The last time I visited Guatemala - more than 15 years ago - this small Central American country remained a relative mystery in big-game fishing circles. But the traveling angler and businessman Tim Choate, who had been one of the first Americans to fish in Venezuela and set up charter operations in Costa Rica, saw opportunity in the region's enormous sailfish populations. His unbridled enthusiasm for the large numbers of sails in the area convinced the International Light Tackle Tournament Association (ILTTA) to hold its annual event there. He and local fishing guru Fernando Aguilar invited me down to ride along on Choate's boat during the tourney to get some photographs and maybe get a story. I jumped at the chance, and the boss gave me the OK.
At that time there were no fancy fishing lodges open in Guatemala, so all the participants stayed in the then still-under-construction Hotel Martita. My brand-new wife tagged along on this trip, and I think the air conditioning in that hotel room - which sounded like it was tuned by a bad Harley Davidson mechanic - was one of the main reasons she didn't join me on another trip for the next 10 years. She did, however, get to spend a day shopping with the president of Guatemala and his wife, which went a long way toward fooling her about my apparent importance for a year or two.
On my end, the trip afforded the opportunity to meet, and fish, with some of the giants in the fishing world, like Aguilar, Choate, Frank Johnson of Mold Craft, Capt. John LaGrone and the angling VanVleet family from Curacao.
