O’BRIEN: 103 SAILFISH & 1 BLUE MARLIN
Shannon and Robert O’Brien
January 9-10 we welcomed Shannon O’Brien and her son Robert for their first time to Guatemala. What timing, the bite was going off out there and in 2 days of fishing they released 103 sailfish and 1 blue marlin! We had a stiff cold front blow through so first day out we fished in close at the 8NM drop off and were rewarded with a nice 200lb blue marlin hot on the short teaser that switched to the pitched mackerel with a great bite for Robert in the opening minutes of the day.
Robert on the rod
Early morning colors
And on the leader….
We got the tag in it and released 3 sailfish and boated 2 mahi mahi in the morning session all at 8-9NM out of the wind.
Fresh lunch…..
The radio was going off another 15NM out so we ran out expecting the wind to have died down after midday. We had an awesome afternoon out there releasing 27 sailfish to finish with 30 sails and 1 blue marlin for the day. Next day we started in close again looking for a blue at the edge with no luck so ran out to the previous days bite at about 10:00 and we found ourselves a great fishing hole from there on in…
One of many double headers for the day
It got kind of crazy from 10:15 onwards with double header after double header with often times many sailfish behind the boat free swimming. The amazing thing was that boats were seeing them just as thick 6-7NM away. A huge body of fish out there, quite incredible and they were on the bite, aggressive as all hell on the teasers. Things slowed down in the late afternoon though we finished with a triple header to end the day with 73 sailfish released from 104 bites!! What an incredible day for Shannon and Robert who fished strong the whole day through and witnessed a truly incredible bite. Congratulations to them, they finished 2 days of fishing here with 103 sailfish, 1 blue marlin and 2 mahi mahi. Does it get any better?
SCHMITZ GROUP 71 SAILFISH & 1 BLUE MARLIN
L-R: John & Nick Schmitz, Mitchel Ward, Doug Gossett and Steve Schmitz
January 7 & 8 it was good to catch up again with brothers John and Steve Schmitz, this time introducing Steve’s son Nick and friends Mitchel and Doug to this amazing fishery. We started in close once again and raised a blue marlin almost immediately at the first drop off, John was on the rod and we got the release on the fish fairly quickly, a great way to start the day! From there on in a slow morning though we got into the fish late in the afternoon and experienced a great bite finishing up with 36 sails released from 52 bites
Next day the wind started blowing and we were on the fish, not with the same intensity as the previous afternoon though it was steady out there all day and the guys were into hooking them off the teasers, a good fun day out there with 35 released from 56 bites to their 2 days here in Guatemala with 71 sailfish and 1 blue marlin released!
Mitchel and Nick in on the action
Nick and Mitchel with that double boat side…
