Big things are happening in our corner of the world. The foundation of it all—the fleet expansion, our increased guest capacity and new lodge buildings—is great fishing.

When it comes to the 2024 annual awards, the big things are really, really big yellowfin tuna. What follows is not just who caught the biggest tuna last year, but a fishing story that illustrates just how good the fishing here really is.

A 247 Pound Yellowfin

Winner: Greg Evers. Sartrell, Minnesota.

Greg Evers is a big dude. He’s strong as an ox. It’s a good thing too.

Greg lives about an hour from Minneapolis. He booked a trip to Panama having heard about the Gulf of Chiriquí’s reputation for being among the best yellowfin tuna fisheries in the world. He would get a backstage pass to just how incredible it can be.

 How did his trip go?

When asked how many yellowfin he caught over his four days fishing, Greg’s answer is telling. “I’m not exactly sure… I think somewhere around 30,” he says. Greg’s count includes only the tuna that he, himself reeled in—not the total caught aboard the boats that he fished on.

“When you spend over five hours fighting two fish, it’s hard to remember the exact number,” he says with a laugh.

One of the really remarkable things about Greg’s trip was that his award-winning fish—the largest yellowfin tuna caught in 2024 at the Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge—was not even the biggest he hooked during his trip. Two days after manning the rod for two and half hours on a 247-pound yellowfin, Evers spent over three hours on a yellowfin that busted the line next to the boat. Estimates on that fish went north of 300.

Here’s the story of Evers’ trip. It’s a good one. It took place May 24 while fishing with Captain Juan.

A Pile of Yellowfin

In May of 2024, tuna were everywhere. They were as thick as they come. Evers and company came down the trip after the crew from Saltwater Sportsman. Check out the feature the trip produced….

On May 24, Captain Juan pulled up to an area teaming with tuna. There was a commercial boat chunking and chumming as it deployed its gear.

Greg and the crew tossed a chunk of sardine on a Shimano spinning reel into the water behind the boat. The hookup was near instant.

Greg would have been forgiven had he thought he hooked into a submarine. He fought the fish solo for more than two and a half hours.

“I kept asking the other guys on the boat if they’d like a turn. I guess they knew better because they kept saying, ‘Fish of a lifetime! Fish of as lifetime!,’” Evers recalls with a laugh. Evers was down with the Half Past First Cast crew, fishing with a group of people he had not previously met.

“I had been fighting the fish for about two hours when the rod torqued the plate on the fighting belt. It broke and the crew had to scramble to find another belt,” he says.

“When it came to the boat, we got two gaffs into it. It took three guys to pull it over the gunnel,” he says.

“As soon as the fish came over the rail, the line went slack. I thought they had unhooked the fish, but the swivel failed. After being under so much strain for so long, when the tension finally released it failed.”

“It took three guys to get the fish over the rail. I had nothing left. My arms were Jello. Trying to pose for pictures with that thing was a treat,” Greg says laughing. That’s the type of high-class problem familiar to most anyone who has spent time fishing and posing with big tuna.

As he was wrangling the sea monster, Evers kept tabs on the fight by looking at the Simrad screens. “I had no idea that something like could happen (hooking into a giant fish and launching into an extended battle). I kept looking at the graph to see where the fish was.”

When you’re fighting a big tuna for a long time, the screen can be your best friend or your worst enemy. When the fish is getting close, it provides comfort and consolation that the battle might be drawing to an end. The pain might soon be over.

When the fish makes a deep run two hours into the fight, a look at the screen demoralizes. Not so fast my friend…. 

An Even Bigger Fish and A Return Trip to Panama

“Two days later, I hooked an even bigger tuna. I fought it for over three hours before it broke off near the boat,” Evers recalls. Upon thinking about some of the best tuna fishing a person is likely ever to experience, he found some lessons.

Our beach bar is the perfect for a cold beer while weighing a big fish.

“After spending over five hours fighting two tuna, I found out that I like the 20-40 pound variety better,” he jokes. “I had a blast. We had some great top water bites too.”

Evers’ 247-pound yellowfin was big enough to win Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge’s first ever Biggest Tuna of the Year Award. The story behind the fish is as remarkable as the photographs of it. Evers plans to return to the lodge in the next couple of years. He’s after roosterfish and marlin. 

We make fishing dreams come true for anglers from around the world. We’d love to do the same for you.