Good Day on Hannibal Bank! - June 29th 2011

Greetings from Isla Paridas! The LaSala family has been with us for a couple of days of fishing, fun, and adventure here in Panama. Before our trip yesterday out to Hannibal Bank the weather was looking a little grey from the porch of the lodge overlooking the Pacific. After passing through a couple of rain storms the clouds cleared, the sea calmed and the hour and a half ride in the T.O.P. Cat to the Bank was nice.


Once we arrived we put the bonito rigs down and trolled a couple of feathers in hope of catching a few to put in the tuna tubes. After a few minutes of passing over the high spots on the Bank it was evident that we were going to have a tough time getting bonitos. They have been pretty scarce the past couple of weeks at the bank so I decided to just go with the blue runners and goggle-eyes we imported from the live well at the lodge.

Not enough wind to fly the kite. So after passing over a massive mark on the Furuno I calculated our drift. My mate Johnny and I put two baits down (one gog, one runner) and two on top to see what happens. And Bam! Not two minutes into the drift the gog on top gets eaten. As Johnny is handing the rod to Mike LaSala.....Boom! The runner on the down get slammed! Mike's Dad John in on! Double Header! After twenty minutes of running the boat in circles, yelling at eachother, and passing rods over and under to avoid entanglement we gaff to nice YFTs.

Three or four more drifts passing over the "parte seca" with the huge red biomass showing on the chart produced Yellowfins, another YFT, Amberjack, and a nice Dog Snapper as well. What a good day! Enjoy the pics....................

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