Day five was a big day, it was the Temple clans first full day in the area and they were itching to do some exploring. In order to try and appease everybody we chartered a small boat for Kalum, Soleil, and Cath to go surfing, beaching, and exploring. We sent them with Jon, who is an artisan of building with wood. He is a surfer first though and he lives with his wife and son "mongo" right on the beach in the middle of nowhere...it's pretty amazing!
With the wife and kids on the way Josh and I got down to business......FISHING!!!!
It ended up being JT, Kevin, Chad, and myself fishing on one of Paradise Lodges 27 foot Contenders with Captain Chicho...my favorite Captain and his mate Ricardo who when not gaffing all matter of species of fish offshore handles the electrical issues at Chad's!
We all jumped on board around the same time as everybody else at the lodge was getting on their boats and pushed off from the dock shortly after 7am....The feeling never changes...there's nothing like hearing the motors come to life and the wind start rushing by as you race out of the estuary into the Pacific Ocean for what is as always an unforgettable experience no matter how much or what you catch! No traffic signals, no cell phones, it's just your experience and very little to get in the way of what it should be.
About an hour and a half later we were brushing along the North side of Coiba island about a mile or so offshore watching masses of birds diving on what we were hoping was a school of bait with Tuna's on it.....The first stop held tuna's alright...hundreds of them and in short work with 4 guys throwing poppers we put about 10 15lb schoolie YFT in the boat for bait. The big ones were not in that school so we chose to keep moving and searching for the "one"....Every 20 minutes for the next three hours a school of Tuna's would push bait to the surface and start mowing down everything in their way. For anyone who has not witnessed YFT feeding offshore on bait fish it is a truly exhilarating experience.
About the 4th school to come up we started noticing some bigger models crashing the surface...try to imagine a VW bug or a Toyota Prius hitting the surface of the ocean at 30 mph .....sort of like that..lol
Within a few short minutes on the bigger school we were all hooked up and screaming and laughing. My fish per usual was a 20lb'r and got the quick release, and JT also had a smaller one...Chad however was on a monster and it was doing the merry go round...errr..Chad was doing the merry go round the boat..lol trying to keep up with it. Chicho also nailed a better model and so with 2 good fish on we all just started helping each other out to try and land the bigger ones.
We were fishing with spinning rods (Fin Nor) and reels. Catching 100lb+ Tuna on spinning rods is not for the faint of heart I can assure you...but beat for beat the adrenaline rush with this type of fishing is heart stopping! Imagine 100lbs of tuna hitting your popper on top of the water less than 100' from you and seeing it all happen LIVE!! It is a rush like no other...
About 1/2 hour into the hook up of Chicho's fish Kevin had taken his turn and then passed off to me. I got lucky as the fish came to gaff about 10 minutes into my turn....that was nice!! This fish was a solid one going about 80lbs! SASHIMI!!! that's all I could think of.
Chad meanwhile was still battling his fish and not getting anywhere to fast with it either. We knew this was a 150lb+ fish and it was going to be a long fight on spinning gear. We all took turns..and I mean all 6 of us trying to best the beast and after about 1 and a half hours the line parted...POP....ARRRGGHHHH....a split second of frustrated defeat..followed quickly by a great big smile on every ones face! That's right, a smile..you see we didn't win that battle..the tuna did...and that is what makes the game so exciting...you never know the ending no matter how good it appears to be!
Another 15 minutes and we were on the Tuna again and Kevin and I were throwing poppers at a nice school of fish...I remember thinking...yes I am going to get my first 100lb+ YFT by popper finally...not too be for me as I got blasted on once but it didn't stick! Kevin however, the guy who hasn't fished in like 2 years in Panama got smashed on and the sound we all love...the singing of braided line ripping off the reel at high speed ushered the response we all love to hear...."HOOKUP"..
After about 30 minutes or so Kevin bested the beast and I stuck the gaff into a 90-100lb class YFT! Wahoooooo! I love gaffing fish, especially Tuna more than catching them. We all decided we had two nice big Yellow Fin and with the other boat landing a 160lb'er we did not need anymore. We headed back inshore a bit more to look for some Pargo's (snapper). That didn't take too long either and within an hour we had caught and released a small white tip reef shark, a large 40lb Rooster Fish, and a perfect dinner size 30lb Cubera Snapper!
A fine job by everyone and the cold beers on the way in with light rain squalls and good conversation just summed up what a nearly perfect day would be for any fisherman!
Back on land we all told stories at Chad's for a little while and then went to Kevins to wash up for dinner. We had another great meal prepared by Anna and Delsi. Unfortunately the surf was pretty small that day so Cath and Kalum didn't have quite the fun we did, although they did some great exploring and enjoyed it very much.
The Temple's called it a day around 8pm and Kevin and I went up to Chad's to have cocktails and partake in all sorts of lies about fishing and everything else. A pretty amazing day in Paradise and Kevin and I finished it off with a glass if vino on his porch around 11pm....
Off to bed ....tomorrow we are going surfing and I am determined to find the Temple clan a few waves!
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