Bret Baker

Been a while since I had a Panama report, sorry about that! Kil Song and some of his friends from Korea just came over here to film a TV show. First they hit Cape Cod and then down to Panama for a few days….here is his report **************************** We had a great trip in Cape Cod. Shin could fight two bluefin, one on Tailwalk Gunz and one on Sevenseas Hooker jig on Thursday. We left Boston for Panama next day and had a blast in Panama. On the first day(Sat), we had a 350 lbs black marlin within 30 minutes after trolling and Shin fought the marlin all the way by using his prototype jigging rod. The rod is amazing. I plan to introduce them in the US with my specs. The rods can revolutionize concepts of rods as it can lift over 300 lbs and as soft as glass rod and as light as graphite rod. We had a few shots at marlin, but we missed. One big black marlin estimated at 600 - 700 lbs was chasing baits on surface just 30 yards away from the boat, but I couldn't believe I couldn't cast a popper though my popping rods was ready just beside me. Instead, I was looking for a camera. We decided to go inshore for a half day on the second day as we planned to fish peacock bass in Panama Canal on third day instead of chasing marlin/tuna. We will be the only group who choose peacock bass fishing instead of marlin/tuna. but we didn't regret it. We fished roosterfish/cubera snapper only three hours. Shin could fight a few jacks which we jokingly said they are Panamanian GT. Shin caught his biggest GT of 52 kg in Komodo. While Shin was reeling in a small jack caught on a popper, a big cubera snapper attacked it, but the fight didn't last long as his 50 lbs leader line got broken. I had a huge hit on my Dorado Slider and I found a huge scale like tarpon's on a hook. Capt Macho said it was a monster cubera snapper. We had a nice 30 - 35 lbs roosterfish on live bait which was trolled while we were popping. It seems roosterfish were there, but they just ignored our poppers on that particular day. On the third day, we fished peacock bass in Panama Canal on John's trailered Boston Whalers with a hired guide. I never dreamed I would fish Panama Canal and I never thought there are pristine waters in the Canal. It's been long time since I enjoyed bass fishing. Shin was also avid bass fishermen. Both of us enjoyed tremendouly fishing around rain forest. We even had a few monkey on our boat as they look for food. They visited many different parts of world for filming, but they said this trip can’t be topped. Shin already said you would be back to NY/Panama with other group from Korea for bluefin and marlin/yft. We are leaving for NJ today. If my work schedule allow me, I'd like to guide them for one more trip. It will be bluefin jigging/popping in Cape Cod again or AJ jigging in NC. Because of my computer problem, I can not upload pictures. I post a few pictures which John posted on bloodydeck. Thanks John of the Panama Sportfishing Lodge for accomodating us and spent his time with us. I have no doubt the TV show filmed in Cape Cod and Panama will be a big hit in Korea.

come on down on the trip ive got going in january. got some great anglers

sorry guys these links should be OK now

Here is the most recent report from john at panama sport fishing lodge ********* Well it is second week of September (Off season), my friend Dr.Samuel Cattan wanted to fish for Wahoo , since the bites for hoos have been good lately but somehow this year the smaller fish don’t seem to wanna grow. Nevertheless we decide to head out with Capt. macho and Capt. Sergio , I was so sure that the fish is going to show up at Isla Ladrones that when we where boarding the boat Capt. Macho ask me where I plan to fish , I said without hesitation , Isla Ladrones ! After running for 50 minutes, we got to Ladrones and start trolling for wahoo , 15mins. of pulling we finally hook one decent size hoo. I don’t want to sound spoiled but that is just too slow fishing!! we then decide to catch bonitos and see if we can get a Black Marlin or YFT. Making bait was also slow and Isla ladrones looks dead, so I told Macho to head to isla Montuosa , which is only a 45 minute run on our boat. Half way there , we passed a log full of baitfish , but what a surprise no big fish feeding on them, we got a few blue runners on sabikis and continue to Isla Montuosa, we put 2 liveys out as soon as we got there, one on my OTI extreme rod with Stella 20000 and another on a heavier rod 50w Tiagra. Less than 5 mins later, a huge tail fin came behind the bait and without hesitation inhaled one of the bonito’s!! As much as I wanted to catch a marlin over 500lb. on my coffee grinder, i am glad later that it took the heavier tackle. We have caught over 90 marlin this season , but everybody agreed this was toughest fighting fish we had this year. As much as i am embarassed to say that the rod was passed around from Samuel to me , then to Sergio and Macho. It was good to see them fight a Marlin for a change - Macho said that he have not fought a Marlin in 6 years. Splitting the fight about half an hour each , max drag on the overheating Tiagra thumbing the spool at the same time, she still took almost all the line 4 times and jump everywhere!! I can say this fish whooped our asses, you have to be in the boat to laugh about the whole fight , fighting the fish stand up on full drag , each one of us wants to bring the fish in without passing the rod,but everybody cried ,” take the rod”, the fish is conservatively over 600lbs - but I would say she fought like she is around 800lb. Anyway after passing around the rod for 2 hours , we finally got the leader next to the boat and release this brute which i say was still very green. After all the high fives , I told Macho to head back to Isla ladrones and let’s catch some Tuna , he gave me a weird look , but I told him that I am sure that the YFT was going to be on the west side of the Island ( lucky guess). I guess timing is everything cause when we got to Isla ladrones , we found Birds and porpoise going at it with the Tunas under neath. I threw an OTI JIg and got a bite on the first crank up but these fish were moving really fast so we tried popping and throwing live bait out. We got some good action on YFTs , A Big Black Marlin , one wahoo. Not a bad day fishing in Sept. and blue skies as well , enjoy the pics.

