" There are two seasons in Guatemala, Dry Season and Rainy Season. The fish don't care if it is raining! "
- Captain Chris Sheeder

Season & Species

Sailfish are abundant year round, since 1994, the fleet has averaged raising more than 20 billfish per day per boat – YEAR ROUND! Our rainy season of mid-July through September coincide with the slower travel period of our typical client, with October through June being prime booking months. The larger sailfish up to 150 pounds are usually taken during the Fall, but for pure volume of 80 – 100 pound fish, December through June tends to be the rule. During this time you’ll be tantalized with 20 – 40 bites per day and, on some of those exceptional days, more than 100! Our statistics show 40 plus sailfish release days have been experienced in every month of the year. Fly fisherman take note: feather tossing anglers aboard the RELEASE let go 57 sailfish in one day in 2006 and they did it while conforming to all IGFA rules and regulations. Days with finicky or non-aggressive feeders are few and far between!

Marlin add to the excitement and they generally show up in concentrations for a week or more several times a year. At any time, a run to the far offshore drop can normally put you on yellowfin tuna as well as the average 400 pound blue marlin. As an average, while targeting sailfish every Casa Vieja boat will encounter a marlin every third day during the year. This number can be seriously upped by requesting a strictly marlin venture!

Throughout the year there are lots of football size tuna and dolphin in the 20 – 40 pound range to be caught, should that be your choice. Along the coastline, and within minutes of the docks, roosterfish are plentiful and of impressive size. This type of fishing is also done the comfortable way by all vessels in our fleet. Scheduling a day of inshore fishing is an excellent way to round off your trip.

Conservation

For more than a decade, billfish conservation has been central to our fleet’s philosophy. With total release as its commanding theme, our captains added the exclusive use of circle hooks with bait and billfish to their operating procedures long before it was popular. As innovators in this style of fishing we have upped our hook-up ratios while insuring a far healthier condition of our released fish.

Casa Vieja Lodge is right at home in a country whose national policy make it illegal to possess a sailfish. Guatemala’s fishing laws are exemplary of a strong national marine conservation ethic and of a country which is the region’s leader in billfish protection. Although always under test by commercial interests, the future of billfishing in Guatemalan waters appears quite secure.