Sport-fishing enthusiasts will find few places in the world as unexplored as the mostly uninhabited, rugged coastal wilderness of Australia’s Kimberley. It’s a region so remote, it remains a mystery even to most Australians, few of whom have ever ventured to this distant northwestern corner of the continent.

The fishing remains unspoiled and untouched, and anglers who do manage to visit here marvel at the terrain, replete with dramatic gorges cut deeply into red sandstone cliffs, rugged ranges, waterfalls that tumble right into the Indian Ocean, and flats that daily become totally exposed and then hours later completely disappear when flooded by 25- to 30-foot tides that are part of this watery world.

The Kimberley includes many national parks, and ancient indigenous rock art can be found throughout the area on rock walls and in caves, estimated to date back as far as 40,000 years. The population of the Kimberley is roughly 50 percent aboriginal. Here’s a thumbnail look at four fishing destinations in the Kimberley.

Broome

Broome might be considered a gateway to the Kimberley. The largest city in the territory (about 15,000 population), it’s located at the southern end of the Kimberley. Typically visitors to the Kimberley jump off from Broome or, to the northeast, Darwin.

But Broome is a fishing destination in its own right. It offers excellent surf-fishing without having to travel far, starting at Roebuck Bay along Crab Creek Road. Fish rocky points for the iconic barramundi, as well as trevally, queenfish, threadfin and mangrove jacks (as the Indo Pacific version of gray snapper are called). Charter boats will fish reefs nearshore for a great variety of gamefish, including various snappers, groupers (cod and coral trout), narrowbarred Spanish mackerel, longtail tuna, trevallies and more. Serious anglers can book a multi-day trip to the famed Rowley Shoals (about 200 miles out) for amazing fishing.

But more than any gamefish species, sailfish are quintessentially Broome. It’s not unreasonable to consider this one of the best fisheries for sails in the world, with doubles and triples common. Renowned Australian fishing journalist John Ashley has experienced the fishery, and he says it’s common for Broome boats to tag-and-release a dozen or more sails in a day. Boats typically run 15 to 40 miles to find sails (which they generally do by finding schools of baitfish). These Indian Ocean sails run 45 to 55 pounds or so—similar to Western Atlantic sailfish. And, similar to Florida, anglers generally fish light spinning gear, often pitch-baiting ballyhoo (aka garfish).

Rather than walking down a dock to meet their boat, charter anglers in Broome wade out to a dingy just off the beach, which will run them out to deeper water where boats are moored. There are no docks here on the extensive sandy shallows where huge tides are a constant fact of life.

Broome also offers heli-fishing (kashelicopters.com.au) on an extended half-day tour to drop anglers into otherwise inaccessible spots. It’s a pricey but a unique fishing experience, with barramundi the primary target. Information on the biggest offshore tournament here can be found by searching online for the Broome Billfish Classic.

Kuri Bay

A bit over an hour north of Broome via floatplane, Kuri Bay sits deep in the Kimberley coast. For human purposes, it’s less a sport-fishing center than a base for the pearl industry. The Paspaley pearling center here was established in the 1950s, but only recently (in 2016) did the isolated spot become accessible to sport fishermen when well-known Kimberley guide and charter operator Peter Tucker worked out an arrangement with Paspaley to house small groups of anglers on-site at the working pearl farm, via his Kuri Bay Sportfishing Tours.

Often the Kimberley’s coastal waters are turbid, but at Kuri they’re generally clear. That makes it an appealing destination for fly-rodders, who have the chance to sight-cast to one of Australia’s most elusive inshore prizes, the blue bastard (actual name), a large (reaching at least 3 feet in length) species of sweetlips in the family of grunts, as spooky and unpredictable as any permit.

Fly- and light-tackle anglers alike fish for abundant trevallies (giant, golden, brassy and others), as well as barramundi, queenfish, mangrove jack, fingermark, cobia, longtail tuna, narrowbarred mackerel, various groupers and more.

