We found our spot early today but as history in Panama dictates, the action and results were completely different from our previous day in the same region. The fish that showed well today were on the average much smaller and the big fish that were located were shifty and reluctant to get with the program. Only one big fish at 197 was landed early in the day and another very memorable fish at 188 was landed by long time Royal Star angler Steve Schaffer in an epic skiff battle in the late morning. At times the skiff battle raged within a quarter mile of the beach with the awesome tropical backdrop creating one of the most beautiful settings I have ever experienced while trophy tuna fishing.

I have to stop and mention at this juncture that very similar to Clipperton island, the yellowfin tuna in this region are without a doubt tougher, meaner, and craftier that their northern counter parts. Head shaking, jerking, erratic, pattern less behavior definitely makes for some exciting battles down here especially when in combination with other anglers in the same predicament. When battling these fish solo it is tough enough and Randy and I are absolutely convinced that our hook to loss ratio is much higher in this region due to the inevitable bite and break offs from such tenacious behavior.

Interestingly, as yesterday afternoon went completely dead, today was the opposite with the action turning on late only the average size was in the forty to eighty pound class with a handful of taggers and a couple of one hundred pound class fish mixed in. As I have stated many times now every day is different down here and one day?s failure or success appears to have absolutely no bearing on the next. And now arrives the inevitable end as tomorrow will be our final day of fishing in Panama for some time. As such we plan to start in the big fish zone and work our way across completing our time in this beautiful region fishing until the last possible moment.