FISHING THROUGH FEB 22nd

TEAM REHAB 46 RELEASES

Kent Willis, Mark Phillips, Jasen Gaast, Lee Bull, Chris Gavlick and crew

Feb 17-18 it was good to catch up with the Team Rehab boys again, this time introducing Kent Willis and Mark Phillips to Guatemala, Allure II, the Oasis and the bite....Coming off what we had and the slow fishing we went out wide our first day finding massive balls of bait, birds, every species of porpoise we have here, whales......life. 

Spinners, spotties, bottle nose, finbacks...

We had a couple of tuna bites around all this though no billfish to be seen. It wasn't till around midday further to the west down off the edge that we started to see what we were looking for, sails with consistency and a few pack attacks. Big Lee Bull also landed this nice big bull mahi out of the mix...

Bull with a bull

The afternoon turned on and as mentioned we had a few pack attacks, we had a marlin down deep darting from teaser to teaser when just about every teaser in the water had sailfish on them....we released 3 sails from the mayhem though not the blue....For the day the guys released 20 from 37 bites. 

Next day out it was more of the same, a good fun time with a great crew as always with these guys. We ended the day with 26 from 38 bites today and a large time at the lodge sipping Ilegal añejo and Zacapa, some of the best of both in their respective leagues.

MEREDITH McCORD & CREW

Meredith McCord, Patrick Duke with Nick and Kami Swingle enjoying their first day in Antigua
Feb 19-21st Hill Dishman hosted the above group for 3 days of fly fishing, filming and fun. Meredith has over 80 IGFA records to her name, Patrick is a fly fishing guide and photographer, (artandangling.com), while Nick and Kami own TwoFisted Heart Productions, specializing in short films, promotional videos and documentary style productions. The team were down to capture what we have here on film and got some pretty cool stuff utilizing underwater camera gear, troll pros, drones etc.

Meredith and Hill with the first fish released for the trip.
Despite some wind to contend the first couple of days it all came right by the end of the trip and the fishing was steady with our best day 39 sails in the spread. Everyone got into a few sails on the fly while we picked up a few more on the conventional tackle, all the while getting some great footage.

And Kami with her first sail on the fly

Even picked off a tuna for fresh sashimi...
Our last day out we worked the 600ft edge of the pocket hoping for a blue, late in the afternoon a hole on the right short teaser had the fish we were looking for up.....though unfortunately no tease....They did a great job releasing 5 form 5 on the fly today and 4 on the bait to finish off a great trip.

Working the angles

Cool underwater shot....

Meredith and Patrick with his effort on the fly.
Good fun and good times with good people and we're looking forward to seeing them back down here in Guatemala again.

More reports soon. The fishing has been great again the past week, this season is very consistent....when new blue water pushes in it is always bringing plenty of bait and pelagic's with it. Right now a new body of water is pushing in from the west and the fishing is excellent. We have limited openings, don't miss out on some of the best fishing you will experience!!!
Contact:

liz@sailfishoasissportfishing.com

FISHING THROUGH FEB 15th....

AND THEN THE WIND STARTED......

Phil Horner with a beaut rooster.

The Shaffer group came in Feb 8th to fish 9th through the 11th. The wind had started blowing since the 6th and on the morning of the 9th just got stronger from the big fronts affecting the east coast of the US. We gave it a shot, heading to the west to find shelter though there was none to be found. We released 1 sailfish early on before calling it quits, as it was no fun out wide, and headed into the beach to have a crack at rooster fishing for the rest of the day. Back inshore we released 3 tough, hard fighting rooster's from 5 bites and a big jack crevalle to make a day of it. With no respite in the forecast the group decided to head to Antigua for the next few days where they had a brilliant time and postponed their fishing trip to early November.  

COOPER GROUP 18 SAILFISH RELEASES

Standing: Tom and Brian Cooper, Nicole Anderson and Casey Mann.

February 12 & 13 it was good to catch up with Capt Brian and First Mate Casey from FV Netto since they last stopped by in Guate last year for the month of April. Brian brought along his dad

Tom from Florida and girlfriend Nicole from Salt Lake City for a coupe of days of R&R and the Guatemalan 'bite'. Finding clean water was the task. We found some out wide and managed to raise 15 sails, releasing 8 from 13 bites on their first day out, switching to the fly late in the day with no luck...