As everywhere in the Kimberley, where and how one fishes always depends upon the massive tides. Some mornings, boats will remain briefly at the dock high and dry when low tide empties out Kuri Bay. The flip side means that when the tide floods the bay and the coast, it completely swallows shorter trees underwater. The guides at Kuri Bay, out of necessity, know how to play the tides and where to fish at any time.

Kimberley Coastal Camp

Other than this resort, there is simply nothing in this remote part of the Kimberley for many miles around. Visitors reach Kimberley Coastal Camp only by chopper or floatplane. The camp sits on the Admiralty Gulf north of the Mitchell Plateau and Lawley River National Park, northeast of Kuri Bay.

There’s abundant wildlife and ancient cave paintings (take a tour of indigenous rock-art sites), but fishing is the major draw. Barramundi are a primary target, but anglers catch the typical, wide variety of gamefish here including mulloway (aka black jewfish, a large croaker), threadfin salmon, mangrove jack, fingermark, giant trevally, narrowbarred Spanish mackerel, longfin tuna, queenies, coral trout, blue bone (blackchin tuskfish) and more. That diversity’s not too surprising with such a variety of habitats to fish at KCC: huge tidal rivers, mangrove-lined creeks, estuaries, flats and offshore reefs and islands. The resort claims that it’s “one of the few fishing tour operations that include tackle on an unconditional basis. No cost for loss or breakages.”

KCC owners Tub and Jules take pride in their cuisine, and in fact wrote a book about it — Cooking in Thongs, Recipes and Stories the Kimberley Coastal Way. The modest resort (16 guests maximum) is open year-round. For barramundi, in particular, the wet season is recommended, with February a peak month.

Kununurra

One needn’t venture far from this Kimberley community (population about 5,000) to find some outstanding barramundi fishing. Lake Kununurra, formed in 1963 with the construction of a dam across the mighty Ord River, has seen well more than a million barramundi fingerlings released over the past decade by the Lake Kununurra Barramundi Stocking Group. The result: a world-class fishery for Australia’s most iconic inshore gamefish.

The ragged coastline of the Cambridge Gulf and its estuaries just to the north of Kununurra also offer great barramundi fishing. The entire area along with the lake is included in the annual Apex Kununurra Barra Bash competition held each September. For information on that tournament, visit lakekununurrabarramundi.com.au.

Local fishing guides can be found at visitkununurra.com/tours/fishing-tours. For a very different sort of fishing experience, there’s barra fishing using hand lines with Pete’s Cultural Adventures. One spectacular site is famed Ivanhoe Crossing, a concrete causeway across the Ord River with water flowing over it—and plenty of big crocodiles (“salties”) hanging around.

Here too you’ll find heli-fishing opportunities. See helispirit.com.au. Kununurra’s airport is served by regular domestic flights, and the Great Northern Highway from Broome is paved for its length.

Helpful Links

For more information about fishing Western Australia, visit Tourism Western Australia (westernaustralia.com) and Great Fishing Adventures of Australia (part of australia.com). For general info about visiting Australia, see Tourism Australia. My thanks to these agencies, whose assistance made visiting the Kimberley possible. Also, be sure to check out the free digital magazine Allure for more Australian fishing adventures.

The post Fishing the Kimberley—Australia’s Most Remote Region appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The Republic of Seychelles comprises 115 islands 900 miles off the east coast of Africa, 1,800 miles northeast of Madagascar. The Seychelles is world renowned for its saltwater fly fishing, and there’s no better place to experience it than Alphonse Island, a five-star fishing lodge in the outer islands.

Read Next: A Flats Fishing Calendar

To better protect and sustain this extraordinary fishery, Alphonse Island has launched a research project to tag and track giant trevally. As the apex predator of the flats, a healthy GT population is essential to a healthy ecosystem. Earlier this year, Sport Fishing Television was invited to document the latest tagging effort.

