Before I go on any further, I want to share something with you guys. Josh made an error by accident. A week prior to going to Panama, Josh realized that he forgot that his passport was expired. Josh looked into different ways of getting a passport quickly coming up with dead ends at each turn. Later in the week Josh decided to go to the main passport office in Houston. He talked with anyone that would listen but the outcome was not a good one. Finally, Josh decided that there was nothing more for him there at the Houston office and so he left. After a little more looking into things, Josh came across something that I called him on at the same time. It had come to my attention, as well as Josh’s, that if you can get an appointment with one of the passport places (key word is “appointment), you could get a passport on the spot as long as you are able to show proof that you are traveling within 14 days and you have the appropriate documentation with you. Josh called to see about getting an appointment. The lady Josh spoke to was trying to book an appointment in Dallas for him. As she was doing that, someone got the appointment just before the lady confirmed Josh’s appointment. The only other place that was available to book an appointment was in El Paso, Texas on Friday (the day before we fly out for Panama). Josh books that time and come Friday, he flies to El Paso to see about getting his passport. I hadn’t heard from him for most of the day and then around 3:00 pm, Josh calls to tell me he got his passport. We had a good feeling about this because the owner of Los Buzos has had to do this before a few times. We felt somewhat at ease knowing this.
Back to Saturday morning. After a 4-hour flight, we arrive in Panama. From there we get an Uber to the AC Marriott. The Uber driver that picks us up has a problem with his vehicle half way to the hotel. His car is making a noise. The guy doesn’t find anything. The driver is about to continue driving when I get out of the car and go to the front. I get on the ground to look under the car and the passenger side front tire on the inside of the tire has a strand that is barely hanging on. Under that strand is nothing but bare metal. The guy takes the loose strand and pulls it to break it off of the rest of the tire. This way the loose material would not continue to beat up against the car causing it to make noise. We manage to make it to the hotel without the tire blowing out, lol.
Josh and I go in and check in to the hotel. After getting situated in our room, we decide to go and find a restaurant that serves Panamanian food. Josh was really craving this and I was cool with that as well. Josh looked up places online and found what he wanted. The second we stepped out of the hotel and up until we made it back, we kept on getting asked if we wanted to get hooked up with “the ladies.” If prostitution is illegal in Panama, I can tell you that people look the other way. When you come to Panama City, you will get constant offers with the ladies, if you know what I mean. I would steer clear of these people when I saw them. Josh and I went to a restaurant called Concolon. This restaurant is within walking distance of the hotel we stayed at. Josh had some sort of Panamanian dish and I had a Panamanian pasta dish with chicken. We both enjoyed our meals.
Right before we went into the restaurant there was another place to eat next to where we are going. There was someone outside trying to advertise for this place and would not leave Josh alone. I walked on leaving Josh to deal with that dude. I let Josh take one for the team, lol. We both hurried inside the restaurant to avoid this guy bothering us any longer. After we ate dinner, we went back to the hotel. We went to the top floor to check out some of the amenities this hotel had to offer. On the roof of the hotel, there was a pool. We didn’t go swimming but we just wanted to check things out.
It was starting to get late so we made our way back to the room and proceeded to retire for the evening. The next morning everyone that was going to Los Buzos met in the lobby at 9:45 am. There was a small private bus that took only the Los Buzos clients to the resort in Cambutal. After loading up, it was a 6+ hour drive to Los Buzos. We stopped approximately every 2 hours for restroom breaks or to stretch our legs really quick.
After the long drive down, we finally make it. There are snacks waiting for us. From there we get settled into our accommodations. Shortly after, there is a safety meeting. This is where our guide, Dakota, talks to everyone about the do’s and don’ts. Dakota also talks about how to hook on your bait, how to use the Hobie kayak, and how to use the fish finder (all live demonstrations). You will be using those finders each day on the water to find certain coordinates, for fish, and depth. By the time you finish fishing on day 1, you will be up to speed on how to use the fish finder. Dakota talks to everyone about a few other things and then we are turned to the kayaks so we can set up the one we want.
Once we are done setting up our kayaks, it’s getting close to dinner time. Each night you will be eating an appetizer, main course, and desert. The appetizer is sashimi and sushi. Oh, for your beer drinkers there is unlimited FREE beer. Los Buzos has a bar but mixed drinks will have a cost. After eating dinner, I get ready to head to bed. Monday will come quickly and everyone will need a good night’s sleep for what they are about to embark upon.
