Hannibal Bank showed us all.

[ksong]

Eight fishermen from different places of the world made a journey to ffice:smarttags" />Panama from April 18.
Jin and Kim flew from Korea, Bret from Texas, Peter and Raza from NY, David and his wife Catherine from NC, and Don and myself from NJ.
Two fishermen from NJ couldn’t make the trip as they were denied at the check-in counter due to VISA problems.

Bret, David, Peter and Raza were assigned to fish with Capt Macho and the rest of us fished with Capt Sergio.

Our boat encountered slow fishing for the first 2 ½ days.
On the first day, we went to Montuosa and trolled in the morning for nothing. We tried to jig for while and I hooked up a marlin while reeling a small fish caught on my flat hammered diamond jig and fought for a while with a tiny 2/0 size Jigging Master reel before the marlin spit the hook. I saw the leader line two ft above the jig got frayed by the bill. By noon, we saw birds and dolphins were working nearby and we ran to them.
Indeed, tuna were among them, but we couldn’t get any hit from our big poppers though we saw other boats landed them on poppers and baits. Sergio kept saying we should use baits for them, but I opted to use jigs and poppers as the primary purpose of the trip is jigging and popping. Indeed, Macho’s group landed 7 – 8 small tuna with baits.

On the second day, I opted to fish Hannival Bank as Macho landed a 450 lbs black marlin on Hannival Bank yesterday and Montuosa didn’t look promising.
However the problem was we had to go to Montuosa to get baits as it was very hard to get baits in Hannival Bank,
We arrived at Hannival Bank around 11:00 am after getting baits in Montuosa.
Fishing was very slow, but I felt it was just a matter of time when marlin/tuna started to resume bites as there were tons of baits.
We had a couple of run-off and that was it for the day.

On the third day, we decided to fish inshore for popping in the morning before heading for Hannival Bank in the afternoon. While Macho’s group had a decent inshore popping, we encountered slow popping. After getting some nice skipjack, we headed for Hannival Bank. As soon as we got there, we were optimistic as Macho’s group landed a nice 140 lbs yellowfin. However slow fishing continued until we saw some surface action of tuna.
We ran to them and I immediately hooked up a small Yellow Fin Tuna on 3 0z Robert Ranger lure.
After I lost the lure while fighting a few tuna with it, I switched to Shibuki lure and caught two immediately. Dan landed a decent Yellow Fin Tuna with Tady surface iron. It was his first ever Yellow Fin Tuna on a casting lure. I also landed a small Yellow Fin Tuna with a hammered diamond jig by casting. Jin continuously cast a big popper for nothing.

Fourth day. It was a big day for us. When Sergio asked where I wanted to fish, I said “Hannival Bank !” I smelled fish at Hannival Bank.

Though we didn’t get any hit for a while trolling live baits on Hannival Bank, we were optimistic as a couple of boats landed marlin already.
By 11:00 AM, finally we hooked up a nice marlin. Jin fought the fish, but the leader line was cut by the bill of the marlin when the marlin jumped out of water. Still marlin eluded us. After catching smaller tuna on slow trolling with live bait, we had a nice run. I thought it was a big marlin, but I suspected it could be a big tuna as the fish went deep. Jin and myself fought the fish over an hour with full drag ( 35 lbs), but the fish refused to come up.
I landed a 283 lbs cow within 45 minutes when I fished with Capt Manny out of PV a few years ago, but this fish fought harder. I thought this cow could be close to 300 lbs.
I was a little bit disappointed to see the fish was about 220 – 240 lbs when the tuna came up to the surface. When the mate pulled the leader for gaffing, the hook got loose and the big tuna swim away slowly only a few feet away from gaffing range.
There was a silence on the boat for a while as nobody wanted to talk. Sergio quietly rerigged and started trolling. Within 15 minutes we had another hit. It was a marlin !
Jin fought the marlin all the way. The marline jumped many time to entertain us. We finally got the leader and released it. I was so happy that Jin got his wish and caught his first marlin ever.

