mothership of Panama Sport Fishing Lodge on May 12 - 18, 2017

Started by ksong, May 24, 2017, 09:57:01 PM

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ksong

We had a great trip on a mothership of PSFL last year and I arranged the mothership trip again with 8 anglers this year.
I was a fun trip catching lots of tuna on popping rods. 
We released all tuna except a few for dinner.
The Hannibal Bank was hot before your trip, but tuna were on and off there. But we chased yft on popping rods and each angler who could cast had 5 - 6 hookups with 30 lb - 90 lb on each day on poppers except the last day.
We fished inshore briefly and managed to catch two roosters and some jacks on popers.

I used this opportunity to test our 9'2" - 10' Black Hole  yellowtail/tuna popping rods.

arriving at David, Panama


arriving at PSFL












ready for fishing.


first tuna with light 9'2" Black Hole Striper rod




used sardine.


fighting a tuna with light Black Hole Cape Cod Slow Pitch 632 rod on a jig.


It was great to meet Macho on the water with whom I fished several years when he worked for PSFL.


bait bite


tuna to be released.


our second boat


ready for dinner at mothership after fishing.


baited hook. I think tuna are too many to eat those baited hook there. :)


We usually atarted with bait in Hannibal Bank.


Then, we chased yft on surface


foul hooked turtle on a jig


80 lb tuna using light 9'6" Black Hole Striper rod













ksong

We started bait fishing again when we arrived at Hannibal Bank.  We had huge fish, but it turned out to be a monster manta ray.






releasing tuna


catching a rooster with 9'6" Black Hole Striper rod








mothership

ksong

we fought  a nice black marlin on a jig for 30 minutes. Black Hole Cape Cod Special 450g rod and JM PE10 filled with 130 lb Jerry Brown Hollow line were used.





I tested the light Black Hole Cape Cod Slow Pitch 632 rod for tuna. The rod is only 6 oz and we landed 100 lb tuna with it in Panama last year.
While it took about 20 minutes using the same rod to land a 100 lb tuna last year, we lost this time after 50 minutes using about 25 lb drag.The big tuna could be a cow. We used JM PE8 reel filled with 80 lb Jerry Brown Hollow/100 lb Yozuri Flueoro Carbon leader line.







mothership




relaxing on the mothership after fishing


popping tuna









alantani

send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

Dominick

Leave the gun.  Take the cannolis.

There are two things I don't like about fishing.  Getting up early in the morning and boats.  The rest of it is fun.

Alto Mare

Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.

Bryan Young

:D I talk with every part I send out and each reel I repair so that they perform at the top of their game. :D

David Hall


ksong

We tested 10' Surf II ( Yellowtail) Heavy rod for tuna. The rod barely bent for a small tuna.  The rod should be good for bluefin on the long range boats out of San Diego.




ksong

Main reason to go to Panama is to get tuna on poppers.
We didn't stay for bait fishing too long and we chased tuna on surface for the whole trip. guys loved it.
Jorge from Virginia Beach is an avid offshore fisherman, but he never caught a tuna on poppers before. He hooked up a tuna with 8' Black Hole Cape Cod Nano and Heru Cubera within 10' from the boat on the morning of the first day and I can see how he becomes addicted to tuna popping for the rest of the trip.
Daniel who also used popping rod for tuna for the first time missed a flight from NC and he drove to Miami all night to take a flight to Panama next day morning and he enjoyed life time experience with tuna popping.
We had mixed group. Some are beginners and some are experienced fishermen. But they all enjoyed for fish together. That is a huge advantage of staying on a mothership to get together for the whole trip.

I used asssit hooks for poppers and jigs as most fish were going to be released. We might have less hookups with single hooks, but we had plendy of hookups with single hooks anyway. The bottom line was everybody enjoyed greatly and becomes fishing friends for the future.


Cor

To me throwing surface lures at Tuna is the most exciting form of fishing I know.
We tend to use max 60lb tackle and we know were in for a hiding if the fish is anywhere over 100lb, but still can't resist casting at the fish.

Interesting that you also use single hooks.   We did much experimenting with hook arrangements and now tend to use 2 very large singles at the back, but one large singe on a string seems to hold the fish the best.
Cornelis

Newell Nut

Those are impressive looking rods. Especially the videos from another string of the heavy drag test.

ksong

Quote from: Newell Nut on May 25, 2017, 08:58:14 PM
Those are impressive looking rods. Especially the videos from another string of the heavy drag test.
10' Black Hole Surf II/Yellowtail Heavy is the rod pulling 44 lb drag and the blank weighs only 8.3 oz.