Alex Livingston and Tom Giles hosted Doug CaJacob, Joe Beemer, Jim Gaier and Gene Leach from Ohio 11-16 January 2002 for a week of fishing in the waters off Isla Cebaco and Punta Mariato, Panama. Each of them caught a sailfish either on live bait or a rigged Panama Belly Bait. Also caught were several Wahoo, Roosterfish, Dorado, Snapper and many Tuna in the 15-25 pound range. Doug and crew arrive at the lodge 3:30 am and everyone took power naps before their first day of fishing. Day one both boats went nearshore and offshore 20 miles south of the lodge. Alex's crew mostly jigged the high spots while Tom's crew mostly trolled repalas. The morning was slow but activity (mostly Tuna) picked up through out the day. Day two, we went West north of Cebaco to catch baits but only caught one between the both boats. We then proceeded to Bones Reef for deep 100' water jigging and put out the only live bait. This bait was quickly munched by presumably a Cubera judging from the tooth marks on the bait but no hookup. Jigging produced big jacks. We moved on to Hutch Reef and jigged more for baits and bigger fish. We put baits in the water and caught roostefish. Day two, we caught baits and a Roosterfish near Isla Cebaco then moved offshore where we caught many Tunas on Repalas and a Sailfish on rigged live bait. Day three, we caught Baits near Isla Cebaco and move offshore for more Tuna, two Sailfish and three Wahoo, two of which were on a double hookup. Day Four, we fished both offshore and nearshore off the end of the peninsula with Repalas and rigged Panama Belly Baits. The Repalas produced bigger tunas in the 25-35 lb range and the belly baits raised several Sailfish. We caught a sailfish and Roosterfish on the belly bait. Day five, we worked Isla Cebaco with jigs, Repalas and belly baits. We received several spectacular hits on our belly baits near the high spots and caught more Tuna. Doug and crew departed early the final day for a night's stay at the new Country Inn Suites on Amador.
Alex Livingston and Tom Giles hosted Arthur and Bonnie DiPietro from New York, 18-22 January 2002, who fished with us in waters near the Rio Negro Sportfishing Lodge located at Mariato, Panama. Billy Boughner was here to take Bob Wischmann, Jim Kaufman and Dr Doug Clark for a day of fishing. Arthur and Bonnie drove to our lodge in a rental SUV after spending several days at the Canopy Tower Resort located in Gamboa, Panama. The first fishing day, Tom Giles took Arthur and Bonnie near shore fishing off Isla Cebaco. We started out trolling CD-14 Repalas for about 30 minutes with no strikes so we started looking and jigging for live bait. Fish and bait were showing on the surface and on the fishfinder. Catching bait was very difficult that morning, we rigged, trolled and drifted the first bait, while looking for more bait. Around noon they became easy so we filled the bait well to capacity. Our first rigged bait produced a large Roosterfish chasing the same bait that we were chasing on the North up current side of Hutch Reef. Arthur fought and landed this fish in about 10 minutes. Our rigged baits continued to produce very good strikes but no hookups until we hooked a large Cubera Snapper off the South deep down current end of Hutch Reef. Arthur also fought and landed the Snapper in about 10 minutes. As the day progressed, we continued to get good strikes from presumably Cubera Snapper. Arthur fought another snapper about the same size as the first that pulled loose from the hook at boat side. We had another solid late afternoon hookup that broke off in the rocks 60' below. The second fishing day, Tom took Arthur and Bonnie fishing nearshore and offshore on the Southwest end of the Azuero Peninsula. We worked the inshore for about an hour trying to catch bonitos or tuna for bait. We had no strikes so we moved offshore to 250-400 feet of water trolling CD-14 repalas and surface lures. We soon caught a bonito so Tom rigged and trolled a Panama Belly Bait on the outrigger. We caught several Yellowfin Tunas in the 15-25 pound range near Ajuga Reef and several Dorados in 250 feet of water. Bonnie fought, landed and released a cute little 5 pound shark of unknown species on a deep diver. We returned to nearshore fishing at the end of the fishing day but again no strikes. The Panama Bait produced a Dorado hookup and premature release that we estimate to have been 25-30 pounds. The seas were mostly calm very so the ride back to Rio Negro was pleasant. The third fishing day, Arthur and Bonnie started the day of with a 45 minute river Kayak ride while the boys put Alex Livingston's boat in the river. They returned to the lodge for breakfast then Alex took them fishing in the estuary and nearshore off Isla Cebaco. We could not find sardines for bait we went to several of our honey holes for Arthur and Bonnie to cast their favorite plugs on light rods and reels that they brought with them. This producted a nice jack and mackerel. We spent most of the day near Isla Cebaco fishing live bait caught there where Arthur fought and landed a very nice Roosterfish on one of our standup rigs. Arthur and Bonnie departed Mariato in their rental on 22 January for resorts in Volcan and Bocas de Toro.
Jimmy Ricciardi and Sean McAuliffe from Boylston Ma. fished with Alex Livingston and Tom Giles, 30-31 Jan 2002, in the waters off the Azuero Peninsula and Isla Coiba, Panama. We fished the first morning offshore targeting sailfish. We had several nice Dorado hookups but none were boated. Tunas in the 10-20 lb range were abundant but we saw no Sailfish. That afternoon we ran nearshore to Hutch Reef off Isla Cebaco where Sean hooked up on the sailfish below. The second day we fished near Isla Cebaco, where we caught Dorado and more Tuna.
