By: Caden St. James [Photos by Didrik Stavervik]
I was really excited when my Grandpa told me we were going on an ocean fishing trip that also included my brother Pierson, and my Dad. When he explained this was in an area that had some of the best Sailfish and Marlin fishing in the world I was really pumped. I had gone fishing for Marlin before so I had some idea how fun this was going to be, but he said this would be better. He also said we would be fishing inshore and should catch a bunch of different fish as well. The next couple months waiting for the trip to come seemed super long, and the couple of days before we left I was very anxious to go.
The four of us flew from Denver down to Panama City, and we spent the night there in a hotel. The next morning we flew on a small plane into where the camp was on the ocean. It was a smooth flight, and it was cool to see the jungle and ocean from the plane, but the camp seemed pretty isolated. The plane landed on a little airstrip, and from there we were driven to a boat and taken across to a small little village, which was kind of cool to see.
The resort was called Tropic Star Lodge and it was surrounded by a ton of dense trees and rocks. The lodge was in this little cove and there were several boats around. The dock had this little bar where we walked into, and they gave us all the instructions and what we would be fishing for. We walked uphill where there were a few little houses that everyone at the lodge stayed in, and we found ours. They were pretty modern and each had balconies and cool views of the ocean. Trees grew right next to the ocean and were overhanging, looking kind of like Mangroves. Pierson saw a Parrot that afternoon. Later we were talking with our guide and he said there are Leopards in the area, and they were setting up trail cameras to get pictures of them.
After we dropped our stuff in our room they asked if we wanted to do a little inshore fishing, which we all did. Two guides took us out and we cast spinning rods for a bunch of different fish. We caught Jack Crevalle, Snapper, and Needlefish. Pierson caught a fish that I think was a Mullet Snapper with a top water plug. We were only 30-40 yards from shore, and kinda moving slowly while casting off each side of the boat. The rods got a little tiring to cast because the baits were bigger, but we were catching a bunch of fun fish, so we kept casting. Some of the fish would take out line and fight really hard, and a couple broke the line when they dove into the rocks. We only went for 2-3 hours, but it was a blast and I was ready to get lunch.
We went back to the dock for lunch and they had a Tuna Risotto, which was caught the day before by some of the other fishermen. It tasted really good and was really fresh. We stayed back at camp for the rest of the afternoon and evening and just kind of hung out, played cornhole and rested for offshore fishing the next day.
We woke up around 5:00 or 5:30 AM the next morning and had a good breakfast and went straight out on the boat. It’s about a 45-minute ride on the boat until we get to our first spot, and it was a little more chillier than I thought it would be. But it warmed up fast and felt like summer when we stopped. I remember Pierson got a little sick, but I felt fine that day. I felt a little sick later in the trip, but Pierson was feeling fine later in the trip. We had to catch some bait first, so we caught several Spanish Mackerel and Bonita. And then we boated out further and started trolling for Billfish and Mahi Mahi. The guides did this cool filet thing with the bait where they split down their belly and then butterflied it out, which gives them 3 different pieces of bait, which nobody else does apparently.
The bait was put on these big hooks and tossed in the ocean while the boat was moving, and the guides attached outriggers which spread the lines further apart and prevented them from getting crossed. The reels were these giant bait casters used just for offshore sea fishing. I went to the upper deck with my Dad, Pierson, and the Captain to watch. The Captain was watching the lines and would see the fish first, then yell down to the other guides who were down by the rods. When a fish hit it was all chaotic and fast, and lots of yelling. The guide would grab the rod crazy fast to get the fish hooked up as we sprinted down the ladder to take the rod. I would try to sit down in the fishing chair as fast as possible because it was easier to fight the fish in the chair. But the fish was pulling so hard I felt like it was going to pull the rod out of my hands, so I basically just hung on while the guides helped me get in the chair.
Fighting the fish was really tiring, and would take a long time. The guides kept showing me how to pull the rod up and back using my arms, legs, and whole body while sitting in the chair, then lean forward and down and reel at the same time. This worked to reel them in closer, but my biceps still got really sore. And the guide kept reminding me to hold tight to the rod so the fish didn’t pull it out of my hands, which could happen. The fish were really powerful with lots of energy when they were first hooked up, and it was kind of nerve racking at first. I would get super frustrated after working hard for over a couple minutes to reel in a bunch of line, then in a matter of seconds the fish would make a run and take out all the line I just reeled in. That was all part of the fun though in the end.
The Sailfish would dive down at first when the fight started, then would begin jumping all over the place. We had a photographer on board named Didrik and he got some cool photos of the fish jumping way above the surface. I didn’t like it when they jumped cause the guides said that is when they can spit the hook out and get off. When they were about to jump I would reel in faster to keep the line tight. The guides would try to help tell me what was going on, but they spoke fast English, and with all the chaos it was kind of difficult to understand. I wish I would have done better in Spanish class and could talk with them better. After 10 minutes the fish would be closer to the boat, and my arms were shot, and I was shaking bad.
