Beiträge von Marlinhunter2

Congrats to Henry and Brad!

Thanks Uwe

Zitat von Tortugaf

Das war es was ich wollte u. ich bekam es auch.

Ok das reicht wohl u. morgen kommt der Bericht.

Well, it's an experience you will never forget. I can say this now without penalty that it is true that Guatemala is a 4th world country. You were lucky a taxi driver didn't overcharge you for the trip from the city to Pto. San Jose. Typically the fare from the airport is 680 Q's. Finding a small hotel room is not difficult except that most of the operators there use private homes or resort properties. The Hotel Martita is good, tho the restaurant leaves much to be desired. The Soleil (ex Radisson) is also acceptable.
90% of the boats there are overcharging for their services. The Piragua, Canazo and Mojo do not. The price of fuel and the nationality of the captains and crews is the reason for the higher prices. Plus it's a hot spot this time of year and you go with the flow or go elsewhere. Releasing 12-15 fish per day is about the average and going 50 miles offshore is common for the time of year. On commercial charts, this is the top of the pocket at 200 fathoms dropping off to 1000 fathoms!

I for one much prefer the NEW Marina Pez Vela in Quepos, Costa Rica. The contact for them is Frank Devarona <frank.devarona@yachtingexperts.com> in Miami. The boats are much less money ($750-$1250/day), the accommodations modest to luxury, the ease of getting to Quepos (via road or air) is a one day trip from Miami or Europe.

Dear Friends,

After 8 faithful years with South Fishing and Casa Vieja Lodge I was laid off 11 Feb 2012 - therefore there will be no more postings from me. I held off thru the Miami Boat Show to give them time to find a replacement, but that didn't happen. If you want current reports please request by email from the following:

Capt. Ron Hamlin <capthook@itelgua.com>
Capt. Chris Sheeder <capchris@yahoo.com>
Catp. Mike Sheeder <michael_sheeder@yahoo.com>
Capt. Nicho Alvarenga <nichonany@hotmail.com>
Capt. Dave Salazar <manowardave@yahoo.com>

Thanks,

Al Schaefer
Marlinhunter2@yahoo.com
unemployed world angler

The same way we measure tarpon - upside down in a sling with a lip gaff and a tail snare

Oh, boy! BUT if the requirement is a LIVE release - then I'm all for it.

Good Morning My Friends:

Last night we all found out that our taxes will not go up for a couple of years, that is of course if you do not die during 2011 or 2012, in which case the government will take 35 percent of your money. Why not make sure that they don't get it all and sign up to fish in the Sixth Annual "Stu Apte Fly Fishing SailfishTournament", to be held in less that a month from now?

This is the most fun fly fishing for Sailfish event held annually with lots of great fly fishing and really cool awards and parties. There is still room for one team to register but please do it now. Call me today and join the fun, the information is below!

You are officially invited to join Stu Apte at Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala at an event to celebrate the Best Fly Fishing for Sailfish in the World!

Sixth Annual Stu Apte Fly Fishing Sailfish Tournament

Please mark your calendar to attend the Sixth Annual Stu Apte Fly Fishing Sailfish Tournament being held at the world class "Casa Vieja Lodge" in Puerto San Jose, Guatemala. Fishing will be on 27th, 28th and 29th of January 2011. IGFA rules will apply with 20 pound class tippet supplied by the tournament Committee.

All of the Casa Vieja Lodge fleet vessels and captains are available on a first come basis, there will also be other vessels from the Guatemalan fleet competing for the trophy's in this team competition. This will be a team fly fishing for Billfish tournament, each team will be comprised of 2 anglers. There will be awards for the high point angler, the top three teams, along with the second and third place team and The Overall Team Tournament Champion!

