Fishing Reports

Cebaco Bay Fishing Reports & Half Truths

June 14, 2011

You could call this column a Captains Log but it’s not. It’s just a collection of idle thoughts from an old seadog.  This story is though, about a log. Obviously it ended it’s first life by, fortuitously for us, falling into a river. Having washed down and out to sea it took on it’s second life as a home for small, vulnerable sea creatures. True to mother nature’s  form she deemed that it now become a 5 star restaurant for larger travelers on the oceans highway.  Enter the story.  Humans.

Sunday morning dawned, no wind, calm seas, as it had been for the last week. The boys on Cebaco Bay were hungry for some fresh fish.  A crew training day was in order.  We needed to hone our skills, especially for our new mates.  Loading the 31 Bertram with water and sodas for what was going to be a couple of hours fishing, off we went.  I had volunteered to be the client for the day.  Little did we know what was in store for us. A simple run to Aguja Reef, bit of training for Pierre and Martin, catch some food and back home for lunch. Yeah right! The beautiful seas were false comfort for there was absolutely no sign of life anywhere. Agua was less than active although we did manage to jig up a couple of small Pacific Amberjacks and a nice sized Tripletail. The Bonito were hard to come by so we spent the next hour trolling a couple of Cojinoas(Goggle Eyes) in the hope of a Marlin. I really needed my 2 new mates to experience proper leaderman techniques for a Marlin or big Tuna. So it was with this in mind we headed for the 100ftm line outside Aguja.  With no sign of life anywhere, it was a splash ½ mile to starboard that attracted our attention.  Capt Narcisco wheeled the 31 Bertram towards where the splash had been.  One bird and a splash that’s all.  To our surprise there was a log. Log of the day as it turned out.  It was loaded with small triggerfish and amberjacks. The deck immediately becomes a hive of activity with Narcisco furiously barking instructions to the crew. “ Live baits and hurry up about it you guys”.  As the designated client I casually grabbed a jigging rod just to avoid the adrenaline and frantic action surrounding me. I dropped the line down and at 100ft I stopped and cranked.  Bang!  The rod doubled over and line started disappearing at a great rate . At 200yds the fish decided to stop and give me a real workout.  This was a big Tuna. With full drag on the small Shimano the fish was going nowhere but at the same time neither was I. This stalemate lasted for 10 minutes until another Tuna hit my line. Bust off!  Damn.  Meanwhile with 2 liveys in the water the sea erupted around us.  100-200lb Tunas going crazy over the Triggerfish.  Right next to the boat . What a sight! I quickly grabbed one of the 50’s with a livey and waited.  Adenaline by this stage was dictating every action aboard. The bait by this time had decided that the log was not a good place to hang out but the 31 Bertram was.  100-200lb missiles flying, boiling, darting everywhere you looked.  But hey something wasn’t right. Our liveys were being totally ignored.  But wait! All of a sudden my line started peeling at an alarming rate.  Giving the fish about 50yds I pushed the drag up only to come up empty. The same was happening to Pierre on the other side. These Tuna were grabbing our baits and no matter how much line we fed them they were spitting them back. What was going on? We were getting totally mauled baits back every time. The bite marks revealed that there was obviously smaller 60lbers down there and the bigger Tunas were concentrating on the Triggerfish and Pacific Amberjacks. As I retrieved a mauled Cojinoa the leader was ripped from my hands as two 150lbers crashed my dead bait, Wow! In all my time I don’t think I’ve had as much adrenaline flowing as this. For Pierre and Martin this was baptism by fire.  Leaving the boys to the liveys I grabbed the jig rod again.  2 cranks and I’m in again only this time it’s a Bonito. Bang my rod doubles over and then nothing.  Tunas were stealing my fish off the jig.  Every 15 minutes or so the big Tunas were coming to the surface for several minutes of insane feeding then disappearing to the depths to cool off.  It was getting hard to predict just where they would show again so I rigged a popper to cast to the boil ups. This proved to be a fool s errand as every time I hooked up I got busted. These Tuna were too big for light weight stuff.  I was been cut off by another Tuna. 2 lost poppers were enough. So it was back to our liveys and a much needed break to clean the tackle up and re rig for the next round.

2 hrs of insane action and we only had one Tuna in the box. It was about this time that my old brain tells me that with no action happening Pierre suddenly starting losing line on his livey .Giving it plenty of line I took the rod and pushed up the drag. Immediately we greeted with the sight of a Blue Marlin rampaging towards the horizon. With the boat backing up fast I pushed the drag up to sunset. The fish only looked to be around 400lb so I figured we could stop it and get it to the boat for a quick release. Wrong! As it turned out the circle hook was hooked in its gill plate so it took just on an hour  of full drag to finally turn the fish and get it along side. I was now a very tired puppy after 4 hrs in this oceanic gymnasium.  Highly recommended for all you 50 plus guys and girls out there. Anyway to cut the lies short we had a visit from a huge school of dolphins and tuna late in the afternoon. Our liveys were ignored, the remaining Triggerfish were wisely sticking to the Bertram’s hull so after a time the predators cruised off into the distance. Normally we would have been following those Tuna like crazy but no one had any energy left so we upped lines and headed for the barn and a much needed feed. So, Ho Hum folks.  Just another days fishing in paradise.  Not quite.  I would say only one word describes it……INSANE!!! The guys received a month’s training in one day . I’m sure it will be something they’ll never forget. For me, all I can say is that it reaffirms our plans for the future. The fishing at this time of the year with all the natural drift lines is awesome.

