How would you like to cast your fly to a fish that might be longer than your fly rod? That’s right, longer than your 9-foot fly rod. If you want an adrenaline rush almost equal to landing on an aircraft carrier, you might want to try a pacific sailfish on fly. You will be close up and personal with your adversary and it’s not as difficult as you might believe. In more than 40 years of fly fishing for Pacific sail, I’ve helped scores of people catch their first. My first was at Club de Pesca de Panama, now called Tropic Star Lodge, in 1964.

I watched closely as my over-tied size 12 Adams tumbled off the gravel ridge and dropped atop the bucket at the head of a long run. The big dry swirled into the river’s current, forcing me to mend my line to extend the drift. A massive head the size of a grown man’s fist pushed from the water and sucked in the hapless fly. The floating fly line yanked tight, and the heft on the end of the line was admirable. I lifted the rod and knew I was into a big Rio Chimehuin brown. Like … really big. And then, just as quickly as the line had snapped tight, the fish was gone.