The fishing season started again in Pedasi ! It is still the peak of the rainy season in Panama but the Danish brought the sun with them: we've had very little rain and many perfect sunny days. Many amberjacks were caught speed jigging, a relatively new technique for most. As always, the biggest one got away, this time by straightening the hook. I am so glad to see some fish again I will post a lot of pictures that show some of the variety that can be found here. Here is Anders with a rainbow runner and Kenneth with a dorado. Here is Hendrick displaying a broomtail grouper and Kenneth with a mullet snapper. Tobias got a real hefty grouper on jig. Congratulations for that one ! We will see more and more Pacific jack crevalle like the one Finn is holding as the dry season settles. The sierra mackerel is also a staple and is a great fish for carpaccio. A few sharks were caught (and lost) this week. Anders got into a good fight. The results: a broken road and a nice shark aboard. Next is Jesper with what everybody hopes to catch when they come here: a cubera snapper. There has been a few opportunities but only this one was boated. Bravo Jesper ! The cubera is not the only interesting snapper that can be found here. Below are 2 very nice catches: the silk snapper and the mullet snapper. The first one will hit a jig while the second one blast poppers. Silk snappers are excellent table fare. We release most of them but this time we decided to keep 2 for dinner. Another interesting jack species is the big eye trevally. Not so interesting but inevitable is the pacific needlefish that can grow quite long. Tunas were not in a feeding mood, which is kind of strange at that season. Nevertheless, Tobias got a nice one that made his day. Ronnie got himself a bluefin trevally. What a beautiful fish ! Frands lost a nice roosterfish on the first day so everyone was happy that he could get his revenge later on. Finally, here is another sizeable mullet snapper for Kenneth, a nice jack for Frands, and Tobias with some skipjack tunas and yet another amberjack. The Danish were hungry for fish and I think they got their share. Clemence has been pretty busy all week at the cleaning table. Meanwhile, the boys got to relax in the pool. We would like to thank each and all of you for being such lovely guests. It's been a pleasure to have you !
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Fin Septembre, nous avons fait 4 jours de pêche avec Thomas, le boss de l'agence Getaway Tours, en vue de tester la formule "spécial thons". Nous sommes donc allés chercher les thons tous les matins et avons pêché au popper et au jig l’après-midi. Le temps plutôt instable nous a contraint à rester sur le "spot des petits thons" qui se trouve à 10 milles au petit large (et ou l'on peut aussi trouver des gros thons). Nous avons fait des poissons jusqu’à 30+ kilos, ce qui était un peu décevant, mais bon, c'est la pêche. Nous avons trouvé les thons 3 jours sur 4. Cette fois, les thons se déplaçaient rapidement, contrairement à la session du mois d'Aout, et il était donc très difficile de les prendre au popper. Nous nous sommes donc contenté de les pêcher à la sardine piquée sur un circle hook. Cette technique est la plus efficace et il se trouve qu'elle est aussi très ludique: quand la ligne part, on sait que l'on va être accroché sitôt que l'on fermera le pickup. Aussi, les thons attaquent la sardine immédiatement ou jamais, donc il n'y a pas de longues attentes ou l'on reste inactif comme lors des pêches traditionnelles au vif ou à l’appât.
Certains jours, attraper les thons au popper peut s’avérer très difficile. D'autres, les thons se jettent sur les poppers et délaissent les sardines. Si vous venez pêcher le thon avec Panafishing, il est préférable de garder l'esprit ouvert car savoir adapter sa technique est souvent la clef du succès. Pour ceux qui veulent de la variété et qui souhaitent prendre du thon, nous recommandons chaudement de venir tester nos semaines "spéciales thons" entre Juillet et Octobre. Pendant ces semaines, nous irons pêcher le thon tous les matins et les après-midi seront consacrées au popper et au jig. C'est également une bonne option pour ceux qui ne souhaitent pas forcément animer jig et popper toute la journée. Il faut savoir que l'on fait un peu plus de bateau quand on part chercher les thons, notamment si l'on part sur "le spot à gros thons" à 40 milles au large. Les trouver tous les jours n'est jamais garanti, mais le jeu en vaut la chandelle. Ici, nous sommes les seuls bateaux de pêche sportive à rechercher les thons. Ceux qui connaissent les autres régions du Panama apprécieront certainement l'absence de foule ! Pendant notre séjour test de 4 jours, la pêche au jig a été excellente mais la pêche au popper fut assez difficile. Pour illustrer ce fait, 2 des 3 poissons coqs auront été faits au jig. Thomas a quand même eu un très beau spécimen sur un petit popper. Si la pêche au popper a été difficile, cela n'est pas fonction de la saison. Cela aurait pu arriver en pleine saison sèche comme il est possible de faire un carton au popper en plein mois d'aout. Au final, nous aurons quand même fait de beaux poissons comme le montrent les photos. Contactez-nous si vous souhaitez en savoir plus sur notre programme "spécial thon". Nous sommes excités de pouvoir offrir cette alternative à nos hôtes. Les thons jaunes du Panama vous attendent ! -------------------------- Late September: we went fishing for 4 days with Thomas, the boss of Getaway Tours. The idea was to test the "Tuna week" formula. So we went looking for tuna every morning and did the usual popper and jig fishing in the afternoon. The weather was not very stable so we only went to the "small tunas" spot, which is 10 milles out (and that can hold some real big tunas, nevermind the nickname). We got tunas