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  1. #1
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    TR: Guatemala sailfishing 2-11

    I just got home from 6 days of fishing for billfish in Guatemala. Pictures probably tell the story best:

    heading out in the morning:


    this always makes me laugh:


    there were sailfish everywhere, chewing up baitballs. The problem was getting them to eat the baits with hooks in 'em:




    Whales were everywhere, too. I think this is a Bryde's whale. Hop?


    We caught a few of those sailing fish:










    The professionals caught them, too:


    Our second-to-last fish was a blue marlin:


    The end:





    More pics here.

  2. #2
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    So! Jealous! Beautiful pictures, I need to get me salt water.
    Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield: Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration?

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Suit View Post
    this always makes me laugh:
    Great stuff! What am I looking at in that pic? A bird on a random unmarked rock? Bird on a whale?

    ...and how big was the blue?
    ...And the greatest ice must crumble when it's flower's time to grow.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by mushmouth View Post
    Great stuff! What am I looking at in that pic? A bird on a random unmarked rock? Bird on a whale?

    ...and how big was the blue?
    It's a bird on a turtle, with another bird on a turtle in the background.

    The blue marlin was probably about 200-250 lbs.

  5. #5
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    Good shit Suit! I need some warm weather!

  6. #6
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    It was perfect timing. My Windows Media Player started playing "A Pirate Looks at Forty" when I started viewing this thread.

  7. #7
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    Sick! What's the blue boat's name/where's she out of? Looks familiar...
    The killer awoke before dawn.
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by khakis View Post
    Sick! What's the blue boat's name/where's she out of? Looks familiar...
    Assuming you mean the one that's in profile with a fish jumping behind it (that hull's actually black), she's a 40 ft. Gamefisherman named Decisive, run by Capt. Brad Phillipps. Home port is Ixtapa, Guatemala.

  9. #9
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    Bad ass man!!! I need to go fishing this year.
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  10. #10
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    ah, thanks. Don't know it...must be more than one blue-hulled boat floating around out there
    The killer awoke before dawn.
    He put his boots on.

  11. #11
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    Nice Guatemalaness.

  12. #12
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    Went back with the wife & kids for spring break. Pictures are uploading right now, but here are two of the best:




  13. #13
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    Those shots are money. Sticking around for semana santa?

  14. #14
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    Thanks for the bumps.

    Amazing pix.
    `•.¸¸.•´><((((º>`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸.•´¯`•...¸><((((º>

    "Having been Baptized by uller his frosty air now burns my soul with confirmation. I am once again pure." - frozenwater

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  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by tief schnee View Post
    Sticking around for semana santa?
    Nope. Spring break is over, so we're back home. We only fished for three days, visited Antigua & Tikal as well. We also went to Panama for a few days to visit a fish farm where my wife is on the board of directors.

    More pictures ...

    We found a giant school of spinner dolphins:






    Daughters fighting a doubleheader of sailfish? Priceless!


    One more fishy ...



    Full gallery of photos is here.

  16. #16
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    Great pics!

    Quote Originally Posted by warthog View Post
    Nice Guatemalaness.
    cracked me up...assuming this is a birdcage reference
    The killer awoke before dawn.
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  17. #17
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    Excellent photos!

  18. #18
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    5-11

    Just got back from a 3-day quickie. Decent fishing once again. Caught 25 sailfish and a blue marlin.

    Sailfish:


    Sailfish:


    Sailfish and Guided Missile Frigate:


    Sailfish:


    Sailfish:


    Blue Marlin:

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Suit View Post
    Went back with the wife & kids for spring break. Pictures are uploading right now, but here are two of the best:



    Total money shots ESP. That second one. Really nice action capturing the grace of these monsters
    "You damn colonials and your herds of tax write off dressage ponies". PNWBrit

  20. #20
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    Missed this the first time around, but well worth the read. Yes, that does look like it could be a Bryde's whale but w/o seeing the head I can't be 100%. Nice spinners too; did you drag any tuna out of them?

    Those turtles are olive ridleys.

    If you ever need a naturalist/deckhand, let me know.

    BTW, next time you see one of those whales, look for three rostral ridges instead of one. Basically, the head should look kind of like a Klingon as seen in this picture:



    Another contender is the sei whale Balaenoptera borealis with just one rostral ridge:



    Or potentially a minke, but that would be pretty odd for that part of the world I think. Look for a white flipper patch on minkes only (not visible in this pic):



    The type/frequency/visibility of the blow can also help - if you never saw it = minke or Bryde's, if you did see it then it's either a sei or Bryde's. If it had an "upside-down T" shape, then it was a Bryde's. You rarely see minke whale blows.
    Last edited by hop; 05-18-2011 at 08:31 AM.
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  21. #21
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    I missed the last two bumps of this thread. Fantastic shots.
    "They don't think it be like it is, but it do."

  22. #22
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    So Hop, since you're here ...

    On the trip where we saw the bait balls and whales, one of the other captains saw a whale gobble up a big bait ball right next to his boat. There were a bunch of sailfish swimming around and through the bait ball at the time. The captain was convinced that a sailfish or two had have been gobbled up with all the baitfish. This particular captain is a thoughtful and well educated guy. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that the whale actually snarfed down a hundred pound sailfish by accident (or that a sailfish would let that happen). What say you, oh marine biologist?

    And yes, we did get a few yellowfin from around the spinners, although not as many as you might have thought. I think the tuna population in the eastern Pacific has been hit hard by purse seiners. They seem to be much more scarce than they were when I fished Central America ten years ago. Thanks for the whale identification tips.

  23. #23
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    Sailfish are pretty fast, but you never know. That would be cool to see though!

    Yellowfin aren't the only thing that's been hammered by purse seiners.



    But....



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  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by hop View Post
    Sailfish are pretty fast, but you never know. That would be cool to see though!
    So you can imagine a whale swallowing a sailfish? That's crazy!

    I guess it's good news that dolphin populations have stabilized, assuming I'm reading your graphs correctly. There are three big purse seiners that have been docked in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, for the past six months. The rumor mill says they'll soon have permits to resume decimating the local stocks.


  25. #25
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    Sure, I suppose it's possible that a whale could swallow a sailfish, perhaps, depending on the size of the sailfish and how it goes down. A whale could easily get one in its mouth that's for sure. They could probably engulf a small car.

    Graphs: The problem is the dolphin pop'ns have stabilized but they should be stabilizing back up where they started, not down there. What used to be 10,000 dolphins in a school is now 1000. That's one of the major questions regarding the dolphin-tuna issue in the ETP.

    Ahh Puerto Quetzal. Fond memories of the place, or at least tying up and beating feet out of there and heading down the beach to surf the longest and heaviest shorepound I'd ever seen at that point.
    Putting the "core" in corporate, one turn at a time.

    Metalmücil 2010 - 2013 "Go Home" album is now a free download

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