It looks like another crazy trip! ************** We headed from Isla Montuosa towards Isla Ladronas looking for the birds and dolphins that had been productive three of the last four days about 50 miles offshore in the middle of the Gulf of Chiriqui. John Delacruz of Panama Sportfishing Lodge had identified 2 currents of different temperature running in opposite directions via satellite imaging in the area and it had been concentrating bait along the break. After running for about 45 minutes from Montuosa we found them big time and it was game on: At first we had found them a bit scattered as small pods of dolphins chased bait with Yellowfin underneath in quick moving run and gun fishing. We got a quick coupla fun fish in the 40-60 lb class: But off to the southeast at the edge of the Dolphins we came across this and it was holding BIG TIME. Its hard to appreciate strictly from the pictures but the Log was holding a small cloud of scared looking Triggers, Dorado in the 15-50+ pound class randomly milling around looking to kill **** and underneath it all, if you peered down deep just barely at color, a huge school of Yellow Fin of mixed sizes from 50-175+ lbs would cruise by to let everyone know the big boys were watching for anything little to step out of line: We threw poppers and swim baits like these from River to Sea and this Smith Baby Runboh that is so easy to fish in a surface bite it's ridiculous. The big poppers take a fair amount of work to move well and produce enough commotion to get attention but the Baby Runboh you just reel and give an occasional twitch and it just gets destroyed. Rods were 8' 6" OTI Tuna Snipers with Stella 1800SW that were provided by PanamaSportsfishing Lodge and were in fine condition. It was so WFO and we were so well equipped that we were trying to only target the big Bull Dorado of 5' plus that were mixed in as even though the jig bite for small 5-10 lb. Dorado had been steady all week while trolling the shelves from Hannibal to Montuosa or from Montuosa to Ladronas (Thieves) we were ready for some larger models. Note the untended fish hanging in the starboard rod holder. John tossed the last of the live bait at them and got into a nice grade with the biggest sadly lost at the boat . We also threw cut bait at them and hung a big chunk on a rod that would occasionally go off with a hooked Dorado that we just let swim around to keep his buddies fired up until he threw the hook. Rinse and repeat. Basically anything in the tackle box was working, goofy broken back plugs, butterfly style jigs, live/cut bait, poppers or stick baits. Then I tossed the Baby Runboh about 10 feet short of the log and was greeted with a nice big boil after one twitch. This thing was mean and it turned out one of the bigger model YFT had risen from deep beating out all the Dorado and smaller models to inhale the lure. The Pain was about to begin. I was into the fish for about 30+ minutes and it was seriously putting the hurt on me. In general the 8'6" Tuna Snipers were a joy but the extra length was now working against me. John thought I was just a Choucha but this was the sort of fish that required two people just to get the rod properly seated in the rod belt when under load. Try hanging 25 lbs off the end of your favorite 8'6" rod and holding it for 30 minutes without a harness and you'll get an idea of what it's like. The Fish settled straight below the boat and to be honest, I just couldn't raise it. When I needed rest, the fish got rest too and we were dead locked. Reluctantly we decided to tag team the fish and John took a turn. He went from thinking I was a @#$%& to "HOLY &*@$ THIS FISH IS STRONG" over the next 15 minutes basically making no progress whatsoever raising the fish from straight below the boat with a rod that was too long for us versus this fish. Finally, we actually hand lined it in from just below color to see just what the hell we had gotten into. It was that or cut it off as otherwise we couldn't land it. It went 120lbs at the dock so I guess we are %!#$@& :rofl:. Try the same set up against the same grade of fish and get back to me. And when judging the size of things by these photos bear in mind I am 6'3" and about 240 lbs when laying on your momma A nice selection of the catch from this one bite with my and everyone else's favorite photo model Capitan Macho. John got a nasty reminder that gloves are a good thing. Note to self: Do not palm a Stella without gloves on with a nasty YFT on the other end. Some more scenic photos to follow. It was a fantastic week with a mixed bag of fish. Small wahoo and dorado to keep you awake while trolling the shelf, huge Cubera that would rock you and leave you shaking your head as what might have been to plenty of shots at YFT near 200 lbs that a better angler would have gotten in (or not farmed the hookset). I cannot say enough about the operation that John Delacruz is operating there at Panama Sportfishing Lodge. Freshly washed clothes daily, all you can eat or drink, a super nice staff that is always at your service and top notch crews, boats and gear. Photo below is Ladronas on the way in. Known for an epic offshore bite Marlin/Wahoo/YFT/Dorado and so many reefs filled with Cubera as to be uncountable. Probably the best deep jigging left north of the Equator. Hooked up on the best fish of the trip caught on a previous day plus a crappy photo of it. We came back in Victory at Sea conditions of 25-30 knots of wind and driving rain reducing visibility to 50 yards that day. The fish taped to 62" by 48" or ~175 lbs: These are the most unspoiled waters I have ever fished. When I say it reminds you of Jurassic Park it really has to be seen to be believed.

