After a very hectic season guiding it was time for something different, not a salmon in sight this time as my partner Gina had organised 2 weeks fishing at the world famous Tropic star lodge in Panama where we’d attempt to both tick some bucket list fish off our lists. Now this wouldn’t be any old fishing trip as we had also entered the lodges’ billfish tournament in the second week. Gina was actually returning to defend her tournament win from the previous year where she managed to bag not only top angler but top team along with the very talented artist and conservationist Dr. Guy Harvey.
The Tropic Star Lodge stands alone in Pinas Bay, where the beautiful Darian rainforest literally meets the ocean. It’s only accessible by private plane or boat and I can only describe it from the air as something out of a Jurassic park movie. After a short flight and panga ride we finally arrived at the lodge where we were met by the staff, that I have to say are simply incredible. These guys genuinely love the place and their passion for it radiates profusely. After a quick introduction and very enjoyable talk about the lodges history from Richie the manager and Ross, and some of the finest fresh sushi we were taken to our room which is 5 star quality.
The first 4 days of fishing were going be fun fishing and a good opportunity for me to properly learn the technique of pitching baits, using circle hooks and fishing live baits for marlin and sail fish in preparation for the big bill fish tournament. The first day was a little bit wet and pretty rough, actually to the extent of myself and gina being 2 of 5 out of the whole fleet of anglers not being sea sick, well maybe one of us felt a little queasy but she did well to hold it back. We spent a lot of time high speed trolling plastics to try and cover the water and raise some bill fish while also targeting dorado and yellowfin tuna, we were actually the only boat that day to come across a huge shoal of tuna and land some, obviously a couple were kept for the lodge and the guests to enjoy over the next few days, we could of caught hundreds that day be decided a handful caught and 2 kept was enough and a great sustainable way of fishing. The dorado bite was super hot with the baits being hit constantly, now these dorado are by far the largest I’ve personally seen, and in such crazy numbers, they kept us entertained all day and we finished with around 7 or 8 good fish to the boat ranging up to around 30lb in weight. What i truly love about this place is that once you you head back in from the fishing the fun doesn’t stop, everybody gets to exchange their stories from the days events over spectacular appetisers and tasty cocktails during happy our at the marlin bar.
Day 2 we decided to try and concentrate on bill fish, now with the sheer amount of huge dorado around they were going to be a guaranteed catch but not a problem (not that we would ever complain about catching fish of that quality) as they seemed to be concentrated around the huge longliners that were around 30 miles off shore. The plan was to fast trawl between the big boats to try and raise something, then live bait with bonitos around the longliners for marlin as the volume of bait around these boats were like nothing i had witnessed before. We got really lucky early in the day while trying to raise a bill fish as a marlin hit one of the stinger baits and headed for the depths and the ocean floor, we were a little bit unsure at first what wed hooked as the fish didn’t show once, but the power indicated that it was most likely a marlin, still to this day i didn’t get to see the fish as after 15 minutes and an official catch the mate skill-fully unhooked it by giving slack line and then tension and the J-hook came free and the fish swam off strongly. Throughout the day we continued with our initial tactics and managed multiple dorado to the boat, again these fish were averaging around 30lb which is credit to the eco system and the sustainable fishing methods used. It was only a matter of time before something different came onto our baits, gina quickly jumped up before id even noticed anything, she picked up a ready baited pitch rod with a bonito belly strip on and dropped it back towards a very hot sailfish that was aggressively swiping at our teasers, the fish instantly switched onto her bait, she waited the 5 seconds thats required and free lined the fish due to the circle hooks we were using and bang, she hooked the fish perfectly, it instantly danced across the surface like a ballerina, it was incredible to see as this was the first sailfish id witnessed first hand, they seem to move across the water with more elegance than a marlin but still have great power and speed. After a good 10 minute battle we had the fish at the boat, probably pushing around 90lb in weight and a perfect example of the fastest fish in the ocean, a few photos and it was carefully released.
