Roosterfish
One of the worlds greatest gamefish. Beautiful, exotic, and powerful. We have excellent Rooster fishing around Coiba. All year round and all around the island in different types of environments. Often in February we get an impressive migration. Big ones are fish over 40 pounds and they run up over 80.
A frigate mackerel is your #1 best bait, dead or alive, it’s guaranteed to get a big rooster bite when placed in the right spot. Green Jacks are going to get a rooster bite and so will a big bonito if fished in the right spot. I know all the right spots because I’ve loved doing this here for twenty years.
We live bait for roosters using 20 or 30 pound outfits with 80 pound Spectra, a 60 pound fluorocarbon leader and small circle hook. Give them a long drop-back, push the drag up and hold on, if it drops the bait, drop back the drag, other fish are right nearby and if you don’t pull the dying bait away, others may jump on it.
Having the right bait on board often dictates when we go trophy Roosterfish fishing. If we have frigate mackerel on board after a day of marlin fishing, I’ll pull them around a wash rock and they are going to get rooster bites. If we spot green jacks feeding in some bay, I’ll troll sabikis, pick up a dozen or so baits, and it’s rooster time. Every green jack is going to get bit by something. A big six pound bonito trolled off the outrigger nearby some rocks, near a creek running out of a beach, stands a great chance of getting attacked by a trophy Roosterfish.
Pulling big top water casting plugs off the outriggers gets many rooster bites, so do trolled diving plugs. Generally the biggest Roosters fall to live bait and smaller fish get hung on the lures. Any size rooster brings big smiles all around, they are just so cool looking and such great fighters.
The best is to hook a Roosterfish on a top water plug you’ve casted. You might even feel your pecker swell a bit. I mean this is great fun, a real scream in shallow water, you’ll see the comb cut through the water right before the strike. It will peel off line and normally stay in shallow water, zig-zagging, maybe even run right at you. It can take a long time to bring a rooster to the boat. You are going to want one of these.