Panama Fishing Report - Black Marlin Double Header & Inshore Action! - Jan 13-28. 2014

The Jeff and Denny Balkwill joined us to get away from the bitter cold of Canada and get a shot at a Marlin. It was a bit tough for us offshore with the Marlin bite.  We were at it each of the four days we fished but it was a bit slow. We missed a couple of shots but finally did have one nice Blue Marlin eat a live Bonito at Isla Montuosa. Jeff fought hard for this one! If you have ever battled a BIG fish on stand up gear you know what I mean!!! After 45 minutes we had a 300# Blue Marlin boatside and almost ready for the wire, tag, & photo op when the rod tip snaps! My mate Johnny grabs the leader and has the fish boatside almost ready to grab the bill and the 200# fluorocarbon leader pops! Dang it! It's a release...but we want that tag and photo for the record books!  The rest of the week Denny seemed to have more luck at grabbing the rods when the fish hit than her husband Jeff. Offshore was a bit slower than the inshore with these guys and we did well with the Roosterfish and Blue Trevalles.
 

Joe Bussiere and his motley crew of buddies from New Hampshire...Joe, Shannon, and Chad...were the second group of anglers to fish and stay with us. These guys were a lot of fun!! The first day of the trip...things were looking a bit slow after trolling the plastics for a couple of hours at Isla Montuosa. We were targeting Marlin and the conditions were right...blue clear water & lots of bait around. All of the sudden the right long gets hit and a Black Marlin is grey hounding toward the boat! I jam the throttles to get the hook set, pull away from the fish, and get the line tight. He's hooked well... and Chad is strapped into the harness doing work with the 8/0 Shimano Tiagra. As the rest of us are frantically reeling up and getting the other lures out of the water...we see a black and neon blue flash behind the boat and another Black Marlin comes up and hammers Joe B's lure right behind the starboard engine!! Joe acts fast and keeps the rod tip away from the motor's lower unit, to keep the line from breaking, as the fish swims right at him and under the boat. I swing the boat around after the line is clear and we have ourselves a Black Marlin double header!!! Unbelievably both fish cooperate, not wrapping lines, and after 30 minutes or so we have the first fish wired at the boat, and almost ready for a pic and tag, and leader pops! He must have been bill wrapped? A few more minutes go by and the second fish a little bit bigger than the first is at the side of the TOP Cat, tagged, picture taken, and released! What an awesome experience for everybody! It's hard enough to have everything go right and get a single Marlin release...let alone to hook a double header and get both of them to the boat! We have had double hook ups a few times over the years here on Marlin....but never been able to get them both boat side for successful releases.

 

The rest of the days with the boys from New Hampshire were hard to top after the emotional high of the first day! We had a couple of more shots at billfish in the spread the following days but were unable to convert for Marlin. We did tag and release a couple of nice Sailfish. We caught a few decent Dorados while trolling for Marlin but there didn't seem to be many around. Joe Baroni while working a popper on the "high spot" at Isla Montuosa caught a world class size Mullet Snapper that is one of the biggest I have ever seen! A couple of nice Cubera Snappers and a last minute Roosterfish were a couple of other highlights from a pretty productive trip with these guys! Check out the link to the review that Joe B. just posted to our Trip Advisor page...
 

 

Enjoy the pics!