Capt. Ron Hamlin - Guatemala Fishing Report 7/8/08

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Pacific Fins Fishing Report – July 7, 2008

On June 12th, 13th and 14th the weather improved as the season’s first tropical storm cleared out. What a difference the nice weather made for Bill Campbell and his son Andrew fishing aboard the Captain Hook, with Capt. Ron Hamlin. The Ocean was flat calm and the sun was out everyday. Fishing improved a lot as we had 50 sails raised and 43 bites and released 27. We also had 2 shots at a nice Blue and caught about 20 nice Yellow Fin Tunas. The tuna are getting larger as the summer goes on.

On June 15th we had long time repeat client, Dave Ribler, and his nephew Aaron fishing for four days, with Captain Eddie Bairez aboard the Circle Hook. On the first day we raised 19 sails, had 16 bites and released 11 for a great start. On the second day, we raised 9, had 7 bites and released 6 Sails, and we caught quite a few dorado. On the third day we caught 6 sails and 6 yellow fin tuna and a couple of dorado for nice mixed bag. The last day was really good ending up with 11 out of 16 bites and raising 21 Sails. Dave and his wife Arlene fish with us every year. Last December in two days they caught over 60 Sails plus a 200lb. Black Marlin.

On the weekend of June 20th Pacific Fins hosted the first annual kids tournament. Co-Host and event organizer Captain Don Dingman, did a fabulous job running the sold out event. Capt. Don hosts the TV Show HOOK THE FUTURE and through his efforts and the generosity of his sponsors, all of the kids received an incredible amount of prizes and gifts. The event raised over $4,000 for the local school. Oh and by the way, this fishing was great as well. The group caught and released over 120 sailfish and numerous tuna and dorado during the two days of fishing. Look for this event to be repeated next year and make your reservations early.

The end of June and the first week of July has seen continued good weather and fishing. The marlin and sailfish bite has been very good and there are plenty of tuna and dorado to be caught.

Reservations are coming in steadily for the fall and next spring, so we advise you to make your reservations now to get the dates and boats that you want. Call Rick Hazelwood at (888)700-3467 of visit our web site at www.PacificFins.com today.

[gator1]

If anyone on here ever gets the chance to fish this area, you will not be dissapointed. My fatehr and I fished out of Port Quetzal, Guatemala back in early December 2007. We had several days where we were in the same area as Capt. Hamlin, as the boat owner we fished with knows him quite well. We were ther for 6 days and fished 5. In all we released 65 sails for a 13 per day average, and added another 25 or so Dorado, and a single tripletail while trying to untangle a dorado from a floating tree (did not lose the dorado either!). Our best day was a mind blowing 25 releases (out of 32 bites) including one tripleheader. Our days were: 11, 9, 25, 7, off day, 13. The day we only got 7 was terribly rough, and we made an early day of it. On the last day when we got 13, we actually completed two tripleheaders, making us 3 for 3 during the trip. The only thing that kept the trip from being a slam dunk was no marlin. Oh, well, gives me a reason to want to go back. This trip I was told was the very early part of their season, and until we had gone, the fishing had been kind of hit and miss. They consider a day where you get 7 to be a decent day, 10-15 very good 16-20 outstanding, and more than 20 is phenomenal.

The fishing is incredible, and the really amazing thing is that you don't have to endure 3 hour trips each way to fish. We would leave the docks by 7:30 AM each morning, and have first lines in between 8:00 and 8:15. We would wrap it up between 2:30PM and 3:00 PM each day and be back to the dock by 4:00PM. Leaving the port each morning, you had the incredible backdrop of 3 monstrous volcanoes behind you as you headed out. 4 of the 5 days we fished it was 1-3 ft slow roller seas so comfort level is off the charts. If you are looking for info, check into Marina Pez Vela out of Port Quetzal. They have plenty of for hire boats going out every day. I cannot wait to do it again soon.