By Joe Wolf, Lebanon County Native“Great, you didn’t leave yet.”
“Sir, do have any checked bags?”
“Yes, one.”
“I’m sorry. You won’t be able to get on this flight. There’s not enough time to get your luggage onboard and, since this is an International flight, FAA requires that you travel with your luggage.”
Thus began my journey to Panama in March 2008.
What Lies Beneath!!
I’ve been on a pretty good roll this past year as far as exotic fishing trips go. You may recall reading the Athabasca pike article, or Bahamas bonefish article, on this website. Well, I had one more big trip scheduled - 4 days of SW big game fishing at Tropic Star Lodge in Panama. This would be the biggest of SW big game – one of the premier destinations in the world for marlin, tuna, sailfish, roosterfish, and more. And, I am a complete novice at this type of fishing, so expectations and possibilities were boundless. The good part about being a novice is, no matter what happens, it’s new and exciting!! I would be fishing with one of our reps – Steve – as well as 2 customers from Nebraska – Tony and Chuck. Tony is an avid SW fisherman, but had been snakebit when it came to marlin. He’s fished Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, and Costa Rica, caught numerous sailfish, tuna, mahi, and other species, but had never landed a marlin. He was focused on the marlin. Chuck had never fished outside the U.S. and just loves to fish. Steve has fished Mexico, as well as extensive U.S. fishing, and didn’t really care what he caught – he was just happy to be going. While everything intrigued me, one fish has always held my imagination, even though I doubted I would ever get to fish for one – the roosterfish. Members of the jack family, these fish are very powerful fighters, sporting a distinctive dorsal fin that reminds one of a rooster’s comb, giving the fish their name.
The bad part about a trip like this is the extensive travel time. I left on a Friday morning in late March, flew from Chicago O’Hare to Miami, connecting to Panama City, Panama. At least that was how it was supposed to work. My initial flight out of O’Hare was delayed 1-1/2 hours due to mechanical problems. That put us into Miami just in time to have the conversation that started off this story. The next flight to Panama City was in 8 hours. There is NOTHING good to say about an 8 hour layover in Miami, so I won’t bore you with details. I finally arrived in Panama City at the Marriott at about 10 PM. Everyone else arrived without incident from Denver, so, after a drink at the bar, we retired. 6 AM found us, along with the other Tropic Star fishermen that week, waiting for a shuttle to the Domestic airport for the short flight to Pinas Bay, home of Tropic Star Lodge.
I really need to take a moment to sing the praises of the Tropic Star operation at this point. When you de-plane in Panama, you will be met by a T.S. representative. They will take you through a special line in Customs, and take you to a private lounge. Sit back, have a beer, and soon, one of the representatives will show up with your luggage! It is the most seamless, pleasant experience I have ever had in a foreign country. Remember – my flight was delayed 8 hours, but they were still there waiting when I got off the plane. Absolutely terrific service!
Pinas Bay “Airport”
An old landing strip on the edge of the jungle is Pinas. The village of Pinas is home to the local Indians. A short panga ride takes you around the point of the river mouth and onto the dock at Tropic Star. The lodge complex sits in a tropical rain forest that is stunningly beautiful. The feature that sticks most in my mind is the fact that these are steep mountains rising straight out of the ocean – sandy beaches are few and far between here. The scenic beauty reminded me of the scenes from the helicopter flying onto the island in the movie Jurassic Park. (Actually, some scenes from Jurassic Park were filmed in Costa Rica and Dominican Republic, so my impression probably wasn’t far off)
Tropic Star Lodge, as seen from the water
There’s really no way to describe Tropic Star other than to say it is a First Class resort in all aspects. The food is terrific, the staff polite to a fault, accommodations great. The Robb Report once called Tropic Star “the best saltwater fishing resort in the world.” That’s a pretty tall statement, but I won’t refute it based on my stay. If you want more information, they have a very comprehensive website www.tropicstar.com. Be sure to watch the streaming videos – AWESOME!
What a resort cannot do is make fish bite. Even though Pinas Bay has produced over 250 World Record catches, fishing is still fishing. Sometimes it’s better than others. The best you can do is put yourself in a position to succeed, and hope the fish gods smile down on you. The waters around Tropic Star abound in fish – now it was time to see if the gods would smile on us.
