While some friends have been wowed by our tales and pictures of our initial trip to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, others who I know would love it have been oddly resistant. Here are their primary excuses and my responses. The long and the short of it — you need to go!

If you’re like me, you already get way too much email: Work emails, chain letters from friends, unsolicited messages promising Russian brides and harder boners. No matter how many times you avoid them or press “unsubscribe” they always seem to return, and each annoying email brings two friends with it.

In between long-distance fishing trips? Sitting at home? That doesn’t mean you can’t be using this time productively to get ready for the next incredible angling excursion. Here are five ways to make the most of your “down time.”

Planning a fishing trip to Asia is a daunting task, not only because there seems to be less information available about Asian fisheries, but also because of the time, distance and expense in getting to them. We’re simply more aware of the bucket list options closer to home and more able to take advantage of them. Here are four that I want to try when I retire.

When I compiled my recent list of “Ten North American Dream Fishing Trips,” I knew that is wasn’t a comprehensive survey, nor was it meant to be. Here are five more special destinations that are on my mind right now. The fishing comes first, of course, but each one offers something a little bit special on top of that – be it history, the way you get to the fish, the food or the scenery.

The vast majority of travelers don’t have unlimited budgets or hundreds of thousands of frequent flier miles. Many of us scrimp and save not only to get the time off to travel, but also to make the most of it. That means we have to make choices. In most cases, I’d rather splurge on a luxury like a helicopter ride to a glacier to go dog sledding versus a more comfortable seat for a midday four-hour flight. I’d rather go economy class on a 10-hour flight than not go at all.

As a longtime member of the fishing media as well as a consultant to several leading fishing lodges, I think that I’m uniquely situated to tell you why you need to bring your pro staff together at a fishing lodge – with or without media. Executed properly, one of these gatherings can jumpstart your media campaigns and build brand knowledge and loyalty that a paycheck alone does not provide.

A corporate fishing trip is our kind of work outing. Even if not all of the members of the group have prior fishing experience, by going to a fishery when the angling is expected to be off-the-charts, you’re likely ensuring that their first experience will be a good one – which means they’ll want to go again and again.

Despite my thirst for pre-trip knowledge, I always manage to be surprised by at least a few things. Below are ten things that I learned in Panama, despite my copious efforts to be prepared. This is not a spoiler alert per se, but rather a series of pleasant warnings that will help you enjoy your trip….and yes, you definitely want to go.

Hanna and I love fishing Mexico’s Lake El Salto in May and June, when the water level is typically at its lowest, The bass get schooled up on offshore structure and both the numbers and average size can be mind-blowing. Low water is no guarantee of superior fishing, but the great trips this time of year clearly outweigh the merely good ones. Of course, you’ll want to “make hay while the sun shines.” Here are strategies I’ve developed that I feel give me a leg up.

In the Gulf of Chiriquí where Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge is located, there are as many as fifty species of sportfish to be caught. If you read my blog about goals prior to the trip my five targets were as follows: yellowfin tuna, marlin, roosterfish, blue trevally and wahoo. The tuna were plentiful and the hardest-fighting fish I have ever caught.

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.

We’ve amassed enough material about our trips to Casa Vieja Lodge that we figured it was time to put it all on one page --- so check out our constantly-evolving body of work about one of the happiest places on earth.

Prior to heading to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge I outlined five primary goals for the trip, and I’m only semi-proud to say that I accomplished four out of five. In baseball, that .800 batting average would put me in the Hall of Fame, but in this particular case it left me a little dejected.

Pete and I, along with six of our friends, leave for Panama next Tuesday. We’re finally headed to the legendary Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge. Of course, Pete is a planner and I like to wing it, so until a few days ago I had done no thorough research on this destination. I knew that we’d be chasing yellowfin tuna, but I didn’t know if that was the only game in town.

Despite the fact that just about all of our Panama fishing experiences will be new to me, I am compulsively goal-oriented. I go into every trip hoping to achieve certain things, and this journey is no exception. Here are five things I want to do during our week in Central America.

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.

When we talk about fishing tourism in Brazil, most anglers from outside the country soon envision the tucunaré-açu (Amazon peacock bass), a spectacular fish, able to generate merciless attacks on our surface lures, very strong and also extraordinarily beautiful. They’re not the only option.

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.

If you want to get out of a COVID-induced malaise, a trip to Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala is a quick way to jump start your heart.