08-04-2001, 02:48 AM
June marked the end of our first dry season at the Rio Negro Sport Fishing Lodge in Mariato, Panama. We are now gearing up for our prime Wahoo and Rooster fish season starting in October. The following report is a recap of our limited but very productive year so far: <br><br>The weekend of June 8, Capt. Alex and I hosted James Robbards and party of four from Merrit Island, FL. Day one had a slight onshore breeze and mid-morning showers. The morning was very productive off Punta Mariato with an abundance of large cero mackerel, albacore tuna, trevally and jacks. About 10:30 during a heavy rain, Charlie was nearly spooled but managed to land a 60 lb wahoo on Alex’s boat. Action slowed late in the morning so I moved offshore to about 450 feet of water looking for yellow-fin tuna or anything else big. We trolled for about for about two hours until we reached Agua reef. We saw no activity and had no strikes. We trolled over Agua several times but had no strikes. The fish finder was marking an abundance of fish below so we rigged for jigging. During our first drift, yellow-fin tuna starting boiling about 100 feet from the boat but disappeared after about two minutes. We pulled the jigs up and trolled a few more passes but again to strikes. Jigging produced several nice snapper and two very large goggle eyes that we put in the bait well. Something else was hitting hard and cutting our lines. About 2PM we moved back to Punta Mariato to finish the day. Soon after our arrival, James fought a mackerel to within 5 feet of the boat when two large shadows attacked and the mackerel disappeared along with about 50 meters of line. After a vigorous 15 minute fight, James landed a large cubera snapper but the mackerel was missing. I pulled a goggle eye out of the bait well and lost it overboard while trying to bridle hook it so I pulled the second one out and shoved a 16/0 circle hook directly through the top jaw. This bait got munched on our first drift over a high spot and as taken into the rocks before we could control the critter that took it. The second and final day was very slow all day. We tried the same area as the day before in the morning and moved inshore to Isla Cebaco that afternoon. James and party went home with about 120 lbs of assorted fillets. See images at: http://www.panamasportsman.com/JamesVisit.htm <br><br>During the last week in April, Captain Alex and I hosted Kenny Aydt from Key West, FL and Bruce Belt of Arlington, VA. The weather and seas were near perfect with light offshore winds in the mornings switching to onshore in the afternoons. Four days of hard offshore winds before their arrival lowered the water temperature 8 degrees from the week before to about 74 degrees. Given the morning big tuna activity from the week before, we headed straight out off Punta Narango and worked up and down the 500 foot break all morning with no results. Around noon at slack low tide, we worked Agua reef. Trolling the reef produced no results so we jigged the reef using 12-ounce jigs in about 140 feet of water. Jigging produced several 10 lb rock hind groupers and 3 lb snappers. Considering the colder water and offshore doldrums, we decided to run inshore to our big grouper spots off Isla Cebaco before the incoming tide. Jigging Bones reef on the West end of Cebaco produced lots of big jack carvel that put the “sport” into sportfishing but no food on the table so we moved on to Hutch reef on the North center of the island. Late in the afternoon we caught some small snapper and amberjacks. Day two in the morning, we work the rocks near Punta Narango. The morning only produced some bonitos and large rainbow runners. I rigged “panama baits” out of the bonitos and we moved offshore for the “afternoon bite” that we were sure we missed the day before. The afternoon produced about 18 yellow fin tuna in the 20 – 30 lb range hitting very sporadically throughout the afternoon. We didn’t see the large schools of tuna or tailing billfish that I saw the week before with Rod Turner. Late that afternoon, we picked up six nice tuna near Agua reef just before our planned departure time so Bruce took the wheel and continued to troll while Kenny and I filleted the fish before the run home. Into our third fish one the reels screamed just before the water exploded 25 meters behind the boat with a marlin surprise. Bruce was on the rod in a split second while Kenny and I moved rods, knives, fish and bloody fillets. Even with the anxiety level at it’s extreme, we got everything cleaned up and Bruce had the fish under some semblance of control. We estimated the fish weighed 200-250 lbs and was hooked up on a red and white CD14 rapala with the front hook removed, tied to bare 30lb test Ande clear monofilament. The rig was a 7’ Penn 15-40 Power Stick with a Shimano TLD-20. Bruce had the fish at boat side within 10 minutes. The fish broke off boat side as we tried to position for photos and a clean release. We achieved nether a clean photo or release and since there was no leader, we cannot claim that we “leadered” the fish. We spend the third day off shore looking for tuna. Again the morning produced nothing and the afternoon produced about 22 nice yellow-fin tuna. Bruce and Kenny each went home with over 50 lbs of prime tuna fillets and a great fish story. Pictures at: http://www.panamasportsman.com/KennysVis...br>Captain Alex and I hosted Rod Turner, Dave Hogg and additional party of three from various locations in the US and Germany during the week of 16 April. Captain Billy Boughner had reported that the near shore grouper and snapper action was slow the week prior so we opted to run a couple of miles offshore and fish the 600-foot break. All four days produced large yellow-fin tuna in the mornings and schoolies in the afternoon. We lost several 100lb plus tuna on our light 30 pound class tackle. The largest tuna boated weighed 54 pounds and over ten tuna weighed over 45 pounds. The afternoon