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In Guatemala, Sailfishing can mean catching up to 30 or more Sailfish in a Day. You may actually get tired of catching the fish and move on to other things, like.......
The world record for catch and release of Sailfish is in Guatemala. (Over 100) Our crews plus quality tackle and gear give you the competitive edge to make every outing unforgettable.
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Fishing Reports
FISHING BLOG
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Sunday 22 November,
We took Fat cat out for a half day coastal fishing trip , on board was Chas and our Captain and Mate. Chas just wanted to get out on the water and had time for a few hours of “casual fishing” . We left the dock at about 1130hrs with the “normal” Guatemalan flat calm Pacific weather. Lines were out at about noon
Trolling the “corte” which is a line with a color change and various debris we hooked up with a couple nice size bonito. While our mate was prepairing a nice ceviche we headed in to fish the “rockas” which is the port jetty. Using spoons we hooked up another two mackerel and two barracuda as well as a large needle fish. Enjoying the ceviche as well as our cold beers we headed in to be alongside the dock at about 1300 hours. A nice half day of fishing
March 2009
Some of you may recall that I posted an inquiry last week asking for recommendations to fish in Guatemala. I was there on business and was able to set aside a day for fishing. I was referred to Buena Vista by several people and coincidentally was connected to Capt. Joe Riley who happened to be fishing out of Buena Vista. I made arrangements to spend Friday night there, fish on Satruday, and leave Sunday morning. (My father-in-law came along last minute because he's always wanted to see Guatemala).
We arrived at Buena Vista on Friday night after a lot of driving and two full days of work-related meetings. We were greeted by about 8 guys drinking cold ones and sharing fishing stories. We then ate a great meal consisting of fresh fish, steak, fish soup, and fresh vegetables. The place was nice, clean, and the beers were cold and plentiful. There is a swimming pool, wireless internet, and delicious food. We then made arrangements to meet up in the morning and head out.
On Saturday morning, we left for the marina at about 6:30am and the crew on the Fat Cat (a 30’ catamaran) consisted of myself, Capt. Joe Riley, Paul Winters and George Winters from York PA, John Seckinger, and our mate, Chavelo. We stopped to get some live bait fish about 10 minutes out before running about 25 miles to the fishing grounds. The guys schooled me on the art of “feeding” the ballyhoo back to a fish chasing the teasers and letting him run with it before tightening the drag and starting the fight.
After about 45 minutes, we had a hit on the rigger and I let him take line before setting the drag. Before I knew it, I had my first-ever billfish hooked up! The fight was unbelievable and the aerial show was amazing. We brought the fish up for a quick pic and released him. A few hours later, I had the experience of a lifetime. Paul was hooked up with a fish caught on the rigger and we cleared the lines. I dropped a live bait in and let the Shimano Baitrunner do its thing. Within seconds, the line was screaming! After about 7 seconds, I was hooked up. I couldn’t believe that I had just live lined a sailfish! We brought it boatside and released it. Overall, we caught 5 (or 6?) sailfish and saw 9. For Guatemala standards, that is supposedly a bad day, but it was an incredible day for me.
On the way in, I saw Jody, the owner of the lodge, with my father-in-law in a 23’ panga, trolling for mackerels. My father-in-law is the most seasick person I’ve ever known, and he was out there trolling up macs with Jody! I was blown away. Jody worked really hard to make him comfortable and really made him happy. The next morning, we only had 2 hours before heading out, and Jody took us out on the panga to catch three more macs in about 30 minutes. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had more work to do during the next few days.
I own a coffee company and buy coffee from many countries around the world and have been to the mountains of Guatemala before. I was born in Guaemala and had no idea about the incredible sailfish action out there and regret not making a trip to the coast before. In that one day, we must have seen over 50 sailfish free-jumping, along with about 100 turtles, and a huge whale that we think was a humpback.
