Sailfishing in Guatemala - Pez Vela Fishing

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We went down to the Marina Pez Vela, and hooked up with a fishing captain for some sail fishing.

From Pana we drove down to Pacific coast - Puerto Quetzal / Puerto San Jose area. Both towns are massive shipping ports with little to see, but plenty to catch. San Jose was the old port, and Quetzal is the new, modern port. Between the two (10 km apart) is the Marina Pez Vela, where world class anglers pursue the best sailfish fishing in the world.

Budget Sport Fishing for Sailfish?

There are million dollar yachts, and world class captains and crews. We spent time talking to the captains, and met many from around the world.

There are budget accommodations, as well. We fished with Dennis Wheeler's fleet of outboards and small inboard craft. It was quite a deal -- $375 for a day of fishing.

The captain was a nice guy, but as a solo captain, he didn’t have bait pre-rigged. We’d done our research and found that the fish were out around 30 miles. But we had to convince the owner that we really did want to go that far. The captain was also reluctant to use the outriggers, one of which was malfunctioning.

Even so, we caught fish, although not nearly as many as the other, larger, more professional boats did that day. If you have the money, hire Captain Hook -- they landed 30 fish the same day as we caught 3.

We left harbor at 7:30 in the morning -- unacceptably late by Texas standards, but the norm in Guatemala. Only the most professional and serious anglers had beat us out. We spoke to many and that's just how they think things are to be done around there.

After landing a nice dolphin and many chicken dolphin, we adamantly told our captain it was time for the real quarry: sailfish. The first sail was landed by Ben, and each time we landed a sailfish, many others could be seen in the water around them -- very uncommon in most waters.

Everyone landed a sail that day, and many nice sized dorado (aka mahi, dolphin) as well.

After a succesfull fishing day, we drove back to Pana to spend Christmas and cook our catch with our friends.