    
Chris Van Leeuwen (Kiwichris)
New member
Username: Kiwichris
Post Number: 15
Registered: 4-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 | | Posted on Saturday, June 06, 2009 - 10:38 am: | |
April 6th saw Frank Vago and Les from Denmark make the long migration to the Guate fishing grounds for six days of fishing. The 28ft Super Panga “Que Vela” was able to oblige by raising 17 sails consistently over the day. Casting a fly and honing technique was the order of the first day. With so many sails willing to offer
their services we ended up with 4 bites and a release.
The next day the boys decided to go conventional to get up close and personal with more sails.
The action was at least 35 miles out so after a bit of a ride out we ran into some action. At the end of the day we ended up releasing 3, off of 7 bites, raising 9 all day.
The third day saw the winds pick up and create some chop. So we stayed a bit closer to shore and worked the western edge of the Pocket to try to work something up from the depths in some greenish water. Also known as the “green water lottery”. Occasionally you win, but not this day. The sea flattened out around 1:00 so we
picked up and ran out twelve more miles where we ran into a lot of birds working big schools of small bonitas. We let out the lines and were immediately rewarded with raising a double.
There were so many birds it made one wonder if you were in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. After an hour and a half we had raised 7, had four bites
and released 3 to save the day at the buzzer.
Day four we were back on the fly for Frank and Les would finess them in on some light weight conventional tackle. Again the blue water was 30+ miles out. But calm seas led us to raise 13 sails.
An occasional dorado led to some fine sashimi morsels dipped into fresh wasabi and sashimi soy sauce(from Japan).
On morning of the fifth day my mate, Victor, remarked how he liked my new shirt. It was made here in Guate. with a nice Guatemala logo and sailfish embroidered on it. I said it’s your’s if you tease in a marlin today. Well that set the stage for the day.
Though we were pulling teasers in the spread for sails we did have a nice mackerel ready to pitch on a Penn two speed with 60lb line..…just in case.
Again calm seas and blue water 30+ were the scene and we worked the occasional diving bird patch. Through the day Frank released a
couple of sails on the fly and “Finess Les” was able to coax a sail to the boat on the light tackel. The day was nearing it’s end… half an hour and we’ll have to pull em I remarked to Victor.
Victor being undaunted, rigged up a fresh teaser, marlin size, with a dorado belly embedded into a Senior Wide Range. I told him he must really want this shirt! As Victor dropped the teaser back an explosion of water erupted on the left long rigger teaser. We
screamed MARLIN!!!!!!!!!! in unison and Victor quickly started to tease him in. I grabbed the mackerel and let it back. Sure enough WHAM! Mr Mackeral is doing his “Jonah” imitation inside the marlin. That didn’t stop the feeding frenzy as the marlin next went after the squid chain teaser. He engulfed at least four of those before turning and heading out. The squid one by one pop, pop, popped back out of his mouth as he ran. Then the bite of circle hook on the mackerel was felt and he skied! He went
ballistic and tail danced across the water seeming to be doing 30mph. We could see he was an angry black marlin and weighted about 300-350lbs. Frank got the honors and began his Guatemalan marlin workout routine. That fish was ornery and very reluctant to come near the boat. After an hour of sweating, grunting and
enjoying life to it’s fullest, Frank handed the baton off to “Finess Les”, who became a muscle man and took over. After about twenty minutes we were just seeing the leader and then without
>> warning and a swipe of his tail the marlin jumped out of the water and came right at the boat at high velocity. He slammed off the
>> front of the boat like a pinball bouncing off a bumper with flashes of brilliant blues and purples and then dove down to deeper waters. Finally Les prevailed and he tired. Victor got the leader and off he went. High fives and some primal whoops were had.
Frank was so psyched that he did a little Danish jig on the deck.
We did arrive a bit late at the marina. Since Semana Santa was in full celebratory mode the restaurant at the end of the dock was packed with folks and even some of the famous lightly clad “Gallo Girls” were shaking some booty. But committed to my offer I took off my shirt and gladly gave it to Victor, who beamed a big
toothless smile, and I walked to my car down the dock, past the boats, past the curious crowds…. shirtless and content. There are some good fish stories going to go around in Demark.
You can visit www.rodsandreelssportfishing.com
<http://www.rodsandreelssportfishing.com/> to learn more about fishing in Guatemala or to make a reservation. |
