My mission is accomplished in Panama

[kilsong]

GREAT report & pics! Looking forward to the name of the lodge. May have to arrange a trip myself.

(and that was one hell of a sail... )

Panama Sportfishing Lodge.

I go with 8 fishermen in April. We fish 5 full day and stay 6 night at the lodge. It cost under $3000 per person based on four on a boat which includes meals, drinks, transportations from Panama to the lodge, tips and roundrip airfare from/to Panama ( roundtrip is about $350 if you book early).

How can you beat it ? I got to take advantage of it before they raise prices.

[kilsong]

Here is a picture of Shimano Tiagra 50W and Accurate B2 30.
Tiagra has 600 yards of 80 lbs momoi diamond and B2 30 has 660 yards of Japanese Varivas Tuna Avani PE8 ( 80 lbs).
I fought sailfish with both reels. Frankly speaking, I enjoyed more with B2 30 and I never felt the setup was undergunned.
Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to fight a marlin with B2 30, but I have no doubt it can handle as good as Tiagra does.
The 500g JM rod and B2 30 are going to be my goto setup for cow until it fails.

[kilsong]

As Airlines restict weight, size and number of check-in bags, we are forced to minimize the tackles to bring.

trolling

You don't need to bring anything for trolling as boats are equipped with proper rods/reels and terminal tackles. It is strictly live bait trolling. Making bais are not difficult as there are abundant skipjack with various sizes. They prefer big skipjack in 3 - 5 lbs range for marlin and 1 - 2 lbs skipjack for tuna.

jigging

I preferred long rods for bottomfish jigging, but I have to use short Japanese style rods for jigging bottomfish too due to airline regulations. OTI has 7'6" conventional jigging rods with two-piece. If you still prefer to jig with long rods, that is a good choice.

When I jigged snowy grouper, I used 350g JM rod. I started with 450g jig as we fished 400 - 450 ft deep, but I switched to 10 oz jigs later as I found I could hold bottom with lighter jigs. I like to bring many cheap jigs like diamond jigs in 4 - 10 oz range and a few big jigs in 400 - 450 g for bottom fishing.

For tuna, I recommend 400g - 500g rods as you never know what sizes of tuna you catch next. There are lots of small tuna, but also you have chance to encounter 200 plus lbs tuna too.
I pefer short jigs for tuna in 6 - 8 inches. I have no doubt those short jigs should work in Panama as they work in other places as tuna are tuna.


popping

There are two kinds of popping opportunity: Offshore poping for tuna and inshore popping for roosterfish/cubera/snapper

-tuna popping
I talked with Macho who is regarded as the best Capt in the area and my impression is the casting distance is not a major concern as boats can chase tuna and tuna are everywhere when they feed on surface.
I feel 7'6" - 8' rod rated to 80 lbs should work for them.
I like to use PE8 (80 lbs) to give more pressure once hooked a big tuna.

I prefer to use big poppers for tuna as tuna there are very aggressive and are eager to hit any popper thrown to them. There is nothing like to see a big pooper attacked by big tuna on a surface.

-inshore popping
I prefer to use longer and lighter tip rods for inshore popping as
you got to reach close to shore line and sometimes you use ligher lures.
I used Accurate Twin Spin SR20 and OTI's custom 8'6" rods ( actually it is 8'3" as I broke the tip section) with PE5 (50 lbs) and I could cast 100 yards.

My recommendation is to use 8 - 9 ft rod rated to 40 - 50 lbs with ligher reels like Accurate SR20, Stella 8000 filled with 50 lbs braided lines.

The choice of lures are vary. They can hit big poppper as well as they hit very small lures.

[backman]

I fished Coral Star about 2 years ago. If I ever do Panama again I would bring 2 rods; a 7' 20-50# popping rod and a shorter jig rod/ Trevala style.

the equipment on that boat was heavily geared to live baiting, not even trolling and the casting/popping stuff was terrible.

[kilsong]

I fished Coral Star about 2 years ago. If I ever do Panama again I would bring 2 rods; a 7' 20-50# popping rod and a shorter jig rod/ Trevala style.

the equipment on that boat was heavily geared to live baiting, not even trolling and the casting/popping stuff was terrible.

I know many fishermen in Cape Cod use light jigging and popping rods for bluefin, but you know the difference immediately to use proper jigging/popping rods and Trevala rods alternatively. That is one of my objective at jigging seminars of Canyon Runners to show them the difference.

The Panama Sportfishing lodges has some popping rods, Trevala jiggind rods, Torsa and Stella 20000. They told me several Trevala rods were broken already.
I made some suggestions to them.

[kilsong]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was asked whether they allow to carry on two-piece rod on the plane.
I carried on OTI's 7'6" two-piece conventional and popping rods to Florida, Texas (three times), Costa Rica and Panama without any problem as long as they fit in the compartments of planes.

From the TSA's website:
"Expensive reels or fragile tackle such as fly's should be packed in your carry-on baggage."

"Fishing Rods / Poles - Fishing Rods are permitted as carry-on and checked baggage. However, please check with your air carrier to confirm that it fits within their size limitations for carry-on items. Ultimately, it is the carrier's decision as to whether or not it can be transported as carry-on baggage."

[milchner]

That´s more than a report. That´s real fishing know how. Many thanks for sharing with us.
Uwe

[Ace1st]

Great report......Thanks!!