My personal fishing time has been very limited so far this year. Working as the head guide at Panama Kayak Adventure Fishing Lodge means that I have been helping other people catch the fish of their dreams full-time since December. Sadly, this season has recently been cut short by the corona virus travel restrictions and with a 24/7 lockdown in force here in Panama it doesnt look like I'll be getting out anytime soon. If you're interested in seeing the crazy fishing we have down at the lodge then take a look at our catch reports from the season so far here: CATCH REPORTS & PHOTOS
However, there have been odd moments in the last few months where I've been able to wet a line and have enjoyed some good success. While I'm at work, I spend a lot of my time trying to jig up live bait for our guests to use from their kayaks at the lodge. This in itself is lots of fun and at the same time we often get a bit of by-catch. Usually its small snappers or sierra mackerel, but every now and then we get some really special reef fish. One of the best I've encountered this year was a huge blue trigger fish, a real cracker! I was very pleased with this fish as it's nice new species to tick off the list.
On another occasion, as I was offshore watching our kayak anglers from the safety boat I saw a group of 3 large Roosterfish swimming along on the surface. I grabbed the nearest rod to me,which had a whole dead bonito mounted on a circle hook and cast it ahead of the group. I twitched it a couple of times and then let it sink. The leader of the pack raced forwards, grabbed the bait and swam off. It was incredible to watch. A fantastic fight ensued and the other 2 fish followed their buddy right to the boat as well. It was easily the biggest Rooster I've had the pleasure to catch for a good while. They are such incredible fish.
Then there was the hottest top-water bite I've ever seen! We arrived with our guests on a prolific reef we like to fish and got everyone sorted in their kayaks. The first guy on the water nailed a big Jack Crevalle immediately and the action never stopped from there on in. For the next 2 hours our guests caught fish after fish, non stop. The action was thick and fast. There was a vast shoal of fish present and we found Mahi Mahi, Blue Trevally, Jack Crevalles, Mullet Snapper and Yellowfin Tuna all hunting together as a voracious pack. They were destroying the poppers, smash after smash. What a sight!
I'd never caught a Mullet Snapper before, it's been on my bucket-list for a long time and this day there were many of them hunting on the surface. It was amazing to watch the huge red torpedos scooting around chasing bait and our lures. I made a few casts and was very lucky to hook a really big one. They are such beautiful fish.
While we're on the subject of Snappers; there is one other variety we find in our waters that had eluded me for some time. The Silk Snapper. They are fonder of deeper water and can be plentiful at certain times of the year. Where the lodge is we dont venture too deep as we dont really need to and it becomes impractical with guests in kayaks. However, in Pedasi I have a buddy with a nice boat and he offered me the chance to go out and try deep dropping jigs with him for them. We often try to squeeze in the odd sessions when I'm home from the lodge between groups of guests.
We did our homework with the charts and noted a couple of spots in sufficiently deep water to check out. Turns out we did our homework well because when we arrived on our marks the fishfinder was showing large pinnacles coming up from the bottom stacked with fish. We hit it just right and enjoyed some excellent jigging action with pink amberjack, yellowtail snappers, colorado snappers and the one I'd been looking for.....the Silk Snapper.
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| My Silk Snapper |
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| JC with his Colorado Snapper |
On another occasion out with Jean-Christoph I got the scrap of my life; one I wont be forgetting in a hurry. It was early one morning on a rare February day where the trade wind had eased and we were out on a shallow inshore reef in about 70 feet of water. JC and his friend were fishing 100g slow-jigs, working them down near the bottom while I was speed-jigging a small 40g knife jig trying to catch a live bait to use. Something massive took my tiny jig and my rod bent double. It's only light tackle with 30lb braid and a 20lb fluorocarbon leader, so I had to take it real easy. The boat started to turn as the fish took off and then was slowly being towed along. I did not want to lose this one as it was clearly a proper clonker!
Little by little I managed to gain on it, somehow keeping it's head out of the reef. Once I'd got the fish 20 feet up off the bottom I knew I was going to be ok and it was just a matter of time. The fish made many spirited dives with some crazy head shakes and we were all trying to guess what it was. Only when we got a first glimpse of it down through the clear water was there any confirmation though. A nice big Almaco Jack and the first I've had for a very long time. I love these fish, they pull your arms from their sockets and to catch this brute on light tackle was all the more thrilling. It was a good mornings fishing!
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