I arrived here at Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala yesterday, and was greeted with sunshine, warm weather, and good fishing fro both sailfish and Marlin. My friend and client Nat Harris just finished fishing for a few days with Captain Ron Hamlin, he accomplished his goal of catching his 400th sailfish on fly along with catching his 17th Blue Marlin on fly. During this trip Nat was targeting Blue Marlin, they raised 8 during his trip, got 4 bites, and released a 300 pound Blue Marlin on fly, they also raised 27 sailfish, got 10 bites and released 4 sailfish on fly, below is a quick report in his own words.
“On the first day my first fish was a 300 lb+ Blue Marlin that gave us one of those total body out of the water bites. Fortunately, the fish stayed on top and wore himself down. Then I hooked another Blue Marlin, smaller in size, but he really had a bad attitude. He sounded and as hard as Ron and I worked, the fish still took too much line off. When he decided to surface, he came back across and cut my fly line.
On my last day we enjoyed another awesome bite with a 500 lb Blue, and I was eyeball to eyeball when he took the fly. I backed the drag down, was ready to do battle, Ron edged back on him and I made a visual mistake; the bright orange leader that I thought was the technical release connecting to the butt section was the portion the mates recently tied to my fly line. When I reached for it, I gave the fish some slack and he threw the hook.
Some other reports from the last few days fishing at Casa Vieja Lodge include:
- Rum Line: fly fishing on January 4, Raised 21 sailfish, got 8 bites, and released 4, they also raised 2 Marlin, got one bite, and released one Marlin on fly, all in one day.
- Intensity: fly fishing on January 3 and 4, raised 17 sailfish and 3 Marlin, got 6 bites, and released 4 sailfish on fly.
- Makaira: fished 5 days, January 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, raised 42 sailfish, got 32 bites, and released 21 sailfish, also raised, hooked and released one Marlin.
Today 2 boats are out fly fishing, and then tomorrow my first sailfish school of 2011 will begin, there will be at least 4 boats fly fishing for sailfish. Stay tuned for more fishing reports and some good pictures, I will be holding my Sailfish on Fly Tournament on January 11, 12, and 13, if you can make it at the last minute I still have one boat available, and then on January 15, 16, 17, I will host another Sailfish School here at Casa Vieja Lodge.
There are only a few select dates still available during February, March,and April on select boats at Casa Vieja Lodge, if you are planning to fish down here during this season, you need to book now or wait until next season.
Regards,
Capt. Jake Jordan
