January 9th, 2008

Fish Report - Guatemalan Billfishing Adventures

The fishing this past December and into January has been as good as Guatemala gets, if not better in fact. The sailfish came flooding in with the Decisive releasing 653 for the month. The fantastic marlin action we have been seeing just got better with us releasing 28 blue marlin in December, including a whopper day which will go down in the Guatemalan history books when we released 6 blues in the wildest two hour stretch imaginable.

We started things off for the month with Brad Watkins, Darren Terzi, John Hundley, Barry Fitzpatrick, John Carbone and Craig Ziegler joining us at the Billfish Inn, booking both the Decisive and the Makara. Their first day was a special day for Darren aboard the Decisive as he released his 100th Pacific sailfish and his first Pacific Blue marlin, a 400lb'er in the dying seconds of the day, to compliment the 20 sailfish for the day. The following day things slowed a little with us releasing 5 sailfish, then 8 sails and a blue of around 300# the next day. The 3rd of December proved one of those frustrating days with the blue marlin being around but being on the finicky side and making it tough to capitalize on them, with us only managing to stick the very last of 7 blue bites, a 225# fish which Brad released in quick order on the 20# gear. The next day saw the Decisive release 6 sails and missing a 400# blue and releasing a 300#. Things picked up for Darren and Craig the 5th, as they stayed on to fish an extra day going 12 from 24 on sails, with Darren releasing his second blue of the trip.

Manuel Tavares with sons Juan and Manuel, together with Samuel and Sammy Conde and Oscar Peña all from Dominican Republic, joined us the 6, 7 and 8th of December to fish aboard both the Decisive and Makara. Sammy started things on a hot note releasing 2 blues aboard the Makara with Decisive releasing 12 from 22 on the sails. Things picked up the 7th with Oscar, Samuel and Sammy going 19 from 31 on sails and releasing a 400# blue for a great day on the Decisive, to follow it up with 11 from 31 sails on the 8th. 

Miguel and Maria Gisela Ricart of the Dominican Republic fished with us next. The 9th saw us out at 28 miles on some unusually large groups of feeding bonito's which had attracted the big boys. By the end of a hectic day of action we had released a 450# and 400# blue on live-bait, a 400# and 350# blue on the pitchbaits, and another 9 sailfish on the ballyhoo. Running straight back to the foamers the next day the action was still hot. Missing a blue early on the livebait we opted to troll instead and ended the day releasing 3 sails and going 3 from 4 on blues with the pitch-baits, one of which was a solid 600# fish which put on a spectacular show. We stayed inshore the following day in the hope of giving Maria-Gisela more shots and practice on the sails and the move paid off with 17 sailfish from 26 bites, nice going Maria, and Miguel releasing a 200# blue on 12# to end a fantastic trip for the couple who we are going to see back here in no time I would imagine.

Our Guatemalan neighbors, Drs Scott and Kristy Lund of Palm Beach fished with us on the 12th, for a day that none will forget. After a slow morning of trying to get on top of the sailfish bite inshore and scratching together a handful on the fly rod I couldn't help it but turn the Decisive offshore and run out to the east to see if the bonito's could still be found. At 25 miles we found the bait under the tell-tail birds, and the games began. 1pm saw us hook our first blue, the smallest fish of the day, a 275# which we duely released. The action thereafter was non-stop, we released 3 more blues and had a big fish jump back onto the line and break us off. By 3pm we had a double header on, our potential 5th and 6th blue marlin release for the day. The double header went in opposite directions and had us on the knot on one of the 50# wide Alutecnos reels for 10 minutes as I jockeyed the boat not to break the line but still release the other fish. 45 minutes later we got the second of the double header and set a new Guatemala record of 6 blue marlin releases in a single day and headed for the festivities. The smallest of the fish was 275#, the biggest 600#, all were caught on the new Eagle Claw 2004, 11/0 non-offset circle hook with a 100% hookup ratio slow trolling live bonito's around the school of bait. Thank goodness Scott is as fit as he is, that was the wildest 2 hours of fishing any of us had ever seen. 

We couldn't find the bait the next day but Scott did release a 400# blue on the troll, pitch-baited off the teasers along with 2 sails on the fly rod.

Gary Parlin of Stuart, Fl joined us along with his son Jason, son-in-law Scott "Fish-Hog" Palfreyman, and friend Alan Milstein for three days of outstanding sailfishing. The 14th saw the guys release 30 from 41 bites only to up that the following day with 33 releases and only just missing a blue marlin inches from the release. They finished things in style on their final day with 41 releases to see more than 100 fish released in their three days and start off their festive season celebrations early......................nice going guys.

Our Kiwi mates, Nigel and Marian Kreft were with us the 17, 18 and 19th. The sea was rough on the first day so we elected to return early after 7 releases for Nigel. The fishing picked up nicely the next day with Nigel releasing 37 sailfish. Wife Marian was back out with us the next day, Nigel put the screws to the fish, not without Marian's help of course and between them they released 50 sailfish for the day to end a superb vacation for the couple.

Mo Smith brought his young sons Connor and Parker on their annual pre-Christmas fishing trip and where not in the least bit disappointed after all the anticipation. The first day saw Mo release a 300# blue and the team join efforts in releasing 35 sailfish. 12 sailfish and a 350# blue where the order of the following day. To continue on his blue marlin roll, Mo released an energetic 400# blue their last day along with 50 sailfish of which Parker probably released way more than half to fill his Christmas stocking to the hilt with fish stories.

Our close friends Michael and Lyndsey Viljoen, and son Sean, and another good friend Kevin Hodgson all of South Africa joined us to spend their Christmas season in Guatemala, and what a great festive season it proved to be. On their first day out Michael, Kevin and Sean released 47 sailfish to follow that up with 53 the next. After a days break for Christmas we where back at it with 18 releases, then 34, followed by 49 sailfish releases and then 17 releases the next day. Our wives Cindy and Lyndsey joined us the 30th, finding some marlin action out wide with Michael releasing a 250# class fish off the teasers and us seeing 3 other blues while also releasing 9 sails. We opted to see the year out in style and went out wide leaving an excellent sailfish bite inshore on the 31st but scored on a couple sailfish and Kevin's first Pacific Blue, nice going Kevo!!

December proved to be an outstanding month, one of the very best I have seen and fitting way to round off another great year for us in Guatemala. We released 1702 sailfish, 93 blues, 2 striped marlin and 1 black marlin for the year and have been blessed to have had such great anglers join us to share in the bounty of the sport we so enjoy.

From Cindy and I, and all at Guatemalan Billfishing Adventures may we wish you all a great year ahead, tight lines, circle hooks and healthy releases. 

Capt. Brad Philipps
"Decisive"

Cindy Philipps
Managing Director

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