It was the consistent aggregations of Pacific sailfish that put Guatemala on the sportfishing map. In the years since those first boats came in the late 1980s, Guatemala has earned the reputation as the Sailfish Capital of the World.
The reason is simple. Things happen in Guatemala— numbers of fish raised, numbers of fish released— that don’t happen anywhere else. When it’s good here, there is no place in the world that can compare.
Yes, Guatemala is the sailfish capital of the world. And late November through March is the peak of sailfish season. If you were to book a trip with the goal of having the best sailfish numbers of your life, this window provides a solid bet.
At Sailfish Oasis, we’ve had waves of high sailfish numbers in each calendar month that we fish. But if you were to plan or forecast a time when your chances of great sailfish numbers are highest, it would be November through March.
OPEN DATES- PEAK SAILFISH SEASON. Mid December
What follows is a bit of context about what makes this time of year so special. This context is helpful, because the fishing in Guatemala is good all year.
Great Fishing: Historical Context
It can be difficult to relay expectations as it relates to offshore fishing. There are a couple of things to consider:
- Fish are fish. The ocean is the ocean. We can’t guarantee 30 sailfish days—and you might distrust any operation that makes such promises.
- Some years are better than others. Year in, year out, you can’t necessarily predict which years will be average, epic, or not as expected.
All that said, we can promise to be prepared for anything that comes our way. In November, January, February and into March, we’ll have dozens of rigged ballyhoo. We’ll carry dozens more frozen and ready for rigging.
We’ll have dozens of circle hooks rigged and ready. The teasers, pitch baits, the fly and conventional tackle—all ready for our action.
Of course, Captain Jono and the crew of the Allure II are rigged and ready any time we leave the dock (peak sailfish season or otherwise). But this time of year, we’ve had some of our most epic days. These statistics provide context for why we buy and prepare so many baits and so many rigs… and why we’re so excited about sailfish season.
In mid-January 2021, we set the lodge record for most sailfish releases on a trip with 520.
This was a group that fished a total of 10 boat days. Three boats fishing for three days, one boat fishing a day prior. The clients hooked fish themselves. It was a Hell of a trip. 520 sailfish—an average of 52 releases per boat over 10 days of fishing.
At Sailfish Oasis, we are fortunate to have many groups that come and fish with us the same time every year. Last year, our clients that fish with us during the Super Bowl released 209 sailfish. Over three days, fishing on four boats, 12 anglers had 374 bites.
In January 2025, we had a day of 107 sailfish bites. That was the second day of the trip for our group.
In February 2025, we had a group release 137 sailfish on their trip. They were hooking the fish themselves.
These numbers and these occurrences are the type of thing that really only happen in Guatemala. We list them here in the middle of a paragraph. If you released 137 sailfish on a trip in most any other place in the world, you’d appear on the front page of the newspaper.
Guatemala is different.
High Release Numbers Mean More than Just Lots of Fish
Releasing lots of sailfish is great. But it means more than you might first realize.
If you’re here on a day when we raise 30, 40 or more sailfish, it’s not just 30 or 40 single fish. When they’re thick, they often come in packs. There aren’t many things more exciting than seeing a mob of sailfish attacking the spread behind the boat.
Captain Jono calling out their locations, “Right teaser! Left short! Here he comes!”
The mates do their cockpit dance, pitching to fish off of teasers and hooking fish out of the riggers. Hooking and handing before hooking another.
It can be even more fun when you and your buddies are hooking the fish yourselves. Dancing around one another, drifting hooked ballyhoo back, as one of your buddies works the teaser.
Then there’s the hook up. If there’s lots of fish around, Captain Jono will keep the boat in gear and try for multiples.
Working two, three or four hooked sailfish at a time is great fun. Part dance, part fire drill… it’s all awesome.
As much as the release numbers themselves, this is what peak sailfish season in Guatemala is all about. Seeing lots of fish, teasing up lots of fish, hooking lots of fish, and trying to catch lots of fish—often a few at time. It’s great fun.
Expectations
So, what does all of this mean for you? What should you expect if you come fishing with us this December or January? What can you expect during the peak of sailfish season?
Remember, we are in the business of being prepared, reading the water, and doing everything we can to put clients on to fish. We are not in the business of guaranteeing numbers.
Any day with 20 or more sailfish releases is a really good day. And we will experience days of 20-plus releases this year. And perhaps a banner day or trip where we release more than twice that number.
We’ve run the lodge since 2009. Since then, in most years, between 50 and 70% of our groups fishing between the middle of December through the end of February have had a day of 20 releases or more. If you read about a report of an epic sailfish bite in Guatemala, the chances are good that it comes during this season.
And that’s the thing about fishing offshore. No one day or one trip is for certain. But year, in year out, we experience our best and most consistent sailfish bite of the year from late November through the end of February. And we’ve got some open dates that are right in the middle of it.
Ring In The New Year with Sailfish Oasis
Were you going to book a trip with the intention of hitting it right or putting up your best billfish release numbers of your life, empirically, there is no better bet than coming to Guatemala sometime between mid-November and Late February.
This year, like every year, we will have some days that we’ll never forget. We’d love for you and your buddies to be on the Allure II when they happen.
