Based on my social media feed, many people think that I’m constantly gone, but the truth is that I’m in my desk chair far more days than I’m away. In the interest of transparency (and to inspire some of you to be equally creative), here’s how 2022 played out in terms of using my allotted vacation time.

Lake El Salto and Lake Picachos in Mexico are our most frequent international destinations – we’ve been approximately 20 times, usually two or three times annually. Unfortunately, the flight options to Mazatlán, especially the direct ones, remain limited. That refers not just to the number of cities from which you can fly, but also to the number of flights per day.

Another solid travel year for the Half Past First Cast team. Judging by our social media feeds you’d think we were gone all the time, but to me it felt like we were home more than usual. Here are a few stats, notes and tidbits to tidy up the end of year accounting.

I’ve been a cheerleader for CLEAR and it continues to impress me with its expanding set of services. But this week I read an article that didn’t necessarily change my mind, but caused me to reassess the service slightly. David Zipper raised several criticisms in, “Annoyed With Clear, the Company That Fast-Tracks Its Customers Through Airports?”

In 2022, I’ve been to Lake El Salto (twice), Guatemala, the Keys, Lake of the Woods, Table Rock and Panama, and I’ve had some memorable battles at each of them, but the single fish that stands out the most was my last fish in the Gulf of Chiriquí – which happened to be my first Cubera Snapper.

Hanna and I have long advocated for CLEAR, a way of bypassing the longer security lines in many airports. TSA PreCheck used to accomplish this same goal, but as more and more travelers participate in that option, it’s often no longer a time-saver. Slowly the CLEAR options are increasing. Our own experience proves that.

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!

On our third trip to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, we had our “welcome dinner” in Casco Viejo — at a lovely and tasty Peruvian restaurant called Nazca 21.

This November we must’ve brought the crap weather with us to Panama because it rained for much of our four and a half days on the water. That didn’t necessarily affect the fishing, which was still superlative – and in some respects better than either of our prior trips – but it did for us to think about what to chase on which days.

While we fly into and out of Mazatlán several times a year, we prefer to spend our time in Mexico at Lake El Salto or Lake Picachos rather than lounging on the beach. Still, it behooves us to know what’s going on in and around the region. Here are some nuggets of semi-relevant info we’ve encountered lately.

Sometimes — even in remote locations — the best bet is to fish in a crowd. Here’s how to make the most of that sometimes-disconcerting situation.

No matter how many questions you ask before going to a new place, there’s a simple fact -- you don’t know what you don’t know. I did some homework prior to our recent first visit to Ballard’s Black Island Lodge on Lake of the Woods. The trip was terrific but Here are a few things I will do differently next time so there are not hitches and you won’t get a stitch in your britches.

After lodge owner Gary Moeller had a really great trip to Anglers Inn last April, he invited us up to fish the waters of Ontario’s Lake of the Woods, at Ballard’s Black Island Lodge. Finally, Half Past First Cast was going NORTH of the border. Our goal was to catch a new Grand Slam – walleye, musky, smallmouth and northern pike in a single day.

We’re all capable of doing stupid stuff in our home countries, so what makes us think that we’ll be immune from that problem when we’re abroad? Avoid the most costly and potentially painful miscues, but lighten up, Francis – as long as it’s not the really bad stuff.

We were unsure of what we’d experience on our Lake of the Woods smallmouth trip, but the quality of the fish exceeded any possible expectations. We had no idea we’d run across so many big specimens, but on each of the last two days it took nearly a 20-inch minimum to crack our collective top five. Here’s the photo proof.

Air travel continues to be a clusterf#%k, with staffing shortages, mechanical issues, scheduling snafus and all sorts of inexplicable factors bedeviling the supposedly “friendly skies.” We have too many places we want to fish, and not enough time to drive to many of them (especially those across the pond). We collect the links so you can get straight to the good stuff.

No one can force you go leave your homeland, but I’m here to tell you that international fishing travel will make you a better and a more fulfilled person. It will also help you to increase your appreciation of many things about your home country. Don’t delay!

Part of the reason that we go on distant fishing trips to remote locations is to “disconnect” from the electronic tethers that increasingly rule our lives. Nevertheless, I’ll be the first to admit that even when I don’t have service my phone remains an important part of my daily life, so when traveling I try to maintain cybersecurity in the following caveman-friendly ways.

I went on a tackle shop scavenger hunt, across the Chesapeake Bay, through the Maryland beaches, and up through the Delaware coast. Here is a list of some incredible shops, with a brief guide to what they all offer.

While fishing is often thought of as a pastoral and contemplative sport that benefits most from remote settings, urban fishing continues to grow in popularity in the United States. Here’s a guide to getting started on fishing close to concrete and skyscrapers.