Five Goals for Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge

Hanna and I are headed to Panama with six friends to fish the salt with a team run by Captain Shane Jarvis of Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge. This trip was arranged by my inadvertently-obtained good friend Elliott Stark (someday I’ll write about the random way in which we met) who has become my all-purpose guru for everything in this similar but foreign world. 

Part of the reason we scheduled the trip for the spring was because that’s when the big tuna go busting bait in massive multi-acre schools, and catching them on topwater was what brought us in, but there’s so much more than that – chances at billfish, inshore action for roosters and snapper, and all sorts of things that I probably haven’t considered. Yes, I’ve watched every YouTube video taken there (some of them multiple times) but I’m still hoping that there will be a few surprises. Despite the fact that just about all of this will be new to me, I am compulsively goal-oriented. I go into every trip hoping to achieve certain things, and this journey is no exception. Here are five things I want to accomplish during our week in Central America: 

• Catch a Topwater Tuna

Except in fishing situations where you have specific long-term size goals (e.g., a 10 pound bass or a 50-inch musky), I think it is folly to be disappointed by not meeting certain target weights or lengths. Sure, you can specifically focus on the larger specimens, but in my experience even then it’s a crapshoot. They’re considered trophies because they’re difficult to achieve. For the same reason, I typically think it’s foolish to feel disappointed if you don’t catch fish a certain way. Why get wedded to a crankbait when they’re turning up their noses at one to grab your partner’s Senko? With that said, I don’t care about catching a certain size tuna, but I will do my damndest to get one on a big popper. It that’s happening at all, you can be sure that I’ll pop as long as I reasonably can do so.

• Fight Through Fatigue

I’ve heard the stories of triple-digit yellowfins making anglers wish they’d never hooked them in the first place, as they dive and rip drag for hours before finally succumbing (or pulling the hook at the last, painful moment). Fishing for bass, I rarely tangle with a fish that can physically subdue me. Elliott promises that it’s all about technique and said he’ll give us a tutorial. Nevertheless, I’m sure that at some point I’ll want to cry “uncle.” My goal – and I hope my traveling companions hold me to it – is to fight through the pain and win the battle. 

• Gaff a Fish

This one may sound silly, but I want to stick it to some of our quarry – the ones that’ll end up as sashimi or some other meal. On several of our past fishing trips – most recently in Guatemala when we’ve caught mahi mahi – the mates have made it look easy. One swipe, a quick lift and the fish is in the boat. Somehow I have a feeling it’s not quite that simple. I’m willing to take a lesson, and maybe it’ll lead to future employment. 

• Ask More Questions

Despite now having spent a handful of days chasing offshore creatures, I still have very little idea about how the captains find them, how the mates rig their baits and tackle, and why certain things are done certain ways. I’m sure it varies from species to species, country to country and boat to boat, but there have to be some universal truths. I like the fact that in Guatemala we quickly graduated to doing the sailfish bait-and-switch ourselves, but I want to have a more intimate understanding of the terminology and components – the same way I’d get it if you talked about your Carolina Rig or swimbait setup. 

• Take More Video

As we’ve started to build a small YouTube presence I realize that we’ve slacked off during recent trips to El Salto and Guatemala in terms of getting useable footage on the water. The hard part, of course, is stopping fishing long enough to film someone else in the heat of battle. Alternatively, it’s a struggle to find a good place to mount a GoPro. I really hope that we come back from Panama with enough “film” to produce multiple YouTube items that are instructional, entertaining, or both. Maybe I’ll take that break after fighting through the pain and landing the yellowfin tuna of a lifetime.