Quick video of yellowfin hitting poppers

On the last day of his fishing expedition at Panama Sportfishing Lodge, Juan Miguel decided to hit the rocks for Roosterfish and Cuberas. Got himself a nice horse eyed Jack and more Tunas ,I have a video clip on some nice YFTs hitting poppers coming soon. We also have the local duo Robert and Andrea kicking ass on YFTs and Andrea bringing in a nice Black Marlin , unfortunately there was only video taken on the Marlin which I will produce soon , enjoy the pics.

Lately at Panama Sportfishing Lodge, the occasional rainfall didn’t stop Juan Manuel from tiring his arms out on yellowfin tuna, taking in one day 3 YFTs all over 200 lbs!! The last fish taken was weighed in at 230lbs at the dock. The other fish had to be cleaned at sea since there wasn’t enough room for them all in the boat!!! Hannibal banks and Isla Montuosa producing YFTs liked crazy. Whether it be Popping Jigging or natural bait, anything you can throw at them. They were hitting the wood before it hit the water  In addition to tuna, there were other species caught as well including cuberas, mutton snappers, amberjacks and mahi. There were a lot more tuna pictures that had to be scrapped due to the rain. What a tough problem to have! Not bad for the offseason…

Which saltiga? spinner or conventional? i love the conventionals - havent used the spinners nearly as much as stellas though. the dogfight is a great looking reel!

Hi Norm- all of the reels in thit shot are Stellas

August in Panama ! Starting out well this month with a bang! We have Juan Manuel , that flew all the way from Madrid , Spain to fish at PSFL with Macho and Sergio for 9 days!!!! I guess you can call him a die hard fisherman , his first 2 days was late action in Hannibal Banks and Isla Montuosa , on Jigging , Popping and Live bait. He got some nice YFTs between 70# to 130#, a few Snappers and all the pesky Jacks that was tearing up the jigs. Even Capt. Macho could not resist dropping an OTI jig , here are a few pics for the first 2 days of fishing , enjoy !

