Fishing a Roosterfish was a whole adventure
The 35-nautical mile cruise through the open ocean from Panama to the first islands of the Pearl Islands Archipelago goes across three main drops. As you cruise, you will immediately notice you arrive at them as wildlife starts to flourish. Birds, bait balls, and even dolphins.
Initially, we didn’t go out with the idea of fishing a Roosterfish; we just wanted a good monster. On this day, we did an early start at dawn; we were on board our Viking sport yacht with three anglers. They went straight into the inner cabins for a morning nap while the captain steered the vessel at cruising speed. This continued until he suddenly slowed down since the first drop showed signs of life, with frigate birds doing circles.
Things start to get interesting
The captain went to trolling speed, and lines were in the water. In less than 5 minutes, boom! The first bite of the day was a decent-sized bonita. While some fishermen ignored them, our crew knew that was a sign of potential tuna. The captain decided to reel in lines and go deeper water up the next drops to maximize time.
After a few miles, it was evident we were on the next drop. In this case, there were some aggressively swimming dolphins. This meant hunting mode! Normally, dolphins approach boats to play, but in this case, they completely ignored us because they were chasing their prey.
The captain decided to move ahead of the dolphins. He dropped lines, and magic started happening for around two hours. We were getting yellowfin tuna bites; we even had two times rods go at the same time!
Clients signaled the captain to stop for a quick rest at the Pearl Islands when their arms and shoulders started feeling sore.
As the captain approached the outer reefs of the islands, he noticed some blue runner bait balls. He suggested a 10-minute fish around the structure, and two lines were hit immediately!
The first fish was a giant trevally. The second line took a lot of lines, and the crew was still confused between a cubera snapper or some kind of bottom-species monster. But as the fish got closer, we could see its colors. It was quite whitish, and there it was: a huge roosterfish.