The post Tagging Giant Trevally in the Seychelles appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

In the early and mid-1980s, I was fortunate to experience trolling for yellowfin and bluefin tuna off Block Island, Rhode Island, using plastic-skirted lures. When nearby tuna busted bait on top, the breathtaking excitement was second only to witnessing one crash a trolled lure. It never occurred to us that anglers would soon be casting big lures to these stunning fish and landing them using spinning outfits.

How it Started

Back in 2005, some anglers starting in the “tuna-pop” sport were using extra-heavy muskie or striped bass rods rigged with big-surf reels to cast top-waters at breaking fish. These outfits were cumbersome and tiring, especially with heavy mono line.

Randy Chin, CEO of Temple Reef rods and one of the pioneers in the heavy-spin-rod industry, says the evolution of heavy popping rods actually started in the late 1980s when Japanese anglers targeted giant trevally with long rods and big lures. These early plugging rods were up to 10 feet long and made of fiberglass/graphite composites. When superbraid gelspun polyethylene lines were refined and popularized, rods designed to cast lures became shorter and stronger because anglers could achieve greater distance with braid. That length, shorter by 2 feet or so, proved imperative for designing stronger and more efficient casting rods.

When spinning for tuna began in earnest in the Northeast, Chin says, skippers were skeptical of spinning rods and “coffee grinders,” as they called big spinning reels, until they witnessed him and others in 2006 subduing 50-pound bluefin in as little as five minutes. But as the individual size of that year class grew in subsequent seasons, so did the need for a rod specifically designed for targeting bluefin and yellowfin of more than 50 pounds because the long, heavy giant trevally rods weren’t efficient.

That’s when Chin developed his first purpose-made tuna casting rod, designed to handle 50- to 80-pound braid and to cast and work 4½-ounce lures.

High-Tech Materials: More Strength, Less Weight

Today, anglers routinely target not only large school tuna but predators such as giant trevally, amberjack, grouper and tarpon on tackle once thought suitable only for less-powerful species. The rods, in conjunction with ever-evolving, superduty spinning reels, not only must handle 100-pound-plus fish—but they also must sling 4- to 5-ounce jigs, poppers and stickbaits using heavy braid, yet be manageable enough for anglers to use for many hours.

A rod’s weight-to-strength ratio is the most significant recent advancement in blank material, says Blaine Anderson, field marketing manager with Shimano. Improvements in that ratio now make it possible to cast all day without tiring. A lure in the water, he notes, works far better than a lure in the cockpit during frequent rest periods.

Major advancements in materials used in rod construction include low-to-mid-modulus materials (modulus referring to stiffness in a rod) with higher tensile strengths. This increases the strain rate of the fibers, says Jason Brunner, director of Engineering and Manufacturing with St. Croix. He says better glass materials used in conjunction with carbon fiber offer the perfect combination of strength, power and action in St. Croix rods.

Modern materials also help in designing rods with technique-specific tapers, with the power needed for targeting big gamefish. The use of stronger, lighter blanks and composites—along with ultradurable components such as reel seats, guide frames and inserts, and butt sections, allow these rods to withstand the use of high-test braided lines, says Daniel Ramos, product-development assistant with Okuma.

Chin believes that enhancements to prepreg (a composite of fibers impregnated with epoxy resin), such as material-thickness variations, allow for finer tuning of rod action and strength, including the introduction of nanotechnology to prepreg. Fishing rods using silica nanoparticles fill spaces between carbon fibers to strengthen the rod without increasing the weight. These microscopic spheres of silica act as a homogenous, nonabrasive filler between the carbon fibers in a graphite rod blank. The result, he says: a much stronger, lighter product—important for well-designed popping rods.

Few popping rods are fitted with gimbal ends. Instead, many feature a rubber-knob butt to fit into belts that have cups without gimbal pins. The latter isn’t needed with spinning gear because “the gravity load from the spinning reel negates any torsional movement” of the sort that occurs with heavy conventional reels, Chin says. And not having to worry about seating a butt onto a gimbal pin allows for a more immediate, on-demand readiness to use a belt.

