TAUZIN GROUP 25 RELEASES, 2 DAYS
JP Michel, Chief Tauzin, Jacques Michel, Ezra North and Beau Michel
Starting off, fishing April 10th and 11th we fished the above group with JP Michel introducing his brothers from Louisiana to Guatemala, along with (Better Than) Ezra and our old mate Chief both from Houston. First day out we fished the up west side of the pocket, 20-25NM from the break wall and were lucky enough to get into a few fish there. In the morning we had good fishing though the afternoon session dropped a little, still good enough to brush the dust off for the guys with 16 sails raised and 10 releases from 14 bites, some good averages. Around lunch we had a bit of a cover-up with a nice blue marlin crashing the short right teaser, then moving to the left though not touching the mackerel Chief had pitched, at the same time we had a double of sailfish up in the spread releasing one out of the pair. Soon after Beau did the job getting lunch on board for the day...
Beau with soon to be mahi tacos...
And Chief about to release a sail.
We rolled the dice the next day heading out wide and to the top of the eastern corner of the pocket. Running through a fair amount of green water we finally got into the blue stuff with some big current lines and it wasn't long after setting out that we had a double of sails in the spread. From there on in we had some good steady fishing, tons of bait out there, sailfish cutting bait on the surface and big wads being marked about 400ft down. As a result it was hard getting them to stay on the teasers and pitch baits to and when they did the bites were tough to convert. This theme kind of stayed on the for the following weeks, plenty of bait and the fish got hard to switch out. We covered some area today and there were fish over several square miles with 33 sails raised of which 26 bit the baits and the guys released 15. Nice way to finish off their trip and good times as always with this crew...
Cool shot, flat seas and a fish with the lights on!!
FANTA/KIMBELL GROUP 42 SAILS & 1 BLUE MARLIN
Diane and Dave Fanta with Jim Kimbell
April 14th-16th. You know you have a good thing going when you get repeat clientele, when you have them back in the same season that is awesome. It was great to see Dave and Diane Fanta back down here for their second trip since February, this time introducing Jim Kimbell to ALLURE II, this incredible Guatemalan fishery and the best accommodations on the coast at the 'OASIS'. First day out we ran back to the east coming across big tight work-ups of bonito near the edge. Dave had never caught a marlin so we started the day live baiting for the first hour, apart from one of the baits being harassed by a sailfish there was nothing much to it. From there we trolled up the edge finding an area that held some sails which worked for the rest of the day and after lunch the bite got kind of hot, with quads, triples and doubles in the spread it was an awesome start to the trip!!
On a triple....
Flat seas, blue water and plenty of these...
And Jim with the release...
When the dust settled we had raised 46 sailfish and had 41 bites of which we released 25, nice intro to Guate for Jim!
April 15th, it's not the first time and it won't be the last, though what a difference a day makes.....back in the same area the next day with more boats on the water looking around the fish did a disappearing act on us. We found the bonitos and once again tried some live-baiting along the edge with no bites and it wasn't till just before lunch that we released our first sail for the day. Late in the afternoon pushing further out we found an area holding fish and were happy to end up with 15 sails raised and 9 released from 14 bites, we also picked up a couple of big mahi's late in the day. Jim left after fishing, a day early with work commitments, thanks for the great feedback Jim:
Chris…Many thanks for the pics, mate. Our paths will cross again. The trip was a huge experience and memory for me. Thanks for all you and your staff did to make it so special. The hospitality and the fishing were all off the hook. Just couldn’t have had a better trip. Getting to do it with my buddy, Dave, was icing on the cake. Best regards, Jim Kimbell
April 16th With just Dave and Diane on board we headed SSW today looking for something new and it wasn't long before the water turned deep blue with birds picking and bait on the surface. We set out at just 12NM off the break wall and within no time had a fish under the bridge teaser though disappear just as quick, we got the bite on the rigger though and Dave was into a nice blue.....
Great boat side jump
The fish was a tough one on the 30lb, going deep and dirty on us despite pulling angles. Dave did a great job in the end releasing the fish in about 40min, on the light leader we managed to get it close enough to get the tag in. Nice going Dave on his first marlin release...
In goes the tag....
And back to the deep...
