Fishing Hot Spots

Lake guides for this map

Month-by-month patterns, fish, ramps and rules for each water:

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Fishing Hot Spots by area

Islands, cays, reefs and banks with good fishing water. Tap one to fly to it on the map.

Bay Islands walls, Miskito Cays banks and Barra del Colorado tarpon

Roatán, Utila and Guanaja sit on the edge of the Cayman Trench, so the reef wall drops into deep blue water right off the islands, with wahoo, tuna and mahi-mahi outside and bonefish and permit on the flats of east Roatán and the Utila Cays. Further south, the Miskito Cays and the banks off Cabo Gracias a Dios and the Corn Islands are huge shallow reef systems with snappers, groupers, jacks and kingfish. Barra del Colorado in Costa Rica is world famous for giant tarpon and snook in the river mouths, and Bocas del Toro and the San Blas islands of Panama have reef fishing, cubera snapper and pelagics just offshore. Colombia's San Andrés and Providencia sit far out on the Nicaraguan Rise, with Quitasueño Bank to the north.

The Bay Islands are one big marine national park with zones where fishing is limited, and Cayos Cochinos, Tortuguero, Cahuita, Gandoca-Manzanillo, Bastimentos and Portobelo are national parks, refuges or monuments. They show in red, and BigJoe does not put fishing spots in or next to them. Punta de Manabique in Guatemala and Tela Bay and Cuyamel in Honduras are wildlife refuges too. Check the local fisheries rules (DIPESCA, DIGEPESCA, INPESCA, INCOPESCA, ARAP or CORALINA) and travel advisories before you go.