Tour of Central America, part 2

After an eight hours traveling at the bus plus spending two or three hours in the lines at the border we finally came to the Panama. First thing to do after we arrived to the city of David was picking up our rental car. We drove directly to the nearby mountain village which is the hometown of Grasse.

The next  few days we spend at the village and at the mountains around it. The landscapes were spectaculars. There was a very beautiful little river flowing down from the mountains. All I knew that there’s  at least some Rainbow Trout swimming at the river. Somehow I still managed to miss my chances to fish there.

Beautiful mountain river. So, what else there could swim than stocked Rainbows?

The next step was moving to the mighty Panama City. Almost first thing to do was a visit at the Panama Canal (You just CAN’T visit Panama without seeing that canal). After the excursion to the canal we spend the rest of the day walking around the Casco Viejo (Old Town of Panama City). There would be much much more to tell about the Panama City and it’s attractions but because this was suppose to be an fishing blog I will skip all that stuff…..

At 22nd of February 2011 it was finally time for a little fishing. We were heading to the Isla Taboga, a smallish island just outside Panama City. And because it was an island I figured out that there’s probably some water around. So I packed my fishing stuff with me.

After the ferry arrived to the island almost everybody onboard were heading to the beach to swim and sunbathe. Except one person, I was heading couple of hundred meters further with my backpack full of fishing tackle. I spend about two hours at the starting place. I didn’t caught a thing, there was only one small Barracuda following my lure and few Pufferfish which I didn’t hook properly.

Isla Taboga. At the right edge of the picture was my fishing spot.

I moved to the other side of the peninsula and spotted right away some dark fishes swimming near shoreline. I started with my whip rod and soon I hooked a fish. There it was again, a brown Damselfish which are very hard to identify. I shooted about ten pictures from the fish and after that I sliced it for a bait.

Another unidentified Damselfish. This one had a hint of blue colour at the edges of the fins.

I shooted about ten pictures from the fish and after that I sliced it for a bait. I cast out my bottom rig with a piece of damselfish on the hook and it took about an minute to have my first run.  It was a small Catfish. Clearly it was different species than the one I caught from Costa Rica. I took the photos and quick released the fish. Another cast to the same spot, another minute of waiting and another Catfish was landed.

This is unidentified too. He's definitely different species than his Costa Rican cousin.

After those catfish it was time to head back to the pier because the ferry was leaving soon. Isla Taboga was very beautiful island and I think that there would be much bigger potential as a fishing place too.

At the last day of our tour we decided to head to Avenida Amador. It’s a long causeway between Panama City and  islands of Naos, Perico and Flamenco. I had few hours to spend fishing so I did so.

There was lot of fish swimming between rocks right next to shore. I pick up that old and faithful Shimano travel whip rod again and soon my first fish was caught. I think it was some kind of Sergeant fish (still unidentified).
After couple of more Sergeants I finally caught something different looking. After the hours of inspections at home I’m pretty sure that the fish was juvenile Yellow Snapper. I also lost few Pufferfishes again. There’s something wrong at them. They are greedy bastards but they always come off from the hook when they brake the surface. I also saw many big Porcupine fishes cruising near the shore line but they totally ignored my bait. There also was few Eagle Rays gliding by and they did ignore my baits too (and I’m really glad about that, they're lenght was at least one meter).

Some kind of Sergeant fish?

A juvenile Yellow Snapper, I think.

That’s all from Central America this time. Some day I will come back and then it will be pure fishing trip….

This pal was almost as lazy as I am.