Ola my blogger friends. I'm sorry i've been neglecting you for sooooooo long but life has been rather hectic (as per usual) and i now have a moment to tap away......So - me and the Crocs decided to take a bit of time out from the hectic life in Antigua for a bit of R+R on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. (you see the Crocs on the back of a Big Game boat in the piccie btw...) I mean there's only so much Spanish that my old and befuddled brain can take in in such a short space of time (although you'll be overjoyed to hear that the Spanish is coming on reasonably well..... i may even be upto the sort of Spanish spoken by a 5 year old before i leave...!!)
I'd heard from various fishing folk that the fishing on the Pacific Coast of most Central American countries was meant to be pretty good, especially when it comes to big billfish (marlin and sailfish for those who arent sure what billfish are...) This is all due to a) there being a huge drop off from the land mass of Central America into the Pacific which results in relatively cold water (a must for most big predatory fish) and b) exceptionally strong oceanic currents that run up the West coast of South America and hit the landmass of Mexico forming an enormous oceanic eddie....a bit like a gigantic whirlpool. As all this water sloshes around, lots of little fish are attracted by all the plankton and goodies that get stuck in this aquarian washing machine and wherever you find lots of little fish, you can bet your bottom dollar they'll be big fish trying to eat them!!
Whilst i was in Belize some of the my fisher chums there had said i must try and get to Sailfish Bay Lodge as it was meant to be one of the most awesome fishing Lodges in the world. And they werent wrong. When i logged onto the website and it said that has been in the "50 things any man must do before he dies" list for the last decade, i thought i'd better give it a go! A very happy chap drove from the lodge to Antigua to pick me up (its about an hours drive) and i found myself being whisked down from the highlands to the coast, from the big highway (well big by Guatemalan standards) to little coastal roads and eventually down a dirt track to a small jetty where i had to board my launch to take me to the lodge itself. The lodge is actually situated on a giant black sand beach, the sand being black due to all the volcanic rock and i have to say that it was amazing. Huge rooms, a enormously well stocked bar, fresh fish and prawns cooked infront of you on the grill, just a really amazing place. Oh and AC - theres a huge temperature difference between Antigua and most places as Antigua is 1600m up in the hills. It was absolutely baking hot down here and really very humid aswell. Also the staff just couldnt do enough for you. My first night there (i arrived around 8pm having come straight from school.... which was a bit bizarre!) i met the only other occupants, 3 Americans who had been fishing all week. They'd had mixed luck and said that although the fishing was good, it hadnt been great. Its actually due to the changing of the seasons here at the moment, we're going into the rainy season and when it rains here it really properly rains (as i found out walking home from the pub last Friday, arriving back at mi casa looking like a drowned rat, and a very badly drowned rat at that!!) They did say though that the first big marlin of the season had been seen, but that none had been caught yet and that if i was lucky maybe i'd see one..... little did they know what would happen the following day.....
So after jumping out of bed at 5.30, scoffing an amazing breccie of banana pancakes and then getting back on the launch for my journey to my big game boat for the day (the aptly named Gypsy) i found myself heading out to sea at around 7.30 in the morning, sun shining, sea relatively calm just wondering quite what lurked out in these oceanic depths. The first thing that struck me was how many turtles there were. We had to head a long way out (around 40miles). This was due to there being a huge amount of what they call "green" water out at sea. When fresh water mixes with seawater it literally turns green (quite why i dont know, i'm sure some chemistry boffins will be able to tell you) - as we're at the beginning of the rainy season and had had quite a bit of rain the last week or so, most of the seawater close in was pretty green. The big predatory fish cant really hunt in this water as they cant see through it particularly well, they use their eyesight to spot their prey (check out how big a tuna's eye is relative to its size, theyre pretty big) so you have to find the edge of this water where it goes from being green to that dark blue you see on David Attenbourough documentaries about the deep! The flipside to all this (and i know i'm rambling) is that trutles love freshwater (yep, we're back to those turtles) so hundreds and hundreds of them come to the green water to bask, frolic, eat i presume, whatever great big turtles do out at sea. There really were thousands of the blighters, which actually slowed down our progress out to sea as the captain didnt want to hit any of them, so we had to weave our way around them.
