June Fishing
We just finished Fishing on The Hooker and Picaflor this June and July down in Pinas Bay, Panama. There were some Big storms, Big Waves and a couple of Big Fish!
Check out the Gallery Below!
The Hooker
The Final 3
The final 3: The crew headed up to Pina’s Bay landing strip to gather our newest group to arrive. Art Smith and his two son’s Ian and Adam, where to be our guests for the next 4 days of fishing. We all headed down the beach to the awaiting Panga that would transfer them over to the ship. The rain was lightly falling, and somehow our fearless Panaga driver somehow managed to plow us bow first into a wave, sending a wall of water over our heads and drenching our new guests from head to toe. After some drying off and having a bit of a laugh about it, we made plans on what time we where going to pick them up the next morning from Tropic Star.
That next morning the sun was shining and the fishing was SLOW!!! Like really really SLOW! The bite had defiantly shut off for the first day and a half of fishing and we where all hoping that the days slow fishing wasn't a sign of things to come.
Luckily for us the slow fishing was short lived. In the 4 days of Fishing Captain Wade raised 5 Marlin and caught 3, plus lots of Tuna and Sailfish. Each one of our guests had to chance to reel in a Marlin and we ended the 4 days of fishing by finding a nice Tuna bait ball. Congrats to the guys for catching their first Pacific Blue Marlin!
Here are some images from the last trip of our 2013 Season.
Chartered Plane Flying into Pina's
Art and his boys, Ian and Adam.
Art Fighting the big one!
Herby getting us some live bait!
He has a terrified look on his face!
Adam with a nice sized Dorado!
Ian Hooked onto a Nice 400lbs plus Blue Marlin
Ian's Fish came up Tail Wrapped and the Boys desperately tried to revive it for over 20 min. The Old Girl just didn't make it.
Captain Wade, gives a "Thumbs Down" to Losing this fish.
Poor Girl, but she will be feeding a lot of mouths tonight.
Captain Wade Tapes her out to be 480lbs Blue Marlin
How to Transfer a very very Large fish 101!
We needed the Crain to be able to lift the fish on board. You can see we have a fairly large crowd of Pina's Bay people gathering on the ship to see the fish.
Just a quick pic before the Pina's Bay people fillet her up for lots and lots of families
Some of our on Lookers. We had over 20 people paddle over to the ship to get a glimpse of the enormous fish.
Each chunck was HUGE...deffinatly a lot of hungry tummies will be full very soon!
One of our Boys Arie, helping out with the portion sizes.
The Canoes are parked and everyone is aboard the ship to see all of the action unfold.
A Local Pina's Bay man was in charge of the portion sizes. They even took the empty carcass at the end for soup.
Adam fights a Sailfish.
Nice little Tuna
Adam Hooks into a nice Blue. Just minutes after his father, Art releases a Nice Blue himself.
Nothing like a good fish fight in the rain!
Johnathan leaders the nice Blue Marlin....where are your leadering gloves Johnathan????
The beautiful Picaflor run's home underneath a very impressive Rainbow.
Chasing Records
Chasing Records
The Hooker was nursing a broken Turbo Booster, so the beautiful Picaflor was to be our trusty ship for 9 days of Record Fishing with Gary Carter in Pinas, Panama.
With Captain Wade leading the charge, Gary and the Picaflor managed to raise 17 Blue Marlin, Caught 7, broke 2 record fish off the line; and caught plenty of sailfish and Tuna. Even though he didn’t yet get his record on this trip, the fishing was hot and the Weather was a bit variable. Gary was using light pound test line, 8lbs, 12lbs and 30lbs line. He was trying to get the 8lbs Blue Marlin Record, 12lbs Blue Record and 8lbs Dorado Record as well.
In the releases that Gary had, he managed to hook 2 different fish on 8lbs test line. Both fish were too small for the record of 315lbs, but he came close with both of the fish approximated weight around 280lbs or so.
Here is a Selection of Shots from our 9 Days of Fishing with Gary. Record Fishing was pretty neat to watch, the patience and skill it takes to be able to handle the fish is truly an art!
30lbs Test Line, Nice 360lbs Blue Marlin
Nice Blue Marlin
Gary on 30lbs Test.
Nice Blue Marlin
Gary's Captain from the SILVER-ROD-O, Yoan; tries his hand at leadering!
Taken from a remote camera on the Tower of the Picaflor.
"DUCK!!"
The Picaflor got Her work out on this Marlin Fight!
"Whoops"
Nice Blue Marlin smacking at the drop back bait.
We had this guy on 8bls test. The pictures later revealed that he wasn't actually hooked. Just carrying the bait around with him.
Captain Yoan, ready for the Fish.
Bait Ball's stacking up under the boat.
Yoan and Gary ready to Gaff in a nice Tuna! Gary using 8lbs Test Line and a Spinner Real.
Captain Wade Richardson, trying his hand at Leadering! Nice 200lbs Blue Marlin.
If you are looking to stay dry, then the back of the Picaflor is not for you!
Gary Taking a much needed Reeling Break.
Yoan, Trying to get us some bait!
Bait Ball's are one of the coolest things to be able to photograph.
Hand Lining with Wade 101!
TUNA Frenzy!
Ligorio Showing off his Filleting skills!
The Man and General Badass!!
Coiba Continued
Coiba Continued
Here are some more shots from our Trip to Coiba!!!
