Fishing Report - Hannibal Bank, Panama - Dec. 12, 2011

Ben and Jeff co-owners of AddictiveAngler.com came out to stay on the island for a couple of nights and fish one day with us. We started out on Sunday, after I picked them up in Boca Chica, making the 12 mile run out to Isla Paridas and catching bait right out in front of the lodge. After a couple of hours both live wells were filled with over 3 dozen blue-runners (green jacks) and the the trash bag was filled with the same number of empty beer cans!

The next morning we made our way out to Hannibal Bank. The seas were pretty rough, on and off rain showers, and it took a little longer to get there than usual. It seems than the rainy season doesn't want to leave. Upon arrival at the "high spot" there was a hell of a mark on the sonar. Tons of bait! We put out the bonitio rigs, picked up 6 nice bonitos right off the bat, and stuck them in the Tuna tubes. I had hoped to tease a Black Marlin with a slow trolled bridled bonito but after having 4 eaten by the porpoises it became evident that I had to try something else. We switched up to try a few drifts. I put two bridled blue-runners down and three on top to see what would take. Right off the bat a top bait gets eaten by a big Sailfish! One spectacular jump and he throws the hook. Gone. Not three minutes later.....Bam! One of the down baits gets hammered! A nice 40# Amberjack! A couple more drifts over the mark produced a couple nice eating size Dorados, a nice 50# Cubera Snapper, and another nice AJ. Then on the last drift of the day Ben drops down a 200 gr. butterfly jig on his little Stella 10K filled with braid and gets tight! Two and a half hours, three angler changes, and about one hundred circles over this what must have been a BIG Tuna and finally pulls the hook. Damn! Not a good way to end it but we had consistent action the whole day.

We took it back to the lodge with the box full of meat. Liz, our chef, cooked it up nice with Dorado fingers and grilled Pargo. Great day out on Hannibal Bank!