Final day. I didn’t hesitate to go back again to Hannival Bank. On the way to Montuosa, we encountered tuna surface action and I hooked up a small tuna on Range lure immediately. It was uneventful for a while on Hannival Bank until we hooked up a nice fish on trolled live bait by 11:00 AM. Dan fought the fish as he missed action yesterday because he had conference call for work yesterday. We knew immediately we had a tuna, but I thought it was about 100 – 150 lbs range as it didn’t take much line initially. However the fish got bigger and bigger as fight continued. Dan was sweating and was in pain. I offered Jin would fight for him, but he was determined to land the fish himself.
After a long fight, the cow came up to the surface and we didn’t lose this time. It was a little smaller than yesterday’s, but I thought it could make a 200 lbs mark.
At the dock, the fish weighed at 202 lbs after spend 6 hours on the boat without much ice.
After celebrating the catch, we trolled again, but we couldn’t get any more bites though Macho landed two marlin. While trolling, all water around our boat erupted by hundreds of football size yellowfin tuna apparently chased by marlin.
We picked up popping rods immediately. I had an instant hit on my Ranger lure, but I dropped it while fighting. Jin switched to Ranger lure after fruitless effort with big poppers. It didn’t take long when Jin had a nice tuna on the Ranger while I had one at the same time. Mine got away, but Jin could manage to land the tuna which turned out to be a 100 lbs Yellow Fin Tuna ! It was his first ever tuna on a popper. After his catch, we ran to the lodge.
There is no better way to end the trip like this. We all knew we had extra-ordinary trip and everybody wanted to come back..
Thanks for John and crew of Panama Sportfishing Lodge to make us to enjoy our trip and fulfill our .dream.

Pictures and other discussions will follow.

[Ali]

That sounds awesome!

Let's see some pics!

[ksong]

All jigs worked, but no jig outfished simple, cheap hammered diamond jigs.

[ksong]

We spent limited amount of time for inshore popping as we concentrated on offshore fishing.

[ksong]

Popping tuna was our main menu of the trip and we were not disappointed. Though we didn't land a big tuna on poppers on this trip, it was so fun to chase tuna on surface lures.
Roberts Ranger lures were the star of all lures on this trip.











double hookups




Jin is a happy man.

[johndtuttle]

wtg SLAYERS!!

[ksong]

I don't really enjoy any kind of trolling unless I do it myself.
However, I admit slow trolling with live skipjack is deadly for big tuna and marlin. Originally I planned to drift instead of troll for the whole trip, but I had to revise my plan to allow trolling as other fishermen had to have chances to enjoy fighting big tuna and marlin, especially when we had very slow fishing initially.



[IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/ksong/panama04-18-09327.jpg
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[ksong]

fun begun after fishing.

Jin celebrating his first ever marlin catch.


Kim was invisible during fishing, but he was vividly alive at night.







food was a big part of our trip.
We went to David for dinner at a chinese restaurant and they served with grouper and snapper we caught.


]




lunch at a nice waterfront restaurant in Panama City

[ksong]

Everybody brought lots of gears for the trip. The dominant spinning reels were Shimano's Stella along with Daiwa Saltiga, Accurate Twnspin or Shimano Saragosa reels. For conventional jigging reels, we had Daiwa Saltiga 40/40Z/50, Shimano Trinidad 40N/40/50, Ocea Jigger 4000p/5000P, Everol 12/20, Jigging Master PE4 reels, etc.
The rod choices were Carpenter, Ocean Revolution, Smith 80P/35, some custom popping rods and OTI's 8'6" popping rods.
We had varieties of jigging rods including OTI jigging rods, Jigging Master 500g, 400g, 350g Power Spell rods, Seven Seas, Calstar 700H, etc.




