 The Running of the Bulls
This Guatemala fishing report is for the week ending
July 10, 2008 2008 and is prepared by The Great Sailfishing Company operating out of the new Pez Vela Marina.
As many of you who have fished in Guatemala will know, we keep a “weather eye” on two key indicators first thing in the morning on the dock.
The first is whether the volcano “Pacaya” is swathed in mist and high cloud – a sure sign of moisture at high altitude and often a cold front coming through.
The second is a quick glance at the steam rising from the condensing towers in nearby Puerto Quetzal – an obvious indicator of current wind strength and direction.
The integration of these two data points generally forms the “Dock weather forecast” for the day and the successive couple of days – albeit with diminished accuracy.
This “Dock forecast” is generally very good from October until June – when the Pacific Coast of Guatemala is blessed with light winds, calm seas and mostly sunny days for weeks and months
at a time…..a remarkable correlation to the weather forecast.
This time of year however proves to be more of a challenge to the sages of the dock, for as fast as they can cast an eye over distant Pacaya and so voice their opinion of the weather to come it will have changed. The onset of the rainy season means that the winds can come up and change direction quickly – causing the bait and the billfish to scatter and much less concentrated.
Largely because of this, we have been raising only 5-10 billfish per day for the last few weeks, and the Blue Marlin have been noticeable only by their absence.
On the positive side, the rains in the mountains have caused their regular flooding of the rivers and tributaries – pushing debris out to the ocean. Trees and crates are to be found floating at 10-15 miles from the dock – and provide perfect ecosystems for juvenile fish to flourish.
These in turn attract one of the most prolific and efficient predators of the ocean, Coryphaena hippurus AKA Dorado/Mahi-Mahi/Dolphin.
Once the Dorado start to feed, there is little that will stop them ! They will consume almost anything as juveniles – achieving remarkable
growth rates of as much as 3 inches/week and doubling their weight every six months. This makes them not only prized fare for the table, but also a great sport fish particularly on light tackle.
This can be a great time of the year to come down and take advantage of the plethora of fishing that is available – from billfish to dorado to
roosterfish…………and also to take advantage of our Summer Special :
Fish 3 or more days and receive one day FREE
http://www.greatsailfishing.com/en/specials.htm
We are booking strongly already for some of the popular dates next year, so don’t wait, give us a call at 1-877-763-0851 or send us an email (below)
to check on dates – we would look forward to welcoming you to some of the finest fishing anywhere. |
