Trip of a Lifetime - Guatemala for Sailfish!

[cohoho]

For my 50th birthday present I got a trip of a lifetime and one of my bucket list crossed off.  Just got back from my first trip to Guatemala for 4 days of offshore fishing for Sailfish.  We stayed at the Casa Vieja Lodge in San Jose. It was so far beyond expectation and an absolute incredible fishing trip!  Everything was top notch from the lodge, rooms, food, service, boats, gear, guides, Captains, Deck hands, hostess and of course fishing topped everything else!  We raised over 100 Sailfish between four of us in those four days of fishing. We brought to the boat over 50 Sailfish in three of the days. It all started upon setting the trip up, everything outlined exactly and detailed enough to ensure no worries about the how's and why's of getting there. Upon arrival we were met by our driver Walter who spoke great English with cold beers for the 3 hr drive to San Jose. Once we got to the lodge we were met by all the staff with rum drinks.  Walked to the pool for appetizers and of course more drinks.  Full 4 course dinner every night, cooked to order breakfast each day and lunch of variety prepared meals on board the boats by Alex our deck hand.  The boat was a 35ft brand new Contender with twin 300 Yamahas, our Captain was freaking awesome - Carlos a local national with tons of experience and his brother Alex was our deck hand.  Day #1 we landed 14 Sailfish, day #2 was 14 Sailfish and day#3 over 20 Sailfish.  The last day we decided to go for Yellowfin Tuna, but that was not productive as we couldn't find the fish anywhere, we traveled 55 miles offshore in our quest.  We had doubles a couple times a triple and even one quad, on the quad we got all fish to the boat!  We took about 12 hrs of GoPro video that once put together, I will post.  But anyhow here are some pictures of the "Once in a Lifetime" trip - uuuuh until next year, were already booking right now!  Seriously the very best trip I have ever had...

[Bean Counter]

happy half century!

Sounds like a heck of a trip. i'm guessing between the strong U.S. Dollar and the state of Guatemala that the trip wasn't too pricey(?).
 Look forward to moat pitchers/vidz. 

[actionshooter]

Sounds like an awesome trip!!

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Nice!!!!

[bearpaw]

Wow, definitely trip of a lifetime, do you have more photos to share?

[lokidog]

Sweet!  I love the fishing off Central America.  Glad to hear it went well.

[fishnfur]

Nice!  That's a ton of Sails!  Your arms must have felt like rubber by the end of that trip.

I did a trip out of Mombassa, Kenya nearly 30 years ago.  We thought a four Sailfish day was awesome.  We were fishing on the wrong side of the world.

[cohoho]

Had to resize some to fit...  Here we go..

[baldopepper]

Wow, that's an incredible amount of sails!  Sounds like a fantastic trip.  Can't wait till I'm back out there after the big boys, nothing like having a good captain and deck crew to make a trip enjoyable. Fished up and down the coast for marlin and sails, but never been to Guatemala. Think I'll check it out, thanks for the post.

[Cap.Silver]

Great pics .... it looks like you were having real fun ....never fished for sail fish .

[wildmanoutdoors]

Awesome trip and numbers! That rivals Costa Rica in February numbers! Way to get after it.

[MLBowhunting]

Nice.

[Axle]

 

[bearpaw]

awesome photos and fish, looks like a great time

[ribka]

More pics

Any other species come up while trolling?

What type of gear guide using?

Thanks for sharing