Pretty cool trip to make with your dad.....Tom with his first sailfish.

And Nicole with hers...

The next day we ran to a body of blue water pushing in out wide from the west and had steady action through the day raising 19 sails and releasing 10 from 16 bites. Pretty happy with that, good fishing from the crew with a few multiples in the spread and thought it was the start of something....

One of three double headers for the day.

And then on to Antigua and Cafe No Sè sampling the finest mezcal in the world, which can also be found down at the Oasis.....

AUSTIN DISHMAN GROUP, 15 SAILFISH, 1 STRIPED MARLIN, 1 YF TUNA, 1 ROOSTER....and a shitload of bonito.....

Seated L-R: Austin Dishman, Keith Wied, Anthony Toups and Joe Golias.

Standing L_R: Sean Healy, Rudy Reynolds, Paul Falgout, Tom Stewart, Lee Golias, Dean Talboy, Chris Olexa and MIA, Jeremy Roebuck.

Feb 14th and 15th we welcomed the above group fishing aboard Allure II, Pica Pleitos and Makina.....and thought the fishing was about to get good with the body of water pushing in from the west. You have to tell it how it was and it was nothing short of tough, and a bit rough out there, the 3 boats released 10 sailfish from 12 bites and Austin landed a nice 50lb+ yellowfin.

Fresh sashimi

Next day Rudy and Lee decided on a guided hike up Volcan Pacaya while Tommy and Paul opted on some rooster fishing up the beach with team Makina. They released a nice rooster from a couple of bites, a few sierra mackerel and jacks for a good morning of inshore fishing...

Sweet shot from Paul and Tommy

The rest of the crew went offshore on Allure II and Pica Plietos.....we went straight up the western edge of the pocket finding at best, clean dark green water and got into a few fish out there with 5 sails released between the 2 boats and Anthony Toups on Pica Pleitos released a 120lb striped marlin.

Stripey
The bonito were thick out there in the late afternoon and at least good practice for circle hook techniques and their next trip down to Guatebuena...

Big sail for Dean Talboy

The weather looks settled for the next few days and then into next which should help get things back to normal. The body of deep blue water to the west is pushing in strong and sure to bring the pelagics with it. We're back out there tomorrow and looking forward to the upswing....

FISHING THROUGH FEB 7th.....

SMITH AND SUZY RAGSDALE

Smith and Suzy with mate Enio.

January 31st through February 4th we welcomed back Smith and Suzy Ragsdale to Guatemala, it had been a few years since we last fished with them and it was great to get reacquainted again. This was strictly a fly trip, no pitching hooked baits to the ones that didn't want to eat the fly, and I respect that. The body of fish we were on the fleet had been fishing for the 7 days prior to their arrival and the sheer size of that group of fish was incredible, we stayed on that bite as it slowly moved east and offshore for the next 7 days. An unbelievable body of fish, and amount of time to stay on the one bite!!

Beautiful shot of a big sail tearing it up...

Over their time here we raised 181 sailfish into the spread, as the bite moved to the east and offshore the fish definitely got more finicky and tough to tease all the way in and switch to the fly. When they did we had a lot of bill swipe/bites resulting in many fish pulling off the hooks into the fight. From the 181 raises we got 78 of them to bite the fly releasing 37 in total. Suzy did an excellent job releasing the majority of these fish as well as boating 3 yellowfin tunas.

Suzy, field testing and putting the heat on the new Cam Sigler 14wt fly rod

And the results...nice fish Suzy and nice rod Cammy!!

On our second to last day out the fish were found to the east near the edge and things really didn't get going till after lunch when we started raising sails...later on we raised a double, one sailfish and a hot blue marlin. What can you do....the boat was in neutral and we cast the fly, all we could do was hope the sailfish didn't eat the fly, with no prop wash the marlin was in kill mode looking for something to eat once the teaser was cleared, the sailfish sat under the fly, Smith popped the Cam Sigler fly and the marlin spun around and crushed it before the sail could react....what a bite!!!! 