up to 30+ kilos this time, which was a bit of a disapointment but well, it's fishing. We did find the tunas 3 out of 4 days. When we found them, they were running pretty fast, unlike in August, and so fishing for them with poppers seemed pretty difficult. Dead sardine on a circle hook worked wonder, though. The technique is the most effective and actually very fun, especially when the line starts to run and you know you will be in trouble as soon as you close the bail. The tuna will eat the sardine almost instantly or never, so there is no long waiting times like when fishing with dead bait or live bait. At times, catching tunas on popper is difficult, and at times, tuna will go crazy for poppers and won't eat the sardines. If you come tuna fishing with Panafishing Adventures, it is good to come with an open mind because adaptation is the key to success. sFor those interested in variety and tuna fishing, we highly recommend to try coming between July and October for one of our Tuna Special weeks. During these weeks, we'll go tuna fishing every morning, and then go jigging and popping for the rest of the day. It is also a good option for those who do not necessarily want to jig or pop all day long. You should expect longer boat rides during these weeks, especially if we run the 40 milles to the "big tuna spot", and bear in mind that finding them everyday is never guaranteed. Here, we are the only sportfishing boats fishing for tuna. Those who have been tuna fishing the Chiriqui will certainly appreciate the absence of crowds ! During our 4 day trial, the jigging was excellent but popper fishing was slow. To illustrate that fact, 2 out of 3 roosterfish were caught on jigs. Thomas got a real nice one on a small popper, though. The slow popping is not necessarily a matter of season. It could have happen in the middle of the dry season. It was just bad luck. The consistent jigging seems to be a staple from July to october, though. Overall, we got some nice fish as shown in the pictures. Please get in touch with us if you want to know more about our "tuna special" weeks. We are pretty excited to offer this possibility to our guests. Panama Yellowfin tunas await you ! It's Tuna season in Pedasi ! Every year, from June to October, we have excellent Tuna fishing on the aptly named Tuna Coast of Panama. Tunas of all size can be found as close as 10 milles out, but it is usually difficult to hook the bigger ones because the small are usually faster and closer to the surface. If the weather is calm, we can run the 40 milles to a spot where there usually is only big ones. Here are a few pictures from a day of fishing for them we did at the end of August. We only had to run for one hour before we found them, and by noon, the 3 of us had each boated 3 tunas in the 30-40 kg range. For those who wonder, a tuna that size on spinning tackle is a lot of sport and so we went jigging for the rest of the day to rest our arms. It seems that the jigging is excellent this time of the year, as we had non-stop action on Amberjack, rainbow runner, smaller yellowfin tuna, bonito and snappers.
August is also the peak of the whale season and they are seen jumping and playing everyday. For those interested in something a bit different than what we usually do, we will organise "tuna special" weeks for the summer/early fall 2015. During these weeks every morning we'll go looking for tuna, while the afternoons will be dedicated to the usual popping and jigging. We have already tested the formula, so more info on that with the next set of pictures. On a side note, we have received all the new rental gear and it is perfect ! All information and rates regarding our different rental packages can be downloaded in the relevant section of our website. ----------------- C'est la saison des thons a Pedasi ! Tous les ans, de Juin a Octobre, la pêche au thon est excellente sur la bien nommée "Tuna Coast". Des thons de toutes tailles peuvent être trouvés à moins de 10 milles des cotes, mais il est difficile d'attraper les gros quand les petits sont avec eux, car ces derniers sont plus rapides et souvent plus haut dans la colonne d'eau. Si le temps est stable, nous avons un très bon spot a 40 milles des cotes ou il n'y a generalement que des gros. Voila quelques photos d'une journée de pêche effectuée fin aout. Ce jour la, il nous aura fallu moins d'une heure de bateau pour trouver les thons, et à midi chacun de nous en avait combattu 3 entre 30 et 40 kg. Sur du matériel spinning, c'est du sport et donc nous avons décidé d'aller pêcher au jig "pour se reposer les bras". La pêche au jig est excellente a cette période de l'année et les touches se sont enchainées: sérioles, rainbow runner, snappers, petits thons jaunes et bonites. Aout est également le cœur de la saison des baleines et tous les jours, on peut en voir plusieurs sauter et jouer. Pour ceux qui sont intéressés par un programme un peu différent de ce que nous faisons d'habitude, nous allons organiser des semaines "spéciales thons" à l'été et au début de l'automne 2015. Durant ces semaines, nous irons chercher les thons tous les matins et les après-midi seront consacrées au popper et au jigging. Nous avons déjà teste la formule, donc toutes les infos sur ces semaines spéciales seront postées bientôt avec les photos. D'autre part, nous avons reçu le tout nouveau matériel de location et nous en sommes extrêmement satisfaits. Toutes les infos et prix concernant nos différentes formules sont téléchargeables depuis la rubrique "gear rental" de notre site internet. |
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We post a detailed report for EVERY group we host, so you can see on this page what is being caught throughout the year, during good and not-so-good weeks, Archives
January 2023
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