Black Marlin, Hannibal Bank - November 10,2011

After listening to all the reports of Marlin being caught out on Hannibal Bank last week I finally got out there to see for myself what all the talk was about. First time customer, but no stranger to Panama fishing, Andrea Gonella and I got out to the Bank about 45 minutes before the tide change around 9 AM.
It took a little longer to get out to the Bank due to the seas being a good 2-4 feet. But the water clarity was good and there was quite a bit a bait around. We quickly put 4 nice bonitos in the tubes and began to troll a couple of them with 2 live Blue Runners out in the spread. Not ten minutes later the short bonito gets eaten! Andrea gets to the rod, opens the reel, and lets the fish eat for for seemed an eternity. He flips the lever to strike and winds down hard. A nice Black Marlin about 300# breaches the surface and makes two or three more acrobatic jumps. My mate and I bring in the other baits while the Andrea manages the Marlin that is peeling 80# mono off the 5/0 Tiagra. I begin to back down. Ten minutes later, and a few more sweet jumps, Andrea has the fish to the boat and Jorge has got the leader.
The seas continued to get rougher as the day went on and the wind started to blow. We slow trolled the liveys for a while longer around the bank. The bait was in thick but couldn't get any more takers. We proceed to set a few drifts over the high spot where I was getting a strong mark on the sonar in hopes of a Tuna or AJ. A couple of baits down, one drifting on top, and one bait up on the kite for for drifts and only managed to get a couple of strikes from small fish. It had turned off.
We decided to make a move to Isla Montuosa.The weather continued to worsen and rose to a good 6 feet. We noticed a mark of birds on the radar and went to check it out. We found a floating piece of plywood. Andrea pitches a blue runner to a big bull dorado, who enhales it, and he's tight! A few minutes later the fish is boatside, a 30#er easily, jumps and he throws the hook right before my mate can get to him with the gaff. Damn!
After that we make it to Montuosa get a few more bonitos but the weather gets too sloppy and we head back to the lodge. Even though we didn't do too well in the afternoon it paid of getting to the Bank early to get the early bite!

Black Marlin Video from Hannibal Bank and decent inshore action from last week!

Anglers Jason Laskey and Andrew Lewis from south Florida fished with me last week for three days here out at Propiedad de Paradise Lodge, Isla Paridas. We had planned for three days of venturing out around Hannibal Bank and Isla Montuosa in search of the YFTs that have been hanging tough around that area for the past few months. Jose (my mate) and I spent a day catching bait before the guys arrival and managed to fill the livewell moored out in front of lodge with 4 dozen blue-runners. Shortly after the clients arrival one of the outboards starts acting up! Two trips back to Boca Chica to meet the mechanic to figure it out and we still can't get the motor stop it's intermitent sputtering. With our other boat down and awaiting new motors on order I had no choice but to fish the crippled T.O.P. Cat inshore. I couldn't risk running the 40+ miles to the bank with that issue.




We took it easy and fished near the lodge here at Isla Paridas archipelago the first day and went 2 for 4 on Roosters and caught a few Horse-eye Jacks. On the way back to the lodge we stopped at an anchored shrimp boat and traded a 12 pack of Panama beer and 5 cigarettes for about 20 lbs of shrimp! Not a bad deal. The second day we putted out to Isla Ladrones. Upon arrival at “Bajo Ocho” (an under water sea mount just south of the island) we come up on a Black Marlin going nuts and thrashing/feeding topwater on a huge school of Rainbow Runners! We toss a live blue-runner to him but he won’t eat. He’s too fixated on the Rainbows. We try and catch a Rainbow, to no avail, and also have a problem getting Bonitos. Me move on to “La Finckita” another small mount near Ladrones and find a great mark on the sounder and drop our baits. Bam! 50# Amberjack on a live runner. Next drift we catch another on a Jig. We end up getting a few more average AJ’s after a couple of more drifts and not a bad day after all. On the way in we see a free jumping Humpback Whale and 5 or 6 more before we get back to the lodge. The whales are here in full force now.







