...and some wet season goodies, the first of the year. When the dorados start to show, bigger tunas are usually not far behind so hopefully we'll have some to show in the next reports. It's definitely green season now, and it's unlikely the northerlies will come back until December. Last groups were mostly returning guests and friends from the UK. Conditions were mostly calm and the fishing was good, although not spectacular. With the first rains came the first mahi-mahis, and signs of bigger tunas, although we have not caught any yet. The big cuberas and their smaller cousins the mullet snappers were around, as expected at this time of the year. The trophy roosters still very shy. We hope and believe the rainy season will change that for the better. Special congratulations goes to Rodney this week, for boating 3 big cuberas including a huge one, and also a big roosterfish. First group counted the various species and ended up with 35 different species for the group.

We hosted 4 groups this second half of April. Each had good fishing overall, with a few slow days now and then. Some good fish were boated and many more won their freedom. Congratulations to Ross for landing a wahoo on topwater, as many things can go wrong with those critters. Thanks to all for the good mood and times at the lodge, it's been a blast !

Last week another group of Germans returned to the Panafishing lodge and they scored pretty consistent action throughout the week. The dry season kicked in early this year and we are already seeing signs of it’s end. The water started to warm and we could very well have an early tuna season this year, but we’ll see, been wrong too often… It continues to be a good year for all kind of snappers with the silk going loco and the cuberas are definitely out there biting on the heavier bait at some point. This group was not very successful either in landing them and our stats are pretty bad on the big ones: maybe 1 out of 4 is landed. Definitely not an easy one to fool or land, so any big one should be regarded for what it is: a proper trophy fish.
So far we are seeing a lot more big cuberas this year than the previous. On the contrary, the big roosters are pretty elusive and not too eager to bite or decided to come in the boat. We’ll see if that trend continues or if the next groups bring the stats back to normal.
Kinda looking forward to the change of season now. This usually slows down the action and number of catches a little but brings the outstanding big catches !

Different week, different conditions on the ever-changing Tuna Coast of Panama. Unlike previous group, this one had more scattered action and to be honnest some pretty slow moments. On the positive, the big fish made their comeback: a few crackers have been landed, and even more have gone away. Seems like we are in for a "cubera year", with quite a few big and small ones around, often mixed in with their smaller cousin the Colorado snapper, which is yet another one of those snappers that will happilly hit a topwater lure.
Overall, kinda slow week but with a little luck there was opportunity for most at that fish of a lifetime or 2. Even when the fishing is not at it's best, there is always some nice fish around and good photo opportunities:

Team "BAaaaM" was back on the Tuna Coast of Panama last week, and as always, they caught plenty ! The week was typical of what you'd expect from March: breezy conditions, not a cloud in sight and plenty of fish around. Some boats got more luck, but overall there was plenty of action for everyone.

Let's start this report with 3 unusual catches: a big sailfish that blasted a popper in 30 meters of water, a Indo-Pacific permit caught on a casting jig, and a nice corvina that fell for a stickbait. Unfortunately, the sailfish wraped itself many times around the line so it was in a really bad state. It did swam away though, so let's hope he'll be ok.
These fish are quite pleintiful in our waters but they remain unusual catches because we don't really target them or use appropriate technique for them. But hey, if a sailfish decides to show up inshore and hit a popper, it certainly makes a beautful an unexpected catch.

Small roosterfish were all over the place with a final count north of 70, all caught on poppers or stickbaits. One boat got 27 in a couple of hours. I don't want to set wrong expectations for those considering a trip with us, though, so bear in mind this is unusual and all these were small schoolie fish. They were roosters nevertheless, a beautiful fish and fight at any size !

The silk snappers were also very playful. One day in particular each of the 3 boats got 20 or more fish before moving away from the spot. When the snappers are in a feeding mood, double and triple hookups on each drift is a given ! BAAAM !

On the negatives, there was a remarkable absence of big fish. Fish of the week was this beautiful rooster caught by our friend Joern. Very few other big fish have been seen. Guess sometimes you can't have it all.

Below are some more pictures from the week. Next time we see our Germans friends will be in August next year for some tuna action and hopefully a few wet season trophy cuberas and roosterfish.

It was nice to have Andre and Thomas back at the lodge for the season opener, and a pleasure to meet Ralph and Stephen. It's been a nice week of fishing and some good times at the lodge. The wind seems to be back to normal this year, which is a relief after 2-3 very windy years. The guys even had some dead flat days, something we would not even have dreamed about last February. Action was up and down but overall rather consistent throughout the week, with a few triple and quadruple hookups. Andre, who's had some monster roosterfish last time, finally got the big cubera that had eluded him until then. On the negatives, not so many chances at big fish, and even less success in landing them ! But that's fishing and what also what makes you come back ! So we'll see you guys again in January 2018, and no compromise this time !

