February 2005

Venezuela  Phil Cobham’s report of a trip to Venezuela follows:

The trip was part tourist, and part angling.  I initially visited Los Roques, and was surprised to find that it is run & mostly visited by Italians - similar as some of the Cape Verde Islands. Despite the size of the area there is only one angling show in town called 'Pez Raton' , they have 3 boats so the fishing pressure remains very light.

I had a day out fly fishing for bones with them . It was excellent and  I could broadly divide the technique into three styles.  We started blind 'wet fly' style along the edges of the flats, where there are channels running through them, casting along the edge into slightly clouded water. This worked well in the morning and I picked 3 or 4 fish this way.  Then in the early afternoon we switched to wading the flats and stalking individual or small groups of fish . We did not get as many shots as I had expected doing this for a couple of hours.  We came across 4 individuals or groups of 3 or 4 fish and I picked off a couple of these. Later in the afternoon we moved to another lagoon where we poled through 2/3ft water casting from the prow platform.   This was probably the most exciting part of the day.  In this lagoon there seemed to be numerous groups of fish moving through and casting quickly and accurately was well rewarded.

To summarise , in the day I hooked 15 and released 11 bones between 3-7lbs.  This seemed in keeping with several American anglers I spoke to fishing with Pez Raton boats.

In fact there were some Italians fly fishing from the shore of the main island, Grand Roque, and they were having some success catching bones to 8lbs amidst the hubub of boats and people coming and going ...They has been coming for several years and felt the guided fishing was too expensive and now they just fish around the main island's shore.

I saw quite a few bones whilst snorkelling too.

	Phil fishing for Bonefish in Los Roques, an archipelago some 80 miles off the Venezuelan coast.  Click on each in turn to view larger images.

Apart from fishing, diving and visiting the outer cays there is nothing to do . The people stay in fairly basic , for the most part Italian run, 'posadas' which are b&b's with simple and basic rooms usually without air-con. The deals are usually full board and there is little in the way of restaurants or bars . Certainly not a place for 'apres fish!'.

The only other place I have fly fished for bonefish was in Cozumel and by comparison this seems prolific.

I then went to La Guaira for a couple of days fishing aboard Salitre a Venezuelan-run 38ft Bertram.

The area, certainly not that picturesque or 'touristy' before the disaster in 99 , is really a mess now . The old hotels you might remember Macuto Sheraton and the Melia Caribe have never re-opened.  The Melia is an empty shell burned out and looted, the Sheraton is full of troops.

The roads have been re-built, but many people have left the area leaving lots of half standing houses and piles of rubbish everywhere . There are no longer any beaches (not that there were any really good ones) at all along the stretch. The two aforementioned hotels have been replaced by another 2 lesser hotels - Ole Caribe and the Eduard.  Neither are cheap and both are a good 15 mins drive from the harbour, which has become like Fort Knox! 

The airline crews and the visiting American anglers stay in them, that probably accounts for most of the trade.. Both have no atmosphere, definitely no 'apres fishing'!  The area is now considered unsafe to wander around in and most of the businesses have closed, thus staying at the hotel for drinks and food is your only option.  Really not a very pleasant environment to stay in. 

However , the fishing has remained good and there are plenty of American anglers still going there all year around . The Europeans have stopped fishing  there.  There used to be quite a lot of French and Spanish anglers going there in the mid 90's.

There are still 7 or 8 local boats working the area most of whom get their bookings from US fishing tour operators, and 3 high priced US boats.  Three of the local boats that I have fished on are reasonable Joropo, Guarimba and Salitre.  Although their time keeping, partly maintenance issues, is not great and rod/reel options are limited.

If you book locally and there is availability you can pick one of these up for 500-600$US per day, whereas the agencies charge much more . It really does help if you speak Spanish!  I fished 2 days.  On the first I went 3 releases for 6 shots on Blue Marlin – fish of 150 and 350 on 50lbs and 200lbs on 80lbs, plus a sailfish of 60lbs on 30lbs test.  All fish caught on deadbaits - ballyhoo.  The second day proved that opposites attract in that I got was a single shot all day, and ended up blanking!

Generally the country seems to have declined notably since my last ‘97 visit.  Nothing seems to work, service is terrible and trying to anything becomes a real chore. As you know, I travel quite a bit, but have not been anywhere where things seem to have slipped so much.  And this despite oil wealth and a 2005 growth estimate of 12%!