After what seemed like an age (about an hour and a half) we were out in the big blue, the crew dropped the lures out the back and we started trolling the lures with the hope of finding some big fish. It was all a little bizarre as almost immediately we had two sailfish come and strike the teasers (great plastic things they drag behind the boat that look like big squid and have rattles in them that billfish find irresistable!) After lots of shouting and casting of livebait these two fish decided that plastic wasnt really what they were after for breccie and so they vanished as only big fish can and the waiting game started again. But not for long.
Now i know very little Spanish, as i'm sure youre all aware, but when the Captain of the boat who was on the bridge above me starts screaming "Marlino, Marlino" at the top of his voice and waving his arms about, shouting orders at the two deck hands, i kinda knew what fish he was talking about. A huge 300lb Blue Marlin had just surged at the back of the boat from nowhere turned, whacked one of our deadbaits with its huge bill and then decided it was time for breccie. I've read "The Old Man and the Sea" obviously, but nothing had prepared me for what a hook up with a big blue marlin was all about. Marlin, the king of gamefish some say, are exceptionally strong and as soon as theyre hooked jump twice to try and shake the hook. Once they realise this isnt going to happen they head off at break neck speed, usually diving as deep as they can in the process. To say it "kicked off" would be a huge understaement. The deck hands thrust the rod into my hands and pushed me back into the fighting chair whilst the Captain slammed the boat into reverse to try and keep up with the fish (most big game reels have around 2000m of nylon line on them, this fish had striped off half of that in around 5 seconds and the Captain was going to have to try and keep up with the fish or else we'd literally be striped bare) It really was all hands to the deck. The next thing was to splash water on the reel to stop the nylon heating up too much and then melting which would also result in it snapping (this is the first time i've ever seen the old phrase "water on the reel" in action) What followed was about 10 minutes of utter pandemonium. The fish decided to run, initailly taking us about 5 miles from where we hooked it. It then dove to the depths, stuck out its huge fins and decided thats where it would stay....i really was just along for the ride as at this stage could do very little to budge it at all. When i asked the deck hands in my Spanglish if this was normal, "si, si" came the answer.... "Cuantas horas?" i ventured (how many hours?) - "normalmente, dos, tres con marlino..." mmmmm.... not overly sure i'd signed up for a huge battle with a goliath from the deep for that length of time.... but thats what happened.... a three hour battle in the baking sun with the most majestic fish i've ever hooked. I hauled away with the rod and line (it didnt help the marlin had hit one of our dorado baits so the tackle was fairly light, the last thing i needed) and after about an hour my right hand was covered in blisters, my left arm felt like it would come off, sweat constantly dripped into my eyes and i could feel myself getting burnt by the sun. Not an overly enjoyable experience. Bit by bit i managed to get some line back from the fish, but every time i got to the marker on the line (a small piece of string is tied onto the line to tell the crew when they have 200m to go before the fish reaches the surface) the fish decided to run again. I got to that bloody marker about 12-15 times and each time the fish would run off again. "Muy fuerte" (very strong) the deck hand would say.... no sh*t Sherlock, youre not the one trying to drag this thing to the top. The most demoralising part of the whole battle was after about 2 hours when i managed to get the fish to the surface, it lept, (you must look at the pics on facebook if you havent already) and disappeared off into the depths once again.... for another hour! That final hour really did exhaust me.