Buena Vista is a beautiful, relaxing place and Jody will take care of you above and beyond any expectations that you may have. I met a bunch of great guys and had a blast. I plan on making a detour there every time I have to go back to Guatemala and I recommend that if you plan a trip out of the country to fish, you consider Buena Vista. I can't think of enough positive things to say about Jody's hospitality.
Feb 9, 2009
Saturday’s fishing trip was after a strong storm blew through the area with gale force winds keeping the fleet pretty much locked inside the harbor. Late Friday we saw a let-up on the winds but with a combination of a strong current opposing a 20kt. breeze we had a “piled up” ocean making for a pretty choppy day. Good thing the FAT CAT is a catamaran and we were a bit more comfortable than some of the “brave souls” who embarked on the “rolly polly” V hulls.
Since there was a tournament, practically every boat in the fleet was out, some went 20 miles or so offshore looking then returned to the ten mile mark where the few hungry fish seemed to be located. Overall it was a slow day with boats rushing to the call of sailfish sightings, some boats returned to the dock with only a few Dorado to show.
Our fist sail came up on the long line and was a Guatemalan Bruiser estimated to be about 150lbs, he was brought in quickly and the lines put out. The second sail had Buba up, to catch his first Pacific sail, perhaps it was a sail made for him as after his sail was hooked he just jumped one time then just kept on swimming, everywhere the boat went he went the other way, steadily swimming. At one point we debated on calling him a “Marlin” and cutting him loose, but there was absolutely no way Buba would let us do that, with some very clear expletives he made his point clear. Since we had tossed another bait out and were slow trolling while he worked his fish we got a second hook up on a spinner. The second sail took off like a lit up bottle rocket, in the opposite direction from Buba’s sail who continued to swim steadily and strongly away. Since we were quickly running out of line and Buba had plenty of line on his 30, we threw the FAT Cat into power reverse and backed down on the second sail getting to the leader in a quick ten minutes and doing a quick release, then reversing direction to catch up to Buba’s sail who was still pulling line out. Buba made it clear that anyone who dared to put another bait in the water would end up swimming after it, so we got his to the boat for a photo shot and one very tired and happy angler.
By the end of the day, Fat Cat did well and we were at the top of the fleet with a double header and a single sail as well as a nice 20 pound Dorado.
Fish on
Fat Cat
Capt John
Feb 2, 2009
Today Fat cat was on a mission, Hans our customer wanted to catch a rooster fish, and so we embarked on a mission to catch “Pez Gallo” or “Rooster fish”. After fishing live bait for about two hours in the early morning we had one major hit which abruptly ended with a cut line.
Considering that the illustrious rooster fish tend to be mainly morning feeders, the plan was to fish the morning for roosters then the rest of the day fishing for Sailfish. By the end of the day we had no roosters but had caught and released another 12 sailfish. Only in Guatemala!! Hans booked another day with us to try again for the roosterfish.
Fat Cat Fishing report Feb 1, 2009
Sunday morning had the Fat Cat ready to go for some Guatemala sailfishing, the group was Garrett a friend, and Ricardo. With a steady wind blowing at about 20kts the swell going out was a reminder of what we would see further out. The sea was rough but since we were on a catamaran everyone was much more comfortable then if they had been on the other v hull boats, the comfort and advantages of a Cat! Fortunately the fishing was at ten miles and the waves were not as bad with the wind slowing down to a more reasonable 10kts, in the late morning.
At the ten mile mark we dropped the lines in the water and immediately hooked up to a nice 20 pound cow dolphin, then a sail, and the day of Sailfishing in Guatemala went on like that the rest of the day. By the end of the day, we had hooked up four sails each along with three Dorado and about ten bonito. In total, we caught and released ten sails to the boat and had two double hookups and one triple hookup!
On the way in we enjoyed a nice ceviche made with fresh Dorado and Bonito, it was one very tired but extremely content, group of anglers by the time we docked alongside the pier at 3pm.
