By Doug Olander, Editor-In-Chief, Sport Fishing Magazine
December, 2009 Vol.14 No.3
‘Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the sea,
The sails were stirring; we hooked twenty-three!
With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, that version of the first couple of lines of his traditional poem really does reflect with remarkable accuracy my experience last December.
In fact, what better gifts to give any angler than a holiday getaway fishing for sailfish off Guatemala? Forget lords and ladies leaping; partridges in pear trees; or snow, ice and cold, dark days.
If you find visions of a calm, blue Pacific with sailfish free-jumping under a tropical sun a bit more tempting than sugar-plum fairies, consider a trip to Iztapa in December.
When Slow Is Fast
“December is really the start of our best sailfish season,” Capt. Chris Sheeder told me on the phone last fall. While he assured me that sailfishing is good and often fabulous throughout the year, anglers seeking action or those out to rack up numbers of fish generally find December through April the peak period.
That sounded good to me, and before long, I’d booked travel to Iztapa for a few days just before Christmas. Joining me were Mike Nussman, president of the American Sportfishing Association, and Ray Douglas, who owns King Sailfish Mounts, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
We arrived at Casa Vieja Lodge on a warm December afternoon (Guatemala is just 2 1/2 hours from Miami). The oft-heard refrain, “You should have been here yesterday,” wasn’t on the hit list. In fact, we shouldn’t have been there yesterday: The bite had been off lately.
Yes, Virginia, even off Guatemala there are no guarantees. For various reasons, sailfishing may be tough at times. For example, Sheeder says, if your visit coincides with a prevailing east current, you’ll find the action sub-par.
Of course, everything’s relative, and Sheeder advised us that, “Even when sailfishing is really slow here, you’ll see six to nine sails in a day, and the boat will likely catch three or four. That’s still considered a pretty good day in most places around the world. Just not here.”
With that in mind, we headed off the next morning for the short van ride from the resort to the docks in Iztapa’s harbor. However, our luck went with the fish; the conditions were looking pretty good as we climbed aboard Sheeder’s 40-foot Gamefisherman, Rumline. In fact, for our three days, we enjoyed calm, sunny weather.
So on the way out, I asked the skipper — who has been at the helm of sailfish charters full time for just over eight years — if three or four sails is a really slow day for Guatemala, what’s a good one?
How does 68 sound? Yeah, that’s as in 68 released on his boat in one day — his best so far. But arguably even more impressive: 57 on fly in one day, with one angler responsible for 54 of those. (And typically, these Pacific sails run to 65 to 100-plus pounds — hardly lightweights.)
There’s no doubt that Guatemala is the spot for anyone hoping to rack up numbers. And doing that remains a viable goal, particularly in the winter months.
But for Sheeder it’s become more about the quality of the experience than sheer numbers. He cites that as a reason he so much enjoys putting fly-rodders on sails. “The gratitude that a fly angler gets out of just one fish is so rewarding!” he says.
Crazy Sails; Singing the Blues
But, of course, many such rewards can be expected in the course of a day, generally. Why are sails so numerous off the coast of Guatemala?
Sheeder cites what he believes is a “wind-tunnel” effect with prevailing currents pushing water in a way that concentrates sails off Iztapa, plus a deep submarine “pocket” in the bottom that comes in relatively close to shore here.
Sails may range from more than 40 miles off the inlet to just a couple of miles out — sometimes around big (bait-attracting) ships sitting at anchor outside the harbor.
“In truth, this place has some of the craziest fishing I’ve seen,” says Sheeder, whose experience as a fishing skipper includes Midway Island in the central Pacific and other areas. “Usually, you can locate sails around bait, but here often you’ll find birds diving on bait and things just going off — and not a single sailfish. Yet I can move 5 miles and find tons of sails — where I’m seeing no bait or birds.”
And then there are the blue marlin.
Just four or five years ago, you’d have been in good company had you responded, “Marlin? You don’t catch blue marlin off Guatemala.”
And you didn’t. At least not often.
That was then. Over the past three or so seasons, blue marlin have suddenly and inexplicably come on like gangbusters in this sailfish capital, with Sheeder releasing as many as five in a day. “And we raised 35 in one five-day interval,” he recalls. Two seasons back, Capt. Brad Philipps totaled nearly 100 blues here, winning the title of top marlin-release skipper for the Pacific.
So far, skippers have been able to discern no particular season for blues. “They come and go as they please,” says Sheeder, “but when they’re here, you have a pretty good chance of hooking one.”
