bar fight with my father in law

Excursion: Tarpon Fishing
Area: Bocas del Toro, Panama
Weather: Overcast morning, sunny afternoon

Its not often you get to throw your 68-year old father-in-law into a bar fight and then stand around taunting him as he is getting his butt kicked. Today I would have just that chance, and I can’t say that I haven’t been looking forward to the show.

My wife’s father, Charlie, has taught me much about business and life over the last 17 years, but today, he was in my world, Tarponville.

Jay and I had previously hatched a plan long in preparation. Little did Charlie know that we were to be the anglers and he was to be the fish. We figured with just the right amount of shame and a dash of sarcasm, we could have him chomping at the bit to catch a Panama Silver King. You see, Charlie hasn’t fished in over 20 years, and he has never caught anything larger than a red snapper. Those who have tangled with a Tarpon over 75 pounds know what old Charlie was in for, but he had no idea.

Prior to his Panama vacation, we chummed the waters a little. Due to his long break from fishing, it was easy to stoke the fire and get him all excited. We told a few outlandish fish tales for the old man and sprinkled in a few photos, which were received with a very sarcastic show me attitude I might add. It is not easy to find these days, but our bait was a new Central American Tarpon discovery all to ourselves. Who could resist?

Poor Charlie, he sucked it down like a hog taking a truffle. After reviewing the Tranquilo Bay tarpon photo galleries on the website, Charlie decided he wanted to catch a world class Central America Tarpon in Panama.

As we pulled up to the area, it couldn’t have been staged better on a movie set. Tarpon were rolling everywhere. Charlie’s eyes got big like a deer in the headlights. He said, “that’s amazing, I had no idea they got that big.” At one point, a pack of at least 30 Tarpon came bulldogging by the boat, clearly agitated about something. A few minutes later we saw the fin and back of about a 5-foot long shark in hot pursuit. The surface action was furious, but the bite had not quite started.

After a short while we had our first chance, I handed Charlie a rod with a screaming drag, then abruptly yelled in his ear to get the blood flowing. “FISH ON!” For the next twenty minutes Jay and I sat there drinking a cold beer while taking turns shouting out sage advice. “Keep that rod tip up”, “keep the pressure on him”, “put your back into it”, what fun.

Charlie’s knees were quivering, and sweat was pouring down his face. This was serious business, because for Charlie, there was more on the line than just another fish. He knew he had to do whatever it would take to pull that Tarpon up out of the water, showing the two young bucks how a “MAN” does it. Well, he would just have to wait, that fish turned out to be a 30 pound Jack Crevalle, not the Trophy Tarpon he was looking for.

About one hour later it happened, the drag started screaming and before we could even get the rod out of the holder, a huge Tarpon went flying 10 feet into the air. Charlie had found what he came to Panama looking for, and so had we. “FISH ON!” Jay looked at me and appropriately said, “Let the games begin.”

For 40 minutes Charlie battled this incredible Tarpon in Bocas del Toro, without another boat in site. Jay and I stood by for the show, knowing that Charlie’s 68 years of experience and wisdom would not help him get that fish to the boat. The instructions were flying, “keep that rod tip up, put your back into it.” As he danced around that boat sweating, praying, and cursing we new exactly how he felt. It’s a bar fight.

After all was said and done, we caught several Jack Crevalle, and four Tarpon. Charlie finally said enough, but he didn’t get his butt kicked. He has a victory picture with his 80-pound Tarpon, proof to the world he showed two young bucks how it is done, but I don’t think he will be stepping back into another Panama Tarpon brawl anytime soon.

searching for a silver king with Mo

Excursion: Tarpon fishing
Area: Bocas del Toro, Panama
Weather: Light showers sunny and warm

Today David “Mo” Moseley wanted to search for the “Silver King”. We left the dock at 6:15 AM and the conditions were favorable with two-foot seas and little to no wind. As the sun was coming up, it looked like it was going to be overcast. We passed through a few light showers on the way to our first location. There were light showers on and off throughout the morning, and it started to look like it might get heavier. It never did, and by mid morning it just stopped, we even got a little bit of sunshine.

Well, the weather may not have been perfect, but the fishing couldn’t have been better. We jumped ten Tarpon, and two of them were real brutes. The biggest was a solid 150 pounds, and we got a great picture of her at boat side. Everyone on the boat landed a big fish, and Mo had several nice Silver Kings under his belt.

There were large schools of bait getting smashed by what looked like Jack Crevalle and Bonita. Throughout the day we caught several big Jack Crevalle along with the Tarpon, the action was constant without a dull moment.

After we all agreed that enough was enough, we reluctantly started our return to Tranquilo Bay. While leaving with the bite still on, we watched with envy as the Pelicans, Brown Boobies, and Magnificent Frigates dove into patches of nervous bait, wishing we weren’t too tired to battle another Tarpon.

accidents happen

Excursion: Rio Mananti Exploration
Area: Rio Mananti, Bocas del Toro, Panama
Weather: Clear skies sunny and warm

This is David Moseley’s fourth trip to Tranquilo Bay; hence we have learned that he has an insatiable appetite for two things, exploration and fishing. When you put the two together, he seems to be in another world, but then again, maybe this time he was.

The archipelago of Bocas del Toro is one strange place. After 8 years of exploration one would expect a sense of normalcy to set in, well, it never has. Not for me, and not for David, who has visited a unique and different area on each of his explorations in Bocas del Toro. He always asks, “Where does it all end? Well David, perhaps it never does, I am still looking for the answer.

Today we (me, David, Jay & our friend John) went up a river that was not on the map. The discovery was a complete accident, but this is precisely how we have made some of our most unique discoveries.