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Fat Cat Fishing report December 29th
Monday December 29th we met with Garrett, his son and their friends at the dock in the Marina. Garrett had organized this trip with three friends as a sort of going away gift for his son Garrett Junior. Garrett Junior was scheduled to go to the mid East to work for a multinational company setting up refrigeration facilities in that area, and was excited and looking forward to this trip.
Our weather was flat calm with a light breeze and it appeared to be one of our typical Guatemalan fishing days on the water. We picked up bait at marker number 3 and headed out for some “meat fish” and possibly a couple sails.
At about 30 miles out we found a school of spinner dolphin, jumping and spinning, since sometimes yellow fin tuna run with the spinners we dropped back a couple lures. We had immediate response with three sails rising up, one coming up on a “bubble jet lure” which because it was rigged with a “j” hook, we pulled away from him hoping he would switch off to a circle hook rigged ballyhoo but instead he disappeared into the blue. The other two followed his lead and faded away.
Later on we came upon a floating log with a bird perched on top, trolling by we could see the Dorado cut through the water and hit the baits, and were immediately hooked up with one Dorado while looking for the second. Since there seemed to be little interest in our dead baits we switched over to live baits and tossed them out while we fought the first 30 pounder which was still hooked up. After a tiring fight the first Dorado was gaffed and put into the fishbox and we had two bigger Dorado on line resulting in two more adding their bulk to the fishbox. By the end of the day we had caught six huge Dorado’s and about six nice size bonito (atun negro).
In Central America Bonito are called “Atun negro” which when translated literally means “tuna Black”. Of course the name comes from the color of the fish’s flesh, however sometimes the Central American name gets translated back to English as Black tuna” or more creatively “Black Fin Tuna”. Obviously Bonito are in no way “Black fin Tuna “so this sometimes can lead to some misconceptions over Central American Tuna species. Most people insist that Bonito is not good to eat and is only good as bait or cat food. Of course at this point we should consider “when on a cat, eat as a cat”? Actually Bonito makes excellent sashimi and when grilled is also good, key point is to take out the dark meat running along the backbone as this tends to give the flavor a very strong fishy taste which most people don’t really enjoy.
On our way in our mates prepared a nice plate of Sashimi half made with fresh Dorado, and the other half with Bonito. Because the Bonito has a dark red almost black flesh people tend to be a bit apprehensive to eat it. Dorado, on the other hand, has a nice white meat and most people reach for the Dorado first but after tasting each, everyone will prefer the Bonito Sashimi over the Dorado Sashimi. When it comes to fresh Sashimi the better fish is Bonito and this was evidenced by how quickly the bonito was scarfed down instead of the Dorado.
At about twelve miles from the coast our captain yelled out that there were some whales off to the West of us and we headed that way to take a look.
The sea was flat calm, and crystal clear, when we arrived we found not one, but three whales. One was a baby and was about 20 feet long, another appeared to be its mother and the third we assumed must be the “daddy whale”.
Since the whales seemed to be somewhat stationary and were at least staying on the surface both myself Garrett Jr. and My brother Mark decided to get on the mask, snorkel and fins and jump in the water to observe the whales. After maneuvering the boat around to be able to minimize the amount of swimming we would have to do, I was in the water in time to see the mother whale with the baby swim by, all magnificent 50-60 feet of her, I backed away as her tail came down about four feet from me, fortunately since she wasn’t diving it was a very gentile movement.
We tried to follow her swimming, but her smooth swimming ability far outpaced ours and we were soon left behind, we got back in the boat and intercepted her at about 50 yards further in her circle. This time “we” included Mark, Garrett, Myself and Christina, and we stayed still and waited for the whale to come by. She came straight at us swimming slowly between us, splitting us apart with her bulk, she was not aggressive, just huge, both groups back pedaling in the water as the massive whale and pup slowly swam by. We could see her motherly, watchful eye looking at us and we could see very clearly that she was using her fin on the right “fin” side to help push the pup to the surface to breath. Down below us at about 50 feet was the immense bulk of the third whale who we assumed was the father standing by.
