Guatemala Billfishing

Fished Guatemala out of Puerto San Jose on the Pacific side last week and truly had a trip of a lifetime. I've fished offshore all my life but never caught a billfish. I had heard about the great fishery for Pacific Sailfish down there so a buddy and I booked a 4 day trip to make sure I would have every opportunity to scratch this item off my bucket list. On the very first day I caught and released 6 sails and a 150 lb Blue Marlin. In total for the three and a half days on the water, I caught and released 19 sails and the one blue. My buddy caught a 300 lb blue the second day and he also caught and released 19 sails and his blue. It wasn't fishing, it was catching!










We fished out of a couple of 31' Bertrams with two different captains but both with the same outfit. Everything went smoothly from the trip down there, the lodge we stayed in, the meals, the fishing, everything. I highly recommend this trip for anyone who wants to add a billfish to there catch list and have spent days on the water with little or no success.

Congratulations on the bills! Great report and pictures.

Totally AWESOME!

Great place to fish. Wife and I fished there a couple of years ago. No marlin but in addition to sails we also caught some huge mahi and pulled in yellow fin tuna until our arms ached!

My wife and I went for my 50th birthday in February 2020. It was supposed to be once-in-a-lifetime but we went back earlier this year and we're already booked for next February (along with friends who saw our pics). It's an amazing experience and so easy to get there.

She's threatened to sell the bass boat so we can go even more!

I fished there in 1994, 1995 and 1996.

From the number of fish we caught then, I can see the fishing has gone down hill substantially. It is sad to see the number of boats parked in the picture. When we were there, there was a total of 6 boats fishing from one place.

In 1996 we had back to back triples, 3 times. The deck hands were fishing with us.

My personal total in 3 years was 116 sails, this did not count what my father or son caught.

The number of boats is hurting the fishing. A good number of the sails who come to the boat with their stomachs out die.

Glad I fished during it's hey day.

I wish I had gotten to experience that, but pretty pleased with what we've caught there. Do you know of any place that currently produces more sails or billfish in general day in, day out? Always looking for more options.

No, unfortunately. It is still the best value around. Glad I went and have a lot of pictures and video to remember it by.
We fished with light spinning rods, that added a lot of fun over their heavy rods. Took my bass rod and caught 2 off of it.

Went to Ecuador for marlin years ago, that was a bust, caught 1 in 6 days of fishing.

Made 3 trips to South America for peacock bass, that was a lot of fun.

We've done three trips to Brazil for peacocks and it's lots of fun. The only issue most years is unpredictable water levels. Next on our list is Panama popping for tuna -- I figure big fish on topwater cannot be beat. But we're also going back to Guatemala. Too many friends saw our pics and want to go.

Gotta be some fun...too poor to go tho.

who did you book with?