The rainy season has been living up to it's name here on the Pacific side of Panama as we have seen quite a few days of inclement weather the past couple of months. We only fished four days out of the past two months and the action for us was pretty good! This is normally the slowest part of the fishing season and we usually spend this time of year taking care of maintenance and upgrades to the boats and the island lodge. It's not so bad not fishing everyday as we also get more time to focus on upgrading and improving the systems on the boats and dialing in all of the tackle and gear, as well as the lodge, for the upcoming season.
Craig, Bill, Chris/Megan McFarlain, and Ed/Judy Savoy all joined us for one day charter in September. I picked up the guys in the morning in Boca Chica and we made a slightly wet, but relatively smooth, 55 mile run to Hannibal Bank in the TOP Cat. An hour and 45 minutes later we arrived at the high spot, where most of the action normally is, to find a massive amount of bait hanging out with a great mark on the sounder! We quickly picked up six Bonitos and filled the tubes of the new "Tunaform" tank that Steve and I installed the week prior. We bridled a couple of Bonitos and a couple of Blue Runners for the slow troll around the activity to see if we could raise a Marlin or a Yellowfin Tuna. The one opportunity we did get at a Marlin was foiled when the leader from the Blue Runner he ate got wrapped on his bill and cut the leader! After a few minutes with a fantastic series of leaps...some right in the direction of the boat...and some real excitement at the thought of wiring the fish...his rough bill wore down and snapped the 130# flourcarbon leader! Bummer! I thought I might be able to locate a Tuna around all the activity but nothing. We wound up with a few nice Amberjacks and a nice Bull Dorado and were eventually ran off the bank as a big thunderstorm approached. On the way back to Boca Chica we found blue skies around Isla Paridas and decided to give it a shot before heading in. Five minutes into the troll, and right next to the lodge, Bill catches real nice Roosterfish on a live Blue Runner! After the release...we head back to Boca Chica. What a way to end the day!
Mid-October we spent four nights and fished three days with some great guys from Texas out on the island. I was expecting big things fish wise for father and son team Chad and Mike Elikns. I knew that there were Marlin around at Isla Montuosa and Hannibal Bank. I had heard from other captians of Marlin seen and really wanted to put the guys on one. The first day when the guys arrived we spent a couple of hours and caught 4 dozen Blue Runners (or Green Jacks) around the island for the bait pen. The following three days in a row we made the 42 mile run directly to Hannibal Bank from the lodge here on Isla Paridas. And, three days in a row we didn't see one Marlin or Tuna! There was some great activity of bait and we caught many nice Amberjacks each day but I personally was disappointed with the offshore action. The second day we had some unusually nice weather...the seas were flat calm with blue skies for the run to the bank. We sighted a tailing Sailfish working some bait with a pod of Porpoises on the way and unfortunately couldn't get him to eat. We stayed with him for 15 minutes casting live baits in his face to no avail! Pretty cool to see and we got some cool photos. All and all the trip wasn't so bad as we had mostly good weather, had some good action each day with AJs at Hannibal Bank, caught some good eating Dorado, Chad and Mike got to see Porpoises, Whales, and some spend some quality together time with us here at Propiedad de Paradise Lodge on Isla Paridas!
Capt. Shane Jarvis