The baby was white, wrinkled and looked completely newborn, there was some of what appeared to be afterbirth in the water as well. Due to the way the mother was escorting and helping the baby we assumed it was newly born within the last few hours, and for this reason we remained a respectful distance from the pair.
At about this time another boat, the Fishy Business showed up and started filming the whales with us in the water. With the two boats the whales seemed to become more comfortable and possibly even friendly, seemingly hanging around with us. Perhaps they felt safer with us loony humans in the water close to their baby, as we may make a better shark meal then their baby, or perhaps the bond between humans and mammals is much closer then we think, and there is safety in numbers.
Back at the dock we were ecstatic over the photos of the whales and the terrific day everyone had on the Fat Cat.
Fish On! Fat Cat
Capt John Seckinger
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December 15th, 2009
On Sunday we took the Shambach group out for a family reunion and fishing trip on the Fat Cat. Richard (whom I have known for years) and his two daughters, son, two grandchildren and family friend all boarded the Fat Cat about 0730 Sunday morning. Richard had told me that he wanted “food fish” and to have a good time. The weather was a bit on the cool side (for Guatemala, 80F), with calm seas and a light breeze. After getting everyone settled, we headed out to marker #1 where we quickly loaded up on live bait, then headed out.
Since the water was a beautiful deep “sailfish blue” at about 15 miles we followed the lead of the fleet and put out our spread and fished for a few hours. After, listening to the dismal radio chatter from boats near us, as well as other boats who had gone to the 30 mile range with the same poor fishing performance, we decided to move South. At about ten am we pulled in the lines and ran towards El Salvador where we found a nice debris field of tree trunks and logs, accompanied by bird activity and the smell of fish.
Pulling up to the first log we found bait fish and lots of activity and after our second pass we hooked into a nice 40lb bull Dorado, who slammed a large rattle jet” lure. Due to its size two different people worked him until we finally got him alongside for the gaff, then photos, then fishbox. We did more trolling but could see that the Dorado seemed to have plenty of bait and were down deep in the water having no apparent interest in our ballyhoo or even any other lure offerings.
We switched to slow trolling a couple liveys, however since the kids and everyone else was more interested in getting in the water we pulled up to a large tree trunk to let everyone get in the water to see the bait ball surrounding the trunk.
As we pulled up to the log, one of our live bait lines went tense and started peeling off line, then another monster 30 plus lb Dorado cow blasted into the sky to exhibit her discontent. As I was watching I was also thinking “stay away from the tree trunk” sure enough, like she knew what my thoughts were, she immediately headed to the other side of the tree truck wrapping the 20lb test around a protruding tree branch while she again took off. With line peeling off the screaming reel, the line making a extreme right turn at the junction where it was caught on the tree branch (it was amazing the line hadn’t yet parted), we pulled up to the log. Richard reacting quickly to the situation jumped on the log unwrapping the line allowing us to chase the fish down, leaving him perched on the tree trunk like a large seabird.
Richard perched precariously on that tree trunk had me recalling the rhyme of the ancient mariner “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink” as well as other shipwrecked adventurers. We were sure to get some good pictures of Richard and after getting the errant Dorado on board to join the Bull in the fish box we rescued Richard. He was still in good humor and put up with the “mohado comments” the kidding and jokes about leaving him and having plenty to eat with the crabs and bait ball under him etc.
We finally got everyone in the water with masks and snorkel. While checking out the teeming bait ball they were visited by a small green turtle, who swam right up to them and seemed to be asking what they were doing on his tree trunk. He was very curious and everyone was extremely enthusiastic over this unusual but friendly close encounter.
The day ended with sailfish sightings, we saw three jumping throughout the day but none of them were hungry enough to even enter the spread. We caught two terrific Dorado and lost two other big ones. The Shambach party was ecstatic with the fishing experience. On the way in we all enjoyed some fresh Dorado Ceviche and looked at the pictures of the tree truck, which we christened “Richards raft” and the photos of our visiting turtle friend, who believe it or not, posed for the camera!
