In search of the Rooster fish – Fishing in Panama
The day started early. When fishing in Panama, as in any place in the world, the earlier the better. At 5:50 am we were on our way to the fishing grounds and as we approached the archipelago, we found some bait around, so we decided to troll. 5 minutes later we had our first fish, a big pacific bonita. Since our goal was to do some live bait fishing, we reeled in the lines and continued to cruise to the islands.
As we reached the islands, a storm hit so we moved to an island looking for shelter. When we reached the island shore, we got some live bait as the storm ceased. We then set course to punta cocos which is a well-known fishing bank, but we turned back because the wind was picking up.
We got our first fish!
As the storm ceased, we had no doubt in our minds that we were going to find some big fish around Isla del Rey, the biggest island of the archipelago.
We then started sounding the bottom for some action and found a spot at 60 feet of water, dropped our baits and waited 30 mins and, as we were discussing changing spots, the rod just went off. We had something big on the line! It was a good 15 min fight till we finally saw the fish, a big 25-pound amberjack, just what we were looking for. With excitement, we put in new baits and repositioned the boat, but didn’t get any more bites there.
Double header Rooster fish!
Once again we were sounding the bottom and looking for a new spot. About 6 miles from the previous spot we found some action, at 50 feet of water.
With our last 2 baits, we knew the trip was getting to an end, however, we never expected what was about to happen. We dropped our baits and decided we will only give 20 minutes till we head off. Surprisingly, 5 minutes after one of the rods went off. As we decided who was going to take it the other rod also went off, and the battle started.
We had no idea what was on the other side of the line. The fight went on for about 20 minutes till we saw some color, and the adrenaline kicked in: it was the first rooster fish any of us had caught and to make it better, we caught two!
We got both fish on board, snapped some pictures and quickly released them. In conclusion, this trip was unbelievable and, even though we had to change our course mid-way because of the weather, it was all a success and we came back home very happy and wanting for our next adventure to begin. Fishing in Panama is always a pleasure!
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