For the past six weeks, the marlin fishing in Panama has been on fire. The guests who make our fishing possible have enjoyed a front-row seat to some of the best marlin fishing we’ve experienced in years. Not only are we fired up for the great fishing now, but we’re excited for what it might mean for the remainder of 2025.

Great marlin fishing is not a surprise here. The Gulf of Chiriquí is one the best black marlin destinations in the northern hemisphere. Black marlin have been drawing anglers to our part of the world since the early 1980s.

There is much more to our fishing, however, than just great black marlin fishing. Some are surprised to learn that we catch good numbers of blue marlin as well. The past six weeks have provided a case in point.

Fishing in our part of the world has a few things in common with fishing most anywhere else.  It is fishing, after all.

There are seasons when you can expect things to be good, but the numbers and size of fish vary from year to year. 2024 was a great all-around year for us. We hosted hundreds of anglers from all over the world and put many people on experiences of a lifetime.

The marlin fishing, however, was slower than you’d typically expect for much of the year. This turned around in the middle of December. In the two months since, conditions have come together to produce perhaps the best marlin bite we’ve had in five years.

Add the consistent presence of sailfish and some giant yellowfin tuna—and solid numbers of roosterfish, cubera snapper and wahoo inshore—and the breadth and quality of the fishery here begins to emerge. What follows is a breakdown of our insane two months of marlin fishing and an update on our availability for the remainder of 2025.

Spoiler alert—if you’d like to fish with us, we’d love to have. But if you’d like to do it this year, you’d better book sooner than later because we’re nearing 100% occupancy.

“This is the best marlin fishing we’ve had in 5 years.” Captain Shane Jarvis

Starting in about the middle of December, the conditions began stacking up for marlin fishing. Aggregations of bonito started forming and hanging around on high spots—like the pinnacles around Montuosa. The steady presence of bait has attracted good numbers of black and blue marlin.

“Our best day one boat released six blue marlin. We had only one boat fishing there that day. He caught ‘em all,” explains Captain Shane Jarvis. “If our others boats had been there, we likely would have caught more.”

“We started seeing marlin in December. The marlin fishing really picked up in mid-January. It’s been awesome,” Shane says. “One day in the middle of December we found a giant tree floating offshore. All four of our boats were there. All told, we released eight marlin and two sailfish that day.”

“We’ve been catching lots of sailfish too—on spinning rods. We load up our wells with goggle eyes and blue runners. When we’re running, if we see a sailfish tailing we pitch ‘em a live bait,” Shane explains. “Our best day fleetwide, between now and the middle of December, we released a dozen sailfish and a dozen marlin.” 

Providing even more context to the quality of the fishing, the average size of black anad blue marlin in this part of the world runs between 200 and 400 pounds. There is always the chance to run into the occasional monster. The big fish in this part of the world are typically female black marlin.

“It’s been awesome. This is the best marlin fishing we’ve had in five years. I can’t wait to see what it’s going to mean for July and August when the black marlin really show up,” Shane says.

Great Marlin Fishing and GIANT Yellowfin

Last year the biggest yellowfin we caught at Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge went 247 pounds. It was a stud.

In six weeks of 2025, we’ve already eclipsed that fish. Captain Johnny put John from Aspen, Colorado on a tuna that weighed 290. Anytime you get the chance to dance with a fish of that calibur you count it as good fortune. Even more fortunate?

The fish got tail-wrapped about an hour into the battle… Why is that fortunate? If it hadn’t, the guys might still be fighting the thing!

Remaining Dates for 2025

The fishing has been really, really good to start the year. This promises good things for the months to come. We are really excited about the remainder of 2025.

If you’d like to fish with us, we’d love to have you. As we like to say, we’ve been making fishing dreams come true for clients from around the world. We’d love to do the same for you.

Ours is an incredibly charming part of the world. Here are a few reasons why.

All that said, word is getting out about how special our part of the world really is. We’re nearing 100% capacity for 2025…. But we’ll save you a spot as long as we can.

Here’s what’s left in 2025:

March 3-17, March 21-24,

June 3-June 16,

June 21-July 11, July 14-28,

 July 31-August 9, August 12-16,

 August 26-31,

November 7-18,

November 22-December 5,

 December 9-12 and 17-22,

December 26-31