Hannibal Bank showed us all.

[kilsong]

8 fishermen from different places of the world made a journey to Panama from April 18.
Jin and Kim flew from Korea, Bret from Texas, Peter and Raza from NY, David and his wife Catherine from NC, and Don and myself from NJ.
Two fishermen from NJ couldn’t make the trip as they were denied at the check-in counter due to VISA problems.

Bret, David, Peter and Raza were assigned to fish with Capt Macho and the rest of us fished with Capt Sergio.

Our boat encountered slow fishing for the first 2 ½ days.
On the first day, we went to Montuosa and trolled in the morning for nothing. We tried to jig for while and I hooked up a marlin while reeling a small fish caught on my flat hammered diamond jig and fought for a while with a tiny 2/0 size Jigging Master reel before the marlin spit the hook. I saw the leader line two ft above the jig got frayed by the bill. By noon, we saw birds and dolphins were working nearby and we ran to them.
Indeed, tuna were among them, but we couldn’t get any hit from our big poppers though we saw other boats landed them on poppers and baits. Sergio kept saying we should use baits for them, but I opted to use jigs and poppers as the primary purpose of the trip is jigging and popping. Indeed, Macho’s group landed 7 – 8 small tuna with baits.

On the second day, I opted to fish Hannival Bank as Macho landed a 450 lbs black marlin on Hannival Bank yesterday and Montuosa didn’t look promising.
However the problem was we had to go to Montuosa to get baits as it was very hard to get baits in Hannival Bank,
We arrived at Hannival Bank around 11:00 am after getting baits in Montuosa.
Fishing was very slow, but I felt it was just a matter of time when marlin/tuna started to resume bites as there were tons of baits.
We had a couple of run-off and that was it for the day.

On the third day, we decided to fish inshore for popping in the morning before heading for Hannival Bank in the afternoon. While Macho’s group had a decent inshore popping, we encountered slow popping. After getting some nice skipjack, we headed for Hannival Bank. As soon as we got there, we were optimistic as Macho’s group landed a nice 140 lbs yellowfin. However slow fishing continued until we saw some surface action of tuna.
We ran to them and I immediately hooked up a small yft on 3 0z Robert Ranger lure.
After I lost the lure while fighting a few tuna with it, I switched to Shibuki lure and caught two immediately. Dan landed a decent yft with Tady surface iron. It was his first ever yft on a casting lure. I also landed a small yft with a hammered diamond jig by casting. Jin continuously cast a big popper for nothing.

Fourth day. It was a big day for us. When Sergio asked where I wanted to fish, I said “Hannival Bank !” I smelled fish at Hannival Bank.

Though we didn’t get any hit for a while trolling live baits on Hannival Bank, we were optimistic as a couple of boats landed marlin already.
By 11:00 AM, finally we hooked up a nice marlin. Jin fought the fish, but the leader line was cut by the bill of the marlin when the marlin jumped out of water. Still marlin eluded us. After catching smaller tuna on slow trolling with live bait, we had a nice run. I thought it was a big marlin, but I suspected it could be a big tuna as the fish went deep. Jin and myself fought the fish over an hour with full drag ( 35 lbs), but the fish refused to come up.
I landed a 283 lbs cow within 45 minutes when I fished with Capt Manny out of PV a few years ago, but this fish fought harder. I thought this cow could be close to 300 lbs.
I was a little bit disappointed to see the fish was about 220 – 240 lbs when the tuna came up to the surface. When the mate pulled the leader for gaffing, the hook got loose and the big tuna swim away slowly only a few feet away from gaffing range.
There was a silence on the boat for a while as nobody wanted to talk. Sergio quietly rerigged and started trolling. Within 15 minutes we had another hit. It was a marlin !
Jin fought the marlin all the way. The marline jumped many time to entertain us. We finally got the leader and released it. I was so happy that Jin got his wish and caught his first marlin ever.

Final day. I didn’t hesitate to go back again to Hannival Bank. On the way to Montuosa, we encountered tuna surface action and I hooked up a small tuna on Range lure immediately. It was uneventful for a while on Hannival Bank until we hooked up a nice fish on trolled live bait by 11:00 AM. Dan fought the fish as he missed action yesterday because he had conference call for work yesterday. We knew immediately we had a tuna, but I thought it was about 100 – 150 lbs range as it didn’t take much line initially. However the fish got bigger and bigger as fight continued. Dan was sweating and was in pain. I offered Jin would fight for him, but he was determined to land the fish himself.
After a long fight, the cow came up to the surface and we didn’t lose this time. It was a little smaller than yesterday’s, but I thought it could make a 200 lbs mark.
At the dock, the fish weighed at 202 lbs after spend 6 hours on the boat without much ice.
After celebrating the catch, we trolled again, but we couldn’t get any more bites though Macho landed two marlin. While trolling, all water around our boat erupted by hundreds of football size yellowfin tuna apparently chased by marlin.
We picked up popping rods immediately. I had an instant hit on my Ranger lure, but I dropped it while fighting. Jin switched to Ranger lure after fruitless effort with big poppers. It didn’t take long when Jin had a nice tuna on the Ranger while I had one at the same time. Mine got away, but Jin could manage to land the tuna which turned out to be a 100 lbs yft ! It was his first ever tuna on a popper. After his catch, we ran to the lodge.
There is no better way to end the trip like this. We all knew we had extra-ordinary trip and everybody wanted to come back..
Thanks for John and crew of Panama Sportfishing Lodge to make us to enjoy our trip and fulfill our .dream.

Pictures and other discussions will follow.

[shoefish]

It sounds like a fun trip Kil- those Ranger's sure do produce in central America! Looking forward to the pictures.

[kilsong]

[kilsong]

All jigs worked, but no jig outfished simple, cheap hammered diamond jigs.

[kilsong]

We spent limited amount of time for inshore popping as we concentrated on offshore fishing.

[kilsong]

Popping tuna was our main menu of the trip and we were not disappointed. Though we didn't land a big tuna on poppers on this trip, it was so fun to chase tuna on surface lures.
Roberts Ranger lures were the star of all lures on this trip.























double hookups







Jin is a happy man.

[Wireman]

Very cool report. Nice job

[Anders]

Great job with all the pictures, there is something to be said about going cheap with the diamond jigs, in the end, they are still just fish

[lilharcher]

Nice work Kil.....glad to see those Tuna that we hammered were still near the bank. Tuna between 175 - 275lbs are usually the meanest.....bigger ones are typically older and usually don't fight as hard.......BUT, all fight differently (some hard and some not), that's for sure.....

[kilsong]

I don't really enjoy any kind of trolling unless I do it myself.
However, I admit slow trolling with live skipjack is deadly for big tuna and marlin. Originally I planned to drift instead of troll for the whole trip, but I had to revise my plan to allow trolling as other fishermen had to have chances to enjoy fighting big tuna and marlin, especially when we had very slow fishing initially.







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