Roosterfish

[GraciesDad]

Greetings...iFish newbie here with a question for the salt dwellers...

Has anyone been to Costa Rica or Panama for roosterfish?...Have you done it with a flyrod?...My wife and I are headed down to Panama in January for a week of fishing (and fishing only - no tourista bull) and I need advice on flies, leaders and whatever else you can tell me re: how to catch 'em...

We're also going to spend a couple of days fishing for dorado, tuna and billfish with flyrods, but the real excitement for me, I think, is going to be closer to shore...

Many thanks in advance....

[Uglygreen]

Sight fishing with 6" poppers (red and white mostly)is what people use in in the surf around Zihuatanejo, or live bait trolled around rearshore rocks on a downrigger. We are planning to take the salmon bobber rods and hang a live bait under a bobber in the surf in February, just to see what happens. Not familier with fly guy tech.

UG

[bait boy]

From what I learned in CR the common practice is to tease the fish to the back of the boat to where the fly angler can present the fly reasonably close to the stern of the boat....I don't know the IGFA rules on fly leaders and such but 80 Lb flouro should work to keep chafing down to a minimum. you should be raising 5 or more sails per day so you should get plenty of practice on them... roosters in CR was a bait show for us so no help there....

A funny side note... When we were discussing with the Captain of our charter (5 days offshore)we asked what the common practices were... His response was "its your job to feed the fish your bait count slowly to 5 and put the drag to stike, it my job to tease the XXstards to the back of the swim step for you......" I left out the more salty phrases but that was the extent of our training.....

[SSPey]

what sort of trip are you planning in Panama? My research has revealed only a few places that are fly-savy, curious what you are coming up with. feel free to email offline.

[GraciesDad]

We're signed on with Jay Gustin and Travis Peterson of Pesca Panama...We've fished with them before in Alaska before, and although they are predominately a gear and bait crew, they do know flyfishing (most of their clients aren't fly guys - they know me and know that's really all I do)...I think they're great and we're glad to be with them again this year...

here's the website: http://www.pescapanama.com/

Skip

[Sailfish]

Hey there G.D. welcome aboard. I actually have spent quite a bit of time guiding and fishing down in Costa Rica, and have some panamainian experience as well. Drop me a line at sailfish@pacifier.com and I would be more than happy to share what info I have.