We were fishing for 4 days. Each day starts off with a very nice breakfast in the dining room, and you are on the boats by 6:45 AM. The first order of business is to catch bait. This was my first wake-up call. The boats – 31’ Bertram sportfishers -run to the bait schools, sometimes 7-8 miles away. We fished 2 anglers to a boat. The bait schools ranged from a few fish breaking water to a 2 acre boiling mass of fish and birds. The job is to catch 3-6 pound bonito or skipjack tuna for bait. We brought MH saltwater spinning rods along on the trip to throw poppers while fishing inshore. These were loaded with 30 pound braid, and a 25 # fluorocarbon leader. We put small tinsel flies on these rigs to imitate the small baitfish and helped catch bait. The crew uses outsize tackle to winch in the bait – they want the tuna tubes filled up fast. We would hook 1 bonito each, take 20 minutes to fight it in, and be on our way. These bonito are incredible fighters for their size – they are small tuna, after all. We were happy and tired already, and we were just fishing for BAIT! Remember – it’s all about meeting your expectations. We just wanted to have fun, and we succeeded. I fished with Tony the first day, and we went about 8 miles offshore and began trolling for whatever we could find. The Captain on my boat – the Miss South Africa – was Capt. Gilberto “Pucuro” Secada. He and the mates did an outstanding job all wek – I believe we were the boat with the highest catch total for the week. The gear used at Tropic Star, as you might expect, is first rate. Shimano Tiagra 50 W for marlin; 20# rigs for sails and mahi. Rods are custom Cape Fear offshore rods.
Another Dawn in paradise
I mentioned earlier that Tony was really after a marlin on this trip. Since I had never caught a billfish, the arrangement went like this: if a marlin takes the bait, first one is Tony’s. If a sailfish comes in, I’ll take the first one. We set up and started to troll.
Trolling is interested on one hand, boring on the other. If nothing’s active, trolling is simply a boat ride. You need to cover water offshore, and trolling is the best way to cover water. But when a fish crashes the baits in your spread, everything goes from 0 – 100 mph instantly. Mates are pulling in teasers, the captain is barking orders, fighting belts are put on or fighting chairs sat in, and all the time you’re scanning the water to see what all the uproar is about. At 10 am on day 1, we had our first such fire drill. The mates started running around, grabbing rods. The Captain was screaming something (I don’t speak Spanish, so I don’t know what he was saying), and the mate started yelling “Marlin, Marlin”. Tony took the fighting chair, and, about an hour and fifteen minutes later, we tagged and released a Black Marlin estimated at 500 pounds. The celebration from the crew was long and heartfelt. Our first fish in Panama. Tony’s first marlin. A very nice Black Marlin, at that. We had a pair of sailfish come into the spread later that day, but no hookups, and picked up a 15 pound Mahi, but that was it for us that day. But, let me tell you, it doesn’t take more than one marlin to make your day. Or your trip. That night at dinner we found out Tony’s was the only marlin caught that day.
Black Marlin
Day 2 I fished with Chuck. His boat had a tough day the day before, catching only a few small mahi and a blue jack. We decided to try our luck inshore, trying for roosterfish, cubera snapper, or whatever else bite be willing to bite.
Again we started with catching bait. While Chuck was fishing for the bonito, he got a hit that obviously wasn’t a 5# bonito. An hour and a half later, the crew gaffed a 75 pound amberjack. Chuck was completely exhausted. It was probably the toughest fight I’ve ever seen, since he hooked it with one of the rods from the boat that had 20# mono and was probably a MD action rod. So, Chuck was spent, and we went off to troll the inshore points for roosters and cuberas. We ended the day with 4 roosterfish from 25 – 40#, a 45 pound broomtail grouper, 2 jack crevalle (15 and 35 pounds), a bunch of missed hits, and a pile of yellowfin tuna from 5-8 pounds that would hit our poppers when we would cast toward the open ocean. Trust me when I tell you that an 8 pound yellowfin will wear you out on light spinning gear! And the 15 pound jack took a popper as well. Our roosterfish were beautiful specimens and the bigger ones would be considered trophy size. They fight like fish twice their size and just never give up. By catching a couple of these, I had realized my pre-trip dream of a good roosterfish. Even though the inshore mixed bag doesn’t jump, they are a ball to catch, and most of them are quite tasty, too. (NOTE: all the roosterfish and billfish are released alive). Tony and Steve got into big schools of yellowfin tuna and caught a bunch of 40-75 pound tuna.