Smith controlling the the drag and the reel is dumping....

We survived the initial fireworks with some great fishing by Smith controlling the drag as needed. Putting the heat on when the fish was settled and getting angles on it, at the 1hr 45min mark we got within inches of the 'legal' release. The fish headed south again and at 2 hrs and 10mins she came up greyhounding as if she'd just been hooked, making a semi circle in seconds the resulting belly in the line proved too much and the 20lb tippet parted. What a fish and what an effort by Smith, unlucky, though still an experience they'll never forget.

EASUM, GODWIN, KOZAK, EVANS: 110 RELEASES

Over the same time period fishing February 2-3-4 we welcomed to the lodge regulars J Godwin, Scott Kozak, Bill Easum and Bill Evans. Fishing aboard the Captain Hook these guys were on them and the fish were snapping on the baits. Some days started slow but the afternoon bite was inevitably red hot. For their 3 days of fishing they raised with Capt Eddie 170 odd sailfish and released 110 from 147 bites. That there is some great averages....these guys are good!!

Thanks for the great shots J Godwin!!

THIBAULT GROUP 155 RELEASES

The Mark Thibault organized group with Colin Ocker, Paul Kennedy, Richard Marshall, Randy Wendel, Cody Jordan, Brent Smith, Ken Culbreth, Jonathan McComb, Bill Cohen, Kirk Tucker, Mike Griffith, Blaine Weaver and Mike Lemker.

February 5-6-7 we welcomed back our favorite group for Super Bowl weekend. The core group of these guys have been coming down here now for the past 5 years and it's always a blast. As the board says, they released 155 sailfish from 236 bites, which are pretty good averages, there were also several blue marlin raised and big baits pitched, though no luck there...... They also polished off 239 rum drinks from 239 pours....which is 100% and 3 more than their bites......That's not including the Crown Royal's, Gins, Vodkas and Ilegal Mezcals......

To the fishing. We'd been on this bite and it was on the wane, though still worth the effort to chase them as they moved further to the east and further offshore. Thing is, when it had been as hot as the bite had been it is always going to be tough coming into a bite on the backside with expectations high. The fishing was still very good, though compared to the previous weeks crazy numbers........

Fishing aboard Allure II, Captain Hook, Makina and Pica Pleitos the guys got into good fishing each day with the highlights on day one going to Pica Pleitos who went 21 from 28 bites. Day 2 went to the Capt Hook with 18 from 29 bites. From there on in it was looking elsewhere as the body of fish we had been on the previous 2 weeks was now not worth the chase.....

On our last day out all the boats went their own way looking for a new bite, Allure II went out wide to the west and found plenty of this:

Massive work-ups of bonito's, literally thousands of small bone heads surfing down the waves from the stiff ENE winds. Big slicks, whales, birds and life, amazing stuff.....though more amazingly...not much going on in the way of billfish bites. We worked them and went down the edge eventually finding some bait balls down deeper on the sounder and for the late afternoon the billfish bite was very good. Having just one release at 1:30pm the guys did great in the last hour and half of fishing to release 11 sails from 17 bites and missed a wahoo that chewed through the leader for Allure II to take the 3rd day.

Ken Culbreth, Blaine Weaver, Jonathan McComb and Randy Wendel with the mates..

Super Bowl Sunday was a blast, we had an awesome dinner and an great last night down the lodge watching the big match. Good times!!!

Beautiful deep blue water, bait, slicks, whales, all adds up to one thing....the fish are out there. With that much bait, they'll soon be back on the chew. This season is for sure shaping up to be a beauty. Get down here and get into it. We have a selection of great boats to choose from, no worries...

liz@sailfishoasissportfishing.com

Cheers!

WOW, WHAT A WEEK.....323 BILLFISH RELEASED IN 7 DAYS!!

LANE / STRAKE / CARR GROUP, 125 RELEASES!

