Stuff We Like Inspired by our Travel
Fishing should be fun. Part of that is art and food and other things that don't put fish in the boat, but nevertheless make you enjoy the process more.
You Clean Up Well — Billfish Ties That Will Impress
I’ve worn a tie for more hours than many of you have been alive. I’m neither proud nor ashamed of that fact – it’s the price I’ve paid to earn certain things I want, like Japanese crankbaits and trips to the Amazon.
Mahi From Bait to Plate
We’ve gone twice to Casa Vieja Lodge to target sailfish (and perhaps marlin), but one nice aspect of the fishery is that there are various other species to catch, whether intentionally or unintentionally. If you’re fortunate to catch a mahi or tuna in the morning, you can eat it minutes later.
Tattoo Tuesday -- On Sail
After an epic trip to Casa Vieja Lodge in February, I’ve become a little bit more than obsessed with sailfish. We caught 37 of them, including 23 in a single day. Every one of them stripped line, jumped at least 10 times, and put on an unforgettable show of acrobatics. Even when you finally get them to the boat and subdue them, they’re still gorgeous – lit up with iridescent colors. That likely makes them both tempting and hard to tattoo.
Current Leader for Best Fishing Meal of 2020
I’m not the kind of guy who craves steak, especially if it’s just average or subpar (Rodney: “still has marks from where the jockey was hitting it), but a few times a year I need a really prime cut and I splurge on an upscale steakhouse. The best I’ve ever had was the bone-in ribeye at Mastro’s in Scottsdale, Arizona, but I’ve also enjoyed the porterhouse at Peter Luger’s in Brooklyn, I’ve dined at Chicago’s Gene & Georgetti, and a few times a year we hit the gluttony-based-destination known as Fogo de Chao where I go overboard on their prime top sirloin known as picanha.
Oh, Just EAT IT
I get asked all the time: “Why don’t you eat the fish you catch?” The large majority of the fish Pete and I catch are released. Catch and release fishing is a conservation practice developed to prevent overharvest of fish stocks in the face of the growing human populations.
Working the Pole
It’s not often your husband asks you to work the pole, but recently Pete made that request in order to ensure that we’d have a perfect fishing trip to Guatemala. Shortly before we left we needed to make sure that we knew how to get spectacular coverage of our sailfish with our GoPro as the lodge doesn’t take the sailfish fully out of the water and into the boat in order to take pictures.