Randy and I pulled away from his house at 0100 en route to Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 0600 bound for Houston, Tx to connect with our flight south to Panama at 0900. Bad weather in Houston held us up in New Orleans, we arrived five minutes after our connection was scheduled to depart. Lucky for us the Panama flight was behind by literally five minutes. We ran off of one plane, out the gate, around to the next gate, into the second plane, sat down, buckled our belts and immediately began taxiing down the runway. A real close call, there are only two flights to Panama per day, one at 0900 and the next one at 2100, thank god we made it!
Touchdown in Panama was around 1300. As we're walking off the plane Randy asks me how we're supposed to find our host, Mitch Jones. I tell Randy that I have no idea, he said he'd be there when we got there and that's all I had to go on. We walk through the door at the terminal and I turn to Randy and ask if he thinks it's going to be a problem finding Mitch. As soon as he looks up he says "I guess not"; staring at the only 6'2" white guy with long blond hair that we saw the whole time we were there. Randy and I break out into laughter; Mitch joins right in.
Within minutes it's like hanging out with someone we've known our whole lives. Mitch is a very easy going guy, he smiles constantly, has a great sense of humor and is fun to fish with. He'd fit right in, here in Pensacola. Randy and I both knew we had found the perfect guy to take us fishing.
Mitch took us to the big marina in Panama City to let us check everything out and to wait for our chef, Jenny. We ended up staying at the marina bar for dinner and drinks then heading to the lodge. The Panama Pursuit Lodge sits on a point jutting out into Lake Gatun at Nuevo Providencia, a small town an hour north of Panama City and 20 miles south of Colon. The place is gorgeous! The house is 3000+ sq.ft. 3 bed/ 3 bath with a 20ft vaulted ceiling in the great room, nice bathrooms w/ whirlpool tubs, tile throughout, leather sofa, fully stocked bar, big screen TV (we never turned it on), and a great front porch to sit on (more our speed).
Day 2: Wednesday April 29
I woke to the smell of omelets and sausage, the fisherman's alarm clock. Served with a bowl of fresh mangoes and hot coffee it was exactly what we needed for the long day ahead. Once our bellies are full we're in the boat and underway. Lake Gatun is the most stump filled waterway I have ever been on. Everywhere you look there's a stump; if you don't see a stump, there's probably one there; if you're sure there are no stumps, hold on...one will come out of nowhere and smack the bottom of the boat.
I started the day throwing a top water chug bug, the bait Mitch says catches most of his big fish. He did not tell me that often the top water bait would turn the Peacocks on and the next thing they saw they'd eat. Randy figured it out soon enough though. We moved a few times, working rocky points, deep water tree stands, and moss flats, and every time we moved it was the same scenario. I cast and cast and Randy catches and catches.
Prime bait or not, today was not my day, Randy showed me up pretty bad. From the back of the boat he boated somewhere around 50 fish, he hooked a Tarpon in the 100+lb class on 20# tackle, caught fish back to back to back, and generally made me look like a complete novice. I did manage to catch 4 fish during the course of the day. And really, if we HAD to survive, 4 fish would be plenty to feed us...right?!? I shook my head and vowed revenge on the fish before the week was out, and secretly hoped I'd get a chance to show Randy up before we had to go home.
Upon returning to the lodge we found Chef Jenny plating up dinner. Etouffee was on the menu and it was delicious! Jenny's particular recipe was an action packed variety of seafoods. Peacock Bass, shrimp, lobster, and squid simmered in a sauce made with the freshest organically grown vegetables. Served with coconut rice and the ever present bowl of fresh sliced mangoes, followed by fresh banana nut bread for dessert. After dinner we relaxed on the porch sharing stories, sipping whiskey, and smoking cigars; no phone service, no email, nothing but the evening breeze and the sounds of the rain forest, heavenly.
Day 3: Thursday April 30
Today dawned early, but still to the smell of eggs and sausage. Game on! Randy and I weren't messing around today. Neither were the fish.
My day started with a bang, literally. The Snook hit the red and white Rapala like a ton of bricks! Ten minutes later I caught another one. Sweet! We also caught a few Peacocks before the wind picked up and we decided to move to some protected coves. In the slick calm water, sheltered from the wind by the jungle, we found loads of feisty fish, readily willing to take a bait. This was similar to conditions that Randy and I are familiar with, and we excelled. Fish of every variety came into the boat by every means we had to catch them; spinning tackle, baitcasters, and fly rods, all of our tackle got a work out today!
