A Travel Journal by Richard "Cass" Castaneda

[Cass Tours]

Journal by Richard "Cass" Castaneda

MY TRIP TO PESCA PANAMA
Feb 15-22, 2008

As many of you are aware we have been selling Panama as one of our destinations for the past 6 years and with in the last two years added Pesca Panama to our inventory. This is a mother ship type operation where you live aboard and fish from fast smaller boats. Back in December I received a phone call from my good friend Ricky Zuniga who does some marketing for Pesca Panama and asked me if I would like to join him on a trip to the lodge in February of which I quickly replied "hell yes, count me in". I've known Ricky since he ran a sport fishing operation out of Barra de Navidad, Mexico back in the mid ninety's. Ricky is a great guy and one hell of a fisherman, well not all the time, more on this later.

I made my airline arrangements with Continental Airlines to fly from Orange County via Houston to Panama City while Ricky traveled on the non stop red eye flight on Copa Airlines from LAX. Red eye flights and I don't get along as they just beat me up so any time I can avoid them I do. On my arrival at Tocumen International Airport I was met by Star Light Tours who transferred me to the Hotel Veneto in downtown Panama City. This hotel jumps with a Casino and sports bar/disco on the second floor. Just as I was approaching the front desk Ricky intercepted me and said let's get your bags into the room and get some dinner. We had a light dinner at a restaurant located directly across the street from the hotel called Manolo's which serves typical Panamanian food and Ricky was gracious enough to buy dinner. Of course I felt obligated to buy Ricky night cap at the hotel lobby bar, he ordered a shot of Johnny Walker Blue Label while I ordered a great 23 year old Guatemalan rum called Zecapa which has won first place at the Caribbean Rum festival for quite a few years running. I put a $20.00 bill on the counter to cover the tab and the bartender raised an eye brow at me, I thenlooked at the tab and saw that my drink was $6.00 and Ricky's was $18.00, YIKES!!!!!! This trip was not off to a good start!

The following morning we met in the lobby at 5:30am for our transfer to the Marcos A. Gelabert International Airport about a 15 minute drive from our hotel for the flight to the city of David which is located just south of the Costa Rica border. We were joined by 8 great guys from North Carolina who were also traveling to the lodge; these guys know how to have fun. The trip to David on Aero Perlas took an hour, on our arrival we were met by Jay Gustin the owner of Pesca Panama and some of his staff who helped with our bags and transferred us to the Pedregal Marina. Once on board we got our staterooms, had breakfast, met our guides and were off on our first day of fishing. Our captain was 22 year old Tatin and his mate was his uncle Chalin who we called "Johnny".

The lodge fleet consists of 27' Ocean Master center console boats powered by twin 140hp four stroke Suzuki outboards that cruise at 30mph. The tackle on board consisted of Shimano, Accurate and Avet conventional and spinning reels matched with All Star and Shimano rods along with a variety of quality terminal tackle. I noticed that there were two heavy spinning outfits in the bow rod holders each with Yozuri GT Bull surface plugs ready to go. After an hour run we stopped at a near by island to make bait which consisted of small jacks call co-he-new-ah, these are great bait for all types of game fish. With the live bait well plugged we headed to an island called Ladrones where we caught Cubera Snappers to 35lbs and school size yellow fin tuna both on live bait and casting top water lures. The mother ship had moved about an hour and half from the marina to Boca Chica where it anchored to spend the night; we arrived around 5:30pm just in time for cocktails and a cigar followed by a great snapper dinner. Everyone sacked out early anticipating tomorrows run to Montosa Island, an island known for big fish. On our approach to Montosa we noticed schools of porpoise, diving birds and jumping yellow fin tuna. Tossing GT Bulls and the smaller Yozuri Sashimi top water plugs we scored on plenty of school size yellow fin tuna and on one of my casts my lure was met by a 75lb tuna just as it hit the water. Ten minutes later it was gaffed and put on board, it was served at dinner that night as "seared ahi", and man was it good.

The following morning we headed to Coiba Island where we worked the inshore tossing the Yozuri top waters lures and yo-yoing Daiwa Sacrifice lures as well as Sumo Jr.'s resulting in catches of blue fin trevally, cubera snapper to 40lbs, jacks and two white tip reef sharks. During the day the mother ship had motored its way to Coiba Island where it would spend the next two nights. We arrived back at the lodge around 6:00pm in time for cocktails and another fabulous dinner. After another great breakfast we headed to the backside of CoibaIsland and on the way were treated to a double rainbow that arched from the island to the ocean, my oh my was it beautiful. We also fished an adjacent island called Jicaron (hick-a-ron), wow this was one heck of an inshore fishing day where Ricky and I scored on roosterfish to 40lbs, 12 cubera snappers in the 25lb to 55lb class, big jacks and jumbo sierra's to 15lbs. We arrived back at the lodge around 5:30pm dead tired and ready for a cigar, cocktails and another wonderful dinner. After breakfast we decided to troll for wahoo just minutes from the lodge in a couple of hot spots that Tatin had marked on his GPS, we managed to get two hoo's in the 35lb class on Marauders. We also yo-yoed Daiwa Sacrifice and Sumo Jr. lure's resulting in a half a dozen grouper to 35lbs along with red snappers and jacks. During the day the mother ship sailed to Contreras Island where it would anchor for the night, we returned to her around 5:00pm.