The next 2 days we mixed the fishing up as we had to try some of the spectacular inshore fishing, now a lot of people just want to come for the bill fish, but the sheer diversity of species to catch is something that has to be experienced, a combination of popping on the surface with spinning rods which is something i love to do, and slow trolling live baits produces some of the hardest fighting fish on the planet. We stuck with both methods and they produced all manor of fish, from insane looking needle fish and jacks, to the Cubera snapper, Gina again was managing to pip me to the better fish some how landing a colossal almaco, probably the biggest I’ve seen, and a lovely marked Cubera snapper, she unfortunately got smoked by a huge rooster fish which broke the popper, she still got the enjoyment form watching the reel empty. Now fly fishing isn’t something that is done on a regular occurrence here but the opportunities are huge, the amount of surface action both inshore and offshore would give the perfect opportunity for multiple species, along with teasing sailfish and smaller marlin up and targeting them with the fly, this is something i plan on capitalising on during our next visit and future hosted trips that i will be organising to the lodge.
We both had bucket list fish that we were desperate to get ticked off the our lists and day 4 was going to be our last chance before the big competition. We could have never imagined the dramatics the day would have had in store for us. The main challenge of the day was to try and get Gina her sought after Black Marlin, baring in mind this wasn’t prime Black Marlin time and we would stand a much better chance with Blue Marlin, the odds were already against us. The plan was to motor 30 miles offshore for live bait while spend some time trying to get my sailfish ticked off the list. The bait was easy to find, all we had to do was head to the longliners, they are like magnets for bonito, schools of tens of thousands of fish all around them often with the larger predators lurking underneath. After filling the live well we spent a good couple of hours trolling plastics and live baits which resulted in finally landing my first and coveted sailfish. This fish also gave me my first opportunity to pitch a bait back and switch the fish from the hookless teaser to my dead bait. This fish came in on the teasers hot like a formula 1 race car and took the pitch. The key to getting the perfect hook up is to free line the bait with slight tension when it takes it, then put the drag up and literally reel, no striking is required when using circle hooks. These fish put on such a show when hooked, a lot of people actually miss the acrobatics by watching the reel unload rather than the fish dancing across the water, I didn’t as I’d been waiting for this moment for a long time. After landing the fish we steamed straight back inshore armed with some seriously sized bonitos that we would slow troll along the Zane Grey reef to see if any early season Black Malin were home. The plan was to try an hour of live baiting due to the size of the Zane Grey reef, if we had no luck we’d head to the rugged coastline again for some multi species action. We must of been there a good 30 minutes when one of the live baits started acting erratically then popped the outrigger clip, this time it was all Gina, she jumped up, free lined it and set the drag and what I can only describe as a gigantic prehistoric creature exploded from the water then headed straight back to the depths where it would stay for the foreseeable future. We quickly realised that this was going to be a serious battle, the fish stayed deep as if it knew exactly what to do. When marlin don’t hit the surface they retain more energy and don’t burn out as quick and can use their weight as an advantage. Gina managed to get the fish within a meter of the boat but just out of arms reach after 15 minutes, the fish then had other ideas, taking hundreds of meters of line back off the reel and taking back the advantage. A game of cat and mouse then proceeded for the next 110 minutes, every time she gained line the fish would take it back in seconds, 2 different harnesses later and pushing herself to the limit, the fish was getting closer. The whole boat worked as a team with the captain positioning the boat perfectly and backing down on the fish when needed to the point of the leader showing, the mate had one chance to grab it, no sooner had he touched the leader the fish came airborne like an exocet missile, it was colossal and we had front row seats, we went crazy, or maybe it was just me, but who cares she had done it and achieved something only some people can dream of. The captain and mate estimated the fish at around 650lb and it used every ounce of its weight during the 2 hour fight, it also turned out to be the lodge’s first Black Marlin of the season. Now you’d think that this was the end of the day, but no we had 15 minutes before lines up. We motored back to where we had the previous hook up but this time we’d been joined the Dude perfect guys who were filming their latest youtube fishing show, the captain made sure we were far enough away not to interfere but still in the hot zone. The mate had no longer just dropped the live bait over board and the reel lit up again, this time it was my turn as Gina was absolutely shattered, as soon as i had the solid hook up the fish went crazy, we couldn’t believe that we’d another black marlin, it was dead set on putting on an acrobatic show, constantly dancing across the water which was fantastic to see, so good that the other boat filming got some incredible footage, i did feel a little bad as this was the second fish we had hooked from the exact location they were fishing. This fish was a lot smaller at around 250lb which I got to the boat in around 7 minutes, but what it lacked in size it made up for in acrobatics.
