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Fishing in our corner of the world is awesome. It is exciting.
We are making it even more exciting and awesome. How are we doing this?
It starts with two fundamentals:
- Everyone in the world loves to catch big fish.
- Everyone in the world loves to win prizes.
That leads us to an inescapable conclusion. What’s the only thing in the world that’s better than catching big fish? Catching big fish and winning prizes for having done so!
That is the impetus for our first ever Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge Yearly Fishing Awards. We are super excited about it. Here’s how it works…
We have three categories of award.
The BIGGEST Yellowfin Tuna of 2024
The MOST Marlin Caught By an Angler in 2024
The BEST Fishing Picture of 2024
The rules for the contest are simple. Each category is open to every guest that fishes with us in 2024. You step on the boat, you’re automatically entered.
Biggest Yellowfin
The biggest yellowfin tuna category will be judged by weight. If our anglers bring in a contender, we’ll weigh it. If it is bigger than the previous largest, it will be the leader. At the end of the year, the angler that caught the heaviest fish will win.
This category is really great. We catch lots of big tuna throughout the year. The Gulf of Chiriqui is home to one of the world’s best and most consistent yellowfin tuna fisheries. We catch them throughout the year. Any day we leave the dock there’s a chance to tangle with a giant tuna.
What will it take to win this category? If we’re betting, I’d say it will likely be north of 225. Likely bigger than 250. Maybe it will be bigger….
That’s one of the great things about fishing here. Who knows when we’ll catch the winning fish or how big it will be? What is for sure is that our boats are ready day in and day out. Every time we leave the dock we’re prepared for the fish of a lifetime.
The Most Marlin
This award is an angler award. It will be presented to the angler who releases the most marlin while fishing with us in 2024.
It is a numbers competition. Whether the marlin be an 800-pound gorilla or a 200-pound bottle rocket, whether it be a black marlin or blue marlin, each fish counts the same. For the fish to count as caught, we’ll need to touch the leader. Our competition will be governed by the spirit of angling—if you want to hook your own fish, that’s great. If one of our crew hooks the fish and a guest reels it in, that counts too.
There’s a bit of strategy to this category.
We’ll keep a tally of marlin caught and who reels them in. Through the year, as the competition heats up, anglers in the running might need to book a last-minute trip or two to keep pace.
That’s part of the fun. This is an annual award that is cumulative. We catch black and blue marlin throughout the year. We have two really great black marlin seasons… One is early in the year, one is later. We catch blue marlin throughout hte year as well.
Will the winner be an angler who gets on a hot streak early and rides it to victory? Maybe it’ll be someone who catches fish steady through the year. Will it be a guest who hits wide open black marlin fishing in December?
Who knows. If you want to win this one, your best bet is to come fishing. You don’t catch them on the couch….
The Best Picture of 2024
This is a fun one. There really aren’t too many rules or parameters on this one.
It’s open to everyone that comes down to fish and stay with us in 2024. If you’re a professional photographer, you can sit this one out.
We’ll do a call later in the year asking for guest photo submissions. Then we’ll compile the entries and our crew will make a short list. Finally, we’ll then pick a winner through a combination of votes from online and from our people.
As for the subject of the photo that might win? It might be anything… A whale, a giant tuna, a jumping black marlin, a fisherman making the “tuna face” after two hours on the stick, a group of lifelong fishing buddies attacking a mountain of sushi rolls. Who knows?
The pictures just need to be taken by a guest of the lodge while on their trip. This will be really fun. The person who submits the best photo of 2024 will win a prize. We’ll also likely feature them in a story to provide some background on the picture and what made it so interesting.
Come See Us in 2024
What do the biggest yellowfin, most black marlin and best fishing picture have in common? You can’t win any of them without fishing with us.
