The last real virgin sportfishing place in the Caribbean.

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Come and enjoy a real unspoiled virgin fishing adventure in

La Guaira Venezuela. El Placer Bank... sport fishing at its best!

The fish of your life is just a hook-set away off Venezuela's north coast. The plankton-rich Southern Caribbean waters of the north coast of Venezuela drifting west flows over the natural ridge named El Placer (meaning the pleasure) It is a unique natural phenomena not to be found many places in the world today. The El Placer bank in La Guaira holds one of the world's most impressive billfish concentrations. This underwater fishing paradise rises nearly 50 fathoms from a 140-plus fathoms depth of the surrounding bottom. About 4 miles wide and 14 miles long, La Guaira Bank is just a brief 30 to 40-minute run from where the boats are docked at the marina.
Aside from the incredible blue marlin action, the run of white marlin that takes place in La Guaira during the fall (August - December) is unparalleled. Many anglers easily amass double digit releases then, and some of our boats have recorded over 30 in a single day.
In the fall of 2005, again more that 300 billfish were released during the 3-day Grand Slam Tournament, with an incredible 33 billfish slams achieved by a field of 26 boats. Although some whites are caught on the edges of La Guaira Bank, most of them are found a bit farther offshore, in depths of 100-600 fathoms, west of the El Placer Bank and it is here the right crew means more than skills.

Blue marlin, white marlin and sailfish are found year-round, giving you a legitimate shot at achieving the distinctive "Grandd slam." Dolphin, Wahoo and Tuna also abound. Our SeaFighter 40' with tournament rigging is ideal for these waters manned by local and well experienced professional crew using the best in electronics and horsepower to get you to the fishing bank quickly + ensuring real quality fishing time in waters where an abundance of fish still is to be found.

Our Testimonials

"Luhrs 40 is a perennial high placer in Venezuela tournaments"
Michael Farrell, UK

"Tremendous Day! We caught fish from morning until evening! The Captain and his mate are true professionals!"
Frank Dias, Canada

"Stupendous! A great experience for me and my son-- he caught 3 fish!!"
Monica Bergman, Caracas

Venezuela Fishing experience

I have had many great fishing trips (12-15) with Capitan Gustavo's Black fin over the last three years. The crew has "eyes" for locating fish that is hard to believe if you haven't had a chance to experience it.  We have caught fish on days that most came back empty handed and have never, in my experience, not caught something.  I personally caught a beautiful Sail on a very slow day.  I particularly enjoy catching Tuna and always bring my soy sauce and wasabe in my kit. The mahi mahi are fun and
almost always part of the catch which is great as they make great eating on the return trip - just add limon / lime juice and let ferment in onions and peppers.

Can't say enough good things about the experiences I have had aboard and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Michael Farrell
CEO and President of Petroleum Exploration Mediterranean Inc

I'm a resident of Tivoli, NY. Through out the course of the last 3 years I have been fortunate enough to charter the Black fin and fish off the coast of La Guaira, Venezuela (roughly 40 times). The crew possesses a real talent for seeing the various game fish chase and stab the bait. I caught several blue marlins, countless white marlins, dozens of dorado, tuna and occasionally, Wahoo. A great boat always equipped with cold beverages, food, plenty of tackle and a good music selection. Always my first crew / boat choice when fishing in the area.

John Drew

Venezuela Dream 

The trip began with me dreaming away again about fishing for blue marlin, but where should I go.  A quick search on the web led us to Explore Yachts Venezuela, a tour and travel company specialist in fishing, diving and accommodation; you name it they will help you out.

Frank Diaz the General Manager put things together for us via e-mail assuring us that Venezuela was where the action was.

Frank, my fishing companion, and I sorted the flights out from the UK and Frank met us at Caracas Airport on Saturday evening.  A thirty minute drive to the Hotel Macuto and we were in a safe friendly hotel with great food and wine. 

It was early May and the Marina was very quiet, the busy time is from October – December for a mixed bag.  We were here for blue’s and the quieter the better, less hassle on the La Guaira bank. 

Frank introduced us to his colleague Daniel who organised our fishing with two locals, Ely and Cesar, they both knew their stuff.  La Guaira Bank took about 1 hour from the marina as soon as we put the lines out it just couldn’t get any better. 

Day One 150lb blue, lost two.  As well as the blues two big dolphins and I mean big in the 90lb class. 

Day Two trolling dead Ballyhoo rose a 350lb blue and on 30lb line was a handful.  It beat us up pretty good taking 2 hrs to the boat, Two more hungry big male dolphins meant several Cuba/Libras at the bar in the Marina to recover as soon as we got in. 

Day Three was the business with four blues coming to the teasers together and crashing the four lines.  Chaos was the understatement as I, Cesar and Ely struggled to come to terms with what was happening. 

Trying in vain to keep the four lines hooked up, we were left with two nice juvenile blues one lost at the boat the other about 150lb which we got to the leader. It still wasn’t over as two big dolphins could not resist a bite later in the day.  A session in the bar that evening with the crew brought the day to a close. 

It just doesn’t get any better than this, stick to the hassle of October don’t think about April or May will you. 

Thanks to Frank, Daniel, Ely, Cesar and the friendly staff at the Hotel Macuto – was it a dream? 

David Laidler

Great Fishing

On day one we only managed to get 1/2 day of fishing in because our land loving guests got sea sick, and we were forced to return to the dock early. But what a half day of fishing it was!. We raised 3 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, and 5 white marlin. We managed to release two of the blue marlin and one White Marlin. What made it special was that the blue marlin release was double header of blues on 30 lb. tackle!! Both blues were in the 250 lb. class! It always amazes me how calm Captain Luis remains, even when we're about to get spooled. It seems he always has a trick up his sleeve, and manages to save the day.

On day two, our sea sick compadres, stayed on the dock, and thankfully they did because the weather was even sloppier than the day before. This brought in the green water, and we all know that when the water turns green, so do your chances of a great fishing day. But as usual Captain Luis was able to spin his magic, and raise some fish. We raised a total of 5 sailfish, 4 white marlin and 1 blue marlin. We managed to hook all the fish in pairs. First the two sailfish, then again two more sailfish, and last we managed to hook a pair of white marlin but pulled the hook on one of them. So we released a total of 4 sailfish and one white marlin. Late in the day we did manage to raise a small aggressive blue Marlin that jumped all over the bait, but never got a hold of it and just kept on swimming.

Just another great fishing weekend in Venezuela!

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