Tuna fishing with surface poppers was all you wanted but smaller fish running from 10 to 80 lb. The first week in May we got some tuna over 100 lbs. and a few over 200 lbs. Black Marlin still good with 4 out of 5 groups catching a black. Fair wahoo action but they will pick up with August being the first real strong month for them. Had a few sails and some smaller dorado (dolphin) also. Inshore action was very good with snapper, rooster fish, sierra mackerel, blue jack and amber jack in good numbers.
Captain Lee Campbell – Panama Big Game Fishing Club
There is something about tracking fish by sight that activates the adrenalin flow like nothing else. We had hot and cold moments on the trip but the image of two and three hundred pound yellow fin tuna hurling themselves airborne, intent on murder or adultery upon anything in their path…baby it’s just too much. Man and boy I’ve fished those things on both the Atlantic and Pacific but the supreme numbers of big fish right in front of your beak made this a very special opportunity, what most would call a “once in a life time.” Standing on the bow of the boat and throwing them top water plugs was really sweet, as well as productive. We jumped on a red hot marlin bite one morning with a double hook up and hooked a third immediately afterwards. It’s fair to say we had some slow times but even the inshore fish were real trophies. This included a seventy-pound amber jack, eighty-pound roosterfish and a wondrous blue trevalle. These fish get big down in Panama, bigger than in Costa Rica, bigger than in Guatemala. The Panama Big Game Club lives up to its reputation.
Riley Love – May 2007