________________________________________ Report from Karma that stayed at Panama Sportfishing lodge July 17 Bob and son Kyle have been fishing our area the last few months , Bob did a little near shore fishing with Capt. Macho . They Left at 7a.m from PSFL heading over to Montuosa. Took about 40 min to get to the fishing grounds. Once we got there we set our bait rigs and picked up a several skip jacks and one yellow fin tuna once the tubes were loaded we set our live bait spread we had two baits in the water and as we are getting ready to put our third bait in the long rigger snaps! Kyle takes the rod and makes a solid hook up the fish comes airborne and it’s a Black Marlin. We clear deck and start the battle with the fish we are on him for 35 min. we’d have him right on the back of the boat and as soon as he felt the boat close he’d make 5 or 6 jumps and takes on deep water. We managed to bring him back after 15 min. or so grab the leader to find that he had gotten tale wrap we take the hook off and start to revive him for a good 20 min. or so but no luck. We decided to give the fish to the local fisherman from the area. Estimated 500 lbs. Back to trolling and no more than 10 min. when the short rigger snaps and starts ripping line and here we go again game on Black Marlin we clear the deck and the fish starts air borne all over the place. we started backing down on him and got the leader with in 15 min. of the fight but the fish was still too green and had to fight him for another 20 min till we got the leader again and made a clean release. Estimated weight 300 lbs. Were out of bait by now so we put the bait rigs out made bait and trolled for and hr. or so and we get a bite and it’s a medium Yellow fin tuna we manage to get it in the boat, we kept trolling but no more bites, we decide to pick up and make the run over to Hannibal Bank got there set our spread and had 2 or 3 knock downs on the big baits but just to find that it was small tunas hitting our baits. Around 5 p.m we called it a day pick up and run over to Coiba to spend the night. July 18, 2009 Left Coiba Island at 6.45a.m heading to Montuosa once we got there we made bait set our spread and started working the area, nothing much on going on just a few nervous baits. around 11.45a.m we decided to head over to Hannibal Bank once there no more than 15 min. when the first knock down Kyle get’s the rod and makes a solid hook up the Marlin comes jumping all over the place the guys clear the deck and we start working the fish after 35 min. we have leader and make a clean release. We estimated 350lbs. Black Marlin. We set our spread again and work over the high spots when one of the baits is half dead and I tell kyle to bring it in and set a new bait out in the process of doing that he get’s bit but the fish let’s go and now our other bait is freaking out when suddenly a huge boil and I was able to see the fish take our bait it was a 200 plus yellow fin tuna!! Bob sets the hook and the fish is peeling line like crazy but after a minute or two the fish comes off, so were back to trolling again. I made a few passes where we had gotten bit and our short bait gets hammered. Bob gets the rod feeds the fish I gun the boat and we got a solid hook up and the Marlin starts jumping and ripping line like crazy. we clear the deck and back down on the fish we have him to the side of the boat in 10 min. but he was still too green. He takes off again into deep water we fight him for another 30 min. or so and got color got him to the side of the boat and made a clean release, estimated weight 600lbs. Not too bad for the offseason!

Hmmm, peculiar. We can play "wheres waldo" so to speak. Can you find the bonito????

oops double post!

btw you can catch mahi as well

anytime you're ready - early january is a great time as well!!

It was a great tournament June 12th and 13th, with 75 boats participating in this Novey tournament held in Hacienda del Mar in the Island of San Jose in the Las Perlas Archipelago ( 32 to 70 miles) which is directly south of Panama City. Various categories from Billfish ,Snapper , AJ , Grouper , Wahoo, Dorado, Tuna and the big Grand Slam which award a Audi A4 (40K). I brought my team PSFL (Talento )from Chiriqui Province , headed by Capt. Macho and Capt. Sergio , Niko Mamais with his 2 boys Nicholas and Antonio (aka. Chiriqano Poppers). Since my team does not fish this area but several times a year, it gave us a bit of a challenge competing with the local teams, but all is well with a good game plan and exceptionally nice weather. We decided to hit the structure fish on Friday, then hit the Pelagics on Saturday. We made bait right away and got on a nice rock loaded with fish from top to bottom, unfortunately the fish were thinking different , they were not interested on natural bait , so I tried my luck on Jigging. I got a nice AJ ( 62.5 lbs.)on the first drop using an OTI Jig on my favorite tackle combo OTI xtreme jigging rod with a Shimano Stella 20000. Antonio got a nice AJ as well. The icing on the cake was when I hooked up on a nice Broom Tail Grouper ( 38 lbs.) on the same set up, not knowing that these fish will place 1st on each of their respective Categories! The next day the weather was not good, with some Major thunderstorm ( Lighting & 45 knot wind) keeping majority of the boats inshore or anchored in the bays like we did. I managed to hooked a nice Cabrilla Grouper (28 lbs) for the 30 minutes that we were able to fish that morning, and so we ended up spending Saturday night at Isla Contadora and went back to Panama City Sunday Morning. Even with the bad weather we still had a good time and it made us missed our home fishing ground ( Coiba region) , where we can catch all the species available on the same spot, from the Big Black Marlin , YFTs, Cuberas and ETC. enjoy the fish pics. and PTY skyline

There’s a wide array of species to catch in Panama, and a seemingly wider variety of ways to catch them! Poppers, swimbaits, live bait, cut bait and jigs can all be the ticket for large and exotic fish. Below are some random pics of fish caught on some of the above mentioned methods. Which do you prefer, the mahi or the angler??? Pompano Roosters anyone? Amberjack are plentiful…….if you want to catch them that is Blue Jacks! They call it a lemonfish

Man if you had a few of them on at once that would be total chaos.......even the small 40lbers would be nuts if you had 2 or 3 on!!!