We had set out to explore the Rio Mananti which is on the map, however, within a kilometer of that river were three small river mouths converging in one bay. This was characteristic of the area we were looking for and therefore temporarily fooled us.

What a great surprise, the scenery was stunning. There were huge stands of White, Black, and Red Mangroves whose roots entered the river from its banks to soak up the brackish water. Just after the mouth, the little river was completely enclosed by canopy. Multiple species of hardwood trees, palms, bamboos, bromeliads, orchids, and vines engulfed all space.

The wildlife was incredible, we immediately spotted three species of Kingfishers, multiple species of Herons and Cranes, and later a Collared Aracari. We saw a huge Green Basilisk lizard fall into the river from a tree branch and proceeded to “walk on water” all the way to the riverbank. His transition from water to land was seamless.
After just a few kilometers we came upon a Ngobe Bugle Indian woman fishing from her cayuco, a type of hand made dugout canoe crafted from a single tree. She had ten or so fish, representing several different species of beautiful Cichlids. She also informed us that we were up the Rio Koy, not the Rio Mananti.

Anyhow, not a bad accident if you ask me. One thing is for certain, we will be going back to the Rio Koy.

It is difficult to find the Rio Mananti because its mouth is a maze of multiple entrances, all well guarded by large sand and soft bottom flats. One had better know the local tides, and we were there on a rise allowing us to safely backtrack for several hours. After navigating some awfully skinny water for several kilometers, we just couldn’t find a way in. After disturbing multiple pods of bait, we decided that was enough searching, and that it was time to fish.

David Moseley a.k.a. “Mo”, owns a website called Wadefishing.com, and I want to let you know that he travels prepared to do just that anywhere he goes. After outfitting our crew with the latest in wade fishing technology, we hit the flats.

For about an hour we waded the sand bars and soft bottom flats in front of the various river mouths. There were huge schools of bait in the water, and right off the bat Jay thinks he sees a Tarpon. He couldn’t really pursue, because he had the boat tied off to his waist and was towing it along while he fished. The fish was fining and made its way over to John, but he was just out of range, and never got the fish to turn. We were casting these sweet Shimano bait casting set ups that Mo brought with all different kinds of baits. We threw plastics, crank baits, and top water plugs. We spooked several fish while wading, but never made a positive identification. We landed a couple of nice Jack Crevalle.

While fishing, we spotted a cayuco going in through a little obscure cut we had not yet tried, we quickly hopped in the boat to follow, knowing that sometimes a little local knowledge is the only way. Finally, and without getting stuck, we made our way into one of the branches of the Rio Mananti. With the help of a family, who was farming a small piece of land on the riverbank, we drove around exploring a few of the river forks and found the main branch.

With the sun low in the sky, we decided to save that adventure for Mo’s next trip to Panama, and asked ourselves again, where does it all end?

bahia honda kayak

Today I accompanied Joel and Lauren from Boston on a kayak trip to paddle Bahia Honda Creek. The weather was overcast and cool, with a couple of little showers throughout the day. Just as we entered the mangrove entrance at the mouth of the creek, we were swooped on by two different species of kingfisher birds. There are at least three different species of mangrove on this creek bank and some of the specimens are at the top of their size limit. The canopy forms as red, black, and white mangroves converge overhead forming a bridge for animals to pass over the creek. We stopped and watched a mother 3-toed sloth cross directly above us as her baby clung to her belly. We also spotted several speckled caiman and took some great photos. After our paddle, it was off to see some Caligo butterflies at La Loma. During a short hike at La Loma, we spotted another sloth carrying a baby, several lizards and some amphibians. Joel and Lauren just couldn’t get enough, so when we returned home, we hiked for another hour and a half at Tranquilo Bay. The birding was excellent, we encountered gold collared manakins, tityras, pale vented pigeons, Montezuma oropendolas, lineated woodpeckers, red lored amazons, and blue headed parrots. Lauren practiced her macro photography and took some nice shots of poison dart frogs, leaf cutter ants, and a beautiful cicada. Believe it or not, Joel and Lauren still had enough energy to go take a swim, but then again, it was their last day.

punta valiente hike

We made a trip to Punta Valiente, which is located in the Nogbe Bugle Indian Reservation, with clients Joel and Lauren. We first visited the small (fifty inhabitants) Nogbe village named Punta Valiente. In the village we visited the school, where the children were happy to have there photos taken and we then traded a couple of bags of ice for some bread fruit and plantains. The villagers were very grateful for the ice. We then contracted one of the elder villagers, Constantino, to guide us to the top of a two hundred meter hill behind the village. The trail we walked passes through the villages food crops. As we walked Constantino pointed out all of the vegetation that they planted. Such things as otoi, dashine, yucca, plantains(several varieties), cocoa, bananas(several varieties), bread fruit, coconuts and a variety of other tropical fruits. At the peak of the hill we were shown the ruins of an abandoned U.S. Military radio/lookout tower. The tower was installed during WW2. Also at the peak our guide cut down some young coconuts and obliged us to try the water inside to quench our thirst. This water is referred to as agua de pipa. It is very refreshing and we all enjoyed taking a moment to look out at the ocean and see the village from this vantage point. This excursion took about two hours and afterwards we got back in the boat and headed for another even smaller Indian village called Ensenada. Here we stopped to eat our lunch and make the short hike across this portion of the peninsula to a beach. We ate our lunch on the covered porch of the local grocery store and visited with the locals about current events in the province. The walk over to the beach was about fifteen minutes, and well worth it. The sun came out for us and we enjoyed swimming in the surf for more than an hour before we returned to the boat for the forty minute return trip to Tranquilo Bay.