Guides

Improvements in guides is another significant change in the rod-building industry, in the opinion of Michael Bragg at Penn. Innovations in guide design, quality and trains (placement) provide anglers the ability to cast farther and more accurately, and high-tech guides have eliminated erosion or grooving by braided line during repeated intense battles.

Braid-ready, one-piece guides eliminate insert pop-outs and provide long-lasting durability for anglers’ specific setups. The introduction of popular Fuji KW guides is a need-specific example of a strengthened frame that Fuji claims virtually eliminates inserts popping out, which renders the rod useless until guides are replaced.

“For a heavy casting rod,” Chin says, “the best blank material is 100 percent carbon fiber. Our preferred guide is Fuji’s MN guides with SiC [silicon carbide/ceramic] rings. Our preference for MN is mainly because they’re smaller to avoid flat spots from guides with longer legs. I believe SiC rings are necessary for heavy braid because ceramic has the best heat conductivity and better compression strength to keep the frame rigid.”

Length and Construction

There’s no single best all-purpose plugging rod, so how do you know what to look for? Anderson at Shimano says heavy-duty spinning rods should range from 7 to 8 feet or a bit more, be built with reinforcing construction methods and offer power ratings from medium to extra heavy. Shimano’s Ocean Plugger and Grappler Type C, for example, use a construction system consisting of three layers: vertical fibers, then an inner layer of spiral-wrapped carbon tape, and an outer layer of carbon tape spiral-wrapped in the opposite direction. This enhances torsional rigidity without adding extra weight. In some Shimano rods, additional power is gained by wrapping another outer layer of carbon tape to form an array of X shapes up the blank.

Chin says rod weight can limit the castability of a popping rod. He feels the ideal tuna-pop rod should weigh 14 ounces or so, and agrees with Anderson that a length of 8 feet or slightly more is ideal. Any shorter, he believes, will affect casting distance, and any longer will increase rod weight.

A moderate action is necessary for casting a variety of lure weights, and is ideal when fighting tuna because 80 percent of the battle is vertical. A moderate action places more pressure on the fish and less pressure on the standing angler due to the parabolic curve.

Grips

For rod grips, Chin adds, Temple Reef and most other manufacturers use EVA grips because they’re lightweight and durable. (EVA is an elastomeric polymer, which is “rubber-like” in softness and flexibility, has low-temperature toughness, stress-crack resistance, is waterproof and resistant to UV radiation.)

Read Next: Catch Massive Bluefin Tuna on Lures

One last important aspect of rod construction at Temple Reef is the length and position of the foregrip. Naturally, all anglers battling big fish want to grip their big-game rods as far up as possible to get the best leverage, which means at the top of the foregrip. But because of the finesse of these popping rods, placement of the hand far up on the rod can result in “high-sticking,” which often leads to a broken rod. Foregrips, Chin says, should terminate at the designed fulcrum point for maximum effectiveness without compromising the rod’s integrity.

“It’s like a plastic straw,” concludes Capt. Kyle Douton, manager with J&B Tackle in Niantic, Connecticut. “If you bend it too far, it suddenly creases. That’s how a rod snaps. The trick is to build a rod that will take extreme pressure and not ‘crease’ at a weak point. That’s what new technology is doing for us.”

The post High-Tech Heavy Spinning Rods Built to Tame Big Fish appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The post VIDEO: Attack of the Giant Trevally appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

There be Monsters

Desolate Coast

In from Jakarta and Out to Base Camp

Paradise Found

Home Sweet Home

Strange Fish-Catching Devices

Curtains of Rain

… And so It Begins

Muscled Away from the Coral

Red Bass Galore

Beautiful Bluefin

Another Kind of Monster

Another Popper Surprise

Massive Lure Muncher

Shallow-Water Wahoo

Steep, Current-Swept Drop-offs: Where the Big Boys Prowl

Junkyard Dogs of Papua Reefs

Dogtooth Attack

Maw of the Mackerel

Missile Launch Site

A Mack in the Hand

Suffering Stickbait

Mild Mackerel: Sashimi Surprise

Hangin’ with the Locals

Out of the Rain

Room with a Water View

Close to Home

Tricky but Rewarding

Unseen Leviathan

Massive Mackerel

Making Friendly with the Sharks

About the Photographer

The post Adventure into Wild West Papua: Exploring the Rugged Reefs appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