At the end of trip all felt to minimize tackles to bring as we didn't need them all and airline regulations.
Two popping rods and two jigging rods, one for light and one for heavy, are preferred unless you want to test some tackles.
As I previously mentioned, the COPA personnel at check-in counter at JFK gave us hard time and we had to pay $75 per each rod case.
To justify his action, he wrote down my rod case length as 91 inches though I had a 6'5" rod cases. He added width, height and length. @(
He originally said the length of the rod case allowed is 62 inches until I said sporting goods had different regulations.
They didn't say anyting at COPA check-in counter at Panama City and let our rod cases without any penalty. Apparently the issue was not the regulations, but the person at the COPA check-in counter at JFK airport. Avoid COPA at JFK if you bring rod cases.
Peter's group encountered another problem at a security point in Pamama City airport. They didn't allow to carry on butt section of rods. @( One security personnel said the bottom section of rods can be used as weapon. :?
In any case, two piece popping rods have to be used for travelling by air. Japanese rod cases are sort, small and thin, but very expensive.
However Japanese rod cases are not expensive anymore for me after I paid penalty.
popping
I brought 7'6" OTI popping rod, 8' Smith 80P/35 custom rod and 8'6" OTI custom rod rated 60 lbs. I used OTI 8'6" 60 lbs rod exclusively for the trip as I wanted to cast farther and majority of tuna were small. The choice of reel was Accurate Twinspin SR20 filled with 65 lbs Tuf line.
I was very happy with the performance of SR20. Turning handle is very smooth and drag was exceptional. this reel is going to be my main popping reel for any tuna under 120 lbs. The only complaint of the reel is the line capacity for big tuna. I feel I could land a big tuna with the reel as long as it has enough line capacity.
For the first two days, I used big poppers for tuna, but I didn't get any strike. I brought a few Robert Ranger lures for popping roosterfish or cubera snappers. As tuna moved very fast, I thought it could be a good idea to use Ranger lures by cranking fast and it worked !! For the rest of the trip, I exclusively used the Ranger lures with success. I feel three oz Ranger lures are good for tuna for action and performance though Jin landed a 100 lbs Yellow Fin Tuna with 4 oz Ranger lure. I am not going to go tuna popping without Ranger lures in the future trips.
I used assist hooks and treble hooks for Ranger lures, but I didn't like treble hooks for Ranger lures at all as the line got tangled with the treble hooks so many times and I dropped too many tuna with treble hooks. @(


Jigging
We did not concentrate on jigging much, but Macho's group jigged grouper or snapper. They reported the best jigs for them were cheap hammered diamond jigs. I am not surprised because hammered diamond jigs have been my favorite for tuna or bottom fishing for long.
In fact, I brought about 2 dozen of my favorite 7.5 flat hammered diamond jigs and few Japanese long jigs for this trip. At the end of trip, I gave away all my hammered diamond jigs to other fishermen.
I feel short jigs are better suitable for bottom fish than Japanese long jigs. When AJ are around, I'd rather use Japanese style long jigs.
I used Jigging Master PE4 jigging reels for the whole trip. The size is very similar to Avet SX, but JM reel have 27 lbs max drag and it doesn't show binding problems as you experience with Avet SX or other small lever drag reels.
I fought 5 minutes with a marlin on the reel when a marlin took a small fish which was caught on a jig. The marlin took over 200 yard of line on 18 - 20 lbs drag. When the marlin stoppped to run, I thought I could land the marlin with the reel, but unfortunately the leader line got cut by the bill of the marlin.
I don't think there is any reel in its class for the strength and max power except Everol 6/12. I am going to test the reel more extensively for tuna. I feel I can land any tuna under 100 lbs with the small reel. However the future of the reel is after service as I have no clear idea how to provide after service for the reels.
JM PE4 reel

I brought Everol prototype 12/20 and Bret used the reel. Bret said the reel performed very well.
As we opted marlin and tuna mainly, we didn't try most of gears we brought. When I come back to Panama again, I would do the same thing as Coiba regions are famous for marlin and tuna.

[Ali]

Awesome Pics Kil! Great explanation on the tackle as well.

I want to do a popping/jigging trip to panama soon and this will really help.

[masonbo]

Just visiting the past good memories and looking forward to 2010!!

[SD Carp]

thanks for the detailed report........awsome pics