 Just back from Panama
My wife and I just got back from four days at Tropic Star Lodge in Panama.
The first interesting thing was meeting Sherie Wilson from the Coral Star coming down in
the elevator the day we flew to the lodge. That’s the second time I ran into someone I
know in Panama. Last year it was John Demaio a fellow captain from here in Montauk
who I met on a street corner.
The first day started out in typical Tropic Star fashion, catching bonitos to be used as
rigged strip baits. The run to the bonitos was about 45 minutes, and once we got them, we
headed halfway back to the lodge to go after the sailfish. We wound up getting eleven to
the boat, but the highlight was my adventure with the fly rod. As soon as I hooked up I
realized I had a problem. The reel malfunctioned and the spool wouldn’t stay in the reel
body, leaving me with no drag. I had to fight the fish in free spool, using my palm to apply
pressure. When the fish wasn’t running I could crank line onto the spool, but if he wanted
to take off, I had to get my knuckles out of the way quickly and get the palm back into
position. As soon as I got the fish within about twenty feet of the boat, I decided enough
was enough, and the fish was either going to come the last couple of feet or he was going
to break off, which is what he did.
The second day we fished along the beach, or more acurately rocks, since there is very
little beach. In the first fifteen minutes I landed a 65 pound rooster. It was slow going but
about an hour later I hooked up with what we thought was an even bigger rooster. The
first run had to be close to a hundred yards. After a fifteen minute or so fight I had it
within fifty feet or so of the boat and the mates were gloving up to grab it when the
captain yelled down that it was a robalo, which changed things to gaff mode. All I could
see was about two feet of green back, but the captain was yelling that it was the Spanish
equivilent of a “snookasaurus”. Unfortunately, the knife-like edge on it’s gills cut the 100
pound leader, so we’ll never know how big it was, but Captain Maso thought it was at
least fifty pounds, maybe as much as sixty. We continued trolling the live baits until
around noon picking up a couple of twenty pound roosters and the decided to try for the
sails. Here in Montauk when things are slow offshore, a captain might suggest heading
inshore to catch some stripers or blues. At Tropic Star, when it’s slow, you go catch some
sailfish instead. But by the time we decided to do that the sun was out with a big blue sky
(the only day we saw sun) and absolutely no breeze - oil calm - and I guess the fish didn’t
like it. We raised a couple but couldn’t come tight on them.
The third day was back for the sails, and we released eight fish. The highlight of the day
was when I raised one on my spinning rod and had to drop back to it three times before
hooking up. Just as I came tight another fish came up, which also took a couple of shots
to hook up, all while my fish was running out line. Eventually my line ran out with that
“crack” sound. But my wife got hers.
Day four we went back looking for my snook without any luck. We managed to get bit a
half dozen times or so, but the fish that we raised must ahve been too small for the baits
because we never came tight. But, the sailfish were biting so we headed for the fleet. We
dind’t get the third bait out before we had a double on, and for the next hour had the most
spectacular saifishing I’ve ever seen. Only once were we able to get the third bait out, and
immediately hooked a triple, one of which got off after a couple of jumps. Every hook up
was a double. We didn’t convert each fish, but in the approximately hour that the bite
lasted we got eight fish to the boat, and they were all big fish, 120 pounds and better.
Then someone threw a switch and it was over. My wife said she was glad that we didn’t
have to do that again tomorrow. Too much work.
Capt Gene Kelly
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