Kenya  Several Club members fished out of Malindi during February.  Here are their reports, starting with one by Trevor Gunning.  Trevor was accompanied by Denis Froud.

Fishing was slow except for North Kenya Banks, and we were not going there!

We came second in the Malindi Billfish Tournament with just one Sailfish, one of only two caught.  Unfortunately ours was the second of these!  Salim, our captain and third team member, had it pop up on his long centre rigger.

Then had a good day playing with Giant Trevallies on light tackle. My biggest, released intentionally, was around 49lbs (22kg) on 30lb test, and Denis had one of around 44lbs (20kg) on 20lb.  However we both played fish for 30 or 40 minutes on 12lbs test.  Denis’ got cut off by another fish, and the hooks came out on mine!

I had a go on 8lb test but got cut off again by another fish. The trouble was that the fish were really tight against the reef, and then two local fishing boats decided to anchor either end of the mark which gave us no room at all to manoeuvre, so we gave up.

Highlight though was a Kenya record Longtail Tuna on 16lbs test whilst playing around. It weighed 11lb 7oz (5.2kg) which replaced the previous record of 7lbs (3.2kg).

After my return Denis stayed on for a few days.  He had a couple of Sails one day and lost a big shark after it rolled up the line after 30mins.

Still to put things in perspective though there were plenty of fish on the North Kenya Bank.  O’ Yogi had a TRIPLE Grand Slam! One Black Marlin, two Striped, three Sails and five Broadbill for the three anglers.  And Eclair had two Stripeys, three Broadbill and a Sail.  Certainly some fish out there!  Also Snowgoose had one Broadbill of 275lbs (125kg) which unfortunately was played by two anglers thus negating it for record purposes.

Pinas Bay, Panama  Neil Cunningham and his brother John have recently returned from that fabled fishery on Panama’s Pacific coastline.  A comprehensive report of his trip, complete with photographs follows.

On the 17th February 2005 the M.V. Mama Nido - Mothers Nest in Spanish - left the dock at Corpus Christi, Texas bound for Colon, Panama.  The vessel is a 110 foot ex Gulf of Mexico oil rig supply ship.  From the outside it looks like a working commercial boat.  It's owner Texas IGFA representative Mr John Richardson, describes it as "designed to go through the waves ,not over them!".  John's son Capt. Wade Richardson is the captain of the Mama Nido and is also a trained paramedic.

John has fished Panama hundreds of times as he went to high school in Panama City and it was his dream to have a mothership operation for friends and family, to explore the more untouched and inaccessible areas of this beautiful country.

Therefore this working boat has been fitted out to a very high standard with sleeping accommodation, galley, air conditioning, ice making, etc., etc.  And it is a very comfortable place to stay.  It also carries it own fuel supply of 12500 gallons of diesel,10000 gallons of fresh water and has a range of 7500 miles.  Self sufficiency is the name of the mothership game!

My brother John and I flew to Panama City on Tuesday 22nd February for the first trip of the Mama Nido.

So it was on Friday 25th February that we met up with the boat in Colon, Panama at the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal.  Some of John's friends and family had come down from Texas for the night transit of the Canal and we had a great party going through the canal, not reaching Panama City and the Pacific Ocean till the early hours of the morning.

The plan was to go to Pinas Bay in the Darien area near the border with Columbia to fish.  Apart from a few Panamanian and American  boats the only fishing there is from the world famous Tropic Star Lodge.  It was there that we met John last February (2004) and it is this area that Tropic Star describe as ‘National Geographic country’.

So giving the crew of the Mama Nido time to rest and do last minute work on the boat it was on Monday 28th February we set off for Pinas Bay from Panama City on the Sportsfish boat Picaflor -Hummingbird in Spanish.

Mama Nido	Both boats anchored in Pinas Bay

Picaflor is a 43' Merritt and this was to be our fishing platform for the next few days.  This is a beautiful fishing boat like a ‘Rolls Royce’ of sportsfishers.  We also loved the air conditioning and the classic wood work of the vessel. 

This boat has a bit of a history so I will leave it to John’s son Monte Richardson to describe it.

Built in 1969 the original boat name was Caliban II, built for Buddy Merritt, the quintessential tuna captain of the time.

