November 26th, 2015 Fishing Report- Iztapa Guatemala (short day)
Its rare that we get to fish on Thanks Giving, strictly family day. However, this year my father made his way down to Guatemala to visit family, and we made an exception for ''Papa John''.
Just 12 miles in front of the port we put em out, and weren't dragging for more than 20 minutes when a nice blue marlin in the 300 lb range crashed the short teaser. Since the mate was running the boat, and my old man and I were fishing, I pitch the aggressive marlin the mackerel 50lb, and got it hooked up. Just a 15 minute fight, and we got the ''quickie'', AND got a TAG!
We continued to see 8 more sails in the same area, 7 bit, and released 4, as well as we saw two more BIG blues that wouldn't eat. Only 3 hrs at 12 miles and we still made it back to see the Lions win against Philly. Fishing offshore was just as good as many boats finished up the day with 25-30 bites each, and marlin here and there. The blues actually seem to be on the inshore drop at just 15 miles. Flat calm out there. Monday we start back up. Incredible fishing this year, can't describe it.
Capt Chris Starrs
November 14th, 2015 Fishing Report: Marlin Bite is very good in Guatemala
Right now the blue marlin bite has been incredible in Guatemala. From 15 miles to 45 miles, the blues are all over. 3 days, over a dozen boats fishing in all directions have had at least mutiple shots a blues, many BIG blues in the 500 lb class. But why? Well El Nino actually has been known to increase our marlin strikes in Guatemala. The warm temps further south seem to push the fish and currents up our way. We are fishing mid 80s on the water temps, which normal for us in Guatemala with Sailfish. Meaning the affect of El Nino don't really affect our surface temps. So the El Nino actual helps our cause in Guatemala by pushing fish out of areas like Panama, Costa Rica.. In addition to 2 marlin releases out of the past 3 days of fishing, while seeing 6 in total, we have raised 80 sailfish, gotten 65 bies, and released 43 (lots of pulled hooks!), as well as 4 big mahi for lunch in the 25 lb range. You can't complain in Guatemala right now! VAMOS!!!!!!!
Capt Chris Starrs
Capt Chris Starrs
Marlin In The Spread!
Great marlin bite in Guatemala right now. As known, summer to fall can produce a very good marlin envirorment. Oct 15th we made it out for a test run on the new bertram, and started fishing just 12 miles as we entered the blue water cut in front of the marina. At about 14 miles, we had our first blue in the spread, we quickly got it hooked up and released on the 50 lb pitch bait. We continued to see 5 more blue throughout the day and just 6 sails, as well as 2 nice bull dorado. Bringing the final blue marlin talley to 2 blues for 3 bites, 5 up. We called it a day at 1pm, back at the dock at 2pm.
There was one other boat off shore 30 miles, who reported the same thing. 5 marlin in the spread, sailfish here and there, dorado here and there. So we can assume its a big area. The blue water is pushing in from El Salvador, and hopefully more fish are coming. Water temps are great, 84-86, perfect & normal. More to come!!
Capt Christopher Starrs
ANGLERS!
Nothing like a great day of marlin fishing and sailfishing, and the best part, nobody around. We are the only lodge fishing these days. August has been a real hot month these past years, and while many boats are doing major over hauls, we have learned to keep one free boat on stand by for these months. The fishing can get red hot on short notice.
Tuesday we set out to follow up on a red hot marlin bite just 25 miles off Guatemala's famous sailfish waters. We heard over the past weekend, that double digit shots were expected. 15 minutes into the trip we spotted spinning dolphins and from there proceeded to raise a nice blue marlin which we hooked on the lures we were dragging. We normally do not use lures in Guatemala, just teasers for bait and switch with circle hooks. But the same local Captain that reported the bite stated that many marlin were not sticking around long enough for a pitch bait. They went 12-2-2 on blues. Lazy fish, ideal for live bait.
Our day in the same area was 5-2-1. The one blue that threw the long lure was easily 400 lb class, pretty fish.
In the mix we raised 12 sailfish on BIG marlin lures which we tried to use as teasers, only releasing 4 sails. All in all a great marlin bite and sailfish too.
Thursday we will head back out and try to fish our typical sailfish spread with a big marlin lure to encourage the big girl bite.
Reports are showing a very cool push of water to the east of the pocket, and currents are pushing inshore to the east as well. The edges should produce. Not warm considering what El Nino usually does. Thanks to Terrafin we can find the good stuff. More to come! Stay thirsty!
