Hannibal Bank
The most famous fishing landmark in the Gulf of Chiriquí, Hannibal Bank’s aggregations of black marlin and marauding packs of yellowfin tuna have been attracting traveling sportfishermen for decades. A day pulling live bonito around this high spot is a passport stamp for any serious offshore angler.
Located about 42 miles from the lodge, our boats are perfectly outfitted to show you what Hannibal Bank is all about. Check out our invitation to experience Hannibal Bank for yourself.
Hannibal Bank is a large seamount that rises up at the southern edge of the Gulf of Chiriqui just 40 miles from our island lodge. Named in 1914 from the U.S. Navy survey ship ‘USS Hannibal’ that discovered it when performing depth surveys in preparation for the opening of the Panama Canal.
Hannibal Bank is actually part of the 100-fathom line that makes up the continental shelf that runs off of Panama’s Pacific Coast. The bank is about five miles wide (east to west) and about 2 miles deep (north to south).
The ocean floor rises from several thousand feet on the southern side up to just over 200 feet deep. Then it levels out to create a mesa-shaped mountain with numerous peaks spread about the seamount that come to within just 120 feet of the surface.
What makes fishing at Hannibal Bank so incredible?
Hannibal Bank attracts so many fish because it’s fed by the nutrient rich waters of the Humboldt Current. Similar to the Atlantic’s Gulf Stream this strong underwater current flows north along the west side of South America, directly up into the Gulf of Chiriqui.
This upwelling of cooler, nutrient-rich water pushes up from the ocean floor. When it reaches the surface, it sets into motion a chain of life.
Phytoplankton blooms attract bait. Bait consistently holds around Hannibal Bank.
Aggregations of bait draw marlin, sailfish, yellowfin tuna, dorado, and wahoo are drawn to Hannibal Bank. It is common for us to come across huge schools of boiling yellowfin tuna in “tuna frenzies” or to see black marlin exploding on the surface while feeding at Hannibal Bank.
A Typical Day
Most mornings, we start our day by making the 40-mile run out to Hannibal Bank from our lodge on Isla Parida. On the way out, we keep our eyes open, and our open array radar on, in our super smooth-riding big 33′ World Cat fishing machines to see what action we may find.
We look for floating logs that may have dorado or sailfish nearby. Also, pods of feeding porpoises with diving birds and yellowfin tuna are all common occurrences on our way out.
These are great opportunities to pitch a live bait, cast a popper, drop down a jig, and get some action on the way to Hannibal Bank.
The Big Game we Catch at Hannibal Bank
Once we arrive at the bank, we like to catch some Black Skipjacks, or ‘Bonitas,’. Then we put them in our tuna tubes to stay alive until we use them for bait.
We bridle the bonitos to large circle hooks and use them as live bait….slow trolling them around the congregations of live bait or in areas we know that are likely to hold marlin, sailfish, tuna, dorado, and wahoo.
If there is bait around there are likely to be predators. We keep our eyes open while fishing these live baits that are swimming just below the surface behind the boat, the water around us for tailing or feeding fish, and on our depth sounder as we may mark a fish below the boat that we can drop a bait down to. There are lots of possibilities when fishing at a target-rich environment like Hannibal Bank!
Just a Click Away
Tuna. Marlin. Roosterfish. Mountains of sashimi. The stuff fishing dreams are made of. Let’s do it.
