Fishing is a favorite hobby for people all over the world. While the passion anglers feel toward the sport is the same everywhere, we feel confident in claiming that there are differences in the quality of fishing in various places around the globe.
To help you decide where to fish next, we at FishingBooker dug into our data to find out which are the best non-US fishing towns. Below, we’ll explain the methodology behind the study and share the ranking of the top fishing towns in the world, outside of the USA. (Earlier this year, we ranked the top spots in each US state, so check out that list if you’re planning a trip closer to home.)
Top 20 Fishing Towns outside of the US
In the table below, you’ll find the top 20 towns for fishing outside of the US. The countries with the most spots represented are Mexico (5 towns), Canada (4), and Costa Rica (3), while the top 3 is made up entirely of Mexican destinations.
If you want to see the full rankings, check out this document.
| Position | Location | Country | Points total |
| 1. | Cabo San Lucas | Mexico | 43 |
| 2. | Cancún | Mexico | 35 |
| 3. | Puerto Peñasco | Mexico | 33 |
| 4. | Tamarindo | Costa Rica | 31 |
| =4. | Sooke | Canada | 31 |
| 6. | Puerto Vallarta | Mexico | 29 |
| =6. | Herradura | Costa Rica | 29 |
| =6. | Ucluelet | Canada | 29 |
| 9. | Quepos | Costa Rica | 28 |
| =9. | Nassau | Bahamas | 28 |
| =9. | Budva | Montenegro | 28 |
| 12. | Playa del Carmen | Mexico | 27 |
| =12. | San Pedro | Belize | 27 |
| =12. | Nanaimo | Canada | 27 |
| =12. | Split | Croatia | 27 |
| 16. | West Bay | Cayman Islands | 26 |
| =16. | Hurghada | Egypt | 26 |
| =16. | St. Thomas | US Virgin Islands | 26 |
| =16. | Gamboa | Panama | 26 |
| =16. | West Vancouver | Canada | 26 |
Methodology
We selected five criteria based on FishingBooker’s internal data from over 40,000 fishing trips and related reviews and reports in the past year. The criteria are:
- Number of available fishing charters
- Average review score
- Average recommended score
- Number of guides with the Angler’s Choice Award (FishingBooker’s award for the top guides on the platform)
- Number of bookings
All of the above criteria were taken from the past year alone. We also made sure that there were at least 10 bookings in the location in the last 365 days.
Using the accumulated data, we scored each location between 1 and 10 points for each criterion, based on groups of 10 percentiles for each point increase. This means that the maximum number of points a location could get was 50.
This is how we got the ultimate list of the best places to fish outside of the US.