A slow day for sail fish in Guatemala but an awesome adventure, with some family meals and memories!
Fish on! FAT CAT
Capt John
Capt John Says:
October 29th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Great site John, thanks for all the fun fishing for sailfish. Must admit, after catching to many sailfish, drinking beer was alot of fun too.
Thanks
Scott Robberson Says:
October 29th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Wow what a day we caught 10 dorados, one huge one and so many sailfish, I almost lost count.. Not quite, 12 in a day. This is a great boat and crew, thanks so much for the fun
Scott and friends, Denver Colorado
10-2008
John Seckinger Capitan Says:
Contact Us!
October 2008
The FAT CAT is back! We’ve been working on the boat for months to get it to the point of fishing again. She now has new canvas, new seats, a new stereo, updated electronics gear, some new fishing equipment and a new compass. It all came together Friday night at about 1700hours… I got a call, “the boat is ready”, this was like a lottery win! Immediately I called around and had Oscar and Richard ready to fish the boat for Saturday morning. Richard had fished with me before and was a Pacific coast veteran, Oscar on the other hand had “never been deep sea fishing” and had his biggest and best fish, a ten pound cat fish caught on the coast.
We headed out from the marina at about 830 am with an overcast sky and the threat of rain on the Horizon. We stopped off at the #2 marker dropped our sabikis overboard and in a matter of ten minutes had a full bait well of “liveys”, this was to keep an alternative backup plan open incase the ballyhoo were not the “special of the day”. I had been hearing all week that the dorado were “in close and thick”, so was not concerned over a few clouds, besides this is normal for this time of year. On the way out, listening to the radio chatter things sounded pretty dreary and I started to think of and to make alternative plans to fish the coast. At ten miles we found a nice “corte” which is slang for the weed line or trash line off the coast, dropped the lines in and ten minutes later had a nice 20 lb dorado on the line.
It is always the first fish of the day which breaths that sigh of “ok we are good” and usually signals the begin of the days action. Since Oscar was the “boat virgin”, he was up first and showed us he knew how to fish by quickly bringing in the first cow of the day. Richard plugged in his favorite music and with “Devo” blasting we trolled the line. We settled into a nice routine of stopping every ten to twenty minutes to pull in another big cow dolphin with Richard and Oscar having a blast fighting these big dorados. By the early afternoon the clouds were still out and we were getting a little “picado” some whitecaps however the fishing stayed consistent. Then Oscars turn came up and we hooked into a monster bull dorado, the fight was on with the bull doing all sorts of jumping and Oscar applying pressure to get him alongside, then with the bull alongside he managed to pop the line. Perhaps we could have called it an “involuntary release” but Oscar was crushed, his biggest fish, our biggest of the day, the “monster fish”, “lost” to the “thumb on the reel type of pressure”. Richards turn came with another niche size cow, then Oscar was up and again showed he had the lucky charm hooking another big bull. This time he kept his thumb far from the reel, and after forty five minutes, and a whole lot of pain, Oscar had him boat side, we gaffed him and got him into the boat. It was a nice bull dolphin weighing about 40lbs, Oscar was so worn out he could barely hold it up for the photo, but the smile was effortless.
On the way in we had a nice dorado ceviche washed down with a couple beers and talked about the “big one that got away”.. and the ones that didn’t, another day on
Fat Cat!
Capt John
Capt john Says:
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Nov 27th, 2008
The day after Thanksgiving, Fat Cat had a charter with the Frohmader group, Ricardo had told me that he wanted Dorado, “and a couple sails would be good as well”. The day’s weather started off with a nice breeze blowing at about 10kts giving a light chop. Fishing had been slow most of the week and so we decided to head to the West.