Our tally for the day was an even 100 fish. This included Peacocks, Snook, Jaguar Capote, Oscars, Viejas (local Bluegill), and Dogfish. What a day! We returned to the lodge just as dark was coming on, as we walked inside Chef Jenny told us to get cleaned up, dinner would be served as soon as we were ready.
Jenny had prepared fillet Mignon with mushroom gravy, something that looked like mashed potatoes (it was a local root vegetable that was even better than regular potatoes), and added a fruit arrangement as our centerpiece. All this followed be a nice cool fresh mango and grape jello made for a grand meal. Again the porch was the focal point of our evening; a scene of fishing tales and roaring laughter.
Day 4: Friday May 1
After breakfast we were off again. Randy was bent on seeing some monkeys. We had heard plenty of them, seemingly right on top of us, but had yet to actually lay an eye on one. Mitch assured us that where we were going today, was absolutely loaded with monkeys, surely we'd see some. We fished for a few hours, well Randy fished...I caught. Today was to be my day, almost the exact opposite of Wednesday. By the end of the day I was some where around 45 fish for the day and Randy had...well...much fewer, I'll leave it there.;)
We saw monkeys around mid morning, high up in the tallest tree around. So high up they looked like ants, but we saw them! I was glad to have a lens on my camera that could zoom in far enough to get a recognizable picture.
Around noon we headed back to the lodge for lunch and siesta time. Chef Jenny had Snook Cor Don Bleu waiting for us. It was sooo good, so good I can't think of words that would do that meal justice. Afterwards we lazed around for a couple of hours; just enjoying the scenery, relaxing.
We fished the afternoon away searching for a big fish. I guess the stars were misaligned for us; we couldn't find a fish better than 3.5 lbs. Not a bad fish, especially given how hard they pull! But boy did we want see how hard a 5+lb fish could pull. Dinner tonight consisted of chicken breasts and shrimp with fresh avocado salad and fruit, finished with chocolate pudding cake. I cannot express enough how good the food was.
Mitch really wanted us to catch a big Peacock and offered us a few more hours of fishing time before we flew out the following day. We jumped at the opportunity and went to bed a little earlier than we had the past few nights. Saturday was going to be a long day.
Day 5: Saturday May 2
Our final morning was beautiful. The Peacocks didn't cooperate like we wanted but the other local fauna was everywhere. We saw monkeys, a Three Towed Sloth, Toucans, Parrots, these gorgeous golden winged birds, all kinds of stuff that I had no idea what it was, but it was cool!
Our flight out was scheduled for 1400, Mitch suggested we leave the lodge no later than 1030 to make sure we had enough time to go through the checkpoints.
He was right! I got hung up by airport security because of my pliers, they were 1/4" too long for my particular security agent. It seemed to me to be the only lane in which people were having problems, just my luck. I was the very last one on the plane, but I didn't lose my pliers.
In Houston it was Randy's turn for a run in with the dreaded U.S. Customs. The stuff he had purchased in Panama had been put into my bag when I had to check it to keep my pliers. The Customs Agent gave Randy fits for about 30 minutes before letting him leave, nothing but wasted time. We stepped over to grab a cup of coffee, turned to go to our gate and were told we couldn't pass with our drinks. We could see another coffee shop on the other side of the security guard. When we asked, we were told that we could buy another cup of coffee on the other side of the checkpoint, but we could not proceed with the ones still steaming from the shop 20 feet away!
Touchdown in New Orleans was at 2230, only a three hour ride to the house...yay! I dropped Randy off a little after 0200 on Sunday morning and was home myself 20 minutes later. Ten minutes later I was passed out in the bed, exhausted.
What a trip! Randy and I had a fantastic time. For a full gallery of pictures click here. If you'd like to go down, visit with Mitch and check out the great fishing Lake Gatun has to offer, give him a call at (011) 507 6688-5587, or an E-Mail at panamapursuit@hotmail.com. Be patient, although Panama isn't in the dark ages, communication is a little slower there than here in the States, but the solitude is one of the best parts of the trip.
1 comment:
Wow, Josh! You sure captured that trip, beautifully. I'm so glad you had a blast....as did Elese and I, last year. It is a truly magical place.
Claudia
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