Monday morning arrives. I start my morning off with coffee and breakfast. Each meal is provided by the resort. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day so I throw down on breakfast, lol. After eating breakfast, I go to my room and get the electronics for the kayak that I charged up the night before and bring it to the kayak. After that, I get my water and food and put it in my crate.
The staff don’t want you to do anything but fish. When it comes to bringing the kayaks to the water’s edge and even launching, they will take care of everything. Once you are ready to go, a staff member will take your yak in the water. From there, you will meet them on the water to get in the kayak. Finally, you will be pushed off and then you will be ready to pedal. After everyone is launched, everyone will follow in order behind the panga (boat) until we arrive at the first spot to get bait and/or fish. From this point going forward, you are free to go where ever you want, minus a few places that can be dangerous. You will see these obvious dangers so it’s easy to steer clear of them. Everyone will be going after bait but the pangas will be dropping for bait as well and looking for bait balls. Their job is to get you a live bait quickly to get you fishing as quick as possible.
Bait was plentiful on Monday. The pangas managed to keep everyone’s hooks baited the entire time for the most part. I felt that the highlight of the day was the hump back whales we saw. I managed to get really close to one and get some video footage of it. It was an amazing moment that I hope to do again someday. I have the rest of the week so it’s possible that will happen again.
At first, I was helping on the kayak to get bait for others. I struggled finding bait. The pangas came in clutch with the bait. Shortly after, I was able to get a blue runner on my line and I was fishing myself. I didn’t get any pics of the people that caught fish because where I was and where they were, we were not close enough for me to catch up to them. I can say for sure though that there were 3 roosters that were caught. Mikeal Green caught 2 and Jimmy Cobb caught 1. There was some snapper caught. Either way, we managed to catch enough food for dinner that evening.
After getting off the water, there were snacks ready for everyone. From there, I took a shower. Finally, dinner time arrived. We had fried mahi with other Panamanian food to go with it. The food was delicious! After desert, I had to retire to my room to get some sleep for the next day. The bait for the day was ample but the fishing was slow. No worries, we have the rest of the week to catch fish. As many of you know, fishing can be bad one day and then the next day it can be on fire.
Tuesday morning starts with a 6:00 am breakfast time and a 6:30 am launch. Today I am on the panga helping catch bait. Once we get out on the water, everyone starts to go toward the area marked on the fish finders as Snap 1 (or Snapper 1). This is usually a pretty good place to catch bait. Catching bait wasn’t as good as the day before but we were able to find some. Until the guides could find bait, everyone is dropping bait rods to try and catch bait. It’s not long before we get everyone hooked up with a live blue runner. After we get everyone hooked up, we continue to catch bait.
I believe the first person to hook up is a gentleman named Jimmy Cobb. He hooks up to a nice jack crevalle. After a long and worthwhile fight, Jimmy finally gets the fish into his boat.
Other people caught fish throughout the day but one panga goes out there to get pics and assist where needed. When that happens, the other panga hangs behind with the other kayakers to make sure all is well and to continue catching bait for the rest of the crew. It was a tough day on the water again but we managed to find enough fish to feed everyone back at camp. Only one rooster was caught this day. The other fish that were caught was some fish I am not sure of what the name is, several yellow snappers, spotted rose snapper, and a few cierra mackerel.
After eating snacks and cleaning up, it was getting close to dinner. As always, Los Buzos serves sashimi and sushi for appetizers. Following appetizers was the main course.
Even though I don’t eat raw fish, I do eat fish (as long as it’s cooked). The main dish was awesome looking. I ate well!
After the main course, desert was served. I ate like a king and my tummy knew it, lol. It was time to head to my room and call my wife to see how things went for her and our kids for the day. Shortly after, I went to bed.
Day 3, Wednesday, is here. I wake up earlier than usual. The reason for this is that I am going to be riding in the panga again and I needed to get a few things prepared. Today I was going to use the GoFish Cam. I was super excited about this. Thanks to Jen Nolan for these cams! After waking up and getting things ready to go, it’s time to eat breakfast. Once again, breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I can’t function without breakfast. After breakfast, I grab my lunch, the staff makes everyone’s lunch for the day, and I head down to the panga so that our group will hit the water. Today our group is taking a mother ship trip to a place called Morra Puerco. These mother ship trips are an extra charge but worth it considering the view and what you are catching!
After launching, everyone is on their way to a remote place. It’s a 20 – 30 minute trip. All the kayaks are loaded with guides and clients. Once we arrive, the guides get the kayaks in the water. After getting everything set up, each angler gets into their kayak one at a time and away they go to fish.
