Heading back to Casa Vieja this year we weren’t sure we’d get the same kind of air show we experienced in 2020, but true to form each one of our 44 sailfish jumped multiple times. It’s something you have see to believe — and then you need to see it again and again.

Clearly we don’t need a specific reason beyond what we’ve already experienced in Guatemala to make a third trip there. In two three-day trips we’ve caught 37 and 44 sailfish, respectively, and more of the same would justify the effort of getting there. Nevertheless, we’ve only seen and done a small sliver of what the place has to offer.

Part of the reason that we chose Guatemala for our winter getaway was the ease of travel. Of course, in the era of COVID – and in the world of the Robbins family generally – there always seem to be complications.

This year due to an unlikely series of coincidences we ended up on Casa Vieja’s newest boat, a 48-footer named The Hooker. They’d just purchased it a few weeks earlier from Captain Skip Smith and driven it up the coast from Costa Rica.

From the moment you drive through the gates of Casa Vieja Lodge, step out of the van and receive the “Drink of the Day,” you know that the food and libationss are going to be great. That first taste of the amazing local ingredients in your glass are just the “teaser” for everything you’ll be served daily, on land and water.

As our trip to Guatemala approached, several family members urged us to postpone the trip, but in the end we decided that our health and risk tolerance weighed in favor of going ahead as planned. Guatemala has required a recent negative COVID test to enter for several months, but only recently did the CDC require one for reentry into the United States. That meant getting our brains swabbed twice, but 10 seconds of discomfort versus 40-plus sailfish seemed like a fair trade.

Casa Vieja Lodge can’t control the weather or the fishing — although both have been exceptional each time we’ve visited — but they’re very conscious to knock it out of the park when it comes to variables they can control.

One of the reasons that we’re headed back to Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala is because the sailfish are so incredibly acrobatic. Every one of the 37 we landed jumped multiple times.

I have a lot of fish to consider for the “Favorite of 2020” title, culled from excursions that included 18 days on the water at El Salto and 6 in Alaska. Despite that, and perhaps not surprisingly, my favorite fish came from our newest venue, Guatemala. What might be surprising is that I wasn’t the one who caught it.

In the past five years I’ve fished with two guides who were assholes. With one, we caught trophy class fish, with the other we didn’t catch much at all. If you’re catching ‘em, a day with a jerk can be tolerated, but when you’re not it’s pure misery.