Chuck’s Amberjack
Chuck’s Roosterfish
Author with a Broomtail Grouper
Day three arrived, and we both decided to instruct our Captain’s that we wanted to do half-and- halfs: half day offshore for billfish and tuna, half day inshore for the mixed bag that lived there. If we got on a good bite offshore, we’d stay there all day. Tony and I got our bait and headed offshore again. For a few hours, nothing bothered the baits - just like day 1. Then , at 10 AM, the fire drill started again, and we were soon hooked up on a double of Pacific sailfish. Tony fought his stand-up style, with a fighting belt, while I used the chair. He whipped his quickly, then took pictures of mine. We released a nice pair of sails – between 90 – 100 pounds each – and I had caught my first billfish of any kind. After a couple more fruitless hours, we headed inshore to see what we could find for the afternoon. We got more small yellowfin on poppers, Tony got a nice roosterfish, and it was my turn when the next fish got hooked up. Something big was hooked and, after a grueling hour long fight, the mates brought a HUGE roosterfish over the bow. The Captain estimated it between 70 and 75 pounds. As you can see in the picture, it was bigger than the mate! I got my billfish and my trophy roosterfish the same day!
Joe’s first billfish
TROPHY Roosterfish
By Day 4, I really didn’t care what I caught, or even if I caught anything at all. We started offshore after bait gathering (no amberjack this time for Chuck) and , on our way offshore, ran into a gigantic school of yellowfin tuna, with porpoises jumping all around the school. We would get in front of the school, drop in our baits, and immediately be hooked up on doubles of 40- 60 pound yellowfins. We did this 3 times, landed 6 tuna, and told the captain to move. We were beat, and wanted to see what else was biting offshore. (NOTE – everyone at the lodge got into the yellowfins, and some were caught in the 125 pound range). Our morning catch offshore tallied 2 nice mahi of about 35 pounds each, and a pair of sailfish that came into our baits but didn’t hook up. We went inshore for our last afternoon of trolling up roosterfish. The only fish I had not seen come over the bow of my boat I was a Cubera Snapper, or dog-tooth snapper. We had some hits the day before where we brought baits in that looked like someone had ripped an icepick down their sides – obviously the work of Cuberas. But no hookups. Chuck got a couple of roosters, I got a smaller rooster and, for my last fish of the trip, I got a 35 pound Cubera Snapper. Word to the wise – DO NOT attempt to lip these fish in like a largemouth bass!
Author’s Cubera Snapper
Fresh sashimi!
Mahi are terrific light tackle fighters
We ended up having a great trip. Still, some of the seasoned SW anglers at the lodge were less complimentary about the fishing. Marlin were scarce – only 4 were caught in our week, along with maybe 10 sailfish. The tuna bite was hot, mahi fairly plentiful, a great roosterfish bite and good snapper bite inshore. Still, billfish are the trophy of choice here. Our timing was between seasons – Jan thru mid March are prime time for Blue and Black Marlin here, and the sailfish generally show up in droves as the sardine schools come north in May and June. But there are always some billfish around, as our trip proved. I personally couldn’t have asked for a better trip. And my appetite has been whetted to go back and go after more billfish and roosterfish.
A few things I would do differently on a return trip: 1) bring heavier gear for throwing poppers inshore, and 2) spend a day doing nothing but following the bait schools around and trying for the bigger fish below the boiling baitfish. Chuck’s amberjack showed that there are big fish in these bait balls. Another angler was bitten off by a wahoo while bait fishing. The assortment of roosterfish, cubera snapper, amberjack, wahoo, jacks, and other assorted fish makes the bait ball fishing intriguing to me.
Whenever I’m in an environment that I’m not familiar with, I am drawn to the flowers, insects, wildlife. Panama is filled with sights to see. This is a tropical rainforest, and the amount of biomass is astonishing. Everything grows year-round, and everything is bigger than you’d expect. I saw grasshoppers that were an honest 5” long, moths as big as my hand, and toads the size of a softball. Hummingbirds were abundant, and basilisk lizards were all around the resort. We also saw one black scorpion – but only one. One thing was missing from the resort – biting insects. Apparently they just are not in the area. That was OK with me!
Moth
Basilisk lizard
Toad
My passions still lie in freshwater fishing, in fly fishing for trout in the mountains, fishing for pike on northern weedbeds, watching smallmouth explode on a topwater bait at daybreak. But these recent adventures for bonefish, billfish, and roosterfish have shown me an alternative I’d be happy to sample again sometime in the future.
Miss South Africa boat
Lodge
