Fishing Methods & Available Gamefish

The following is a brief description of how we might go after a specific species of gamefish. While targeting a certain fish off Coiba you can expect to hook-up into the unexpected.

The "by-catch " over the years have included; Makos, Tarpon, Ladyfish, Houndfish, Blackfin, Big Eye, Tigers, Mackerel, Striped Marlin, variety of Grouper, variety of Snapper, Rainbow Runner, African Pompano, Barracuda, Jewfish, Catfish, variety of Jacks, White Tips, Threshers, Eels, Leather Bass, Bull Shark, you just never know out here.

Marlin

The main attraction to Coiba Adventure fishing is undoubtedly Black Marlin. While Blacks readily take trolled lures just as Blues will, we normally fish for Blacks with live bonito, or small tunas. Because of the unique bottom structure, we know from experience that blacks will hold on a spot and when you know where the fish is, live bait is the best presentation.

When after Blue Marlin, it seems that the blues are usually more spread out along the offshore ledges, so we will troll lures in order to cover more water. Bait & switch is most fun, since we have tuna tubes to keep a live bonito rigged & ready.

When live baiting we use downriggers, outriggers & circle hooks. The downriggers will get hit more than twice as often as a surface bait. We fish with the Shimano TLD's drag set up past the strike position. The drop-back provided by the downrigger or outrigger is enough for the Marlin to get the bait into his mouth. As the line draws tight the heavy drag setting will drive the circle hook home into the Marlin's jaw. We leave the rod in the holder until it is doubled over and we know the marlin is hooked up.

Once the fish is set up, you drop back the drag in order to take the rod out of the holder and into your belt or the fighting chair. We do not gun the boat forward two hundred yards to set the hook. Your fish most times will be solidly hooked up and remain close to the boat. A minute or two passes when she realizes she's been picked for a fight. At this point your Marlin will most times, come, rocketing out of the water right before your eyes, hooked in the jaw. Not hundreds of yards out in the distance, gut hooked spewing blood.

You will fight your Black Marlin under varying degrees of light drag on either 50lb or 30lb outfits. The lighter resistance will keep your fish up on top trying to throw the hook. Heavy drag often causes a fish to go deep and slug it out, often till near death. With your fish crashing and greyhounding on top and close to the boat, we go into reverse as fast as you can reel. Our goal is to get the fish to the wind-on leader in less than twenty minutes. This is the most exciting fish fighting experience you can imagine. Expect to get many photographs of big fish close-up and green.

Yellowfin Tuna

Often the biggest Yellowfin, 200 - 300 lb. get hooked up while we are fishing for Black Marlin. However when we go searching for them, we pull lures at 12 - 14 knots and head out for areas known for sighting big schools of Tuna. Once a school is located we decide how best to fish it.

If the Tuna are moving fast, we will simply pull the lures around the perimeters of the school and try to keep up ahead of it where the birds are diving. We do not barge into the middle of the feeding melee, which would only bust the concentration up and send the fish down. Normally we will hook up doubles & triples on small green or black lures.

Sometimes the lures don't get the action we are looking for. At that point we will run way up ahead of the school and wet some live blue runners and or bonito. We wait for the school to pass under and around us. One or all the baits will normally get eaten. (But sometimes tuna get keyed in on some tiny bait and nothing we can do will cause them to bite)

If the Tuna are holding around some floating tree or similar debris or if they are feeding over a pinnacle on the Hannibal Bank, we most certainly will use live circle hooked baits.

Sailfish

Often Sailfish will harass us while we are fishing for Black Marlin. You can tell the difference, a Sail will play around with large bait instead of just engulfing it. Sailfish can be a pain in the ass. But when we want to have fun with them, we go trolling with 20 & 30 lb. outfits using Panama Baits (bonito belly strips).

The most fun is to troll hook-less Panama Baits and tease these aggressive eaters into insanity. Once spotted we put the boat into a turn and start working the teasers to bring the fish in close and see how many we can get up. During these moments you drop back or cast a hooked bait or fly. These aggresive feeders will take it, you can count on it.

Your captain will mark the initial spot on GPS where you raised the sailfish and after releasing it / them, he will go back over the same spot again making expanding circles crossing over that spot till raising other sailfish. This way he can get a feel for where the school is headed. Sometimes just to make a fire drill more confusing we will drop a live blue runner bait overboard while fighting other fish, this usually gets another sailfish on in no time. When the bite is on and a good size school is tracked, this can be a load of fun.

Dorado

Dolphin fish don't get to enjoy a very long lifetime. They grow from peanuts to big cows & bulls in just four years. These things have got to eat. All the time. Anything that moves and might fit in their mouths is going to get it. They also harass us while Marlin fishing.