We have 6 teams already registered to fish in the tournament with one vessel still available. I do hope to have 7 teams participate in this world class fly fishing event. THE COST TO ENTER THE TOURNAMENT IS: $3,725.00 PER PERSON WITH THE TOTAL TEAM COST : $ 7,450

Tournament Package will include:
All ground transfers between Guatemala City, Casa Vieja Lodge and Marina Pez Vela
4 nights at the Casa Vieja Lodge
3 full days of fishing aboard Casa Vieja fleet boats
All Flies and tackle
Beer, soda and lunches on the boat
Breakfast and dinner daily at the Casa Vieja Lodge
Open bar at Captain and Anglers meeting (kick off) and at awards Banquet(Local liquors and beer)
Hor d’oeuves
Kick-off and Awards Banquet

Lots of great awards with Tournament shirts and Hats!

NOT INCLUDED: Gratuity for Captain and Mates, Gratuity for Lodge staff, or Transportation from your home to and from Guatemala City airport.

Rules and a list of Sponsors can be found at the following website: http://www.stuapteflytournament.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Stu and Jeannine Apte

Casa Vieja Lodge Names Capt. Tred Barta Director of Fishing Operations and Fleet Captain

Jim Turner and Casa Vieja Lodge announced today that Captain Tred Barta has been named Director of Fishing Operations and Fleet Captain at the world famous Lodge.

Puerto San Jose, Guatemala, July 8, 2010 -- Casa Vieja Lodge announced today that Captain Tred Barta has been named Director of Fishing Operations and Fleet Captain at the world famous Lodge.

As an internationally recognized writer, hunter, angler and all around outdoorsman, Captain Barta brings over 30 years of ultra-light tackle fishing, billfish tournament creation and marketing skills to Casa Vieja Lodge. He has hosted Versus TV’s “The Best and Worst of Tred Barta”; founded the Barta Blue Marlin Classic Tournament; the Barta Boys and Girls Billfish Tournament; and raised over $1 million for the IGFA Junior Angler’s Program. In addition, he holds several fishing and bow hunting records.

Capt. Barta was the only man to ever hold the triple crown of light tackle tuna records: a 65 lb. yellowfin on six pound, a 63 1/2 lb bluefin tuna on 12 pound, and a 215 lb. big eye tuna on 20 pound line. His 38.6 lb. dolphin is the existing world record on six pound fly tippet and is an excellent fly fisherman and instructor.

“Captain Barta is exactly the right person to direct our fishing operations” said Casa Vieja Lodge’s owner Jim Turner.

About Casa Vieja Lodge

Opened in 2006, Casa Vieja Lodge is located in the town of Puerto San Jose, on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. The lodge has 18 deluxe rooms, each with full baths and air conditioning. The grounds are spacious with swimming pool, outdoor dining, satellite tv and game room. The lodge has six boats featuring American captains like Ron Hamlin, Chris and Mike Sheeder and Jason Brice.

For more information visit us on http://www.casaviejalodge.com

Now the tricky one. If a fish fails to break the record for the line class within which it falls BUT the record for a greater line class is smaller you can't submit a claim within that higher category.

If you think the line will break high, then you should have applied for the higher line class record. Pretty much all the superlines break high. Momoi 20 breaks at 37, nearly double. If I wanted to insure my line was the proper test, I would use IGFA rated Ande!

16 March 2010

"Greeting Anglers,

You might have noticed that I haven't been sending out many fishing reports for the past month or so, and there is a very good reason why. The water level in has been falling at a record pace, and the fishing has fallen off at a similar pace. As of today, the lake level is down 65 feet (21.5 m), and it is now falling at a rate of 8-10 inches (15-20 cm) a day. For example, if you find a good fishing spot, stop to tie on your favorite bait, and then draw back to cast, the spot you found is now dry land.

Added to the unprecedented fall in the water level, the river current has been remaining not on the surface as is normal, but rather down below 15-20 feet. This has caused there to be little or no oxygen in the water from 15 feet deep up to the surface. This lack of oxygen more than anything else has caused our fishing to be spotty at best. Top-water action has been virtually nonexistent for the past two months.

Knowing that our rainy season is still two months away, and the water from Guri necessary for the production of electricity, I saw no other option available to me than to temporarily close down Headwaters Fishing Club for the first time in 21 years. It was not a decision taken lightly, but I feel sure the correct one. HFC prides itself on giving our customers consistently good fishing trips where each client has a better than average chance of catching a quality fish. Current conditions dictate that you are lucky to catch a cold, much less a fish on a consistent basis.

