PANAMA: 850 lb. Black Marlin Tops “Coral Star” Week March 15-20, 2008

[Tony Pena]

Calm seas, clear skies and big fish summarizes this trip I hosted on the “M/V Coral Star” where 11 anglers landed (most released) a total of 6,301 lbs. of fish during the week, including 350, 600 and 850 lb. black marlin and a 700 lb. blue marlin. The blue, caught by Randy Divan, died and was brought to the mothership to be served for Easter celebrations in town. It taped out at 700. Aristeo A. Canelos got big fish honors as he fought the huge black for four hours stand-up style on a Avet with 100 lb. line before sitting down for the final hour kicking the lever drag to 70 lbs.+ of drag pressure. This fish didn’t jump and kept its’ head down even when mate Remi Barrett had the double line and leader. It just wouldn’t come up the last 20’ and eventually the leader broke and it swam slowly to the depths. It had a huge girth and was estimated at 800-900 lbs. so we settled on 850. All I got for the five hours was a shot of it deep. Aristeo had to lay down in the cabin for an hour but he felt the effects of this fish for days. The 600 lb. black marlin was taken by Sandy Divan (there were four Divans from Jackson, Wyoming) and 17 year old Matt Savela, fishing with his father Ed, just wanted a sailfish but was rewarded with the 350 lb. black marlin instead (his first billfish).

The “M/V Coral Star” is a 115’ mothership based in the Port of Pedregal near the city of David. We fished on 26’ Pursuits and 28’ Albemarles during the week as the ship anchored at choice spots like Bahia Hermosa at Coiba Island and Isla Montuosa. Some of these places have good fishing right at the anchorage and the first morning at Hermosa Randy Divan hooked a big fish on live bait with 80 lb. line and had to be transferred to a gameboat to follow it. However, over an hour later it broke off unseen and then he had breakfast! Randy got the “Mystery Fish” award.

This was a full moon period and we had good action with yellowfin tuna between 30-150 lbs. many caught with poppers, as well as dorado from 20-50 lbs.,roosterfish from 25-60 lbs., cubera snapper to 40 lbs. and an out-of-season 70 lb. wahoo among other gamefish. Everyone had a great time and for most it was their first trip to Panama. What an introduction! For more information about these amazing fishing adventures try: Sport Fishing in Panama.

Tony Pena
“The Roving Angler”








Coral Star








350 lb. Black Marlin








































































Capt. Don Perkins, owner of the “Coral Star” fleet
























La Posta Restaurant


700 lb. Blue Marlin

[Gary Zoephel]

Hi Tony, looks like you had a Great time. Nice Fish, I Really Like the Marlin Jumping Photo's.
Would love to fish there sometime. Was this all the fish caught or did the other boats do as well?

[Tony Pena]

Gary,

There were four boats fishing and most of the guys wanted a variety of fish using techniques from casting surface poppers to trolling five-pound live baits for marlin. As a result the “fleet” caught roosterfish, yellowfin tuna, cubera snapper, marlin (three released, one died), wahoo, mullet snapper, rainbow runner, jack crevalle, bluefin trevally, bigeye trevally, nurse shark and more. At minimum my group caught more than a total of 6,000 lbs. of fish because we didn’t record everything caught. If we had concentrated on marlin we would, I’m certain, caught more. My boat fished just one morning for billfish and caught the 850 black marlin on a live black skipjack and lost another later in the lure spread. Hope to see you in Panama sometime.

Tony Pena
“The Roving Angler”