You’ve saved for your bucket list vacation, acquired all of the necessary gear and the luggage to get it there. The forecast is perfect, the flight gets off without a hitch, but when you arrive at the baggage claim it’s the nightmare scenario. Either your rod tube doesn’t arrive or its contents are destroyed. Here’s how to avoid that nightmare scenario.

Have you ever traveled someplace, had a fabulous time, and no matter how long you stayed when it came time to go home it was just too short? As we prepared to leave Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, I felt a pit in my stomach. We loaded up the dinghy with our luggage what felt like moments after we’d arrived. I remember thinking, “I don't want to go home. When are we going to come back?”

f you’ve read our “Ultimate Guide to El Salto and Picachos” it should be pretty obvious that we’ve spent hundreds of hours trying to figure out how to maximize every trip South of the Border, developing systems for everything from what to pack, to how to pack, to what to eat and lures to throw. Despite all of those best-laid plans, however, we still screw up at times. We’ve decided to be transparent about our mistakes, hoping that you don’t end up repeating them.

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.

Every time we go to Mexico I learn or relearn certain things, or get an opportunity to test out new products and theories. This may seem like a bunch of disconnected mumbo-jumbo, but I’m hoping that some of you can benefit from my experiences. Here are eleven notes from our June 2021 trip, in no particular order.

It’s critical to stay hydrated when you’re fishing. That’s especially true in the Amazonian heat, or when we fished in a drier 114 degrees in Zambia. If you’ve been drinking for hours and haven’t had to pee, you’re already behind the eight ball. The best way to prevent it is to drink early and drink often.

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.

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.

I don’t need motivation to want to go to El Salto. Hanna and I refer to the Anglers Inn facility there as our second home, and I’ve been fortunate to go enough times that I’ve lost count. Every time I buy my plane tickets the countdown to the next trip starts — and I always have some sort of goals.

While Hanna and I have embarked on this project to make fishing travel our raison d’etre, we recognize that not everyone can or will travel long distances to chase fish. Perhaps it’s your budget, or family obligations or work, or maybe you just don’t want to get on a plane. That’s ok, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t derive great satisfaction with a rod and reel.

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.

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.

Because so much of our dream travel takes place overseas, we sometimes may give the impression that we don’t enjoy domestic fishing, or that it’s not “exotic” enough for our tastes. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, one of the highlights of our year is a now-annual trip to Springfield, Missouri.

I have a severe case of FOMO (fear of missing out) so it’s lucky that Anglers Inn provides the only “Combo” that matters at this stage of my life: Two similar but distinct lakes that both offer great service and great food, but which can fish differently on any given day.

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.

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.

During our trip to Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala, which exceeded all expectations, Hanna and I caught the billfish bug. Unfortunately, it’s a tad bit more expensive than catching, say, the crappie bug, so we’ll have to choose our future locations surgically.

I’d heard about Grosse Savanne’s bass fishing before I ever visited, notably from people like James Overstreet, who asked bluntly, “Why should I go all the way to Mexico when I can drive four hours down the road to Grosse Savanne and catch 100 bass a day, every day?” I’ve been around the block enough times to know that few things in fishing are ever as promised, but Grosse Savanne lived up to the hype.

While floating down the Chobe River we came across one of the most amazing wildlife sights — you have to see it to believe it. It wasn’t even the most unbelievable part of our three-week trip to Africa.