Theres a bit of a rule in game fishing that the person that is handed the rod has to bring the fish up without any help. So going to the bog or just taking a rest is out of the question. The deck hands even set about catching some dorado that they were going to cook for lunch at one stage which was kind of odd. Theres me battling away with a huge marlin while they reeled in dorado for us to feast on. Eventually however i did get somewhere and about 2 hour and 50 minutes after hook up we got the marlin to the back of the boat. Guatemalans have huge respect for big fish (they are their livelihood after all, its much better to get people to come and catch big game fish time and time again, rather than bash them on the head and eat them) and hence they use what are called j or circular hooks, so that if the line slacks is very easy for the fish to shake free.....Once the fish was at the back of the boat, the head deckhand grabbed the leader, slackened the line and the next thing i know the big marlin was leaping behind the boat on his (or her!) way back to the deep. To be honest it looked as fresh as when we'd hooked it. Bizarre. Muy fuerte indeed. I then collapsed in a huge heap, sank a can of cerveza in about a second and wondered if my left arm would ever be the same again (i have to say its been sore for a week.) Much back slapping and congrats were in order (its a big deal even out here catching a marlin) and thankfully i didnt have to do anything for a bit whilst the boys preapred an amazing lunch of fried doarado and salad.......My oh my..... i really am going to remember that fish forever.
After lunch i said to the Captain that i needed to take a fish or two home (i'd promised everyone in the house i'd cook fresh fish on the Monday night..... bit of a gamble as it wasnt guaranteed i'd catch anything, but thankfully it paid off) Sure... how many.... i only thought that i'd catch a couple of dorado for the pot, but when the Captain said did i need 20 or 30 i obviously thought he was joking. He wasnt. We caught 38 in the next two hours which was a bout as much fun as i'd had reeling lots of fish in ever. When we'd caught enough to fill the icebox the Captain said enough was enough and we headed back to shore. The deckhands then filleted the catch on the way back so that i could freeze the lot back at the lodge to take back to Antigua. I have to say there was sooooo much fish that there was no way i could take the lot. 20 would do me fine i explained (and we still have fish in the freezer now, about a week and a half later!!) Cruising back the boys then got a little flag with a blue marlin on it and hoisted it up one of the lines so it fluttered above the boat, just so everyone would know what we'd caught! As we docked most of the other Captains walked upto the boat (we were the last back, i'm sure our Captain had done that deliberately!) and again another round of backslapping and handshaking ensued. Really quite an experience.
On returning to the lodge i have to admit i was totally exhausted and as i was pretty much the only person there i devoured an amazing meal of grilled fish, prawns and vegetables and collapsed into my lovely air conditioned room and passed out. In the morning i could barely lift my left arm and the thought of another day battling marlin filled me with absolute dread. It was therefore rather worrying that on the second morning out (we didnt have to travel as far this time as the green water seemed to have disappeared somewhat) after about 10 minutes of trolling the baits another huge blue marlin surged the teasers and turned on the baits. Thankfully, and i know you should never wish bad luck upon yourself especially when fishing, we didnt hook this marlin and to be honest if we had i know theres no way i'd have been able to reel it in. I think the fishing Gods had smiled on me enough for one weekend. The morning was actually a bit of a washout as that was the only fish we saw but in the afternoon we hooked a 100lb sailfish that i then had to do battle with. Sailfish are not built in the same way as marlin, they just dont have the same sort of body mass as theyre built for speed (they stun their prey by charging them at about 70mph, whacking them with their big sharp bill and then swing round and swallow them whole) - it didnt make it any easier to reel in though. Another half hour battle and i thought my left arm would literally fall off!! Another release of another majestic fish. Thankfully we'd just about run out of time so we limped back into port (one of the engines broke on the way back!!) I bid my amazing crew farewell and once again headed back to the lodge for a night of food, beer and Guatemalan brandy (lots of it as i thought it might soothe my aches and pains..... it sort of helped!!)
The next morning after a swim in the pool and a stroll along the beach it was time to head home, icebox full of fish and with a head full of marlin memories......Sailfish Bay Lodge really is the most amazing fishing experience i've had and if you get the chance (those of you that like to battle with our fishy friends) then you must go.... it really is one of the 50 places every fisherman should visit before you pop off to meet your maker.....
I'm now back in Antigua having just got back from another weekend at the beach. I do have many more tales to tell..... the children of the famous Basurero (rubbish dump) of Guatemala City being the main one. If i get a chance i will tell you all about that tomorrow as it was probably one of the most moving and amazing days i've spent on my travels. But i guess i'll leave you to digest my fishy stories first.....
So Hasta Manana as they say here..... catch you all tomorrow (you must excuse the pun!!)
B
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