Tom, Capt. Ron & I just returned from a much-anticipated trip to Panama including 6 days living aboard the “Pesca Panama” barge fishing from 1 of 4 very nice CC’s. The Pesca Panama trip for 3 was the main prize awarded for overall points during the ‘04 Western Outdoor News Saltwater Series. A decision was made to tack on a few days to each end of the trip in Panama City allowing us to take in some culture:

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The Canal was very interesting, got to see a huge tanker squeak through:

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The hotel Veneto they set us up in was brand new & extremely nice including a full casino. People were great everywhere we went including some of the most run down, poor living conditions we had ever seen. Half of the city is very old while the other half (or so) is very modern, reminding Ron of Miami:

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We got around pretty good seeing Noriega’s old fort as well as many abandoned U.S. Bases. Even got some great Cubans at the black market, pretty wild.

Early Sat. morning a group of obvious fisherman began forming in the lobby as we gathered our gear, waiting for the van to take us to the airport for our flight to David. Early on it was clear this was going to be a fun trip as on any live aboard situation the company can make a huge difference. We were the only ones who had not been on the barge before so it was nice talking with these guys, gathering info. By the time we had completed the 1hr. flight & had gathered our gear it seemed like we were all old friends. Once in David several trucks were waiting to take us on the 5 minute drive to the marina on the river:

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The 10 of us loaded onto 4, very nice, fully loaded 27’ Ocean Master CC’s. One of the first things we noticed was the clear deck space & nice gear, Tiagra’s/Trinidads, although all large. We would find out why later. One thing that was a little scary to us was the presence of 2 Very Large spinning outfits carrying huge topwater plugs on every boat. I’ve read about how they use the poppers down here but didn’t realize they use them for everything. If I never see a large spinning outfit again it will be to soon.

We ran down the very large jungle-lined river to join up with the barge:

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where we met Jay the owner who assigned rooms, boats/captains as well as giving us a quick tour. They had breakfast ready, we set up our gear, and then headed out the mouth of the river to numerous islands & high spots off the coast. Jigging was the way to go here although we did have some followers fishing the topwater plugs. We caught several species of Snapper including Ron’s very nice Red:

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along with a few good Cubera:

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Jigging was so wfo were heating up quickly so we asked our very young (3rd week running the boat) Capt. Tatin to head offshore so we could troll & get some moving air. We found some small tuna & had a mystery bite trolling a large live bonito, probably snapper before heading back up the river to the barge in time to catch another killer Panamanian sunset:

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The next day we were to head offshore fishing the next string of Islands as the barge works it’s way out. Due to the full moon along with the summer solstice the tides were at their peak (17+ ft.), which we would soon find out threw things off including the barge’s ability to get out of the river the first day. This affected the schedule a bit, leading to more running time required by the fishing boats. Since we had scheduled our trip around the large tuna that’s what we chased & chased & chased, catching only small ones but seeing the occasional Cow, just enough to keep us interested. We had an opportunity or 2 early in the trip but weren’t aggressive enough getting under the birds. One of the other boats in our group tag-teamed a 170 on the spinning outfit & a Yozuri Surface Bull GT.

The number of islands & small rocks in the area is truly mind boggling as are the currents, rips & tides. The possibilities are endless:

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Mullet Snapper

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Big Yellowtail Snapper

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Blue Crevele

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Rainbow Runner

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Pompano

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Rock Snapper

as the list of species available seemed to be. I wish we had spent more time experiencing more of what the reef’s had to offer. Watching the roosters, jacks, snappers, etc come up under the poppers. They weren’t really committing & it wasn’t until near the end of the trip we tried pitching 6” Big Hammer’s to the followers:

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I couldn’t get enough pulling on those big amberjack & snapper:

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Cutting a 15 lb. tuna in 3rd’s was deadly on the big critters but I left that to Ron & Tom:

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as the jig was so much fun & worked great:

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5 or 6 times throughout the trip I hooked fish on the YoYo that I just couldn’t stop on the 60 & even later 80 lb. Most of my rods now have burn marks in the fore grip from the spectra just an inch or so in front of the reel. Another method for big fish was flylining bridled bonito, skipjack or small yft around the reefs:

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By all accounts fishing seemed to be off for whatever reason accented by the big tuna doing a disappearing act as we showed up. Blue marlin and sailfish were available to those who put in the time; we actually had encounters with one of each while fishing big baits for tuna. The bottom fishing was simply amazing, like nothing I’ve experienced but unfortunately the surface boiler action was fickle as well. Jay runs a top-notch operation, sparing no expense to keep the boats/gear in perfect shape as well as being a top destination for testing new equipment. You fish sunrise to sunset for what ever you want, burning fuel is not a concern as I often find in remote locations. Everyone from top to bottom works to do everything possible to ensure the guests enjoyment.

Not easy settling back into civilization!
Josh