I’m running with Pedro, Panamanian guide, today. We worked well together. Pedro knows his stuff! I sought out Pedro on many occasions as he knows more on things at Los Buzos than I do. Bait was extremely tough to find on this very day. All guides managed to find blue runners and other bait fish but it was not in abundance as it was on the first day. The other thing that was working us over was the heat. This is the rainy season for Panama but this day was HOT!! That didn’t stop us though. People had fishing to do and we had bait to find. Not many roosters wanted to play this day but we found other assortments of fish to bring back to the dinner table.
We saw the hump back whales again. A lot of bait fish forming in bait balls were out there in the ocean but these types of bait are not good for catching fish. I thought with all the activity out on the water that we would for sure see a lot of action from the roosters but maybe the roosters will play tomorrow. I did manage to see a particular type of sea snake on the water today. Dakota, the main Los Buzos guide, will tell you about it when you arrive on the first day before you ever hit the water.
At the end of the day, Pedro caught a yellow fin tuna. Right about the same time I caught something that I was sure was the same thing but my line broke on the braid. That totally sucked but rest assure, I will be looking for revenge on that fish on Thursday, lol. The fish count is two cierra mackerel, one fish I have no clue what it is, a 23” yellow snapper, and a yellow fin tuna. This will all be cooked tonight for dinner by the staff. I can hardly wait.
Day 4 arrives. Today is a big day as we are going to San Patricio. This is the farthest that the resort mother ships out to. It’s a very remote and untouched area. You never know what you are going to get when you go to this place. After everyone eats breakfast, we get our lunches and head to the pangas. The regular guides get up very early to make sure that all is loaded and ready to go. All you have to do is get in and get ready for the trip. Now that we are on our way, the scenery is absolutely breath taking! I will never get tired of looking at the beautiful mountainous terrain that Panama has to offer.
We arrive to San Patricio and it’s Go Time!! Pedro and I are on one panga and Jayden and Gaia are on another. We are trying to get bait for the entire group. As the morning continues, I am constantly dropping between two lures. On the mid-weight rod, I have the GoFish Cam on with an 80g cotton candy pattern jigging lure on the bottom. The other lure I was using is on a lite-weight rod with a 20g rainbow pattern jigging lure on. Pedro was jigging and got onto something big. As Pedro was fighting his fish, I was jigging on the lite-weight rod and my line goes stripping out. It was definitely not bait. I was having issues with this rod yesterday and forgot to fix it so I had to keep the drag really low. After a decent fight, we both managed to pull up rooster fish.
Pedro’s fish was released and it went on its way but my fish needed a little reviving.
As the day progressed, something amazing happened. Josh Serlin, from Houston, TX, was trolling when he felt a huge tug on the line. The next thing Josh realizes is that he is having a fight of his life. He has not a clue on what he is about to catch but it’s something very cool! He calls the pangas on the radio and Pedro and I head over to Josh. I managed to catch footage on my GoPro and phone for video and pics. Josh landed an African pompano. This wasn’t just any African pompano; this one almost beat the world record. He was shy by just a few centimeters. Congrats to Josh on a job well done!!
After this, Pedro and I go back to catching bait. Suddenly, I see some birds busting the water. Pedro and I go to investigate. Pedro throws a Yo-Zuri top water popper and after a few casts, he lands a yellow fin tuna. Right after we pull the tuna on board and into the cooler, Jimmy is within voice reach and says he may need help. We immediately go to see what’s up. Jimmy is hooked up big time!! Jimmy is a 60 year old veterinarian that is about to retire and he is still out on the water doing what he loves to do, awesome! After the continued fight the monstrous fish that we are not sure of what it is at the moment, finally surfaces. Low and behold, Jimmy lands a beautiful cubera snapper, oh yeah!!
After helping Jimmy with his wonderful catch, Rich calls in on the radio. He is hooked up. For those that don’t know who Rich is, he has a YouTube channel called Fishaholic. Rich has been on fire these past few days. If it swims, Rich was catching it. By the time we arrive, he has a nice yellow fin tuna on board. That is what we call, “dinner.”
Everyone is now back to fishing, including the guides (catching bait). I had a 20g jigging lure on and hooked up to what I felt was a blue runner or something of that nature. As the lure made it closer to the top, I could see it was a blue runner on the line. I was probably 10 ft away from the boat bringing this bait up to the top when a 5 ft+ shark came up out of the middle of nowhere and took my bait and my jigging lure. Shark 1, Blake 0. lol
Pedro and I hear on the radio that someone is hooked up. I jump on the radio to see who it was and it was Josh once again. We head over to him to see what was happening. By the time we arrive, Josh was on the tail end of the fight. Josh not only almost catches a world record with the Pacific African pompano, but now he catches his very first rooster. He’s been waiting patiently all week for that one. Way to go, Josh!!