It went to Newfoundland in ’69 with Gary Stuve, ‘Split Tail’ Hayden, Marritt, George Mathews, E. K. Harry (former IGFA  President) & Gil Keech and  caught 16 giants in one day.  A record held for a long time until Cookie and Paul Murray aboard Cookie Too - Don Stott's boat, and the last 43 ever made - matched it in the early '80's out of Gloucester, Massachusetts (of Perfect Storm fame).

These two tuna records were broken in 1995 by Stewart Campbell, Peter Wright, Charles Perry, John Rafter, and yep, you guessed it, ‘Split Tail’ Hayden and Gary Stuve, catching a whopping 73 giants in a day off North Carolina.

The boat – Caliban II - was sold to Helen Grant when Buddy Marritt died, renaming it the Quail, and keeping it through the early '80's, much of the time dominating the Palm Beach and Bahamas circuits with Billy Ridgeway and Bill Staros at the helm.

This is where the story gets more shady.  But I think it was the Marauder next, with Ron Hamlin at the wheel.  (Ron however also ran the Ship's Café for Jo Jo del Guercio, so some facts may come off that boat.)  One story says that he was aboard the Marauder for a 1984 catch of Venezuela's first Grander Blue Marlin.  Angler Bill Read and mate Andre Cadez brought the1023lb fish boatside and onto the gaff in less than 10 minutes.  This fish was one of a double-header of equal size granders, but that was the only one that was captured.

The Marauder may have also been the boat in 1983 with Hamlin and mate Ross ‘Flash’ Clark abroad that discovered the ‘Bait and Switch’ technique.

Also, in 1984, it took the World Record White Marlin on fly  - 73lbs on an 8lb tippet – angler Pat Ford.

Then in 1985, Hamlin's only day ever fishing Puerto Rico, with Richie Kurst as angler, they boated a 985lb Blue Marlin.  Later the boat became the CMC, owner Charles Cippola.  Then the Live Wire.  I'm not sure when Bubba Carter comes into the picture, or when and if the boat ever made it to the Pacific before our time.

What a classic piece of fishing history we are tied to.

She also has a great crew.  Top Captain Adolfo Grajales, first mate Ligorrio Sanapi and second mate Jilberto Cansari are all world class with decades of experience in these waters.  For the trip to come they did not miss one gaff shot on fish for the whole trip.  Also Ligorrio makes the best Cuba Libres in Panama!

On our way down we passed the beautiful  Perlas Islands and caught the ‘mother lode’ of bait - Bonito for dead baits and strips.  I counted a fleet of 50 Pelicans that flew by and the sea was alive with Dolphins and Bonito.

We reached Pinas Bay just before sunset and dropped anchor.  Local fishermen in dugout canoes fished round us in the twilight, and in the air bats picked off insects on the water.

Our friends Hennie and Ursula Marais, the managers of Tropic Star Lodge, and their baby daughter came out on a panga to meet us.  And we cooked Texan rib-eyes and drank cold beers on deck as we waited for the Mama Nido to arrive.

When she did arrive we docked beside her and transferred to our sleeping accommodation on the boat.  We were not to touch dry land again for 6 days and nights, having great parties at night and fishing during the day.  I (Neil) will leave it to owner John Richardson to describe the fishing action we had over the next 3 days.

After a great party on night Canal Transit, Mama Nido and Picaflor headed to Pinas.

Marlin bite very slow. Sailfish bite very slow. Tuna bite awesome!

First day we caught a 200lb Yellowfin, plus 8 tuna between 35 and 50lbs.

Second day we caught a 180lb Yellowfin and 12 tuna up to 60lbs.

Third day no "big tuna". Caught 14 tuna, most in the 30lb range.

All the big tuna caught on marlin lures - mostly Moldcraft green and pink. Smaller tuna on cedar plugs.

Picaflor did the catching, Mama Nido did the feeding. Was a blast!

The Marlin and Sailfish bite was not happening, so my dream of catching a Pacific Blue Marlin will have to wait till another time.  But catching the 200lb Yellowfin was fantastic, and my brother John's 180 pounder was great as well.  The smaller Tuna were great fun also on 20 and 30lb  gear.  On the second and third days we were at times surrounded by hundreds of Dolphins, jumping and balling bait.  It was a sight that none of us will ever forget.

Deploying teasers	Dolphin feeding with Yellowfin

Gaffing 200 pounder	Head Shot

We cooked the Tuna on the Barbeque and also ate them raw Japanese style with Soy sauce.  Beautiful!

