Guatemala Fishing report April 21st 2009
Thank goodness they grow so quickly !
This Guatemala fishing report is for the week ending
April 21st 2009 and is prepared by The Great Sailfishing Company
operating out of the new Pez Vela Marina.
Coming towards the end of the main sailfishing season in Guatemala – usually regarded as November – May, but mostly defined by how cold the weather is up North. Things do seem to be slowing down; the crews are getting more days at the dock and starting on needed maintenance when the boats have worked so hard throughout the season.
We had all the boats out fishing this past week, and the sailfish catches have been about average for this time of year – with 5-15 raises per day – but unpredictable in location. The fleet some days has failed to find good streams of strong blue water, just "pools" as they call them holding bait. On such days, somebody often "volunteers" to be "hero or zero" and head further out……..and keep on going……until consistent water is found. This has been as far as 60 miles this past week, so it takes deep pockets to do such prospecting, with no guarantee of success at the end.
The main part of the fleet has been fishing lines in at 35-45 miles as it has been here that the water overall is better, and these "pockets" of deep blue holding bait have been more frequent and closer together – meaning that the Captain has been able to define a reasonable troll area to intersect as many of these as possible and raise decent numbers of fish.
Often what has raised the most excitement on slow days has been finding debris and getting out the superlight tackle to target dolphin/Mahi for sport and the table. These fish continue to amaze me; they are among the fasting growing animals in the world – reaching sexual maturity in as little as 3 months (although 4-5 is normal…………must be a bar joke in there somewhere ?), and essentially consume everything and anything that they come across.
They put on body mass at an extraordinary rate, reaching the 6lb mark in less than a year and more than tripling in size over the course of the next 12 months. They make great light tackle sport fish, as they will have hatched underneath floating debris or weed, and can be teased out to turn a bite into a feeding frenzy – holding the school close to the back of the boat to facilitate superlight tackle or fly is the way to go.
When you are wondering where they all came from – consider that having reached sexual maturity (at 4-5 months), they typically spawn every 6 weeks and release up to half a million eggs that start to hatch after a couple of days…………and start to feed voraciously !
Sailfish are somewhat similar, with short, aggressive life cycles, although not as prodigious as Dolphin.
So next time the fishing turns a little slow, keep a peripheral eye towards floating detritus and consider dedicating an hour to chasing dolphin and managed chaos in the cockpit !!
Read our latest blog entry here about the new terminal and infrastructure at Guatemala GUA airport.
We are still fishing hard, but have availability going forward – so if you are considering a trip, now is a great time to go. Please call us at 1-877-763-0851 or email me at kevin@GreatSailfishing.com
Our Favorite Fishing Quote for the week:
" Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are made for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration."
~ Izaac Walton
Les, Carlos, Kevin and Jim
The GreatSailfishing Company
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