I just got back from Panama…What an incredible trip with Pesca Panama!
I fished with Doug Olander from Sportfishing Magazine, Ben Secrest from Accurate, George Large from Normark ( Rapala/Williamson). Joining us as well were European professional fisherman, Nicola Zingerelli from Spain (owner of carnx.com) and Hideyuki Kitamura (Charmas) and his companion and translator Setsu Hamanaka. Charmas is a true master of traditional Japanese jig fishing. This guy is the real deal and he proved his mastery to us time and time again. His companion Setsu is a well know wildlife artist and in my opinion a top jig fishermen in his own right. Those of you who know Doug, Ben and George, they are also expert fishermen who have fished all over the world.
To make a long story short, despite my many years of fishing experience, all of these guys are way more knowledgeable and skilled than me. Over all it was a great learning experience. Everyone was very cool about sharing information. Needless to say we had more than a few laughs.
The beauty of a trip like this is that it is not all about skill. A heavy does of shit house luck has always served me well and this trip was no different. Time and time again, my primitive fishing skills, stubbornness and luck provided me ample opportunity to catch some great fish. The highlight or low point depending on how you look at it as an hour long standoff with a 120+ pound YFT on heavy spinning tackle.
Catching a nice tuna on two speeds and a harness can be tough; but make no mistake, on a spinning rod with 25 pounds of drag and a 6:1 gear ratio and no harness in 90 degree equatorial sun was a humbling and quite painfull experience for this Eskimo. We did get the fish in and I felt fortunate to not catch another that size for the rest of the trip.
Fishing overall was good but not usually wide open, the main idea was to get a bunch of experienced jig fishermen from all over to meet in Panama and fish almost exclusively with jigs for whatever we could catch. We did see some double and triple hook ups but more often it was one at a time.
The weather ranged from hot and sunny to several days of torrential downpours. We did catch plenty of fish every day on jigs and poppers and even when the weather was shitty we caught some great fish on the lee side of Coiba Island in very shallow water. It seems that the Pelagic fish will move right up in to the shallows as we hooked a 25 pound Dorado in 20 feet of water and also caught African Pompano, Rainbow Runners, Roosters, Jacks and Trevelly of all types as well as Pargo in the shallows. We also saw a big black marlin detonate on a dodo in 155 feet of water near Montoso Island. Sent it tumbling across the top of the water.
I think we ended up catching 24 different species on jigs and we (George) was rocked/ broke off several times by some very large cubera and broomtails. The last day I threw a popper into the rocks near the river mouth and a monster Cubera boiled on my popper, we all agreed that it looked like a rusty VW bug as it swam back to it’s home.
Overall I would say that Pesca Panama should be on your must fish list. I love PV and Cabo but this area in Panama is so full of life and there are so few boats fishing it, if you can you really should go. Needless to say that there is plenty of “exciting” nightlife in Panama City. I sampled a little bit of it which resulted in a long, long plane ride back to Alaska….
I will let the photos speak for themselves…
Great report and pics Crackerjack. Looks and sounds like it is everything I have heard and read about. You have gotten me pretty fired up about going after reading your report and seeing the great shots. Did you bring any of your own rods and reels? How was the tackle that they provided? We are beginning to stockpile Bull GT's and Surface Cruisers. Do you have any other recommendations? Any other input that you may have would be greatly appreciated. Congratulations and thanks.
The tackle they provide is really adequate for what you are going to see. The owner Jay said that there is no tackle budget and they want only the best for their customers. I believe he is dedicated to providing the best tackle possible.
We bought tons of tackle – maybe 30 Accurate reels from 197’s to big twin spins. They worked great. I think all the reels were left on the boat for future use.
I would say there is not much use for less than #80 pound line. Except for inshore where #50 braid on mid sized tackle is adequate. For Cuberas you want to hammer down the drag and not give them any line. IF you let them take drag they will get in the rocks and you will lose a ton of gear. The biggest ones will still pull out a buttoned up Accurate drag ( which I am sure is as heavy a drag for the size of reel that you can get)
Poppers are good but I liked fishing big stick baits like the giant X-Raps or some other Japanese 8” baits. River2Sea makes some huge poppers that can make a ton of commotion and were good on the Cuberas. Bottom line is that the fish in that area just can’t resist live bait. I would say going and being prepared for both live and artificials is the best way. Smaller poppers were deadly on the Roosters and small tuna.Most of the fish are released so if you can bring some quality circle hooks and barbless trebles that would be a good idea. Panama City is a great city. I would highly recommend arriving a day early or staying an extra day at the end. The Crew can fill you in on the good places to do in the city.....
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