Guatemala Fishing Report Jan 31st 2011
At this time of year, anything can happen when fishing in Guatemala. Although we are well established in a pleasant weather pattern, with calm seas and warm days for chasing sailfish, the currents also strengthen and can make for dramatic changes in fishing conditions from one day to the next.
The fishing in Guatemala has been strong since the middle of the month with our boats raising over 20 billfish most days and so plenty of activity for visiting anglers. Now however we not only have some great fishing, but we also have almost perfect conditions, with great blue water close to shore and flat calm seas almost every day.
The boats are leaving the dock at a lazy pace this week, as the blue water has pushed in as close asthree miles – a very comfortable 15 minutes from casting lines away to putting (fishing) lines back in the water. The only problem when fishing for sailfish so close to shore is that the coastal waters also carry large populations of aggressive jacks that somehow do not recognize that the carefully prepared ballyhoo are not for them – and insist on destroying the baits.
Much of the time, they are not fast (or accurate) enough to hook themselves with the circle hooks we are using, so we not only "sacrifice" a perfectly well rigged bait to them, we don't even get the satisfaction of fighting the fish. Some of these jacks are in the 20lb class, so can fight like a tuna and wear an angler out if we manage to hook up. The hookup ratio however is quite low – one of our charters went through over sixty baits last week on a single day …………. with only 22 bites from sailfish – the rest of the baits were mauled by the marauding jacks!!
The blue water has been shifting by as much as twelve miles overnight - you can get a closer view of the current sea temperatures that we are fishing in Guatemala by clicking here where you can see "pockets" of cooler blue water within a few miles of shore within the twenty fathom line.
The MidWest and NorthEast are welcoming up to two feet of snow over the next couple of days – so this is a great time to be thinking of making a fishing trip this season – pick up the phone (877 763 0851) and let's plan a trip to the Sailfishing Capital of the World !!
We still have one slot left for our shared (economical !) fishing trip in March – if interested, please send me an email at kevin@Greatsailfishing.com