In an exclusive report to Sport Fishing, Panama fishing-resort manager Olivier Charpentier shares a photo of his catch — leaving no doubt of its identity as a giant trevally (Caranx ignobilis)— that he caught on a popper off Montuosa Island (clearly visible in the background).

Historically, GT have been limited to the western Pacific, found as far east only as Hawaii. GT, one of the world’s most powerful nearshore game fishes, are also one of the post popular among anglers from Hawaii to Australia. They are known to reach weights in excess of 160 pounds.

Ross Robertson, Ph.D., and colleagues have termed the vast distance between Hawaii and islands far off the coast of Central America as the “eastern Pacific barrier,” noting that it presents a formidable open-water obstacle, discouraging transpacific migration of shore-bound species.

However, upon seeing the photo of Charpentier’s catch, William Smith-Vaniz, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading experts on carangids — the family of jacks and trevallies — agrees that “This fish is definitely a giant trevally.” Smith-Vaniz tells SF that a comprehensive search of all electronic fish-collection data bases would seem to confirm this as the first GT caught along the coast of Central America.

Recently, a GT was reported sighted well off the coast of Ecuador in the Galapagos, says Robertson, an expert on fishes of the tropical Eastern Pacific.

Scientists now have documented evidence supporting a dramatic giant trevally range extension.

Several western trevallies have made it across the eastern Pacific barrier, becoming well established and today common off Panama and Costa Rica, including bluefin and bigeye trevallies and black jacks. Atlantic tarpon, having crossed into the Pacific through the Panama Canal are also becoming increasingly numerous in these waters, apparently breeding in the Pacific now.

Will giant trevally join their ranks as yet another great game fish available to anglers off Central America? That remains to be seen, but it is an interesting and for many fishermen tantalizing prospect.

(Any angler catching what he or she believes to be a giant trevally off Central America is encouraged to contact editor@sportfishingmag.com.)

Giant Trevally Invade the Easter Pacific

The post Capture of a Giant Trevally Off Panama Makes History appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

RED DRUM — 16-POUND TIPPET

SOUTHERN BLUEFIN TUNA — 20-POUND LINE CLASS

GIANT TREVALLY — ALL-TACKLE LENGTH RECORD

BONEFISH — ALL-TACKLE LENGTH RECORD

The post Big Red Drum on Fly and Other Pending World Records appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The IGFA all-tackle record GT weighed 160 pounds, caught near Tokara, Japan. That’s bigger than the largest amberjack ever landed, and it’s more than double the size of the largest jack crevalle ever recorded by the IGFA.

Tanzania, November 2011

Martin Larsson, of Tanzania, hooked this 124-pound, 12-ounce ounce brute while trolling with 50-pound-class tackle. The fish attacked a trolled ballyhoo and took 35 minutes to fight to the boat.

Australia, June 1996

Fishing in Australia’s Seymour River Estuary, Esme Henderson hooked a 72-pound giant trevally while casting a deep-diving plug. The 77-pound fish took 45 minutes to land on 12-pound tackle.

Seychelles, May 1999

Giant trevally inhabit warm coastal waters of the Indian and central Pacific oceans, eastward to the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands. Other popular waters to catch GTs include Kenya and other parts of Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Hawaii.

Fly angler Colleen Vaday hooked this 45-pound fish on a deceiver fly while fishing Alphonse Island, Seychelles. She landed the fish after a 30-minute fight, taking extra care with her 16-pound tippet.

Japan, May 2006

Keiki Hamasaki, of Kagoshima, Japan, landed this all-tackle world-record giant trevally without the help of a boat. He hooked the 160-pound, 7-ounce fish from shore while casting a plug with 130-pound tackle. Total fight time was just 35 minutes. Imagine the knots necessary to fight this monster GT from land!

