed some nice bull mahi's with Craig Johnson getting 2 near identical sized beauties from the 4 mahi's boated....

On ALLURE we finished the last day out with a little mayhem raising a quad and releasing a triple out of 4 bites with the Legend Lures # 12 Piper doing the majority of the damage today.....hot teaser, 2 of the quad were hot after it's tail and we got great bites off both of them!

Hill, Craig, Scott and Jim with the last sail of the trip
Feb 20 and 21 we welcomed first timers to Guatemala Russell Harbison, John Manning and Craig Williams for 2 days on the water and 3 nights at SAILFISH OASIS. Russell had never caught a billfish before this trip and ended up with a bunch of sails released on conventional tackle and a couple on the fly. Over the 2 days of fishing we raised 76 sails and had a nice blue marlin that came up on the white head Legend Lures Piper though did not switch to the pitched mackerel. Late in the day we switched it up on the fly and all the guys got into their first sail releases on the long wand. Exciting stuff, with some incredible bites......Thanks for some great shots John! It's all about the bite.....

Fly in the water



Great bites resulting in these.....


Craig Williams first billfish on the fly...

John Manning watching the reel unload

Russell Harbison on the fly

From here we had a couple of days in before welcoming more first timers to Guatemala, from Victoria, South Texas....
KISALUS GROUP 53 RELEASES IN 2 DAYS

L-R Bob Oakley, Kelly Park, John Kisalus and Dale Jones with the crew
Feb 25th-26th Experienced fisho's from the Gulf these guys were hands on and good fun to fish with, they timed their trip well with a great bite here in Guatemala. Over the 2 days of fishing we raised 87 sails and returned with the good averages of 53 releases from 78 bites!!! Our first day out was mostly teaser action with the majority of the sails hot on the teasers, the #12 chrome head Krakatoa definitely the red hot teaser for the day, and we had some great aggressive bites to the switched ballyhoo right behind the transom. Things slowed down a little on the second day with an even mix of rigger bites and teaser bites though still great action all round with a couple of triple headers and several doubles for the day......


As well as this nice mahi for Kelly.

All groups commented on the beautiful setting, great accommodation and exceptional food down at the 'OASIS'. The fishing is second to none and everyone is talking about return trips. It's all good in Guatemala.......

GREAT FISHING THROUGH FEB 12th

213 SAILFISH & 3 BLUE MARLIN, FEB 3RD-5TH

The Collin Ocker organized group of 15 anglers: Chad Walker, Darrel Scanlan, Chris Schadedd, Cody Jordan, Wes Jordan, Ken Culbreth, Mark Thibaut, Clay Morphis, Randy Wendel, Jaine Morphis, John Moyd, Mike Levoi, Mike Griffin, Paul Kennedy and Collin Ocker .
Fishing off 4 boats the group experienced an exceptional bite down here in Guatemala releasing 213 sailfish and 3 blue marlin as well as boating several large mahi's over Superbowl Weekend February 3rd through 5th. Aboard ALLURE, A-FIN-ITY, RELEASE and SPINDRIFT the guys drew boats daily to mix it up with no set teams, the only rule being no assistance from the mates on the hook-ups. First day out the fleet was spread out in the morning looking for the bite though ended up in the same area in the afternoon with between 9-15 releases amongst the boats. This is Guatemala so there is always something better out there. On ALLURE we went wide out to the western corner looking for an incoming bite, after a long run the move seemed to have paid off with an aggressive teaser bite from an est 250lb blue marlin after just 5mins of lines in. Mark Thibaut did a great job with the pitched mackeral and after a good bite came tight to this fish that put on a show with several long greyhounding runs...



After a 20min fight on the 50lb stand-up gear Mark got the fish boatside for a healthy release. Nearer the edge we raised another blue around a log that came up on a couple of teasers though did not switch to the pitch bait. We did manage to get each of the guys some slammer bull mahi's though, the log was loaded with small bonitos and some live baiting resulted with a good haul...

Clay Morphis, Mark Thibaut, Wes Jordan and Chris Schadedd

Trolling up the edge another blue in the 400lb class crashed the bridge teaser, we got a great bite on the pitch bait though missed it. Later in the afternoon we raised our 4th blue for the day, this one teased in great and Wes Jordan did the job with an awesome bite just feet from the transom with the pitched mackeral bait. The fish was a tough SOB staying down and dirty for the majority and after 45min on the stand-up gear Wes got it boatside for the release.......


ALLURE mate, Julio about to bill Wes's est 350lb blue marlin.
Meanwhile 25NM to the east of us early in the afternoon Chip Shafer aboard Old Reliable found a great sailfish bite for the rest of the fleet to get into. They got there early in the afternoon and the bite went off with RELEASE having no sailfish releases by midday finishing up with 23 in just a couple of hours with doubles and triples the norm. A red hot bite for all the boats for the last couple of hours of the day. We all fished there the following day and experienced a great bite with between 51-65 sails raised per boat and up to 30 releases. On ALLURE, Wes had the blue marlin luck once again releasing a tough 250lb+ blue to round off an incredible day on the water for the group with 109 sails released and one blue on their last day out, all on circle hooks ensuring healthy releases. To top it off Superbowl that night was a cracker. A great weekend had by all....!!!

Feb 7th -8th Todd Johnson was back for his second trip to Guatemala this season, this time introducing to Guatemala....
80 SAILFISH RELEASES IN 2 DAYS

On ladder L-R Greg Binion, Todd Johnson, Brian Tucker, Noble Carl, Mark Hamilton, Marshal Adkins and Preston Marshall.
Fishing aboard ALLURE and A-FIN-ITY the bite stayed good though slowly moving further off-shore to the east. The long runs were worth it though with 80 sailfish released in 2 days between the boats, we also raised a blue marlin that crashed the bridge teaser though disappeared just as quickly. All in all another great couple of days on the water with this group. With the bite seeming to be moving and slowing down it was time to look for something new the next day....

GRUPO BRAZILIANO 245 SAILFISH & 1 BLACK MARLIN IN 3 DAYS!!

Feb 9th through 11th we wecomed back Team Brazil to the SAILFISH OASIS, 18 anglers and a couple of 'observers' all from Rio de Janeiro for 3 days of fishing for their annual Brazilian International Tournament. The format was the same as last year with 6 teams of 3 anglers fishing aboard ALLURE, A-FIN-ITY, CHUBASCON, CIRCLE HOOK, KNOT WORK and PERLA DEL MAR. Fishing to IGFA rules with 20lb line we had:
Team 1, Helio Manques, Lula Bulhoes and Lucas Bulhoes
Team 2, Raphael Coutinno, Guilhermino Lima and Antonino Bitasi
Team 3, Ciba Eduardo, Luiz Pintgirro and Roberto Pitta
Team 4, Elton Vasconcellos, Rodrigo Mattos and Gilberto Malvares
Team 5, Paulo Campos, Pedro Groberio and Guilerme Campos
Team 6, Sandro Lahmann, Joao Lahmann and Renato Barbosa
A true anglers/team tournament was had with all the teams having a fair share of shots amongst the boats, it came down to the better anglers. With the bite off-shore fading the fleet searched inshore and found a pretty reasonable bite inshore to the west, just 12NM from the marina with up to 18 releases per boat. The second day of the tournament took off with boats getting up to 43 bites and releasing up to 25. At the end of day 2 it was wide open with Team 4 of Elton, GG and Tunicao holding on to a slim lead of 35 sailfish releases and 1 marlin. Last years winners Team 6 of Sandro, Joao and Renato released 25 on day 2 to get them from 4th to second with 33 releases overall.

Last day out the bite slowed some though ended up just 8NM from the marina and all the boats raised over 20 sails a piece. Team 6, lead by Sandro had a great day releasing 19 sails to take it out with a total of 52 releases in 3 days. Team 4 with Elton, GG and Tunicao came in a close second with 48 releases and Team 5 with Paulo, Pedro and Guilherme a couple of fish back with 45 releases. Another great tournament and a great time had by Team Brazil!!! We had a alot of fun fishing this group with plenty of laughs and a fair share of sancochos.....El Matador!!

All in all some pretty spectacular fishing and on it goes, marlin are in the mix and of course some big mahi's as well. We still have a few openings and the fishing is good here right through till the end of August with traditionally more marlin in the mix from later in April on through the summer. Contact us now to experience billfishing at it's best.......

Fishing 25th through 30th January 2012

TEAM HOOK 'N BULL

L-R Matthew Kleinhenz, Paul 'JR' Turnbull, Corey Survant, Kelly Baggett, Travis Stansbury (sitting), Carter Drummond, David and Andy Harris.....absent Jeff Peel, back at the lodge suffering from the 'Guatemalan Flu'....

As mentioned in the previous report Paul 'JR' Turnbull and Capt Carter Drummond came down a couple of days earlier than the rest of their group. JR and David Harris own the 60ft custom Hook 'n Bull out of Port Aransas, Corpus Chisti and were joined by a great crew of friends and their Capt, Carter Drummond. The guys brought down a great attitude and had a blast here fishing on ALLURE and CIRLCE HOOK and staying at the OASIS. To the fishing, the guys did everything on the boats, hooking, wiring, helping rig baits and teasers and released 68 sailfish 2 black marlin and 1 blue as well as boating several mahi's for fresh fish taco's and great beer battered mahi back at the lodge. What a trip, they say a picture tells a thousand words so forget the babble and check out some of these shots, thanks for some great photo's Team Hook 'n Bull......



Matthew got these great jump shots

Carter wiring Corey's blue


Some sweet under water shots from the Go-Pro

David Harris swimming down a large sail to release

Another great pic....
Nice going to JR, Corey and Travis on their first back marlin releases and great fishing from the rest of the crew who all ended with good averages from some awesome teaser bites. Looking forward to seeing you guys down here again!!

Jan 29 and 30th Mark Smith Group

L-R Michael Kethan, Tracy Gibbs, Billy Davenport, Jacque Bergeron, Fisher Maddox, Mark Boyt, Shelby Gibbs and Big Joseph Ramey and the ALLURE crew

The Mark Smith organized group came in straight after and the fishing got even better, sorry Mark couldn't make it down and fish with us......In 2 days the guys released 68 sails from well over 100 bites and boated a nice 25lb mahi. Another great group who enjoyed a great time here with us at the OASIS.....once again, pictures tell the story....

Tracy's first sail, a slob!! Shelby, Tracy and Fisher

Fisher getting up close and personal...

Going ballistic...
Looking forward to seeing you guys back here as well, and hopefully with Mark next time around....

The fishing is still good out there, we are back out again tomorrow then have a few big groups back to back so look out for more fishing tales after Feb the 12th......

Still some available dates mid week in March and April through May, as I said previously I think it'll be a great late season down here, dates are filling so be sure to secure early to avoid disappointment.

Click on the shots to get a full screen photo......and I admit, I'm a bit of a miserable bastard when calling weight estimates on marlin though I'd rather errr on the side of caution.......