384 Sailfish in Three Days – Casa Vieja Lodge February 2026 Fishing Report
We just completed our sixth trip to Casa Vieja Lodge (for the record, it was supposed to be a “once in a lifetime” visit in February of 2020) and the place continues to amaze us. While even our toughest trip produced numbers that would be exceptional anywhere else in the world, this time around it was truly ridiculous.
To be precise, over the course of three days on the Finest Kind our boat released 92 sailfish.
We also had a blue marlin and two striped marlin.
Making it even crazier, two of the other boats commandeered by our group of 16 anglers (we had four boats altogether) caught even more. One of them had 112 sailfish releases. The other produced 115. The one boat that had fewer than us still totaled 65, and they had both types of marlin as well.
That’s a total of 384 sailfish and five marlin. We were running about two hours each way in air-conditioned comfort to get to the fish, so it wasn’t like we had 12 hours of fishing time. All of those bites, fights and releases were coming in about a five hour period.
Being an obsessive, I watch the fishing reports from Casa Vieja religiously, trying to discern patterns. There are none that I can find. Sometimes these exceptional periods occur in January or April or November. You just hope that at some point you’ll be there to take advantage of it when they do. I’m glad that we were there for this – and while we don’t necessarily expect these types of catches we know that the possibility exists every time we visit.
Our Group
We had 16 anglers in our group spread out over four boats: The Finest Kind, the Pica Mas, Poco Loco and Chilero.
Of the 16 anglers, seven (including us) had previously been to Casa Vieja. We had people from Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Carolina, Delaware and Georgia.
This was our fourth time fishing in the Finest Kind, and second time with Captain Benji. Previously we’d fished with Captain Nicho, who is now on the Pica Mas.
Last year my brother and his business school friends fished on the Pica Mas and released 81 sailfish. None of them had ever caught a billfish prior to that trip. It was the most sails any of the boats in any of our groups had landed – until now.
What Made This Trip Distinctive?
Sailfish travel in packs. I can’t even begin to estimate how many doubles we had. I’m pretty sure that every boat in our group had at least one quad – four sailfish fought and landed at the same time. On the second day of fishing, our boat had the potential for three of them, but we eventually landed two, three and four at a time.
A father and two sons (not in our group) hired a photographer to document their trip and it was lucky they did. They ended up with six sailfish on at once and needed all of the arms they could get (three anglers, two mates, one photographer) to tame them all.
On Day 3, we hooked a sailfish on the first line we put out, before the entire spread was in the water.
On Day 2, we hooked a sailfish as we brought in the lines at the end of the day, and as I fought him two more showed up and grabbed the lures.
I tried much harder to participate in the bait-and-switch, which may have resulted in lower overall hookup numbers. The mates are near flawless when they do it, but each trip I try to contribute more significantly. One particularly proud moment was getting a striped marlin to commit as it changed from one teaser to another and then fighting it to the boat.
This was our first trip to Casa Vieja when we did not catch a mahi mahi. In fact, none of our boats did. Given the amount of action we had, no one seemed to care.
It was the flattest water we’ve experienced for more than a single day, which made the long runs comfortable and helped our comparatively untrained eyes to see the fish in the spread.
Running Tallies
Notably, we don’t catch every fish that shows up in the spread. Some simply look but don’t bite. Others bite but we mess it up. Our boat’s final totals were 168 raises, 151 bites, and 92 sailfish releases.
This brings our total over six trips and 18 days on the water to 271 sailfish released, an average of just over 15 per day.
We can’t guarantee any particular numbers, but we can assure you that if you fish the waters offshore of Guatemala with Casa Vieja Lodge you will have a fantastic chance to have the fishing trip of a lifetime. Everything about the operation is first-class, and a “once in a lifetime” trip may turn into an addiction, just as it has for us. Shoot us a message if you’d like more information or for us to help you set up a trip.
Also check out our “Guide to Fishing Guatemala” for all of the past content we’ve produced about this exceptional experience.