Kiribati, February 1995

Similar species to giant trevally include jack crevalle, horse-eye jack, Pacific jack crevalle, bigeye trevally and bluefin trevally — but the giant trevally grows the biggest of them all.

Fly angler Bud Korteweg, of River Edge, New Jersey, landed this 35-pound trevally at Christmas Island using 8-pound tippet. The fish hit a Tarpon fly and took 30 minutes to land on the flats.

Hawaii, March 1991

Some Hawaiian anglers report that the darker the night, the more actively giant trevally feed. But daylight didn’t stop Russell Mori from hooking this 145-pound, 8-ounce fish near Makena, Maui, using moray eel as bait. The shore angler landed the GT in 1 hour on 80-pound tackle.

Cook Islands, January 2014

Now that IGFA all-tackle length records are available for many different fish species, increasing numbers of anglers can release their catch and still make it into the record books. Australian Paul Worsteling fished the Cook Islands with Capt. Etu Davey to land this 42.9-inch (109 cm) fish. He cast a popper to the GT before landing the fish in just 7 minutes.

Reunion Island, March 2009

Audrey Ferrand was bait fishing near St. Gilles when this 105-pound, 13-ounce giant trevally grabbed her bait. Using 130-pound tackle, Ferrand landed the giant jack after a 1-hour, 15-minute fight time.

Mauritius, February 2010

Many adult giant trevally feed outside reef drop-offs in deeper waters. Junior angler William Klein, from France, landed this giant trevally off the coast of Rodriguez Island, Mauritius. He used a chunk of bonito head as bait to land the 94-pound, 12-ounce fish in 15 minutes.

Australia, December 1996

Raymond Revill used light 2-pound tackle and a Boone Popper to land this 31-pound, 4-ounce giant trevally in Hervey Bay, Australia. Even though the catch wasn’t the largest GT ever, it took quite a fight, lasting 65 minutes to land. On the opposite end of the spectrum, one giant trevally photo on social media showed a fish that looked close to 175 to 200 pounds. Though the mystery GT photo was never verified by the IGFA, and little-to-no background on the catch or angler is available, both of these photos show why giant trevally fishing is so popular — just look at the anglers’ faces.

The post World’s Greatest Giant Trevally Catches appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

That tranquility proved short-lived. Minutes later, one of the other five kayak anglers around me, each bobbing about on a brightly colored Hobie Outback in the muted late-afternoon light, shattered the peace.

I took in the hard bend of his live-bait rod as well as several yellowfin crashing the surface just beyond. As I pedaled toward the action like a maniac, I flipped the bail on an Okuma Raw II 80 spinner, filled with 80-pound braid, ready to cast.

Other _kayakeros _were hooking up. I made it a point to stay well clear of Kevin Nakada, fishing-team coordinator with Hobie, fighting a yellowfin on the popper he’d cast off his bow, while leaving his live blue runner trailing behind: He now had two crazily bent rods, each pointing off opposite ends his kayak!

Chaos Amid Busting Tuna

As I neared the area where I’d seen the commotion, nothing broke the surface. Had I missed a fast-moving school? I recalled that Pascal Artieda, who operated his “wild coast” kayak-fishing camp, had advised us to make casts with poppers even when tuna weren’t busting.

I did, and halfway back to the kayak, a tuna burst from the surface 20 feet behind the Yo-Zuri Sashimi Bull. I gazed in awe as it chased down the lure and clobbered it.

A yee-haw! battle ensued that had the kayak variously sleigh-riding ahead and spinning, toplike, as I pedaled around the circling tuna in an effort to keep the rod pointing off a bow quadrant and never behind me.

Ultimately, I released a 40-pounder or so (that release made easier and safer since I’d replaced the treble hooks on most lures with strong singles).