schoolies averaged 25 pound and many weighed over 30. The total tuna count for all four days exceeded 120, many caught in tuna boils. Our predominate bait was a red and white CD14 rapala trolled with 30# test Ande mono loaded on Shimano TLD20s. The biggest tunas were caught on Bonito belly baits rigged with 16/0 circle hooks. Each day we saw several tailing sailfish and an occasional marlin so on the last day we targeted billfish, trolling only belly baits and a teaser. This produced larger tuna; one raised sailfish and one sailfish broke off soon after a good hookup. Each of our five guests went home with 75-100 pounds of prime tuna fillets and sore arms. http://www.panamasportsman.com/Rod_Apr01...br>Captain Alex Livingston hosted Steve Hutchings and party from Ft Lauderdale 8 thru 11 Mar. Alex reports that Grouper, Snapper, AJ and Tuna action was good. Day one, after spending several hours chasing baits, they were rewarded with big grouper and AJ. They lost several bait rigs presumably to large Cubera Snapper. Several occasions while trolling for tuna, the Cuberas would surface and revage CD-14 rapalas. Day two, they specifically targeted wahoo and papagallo off the Southwest end of the Peninsula with no luck. That afternoon they trolled deeper water and ran into several tuna boils that are typical for this time of year. Many 20-30 pound yellow-fins were boated. note: Late March and early April typically produce large 100 pound plus yellow-fins often found boiling on the surface. Day three was back to jigging and live baiting. Jigging was slow but the live baits were very productive. Steve said his visit turned out being a meat trip with his party returning with an abundance of fine fish fillet. See images at: http://www.panamasportsman.com/SteveVisit.htm <br><br>After participating in Panama’s carnival activities, Dr. Vince Ward and party of five from Southern California joined Captain Alex Livingston and myself at the lodge for 3-1/2 days of intense fishing. Vince’s party arrived around noon ready to fish the afternoon. We fished the South coast of Cebaco about 8 miles from the lodge jigging “arana’s” that produced over ten nice grouper and Peruvian amberjack. Day two we fished off Punta Mariato on the SW end of the Azuero Peninsula. The water was green and fishing slow. We caught an assortment yellowfin tuna, mackerel, amberjack, and snapper. We sighted a large black marlin terrorizing a school of mackerel but could not attract it to our bait. We had two wahoo hookups that were gently released on their first run. Day three we fished the West end of Isla Cebaco. We worked hard to find baits on our run out but only put 4-goggle eye in the bait well between both boats. Again the water was green and fishing was slow. We trolled rapalas and jigged “arana’s” all morning with no positive results. We dropped down and trolled several live bonitos again with no positive results. Early afternoon we move East to the North coast of Cebaco. Around 5 PM the bite turned on with each goggle eye producing a big grouper or amberjack. The jigging action also produced smaller grouper, amberjack, pompano, schoolmaster snapper and a very nice Cubera Snapper. Day four we returned to Punta Mariato and were greeted to clear blue water and serious baitfish activity. We caught and rigged a live bonito early on that produced an immediate strike and shredded 150 lb test monofilament leader. A second pass revealed a mass of chum where the bonito was ravaged. We rigged several more live bonitos on wire that were ignored. Vince broke out the poppers that got the snappers and wahoo worked up but no hook ups. We fast trolled rapalas but the Jack Cravelle was on them faster than or targets. We moved offshore for the afternoon and boated an abundance of 12-16 pound yellowfin tuna. Check out images from the trip at: http://www.panamasportsman.com/VinceVisit.htm <br><br>During the last week in January, Capt. Alex Livingston and I hosted Charlie Johnston and a party of 5 from Ft Lauderdale at the Rio Negro Sportfishing Lodge. They brought with them an air of competition that had been festering since their last visit in September. It was obvious that the old goats were out for revenge. As usual for this group, Alex took the old boys and I took the youngsters. On day one, we worked the rocks around Islote Roncador, located due South near the end of the peninsula. Both crews started out targeting the elusive but typically large January Wahoo and Roosterfish with CD-14 rapalas. My crew found bait size bonitos abundant so we quickly targeted larger quarry. Several bonitos got savagely munched, but no hookups. While we drug Bonitos around looking for the monster fish, Alex's crew were steadily landing nice fish on poppers and jigs worked around the whitewater. After wasting a few hours on an unsuccessful quest for the big one, we finally reverted to poppers and jigs. Needless to say, the first day was no contest, my crew conceded to defeat. The total combined landings for the day were 2 Dorados, 4 Peruvian Amberjacks, 2 Cubera Snappers, 5 Jordan Snappers, 2 Bluefin Trevally, 3 Yellowfin Tuna, 2 Albacore Tuna, 12 Cero Mackerel, and countless Bonito and Jack Caravel. Day two we headed east along the North coast of Isla Cebaco to Punta Tinforera. Along the way we put several dozen Goggle Eyes for the bait well. Charlie had an early fight with a 10lb African Pompano on a light bait rig. We drifted live Goggle Eyes and jigged across a high spot in 150 feet of water all morning that produced plenty of Lunkers for both crew. The final count was 14 Chernas (Broomtail Grouper) and 10 Peruvian Amberjacks. We topped the day off with over a dozen Yellowfin Tuna that we caught midway back home in the South side of the island. I think both crews considered this final day a draw. If I know Charlie's motley crew, I bet something’s festering again in Ft Lauderdale by now. Pictures at: http://www.panamasportsman.com/Charlies_...<br><br>