Dorado

The Gulf of Chiriquí is home to a good dorado fishery. We catch plenty of them and some big ones, too.

We catch lots of them on floating structure. There’s nothing like pulling up to a floating tree and seeing two or three 40 pounders hanging around it.

This is a dream of anyone who’s ever thrown a popper. It happens here with some frequency.

We also catch plenty of dorado when trolling. They’ll knife in and eat the plugs we troll for marlin. They also really like live blue runners. The big ones will even eat a live bonito.

Dorado are beautiful creatures. Intense neons of yellow, green, and blue. They change colors and will light up when excited.

Once you hook a dorado, hold on. They spend quite a bit of time in the air—flinging themselves completely out of the water, cartwheeling and shaking as they go. Big bull dorado, the males of the species, have blunt heads.

They will turn their bodies sideways when fighting. It’s also common to see the top half of their heads out of the water as they crash the spread.

Dorado are not only beautiful and fun to catch, but they are great to eat. Ceviche, fried, turned into piccata or dorado fingers, our chefs are always happy to see them. So too are our guests.