Then I pedaled quickly over to Chris Russell of Denver, with my GoPro in hand and ready to shoot the 60-pounder he was easing into his kayak to disengage a popper.

In fact, all anglers were busy hooking, fighting or releasing yellowfin — the best sort of chaos.

Bad Place to Be a Live Bait

That tuna bite capped off quite a day. Early on, we’d pedaled out of the small, protected cove where Artieda and his associate, fellow Frenchman Aurelian Perez, have set up their remote camp. A small river flows into one corner of the picturesque cove.

One rule of thumb we found in the two-and-a-half days we fished here: A live bait isn’t safe anywhere at any time except in a livewell.

With that in mind, shortly after sunup, I had dropped a live runner over the side barely outside the bay, planning to slow-troll it out to deeper reefs. But I didn’t get more than 200 feet or so before something slammed it, and right there in front of the camp, I had one hell of a fight on my hands. My adversary turned out to be a large roosterfish.

That day and the next, we caught more roosters, cubera snapper to 60 pounds, Colorado snapper, barred pargo, amberjack, African pompano, Pacific crevalle, bluefin trevally, Sierra and more. We caught fish while trolling live bait and lures, and while drifting — dropping jigs or tossing poppers. We caught ’em a mile offshore (where the water is very blue and very deep), over reefs closer to shore, and right along the surf-washed rocky headlands of the wild coast.

Wilderness Camp in Style

As the sun fell, everyone pedaled back to camp and carried kayaks well up on the beach for the night. In the clearing marking the outpost camp, showers were available, though I chose the cool, clear fresh water flowing out of the river for a welcome cleanup.

After sashimi appetizer and a great dinner (with the day’s catch as the main dish), we sat and sipped our wine (hey, these guys are French; I liked their version of roughing it), and relived the day’s many exciting moments. Even a half-hour torrential downpour couldn’t dampen our heady spirits.

Before long, most were ready to get some shut-eye; each angler crawled into his own tent, where an air mattress, sheets and a towel waited. They were good tents, and the rain fly had kept mine dry inside. I slept amazingly well both nights we were there.

Yes, we had to contend with a few mosquitoes. And at times, we had to hunker down under a tarp to stay dry. But all participants agreed that they wouldn’t have traded the experience for a plush resort.

Over Land and Water to the Wild Coast

About eight years ago, Artieda opened his Panafishing Adventure Lodge near Pedasi. From 26-foot cats and 25-foot super pangas, anglers caught all the species mentioned above plus good numbers of sailfish, at times mahi and more.

Then Artieda tried kayak fishing and was hooked — so much so that he bought a fleet of Hobies (five Outbacks and two Pro Anglers) and started offering kayak fishing around Pedasi (where it usually remains calm when the ocean gets breezy) for roosterfish, in particular. (Artieda had fished Hobies and said he recognized the almost-effortless and hands-free pedal system as the only way to go for serious fishing.)

Soon he was taking anglers to multiday adventures based out of his secret cove on the wild coast.

To get there requires about a five-hour drive (some of that smooth and easy, some w-w-w-washboard) from Pedasi to Cambutal, where the road ends at a large bay rimmed with an immense sand beach, on the southernmost Azuero Peninsula. From there, anglers transfer with their gear to pangas for another hour-and-a-half scenic cruise west along this “tuna coast” — as remote as any you’ll find in Panama — to the outpost camp. As to why it’s called the tuna coast, and why it’s so productive, search Google Earth for “Azuero Peninsula” and note the precipitous drop to abyssal depths almost at the shoreline!

Waiting at the camp: a central cooking/lounging tent, a large patio tent with mosquito netting for dining and tents. (At press time, a new and improved base camp is under construction, which will feature huts on wooden platforms with showers, a bar, tables and other amenities.)

And of course, there were the kayaks, ready for us to hop onto and go. Sometimes Artieda and Perez will load kayaks onto skiffs to travel up or down the coast to specific reefs or areas where they’ll find feeding tuna and other pelagics, but the grounds just in front of the camp are hard to beat, and one need only jump into a kayak and pedal a few minutes to start fishing.