Rick Carr, Hill Dishman, Dean Lane and Trey Strake

January 23rd and 24th we fished the above group hosted by HD, good to see Dean Lane and Trey Strake back down here, bringing with them Rick Carr for his first taste of Guatemalan bill fishing. What an introduction as well, and now, ruined for life.....!!! Bit of an ENE blow our first day out and the day started steady, the further we pushed off shore the better it seemed to get and at around the time we were getting ready to cook lunch the bite just went off. No time for lunch with double after double and the odd triple header thrown in. When the dust settled at 3:30pm we had gone through 135 baits!! The official count for the day was 109 sailfish raised, 102 bites and 69 releases. Awesome day right there with some crazy sights witnessed by us all, lit up and aggressive as all heck sailfish biting hard!

Awesome shot from Dean

The next day out we got into more of the same with consistent action though less multiples coming into the spread and finished with 106 sails raised of which 93 did bite and we released 56. A few more sancocho's today though all in all the guys fished real well with the 2 day total ending up at 125 releases....Only in Guatemala!!

What a great couple of days on the water with some incredible teaser bites and some unbelievably lit up sailfish.

Sñr DISHMAN, 42 RELEASES

With his famous beer bottle teaser...

January 25th Hill stayed on for an extra day to get into this bite. The fish were moving a steady rate offshore and getting nearer the edge at the 40NM mark and it took a while to get onto them though we found them out there and they were biting. It was an exceptional day with the conditions back to normal, flat seas, deep blue water with incredible visibility and the sailfish were lit up, coming into the spread with pecks and tails neon blue.

Lit up!!
On several occasions today we had 2 fish all lit up competing over one teaser, coming in hot. The last time it happened we had 2 sails on the bridge teaser, we hooked them both, while making the turn we had another fish on the rigger and another sail on the inside short teaser as it was being cleared, then a striped marlin came in hot, muscling the sailfish out of the way to the teaser, big pecks and tail lit up electric! The stripey overshot the pitched bait and the sail ate it, with nothing on offer it it didn't hang around for long though what a sight. We ended the day with 71 sailfish in the spread and released 42 from 58 bites. Good fishing!!

SISSA GROUP 156 SAILFISH RELEASES!

Brendon O'Brien, Grant Salsman, Nick Sissa and David Collard

January 26th through the 29th we hosted the above group for their first taste of Guatemala and 4 days of fishing. It is hard not to head back to a day of 71 raises so we ran back to the edge looking for the fish we had been on. We found areas of birds and the odd sailfish bite though stayed on the move looking for what we had been on the previous day, the fish has done a bit of a disappearing act on us and we couldn't find what we had been on. Still a good first day out there with the guys hooking all their own fish and releasing 15 from 26 bites and 2 nice mahi's boated.

From out wide to the west we went to an area of blue water pushing in from the east and at 17NM off the break wall we started the next day and they were biting hard!! We ended with 100 sailfish raised and from 89 bites the guys released 54. A backlashing good time! Plenty of practice and slowly slowly they were getting it.

Our next day out the housing on the starboard control cracked (overuse) and we had to fish the day on  the one port side engine. A bit tough to maneuver on one side and it takes a bit of time releasing the multiples though we managed just fine and released 41 sailfish from 63 bites. Pretty good averages there for the guys and we even managed a quintupleta / five banger release on one engine!! Mate, Julio had to help with that one...

Cockpit chaos...

We worked through the night and got the control changed out and were back into the bite for their last day, very steady today with 77 sails raised and 74 bites.....a few more 'sancochos' with 46 releases. 

Pretty steady log book there...

What a trip for this crew with 156 sailfish releases from 252 bites and a couple of big mahi's boated. So good they decide to stay and extra day and are out there fishing with Julio on Allure II right now...

We start a new group tomorrow, Sunday Jan 31st fly fishing the next 5 days. It's always fun to get on the fly and looking forward to getting back into it.

The fishing out there is just unbelievably consistent day to day and it has been an incredible January all in all. It is a very large area right now with boats working 5-7square NM area. By all accounts it is looking like it is shaping up to be the best season in years here, since November the bite has been very consistent and it looks like carrying on. We have a couple of openings in March so get in touch with us to experience this amazing fishery.

liz@sailfishoasissportfishing.com

THE GREAT BITE GOES ON......

