Hola Anglers,

Made it out again with the fat and with another group from the Texas based organization Faith in Practice.  I was told by the general surgeon Dr. John Eason, that he was interested in inshore fishing, not so much sail fishing.  Knowing that we hooked up with a fleet of 6 to 7 shrimp boats trolling with their nets down.  The best way to hook Jack Crevalle while trolling is to find the side of the boat that has the most shade.  Also you need to find the boats that are dumping the nets after they have been sorted for shrimp.  These boats are easy to spot because their nets are up and a ton of birds are usually picking away at the wake of the boat.  So In this case I positioned the boat right on top of the shrimp boat just grazing the outriggers and dragging a series of deep diving crank baits, and ballyhoo rigged with J hooks.  It usually takes just 1 to 2 passes before you have your first 15 lb Jack on.  They are a great fight, and even funnier on lite tackle.  Did I mention they taste wonderful?  Try looking up a recipe for Jack cakes, you won't be disappointed.

Capt Starrs

One unique aspect of our company is we like to fish where ever the bite is the hottest.  So while the sail fish bite slows down, blue bayou will be moving one of our smaller center counsels (La Picasso) to the Atlantic side.  The area is known as Rio Dulce, or the sweet river.  Basically this lush green river that dumps in to the Atlantic is home to some of the best tarpon fishing in Latin America.  Tarpon that can reach 200 lbs even.  Also we have access to the southern parts of Belize such as punta gorda.  This works out perfect for the fly fishermen or light spinning anglers wanting to tap this area for a fraction of the cost Belize normally charges.  Our groups can handle 3 anglers for the tarpon fishing in Guatemala, but for the Belize trips 2 is ideal.  Our web page will soon have the updated info for these types of trips, and the lodging as well.  By far this my favorite part of Guatemala.  More to come.

Capt Starrs

What can you expect this summer?

As expected the weather is starting to lean more to the rainy months in Guatemala.  I would say that middle of may will be the start of the rainier months, but last year June was still dry and that was a great month for sail fish with a good mix of Dorado.  If you are not aware, Guatemala has at least 3 solid months dedicated to afternoon tropical rains on through to the early morning usually.  While fishing on the coast you can almost set your watch to the rain clouds coming in for the afternoon down pour (2 to 3pm).  Depending on how far off shore you are, typically we will not be affected while fishing.  This season does help the fishing, as well as changes it.  The rivers start to pour out into the Pacific and Atlantic side, along with general rain fall, the water temperature will cool causing the currents to hug tighter to the coast line, and inviting marlin to move in with ideal water temperature.  Typical to Latin America rainy months the fishing for species like Dorado and Yellow Fin Tuna becomes much better, and even inshore species like Wahoo and Atlantic species like Tarpon start to become easier to pattern.  The rivers will wash out lots of garbage into current cuts on the pacific making the Dorado a certainty to catch and to find.  This usually occurs at around 8 miles or less.  If you want to get into the ''Summer Time Blues'', as Marlin magazine called it in one issue.  You will need to haul around 50 miles off shore for the big Blue and Black Marlin bite.  Even 50 miles for Marlin is pretty standard anywhere you go in the world, actually much less.  This is when we start to get out the big mag teasers and go strictly after Blue Marlin.  Both the slightly off shore and marlin off shore fishing is great fun.  I like to get a 8 wt fly reel with smaller flies for the Dorado bite at the 8 mile cut.  Find a log and park the boat.  Great fun! 

HOY (today)

At the moment the sail fish bite is still hot and not affected by the rain.  This is just a prediction to come.  Regardless the sail fish can be found in the mix and for sure off shore while fishing for marlin.  They are always around year round.

Happy Fishing,
Capt Starrs

This past Friday April 23rd we took out one of our funniest groups yet.  I was contacted by a volunteering group of Doctors from Texas, mostly from the Houston's practicing region hospitals.  They were all down here on a type of mission that involved several serious surgery´s for impoverished Guatemala´s that had no way of accessing such medical attention.  Most days they completed around 60 operations while working out of Antigua´s Hermano Pedro (Church/Hospital in Antigua). Such operations included implants for elderly folks needing replacement hip, joints, etc.  So to say I was happy to take such great people out fishing was an understatement.  Since the group was rather large I captained the Fat Cat.  This boat is a larger 30 foot hydro cat.  The day was incredible, we reached blue water at just about 10 miles which is ideal.  We put the lines down at about 15 miles and it wasn´t long before we had out first one on.  The fishing from that point pretty much dropped off to nothing for a long time.  We had gotten lots of chatting from the locals that were involved in a local tournament telling us that their were sails all over the place at about 20 miles, but they were not biting.  I guess there was too much bait fish concentrated in one area.  We headed to the hot spot to find that what was being said was in fact true.  I was spotting birds, dolphin's, and even whales working a 1 mile by 1 mile pocket.  I was even more surprised to see that from the tower I was spotting schools of 5 to a dozen Sail fish just picking at the top of the surface with their sails exposed.  I did everything in my power to get them to bite and nothing was happening.  Very strange!!!  This was a prefect day for live bait, but in Guatemala 100% of folks use dead bollyhoo.  The end result was 2 for 4 bites with sail fish, and a couple of very close calls with some humpback whales near the boat for great pictures.  Lots of life, time to start thinking about a bubblier for the rest of the fleet.  Our newest boat for next year will have such equipment.  Great group and we thank faith in practice for joining us in the sail fish Capital and helping out local Guatemalans in need.

Capt Starrs