Ciao & tight lines

Capt. Tim

I rendezvoused with my fishing buddy Aristeo Canelos from Culiacan, Mexico at Puerto Mutis on May 14 for the scenic 1.5 hour boat transfer to Cebaco Bay (about 25 miles east of Isla Coiba). It was Canelos’ first trip to Cebaco. “Well, what do you want to fish for?” was my first question. “Tuna” he replied. Just my luck. I had tuna coming out of my ears but I guess you can never have enough. “We’ll get to those”, I said, “but Cebaco is known for its extreme variety of popping and jigging action so we should have a good week”.

That afternoon we received a weather forecast from Capt. Tim Hetherington, the operations manager from New Zealand, and it wasn’t good. “There’s a big southern swell with wind approaching and expected to last a couple of days. Then a broader storm front is expected but with smaller swells”. If it gets really bad anglers can always fish the lee side of Cebaco or other areas that have produced on previous trips. For the next couple of days that’s what we did, catching roosterfish, cubera snapper and bluefin trevally while rain fell but with the swells cut off by the island and rocky points. We were very comfortable on the “Extreme”, a 31’ Bertram that has a roomy cabin to stay dry in as well as air conditioning when the tropical sun starts to burn.

By the third day and with improving sea conditions Canelos was anxious for tuna. I suggested to Capt. Hetherington that we go to the Hannibal Bank based on the volume of fish that were there the previous week. He felt that Isla Jicarita could also hold some fish so we decided to try that closer spot first. An hour and 20 minutes later the “Extreme” arrived on a low, calm swell, sea temp at 82 degrees and green-clean with a few birds flying to the southwest-our heading as well. We started trolling a spread of MoldCraft Softhead lures while searching for the elusive tuna. Hetherington was serving as mate while Capt. Narcisco Santos ran the boat. Within 20 minutes Santos made a quick turn and fired up the twin Yanmar diesels. He saw something and sure enough we arrived in an area about four miles south of Jicarita loaded with spotted dolphin and diving birds. You could almost taste the tuna underneath. Canelos was nailed on his first cast with an ugly red and black OTI popper placed between two dolphin. The schoolie 25-pounder was quickly released (as were most of the fish we caught) while Santos stayed with the tuna for the next few hours. We caught nine yellowfin tuna from 20- to 50-pounds on poppers and didn’t count the fish taken trolling or with the live cojinua (green jacks) we had in the baitwell.

By mid-afternoon something strange happened. Fleet boats from mothership and land-based operations arrived telling us there was nothing showing at either Isla Montuosa or Hannibal and they were forced to make the long 70 mile run, in some cases, south to Jicarita. We were the only show in town. “Check out the big brain on Tim!” I said. “Good call on Jicarita! We could have wasted a lot of time for no fish if you had taken my advice and gone to Hannibal” I said. The low-key Kiwi just smiled.

As the weather improved we were able to fish my favorite area- the westerly Tuna Coast with its rugged Cerro de Hoya mountain range and untouched coastline. We used three methods simultaneously – popping and slow trolling live bait alongside swimming plugs such as the reliable red/white Mirrolure. The live bait is caught by the crew from the 115’ Cebaco Bay mothership so a constant supply is available everyday which saves valuable fishing time. The Tuna Coast was not at its peak due to the strong currents and swells but we still had good action with small roosterfish, cubera snapper to 45-pounds, bluefin trevally, African pompano, pargo prieto, yellowfin tuna, greenbar snapper, rainbow runner, sierra mackerel and other species.

Back on the mothership we watched construction taking place on the lodge buildings going up on the idyllic shoreline of Cebaco Bay that will provide first class accommodations for anglers in the near future. The beach bar is already completed (someone has their priorities right) as well as the restroom and workers quarters. The mothership is far from roughing it in the meantime, with full air conditioning, great food served up by chef Casildo Martinez such as fresh tuna and snapper, lobster, grilled beef, fresh fruit smoothies anytime, fine spirits and wine, big screen DVD and a hard-working, attentive crew. The 47’ Buddy Davis “Legend” is the queen of the fleet followed by the “Extreme”, 32’ Luhrs, 23’ Boston Whaler and two 27’ center console pangas with more boats to be added as the lodge expands. Manager Hennie Marais recognizes the great inshore fishing found in this virgin territory and wants to develop a small boat light tackle fishery for those popping and jigging anglers to complement the offshore yacht fleet. Contact or view their website at www.cebacobay.com

Well, what do you think of Cebaco, Aristeo? “This is a great place and it’s exciting to fish such a remote part of Panama. The fish act like they’ve never seen a lure before. We ARE coming back, right?”

The Roving Angler

Tony Pena

http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/costa-rica-panama/331754-variety-fishing-cebaco-bay-sportfishing-club-may-14-20-2011-a.html