Quick Tuna report from John at the lodge! Went fishing last Saturday, since I have a nice week off after that great Tournament that we hosted, went with my friend Dr. Cattan of David , Capt. Macho and capt. Sergio, made bait in Isla Biuda with some nice Blue Runner, so we start heading between Coiba Island and Jicaron , we encountered some nice school of Yfts in Punta Hermosa and tried Popping for them using OTI komodo popper, got one after trying for half hour, so we figure the fishes were not too interested in wood, so we start flipping the blue Runners over using my favorite spinning gear, OTI xtreme w/ Stella 20000 , I wanted to test this set up on a nice big cow , caught a few of them between 50# to 70 #, definitely a enjoyable fight on spinning , then I hook in to one and start peeling and burning line , I said oh S!@##$ !!!, Macho gets on the wheel quick , I am going to run out of line, it went like that for a 5 to 10 minutes , and then the line slack but there was still something on( half a fish) , this time I said F!@#$ ! F!@##$$ , I was so sure i had a big fish, anyway a big shark took my fish and bit it right in half, Oh well ! , we had a good day fishing got into more school near the southern tip of Coiba, weather is perfect , we did not encounter any rain at all….. enjoy the Pics! ( Yes I only have one fishing shirt ) Great shot! Check out that calm water! SHARKED! Typical scenery Interesting colors on this fish Double header!

I just wanted to share a few of the awesome bottom fishing pictures over the last couple months that have been going on. You’ll see a variety of grouper (snowy, gag, leopard) and tons of different snapper including cubera, amarillo, vermillion and red. Fish were caught on both jigs and bait – with some of the cuberas coming on topwaters! How many different snapper do you count??? Catching grouper is never an issue…

Day 4 – Snowy’s Both group went out early today end went to Montuosa to make bait then ran to Hannibal Banks , TJ hooked up on a big Tuna (over 100#) on the first cast and handed over the rod to Guy and was lost after a 10 min. fight. Our boat seemed to have the banana curse today, losing several nice fish during the fight - but the other boat did better with Jack bringing in a nice Yft in the 100# range. After a while of that it was on to the snowy’s! Hammered diamond jigs and OTI jigs were the ticket As a side note – divers were able to retriece a rod and reel thought to be lost at sea!!!

Day 4 – Snowy’s Both group went out early today end went to Montuosa to make bait then ran to Hannibal Banks , TJ hooked up on a big Tuna (over 100#) on the first cast and handed over the rod to Guy and was lost after a 10 min. fight. Our boat seemed to have the banana curse today, losing several nice fish during the fight - but the other boat did better with Jack bringing in a nice Yft in the 100# range. After a while of that it was on to the snowy’s! Hammered diamond jigs and OTI jigs were the ticket As a side note – divers were able to retriece a rod and reel thought to be lost at sea!!!

Day 3 – More tuna and some ground jigging Today brought with it more tuna on jigs and poppers for the tournament anglers. No one could match TJs tuna from Day 2, but there were some nice fish caught. In addition to these fish, the anglers enjoyed some nice bottom jigging, bringing in some jigged grouper and a cubera! Hopefully I’ll get a good cubera pic and be able to post it up =) I don’t have all the pictures yet but will keep posting them up as they come in. Enjoy! OTI Komodo popper in Mahi took this guy! Jigging Master rod and Daiwa dendoh, nteresting! Jigs were also effective! Who is gonna win it??

Day 2 – TUNA TUNA TUNA Great first day of the tournament!! While the Panamanian sunshine didn’t want to come out – the fish did! The day started at Montuosa, where the yellowfin tuna and spotted dolphin put on quite a shot. Skip Hoagland hooked up quick to a 90+ fish and TJ quickly cast out to land a 130lb yellowfin. TJ was using his OTI Tuna Sniper rod and OTI Wombat Chugger popper. That Wombat is the popper of the tournament thus far! Throughout the day everyone was hooking up on poppers. Fish were mainly from 40-80lbs. Enjoy – more again tomorrow! Heading out – first day of competition! The whole group! Nice tuna TJ! Close-up at the dock (lure included) Nice fish Group Shot – lots of tuna today! Capt Macho bringing one in!