Now it’s time to get the yaks out of the water and start the journey back to the resort. The ride is over an hour long, but well worth it. The yaks are packed up.
This is Mikael, Josh, and Pedro right before we start the journey back to the resort.
It was a meat haul today. We had rock snapper, roosters, cubera snapper, several yellow fin tuna, and a Pacific African pompano. The resort doesn’t keep roosters or cubera snapper so that is why you will never see those species in the cooler. Overall, a great meat haul for the day!
Just so you can see the Pacific African pompano up close, here is a pic of it in the cooler.
After we got off the water, I helped bring all the rods from all the pangas to the cleaning area. From there, I proceeded to use fresh water on the equipment. After that, I brought these rod and reels to the top under a covered area to dry. I worked my way to my room so that I could get a shower in. I wanted to get the shower done as soon as possible so that I would have time to get the list of today’s events in on here so that I could get to my appointment at 6:00 pm. I put myself down for a 6:00 pm time slot for a massage. The last time I went to Los Buzos, I heard from the people that got the massage that it was amazing. I knew I was coming back so I figured I would get one this go around. I can say from experience that this massage was fantastic! The lady that conducted my massage communicated things to me so that she knew what needed to be done.
After the massage was over it was 7:00 pm, just in time for dinner. I’m not one for raw fish so I skipped through the appetizers. The main dish was very delicious. Once dessert was over, I headed back to my room to get ready to head to bed. I am not sure what was in store for tomorrow but I couldn’t wait to find out.
Day 5 starts off with waking up and getting ready for breakfast. Before I go to eat, I get some of my gear and bring it out to the kayak. Dakota mentioned to me that morning that everyone was going to fish out of the pangas for their last day. Josh and Mikael will ride with Dakota and Rich and Jimmy will ride with Jayden. Pedro pulled out the Whaley and I got to go fishing out of the kayak out front today by myself. I managed to get another lite weight rod for bait so that my braid would no longer break off. I woke up early enough to ensure that I had plenty of time to get things together so that it would be a perfect day. For those of you that don’t know what a Whaley is, here is a pic.
After I loaded all my stuff that I needed on the kayak, I threw the tackle on the rods that I felt would do the trick for the day. From here I went to go eat breakfast, my favorite meal of the day. The resort has bacon and when that happens, I am a happy camper. After drinking some coffee and having a great breakfast, I proceeded to head down to get the kayak and load it on the kayak trailer. The guides will connect the trailer to the 4-wheeler so that I don’t have to drag the yak all the way to the beach edge, very convenient! After the pangas took off the Whaley launched, then I took off.
After going out past the inner rocks, I headed to a place called “Snap 1” to look for bait. The first hook up, which came quick, was in fact a blue runner. I placed that bait on the circle hook and kept it in the water just enough to keep it alive. I wanted to troll two blue runners with both GoFish Cams running. I was hoping to get a hook up one way or another. Until then, I kept dropping the 20g jig to the bottom searching for that other blue runner. I managed to catch a couple of cierra mackerel.
I also managed to hook into a few small groupers, nothing of size. Finally, I landed another blue runner. Now that both rods are loaded and ready to go, I turn on both GoFish Cams and it was time to troll. There is a structure out there called Rooster City. I was trolling to that place. The names says it all. I was hoping one of those roosters would be hungry enough to want a blue runner. I would love to have a cubera snapper but at this point, I wasn’t going to be picky.
When I got to Rooster City, nothing was chomping at the line. I decided to try and troll on over to Vaca reef. I landed a few roosters there the last time I came to Los Buzos. Maybe I could duplicate the same thing this go around. I never got a bite this time at Vaca. After trolling awhile longer, I get a call on the VHF radio from Morris talking about the weather patterns. I was seeing what he was talking about. We were hoping that this formation would stay south but Mother Nature had different plans for us. Within no time at all, the rain started to come in and the swells started to look like Texas surf. The swells were breaking and pushing me sideways. Fortunately for me, I have had many years of experience out on the water in situations like this (not intentionally), and I was prepared. There was one breaker that I thought I was not going to make, but I pulled through it.
