What are you doing this weekend? Want to go fishing?
You can find Captain Shane Jarvis and the team from Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the boat show. If you’re at the show, it would be great to say hello.
COME FISHING. BET YOU’LL LIKE IT.
And while we’re excited to see our friends and partners, our main reason for coming to town was to attend The Billfish Foundation’s 40th anniversary gala. Long-time TBF President and first lady of billfish conservation is retiring. The event promises to be a party worth writing home about.
To commemorate the occasion and to support the conservation work of The Billfish Foundation, we’re donating a trip for three to come fish at the lodge. But we have a couple of conditions.
Cool, Not Boring
Like most everything we do at the lodge, we want things to be perfect. And we want them to be cool, not boring.
Many times, at many conservation events, trips are donated and get lost in the shuffle. Rather than raising the profile of the group doing the work, or the lodge donating the trip, they become just another thing in a silent auction. This happens often enough that you can actually go to these dinners to hunt for bargain trips….
But that’s really not our style. If we’re going to do something, we think you should do it right.
It’s the same reason we keep the boats looking the way they do. The same reason we work sponsors who make things that work—rather than things that we can get for cheap.
Our take on trip donations involves having someone from the organization host it. We give two or three spots for the organization to sell and invite someone from the organization to come down with the guests.
Why do we do this? Because it’s awesome. Because it works—it adds value and it’s really fun. And because it raises lots of money for the conservation partners that we support.
At the risk of giving away a couple of our secrets, here’s some examples:
The Billfish Foundation
We’re donating three spots and three days of fishing at the lodge. The trip will be hosted by our good buddy and perhaps the most ubiquitous face on the offshore fishing landscape, Fly Navarro.
Fly is great. He’s a member of the Board of Directors of The Billfish Foundation and was a co-founder of InTheBite Magazine.
He started his career working the cockpits of sportfishing boats. He fished the blue marlin right waters of St. Thomas for many years.
These days he hosts a podcast, runs tournaments across the Caribbean and around the world—the most famous is perhaps the Blue Marlin World Cup, a global, biggest fish wins tournament that happens every 4th of July.
He was also named Global Sport Fishing Ambassador to the Maldives (really)! Fly is awesome.
He loves fishing and is really good at it. He’s also really excited to come down to our part of the world and fish the Gulf of Chiriquí with the top bidder of the trip we’re auctioning off tonight.
The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame
One of the best things about travel fishing is the friends you meet along the way. Case in point, Pete Robbins.
Pete is the most prolific writer in fishing. He cut his teeth in bass fishing. He’s done it all—covered and attended more than a dozen Bassmaster Classics. He’s written for magazines, tackle companies, even ghost written for many of the top professional bass fishermen on the tour.
COME FISHING. BET YOU’LL LIKE IT.
In 2021, we invited Pete to bring down some bass fishing guys to Panama to throw topwaters to tuna. We figured it sounded like fun and might turn into something awesome.
And man, has it ever. Pete and his wife Hanna run HalfPastFirstCast.com, a hosted trip service and all-around fishing media outlet. He is also a board member of The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.
Pete introduced Shane and the lodge to The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame. We liked their mission and have come to realize that bass fishing folks are really fun to fish with (they like to cast poppers and swimbaits as much as we do!).
Long story short, Shane began donating trips and attending the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame galas in Springfield, Missouri. We like supporting conservation and fishing, but don’t like boring or run-of-the-mill.
Pete introduced us to his good buddy, Bass Fishing Hall of Famer, Bassmaster Classic champ and co-owner of Major League Fishing, Skeet Reese. We explained our approach to the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame and asked Skeet if he’d like to come down with the folks who bought the trip.
It didn’t take much convincing. The first year, our trip brought the highest bid at the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame’s auction.
Skeet came down and had a blast. He brought a couple of his own rods and caught a nice cubera (among other things) on bass tackle. He’s a hell of a fisherman and a really cool dude.
In September, our trip once again brought in the highest bid—for the second year running. Win, win, win.
Good for the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, good for the lodge, and good for Skeet and Pete. We like fishing and doing cool stuff. Win all the way around.
The IGFA
Want to get in on the action? We’re working out a similar plan with our friends at The International Game Fish Association for their gala in January.
For the IGFA trip, the host will be none other than Adrian Gray. He’s our buddy and something of a fishing Renaissance Man.
He’s a world-class underwater photographer, painter, writer, and he’s a Hell of a fisherman. His stories are incredible. He even once hooked a black marlin on a popper on Hannibal Bank!
We’ll have the details on the trip ironed out soon. This is the kind of thing that you can’t buy off the shelf.