Certainly, other pelagics like mahi can and do end up on anglers’ lines with some regularity. Interest a year or two back in yellowfin tuna produced some trips much farther offshore than any Iztapa boat would normally fish. A couple of trips did enjoy some mother-lode action, says Sheeder, but they were countered with a couple of pretty poor trips. “It [yellowfin fishing] remains something of an unknown for us.”
Ballyhoo and Circle Hooks
Thanks in large part to the pioneering efforts of legendary skipper Ron Hamlin, Guatemala sailfishing is long since synonymous with circle hooks. Clearly skippers like Hamlin, Sheeder and others want to minimize release mortality, particularly with anglers bringing such great numbers of sails boat-side. Casa Vieja crews use Eagle Claw EL 2007 light-wire hooks, which, Sheeder says, mates simply leave in the fish after snipping the 80- to 130-pound wind-on leader at the hook, knowing these hooks corrode out quickly. (If not kept sealed in plastic bags, Sheeder says, even the salt air is enough to corrode the metal on them.)
Although ultralight enthusiasts will find few better places to practice that version of extreme fishing on sailfish, the norm is 20-pound line — light enough to be sporting but still sufficient to get a sail, even a large one, boat-side without an extended and potentially debilitating fight.
Sheeder puts out a spread of five or six lines, consisting of two armed baits (long on the riggers) and three or four teasers, including two flat lines from each corner, with an 8- or 9-inch Mold Craft Softhead or Ilander in front of a rigged ballyhoo. That combination — a skirted ballyhoo — has become the golden standard here, Sheeder says, noting that he’s spent enough time slow-trolling live baits to know that these sails simply prefer the lure and ballyhoo.
He estimates that 60 percent of sails skip the armed baits to follow in teasers; mates have pitch baits (ballyhoo) ready to throw. Sheeder prefers pitching baits (or, of course, flies). Besides the thrill of watching fish eat next to the boat, it’s easier on the fish, offering an excellent hookup rate with minimal damage to the fish.
For blues, the pitch-bait offering is similar but with larger skirted lures and baits — typically a sierra mackerel or small bonito about two inches behind the circle hook. (Bridling marlin baits with the circle hook in front versus on top of the bait’s head has minimized problems with hooks turning around on the strike and ending up in the bait instead of in the marlin’s jaws.)
The Pacific off Guatemala tends to be a pretty peaceful sea. I’ve been blown out a day or two but have mostly enjoyed flat seas. Plenty of billfishermen would hear that with some dismay: nothing worse than a calm ocean when you’re trying to stir up action. But not here. As a rule, flat seas mean rock ‘n’ roll in a figurative, not literal, sense, with billfish snapping eagerly.
Not, mind you, that billfish snap eagerly every day all day. As noted, few places I know of escape that “no guarantees” maxim, and Guatemala definitely has its slow days too. But when it comes to sailfish — and at times blue marlin as well — Guatemala is still king good year-round action, and smart money in particular will be on Iztapa starting about the time most folks are scurrying to get in those last shopping days before Christmas.
SIDEBAR
Planning a Trip
You’ll find a wealth of information to help you plan a trip to Guatemala on the websites of several resorts/charters that operate in Iztapa. You can fly nonstop or direct to Guatemala City with American, Continental, Delta, Spirit, U.S. Airways and others. We booked with Casa Vieja Lodge (www.casaviejalodge.com; 866-846-9121 or 786-243-1552); its seasoned staff and skippers make a visit pretty straightforward, from greeting you at the airport on arrival to dropping you off. Most packages run four nights with three days of fishing but can be any length. Bring your own tackle if you wish (or must), but these boats have excellent gear. Of course, you will want to bring camera/video gear, sunscreen and mosquito repellent, and rain gear (mostly needed from July through November). Also take cash if you want to avoid using your credit card, and you may since doing so will mean avoiding an additional 12 percent country tax, plus another 5 percent service charge from hotels and restaurants. And, no, don’t drink the water. One slip could send you home in mucho discomfort. (That advice also includes not drinking hot coffee outside of the resort. I did — and paid a high price four days later.)
SIDEBAR
Airport Security: Taking a Hard Line
Thirty-pound-test braided line as a deadly weapon? That takes some imagination — which apparently some of the armed guards at Guatemala’s international terminal don’t lack for. Before these ever-cautious and vigilant fellows would let Ray Douglas board his flight back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, they insisted he’d have to take every inch of line from the spools of his reels. Having just filled them before the trip with new braided line, Douglas was less than thrilled, given the cost of hundreds and hundreds of yards of the stuff. Nevertheless, while they watched (assault rifles at the ready), he pulled off and trashed his line. I’ve heard of this happening in rare cases, and while I suspect it’s not the norm, be aware that in some countries — certainly in Guatemala — it’s a possibility.