JEFF QUICK GROUP 71 SAILFISH & 1 BLUE MARLIN

Angel Pala, Matt and Dennis Caldwell and Jeff Quick

January 12-15 it was great to see Jeff Quick from Tucson, Arizona back at the lodge this time fishing with Guatemalan newbies Angel Pala from New Mexico and father and son Dennis and Matt Caldwell from Northern California. And what an introduction for the crew to Guatemalan bill fishing, first day out at the bottom western corner of the pocket we had an incredible day releasing 34 sailfish from 57 bites! We also had a nice blue in the 400lb+ class crash the short teaser and show her size with a head and shoulders bite on the pitched mackerel right off the corner. A bit unlucky with the hook not sticking to that one. Dennis also boated a nice 20lb bull mahi before lunch...

Airborne

 And boatside...

Over the next 2 days we found a couple of logs and tried live baiting around them looking for a blue with no luck and the afternoon sail bite turned on both days with 35 sails released from 66 bites.

Hot fish...

Big sail, quick photo, and released.

Our last day out the guys were keen to try and find some tunas as there had been some good action out wide with 100lb+ tunas reported. We ran to the edge and found a couple of groups of spinner dolphin though unfortunately, no tuna, we covered some ground and did get to release a couple of sails and boated a couple of nice mahis.

Angel and Dennis.

Near the end of the day we raised a hot blue pushing the 300lb mark. We got a good bite on the pitch bait and after a 20min tussle and a team effort between father and son Dennis and Matt on the 50lb stand-up saw the fish tagged and released...

Solid fish! 

Tagged and released...

A great trip for our crew with 71 sailfish released from 125 bites as well as 1 from 2 on the blues and 3 good mahi's boated! Looking forward to seeing them back next year!

Cpt. Chris; 

Four days of top notch fishing (75 catches). Cpt. Chris and deck crew (Julio and Enio), none better.

Great accommodations at the lodge (Rooms,Shower,A/C), the entire staff could not do enough for our party of 4.

When we return next year, do not know how it can get any better.

My thanks to everyone,

AEP

Taos, New Mexico 

SHINKLE/LONSDALE GROUP 113 RELEASES

Terence Lonsdale, Brian Shinkle and Tim Lonsdale.

Jan 16-19 good to welcome back old friends, father and son team of Tim and Terence Lonsdale along with Brian Shinkle. We've been fishing with these guys for a while and always have a blast, it's good to see the excitement there and the bite was very good with some hot fish on the teasers, some awesome bites on the pitch baits and some crazy acrobatic sails!

On our first morning out our second encounter for the day was a hot blue marlin that teased in on the long teaser hot as hell though did not switch to the pitched mackerel....Whiskey Tengo Foxtrot...? A bit of a slow start on the sailfish though the afternoon bite was very good and we ended up with 25 sails released from 43 bites.

Next morning it was more of the same, another blue came in hot on the same long teaser, this time we got a very aggressive going away bite on the pitched mack and Brian did a great job controlling the spool, we came tight though the fish threw the hook on the first jump...A bit slower today though the afternoon bit once again saved the day and the guys did a great job releasing 21 from 35 bites.

Over the next couple of days the bite picked up and we had some good fishing with 67 releases from 108 bites! On that last day while turning on a hooked sail we had another fish with it's lights turned on, tail and big pecks lit up electric blue, scream into the spread, we got the bite from that stripey and came tight, though while backing down the hook pulled....no luck on the marlins this trip! We also had another large fish in the spread that didn't do anything. Some impressive fishing though with plenty of multiples in the spread and 67 sails raised that last day! The guys got their goal of 100 releases with 113 let go from 186 bites and a mahi boated, good fishing, good times!

We've had the last couple of days in and the bite out there has just got better with boats releasing 50-70 odd fish each. We're back out on Saturday and chomping at the bit to get amongst it!! This is looking like it is shaping up to be an incredible season and we aim to make the most of it. We still have February 12 & 13 open, a Friday and Saturday so contact us to get in on this action. Apart from that there are some days that have opened up in early and late March as well.

Contact:

liz@sailfishoasissportfishing.com

See you down here!