The last day, due to my engine issue, I arranged with a friend of mine Capt. Lou to take us out to Hannibal Bank. Lou’s got a pretty nice 37’ Strike w/twin diesels and a tuna tower so we went out to Hannibal in style. An hour and a half later we arrive and don’t have any problem catching Bonitos. We fill all four tuna tubes up within 15 minutes. Jose and I bridle up two bonitos and run them out on the flat lines. One short and one long. After slow trolling our baits for a few minutes we see some small YFT’s busting the surface and decide to run a couple bridled Blue-runners out on the riggers to see if we can pick one up. Expecting a big YFT or Marlin, we only had wind-ons on the 5/0 setups with 80# mono that we were fishing with bonitos. We had the blue runners out on 3/0 setups with 50# mono and no wind-ons! As I’m letting out my runner on the port rigger it gets eaten. I let him eat, eat, eat, eat and then flip the lever drag to strike on the small 3/0 Tiagra. The line goes tight and pops down off the outrigger clip. I wind hard and gently raise the rod tip to let the 10/0 circle hook do it’s job. As I come tight on him we realize it’s not a tuna but a big Black Marlin! He just had to eat the one set-up without a wind on. I hand the rod to Jason and the fight is on! A couple of dozen spectacular jumps and an hour and fifteen minutes later he makes his last jump and lands on/cuts the line. If we would have had a rig with a wind-on we technically would have had a catch because we had him within 15 feet of the transom on a number of occasions. Anyway it’s always a great thing to see, it was Jason’s first fight with a Black Marlin, and I got some good footage. After that we got a couple small YFTs then decided to move to Isla Montuosa. Once at Montuosa we set up and drifted our liveys directly over a couple of high-spots on the reef. A nice Blue Trevalle, Mullet Snapper, and decent size Cubera wound up the day and we headed back to the lodge. Thanks to Jason and Andrew for being such good sports even with the engine issue. And special thanks to Lou for getting us out there on the last day of the guy’s trip and putting us on the fish.



Link to Video of Jason fighting Black Marlin....................

Recent Guest's Report from PDP!

Jay Warner recently posted this to Bloodydeck's forum...............

"Alright folks, we just got settled back here in the States after our summer adventure in Panama. Thanks to BD for having such an information packed fishing forum. I have been able to have succesfull trips all over the world thanks to the captains and reports posted on here.

After contacting PSFL, Chad and Pesca who all gave me great information we chose to fish with Shane Jarvis/fishpanamatoday.com, and stay at his Island lodge Propiedad de Paradise. Our first trip out with Shane was a day charter leaving from his home port of Pedegral. We managed to make bait quickly and headed to Hannibal Bank for the day where we put the screws to a few YFT up to 80 lbs. Man if the average down there is what we were catching, I can't imagine what the season must be like. I hear it is off the the charts during April and May. After a long day on the water we headed to the Casa and came back the next day to Pedegral to pick some fresh Tuna that Steve had clean and waiting on us. These guys provide first class service.

Our next trip out with Shane was to his Island Lodge for 5 days. We were picked up at Boca Chica where we took a quick 20 minute ride out to the island. Once we arrived it was like being a King for the next few days. They took us to shore, showed us our rooms and told us to relax that they had it covered. As expected we were all a little apprehensive about staying on an Island in the middle of no where but I'm here to tell you this place was incredible. Shane has it all figured out, our villa had 4 bunks and a master suit, a unique outdoor shower with all the hot water you could wish for, a nice Sony flat screen, a Wii for the kids and an A/C that will literally freeze you to death if you set it to low and forget about it. By the time we had finished our inspection our luggage was delivered to us and supper was being prepared. Seeing as how the lodge is Ocean front at low tide it became a play ground for the kids, they can walk a quarter mile out on the rock sea bed and discover all sorts of creatures hiding in the pools of water. There imagination's were running wild. In the mean time Chef Steve prepared supper, fixed our plates for us and served us in style. We turned in early so we could be well rested for a day of fish slaying the next morning.

The next day we headed to Isla Montousa where we worked hard for a Black Marlin but couldn't get any love from them. So we switched over to shallower water and picked a nice fat Cubera and my wifes all time best YFT. Headed back to the hill where we ate Cubera for supper that night and rested well. We took the next day off and enjoyed the serenity of the Island. Next day out we tried to raise a Marlin again at Montousa with no luck. Flew the kite for a while and picked up a mixed bag of creatures doing that. The highlight of the day for my Wife and kids was a school of porpoise who hung around the front of the boat for about and hour, jumping and splashing them as they tried to feed them bread to keep them around. They also were talking Dolphin to them which I'm sure kept them near the boat, the Dolphin language almost caused the guys to join the porpoise in the water. Back to the lodge for an unreal supper of fresh YFT and macaroni/cheese to die for.

Shane and his crew have got it figured out. The lodge is the closest to all the popular fishing grounds like Hannibal and Montousa. There World Cat 33 makes for a quick comfy ride out and when you are tired from a long day on the water it is nice to only have an hour run to get home. These guys can outlast the most seasoned fishermen and are capable of backing it down a few notches to make it enjoyable for a family like us. So I would highly recommend Shane and his lodge Propiedad de Paradise.

I'll get more pictures up later. For some reason I am picture upload illiterate."

View ther original post on Bloodydeck's forum at http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/costa-rica-panama/341493-you-need-fish-panama-today.html.

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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