3 days in Guatemala for sails

[peter mac]

We spent the 14, 15 & 16 at the casa vieja lodge (about 1 1/2 hrs from Gautemala city) fishing for Pacific sails with sailfish guru and host Jake Jordan. Joe D. ,Tom G. and I had a Very cool experience all the way around, Lots of fish & fun for all. At the lodge we were treated like kings and the Captain & crew aboard the Intensity were outstanding in every way. Nice break from the snow upstate.
Peter Mac

[Lov2Fish]

Great pics, thanks for sharing! Looks like you had a blast!!!!

[FlyFishFrostie]

Wow, that is great. Many thanks for sharing those photos and information about your trip. I've been thinking about going to Guatemala for several years now and have yet to make the arrangements to go. This helps a lot. Congratulations on your obviously great catches and experience.

[browndog]

Is that Tom Gilmore in the pink shirt ?

[peter mac]

that would be him

[browndog]

The man gets around. It looks like you had a great trip.

[JGH]

Peter, I've thought about going for sails on my winter trip, but I've instead continued to go for bones (Andros the last two years, Los Roques this year), because I've heard mixed things about trolling up sails and then throwing a fly at them off the transom. Did you find it challenging? Would you do it again, or is once enough?

[peter mac]

jgh,
sent you pm
Peter

[venture]

JGH,

I would do it again. My fly fishing for sailfish experience was in Quepos, Costa Rica. Went there once and chartered a boat for 3 days. I remember traveling up country after my fishing stint wishing that I had a few more days of sail fishing.

I would assume that the fishing in Guatamala is similar to that in Costa Rica. We had at least 12 shots a day at sails on fly. The takes at the boat are quite spectacular as the fish are all lite up and very aggressive. It is extremely exciting to tease up those critters and get them to the boat. You don't always raise them to the fly....so it is quite challenging and never a sure hookup.

I also love the flats. It's a totally different experience. You cannot compare bone fishing to sail fishing. They are not even in the same league. Its like comparing tuna fishing in the canyons to surf fishing for Bass. You may want to make a steady diet out of Bone Fishing, yet if you have never experienced a sail fishing, I would recommend it for sure. And you never know when that big marlin is going to show up. If that would be the case, it would be the fish of a life time.

Howie

[peter mac]

This was my response to JGH in a pm,
First of all let me say that I too was septical about flipping a fly to teased up sails right at the back of the boat. Now Having done it I can say that it is easily one of the 2 coolest things I have ever seen/done fly fishing, the other being casting to BFTs in CCB like they were blitzing albies (4 foot albies) To see a 9' pacific sail come in on a teaser and get all lit up and psychotic when they pull the teaser away you flip the fly 25 feet past the sail and he turns and hit the fly like a freight train going away (which makes hook ups much more consistent) The visual show from the BFTs is all pre hookup, where the sails show starts once they get in the teasers, the takes are amazing and then once hooked there is no fish that comes close, 10 mins. of tail walking has to be experienced. Anyway, I hope this has helped, and yes I would do it again, and we are actually planning on going back next year. As for numbers raised daily we raised 18 a day (average, the first day was very slow we only raised 7 fish, day 2 we raised 25 and day 3 we raised 22, but we did get a blue marlin) and about 60% would eat the fly, we landed 18 sails in 3 days. If you have not done it you really should.
Peter

[venture]

What I remember most about the sails were there disappearance after the teaser is pulled. You know he's there but not showing. You pop your fly like crazy and nothing. You cast again and do the same pop pop pop, and then out of no where he slams the fly in a great leap right in close quarters. Quite spectacular. After that, as you say, it is often an arial battle. It is very cool as you say.

Never free casted for BFTs in CCB, but would love to do it some day. All my BFTs were all taken at the Dump and the 700 square off Montauk. Much different deal. We did it always in a slick which is very cool too. Many times we would get the tuna swarming at the transom, and toss a big deceiver. Funny how many rejections we would get. It usually took 5 - 10 casts for every fish but we often had consistent hookups for hours until the sharks came. The sharks would drive the tuna down about 20 feet. You can see them swarming down there. But they would not come through the sharks for your fly. The only way to get them on the fly with many sharks around is with long casts away from the sharks. But then you would never bring one in whole... They would ALWAYS get hit by the sharks because you could not horse them in on the long rod.

We even used to troll a fly rod in the spread out in the canyons just for the fun of it. We would tie on a big bill fish fly with a popper head and put it in the spread. We took many yellow fin and long fin on the fly like that. It was not really fly fishing but it was fun all the same. My biggest yellow was 80 pounds on the fly like that. What a mess that fish made. We had to reel up the 9 other conventional rods, get up on the bow, and tear after the fish before we got spooled. Very athletic.

But Bones on the flats, which is what we all love is something I really love as well. I dont like poling for them with guides. I exclusively wade solo for them, and only go to places where that is possible. I find poling with a guide extremely boring and repetitive. Love to wade a shallow flat in the morning hours and see tailers 100 yards away. Great way to meditate.

Howie

[peteD]

Peter,

I was talking to Joe and he told me how many fish you guys were into. Sounds awesome.

[peter mac]

Pete,
January 5, 6 & 7, 2009 are the dates and there is a spot for you on one of the boats...............yes, no, maybe?
Peter