Dakota’s panga arrived from their trip and immediately I got next to it and rolled out of my kayak into the panga. I got up and helped Dakota to bring in the yak. Dakota got on the Whaley and both boats headed back to land. The winds picked up to around 30 mph + by the time we made it back to shore. These guys have a great system in place for situations such as what I went through to keeping their clients safe. Hats off to the staff for taking care of everyone and keeping them safe. The third group was far out of range but we knew that they were on their way back. To make a long story short, the last group did make it back. It took a while to get back due to the distance and the conditions. Everyone was fine. This group went to deep water and caught some fish. Here are a few of the species they caught while out in deeper water.
It’s a task to load and unload the kayaks so once back to shore, the fishing day was over. However, we had the rest of the day to relax, get massages (if you scheduled one), drink, walk around and see the sights, visit with others, or just sit on the balcony of the beach house and admire the view. I took some time to get my clothes ready to go back right after my shower. At this point I was ready for dinner. Morris had a pig cooked. This was the case the last time I came to Los Buzos and the pig was fantastic!
After dinner I went back to the room to get ready to get some sleep. I had a few more items to pack and then it was time to hit the sack. The next morning arrives and I wake up to grab some coffee. As I sat eating my breakfast, I looked out at the ocean to stare off into the deep yonder. I wasn’t sure when I would be back again but I knew that I was definitely coming back.
After finishing breakfast, I went to settle up with things that I purchased during the week. Following that, I waited for the bus to arrive. The bus ride is long but at least there is a lot of room on there. The bus stops every two hours so that everyone can take a bathroom break and stretch our legs. Nothing unusual happens on the way back to Panama City. The bus driver did take a side route on the way back because one of the guys, a YouTuber, wanted to do some drone footage stuff of the Panama Canal. The driver knew of a place we could go so that the drone could do an ariel view of the Panama Canal. You have to be very careful with drones there. I believe it’s a serious offense if you are caught flying a drone in certain areas. I am not sure what happens but I believe it’s more than just a ticket. If anyone has any experience with this, chime in.
Finally, we make it back to the AC Marriott in Panama City. Everyone gets their luggage and heads in to the hotel to check in (don’t forget to tip your driver). Once checked in, Josh and I started to investigate where to go for dinner. I wanted to check a few places out first for souvenirs for my family. We walked around for a while but finally found a spot that had some good stuff. I bought my wife and boys wallets. The shirts kind of sucked so I had to think outside of the box. These wallets had a cultural Panama look about them which is why I decided to get them.
Josh and I headed back to the hotel and waited for Rich and Ryan to join us. Ryan had just arrived as he is heading to Los Buzos for the week where as we had just come back. Rich knows Ryan so that is how we got hooked up with Ryan. We all went to check out some place to eat. The first place Josh looked up we were not sure about. We walked down a hallway and up an elevator. When we got to the top, there was an empty restaurant. We felt uncomfortable there as if we were going to die. We immediately left! When in doubt, go with your gut instincts in this situation and leave. No need to become a statistic.
We kept on walking and finally found this one place which seemed to be upscale. People were dressed nice and we were slightly on the lesser side. We walked in and they accepted us so we decided to give it a try. I’m not one for trying new things so I had to look really hard at the menu. When I ordered my meal, it was a steak. I asked for medium well on the meat. When we all got our food, my steak was bleeding as if it was a gunshot wound bleed. This is not even close to what I asked for. I tried the meat but I didn’t like it. This meal costed $27.00 so I was trying to do my best to eat it but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. Rich tried the meat and he didn’t care for it. Finally, we all left and headed back to the hotel. I went to the restaurant to order something to eat. We all sat down to hang out a little longer. I wanted a cheese burger but the cooking crew was having a hard time wrapping their heads around how I wanted the meat cooked. I ended up getting the mac n cheese. While I waited for my food, I ordered a margarita. The margarita wasn’t bad at all. I was actually quite pleased with it. My food arrived after a long wait and so I dug in. If you go to the grocery store to buy the $0.99 mac n cheese (the kind that you buy when you are in college because you are on a budget), that is what this stuff tasted like. However, I was very hungry so I decided to bury my displease and eat the mac n cheese. Once I was finished and we settled our bills, we all went to our perspective rooms to retire for the night.
The next morning, I took a quick shower and went downstairs to eat breakfast. Shortly after Josh arrived to eat as well. Following breakfast, we checked out and got an Uber to take us to the airport. It has been a fun week but now it was time to head back home. After arriving at the airport and getting all checked in past security, we waited for our flight. Our flight arrived on time and we made it back to Texas with no issues at all. All in all, it was a great week! Congrats to Josh on that monster Pacific African Pompano he caught. I wanted to give a big thanks to the Los Buzos staff for making the week a fantastic one! I will be going back again in 2024 so until then, tight lines everyone.