This day had to be the most exciting day of the trip; we headed for Montosa to try our luck for billfish and yellow fin tuna. As we approached the island we found a lot of life with big pods of porpoise, diving birds and jumping tuna. Ricky and I were on the bow tossing top waters, I might add that the Yozuri lures come with pretty good size treble hooks but due to the big fish that they catch the guides take these trebles off and put on even bigger stronger trebles which I would compare to a 4/0 size hook. With great care we both figured out a rhythm early on the trip where we could both cast from the bow and avoid hooking each other and then it happened? In all my years of fishing I have never been hooked seriously until today, while Ricky was casting I was standing aside from his casting zone when I felt a slap and a sting to my left bicep. I looked and there was a Yozuri Sashimi lure hanging from my arm with the hook sticking through my shirt into my arm. I tried to pull it out thinking it wasn't in to deep but it would not budge, it didn't hurt that bad and when I lifted my shirt sleeve to check it out I saw that it was buried well past the barb, Yikes!!!. Ricky and the Tatin came over to check things out and by the look on their faces they knew this was a serious injury. As we pondered on how to get the hook out I remembered 8 years ago while in Costa Rica with my good friend Harry Gualco had buried a small fly in the back of his arm while fly fishing and had instructed me how to do the Australian hook removal system (here is a link for the instructions on the web) www.kevinwakeman.com/fam/hookout.htm which uses a string to pull the hook out. I had Tatin get some fishing line and with a little down pressure on the eye of the hook Ricky was able to pull it out with minimal damage and pain. (Note the red blood stain on my left sleeve) This is an excellent way to remove a hook when done properly. Tatin got the first aid kit, applied anti bacterial cream and a band aid and I was back in business. Of course Ricky felt like crap and refused to continue fishing even though I was on the bow having blast catching tuna on the top waters. I told him to get over it, that I was fine and to get back fishing, he just sat there with his head down feeling really bad as to what had happened. After about a half hour and seeing me catch a half dozen yellow fin I finally got him back up and fishing. I asked Ricky how he had stuck me with the lure, he said that when he went to cast, the line stuck on the bail of the reel causing the lure to swing wildly over and around the back of his head into my arm. Oh well sh-t happens!!!!

One of the other boats radioed us that they were near the island fishing on a huge bait ball that was being attacked by a variety of predators consisting of huge yellow fin tuna, sharks, porpoise and cubera snappers all in 30 feet of water and that they were currently hooked up to an estimated 200lb tuna. We raced over to the area and on the way passed the other boat, the two clients, captain and deck hand were on the bow all helping in some way to hold the rod with the huge fish at the other end. They had hooked this huge tuna on a top water using a spinning outfit, needless to say it eventually broke off. As we neared the bait ball Ricky, Tatin and I tossed top waters and all three of us were instantly hooked up, Tatin had an estimated 500lb shark on, I was on to a tuna that weighed 120lbs that I was able to get to the boat in just a few minutes all the while Ricky was slowly getting spooled as his fish sped off for the horizon. As it turned out Ricky's fish was tail hooked and took about 20 minutes to get it to the boat, it weighed 80lbs. That evening we met up with the lodge which had traveled to Boca Chica during the day, during cocktail hour the topic were the big tuna that were caught and lost and of course I talked about the hook in my arm of which I got plenty of mileage by proudly displaying my battle wound along with my blood stained yellow shirt with the hole in it to everyone that would listen. I told everyone that a lesser man would not have pulled through from such a massive wound??????

On our last day we fished until 1:00pm where we targeted roosters near the beach, we had no luck on the roosters but we did manage to score on a couple of nice cubera snappers in the 30lb class and a few jacks. After packing and saying good bye to the crew we were transferred back to the airport in David for our flight to Panama City where we spent the night and flew home the next day.

Overall a great fishing trip with great accommodations, great food, great fishing boats, expert guides and great service. Of all the places that I traveled to fish this by far has to be the best inshore fishing on the planet. The areas of Coiba, Montosa and Hannibal bank are world famous for huge tuna and marlin and I might add that a couple of the boats did score on a couple of black marlin to 400lbs and sailfish while we were there. If you would like to experience Pesca Panama or would like to get more information call Cass at 800-593 6510 or e-mail him at [e-mail].


Thank you Ricky and Jay for a fabulous trip, Cass!