Billfish Tournaments To Enter
The No Sancocho Tournament Casa Vieja Lodge, Guatemala
The Pacific coast of Guatemala provides the best fishing for Pacific sailfish found anywhere, and a large number of blue marlin are caught there each year as well, along with some stripes and blacks. Sancocho is a friendly term of derision leveled at anglers in Latin America who drop a rigged natural bait, usually a ballyhoo, back to a billfish but fail to hook it, retrieving only the head of the bait after the fish has robbed them of the rest. In the No Sancocho tournament, anglers must pay the lodge $20 for every Sancocho they commit during the three-day event, and that money is then given to a local school, to help buy much-needed supplies. casaviejalodge.com
Custom Boat Shootout Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas
To enter this event, you have to own or charter a custom sportfishing boat, and that alone makes it cool. Held at the incredible Boat Harbour Marina at the Abaco Beach resort, the Shootout attracts dozens of the most beautiful boats on the water, from builders like Rybovich, Merritt, Spencer, Jarrett Bay, American Custom Yachts, Paul Mann, Ricky Scarborough, and more. Created by famed captain Skip Smith, the Shootout has become one of the iconic tournaments on the bluewater scene in only a few years, and if you love custom boats, this is the place to be. To top it all off, at the end of the tournament they line up the boats and have a marine version of a drag race to see who has the fastest. skipstournaments.com The oldest-running sailfish tournament in the world is run by the West Palm Beach Fishing Club, an iconic organization in its own right, and one of the largest fishing clubs in the U.S. The Derby is held each winter, targeting Atlantic sailfish, and has been an annual happening since 1935. The only years that the Derby didn’t take place were 1943-45, during World War II. The Derby has also created some innovations that we now take for granted, including the triangular, red release flag that has become ubiquitous among those who target sailfish. Derby organizers also promoted the tagging of sailfish for scientific research early on, and helped promote conservation long before it became an international movement. westpalmbeachfishingclub.org
Gamefish Grande Cuba
In the interest of total disclosure, we should point out that our parent company, Active Interest Media, owns this event. And it has only taken place once, this past June. But, trust us: It’s destined to become a huge event. With the lifting of many travel restrictions on Americans visiting Cuba, more anglers will be going to check out the fishing there. In its first year, Gamefish Grande held a two-part tournament series, with the first leg in Varadero, about 100 miles east of Havana, and the second leg at the Marina Hemingway just west of Havana.The sprawling, all-new marina at Varadero contains slips for about 1,100 boats, so dockage is definitely not an issue, and participants this year discovered some truly great fishing right offshore. bahamasbillfish.com
Bisbee Tournaments Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
The first four events we profiled offer trophies and prestige to winners for the most part (with the ever-present promise of “Calcutta” side bets, for those so inclined), but several of the Bisbee events throw huge cash prizes into the mix, upping the ante and the level of