Just got back from a week in Venezuela. Fished 7 straight days with alot of the usual suspects and fished alot of the same blue marlin hideouts. The bite was notable by its mediocrity, but we were fortunate enough to score a few fish. In 7 days we raised 25 blue marlin, had 14 bites and released 8 blues. We raised 20 salfish, had 12 bites and released 6 sailfish. In the meat department we caught 20 big dorado, 1 50lb wahoo and caught a 175lb yellowfin.
Highlights of the trip included going 4 for 6 on blue marlin and 1 for 3 on sails the last day of the tournament on a boat from Puerto Rico called the Bluebird. The previous night these guys caught 4 swordfish including a 270lb and 300lb swordie. Their 24 hour total on billfish was 4 swordfish, 4 blue marlin and 1 sailfish. Another day we released a blue marlin about 3 miles off the mountainous coast in about 700 ft of water. Fished with Jimmy Grant on the Waterman for several days and his mate, Pantero, gaffed two 40lb dorados that came in the boat, jumped off the gaff, broke the line and swam away. His new nickname is now “Gaff and Release.”
Big OH from Jupiter, Florida won the La Guaira Shootout 2008, Prime Time from NC took 2nd and Bluebird from Puerto Rico took 3rd place.I believe that there were about 85 billfish released…60 blues, 22 sails and 3 whites give or take a few. There were 22 boats participating.
Big OH got really angry at the billfish on the last day. They released 5 blue marlin, 1 white marlin and 3 sailfish. Squeezed off about 200 frames on my digital camera and got some really good blue marlin photos for the album and website. Will post them soon. Look forward to do some fishing back here.