Panama’s Gulf of Chiriquí is home to perhaps the best combination of inshore and offshore fishing in Central America. Roosterfish, black marlin, cubera snapper, blue marlin, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, sailfish… they’re all here—along with quite a few other game fish.
The Gulf of Chiriquí consists of a tapestry of bottom structure, high points, and hundreds of islands. This network of structure and landmass is set about deep, clean ocean water. In a day’s fishing we have access to it all.
Beyond the diversity of species and type of fishing, the place that we fish is among the most beautiful and remote in North America. Isla Parida, and Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, sit within a Panamanian national park. What’s more, the United Nations designated the region a World Heritage Site.
To make the most of all of these incredible opportunities requires a specific type of boat. The power catamaran. We have a fleet of five of them.
What follows is an introduction to the experience that a catamaran imparts. It is a description of why we like them so much, and why we believe that you’ll come away feeling the same way.
The Perfect Set Up For Our Brand of Fishing
It is perhaps run and gun tuna fishing that illustrates just how perfectly catamarans serve the needs of our brand of fishing. This type of thing is exciting and its awesome.
Many times the lead up starts three miles away from the action. The captain will point to the horizon. You squint your eyes, your hand shielding the top of your sun glasses.
What starts out as a faint blob of small moving dots, will—as you get closer, give way to a mass of birds. Tuna birds, boobies, frigates. They’re on the tuna.
Our catamarans glide over the waves. The ride is smooth and stable.
As you get close to the birds—30 knots gets you on them in a hurry, the captain yells, “Hang on guys.”
With that he glides to a halt, swirling the boat on the leading edge of school porpoise. The tuna are here. You see them blasting the surface, some of the breaches large enough to look like an explosion.
On the casting platform on the bow, your two buddies have already cast a Yo-Zuri into the mix. On big popper, a second swim bait.
It will be two pops before the drag sings and your buddies unleashes as stream of curse words. It is some incredible mix of disbelief, happiness and awe. Rod bent, drag singing, your buddy hollering. You wonder if the fish might actually turn the reel inside out.
Your gaze at the bow is interrupted by the call from the cockpit. Both rods are hooked up. “Here you go buddy,” the captain says. Handing it to you.
There are four of you. The fourth is already hooked up in the cockpit. You guys will dance about, trying not to cross the tuna. Trying not to get worked by fish that are bigger and more powerful than anything you’ve tangled with before.
With a laugh and an exclamation from the bow, you come to realize that the guy on the swim bait is hooked up too. You and three buddies, each on a yellowfin at the same time.
The boat is 33 feet long. You are fishing from every foot of it.
Some hour and twenty minutes later, you and your three friends will be covered in tuna blood. Each holding a fish. They range from 75 to 160-pounds. Your mind is blown.
Technical Performance
These boats are tailor made for our brand of fishing. Each is powered by twin outboards.
On a catamaran, the motors are set wide. This is perfect for us. Whether chasing schools of tuna on porpoise or working a big black marlin boatside, the position of the motors helps our boats spin.
The catamarans are wide and stable. When we put them in a spin on the fish, the deck remains stable.
These boats are fully walkaround. This means that there are no obstructions between the bow and the stern and you can fish the whole way around. The outriggers are mounted to the hard top.
This really great and we use it to great effect in a number of applications.
When we’re chasing roosterfish or cubera snapper around islands, it allows us to cast from the bow as we troll live baits from the cockpit. As we’re snapper fishing over high spots in open water, we can deploy chunks pieces of bait along the entire length of the rail.
When we’re on a black or blue marlin, the angler can stand midship right next to the console. He or she can work the fish, with the seat behind them for support, as the captain watches and positions the boat exactly where it needs to be.
The end game will likely take place with the angler in one of the corners of the cockpit. The ability to move without obstruction throughout the fight is a great advantage afforded by our brand of boat.
And because they are open, stable, and wide for their entire length, we are uniquely equipped to fish from the bow while we are fishing from the stern. This is not possible in a sportfisher.
The ride is smooth. The boats are fast. These boats enable us to do it all—from trolling marlin lures, live baiting for black marlin (we’re outfitted with tuna tubes and outriggers), we have ample live well capacity, and we carry an incredible assortment of gear and tackle—from jigging rods, heavy spinning tackle, 30 and 50-pund conventional set ups, even an electric reel for deep dropping.
The foundation of the fishing experience is the boat. The catamaran.
An Open Platform from Which to Experience Beauty
In terms of natural beauty, there are few places that can compare with the Gulf of Chiriquí. The wide, stable deck of a catamaran provides an incredible setting from which to take it all in.
The deep blue of the open Pacific reflecting off of the white of the gelcoat. Lavender flowers set about rainforest colors— shades of green dark, rich and nuanced enough that it would take a Scottish poet to do them justice. Purple flowers in rainforest trees that grow just on the otherside of the rocky coastline into who’s wash you sling giant poppers.
Coiba, Jicaron, Jicarita.
These islands, for those fortunate enough to lay eyes upon them, could well be among the most beautiful places you might ever see. Certainly there is a fair degree of subjectivity to what is the “most beautiful,” but they inspire enough awe to be in the conversation.
That a giant roosterfish or 50-pound cubera could well be lurking about their shorelines makes them that much beautiful. That you could, within 500 yards of their shorelines, be live baiting black marlin or 200-pound tuna, adds yet more to their beauty and wildness.
The speed and comfortable rides of our boats make getting to these places easy from Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge. The comfortable, stable platforms—from the casting decks up front to the cockpit—place you in the action.
The charm of our boats lie in their unique ability to place you here not as a spectator, but as a participant in what could become the best fishing story you ever heard. It is interactive. Immersive.
When you’re here, when you’re fishing with us, you’re here. You’re part of the place. The boat seems to somehow make this possible.
This might sound poetic. Maybe like marketing speak. It’s not.