Once the leader got to the boat the guide grabbed it and then worked it all the way down to the bill of the Sailfish. They would grab it by the bill on the side of the boat and I would lean over the side with the guide to get a picture. The photographer would lean over the side of the boat also to get a photo and almost dropped the camera in the water. His pictures turned out really good though.
The guide would hold the Sailfish in the water until it could swim off on its own. The fish swam by itself for 3-4 seconds near the surface before heading down into deeper water. I definitely felt accomplished after it all happened, and lots of people were involved so it’s kind of surreal. After I caught the Sailfish, the guides put a special Sailfish flag on the flag line to show how many were caught each day. This day I caught 2, and our boat caught 7 Sailfish all together.
Pierson caught a Sailfish and a Mahi on the first day, and my Dad caught a Sailfish and a Tuna, so we got to put multiple flags up. My Grandpa and I only caught Sailfish that first day. The Mahi that Pierson caught was a big one, and fought the hardest of all the fish, which was surprising. They are super green and yellow when in the water and would jump really high and would jump a lot. We ended up keeping the Mahi for dinner for the whole lodge, and when they brought it out of the water it quickly turned blue and white, and we got a cool picture of it.
A surprise on the trip was my Dad’s good friend and client, Frank, booked the same trip as us but neither of them knew about it before. We actually got to see Frank and his friend reel in fish on their boat which was a little way away, but the photographer got a cool picture of the fish jumping while Frank was fighting it.
All the boats got back to the dock around the same time in the afternoon, which was a full day of fishing and I was exhausted. Everyone was talking about what they caught and the exciting things that happened on the boat. I got to see all the fish flags on each of the boats, and all the boats had multiple flags, and there were probably 40-50 fish Sailfish caught that day, and around 15 Tuna. A few other boats had Mahi flags, and one boat even had 7 Rooster Fish flags, which is kind of cool.
They have a place called the Marlin bar right off the dock where everyone hangs out and talks. They had a warm towel to wipe the saltwater off my face which felt great. And there were really tasty appetizers which we all ate really fast. We talked with Frank and his friends for a while and heard about what they all caught.
One other cool thing they do at the dock is to walk the plank. When you catch your first Billfish, you walk to the end of the plank on the dock and jump into the water. My brother and I both did it. When I walked out there I was kinda nervous and going slow, so the guide just pushed me in. I swam back to the dock and got out. It was kind of fun though.
Pierson and I played cornhole for a while and everyone just hung out until dinner. The food there was delicious, and I could tell the fish tasted super fresh. We had steak and kabobs that night, which also tasted great. We all talked during dinner and had a great time. I was exhausted after dinner and went to bed as soon as I could. Our alarms were set for 5:00 the next morning, and we would head out fishing again for another great day.
The next morning, we headed in a little different direction and went much further to target Marlin, but we saw some cool things that day. A pod of Dolphins was around the boat, and the guides said they were trying to grab our catches. The parents were trying to train the babies to bite the fish without biting the hook, and they are super smart. But it’s really annoying for the guides and captain because they get a lot of fish on the line and lose them to the Dolphins.
We ended up catching 12 Sailfish that day, and Pierson caught a Mahi, but no Marlin. It was a successful day. I got a little sick that second day mostly because I was so tired. I was slept in the cabin a few times when it was my turn to catch the Sailfish. My Dad said I slept through the guides yelling fish on, so someone else grabbed the pole and fought it.
Getting a photographer was definitely worth it, and my Dad’s friend said the same thing. There are a lot of memories that I forgot about since so much was happening on the boat each day. And I got to see some of the stuff I missed when I was sleeping. He took some really cool pictures of the fish jumping during the fight that we wouldn’t have been able to photograph ourselves. And the pictures of the Sailfish next to the boat were really cool. He even got a picture of a Sailfish jumping when my Dad was fighting it, and we think it spooked a Mahi just swimming along, and the Mahi jumped at the same time right next to the Sailfish. At the end of our second day we were all really tired and went to bed after dinner.
We spent the third day fishing inshore during the morning which was a lot of fun. The Rooster Fish got big there apparently and we caught 3 that morning. I caught a bigger one about 40 pounds that was pretty cool. Pierson and my Dad each caught one also. They have this big dorsal fin that looks like it has stingers on it, but it isn’t that spikey. They have cool color patterns also. We caught some Jack Travoli also before we headed out for Sailfish in the afternoon. I remember watching the waves crash on the shoreline making these little caves that spray the water back up. And how thick and green the jungle was with really bright flowers was very colorful, and I could hear birds making all kinds of noise. It was just a really cool place to experience God’s nature.
I am super happy that my Grandpa invited me to go on this trip, and that I got to go with Pierson and my Dad also. This was definitely the highlight of my summer, and I’ll remember this trip for the rest of my life. I would really like to go back sometime when I’m a little bigger and stronger, and I want to practice my Spanish some more. I feel very happy that I got to experience all this, and that I have a Grandpa who wanted to take me with.
For more information about Tropic Star Lodge: Website // reservations@tropicstar.com
To contact Didrik Stavervik: Instagram
