Sometimes either by choice or by necessity you may need to go on a bucket list angling trip by yourself. Here are some tips, options and strategies for the solo angler to get a great experience at a reasonable price.

Our fourth trip to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge will take place in May of 2024 — timed to coincide with great weather and the heart of the yellowfin tuna popping season. Don’t miss it if you love big fish on topwaters.

We’ve been fortunate to fish with many great fishing lodges across the globe. Sometimes, however, it’s hard to recognize just how good something is until you experience a less-stellar operation. Accordingly, it’s worth noting that that we’ve also been to some average and even sub-par operations – and they’ve helped us to appreciate what our favorites do well.

When the opportunity arose to fish at Sport Fish Panama Island lodge for a second time in the same year, I was a bit nervous. Honestly, our April adventure in Panama was life-changing, so I knew that the potential was there, but I had no idea if the fishing in November would be anywhere as good. Here's a trip report.

In 2022, I’ve been to Lake El Salto (twice), Guatemala, the Keys, Lake of the Woods, Table Rock and Panama, and I’ve had some memorable battles at each of them, but the single fish that stands out the most was my last fish in the Gulf of Chiriquí – which happened to be my first Cubera Snapper.

While some friends have been wowed by our tales and pictures of our initial trip to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, others who I know would love it have been oddly resistant. Here are their primary excuses and my responses. The long and the short of it — you need to go!

This November we must’ve brought the crap weather with us to Panama because it rained for much of our four and a half days on the water. That didn’t necessarily affect the fishing, which was still superlative – and in some respects better than either of our prior trips – but it did for us to think about what to chase on which days.

We’ve now made two trips to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge and we’ve been amazed by the incredible fishing and scenery in the Gulf of Chiriquí. The many islands and rock formations give you a sense of why this fishery is so good. It has a wildly changing topography that creates currents which bring in baitfish. A few islands are particularly well-known.

On our two trips to Panama we’ve purchased a package deal that includes “VIP” treatment that includes expedited passage through customs, drinks in a private lounge while you wait for your luggage, and transportation to and from the hotel. Everything they can control runs like a Swiss watch, with no hiccups. But they truly proved valuable when a problem occurred.

When we returned from Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge in April, I was generally on a high, but a tad bit depressed because I did not land a roosterfish. Others in our group had accomplished that task, including the petite redheaded woman I live with. I’d caught roosters in Costa Rica in 1995, but that felt like it was so far in the past as not to count.

If you want to be ready to tackle a monster yellowfin tuna in Panama — or any big fish, for that matter — you need have good form and good physical fitness. That starts with proper sleep and diet, along with a set of exercises precision-tailored to the sport.

Have you ever traveled someplace, had a fabulous time, and no matter how long you stayed when it came time to go home it was just too short? As we prepared to leave Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, I felt a pit in my stomach. We loaded up the dinghy with our luggage what felt like moments after we’d arrived. I remember thinking, “I don't want to go home. When are we going to come back?”

A corporate fishing trip is our kind of work outing. Even if not all of the members of the group have prior fishing experience, by going to a fishery when the angling is expected to be off-the-charts, you’re likely ensuring that their first experience will be a good one – which means they’ll want to go again and again.

Despite my thirst for pre-trip knowledge, I always manage to be surprised by at least a few things. Below are ten things that I learned in Panama, despite my copious efforts to be prepared. This is not a spoiler alert per se, but rather a series of pleasant warnings that will help you enjoy your trip….and yes, you definitely want to go.

Just about a week before leaving for Panama, we both received the first Pfizer shot. While that didn’t guarantee us immunity, it gave us a bit more confidence about venturing out. I could see that being both a positive and a negative, because while the vaccine couldn’t have hurt our immunity, it might give us the bravado to take unnecessary risks.

In the Gulf of Chiriquí where Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge is located, there are as many as fifty species of sportfish to be caught. If you read my blog about goals prior to the trip my five targets were as follows: yellowfin tuna, marlin, roosterfish, blue trevally and wahoo. The tuna were plentiful and the hardest-fighting fish I have ever caught.

Prior to heading to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge I outlined five primary goals for the trip, and I’m only semi-proud to say that I accomplished four out of five. In baseball, that .800 batting average would put me in the Hall of Fame, but in this particular case it left me a little dejected.

Pete and I, along with six of our friends, leave for Panama next Tuesday. We’re finally headed to the legendary Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge. Of course, Pete is a planner and I like to wing it, so until a few days ago I had done no thorough research on this destination. I knew that we’d be chasing yellowfin tuna, but I didn’t know if that was the only game in town.

Despite the fact that just about all of our Panama fishing experiences will be new to me, I am compulsively goal-oriented. I go into every trip hoping to achieve certain things, and this journey is no exception. Here are five things I want to do during our week in Central America.