jack fish caught while on a fishing vacation in panama

June – August Panama Fishing Report

Saltwater Fishing in Rainy Season

As the rainy season or Panama’s “green season” enters full swing, the water temperatures have again risen back up. They have been consistently around 82 degrees. Intermittent scattered showers happen on a daily basis here on the Tuna Coast now. We encountered many heavy drift lines made of large logs and scattered debris while out saltwater fishing. Winds have switched to a consistent light on-shore breeze on the Pacific side of Panama. The yellowfin tuna are still in the area but, we mostly came across the smaller size. Rather than the monsters caught just a couple months prior in dry-season.

Productive Jigging

The jigging was still very productive catching some medium size amberjacks and mullet snapper on Shimano butterfly jigs. The majority of the tuna caught were on light spinning gear and smaller size Williamson jigs. We ran across several pods of porpoise with some larger tuna in tow. But, they would not take any lure we threw at them. We tried poppers, swim baits and jerk baits but the larger tuna just would not bite.

We finally got a smaller one in the boat with a DUO japan sardine. Once we cut the it open we found the it was feeding on deepwater squid. So, when we came across them again we dropped the jigs thinking they would bite in the deeper water. Unfortunately, we still had no luck with the larger ones as they seemed to not be hungry and very finicky. However, the smaller football tunas seemed to be more aggressive with less food in their belly. The conditions change day to day here while saltwater fishing.

Productive fishing in Tuna Coast

As we ventured up the Azuero peninsula (tuna coast) we had some success jigging near Punta Mariato with Shimano’s colt sniper jigs producing Jack Crevalle, Mullet Snapper, African Pompano and Blue Jack. We did make it to Coiba National Park and had a run in with the Sea Shepard patrol ship John Paul DeJoria. They were helping to regulate and report any illegal fishing in the area. After the second day while recording illegal fishing in the Coiba Marine reserve a Panamanian long line vessel rammed the Sea Shepard cutter which sustained minor damage. We called in one illegal longliner within the park on the east side and upon our return the police where in the process of confiscating the boat.

During our day in the Coiba National Park we caught Blue Jack, Rainbow runners, football tuna and Albacore tuna. All of our guests decided to take filets back to the United States, so our crew meticulously vacuum sealed most of the fish. However, our guests opted to have the fresh tuna they caught brined, smoked and packaged at the lodge before they left.