HFC will reopen July 15, 2010, when I expect the seasonal rains to have arrived and brought the water level up to a point it is safe and productive. If there is a good side to this announcement, it would be the fact that the past two times the water level fell to critical levels in 1995 and 2001, the months following the returned rise in the water level were marked by fishing of the type dreams are made of. Virtually all of the fish from up the La Paragua and are now out in the main lake, since the rivers are now nothing more than huge rock gardens. For the next 3-4 years, all a person need do is go to any cove, rock point, or island within 10 minutes of the HFC base camp, and absolutely phenomenal fishing for both peacock bass and payara will be yours.

There are already several weeks reserved in July and August, but other quality dates remain available. Get your group together and contact me, so that I can help you plan the fishing trip of a lifetime.

As many of you know, I usually come up with a funny story or two in each of my reports, but this time humor is conspicuously absent from my thought process. This is the first time in my 36 year commercial sportfishing career I have given myself a vacation, and I'm not happy with the idea.

You folks have a GREAT few months, and I will be sending out updates as the conditions chance.

Regards,

Steve Shoulders"
Headwaters Fishing Club

Just so happens I know a good investigative reporter who is working on this story--Christopher Pala. I forwarded your email to him. You can find the stories he has already done on the subject by Googling his name. He'll probably contact Chuck.

Bottomline is that Big-eye tuna are overfished in the Western Pacific (probably the entire Pacific). They are right behind Bluefin in terms of the fragility of the stock (and demand for the sushi/sashimi trade.

One issue that most American are not aware of is that the US has just built a fleet of purse seine vessels in Taiwan (somehow getting around the Jones Act) and that these vessels are adding substantially to the decimation of of the Western Pacific's tuna stocks, with only a single American aboard.

The US State Department is to blame--they continue to believe that because we send aid to the Pacific nations we have to get out "fair share" of the Pacific's tuna stocks. Moreover, they continue to trade "tunas for Toyotas" like they are a commodity with an endless supply.

Spread the word, tuna are in trouble, and the US is fiddling while the stocks burn.

Aloha,
Rick Gaffney

Capt. Chuck Handy, is a former 1st mate of Ron Hamlin and Don Tyson. Here is his first-hand report:

"Overfishing In the Western Pacific… A Rant
Or
Where Is A Good Investigative Reporter When You Really Need One?

Ahoy Crew!

As you know, I recently returned to the RMI (Republic of the Marshall Islands) after a seven month absence which found me voyaging to and from Fiji aboard my sailboat, the “Deev”. While in Fiji I flew to the west coast of the US and down to the West Indies. It was a great trip. But now it is really nice to be back in the RMI and I am once again putting together some small solar power projects and water purification projects for my old friend Neal Skinner. He also has some 2000 square feet of building to add on to his existing physical plant. These projects should keep us busy and entertained for the foreseeable future!

I’m used to seeing fishing vessels in the Majuro lagoon as the Western Pacific holds the last underexploited stocks of Yellowfin and Bigeye Tuna. I’m afraid that the term “underexploited” is, perhaps, no longer applicable as the Bigeye have already been listed as endangered in this fishery. I was shocked to see the sheer numbers of commercial fishing vessels when I returned to the lagoon. There was and are 8-12 mother ships here at all times. These mother ships are large vessels that get loaded by huge purse seiners and carry away hundreds of tons of tuna on a daily basis to the markets in Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Honolulu among other places. The purse seining industry has been banned in much of the world because that type of fishing causes serious ecological damage to the oceans. Caught up in their nets are numerous other species such as Marlin, Sailfish and Porpoises along with their target species. Nothing survives the pulling of these massive nets.

