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Shawn Bean is a smart dude. The Creative Director at Fire Crown Media, Bean touches nearly everything the company produces—Sportfishing TV, Sportfishing and Saltwater Sportsman Magazines and more. This call was to plan when we’d host the crew from Sportfishing TV at the lodge.
We had some context to explain as we came to our plan. Ours was a good problem to have– an embarrassment of opportunity.
We were worried less about being able to find what we were after, we were more concerned about making sure that we could give the wonder of this place the justice it deserved. We’d have to focus.
“The good thing about the fishing here is that it’s so good for so many things,” we explained, in relation to the prospect of making a fishing show in the Gulf of Chiriquí. “The problem with making an episode here is that the fishing is so good for so many things.”
Sure, we could catch an incredible variety of inshore and offshore fish, but we wanted to showcase the beautiful landscapes, intense natural beauty of the Gulf of Chiriqui, the guest experience at Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, and of course the mountains of sashimi and piles of sushi that we’d consume in the process.
Let’s slay the tuna. Let’s catch a marlin. We’ll round it out with a bunch of roosterfish and cubera. We had a plan… Let ‘er eat.
With the preliminary game plan in place, we set the trip for the last week in February. There’d be a crew of three camera guys—Jonathan Whittle, Andrew Redwine, and Matt Rissell. We’d have to provide the front of camera talent.
It’s good to have friends. At Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, we have some really good ones. Our good buddies Mat Jackson of Grundens and Chris Bishop, the North American Marketing Manager at Yo-Zuri.
These two are fishing guys who have been friends of the lodge for a long time. They make some of the best gear in the business, we use it all the time, and we were excited to host them at Sport Fishing Panama Island Lodge.
The Trip
We had four and a half days of fishing. From our end, the objectives were straightforward, if diverse. We’d showcase:
- The great offshore fishing—one of the world’s best yellowfin tuna fisheries rounded out with marlin and sailfish.
- The great inshore fishing—can you say roosterfish and cubera snapper?
- The incredible natural beauty of the Gulf of Chiriquí
- The Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge guest experience—this is a really fun place to visit.
- The Culinary Experience here—all of the wonderful things that our team can create with the fish that we catch.
Our plan was simple. We’d fish two boats. The camera guys on one, the other fishing close enough that we could run over and film the action on the other.
The Sportfishing TV crew is perhaps the best in the business. They prefer to fish on the same boat so that they can capture the experience in all facets. Whittle is a dronesman of the highest order. Andrew Redwine finetunes the audio experience and Matt Rissell is ready for underwater, boatside stuff at a moment’s notice.
Our two boat approach would double our chances of making it all happen. After an afternoon of chasing roosterfish on poppers and finalizing plans, it was time to check off the first objective—showcasing perhaps the world’s best and most well-rounded yellowfin tuna experiences.
Tuna Time
On our first full day offshore, both boats would chase yellowfin. Captain Shane Jarvis fished with Mat, Chris and the Sportfishing TV crew. Fishing with Captain Juan would be me and my 10 year old daughter Francesca (the dates of the trip coincided with her birthday so Shane was kind enough to invite her down).
Mat and Chris wore out the tuna on topwaters. Chasing fish on pods of porpoise, they caught more than a dozen yellowfin in Yo-Zuri Bull Poppers and Magdarter swimbaits. The fish weren’t giant—most in the 40-80 pound range—but they put on a show for the cameras.
There aren’t many places in the world where you can realistically plan to film tuna crashing topwaters. The Gulf of Chiriquí is one such place.
With Captain Juan, the highlight of the day was a sailfish for Francesca. Victor hooked it on a spinning rod. He cast a live blue runner into an area that was full of tuna and the sail ate it.
Anytime somebody catches their first billfish is super special. When you look up and see the fish jumping right next to a drone equipped with better camera technology than the first space shuttle, it’s even more amazing. The sailfish put on a show. It was all smiles, everywhere.
Big Tuna
The second day we’d keep fish the same anglers on the same boats. Mat and Chris would target tuna with Shane and the camera crew. Captain Juan, Victor, Francesca and I would spend the day live baiting the high spot for marlin.
Both boats ran to Isla Montuosa. Lodge boats fish here often—and with good reason. Today it would put on a show.
First thing in the morning, Mat Jackson put the screws to a yellowfin around 175 pounds. In most parts of the world, this might be the biggest tuna you’d catch all year.
About 20 minutes into his fight, one of our live bonitos got smoked. As we fought the fish, Shane steamed over and Matt Rissell bailed over the side—fins and mask on, camera in hand. As the fish swam circles he got the whole thing on film. The guys would later tell us that this was the largest tuna they’d ever filmed on the show.
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After some pictures and smiling for some boat to boat stuff, we packed the fish whole into the fish bag. Later this afternoon it would take a panga ride to the beach and get to hang out at the scale inside the beach bar. The fish went 172 pounds.
In the early afternoon, Shane put the guys on 250-pound blue marlin. It ate a bonito right off the transom—as they deployed the live baits. The Burbuja—a high spot south of Montuosa, so named because it emits bubbles from the seafloor—is an incredible place. The fish had a bottle rocket up its ass and really put on a show for the cameras.
Fishing with the Tuna Boats
On the third day, we switched it up. Mat, Francesca, the film crew and I fished with Shane. Chris Bishop fished solo with Juan and Victor.
We decided to showcase another great aspect of the Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge experience—fishing alongside the commercial tuna fleet. We ran out West, near the border with Costa Rica.
The fleet had dialed in the tuna and called us over. We caught em pretty good and it made for some really good tv.
Coiba Island and An Inshore Day to Remember
We saved the inshore action for the final day of the trip. We’d run both boats to Coiba Island and fish the incredibly beautiful shorelines of Jicaron, Jicarita and Coiba itself.
There are many beautiful places in the world. There are not many that are more beautiful than this. Fishing here is a wonderful experience.
Francesca and I fished with Shane. The film crew joined Mat and Chris to fish with Juan.
As we threw poppers into the wash around the rocks off of Jicarita, I told Francesca, “Look around, honey. This might be the most beautiful place you’ll ever see.”
The Sportfish TV guys were over the moon with the tuna footage we’d experienced. It was now time to show them what the inshore stuff is all about.
On this day, we hit it right. In one of the most intensely beautiful places in North America, we had one of the best days inshore fishing you can have.
Big roosterfish—and doubles. Big cubera snapper—and lots of them. We caught a dozen species on the day and got it all on film.
The second half of this episode, which aired on the Discovery Channel, was filmed nearly entirely on the last day of our trip.