At about 20 miles we came upon a flock of birds feeding on a mass of boiling water, looked like it was call for the last meal, we put the lines out. Immediately we hooked up to two nice size Bonito, boated them, then decided to run some more in our quest for Dorado. After listening to the radio chatter we decided to change course and headed to just the outside side of (what I like call) pfish 4. This is a GPS position for an underwater mountain which sometimes has fish. For some reason the bottom contours off the coast of Guatemala, unlike other places in the world, do not necessarily always hold fish.
On this day, when we arrived we could see other boats in on the action and lots of scattered bird activity, which usually means Dorado. We set the spread, with a combination of lures and circle hook rigged ballyhoo (we use the circle hook rigs for the sails and adapt for the Dorado with a longer release) and began trolling. By now the wind had picked up to about 20-25kts with white caps making the boat move a bit more. We kept hitting nice size Dorado in the 15-20 lb range with a few larger ones and a few more big Bonito.
With the wind blowing Ricardo, a big guy in the plus LARGE range, well over 6 foot tall, appeared to be having a tough time with the standup gear so our mate, Chavelo, who weighs in (wet) at about 100lbs grabbed his belt and was “helping” hold him up. I doubt Ricardo even needed the help or knew he had my mate attached to his belt, but they made for a comical dance team and gave plenty of material for teasing. The “Chavelo and Ricardo act” then proceeded to bring in the two sails of the day. As much teasing as Ricardo got for the belt, it pretty much went away after he landed the second sail of the day.
Towards the end of the day we came across a drifting log with a mass of squirming bait fish balled up getting shredded by Dorado, Bonito and even a small Shark, we hooked a couple small liveys and tossed them out but the interest seemed to be concentrated on the bait ball. We didn’t hook up until we got back to trolling, then the lures seemed to be the Dorado attraction.
Sailfishing was a bit slow over all, listening to the radio chatter we seemed to do better than most of the other boats with both sailfish and Dorado which was our targeted fish of the day. Ricardo and his group were ecstatic over the constant action and the accomplishment of their Dorado “dinner” for the day. At the end of the day enjoying some “ceviche” and sashimi, watching a slide show of our pictures everyone got a good chuckle over the “Ricardo and Chavelo show” and started making plans for the next trip on FAT CAT.
Capt john Says:
December 16th, 2008 at 7:46 am
The FAT CAT fishing report
Dec 19, 2008
Fishing Report for Guatemala
Fat Cat Fishing report December 18
“”Burt and Ed”” from the cruise ship
Fat Cat had a trip from our good local friend, Bert and Ed who arrived on a cruise ship to Pez Vella at about 930amThursday. Fat Cat was ready standing by with the whole crew when the cruise ship came in and we were able to get underway at about 10:30 am. Burt and Ed had never caught a sail and due to a recent recovery from colon cancer had booked this trip as a once in a lifetime trip. They were hoping they would have success in catching their first sailfish, while their wives took the tour bus to Antigua for a coffee farm tour. Even if not, as the FAT CAT says “a day fishing beats a day tour anytime”.
The weather was Guatemala’s normal breeze of 5-10kts, with the ocean showing a typical ”Guatemala calm”, the water had warmed up and the sails were rumored to be queuing up at about 15 to 30 miles out. Conditions were good for a trip to Guatemala’s “sailfish alley”.
Burt and Ed were like kids for the first time at Disneyworld, the excitement, leading to the fist hookup, then another and another, with at one point a triple header! Returning to the dock at 3:30pm Burt and Ed had hooked and release 9 sails were ecstatic and tired, and were already making plans for another trip for Guatemala Sailfishing with their families. As they said this was the “fishing trip of their life” the words they used were “unbelievable”, “awesome”, “incredible sail fishing”, “huge sails”, their
conclusion, “Guatemala sailfishing was the best ever!”. Their Guatemala Sail fishing trip on the Fat Cat was the highlight of their cruise.
News on the dock other boats releasing 23 sails and a 300lb blue marlin during a full day charter, and all the boats seemed to be doing really well, the BITE is back!
Fish on
FAT CAT!
CAPT JOHN
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