Good Things at Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge.
There are lots of exciting things happening in our corner of the world. The fishing this year has been really, really good.
We’ve hosted some of our favorite partners. We’ve invested in our infrastructure, making the guest experience and our digital presence even better.
Here’s a rundown of a few things that we’ve done and a few things that we’re looking forward to. As always, we’d love to have you down to Isla Paridas to show you what it’s all about.
The New FishPanamaToday.com
We’ve invested in a whole new website. The url is the same, but the user experience is much improved. We’re proud of how it turned out.
We’ve provided a breakdown of the inshore and offshore fisheries, what to expect when you come, and more. It was our goal to make the web experience as clean, easy and professional as the fishing, food, and accommodation at the lodge. We’re super happy with the result and imagine you’ll like it too.
We’ve worked to make the booking process clean and easy. If you prefer to speak with someone, you can call Shane. If you prefer to do everything electronically, we’ve partnered with FareHarbor to create an experience and platform that is clean, professional, and seamless.
Check it out here.
In addition to making things easier on our clients, we’ve had the text and images pirated at least twice. These days, that’s how you know you’re doing things right. Too bad for them, you can’t copy and paste a tuna frenzy or a sushi platter so big that it takes two chefs to carry it.
The Fishing This Year Has Been Wide Open- Tuna Frenzies and Black Marlin
We’ve run across so many tuna frenzies that we’re starting to need new words to describe them…. Our latest term: Washing Machine. The frothing mayhem creates froth and carnage. It looks like something has turned on the spin cycle.
The calm blue waters of the Gulf of Chiriquí are transformed. Acres of crashing yellowfin. Bait flies out of the water, boobies dive into the water. Tuna birds mob the outskirts. Frigates swoop.
Our clients sling poppers, live baits and swimbaits into the carnage. The fishing has been really, really good. Like, hooking more tuna than there are anglers on the boat good. Five big yellowfin at a time— part dance, part fire drill. It’s a great thing to experience and this year the Gulf of Chiriquí has been putting on a show.
We’ve also had some really good black marlin fishing. Big fish and consistent bites. This bodes well for the fishing this summer.
We’ve Hosted a YoZuri Media Trip
We’re super grateful to have been partners with Yo-Zuri for a long time. Our buddy Chris Bishop, Yo-Zuri’s VP of Marketing in North America, loves fishing about as much as anyone you’ll find in the world.
We really like hosting Chris and the crew from Yo-Zuri. We catch lots and lots of yellowfin, dorado, roosterfish, and cubera on Yo-Zuri poppers and swimbaits. Our captains use lots of Yo-Zuri fluorocarbon, too.
It’s always great to have them down here. It’s even better when the fishing is on fire. Yo-Zuri’s film team is second to none and this trip, the tuna greeted them like old friends. We put them on frenzies and they tossed poppers and swimbaits into the washing machine.
It was awesome.
Howk Fishing: Welcome to the Gulf of Chiriquí
We’ve been working with the crew from Howk fishing for some time now. They make an incredible assortment of rods and we’ve caught lots of fish on them.
The Howk crew hails from Spain and they fish all over the world. Giant trevally fishing, all kinds of things. Their videos are great, we thought it time to show them what their rods can do in a tuna frenzy….
We welcomed them to the Gulf of Chiriquí in style. Roosterfish, tunas frenzies. Quadruple headers and sore backs and shoulders for everyone.
It’s good to have friends. It’s even better when your friends like fishing as much as we do.
Touring the Freeman Boats Factory in Charleston, South Carolina
In February, we headed to South Carolina to take a tour of the Freeman Boatworks factory. Our team, Capt. Shane Jarvis, Jay Warner, Pete Robbins, and Elliott Stark, met with Scott Cothran and Faith Sullivan to talk about all of the exciting things that happen when you put high performance center consoles into places that are surrounded by some of the best sportfishing opportunities in the world.
Our buddy Gettys Brannon, founder of the South Carolina Boating and Fishing Alliance, helped coordinate things. It was a good time. Exciting times at Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge.
Looking Forward
2026 is ramping up. We’re fired about the rest of the year generally, but we’ve got a few things that are especially interesting.
The Experience
From June 4-9, we are hosting our first ever Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge experience. It’s a showcase of what makes this part of the world so special.
Part fishing tournament, part brand experience, part introduction to Panama—all celebration. This is a first-of-its-kind event featuring:
- Brand Experiences
- Cultural and Culinary Showcases of Panama—rum and cigars
- 5 Industry Ambassadors
- Three full days of fishing in what is perhaps the best combination of inshore and offshore sportfishing in the world.
- You’ll leave with an incredible gear bag from Grundens, Yeti, Yo-Zuri and even a Yeti soft cooler full of vacuum sealed fresh tuna!
We’re pulling out all the stops—we’re inviting our brand partners, some of the brightest voices in fishing media, and our buddy Tyler Freeman, a professional videographer, to capture and publish it all.
The experience spots are sold out, but we’re working on some new high-end, collaborative spots. We can’t talk about them quite yet, but good things this way come. Stay tuned.
Sportfishing Television: August 2026
In February 2025 we hosted Sportfishing TV for three and a half days of fishing. We had a great time—tuna—big ones and lots of them, roosterfish, blue marlin, cubera snapper, and more.
The footage made up parts of three episodes that aired on the Discovery Channel last summer. We were super impressed by the quality and professionalism of their product and the people involved.
Sportfishing TV really enjoyed their time at the lodge, too. Our part of the world films well and we keep the boats on point. Not only that, the fish and the Gulf of Chiriquí rolled out the red carpet.
In short, we had so much fun last year that we’ve decided to do it again. We’ll host the Sportfishing TV crew here in August. The episodes will air sometime after that. We’re excited about it and will share more information on timing when we have it.
Come See Us. Let’s Go Fishing and Eat Piles of Sashimi. We’ll Have a Time.
BOOK A TRIP
As excited as we are to host our partners and work with TV shows, the foundation of everything that we do lies in taking care of our clients. Thank you for fishing with us, for trusting us with your time and your plans.