A bit further up the west side of the pocket there was a pretty good sailfish bite going on, lots of fish cutting bait on the surface, coming into the spread, grabbing baits and squashing them though for us not really eating. Diane was trying to bait one on the conventional tackle and it was a tough day to learn.....finicky bites!! Around lunch we had our second blue marlin up on the short teaser, hot as hell, we had the mackerel back there and got the bite though missed him, fish came back in on the bridge teaser, mates cleared the rod and unhooked the old eaten bait, snapped in a new mack and got the bait back to a very pissed off blue right at the transom....Another big bite, fish came jumping at the boat, threw the hook and turned straight on another teaser!! Bloody hell....unclip the sancocho'd bait, mate runs inside, digs up a lure, clips it on, clear the teaser and we get a slash/bite on the lure, no hook up, fish stays deep under the lure and finally disappears....wow. One thing is for sure, she definitely did not want to eat a ballyhoo....Well, that was exciting, though no go....Ended the day with 32 sailfish raised and got 24 of them to bite. As said, they were very difficult to convert, crappy bites, we released 8 sails and the 1 blue for the day. Diane did great to get the release on a few with the conventional tackle. Good stuff and always a fun time Dave and Diane, looking forward to seeing them back here at the Oasis next year!
AMANDA THOMPSON & CJ ON THE FLY....99 RAISED & 1 BLUE
CJ and Amanda with first sail of the trip...
April 20-23rd we welcomed back another repeat client, Amanda Thompson with her friend CJ. Amanda's previous trip down we introduced her to the fly on her last day out and she was keen to pick up where she left off and learn as much as possible. Catching billfish on the fly can be the most exhilarating way to catch them, it can also be, at times, the most frustrating way to try.....Fishing on the western side up in the flats it was more of the same, plenty of fish out there, though they would tease in and turn off, some coming in most of the way, some half way and disappear, just too much bait for them to come in hot. We covered some ground today looking for hungry fish and ended up out wide on the western edge. Frustrating, from the 29 sailfish we raised, 6 of them came all the way in and ate the fly. Some of the bites were poor and hard to stick though Amanda did well to release 3 of them.
Sail on, stuck this one.
Next day out we ran wide and put them out a few miles in from the edge, we'd gone over the drill and it wasn't long before a blue marlin came in hot on the rigger teaser.....For her 3rd day ever fishing for billfish on the fly, I've got to hand it to her, she did a great job.... She grabbed the marlin rod with the Cam Sigler marlin popper fly, that fish came steaming in, pushing water on the teaser, we knocked the boat out of gear and Amanda laid out the perfect cast. With the fish right at the transom, it turned, saw the fly and we got the perfect going away bite. The first run is the one and controlling the drag is all important...
Nice blue of an easy 150lb on the fly
With the 20lb class tippet, knowing when to back off the drag when to put the heat on is what its all about. We survived the first few runs and an hour and half later after some handy rod work we got the fish boat side for the release and just missed putting the tag in...
With the tag stick ready...
Sweet! The most exhilarating way to catch marlin, on the fly, nice going Amanda for a fish that would have easily beaten the current 20lb tippet world record. For the rest of the day it was back to the frustrating, we raised 24 sails today getting 6 bites on the fly, they were very lazy bites and hard to convert though we did release 5 on the baits.
And the ride home.
Back in the same area the following day it was more of the same though from here on in despite the bite to raise ratio being poor, the release to bite ratio was excellent. We raised 25 today going 4 from 5 on the fly and releasing 4 from 8 on the bait..
CJ with one on the bait about to be released.
Our last day out we covered a bunch of water looking for aggressive fish, at the end of the day we found them with Amanda releasing 4 from 6 bites on the fly in the last hour of the day. We also released another 4 from 6 on the baits with 21 raised....a great trip all round with 99 sailfish in the spread over the 4 days and 1 blue marlin, there is no better place in the world to learn to catch billfish on the fly!!
RICHTER/CLARK GROUP 66 RAISED ON THE FLY
Chad Clark with a nice sail release on the fly...
April 25-27th it was great to see Bobby Richter down here, another return client coming back for his second trip since January, this time introducing father and son team Chuck and Chad Clark to the what we have here. Chuck and Chad are big time fly fisherman and have caught a bunch of species on the fly, billfish was on the bucket list so Bobby took them to Guate to achieve it. Our first day we got into them raising 37 sails into the spread though once again the bite to raise ratio was poor with just too much bait out there. One thing was for sure, even if the fish came in slow, when we got the bite we were in for some fireworks with the fish putting on a helluva show and going ballistic. We released 3 from 7 bites on the fly and 2 on the baits and both Chuck and Chad got to tick off billfish on the fly off the list....
Chuck with his first billfish on the fly.
Things slowed down the next day and we spent a bit of time trying to find the fish we were on in the deep water.....no one home. Back in shore a few miles there were some fish though and the ratio was a bit better today with 6 bites from the 19 sailfish raised, we released another 3 on the fly and 5 on the baits.