The nations of the Western Pacific, including the RMI, Federated States of Micronesia and Kiribiti, get some remuneration for the exploitation of this resource but nothing compared to the market value of the fish. (One positive aside for me is that I can buy beautiful fresh Tuna Loin and Steaks for $2.00/lb in the local market and Sashimi Grade Yellowfin for under $5.00!) I have a feeling that someone, somewhere, may be getting a little something under the table but I have no proof of that. The numbers, in terms of money spent, money earned and the tonnage of the fish is staggering. We are talking about billions of dollars here. I kid you not.

There are all kinds of scams going on here as well. The purse seiners are supposed to stay in certain areas where they are licensed to fish and none of that is near the islands themselves as there are millions of square miles of open ocean out here. Yesterday two purse seiners were seen setting their nets within a mile or two of the pass into Majuro Lagoon. I guess they just wanted to top off their fish holds before they offloaded to the mother ship. Boats are regularly being fined for fishing in areas where they are not supposed to be and I’m sure that those that are caught are just the tip of the iceberg.

Another scam is the “American Captain” scam. It seems that at one point there were so many foreign boats and crews here that the powers that be decided they needed a larger and more visible US presence. It was decided that American captains were required on a certain number of boats. The foreign owners hired American captains as figureheads and satisfied the ruling. The US captain has nothing to do whatever with the running of the ship or its fishing. That is all controlled by the fishing master. The American captain is simply there and does nothing. One of the captains told me that other than it being very boring it was the best job he ever had! His only lament was that he had no one to talk to for a month or more at a time because no one else on the boat spoke English!

Friends of mine have remarked that they feel that the boats here now realize that the resource has almost been brought to the point that it is unsustainable in the near future and they are just trying to grab whatever they can now while they still can. Let’s hope that it isn’t so.

From the edge of the world,

Cheers!

Chuck"

newer photos

Capt. Rick Ogle of "Mr. B II" passed on to the great blue waters on New Years Day after a valiant battle with cancer.

The first I knew of it was when he called me from his hospital room in Caracas to say he needed to get home as quick as possible. He'd been bleeding internally for almost a week before being rushed to the hospital. I got him on the first flight back to Orlando, 24 Oct, and the boat owner , Robert Browning, got him over to the VA Hosp in Gainesville the same night.

It was determined to be a cancer tumor on the kidney, which is normally operable, exc Rick wasn't strong enough (blood loss) to survive the surgery. So they gave him massive transfusions, then put him on chemo pills and sent him home. I last spoke with him two weeks ago and he was upbeat about it.

Then my good buddy Capt. Flash Clark sent me an email on Saturday to tell me that our best buddy died the day before.

Cremation has taken place and if you'd like to sign the guestbook, here's the link http://www.baldwinbros.net

Just click on his name and leave your condolences.

Rick was a great friend, loved by Renee for many years, tho they weren't married, it was like they were. Always a friendly face, first to greet you in a foreign port. Had a wonderfully deep voice, that put you right at ease - always willing share information and fishing techniques and he made a great meatloaf! He worked in Guatemala and Brasil for Tim Choate and later for Robert Browning on the 57 Dean Johnson boat called Mr. B II in Venezuela, PR and the DR.

He will be missed - a memorial service at the hospice is on Sunday. The information on the guest book.

A poor man's dowrigger such as the one I first built in 1965, was a length of rope with a sash cord weight at the end and rubber band releases every ten feet or so. Fished off the back of the 16ft Naden in Canada's shield waters, it proved extremely successfull for lake trout taken at depths exceeding 100 ft. Later my versions incorporated Shakespeare Pakron reel with 30# Dacron and the same rubberband releases. Easier to crank than handlining the rope, it was effective to greater depths. Late in 1968, Riviera Mfg introduced their commercial version which had 250ft of 100# wire and choice of different releases. Not to be outdone, Big Jon introduced their stainless steel 4ft arm models, of which I still own four of them - 2 four foot and 2 two foot models - now electrified. That 16ft Naden is still working the Canadian waters somewhere, but my Big Jon's are not on it. Deep dredging for lake trout in cold northwestern Montana Lakes, Utah's Flaming Gorge waters have brought me considerable pleasure over the years with my largest laker going over 35lbs.