Guatemala

[Legend]

Casa Vieja Lodge - May report:

May 5th & 6th Finds Matt Eastman, Rich Christianson, Mike Butler and special guest Mike, the designated angler of ESPN2’s “Who Wants to Go Fishing”. The group raised 15 sails in 2 days of fishing having 14 bites and 6 releases they also got on a school of spinner dolphins and released endless amounts of Yelowfin tuna. “We had tons of sailfish and then got into a fantastic tuna bite. We'd love to come back, not just for the fishing but because the people with the lodge where just so on top of things.” Right now Casa Vieja Lodge is scheduled to be episode 11 (final episode) and airs on Sunday, June 15th at 7:30am EST ESPN 2 and re-airing on Sunday, June 22 at the same time and place

May 13th to 16th Finds Larry Dahlburg who in his 4 days of fishing for his “Hunt for Big Fish” on the Versus network, raised 91 sailfish, had 53 bites and 32 releases. He used everything from fly tackle to freshwater bass gear, a truly great angler. Endless amounts of Dorado aboard the Release.

May 5th & 13th 5/17-5/18 Finds Marian “Miss Finesse” Pennachio, Mike “Can’t get a Break” Pennachio & Red(wood) Butler aboard the Release fishing for 2 days. The group raised 18 sails, had 9 bites on the fly. Marian released 1 for 1 on fly and Red released 2 sails on spin tackle.

May 14th to 16th Finds the Intensity with Captain Mike Sheeder Raising 37 sails, 27 bites and 12 releases. As of this writing, Captain Mike finds himself back in Hawaii for the summer where he runs the famous glass bottom boat tour on the Big Island. If you’re on the island be sure to check out the King Kamehameha Lounge where Captain Mike has been known to Karaoke to his favorite Don Ho songs!

May 16th to 18th Finds Thomas Ong, Chris Crites and James Carnahan aboard the Finest Kind with Captain Chris Sheeder. Capt Chris reports: “the boys had a great time but would rather not talk about their numbers.” Well Chris that will just have to be your little secret! Mr. Ong did give us this testimonial: "Chris is the best damn Captain I've ever fished with and the mates were awsome!"

[Legend]

Fishing up till now had been very slow, though it had been mentioned that things can change overnight, they did, and luckily for us we started fishing the very next day with Greg Miner and Josh Thomas from New Orleans on the 12th. The highlight of the day was Josh hooking up to a nice black marlin that came up on the flat-line teaser and engulfed the pitched mackeral bait with an incredible bite. The fish stayed down and dirty and Josh did a great job with the Black Magic gimbal and harness stand-up gear we use on-board getting the fish to come up and releasing it after a hard 25min fight.

Josh Thomas' black, pushing 350lbs.
We finished the day with the black marlin, 3 releases from 9 bites on the sailfish, and this nice dorado of around 30lbs+ for Josh Thomas as well

The following day Josh Cummings, also from New Orleans joined us while Greg went on Circle Hook for the day. The water quality had improved alot and with it the bite got better, steady action through the day saw us release 10 from 14 sails on bait and one on the fly. A late in the day double on the fly and bait saw Josh Thomas' goal of catching a sail on the fly achieved. We also caught 16 dorado to 25lbs and a nice blue marlin for Josh Cummings that was pushing the 300lb mark on 30lb tackle that put on a spectacular series of greyhounding jumps.

14th May, Mickey Hines, Ricky Hammonds, Johnny Lopez and Bill Bowman from Louisiana and Elden Sorsby from Houston joined us for a day. The sailfish bite intensified although it took till after midday for us to get on to them. With just one release by midday we ended with 16 releases from 22 bites and a 25lb bull dorado. Nice job Johnny Lopez who is recovering from chemo on getting in on the mix and releasing a single and one out of a triple. On the 31ft Jupiter, Craig Johnson, Nicky Bailes and Scott McShane went out looking for grouper and snapper though the fish were there thay weren't biting. The guys ended the afternoon trolling and caught 10 dorado and a couple of sailfish

15th May and Scott McShane, Nicky Bailes and Craig Johnson joined us at the expense of Bill, Johnny and Elden who visited Antigua for the day. The sailfish bite was looking steady till a call from Ronnie Hamlin on the Capt Hook had us running to a school of spinner dolphin he had found 15NM away. 14 nice yellow-fin tuna to 40lbs was the result......thanks Ronnie. Throw in 8 from 16 sailfish bites and another awesome day on the water!

May 16th-18th. Hill, Drake and Jamie Dishman along with Drew Donalson and Clint Droody were on ALLURE for the next 3 days. The dorado were thick out there and at times tough to get away from. The sailfish bite started well though died in the afternoon with just a couple raised in the last 3 hours of the day. Still, the dorado kept the action up with 17 dorado to 50lbs and 12 sailfish from 21 bites. The following day we only fished till just after midday, releasing 5 from 6 sails and 19 dorado to 35lb's. On our last day out we had a small blue marlin up on the bridge teaser almost immediately after putting them out, the fish did not switch to the pitched mackeral. The rest of the day was fairly slow for us with just 2 sailfish releases from 4 bites, though plenty of great light tackle action with 23 dorado to 30lbs.

[Legend]

This is my Spring spam for readers: Both large Guatemalan operators have reduced their rates for the Summer.

a) Pacific Fins finally has included dinners as part of their packages starting now. The discount is on all four of their boats: Captain Hook, Circle Hook, Hooked Up and Fishy Business. June thru September the rates are 40% off from their package prices. The current Captain Hook quad rate (two rooms) is $2,950 per person, Summer price is $1,770 per person. Kids under 14 stay, eat and fish for free when accommpanied by a parent. One child per parent. But, the kids deal and the 40% cannot be combined.

b) Casa Vieja Lodge - 40% off on their boats Release, Spindrift, Intensity, Canaso and including their latest acquistion, the Finest Kind. This means the quad rate on any of these boats (two rooms) is $1,440 per person and kids rate applies here too.

The Summer is often rainy, but it doesn't really bother the fish since they're wet already. The marlin bite got going last May and ran all the way thru September. The sails are still around and always present are Dorado and migrating Yellow Fins make for enjoyable vacations with your family.

The packages remain basically the same, with one exception - Casa Vieja is located only a mile from the marina, giving you a little more time to spend at the bar or in the pool after a hard days fishing. 5 days, 4 nights, 3 days fishing includes: vip airport greeting service, roundtrip land transfers to the lodges; four nights double occupancy accommodations; breakfast and dinners; non-alcholic beverages; 3 full days fishing with boat, crew, tackle; lunches and beverages on fishing days.

It's time for a family vacation and Guatemala is the place to be!