Crow Terminator
Well-Known Member
Last week, my niece and nephew were on fall break, and we put together a family vacation down near Panama. I decided to surprise everybody with a private charter fishing trip. I had one booked through Fishing Booker but a week before the trip, I still hadn't heard from the captain. I started emailing and calling the number listed for him but got no replies, and then his phone number quit working. Hmm. I had paid $100 deposit and then the day before we were to leave for the trip, I was out of a fishing charter. So I started calling around and found a boat big enough for 6 people and booked it. I had no idea what we would be doing...I had originally scheduled a 6 hour trip. This new one was just 4 hours.
I have done a couple inshore trips but never an off shore one. So this was new to me. I will be honest with you....I didn't really like it. We trolled for Spanish mackerel and king mackerel. Yes, we put plenty of fish in the boat....but what we basically did, was the captain of the boat did all the work with the rods and reels and bait. He threw lines out from 6 rods, and we all sit there in chairs watching the rods until one of them would bend over with a fish on it...then would take turns on who was going to reel it in. The only time we could touch a rod/reel was to reel a fish in, and we never got to touch a fish until we got back to the dock. To me, that's not really fishing. It was fun seeing the kids try to handle big hard fighting fish...but I much prefer actual fishing. That may just be me though. The captain worked his tail off to put us on fish though and that he did. My only complaint with him may be petty but down there, they have a big problem with dolphins. They follow the fishing boats and will ambush the fish you are attempting to reel in. When they take a fish, they don't really get hooked but they don't let go of the fish you have hooked. So until the dolphin eats the fish, you are left fighting a 500+ pound dolphin with a rod and reel that you can't do anything with but let it run. The problem I had with it was...this would sometimes take 15 to 20 minutes of time up, and I had paid for a 4 hour trip. I get that the dolphins are a part of the fishing thing....but I kinda felt like they used that as an excuse to take time off the clock for the fishing trip. I don't really know....maybe they aren't allowed to break them off or cut the line. That would have been the fastest and easiest way of dealing with them. We ended up losing an hour or little over an hour, battling dolphins on rod and reels. Then once we got reeled in, we would have to move to get away from the dolphins for a few minutes...which meant more time off the clock.
I was one of the fortunate ones to get to reel in a Mahi Mahi. They are really beautiful fish...probably one of the most colorful fish I have seen in my life. They do lose their colors quickly after caught but man they put on a show when reeling them in. It was a neat experience but I probably wont go on another trip like that again. If I do, it will be something totally different...maybe going after sailfish or something like that. Inshore fishing, I love it. Truth be told...one day the wife and I went to one of the fishing piers, paid $8 a person and fished all day. We had more fun doing that than the charter boat....we caught all kinds of fish and had no idea what most of them where or what we were doing. I do know I caught 2 lady fish and a spanish mackerel from the pier. And a bunch of other stuff we will have to look up. On this trip, we brought back 13 fish and lost several more to the dolphins. I think we had 60 something pounds of fillets. That mahi mahi was great blackened...we had it cooked right after we got back to the dock; had a little seafood place cook it for us.
20191015_102217 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr
20191015_082512 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr
I have done a couple inshore trips but never an off shore one. So this was new to me. I will be honest with you....I didn't really like it. We trolled for Spanish mackerel and king mackerel. Yes, we put plenty of fish in the boat....but what we basically did, was the captain of the boat did all the work with the rods and reels and bait. He threw lines out from 6 rods, and we all sit there in chairs watching the rods until one of them would bend over with a fish on it...then would take turns on who was going to reel it in. The only time we could touch a rod/reel was to reel a fish in, and we never got to touch a fish until we got back to the dock. To me, that's not really fishing. It was fun seeing the kids try to handle big hard fighting fish...but I much prefer actual fishing. That may just be me though. The captain worked his tail off to put us on fish though and that he did. My only complaint with him may be petty but down there, they have a big problem with dolphins. They follow the fishing boats and will ambush the fish you are attempting to reel in. When they take a fish, they don't really get hooked but they don't let go of the fish you have hooked. So until the dolphin eats the fish, you are left fighting a 500+ pound dolphin with a rod and reel that you can't do anything with but let it run. The problem I had with it was...this would sometimes take 15 to 20 minutes of time up, and I had paid for a 4 hour trip. I get that the dolphins are a part of the fishing thing....but I kinda felt like they used that as an excuse to take time off the clock for the fishing trip. I don't really know....maybe they aren't allowed to break them off or cut the line. That would have been the fastest and easiest way of dealing with them. We ended up losing an hour or little over an hour, battling dolphins on rod and reels. Then once we got reeled in, we would have to move to get away from the dolphins for a few minutes...which meant more time off the clock.
I was one of the fortunate ones to get to reel in a Mahi Mahi. They are really beautiful fish...probably one of the most colorful fish I have seen in my life. They do lose their colors quickly after caught but man they put on a show when reeling them in. It was a neat experience but I probably wont go on another trip like that again. If I do, it will be something totally different...maybe going after sailfish or something like that. Inshore fishing, I love it. Truth be told...one day the wife and I went to one of the fishing piers, paid $8 a person and fished all day. We had more fun doing that than the charter boat....we caught all kinds of fish and had no idea what most of them where or what we were doing. I do know I caught 2 lady fish and a spanish mackerel from the pier. And a bunch of other stuff we will have to look up. On this trip, we brought back 13 fish and lost several more to the dolphins. I think we had 60 something pounds of fillets. That mahi mahi was great blackened...we had it cooked right after we got back to the dock; had a little seafood place cook it for us.
20191015_102217 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr20191015_082512 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr
