Fishing through February 24th

EQUIPE BRAZIL

Caio Pitta, Roberto Pitta, Carlos Assad, Israel Jose, Luiz Pinheiro, Michele De Simoe, Leonardo De Simone, Claudio Condoso, Sandro Lehman, Joao Lehman, Rinato Barbosa, Tiunico and Joao Zinhs
We just saw off "Equipe Brazil" a couple of days ago, these guys seem to get the timing right with the fishing a little slow before they got here it turned on for them from their first day out. A bit of a down sized group this year they split themselves into 3 teams fishing aboard Allure, A-Fin-Ity and Circle Hook. The 3 teams being 'Thundersea', 'Meirmao' and 'Farabuto', the guys fished well releasing 117 sailfish from 163 bites over the 3 days from February 21st through the 23rd. Good fishing and a tight finish with EQUIPE FARABUTO of Luiz Pinheiro, Michele De Simone and Leonardo De Simone los copeao's holding on the last day out winning by a 2 fish margin over last years winning team lead by Sandro Lehman and Equipe Thundersea. Great times had by all we look forward to seeing them back here next year!

Next through was the Joe Segujla group of Kevin Duncan, Chad, Robert, Lucia and David fishing February 17th and 18th, the fishing was a bit slower than average though they all got into sailfish as well as a couple of big mahi mahi, some big sails too...

Including this one for Kevin.

And this 20+lb mahi for Chad.

February 15th and 16th we welcomed back to Guatemala Fred Herring, this time introducing first timers to our fishery here Joey Bergner, Jeff Vanover and Burke Edwards. They got in on the back-side of a pretty good bite here and ended up raising 21 sails, getting 18 bites and releasing 13 on the conventional tackle. Still good fishing and the guys had a blast down here at Sailfish Oasis....

Joey, Burke, Jeff and Fred
February 11th through 14th we welcomed the Fishing with Larry group hosted by Archie Adams, his group consisted of Jerry Estruth, Rufus Williams, Bob Mueller, Bruce Cole, Dan Wolf, Jim Wright, Jeanie and Len Koenemann, Dennis and Dianne Barry and Ron and John Dawez. For the most part the group were hard core fly anglers so we tried our best fishing aboard Allure, A-Fin-Ity and Capt Hook, with the fish for the most part finiky we mixed it up pitching baits to some and casting to as many as would tease in close enough. In their time here they raised 119 sails and released 21 on the fly and 29 on the baits mixed up between the spinning tackle and conventional gear, all on 20lb line and with 20lb tippet on the fly....

The group at dinner, their last night.

Archie Adams, happy with his first ever sail on the fly

Bruce Cole aboard A-Fin-Ity on the chase and near the boat on the fly

Rufus Williams with his first and large sailfish on the fly

Bob Mueller's fish before release.

And last, but by no means least, the mates favorite Jerry Estruth.

FISHING THROUGH FEBRUARY 9th

January 28th we welcomed Brian Shinkle, Tim Lonsdale, Andy "Backlash" Coultas and Vern Smith to Guatemala. The fishing had been a bit slow up to their arrival so the first day the fleet split up looking for the bite. On ALLURE we went down to the western corner fishing the incoming current and warmer water, a bit slow that first day out with the crew though we got into some YF tunas boating 8 before trolling down the edge and releasing 2 sailfish from 3 bites for the day. About 35-40NM to the east of us, in the middle of the pocket some of the boats had found some better action so we concentrated our effort there for the rest of their trip.

Tim Lonsdale
The runs were long to the fish though the weather was perfect with flat seas and the fishing was good with 61 sails in the spread, 55 bites and 40 releases for the guys, more good averages from some good anglers hooking all their own fish. This was Vern's first trip down to Guatemala and his first try at this style of fishing with circle hooks, he jumped in the deep end and picked it up in no time with plenty of professional advice from his fellow anglers. Good effort and good times.....

Andy Coultas with lunch and dinner.

Vern managing to get his head over this sail.

February the 1st the Jim Watt group flew into Puerto San Jose for a couple of days on the water. The fishing had slowed down a little with the bite offshore starting to dissipate. Still in a couple of short days the group released 20 sails, there were also a couple of striped marlin raised, though despite our best efforts neither of them bit the bait. More good times for this group learning to bait and switch hot sails off the teasers....

Scott Ison with his first Pacific sailfish....
Several of the group commented on what a great set-up it was at the OASIS, what a great time they had out on the water and were planning return trips in March and April, we look forward to seeing them back here!!

February 8th and 9th Hill and Donelle Dishman with Jamie and Cindy Dishman came in for a couple of days fishing and a great night at Panza Verde in Antigua. In the past few weeks we have seen unseasonably cooler water offshore and this seems to have affected the sailfish bite, on the plus side there has been plenty of YF tunas about and a few striped marlin about as well. In our 2 days of fishing we came across several big groups of spinner dolphin loaded with birds and bait, a few bait balls, bait down at 50-100ft, overall a very lively ocean with great sign though the billfish bite was slow. We boated 12 YF tunas, released 5 sails from 8 bites and raised a blue marlin that did not eat the pitched mackerel, not the Guatemala we know though still good fishing. As mentioned, there was no shortage of life out there and it wont be long before the sailfish and marlin are back on the bite.

Donelle with sashimi

Great catch Cindy.

We are fishing most days through February though we have had a few days become available with the 24th through the 27th of February and in March the 19th through the 21st and 24th-28th have opened up. Get in touch with us if you want to secure these prime dates, we are expecting the fish to turn on here.....