There’s good reason to travel if you’re a tournament angler, and in this case by “travel” I don’t mean just head to Okeechobee or El Salto or the Cal Delta. I mean something outside of your comfort zone, outside of your area of expertise. It’ll help you gain perspective on the critical lessons that will improve your tournament success.

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.

While superlative fishing is the top priority on most of my bucket list trips, I’m also tempted by any place that’s hard to reach. Limited accessibility not only adds to the adventure, but also makes the experience rarer and the club a little more exclusive. Unfortunately, there are some that may be permanently out of reach.

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.

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.

I’ve been fortunate to land fish in 25 states, and Hanna and I have traveled to numerous countries and multiple continents in pursuit of finned glory. That leaves a lot of water and species left to cover. Of course, it also leaves us with a bit of a conundrum – do we return to proven venues or seek out new options, with the possibility that they won’t be quite as good. I hope that we’ll be able to find that balance going forward.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I’m typically not one to make resolutions but I am very goal-oriented. I also love checklists. I love the satisfaction of crossing off “to do’s” and I will do something that isn’t written on the checklist, then write it down just to check it off. In 2021, I’m accelerating my dreams.

If you’re traveling to catch a new species, unless you’re exclusively a trophy hunter and you’re willing to blank, go someplace where you’re going to get a lot of bites. That may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how often travelers disregard it. They’ll go to a fishery that has “some” smallmouths or “some” muskies and target those lesser fish, rather than either targeting the predominant species or going someplace that actually has numbers. Then they’re surprised that they don’t succeed.