Chuck working a stubborn one.
Working the same area on our last day out the fish had moved, we worked up the west side of the pocket, then offshore finding a few fish late in the day. We ended up with 10 in the spread releasing 1 from 2 bites on the fly and 2 on the bait. We had a great time as always with Bobby and look forward to seeing Chuck and Chad back down here soon!
Kiwi, thanks for the hospitality last week. We had a fabulous time and look forward to seeing you again next year.
Best, Chad Clark
CAM SIGLER GROUP ON THE FLY, 87 SAILS & 2 BLUE MARLIN RAISED
Greg Wesner, Charles Shull, Cammy Sigler, Shane Sigler, Sean Cunningham and Billy Portuese.
April 28th through 30th it was great to see both Cammy and Shane Sigler back down here in Guatemala this time with the rest of the above crew from Seattle, Washington State area. Fishing on ALLURE II and INTENSITY with Mike Shedder the goal was to find some hungry aggressive fish that would tease in and switch to the fly. Running to the east on the first morning it looked good and it wasn't long before Cammy was letting one go from his first cast, soon after we had another good bite that didn't stick and from there on in for us it was just tough, fish teasing in half way and fading off, fish teasing in a few yards before loosing interest and very few coming in all the way. We did get another hot fish at the end of the day to bite and Billy Portuese released his first on the fly, 2 from 3 bites and 15 raised. Intensity saw the same, tough fish, they raised 17 for the day releasing 1 from 4 bites. The bites were hard to keep stuck!
Good hook up on this one though...
The next day we ran out wide to the west, working the edge we marked plenty of bait at 600ft right on the drop off, same problem, just too much bait out there. Fishing around some spinner dolphin we managed to raise some fish and dropped one while going for the double, another couple of bites didn't stick and we got the release on 1 from 4 bites out there. Intensity got into some tunas on the plugs and a nice big 35lb bull mahi. Trolling the 'flats' on the inside in about 450ft we raised a red hot blue marlin on the bridge teaser, things happen quick when they come in on the short teasers!! We switched him off to the flat line teaser and knocked the boat out of gear, Sean made the cast and a bit of bad luck saw the bill run down the line as the fish turned. The bill rasped down the 20lb tippet damaging it and the fish shook it free, the fly came loose and the marlin ate it with a good bite then came jumping at the boat. On the first run the tippet parted and in less then a few seconds that blue was greyhounding 400yds away with the pink Cam Sigler marlin fly in its mouth....Still pretty cool to see all that right behind the boat, there was some adrenaline pumping down there. About 20mins later we raised another blue on the flat line teaser, the fish disappeared then came back on the rigger teaser. The mates did an awesome job getting that fish in, slow and steady right to the back of the boat, neutral, Billy cast, the fish turned and ate that blue and white Cam Sigler marlin fly going away. Perfect. On the first run, in a straight line behind the boat about 70yds out with very little drag on the reel the tippet popped......the odds are stacked against you in the fly game and maybe the tippet raked down the body/gill plate, who knows, it came back a clean break.
We worked the flats the next day in search of another blue in the morning though moved offshore before too long after Intensity found some fish straight out in the deep water. We finished our day out there and finally the bite to raise ratio was pretty good for both boats with Intensity getting 10 bites from 20 sails raised and on Allure II we got 7 bites from 18 sails raised. A nice way to see they guys off with some good bites on the fly...
About to get the fly back....
And some good feedback from Cammy, who understands fishing....
Just wanted to thank you for a great time last week. Lodge is terrific and staff and food first class. Fishin was tough but that's fishin. All the guys had a great time and we will be back. My goal was to get all of them a release and we did that.
And some good feedback from Cammy, who understands fishing....
Just wanted to thank you for a great time last week. Lodge is terrific and staff and food first class. Fishin was tough but that's fishin. All the guys had a great time and we will be back. My goal was to get all of them a release and we did that.
Tight lines,
Cammy.
The boats that were out there fishing conventional the next day got into them pretty good in the same area, they turned on big time over the weekend with some big numbers posted by the boats. Looks like the bait dried up and fish are snapping.....The fishing is by no means over, we fished right through the summer months last year and averaged just under 10 releases a day with our best day being 22, a good ratio of blue marlin per days fished, best day 5 blues raised and plenty of big XOS mahi's with some tunas out wide all over the summer months. We are here and ready to fish! There are some good deals to be had from here through November so get in touch with us to get into it.
Contact:
liz@sailfishoasissportfishing.com
