Trophy marlin.

The coastline of Guatemala forms a giant bay. Strong currents coming west to east from the Mexican coast turn back after hitting the coast of El Salvador and create an enormous, natural occurring eddy, rich in bait and pelagic fish where billfish and many other sport fishing species are found in great numbers.

Sailfish Bay’s flagship is a 32ft Blackfin named Maverick and the crew is one of Guatemala's best. Equipment consists of Penn gold reels, Star and Outer Banks rods along with Stu Apte signature series fly equipment. Lightweight conventional tackle is available onboard as well.

Captain Lan Melendez has been sport fishing in Guatemala for 13 years and the head mate Tito Mora is also a licensed captain and comes with 15 years of experience. Both are considered among the best in Guatemala and are experts at both conventional and fly fishing. Lan and Tito have the only two simultaneous Marlin hookups in Guatemala fishing history. Both clients released their blue marlins successfully. Maverick is always rigged for marlin.

Fly rod-caught sailfish.
(click to enlarge)

Depending upon water conditions, fishing can be as close as 8 miles to 50 miles from shore. This is a small fishing community and captains regularly keep in touch with each other with radio and GPS during the day. Maverick is stocked with bottled water, sodas, beer, fresh fruit and — somewhat unique in the charter world — they provide a hot lunch. Some outings guests may enjoy hamburgers or chicken breast sandwiches with all the trimmings and other days the mate will happily grill your fresh-caught dorado or tuna.

Guatemala is the first country to mandate the use of circle hooks while billfishing and all billfish are catch and release. Guatemala has proven to the international fishing community that the hook-up rate using circle hooks is superior to J hooks and does not cause internal damage to the fish.