10-22-2001, 01:36 AM
Capt. Alex Livingston and I hosted Dr. Vince Ward and his father Herman during the week of 15 Oct 01. After spending the night in Panama City, they arrive at the lodge late morning for an afternoon of fishing off Isla Cebaco. We arrived at Hutch reef about 12:30 PM with much surface activity and baits marking on the fish finder so we immediately started jigging for baits. Our first bait was rigged and in the water within minutes. We pulled the rigged bait behind the boat as we chased more baits for the live well. The first table fish was a 20lb Peruvian Amberjack jigged up by Vince on chrome finished "iron". Soon after the AJ was boated, something big took the rigged bait. Herman had a hard 15-minute fight that produced a #48 Roosterfish. The live baits produced another smaller Roosterfish and five more AJs in the 30-45lb range. We arrived back to shore around 5:30 pm. <br>Day two we ran due West to Canalas, near Isla Coiba. We were fast trolling two CD-14 Magnum Repalas with the front hook removed, near Wahoo rock around 8:45 am. The Wahoo bite was on with the first pass producing a Wahoo in the boat and two unintentional releases just out side of gaff range. The bite continued until just before 10:00 am when we boated our 7th morning Wahoo. During the 1-1/2 hour bite, every pass produced strikes. Herman took the fish hooked on Repalas and Vince would pop and jig with irons and poppers. The poppers produced several spectacular strikes but no hookups. The irons proved deadly when thrown about 15' behind the hooked Wahoo. 3 of the 7 fish caught in the morning were on an iron. All fish were in the 35lb range. The remaining morning was dead so we moved to Las Uvas about 8 more miles down the coast. The afternoon was also slow with only one Wahoo taken on an orange marauder. The run back to the lodge was bumpy but we still made good time getting back to shore at 5:45.<br>Day three Capt Alex took Vince and Herman South of the lodge. They found the water muddy with streaks of clear emerald green. They quickly found larger Wahoo near Jorge’s rock. Two Wahoo were boated and many were lost. They popped up large Cubera Snapper but no hookups. Other keep included Travelly, Snapper, Grouper, Pompano, Yellow-fin Tuna, and Amberjack, all caught around Jorge’s and Aguja reefs. Around 1:00 pm they moved back in to Hutch7 off Isla Cebaco. There as no surface activity but baits were marking and easy to find. Vince lost a long hard fight with something very big but otherwise, there was no more activity at Hutch7. They finished the day inshore at Alex's favorite Corvina hole. No fish were found there so they returned back to shore at 5:00 pm. <br>The last day, I took Vince and Herm back down South to look for a Smoker Wahoo after a short westerly detour to Hutch7 for baits. Baits again were easy; we had the live well full with goggle eyes in about 20 minutes. We fast trolled with CD14s over Jorge's rock by 7:45 am. Except for a 20lb Yellow-fin Tuna, an hour of trolling lures produced nothing. We changed over to slow trolling and drifting live baits and popping the white water and high spots. About 9:00 am, Vince popped up a huge Cubera snapper that quickly severed his favorite store bought red and white popper from the line. A few minutes later, something big took a rigged bait that Vince fought hard for about 10 minutes. It turned out to be a large roosterfish about the same size as the large one caught three days earlier on Hutch7. Another hour of live baiting produced nothing more. I resisted the urge to move on offshore to Aguja reef until after low water at 10:45. We started fast trolling again just before the tide change. I soon found the Wahoo's thick about 1000 meters North of the spots we were concentrating on earlier. The strikes were consistent and the Hoo's were big with the larges weighing in at 68lbs and the smallest at 45lbs. We boated 8 fish and lost about the same, usually on double hookups. We left the that spot with the Hoo's still biting at 1:00 pm to run out to Aguja reef for deep live baiting. The reef had no surface activity but the fish finder was marking thick. We dropped live baits down for several passes over the high spot peaking at 135' off a 300' bottom. An hour of this produced nothing so we went back to where the Wahoo were earlier for some more fast trolling. We caught one more nice fish before heading home. We returned to the lodge at 4:00 pm where Vince's driver was dutifully waiting. After a hot shower and meal, they were back on their way to Panama City with two 100-quart coolers full of fillet and steaks. In the morning they had plans to fish for peacock bass in Lake Gatun with local native guides before returning to California. Weather conditions were near perfect with mostly sunny days, some light showers and calm to moderate seas. Each night had heavy rains for about 4 hours that made for very restful evenings. <br><br>See pictures at: http://www.panamasportsman.com/vince2vis...<br><br><A HREF="http://www.panamasportsman.com" target="_new">http://www.panamasportsman.com</A>