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I am back from my very own motherland Panama, and I have to say, my trip was nothing short of being an absolute blast! One thing is for sure I didn't miss the cold weather that occurred on the Gulf Coast while I was gone. The dry season weather in Panama was 90 degrees or hotter every day with very little rain. I fished every chance I had while I was there. What meant the most to me while I was there was having the opportunity to fish with my childhood friend that I grew up with in the Canal Zone that still resides in Panama.
Immediately after arriving by plane on Wednesday, January 19th I was en route to the Province of Veraguas for some fishing on the Wandungo. The Wandungo is a 25ft custom Panga Boat that my friend Al had built and is what I used to fish around Cebaco Island and south to the end of the Azuero Peninsula. We jigged up five nice 30-30lb Yellow Covina in 90ft of water using lead jigs; these corvine basically look like a giant white trout with a lot more attitude. After catching the Corvine we went on to load the Baitwell with Blue Runners and dropped them down on multiple high spots with little luck. The following day we headed to the south end of the Azuero Penisula and as soon as we arrived we came upon a school of Jack Crevalle in the 15lb range being harassed and eaten by a 300lb Black Marlin. What a sight that was to see! We trolled the area and caught everything form Wahoo to Yellowfin Tuna. No real giant fish, but there was no shortage of action. We spent the rest of the day loading the boat up with Tuna and Wahoo and headed in eating fresh Tuna Sashimi, drinking cold Panama beer and filleting our catch.
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My next trip was set to fish the Perlas Islands, which is located south of the Panama Canal on the pacific side of Panama. We packed my friends 26ft Panga for three days of fishing the Perlas Islands. We headed out and filled the livewell with plenty of Blue Runners and made our way down to the southern tip of San Jose Island at the end of the Perlas Island chain. Most of the day was spent running, but we fished that last few hours of daylight trolling two blue runners down and one flat line out the back. It didn't take long for the Amberjacks to find our baits and were averaging an AJ every other pass. Most were in the 30-50lb range, but we had to keep the drags locked down so they couldn't get around the rocks in the 50ft of water we were fishing. The following morning we ran 18 miles to the south end of Isla Del Rey Island to a spot my buddies call “Gang Busters”. We deployed our two baits down and one flat line out that back and we had a triple knockdown on the first pass. We ended up with two nice AJ's and about a 40lb Dogtooth Snapper on the first pass. We kept at it and put another eight Amberjack in the boat and headed off to Isla Galera and popped up some nice Snappers on the clean white beaches of Galera. That evening we deployed the Hydro Glow light in 30ft of water at the Anchorage and loaded up with spot Snappers which don't grow over 7lbs, but are tastier than lane Snapper to eat. The following morning we ran a good ways up to the north end of the chain of islands to Isla Pacheca and fished for Broomtail Grouper. My friend Mike hooked up with a nice 40lb Broomy on the first drop and brought it boat side. They basically look like a Scamp Grouper on steroids if you haven't seen a photo of one before. We had three more hookups with larger Broomtail, but couldn't stop them on the initial runs. These larger Grouper were not going to give use a chance to get them turned that's for sure. There's nothing like getting taken to the rail and not winning the bout. We hit some shallow spots after the Broomies quit biting and we caught some nice Rockhind Grouper, which look like a smaller version of a Goliath Grouper with spots and stripes and are killer table fair to end our three day adventure.
I finished up my Panama trip doing some Peacock Bass fishing in Lake Gatun. The lake was dirty from all the bad rains they had this past rainy season and from the dredging and expansion of the canal. This was going to make fishing difficult not being able to see into the water and the multiple stumps in the lake, but we managed to catch around 75 peacock Bass. We kept 35 for dinner and let the rest go, by the way they make great table fare if you haven't already tried them. With the water being dirty, most of the colors were a bleached out on the Bass and they were a little emaciated due to the dirty conditions of the lake over the last few months. Even though it wasn't perfect conditions to fish the lake we had a great time and caught some nice fish, largest being around 5lbs.
I can't tell you enough how much fun Panama is to fish and explore the wealth of life the country has to offer. If you are looking for a new place to fish, Panama should be on your list. I have spent a lot of time in Panama, growing up there fishing for fun and also working for different charter outfits down there over the last 10 years. Fishing in Panama is full of surprises since there are multiple species that an angler can encounter at any point of their trip. |