Return Trip

We ended up spending only a couple of full days off the Azuero Peninsula, with Artieda deciding we should head back just before the groundswell was predicted to grow considerably. (Though running through some squall lines still made for an exhilarating ride back to Cambutal.)

That was in late May, when things can (as they did) get wet at times, though Artieda cites spring as a good time for big yellowfin. Most of the season, winds and seas are light here, but if a wind does blow in spring or summer, it will be from a southerly quadrant and can rough things up. In that case, it’s a fine time to fish for big roosters in the calm waters around Pedasi.

On the other hand, in winter, if a wind comes up, it generally blows from the north, Artieda says. That means the high cliffs of the wild coast offer great protection, so most of the time, kayakeros pedal out onto a flat sea.

And as long as the weather remains cooperative, Artieda will schedule wild coast adventures for five days and nights — or longer or shorter per a group’s wishes.

For anyone who appreciates the unique pleasures of fishing from a kayak, I’d have to call this ultimate adventure a must, based on our trip this past spring. In fact, I already scheduled a return trip for this winter.

Planning a Kayak-Fishing Trip to Panama’s Wild Coast

Who: Experienced kayak anglers. These are big fish, and this is not a place for novices to try their hand. (Experience notwithstanding, Artieda keeps one skiff, with VHF, out on the grounds for every two or three kayaks, for both support and safety reasons. Also, skiffs may be used to run kayaks and anglers to spots farther up the coast.)

When: December through May (seasonality discussed in text of feature)

Travel: A number of major airlines fly into Panama City. Copa offers direct flights from several U.S. cities, and I’ve generally flown Copa. (However, while I’ve had no problems thus far, I must point out that the airline’s contradictory baggage rules for fishing gear allow a “container” up to 115 total linear inches but then specify that no gear may exceed 80 inches; my efforts for some clarification have gone unanswered. For those who travel with 7-foot rods, note that United, American and Delta — all of which fly into Panama City — allow for up to 115 linear inches.)

Once your group arrives at Tocumen International Airport, you can overnight in Panama City, or you can arrange to leave for the wild coast right away (especially if you can arrive before midday). Artieda will have a van waiting — and a truck as well, if all anglers have a load of gear, as we did. It’s a bit more than five hours (with a lunch stop), a ride I didn’t mind since it meant we didn’t face the severe gear restrictions that flying in via a small, regional, in-country airline would have meant.

Depending on timing and logistics you’ll arrange with Artieda, you might overnight at the lodge or head right out to the wild coast.

What to bring: Your favorite rods/reels. The resort has limited gear. A range of 30- to 80-pound braid should serve you well. We used conventionals (Okuma’s Andros for jigging and Makaira for slow-trolling live bait), and big spinners for throwing poppers. Pack a selection of poppers, deep-diving and shallow minnow lures, and metal jigs, as well as various hooks (see “Hook Swap”) including large live-bait circle hooks (we had good results with Eagle Claw Lazer Sharps) and fluoro leader. Definitely bring a camera. Something compact and waterproof, such as a GoPro, will serve you best for shooting from a kayak. I’d also recommend good, open-fingered fishing gloves and pliers you can attach to yourself or to your kayak with a lanyard. A heavy-duty lip-gripper is a must; for some fish, a lip gaff might be useful. I consider a small waterproof VHF essential. A PLB (personal locator beacon) such as ACR’s compact Res-Q-Link is worth packing with your tackle. For camp, a flashlight comes in quite handy (or a headlamp even handier). Of course a couple of dry bags are essential.

Cost: For three or more anglers, $1,600 each covers five nights and five days of fishing on the wild coast. Add just $220 per person, and you’ll have van service from and to the airport. You may also opt for one or more overnights at the Panafishing Lodge in Pedasi, either en route to the wild coast or just to fish that (very different) area/fishery, for $100 per night.

For more information, visit panamakayakadventure.com and panafishing.com.

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