My friend Austin Hepburn and one of his clients spent five days fly-fishing for Billfish Casa Vieja Lodge last week. As I have been saying this coming season is going to produce awesome fishing here now that the El Niño is over. Austin had world-class fly-fishing for Sailfish and Blue Marlin. Billfish on a fly is the ultimate team sport. All of our crews take pride in their fly-fishing skills. The crowning achievement of this endeavor is the Blue Marlin, as you will read below, the guys aboard the Rum Line did it three times on this trip! That is an AMAZING accomplishment. I’m proud of the Rum Line team and jealous of the anglers. Austin’s report is listed below, hope you enjoy it.
Jim
Austin Hepburn,
UNCOMMON VENTURES
CASA VIEJA LODGE GUATEMALA
FISHING REPORT: OCTOBER 17-22, 2010
The fishing season of 2010-11 is off to an exceptional start. My friend and I fished for five days on the Rum Line with Captain Chris Sheeder and mates Jeffrey and Ricardo. Our objective was Blue marlin on fly. We warmed up with large, sailfish on day 1.
Day 2 at 11:30 a red hot blue jumped two teasers and ate the fly. Spectacular 1-hour fight ended with a tag and a release. Capt. Chris estimated the weight of the marlin at 325 lbs. Day three produced another hot blue. My partner got a shot at an aggressive blue and enjoyed a great battle. He had a release in less than 10 minutes because the fish charged the boat, almost spearing the hull. He continued to fight the marlin for the next 45 minutes. Chris estimated the weight at 225 lbs.
Day 4 allowed us to catch our breath. Day five was another burner. We released a 45 lb blue around midday.
Before the afternoon was over, a hungry blue crashed the spread and hit all four teasers before eating the tippet and the fly. This brute, estimated at over 400 lbs, stormed off pulling line and pushing water for thirty seconds before biting trough the tippet leaving the fly floating in the frothy foam.
This kind of action gets the anglers teased up. Over 100 sailfish were raised in 5 days. 8 blue marlin were raised during that period with 4 teased in and three released.
Chris, Ricardo and Jeffrey are an excellent team of professional and tremendous fun. Casa Vieja continues to be one of the top billfish destinations in the world.
Austin Hepburn