So that sums up the fish action we experienced.  We also raised a Sailfish using Bait and Switch, but it did not connect.

We later heard that the Tuna bite was also going off on the Hannibal Bank (Isla Coiba) with friends of John's catching several Yellowfin over 300, and lost one that was over 400.  The Black Marlin bite was slow, with the Gato Gordo boat losing one Black in the 600# range.  They hooked it on a 50lb rod that got stripped, connected it to an 80 but lost the fish and the 50# rod!

John will be exploring these areas like Cobia and the Hannibal Bank in the months to come.  On our return to Panama City on our last night we had dinner with John’s neighbour in Panama City - Vernon Scholey - who is Director of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) at Achotines, Panama. 

The IATTC, established by international convention in 1950, is responsible for the conservation and management of fisheries for tunas and other species taken by tuna-fishing vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean.  Each member country of the IATTC is represented by up to 4 commissioners appointed by their respective governments. The member countries are Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Spain, USA, Vanuata and Venezuela.

.Vernon showed us a DVD of the commission’s work at Achotines including the breeding of Yellowfin in captivity.  And there was also the as yet unsuccessful breeding of Sailfish in captivity!

John recently was tasked with the project of putting pop up satellite tags in Marlin and Sailfish that has been very successful in looking at pelagic behaviour. 

My thanks go to John and Monte Richardson for their help in writing this report.  Also a big Thank You to John’s wife, Susie, and Casey Falke on the Mama Nido.

The website of the IATTC can be accessed by clicking here.

Ascension Island  This is Jaap Tuit’s report of his trip to Ascension, that remote British Protectorate some 500 miles south of the Equator in the Atlantic that’s equidistant from Northern Brazil and Angola.

I fished with Pat Brian, the rodbuilder from Texas, and Nicola Zingarelle from Madrid, Spain.  (Nicola moderates an excellent web site, with an extremely dedicated and knowledgable international following, devoted to jigging and surface popping techniques.  It can be accessed by clicking here.)

We also had nice company on the boat - Emilia Gonzalez, Matthias’ wife, a charming lady – and Steve Hay, the mate from North Carolina.

We fished 9 days in total on Harmattan, trying Bait and Switch. The marlin fishing was slow, although we did raise 18 Blues – catching four and pulling hooks on others.  In addition on the billfish front we caught 4 Sails and a Spearfish.

We also tried power-jigging for Tunas and Black Jacks.  Power-jigging is something special, with Nicola additionally catching a big Oilfish and a 45lb  Amberjack.

You need a stiff rod – 5 1/2 foot long - and a Shimano Stella 1100 loaded with 65 lbs Spectra.  And you will have to eat a lot of spinach!  Reeling 150 yards of line from the bottom like crazy with a long 300 gram jig takes some effort!   The jig is rigged with a single 11/0 Owner hook, attached with kevlar braid.  In the dark the Yellowfin came higher in the water column and were easier to catch with those jigs.  The tunas were not large, the biggest I caught was around 80 lbs. But we did have a lot of fun!  We had some nice Dorado on this gear as well.

(Power-jigging’s a very specialized way of fishing and should you want further details I suggest you look at Nichola’s web site by clicking here.  There’s also his report of the particular trip on the site's forum that can be accessed by clicking here.  Roddy Hays has also added some details regarding sightings of Almaco Jacks in Ascension's waters.)

Then on the evening of February 22nd whilst we were anchored on the drop-off power-jigging I caught (and released) on bait a Six Gill Shark of 1000 lbs plus.  While everybody was taking pictures Nicola lost his glasses in the ocean.   A bad omen, because the Sharks could see the swivels!  A week later I lost two large Sharks – the hook pulled on the first and the second was lost to a broken line.

We didn’t have an opportunity to fish for Broadbill during our trip.

On our last day – Tuesday, 1st March 1st – Harmattan had a Grand Slam. 

Pat caught a Spearfish of about 80 lbs.  Then I caught a 200lb Blue and Pat a Sailfish – both taken fishing Bait ‘n’ Switch.  The Sail was in the 130lb range, certainly the biggest Atlantic Sail I’d ever seen and I guess within a whisker of the World All-Tackle record.

My last two days on the island were spent shore fishing.  But the seas were too rough to target the Black Jacks, and I had to contend myself fishing the lee of the harbour wall for Trigger Fish and Garfish.  Definitely an anti-climax!  And then it was back to Holland and snow!