Guest Column: Searching for Pacific Sailfish

We reached out to Angler, Charter Captain & Mother, Capt. Gabrielle Barnes to share her experience fishing for Pacific Sailfish in Guatemala.

Photo by by: Mark Going/Columbia Sportswear

Pacific Sailfish are a fish I have seen on many fishing shows and have only dreamed of catching. Here in Destin, Florida we have Sailfish, but they are few and far between and are either caught far offshore or occasionally while trolling nearshore, neither of which is in my daily line up as an inshore charter boat captain. I got the opportunity to do some product testing for the new line of Columbia PFG on a weeklong fishing trip to the sailfish capital of the world, Guatemala. The stoke was very high.

Naturally the first thing I did upon accepting the opportunity, was go to YouTube to see just what I was getting myself into. I come to find out, we were staying at one of the most renowned sailfish lodges, Pacific Fins. There were dozens of videos and fishing shows on this exact fishery I now had penned in on the calendar. I learned this place was known for BIG sailfish and ridiculous numbers of fish with boats averaging double digits daily. Coming from my fishery, this was hard to wrap my head around.  

Photo by by: Mark Going/Columbia Sportswear

I run a conventional charter out of Destin, Florida, but on my off days you will find me loading up the boat with all fly gear and chasing Redfish, Amberjack, or whatever I think is willing to bite a fly. It is how I fish for a living, but keep the love for it alive. Now that I knew the fishery was as good as it gets my next question was, can we catch them on fly? The answer was yes. But keep in mind I was on a fishing trip hosted just to test out gear, none of which included fly rods and reels. None the less, I was going to make sure I was prepared in case the opportunity arose. I did some research to find what rod, reels, and equipment I needed to get the job done. Everything I read said 12-16 wt. I had a 12wt rod that I rarely use and have never landed a fish with, so it was coming . I also had a Cheeky 425 Limitless that has landed a few fish but nothing even close to a Sailfish. One of the details I’ve loved about Cheeky reels is that they cover a range of sizes. The Limitless 425 can be used from an 8-12wt and to this day I have only used it with my 10wt rod and line. I finally had the chance to test out the 12wt side of it and I was ready to go. I added 100 yards of 30lb backing on top of the old backing and spooled it up with Leviathan 500 grain sinking line, I had no idea what to do for the leader, so I just put some straight 40lb test and let the mates change it when I got to the boat.

Photo by by: Mark Going/Columbia Sportswear

I was the only female in the crew of 11 that traveled to Guatemala and the only one who had fly rods. I had rod tubes in hand getting off the airplane and in the taxi headed to the port where our boats awaited. My theory was that I’ll bring my rod rigged up so everyone knows, I want to catch one on fly, and hopefully once we get a few to the boat on conventional gear, everyone would be cool with switching to fly to get an attempt at one. Once we loaded up and the boat started to head out to the fishing grounds, I noticed they had a fly rod rigged up and ready to go as well, and it was massive, considerably bigger than my 12wt. It resembled a conventional rig with its sheer size— we were fishing for serious fish. This made me a bit nervous. I had never caught a sailfish. I knew they are bigger in the Pacific, but, can my 12 wt. handle these fish? Will my backing-to-backing knot hold up if it makes its way out of the guides? Am I in over my head in thinking I can land one of these on fly? All these thoughts were racing through my head as we ride out, 20 miles. About 1 hour later the engines die down and the boat settles to a cruising 7 knots. Less than 10 minutes later we are hooked up to our first fish— a 30lb Mahi. The action did not slow down for hours. Fast forward to 11:30. We had 4 Mahi and 15 Sailfish landed with who knows how many fish missed. Now was the time. The entire boat agreed, lets try to get one on fly.

Photo by by: Mark Going/Columbia Sportswear

I was up! The crew made sure I was rigged up for success with an 80lb leader to this sweet, big blue popper my buddy John sent me before my trip. They pulled up the right-side riggers and moved all the teasers to the left and middle of the boat to clear room for casting on the right side. The mate explaining to me how this was going to go. Captain yells out “Left long teaser” and the mates sprung into action. Forget the instructions, it was go time. I threw my fly in the water to get line out and before I could even load up for a cast the fish was on my fly. I popped it twice and witnessed the most insane eat from a sailfish 20 feet from the transom... and it was game on!

Now, it was time to test the gear. Wicked jumps, line peeling, and the captain backing down on the fish aggressively made the first one very exciting and we landed him rather quickly. The next 4 I caught, wouldn’t be so easy. I was thinking to myself "okay that was great, the eats are so much better on fly and it didn’t take much longer to land on fly than conventional gear, this is awesome." Fish number two made me eat my words. After peeling line and epic jumps like the first one, this one dove down on me when the boat backed up to him, and I could barely budge him. Stalemate. As my bicep was getting weak, I knew I could only get this fish up by the smallest pumps and keeping all the pressure in the butt of the rod. One crank at a time, I finally started gaining line at a snail’s pace. My drag was tight, but the only way to gain on him while down deep was to hold the already tight drag on every pump. The second fish took twice as long to land as the first one and halfway through the fight I said out loud “So you want a sailfish on fly, do ya?” I signed up for a battle and I was in the thick of it. Inches at a time, I finally got the leader in the tip and was relieved when the mate grabbed it to land the fish for a boat-side picture. I landed 5 sailfish on fly during my three days of fishing and 4 more were landed by other anglers on my set up, I got my answer, YES, my 12wt. set up, including the Cheeky 425, and my knots could absolutely stand up to Pacific Sailfish. While it might not have been easy, isn’t that why we like fly fishing to begin with?

 Photo by by: Mark Going/Columbia Sportswear

When comparing my rig to theirs, it was no question the thickness of their 16 wt. would have helped in moving those fish up quicker when they were bogged down, but man, I felt accomplished using my own gear that I could cast a fly with and testing myself in battle with an amazing creature. By the fifth one, I had my technique down and was much more efficient in getting them to the boat and not wearing myself or the fish out too much. Overall, I was impressed by how my Limitless paired with my rod and held up in the harshest environment. I am stoked to get the new Spray Fly Reels out there next, and know I will go into any trip confident that my gear is battle tested and the rest is up to me.

Capt. Gabrielle Barnes & her daughter, Gianna.