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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
Monday December 29th we met with Garrett, his son and their friends at the dock in the Marina. Garrett had organized this trip with three friends as a sort of going away gift for his son Garrett Junior. Garrett Junior was scheduled to go to the mid East to work for a multinational company setting up refrigeration facilities in that area, and was excited and looking forward to this trip.
Our weather was flat calm with a light breeze and it appeared to be one of our typical Guatemalan fishing days on the water. We picked up bait at marker number 3 and headed out for some “meat fish” and possibly a couple sails.
At about 30 miles out we found a school of spinner dolphin, jumping and spinning, since sometimes yellow fin tuna run with the spinners we dropped back a couple lures. We had immediate response with three sails rising up, one coming up on a “bubble jet lure” which because it was rigged with a “j” hook, we pulled away from him hoping he would switch off to a circle hook rigged ballyhoo but instead he disappeared into the blue. The other two followed his lead and faded away.
Later on we came upon a floating log with a bird perched on top, trolling by we could see the Dorado cut through the water and hit the baits, and were immediately hooked up with one Dorado while looking for the second. Since there seemed to be little interest in our dead baits we switched over to live baits and tossed them out while we fought the first 30 pounder which was still hooked up. After a tiring fight the first Dorado was gaffed and put into the fishbox and we had two bigger Dorado on line resulting in two more adding their bulk to the fishbox. By the end of the day we had caught six huge Dorado’s and about six nice size bonito (atun negro).
In Central America Bonito are called “Atun negro” which when translated literally means “tuna Black”. Of course the name comes from the color of the fish’s flesh, however sometimes the Central American name gets translated back to English as Black tuna” or more creatively “Black Fin Tuna”. Obviously Bonito are in no way “Black fin Tuna “so this sometimes can lead to some misconceptions over Central American Tuna species. Most people insist that Bonito is not good to eat and is only good as bait or cat food. Of course at this point we should consider “when on a cat, eat as a cat”? Actually Bonito makes excellent sashimi and when grilled is also good, key point is to take out the dark meat running along the backbone as this tends to give the flavor a very strong fishy taste which most people don’t really enjoy.
On our way in our mates prepared a nice plate of Sashimi half made with fresh Dorado, and the other half with Bonito. Because the Bonito has a dark red almost black flesh people tend to be a bit apprehensive to eat it. Dorado, on the other hand, has a nice white meat and most people reach for the Dorado first but after tasting each, everyone will prefer the Bonito Sashimi over the Dorado Sashimi. When it comes to fresh Sashimi the better fish is Bonito and this was evidenced by how quickly the bonito was scarfed down instead of the Dorado.
At about twelve miles from the coast our captain yelled out that there were some whales off to the West of us and we headed that way to take a look.
The sea was flat calm, and crystal clear, when we arrived we found not one, but three whales. One was a baby and was about 20 feet long, another appeared to be its mother and the third we assumed must be the “daddy whale”.
Since the whales seemed to be somewhat stationary and were at least staying on the surface both myself Garrett Jr. and My brother Mark decided to get on the mask, snorkel and fins and jump in the water to observe the whales. After maneuvering the boat around to be able to minimize the amount of swimming we would have to do, I was in the water in time to see the mother whale with the baby swim by, all magnificent 50-60 feet of her, I backed away as her tail came down about four feet from me, fortunately since she wasn’t diving it was a very gentile movement.
We tried to follow her swimming, but her smooth swimming ability far outpaced ours and we were soon left behind, we got back in the boat and intercepted her at about 50 yards further in her circle. This time “we” included Mark, Garrett, Myself and Christina, and we stayed still and waited for the whale to come by. She came straight at us swimming slowly between us, splitting us apart with her bulk, she was not aggressive, just huge, both groups back pedaling in the water as the massive whale and pup slowly swam by. We could see her motherly, watchful eye looking at us and we could see very clearly that she was using her fin on the right “fin” side to help push the pup to the surface to breath. Down below us at about 50 feet was the immense bulk of the third whale who we assumed was the father standing by.
The baby was white, wrinkled and looked completely newborn, there was some of what appeared to be afterbirth in the water as well. Due to the way the mother was escorting and helping the baby we assumed it was newly born within the last few hours, and for this reason we remained a respectful distance from the pair.
At about this time another boat, the Fishy Business showed up and started filming the whales with us in the water. With the two boats the whales seemed to become more comfortable and possibly even friendly, seemingly hanging around with us. Perhaps they felt safer with us loony humans in the water close to their baby, as we may make a better shark meal then their baby, or perhaps the bond between humans and mammals is much closer then we think, and there is safety in numbers.
Back at the dock we were ecstatic over the photos of the whales and the terrific day everyone had on the Fat Cat.
This Fishing Report was submitted on 9/21/2012 3:00:34 PM by Seamus and last updated on 9/21/2012 3:00:34 PM.
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