It was the end of the first week and was nice to have a day off fishing, especially after the previous days antics, it was however sad good byes to everyone wed met, especially the BlacktipH guys Jake and Davis who wed spent some time with while they were there creating content. We decided to hike into the forest with one of the managers Ross to hopefully see the spectacular Harpy eagle, unfortunately the bird was not on its nest or in the area, but we did have an incredible day seeing what the panama land based eco system had to offer along with the added bonus of releasing baby turtles into the ocean, this was dream come true for both of us.
It was competition time and an opportunity for Gina to defend her title and for me to put everything I’d learned over the previous week into practice. As a standing joke due to the tightness of my t-shirts, Ritchie, the lodges manager, and Gina came up with the Team name ” Baby gap”, totally to my surprise on the official team announcement night. There would be stiff competition from some very accomplished big game anglers but every one would compete in good spirit and most importantly have fun. A total of 13 boats competed over the 2 days. The rules were simple, a marlin would be worth 300 points with a sailfish earning 100, there would also be prizes for the largest tuna and largest dorado. The first day had incredible weather and a good number of fish caught but not many bill fish and believe it or not team Baby gap came in on top. We had each managed a blue marlin, both fish taking large live bonitos slow trolled in and around the big long liners. I was lucky to get off the mark early with a nice blue around 250 pounds which took me a quick 5 minutes to get to the boat, Gina again drew the short straw hooking a very strong and erratic blue about 400 pounds that kicked her butt for around 45 minutes. I have to say again most people would have given up but she persevered and got it to the boat to bring our days total to 600 points giving us a 200 point lead. Its safe to say we couldn’t believe it, could history repeat itself? It would all come down to the last day.
We woke to totally contrasting weather from the previous day, torrential rain, a cooler temperature and bigger swell. This would make things interesting, especially for me who stupidly forgot to bring any form of light water proof on the off-chance we had some rain. The action started off with Dorado constantly hitting the big plastics, this was great fun as always but these were not going to win us the tournament. Our plan was fast troll around until we could find a long liner, get live bait and then slow troll moving from boat to boat searching for bill fish. This actually resulted in some huge dorado, one bull which gave Gina the run around, even on 50 pound gear, this fish actually turned out to be the biggest of the tournament measuring a whopping 57 inches.Even when we got bonitos, and these were a good 5 to 6 pounds, the dorado were still content on smashing them. It got to midday and after hearing multiple radio calls of fish being landed we thought the tournament was slowly slipping away from our grasp. All we could do was to continue to fish as best as possible and hope we came across some bill fish soon. After minimal bill fish activity, Gina made an executive decision to move to a new location. We powered off to different longline boat in the distance. Not but 8 minutes at our new location and a nice blue hit my bait on the right side of the boat. The fish toyed with the bait but was not hooked, the fish then proceeded to move to Gina’s side of the boat where she was ready with a dead bait. Again, the fish hit the bait but did not take the hook, we continued to wait as the fish was still there, it made one last pass back to my live bait and absolutely smashed it. The fish then headed off into the distance, I was on. Now I enjoyed every second of the fight, but as it was competition time theres always that extra bit pressure to land the fish. With the IGFA tournament regulations that no one can touch the rod or reel once the fish takes the bait it’s all down to the angler. The angler must use their skill and patience to land the fish. I was fortunate again that this marlin decided to spend more time above the surface than below, constantly dancing atop the water it burnt itself out pretty quick. I managed to get it to the boat in around 5 minutes, it was another nice sized blue around 300 pounds. Time ran away from us and the day came to a close, we couldn’t of done anymore. We had worked great as a team and took every opportunity thrown at us. Motoring back in we both had a feeling that we hadn’t done enough to take top prize, but might finish somewhere close to top 3…we hoped. We got back to the dock and noticed a lot of flags on the boats, an indicator of what’s been caught, and looking closely they were mainly dorado, tuna with few bill fish. The mental tallying of points gave us the slightest bit of hope but we wouldn’t find out the true results until the presentation later that night. After a long wait the results were in, we knew we were up there with 900 points from the 3 marlin but what was to follow would absolutely shock us to bits. As they went through the winners for each category our names came out twice, Gina managed the largest dorado of the tournament with that incredible fish caught on the second day. The biggest shock however was that I ended up top rod for the competition, the title Gina had claimed the year before. The best was still to come, already both on a high from our separate victories we were announced the official winners of the tournament. We couldn’t believe it, not only had we won a hat-trick of trophies but hadn’t killed each other after 7 days on a boat together.
I will be hosting a trip back to the lodge for opening week November 2024/25, for anyone interested please email me for full details.