Our 3 Spanish anglers, who had come to do battle with Panamanian fish, quickly realized that lure fishing in exo is a physical sport in its own right. Arriving in mid-April for 3 days of lure fishing and jigging, the first two days yielded a variety of catches, including gallos, blue jacks and others, but no real trophies.
Hunt the natural and it comes running back! Our three anglers, fervent devotees of bottom bait fishing in the Mediterranean, asked us to try out this Panamanian-style technique, as their physical condition and lack of activity on the surface on the various lures had got the better of their motivation. So we decided to go and prospect at the "carnada", a rock opposite the Isle of Cebaco, and our first job was to catch livebaits, Cojinoas, a type of small trevally, with submachine guns mounted above the jigs. The livewell was quickly filled, even if 3 times much larger fish came to seize our livebaits on the way up, and left with the submachine guns and jigs at the same time, the 40-centimeter nylon having failed to resist! 1/4 of an hour after having cast the first livebait on an 80-lb rod, we recorded our first big start, followed by a masterly fight by Pablo, who took us to the boat with a nice Gallo weighing around 20 kg. Two other big starts were followed by a resounding break and a stall, certainly a nice Amberjack and a big Cuberas.
The following day, we set off for an offshore rock called Aguja reef to fish with chunks of bonito and try to catch grey grouper (Cernas) on 180/200 m depths. First start with a big live bonito on the bottom, followed by a huge 45-minute fight in which our three anglers took turns to finally see a huge Hammerhead shark of almost 3 m arrive at the boat, breaking the line as we lined it up to take the hook off! A great souvenir! The day continued with a few beautiful Merous between 8 and 15 Kg as well as a magnificent Merluza of around 15 Kg and a few bottom fish whose names we don't know.