When targeting Dorado, as we do sometimes, when a flood of them arrives, as they often do, we pull lures, ballyhoo or Panama Baits.Or pitch live or chunked baits to them.

Everyone knows Dorado like to lurk around floating logs & other debris. What we found out from freediving around logs and such is that, the Dorado are not always under the log. Different species exist in zones extending out from the log or whatever. Your Dorado and often Sailfish & Marlin or Tuna will frequently be out as much as 100 yards or more away and up current from the log, ready to blast in when hunger pangs. Under the log remain Tripletails, baby Amberjacks, blue runners, baby blowfish and who knows what else. The big predators sometimes only cruise in under the log to take a meal now and then.

Roosterfish

Live blue runners are the ticket. Served up on a circle hook, trolled four at a time. We troll down jungle rimmed beaches in 4 - 20 feet of water. Most attacks (not bites) occur near a river mouth. Roosters are bad-asses. You know when you have one when he heads for the beach. Roosters love to go to the beach. Give him a long drop back because they seem to often hold the live bait in their lips, for a time, even while jumping, with out taking it down in their mouths. Once you think he has the bait well in mouth, lock it up and watch him go.

Your Rooster will thrash on the surface, jump then run full speed ahead with his comb ripping through the water, then turn around and head right back at you. Tricky buggers. (But he's not coming off that circle hook!) It takes between 15 minutes to over an hour to get a 40lb Rooster to the boat on 12 - 20lb tackle.

Cubera Snapper

Whole live Bonito catch the biggest baddest Dogtooth Snapper We also use chunk bait, live or dead blue runners, live or dead torpedoes and catch plenty good fish on rapalla type diving lures. They also attack surface plugs. We look for Dogtooth Snappers around wash rocks and on submerged rocks as deep as 100 feet. When fishing wash rocks or shallow submerged rocks, the trick is to pull the boat and subsequently the Cubera away from the rocks ASAP, to keep him from breaking you off on the rocks. Light tackle is fun, but 50 - 80 lb. is better. These are highly prized fish. They are abundant, fight like SOB's, grow at least to over 80lbs here and tough to land. Cuberas are cool.

Wahoo

For bait, live torpedo bonito if you can get them or live blue runners even. Otherwise we go Wahoo-ing with Rapalla CD-18s. Normally we fish them on 40-lb. tackle. These wonderful fish school up seasonally at regular spots near the camp. We won't waste your time fishing Wahoo after 9:00am in the morning or before 4:00pm in the evening. When the bite is on it's yee-ha or wa-hoo or hold 'er Newt, she's smelled the alfalfa. Fast and beautiful, there has never been a dull Wahoo. All are great to catch. Sometimes we pick up Wahoo out of season while fast trolling marlin lures past headlands on the way home out in 120 feet of water. Your captain knows not to take the boat out of gear, ever, when a Wahoo is on the line. Just the slightest bit of slack and… plink! Out drops the hook. Great prize the Wahoo. Sometimes we catch many.

Chumming

Slimy & unethical but we will do it, if you want. We can anchor up on the Hannibal Bank or a number of other hot spots and juice the fish right up to our transom. Then you can drop in your live bait or whatever you wish to hook up whoever happens to be in the lunch line. We will release the anchor line to a rubber float and proceed to help your fish fight. This will get you your Black Marlin when nothing else will.

Moon rise, transits & sets

Your captain may seem loony but he now believes fish activity increases during the periods when the moon rises, transits overhead, sets and when the moon transits the opposite end of our planet. The moon rises more or less 53 minutes later each day.

I find fish also feed better than usual three hours preceding a high tide and three hours preceding the low tide. Funny thing is, these periods usually coincide with moonrise, transits & sets. The top of the high tide and the bottom of the low are usually pretty dead.

We plan our fishing day so as not to be running when a peak fishing period is at hand. When the moon is in its transit position, overhead, you can bet we will be on the fishing hole with live baits in the water. During what we think will be a slow spell, we might spend running to another location, or splitting coconuts on the beach out at Isla Montuosa.

Other Fishing Methods

These would be whatever the situation calls for you or what ever you want to do. You're welcome to bring your own gear (weight permitting) & fishing expertise and ideas to try. Remember this is your charter, if you want to night fish, surf cast, try to catch a Black Marlin from shore, the choice is yours.

We will fish with and for you. If you just can't get along with the catch & release ethic, then by all means, ask us to filet what you catch.

We can always smoke the excess fish or donate it to the needy. Of course we hope you won't but the point is, not all of us share the same ideas about fishing and during your week we want you to think of this as your place, your boats, your airplane and your crew.