Went fishing with my friend jean-cristophe the day after they left and we had a great time fishing schools of small cuberas in mirror-like conditions. The ocean was teeming with life and we had some surreal vision, like this huge turtle raising out from the depth a few meters from the boat, surrounded by dozens of cubera snappers. In the end we got 5 to the boat and lost another 6, all on topwater ! BTW I'm the one to be blamed for bad statictics... Mostly small fish with the biggest one to the boat around 8 kilos. One of the fish that manage to get away was a propr big one, though...

Ok, I hope everybody knows by now that slow-jigging is a super fun and efficient technique that is here to stay. The future of jigging, some would argue. I know... Easy prediction when it is already the present in Japon and South-East Asia.

We are glad to announce that the Panafishing lodge is up to date in this field and that we also offer slow pitch outfit rentals.

After 3 years of trial and error, and countless big fish lost, we finally believe we have enough expertise to give sound recommendations, advice and tips that will help you achieve success on slow jigs in Panama. More than any other modern technique, slow-jigging requires the right setup as it is a finesse game where you are consistently using your setup at the edge of it’s capabilities. Unlike with popping and speed-jigging, you can not just upsize your system because you will just kill the action of your jigs if you do so. Slow-jigs are meant to work on the fall so the least water resistance your setup has, the better the action of the jig. Because of that, the need for finding the right compromise and having the right setup becomes crucially important when fishing at the Panafishing lodge where you will encounter bruiser amberjacks and tunas, and the biggest cuberas and roosterfish in the world.

Our fishing grounds are among the most appropriate in the world for this technique, and pretty much all the species we have here will go crazy for a properly presented slow-jig, including the mighty cubera snapper ! When properly done, action can be incredible with amazing variety. And there is no sharp coral or toothy criters to mess up with our beautiful Japanese toys. Although speed-jigging remains the method of choice in some situations, in others slow-jigging will absolutely dominate. Any serious tropical angler would be wise to use and master both techniques. And for those of you who think speed-jigging is tough and uncomfortable but still want to tap into the incredible variety deep fishing offers… look no further than slow-jigging !

The biggest challenge associated with the technique is boating the big ones, and particularly the nasty cubera snapper that needs to be stopped before it reaches bottom. Again, upsizing the tackle at will is not the way to go because you would be messing with the 2 reasons why you may love slow-jigging: FUN and EFFICIENCY. It takes the right compromise to retain the advantages of the technique while standing a chance against those strong Panamanian fish. This is when our knowledge will save you a lot of time and money. When you are travelling to fish an exciting destination, you don’t want to spend most of your trip figuring out the right setup. Panafishing Adventure is a specialty lodge and we pride ourselves on being knowledgeable and at the forefront of popping and jigging.

Wether you are new to slow-jigging or experienced with the technique, get in touch before your trip to get proper recommendations on rods, reels, lines, rigging and of course the most efficient jigs and colors for our little gem of a fishery.

Best season for slow-jigging our area is May to November when the winds are lightest.

Below are a few recent pictures that show some of the variety that you can and should expect to catch if you spend some time slow-jigging with us.

Typical November fishing here on the Tuna Coast of Panama. As always this time of the year, a great variety of fish was swimming around and biting jigs and poppers. As fishing always is, it's been up and down throughout the month, with some groups having better luck than others. Some got some 300+ fish to the boat over 6 days of fishing, others got a lot less action, but it was nice to see that sizeable and prized gamefish was a staple, with every group having some shots at roosterfish and cuberas. But these are always a challenge and in the end, for every good fish to the boat this month, we lost another 3 or 4. Now you are experienced, so no more excuses on the next trip, guys !

Among the losses were 2 goliath groupers on jigs, one tarpon on popper, one sailfish, also on popper, one really big inshore dorado, and as always, numerous big roosterfish and cuberas and a few unstoppable amberjacks. Well, this is no easy game and it's the one you lose that makes you come back !

Towards the end of the month we had hurricane Otto messing around just north of Panama. This was very unlucky for our guests which had 6 full days of rather strong wind. This is very unusual, to my knowledge it is the first time that a hurricane affect our area like it did. It seriously limited the options, with about only 20% of the spots that were fishable, but it made us realize how unvaluable it is to have 2 coasts facing opposite directions to chose from. The south was pretty much unfishable but the coast facing north was manageable. Not ideal for sure but certainly a lot better than staying around the pool all day long.

Next report will be in february !

This month's report is written by Dan Konig from Adventure Angler, a specialist shop in the UK that stocks some serious, hard-to-find popping and jigging gear.

Not much to say about July as we did not fish a lot. Only guests were Paul, who returned from the US, with his friend Chris this time. The fishing was typical of July, with some good variety and tuna fishing, and up and down inshore with an alternance of slow and hectic moments, which again is what one should expect that time of the year.
Also went fishing 2 days with my friend Ricardo and we hit the tunas on day one and surprisingly high numbers of roosters inshore, alomng with a nice cubera.