Finding Our Sweet Spot

© Flickr / laszlo-photo

As in all good fishing places, Panama is very dynamic in terms of its weather. Being close to the equator, there are not four seasons but rather two – the rainy season and the dry season. January is usually found to be in the throes of dry season, with the trees turning a lighter green in the canopy and the rivers slowing drastically. The wind starts out of the north and it runs against the current, stacking waves together in a series and making it difficult to fish. There is a time when the marlin come and tail down the big waves and wait, like trout in a stream, for the baits to come swimming up current and into their feeding zone. The marlin fishing can be fantastic and then, like a flipping a switch, it's not. The bottom of the sea turns over and makes for miles of endless cold, green, unproductive water. This typically coincides with the month of March, which is a good time to switch tactics and quarries.

During these slow times, we have a trick up our sleeves. A ways out of Pinas Bay, toward the south, the water drops deeply off the shelf and provides a series of rock piles in six hundred feet of water. It might seem impossible to catch any fish at such depths, but the wonders of modern technology have made a device that makes it as simple as pie – the electric reel.

For Picaflor's crew, deep dropping to groupers and snappers in one hundred fathoms is kind of like a day off from work. The Indians get giddy about the fact that they can load their freezer with good trading fish in short order.

© John Richardson / RumBum.comWe accomplish this in ten steps:

1. Set six to eight baited circle hooks on a leader to the electric reel. 
2. Plug the reel in to the DC socket. 
3. Drive the boat past the rock. 
4. Attach a giant weight (think 10 lb. window sash or a huge rock). 
5. Drop to the bottom of the ocean (takes several minutes, or the time it takes to have one beer).
6. Watch the rod jerk up and down. 
7. Push the “up” button. 
8. Bring the leader to the surface (one beer or more depending on pull). 
9. Laugh like crazy when the leader surfaces. 
10. Put the fish in the cooler.

From these depths, the fish arrive boatside as if they were just removed from the freezer. The groupers are the most desired, but many times there is a plethora of other fish that arrive at the top. A small red fish with huge eyes is one of them, I am not sure of its name, but it is spiny and delicious.

The secret in conserving such a great fishing spot (of which there are countless but we know of only a few) is, of course, not to tell anyone – don’t act like you’ve caught any fish when you get back to the docks, go on about your business, and share your spoils with tight-lipped friends.