The Pacific coast of Guatemala is justifiably renowned for its exceptional Sailfish fishing. But on Saturday, 11th March 2006 records didn’t just fall, they were shattered!

There was a huge concentration of fish off Iztapa with the bite, over the previous few days, gradually moving offshore to a point where it was centred some 17 to 20 miles off Porto Quetzal in some 1000ft of water. And to put it into perspective Captain Ron Hamlin on Captain Hook had, prior to the 11th, recorded five straight days of 50 plus releases.

But it got better! On that Saturday the Captain Hook had had an amazing 90 bites before midday, followed by another 92 in the afternoon. By the end of the day they had released 124 Sailfish! (The previous record had been 81 Sails.) All had been taken on 30lb line fishing trolled deadbaits on circle hooks.

And others in the fleet were not be outdone though. The party on Decisive – captained by Brad Philipps - released 51 Sails all on fly from 80 bites. But the group on the appropriately named Release – captained by Chris Sheeder - bested that with 57 releases from 78 bites to establish a new single-day fly record.

Some fishing!