Piñas Bay, Panama, August 2009

[Pedasí Jeff]

I feel too tired to be writing this as I just got back last night after fishing Piñas Bay for almost a week. I was told by the yachts owners that we would be going but not until about ten days ago did I know the exact date we would shove off. For those of you who do not know Piñas bay is where the world famous Tropic Star Lodge is located that deservingly so is rated the number one fishing resort in the world year after year. From Pedasí it is 110 nautical miles due east making it a five to six hour run unless of course and we always do fish along the way.

We spent our first night anchored off Playa Arenal due to the tides that we have here which reach up to twenty feet twice a day in this part of the Pacific, thus we wanted to assure getting an early start the following day we opted to leave the dock at Punta Mala around 2 p.m. While anchored we used our Sabiki rigs to catch Green Jacks for our live well with the idea of filling out tuna tubes first thing while trolling in the morning as live bait is by far the number one producer for fishing Piñas and the our "spots" along the way.

We pulled anchor and headed due east at dawn fishing our spots along the way which produced a 40 pound Dorado, two "football" YFT's,with a Wahoo and Sail hooked up but lost. We arrived mid afternoon and anchored in front of the lodge while experiencing a steady hard rain but not to complain as we all slept well.

The next morning Jacob a local mate arrived by Panga, that gave us three mates aboard Jacob, Elvis "Chombo" and myself. The anglers aboard were Arnulfo, Jaime, Carlos and Luis and last but not least our Captain Armando Ruíz. Our second day tally was two Dorado, two YFT, four Sailfish and a sighting of three Orcas escaping the South American winter. The afternoon ended in white cap seas and rain but nonetheless was a great day of fishing for all anglers aboard.

The following day was just the opposite clam flat seas with sunny to light overcast skies. This days tally was as a first for Luis who hooked his first Black Marlin and lost a second one, Jaime also hooked a Marlin but it too got away but he did catch a Sail. Luis also hooked a Marlin but too he escaped during the battle also sighted this day was another South American visitor this one being a Humpback whale.

The journey home produced YFT's close to 100 pounds and six Dorado in the 40 to 50 pound range. As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words so take a look and enjoy. Piñas Bay is definitely the number one spot. All of us that fish Coiba feel the same if we had to choose between the two it's Piñas by a unanimous decision.