The idle chatter onboard grew gradually silent the closer we got to
Montuosa Island, one of the premier pargo destinations in Panama, if not the
world. Having both won and lost
battles with these powerhouses here before, I went over my gear one more time;
checking drags, knots, hook points and sideplate screws because any weakness in
the system will result in losing one of these fish. Big pargo are what I call “tackle testers”, if not busters, that will
quickly reveal any flaw in your tackle, as well as your fishing ability or
skippers boat handling skill. One
imperfect knot or error in judgment means you’ll be re-rigging soon. These are not forgiving fish.
Montuosa is a jungle island surrounded by deep water except for its
southwest side where a large shoal extends out a few miles. This shelf eventually drops into a deep canyon but before it does
hundreds of craggy rocks, islets and coral heads protrude upward forming a vast
field of pargo structures. Approaching
“Sentinel rock” that I named because it sits alone on the easterly face of
the island and about one-half mile offshore, I went to the bow of the 28-foot
Albemarle to start launching popping plugs. Captain Domingo “Mingo” Acosta put us in good position about a medium
cast from the deep side of the rock. As
he slipped the gears into neutral he knodded and I cast a fluorescent red-orange
Braid Pop Dancer well beyond the rock so that it would pass close by on the
retrieve. Red is a good lure color
for pargo and I will take red nail polish on trips to paint a plug if I run
short. The splashing surface lure
was just leaving the rock behind when the ocean seemed to erupt in whitewater
and foam. A pargo missed the lure
but came back and hit it solidly. With
a swipe of its broad tail it slapped the water, making a “whooshing” sound
as it powered straight down.
Pargo are notorious for their ability to dive into the rocks, cutting the
line before you know what happened. This
one made a mistake by heading for deeper water and towards the boat. It could easily have powered back to the shallow ridge at the base of the
rock where it stood a better chance of escaping. With 25 pounds of drag pressure exerted directly overhead and with a
savvy skipper moving the boat to keep a good line angle, this pargo was mine.
“I got’em!” I hollered after Mingo told me we were in deep water. Since a cut-off was very unlikely now I backed off the drag a little and
let the fish make slightly longer runs. The
vertical give-and-take fight, characteristic of pargo, was nearing an end as its
crimson red flank appeared about 50-feet below. “Cubera!” I said excitedly because they are my favorite species of
pargo for their handsome-good looks and eating quality. Called “dog snapper” for many years in Baja, the International Game
Fish Association now labels this fish as Pacific cubera snapper. By any name they are brutal adversaries.
Mate Chi-Chi Bernal lip-gaffed the exhausted fish and hauled it aboard as
I made my way down to the cockpit. “Looks
like about 30 pounds,” I estimated. My
excited crew said “40” so we settled on 35 before getting it quickly back in
the water after a photo. It swam
slowly downward with big, sluggish strokes of its tail fin.
After thanking my Panamanian crew I got busy checking hooks, leader, drag
setting and taking a big drink of cool water to keep ahead of the tropical heat.
Returning to the rock resulted in a missed strike on another pargo and
then the jacks took over. “Uh-oh,”,
I muttered as the deep bounces on the rod tip told me a jack crevalle was on the
other end. Sure enough, a 20-pound
jack came grudgingly to the boat and was released. “Let’s move. It’s too
hot to mess with these guys,” I said, knowing that when these aggressive jacks
show up they tend to crowd out the other fish.
With a roar of the twin diesels we headed for the nearby rocky shoal that
holds a motherlode of big pargo up to 70 pounds and more. The good thing is they hit poppers like crazy.
Getting them in the boat is the problem and challenge. Since these battles are usually won or lost within the first ten seconds
after hookup as the pargo tries to get in the rocks, I forced my star drag to
move another fraction of an inch to give me 30 pounds of pressure. A Shimano Calcutta 700 with 50-pound spectra isn’t designed for this
heavy drag setting but it gives the angler a fighting chance under these extreme
power-to-power matchups.
The first few “boiler” rocks produced colorful bluefin trevally and
smaller pargo lisa or mullet snapper. On
the next stop my popper just disappeared where it landed. I didn’t even see the hit.
The
line went tight and after a hard zip on the drag I was soon reeling in limp line
sans popper. “I didn’t have a
chance with that one. He must have
been five feet from his hole,” I said, somewhat impressed while studying the
frayed 100-pound leader. Even 30
pounds of drag won’t turn some pargo away from protective cover if they really
want to get there. The best scenario
for the angler is to have the fish follow the popper for a good distance away
from the rocks and get a hookup in open water. That way it must turn and power back to cover which provides time to turn
it away - if you have the gear to apply the brakes. Pargo will also make mistakes occasionally by not taking advantage of
nearby structure while choosing the perceived safety of deep water. One advantage that popping has is that the fish must come to the surface.
Bottom fishing with bait or jigs puts you in their rocky habitat and much
closer to a potential cut-off. With
either style of fishing you’ll still lose a lot of fish so bring plenty of
lures.
Popping pargo around here is like being in a heavyweight fight for the
full 15 rounds. Your mate even gives
you water and a wet towel between “rounds” as the skipper moves to another
spot. By noon of this January day,
2001, we reflected on our successes and failures. We had released three cubera in the 25-to 40-pound class, kept a 50-pound
brute to add to the Coiba Explorer menu, released six mullet snapper up to 15
pounds as well as nine bluefin trevally (a.k.a. bluestar jacks), three jack
crevalle, one five-foot needlefish and three bigeye trevally. On the negative side I lost five lures to trophy-size pargo which is the
most I’ve ever lost in just one morning. On
the other hand it indicates that there are lots of big fish around which bodes
well for the quality of this habitat. Since
losing lures is an unavoidable side-effect of pargo fishing I recommend
replacing standard treble hooks with singles which are more easily “rubbed
out” by fish that are broken off. Single
hooks are also safer when releasing fish and do less damage to a fish than
trebles.
The incoming tide was starting to cover most of the rocky outcroppings.
Low water is preferred so we decided to start trolling for bluewater
pelagics in the afternoon only a few hundred yards away. In Panama you can have it all.
Pargo generally prefer to ambush prey from the secrecy of rocky cover in
deep water. That’s what their
bodies are designed for. A broad,
powerful tail, muscular body and sharp canine teeth allow for a quick burst of
speed to then snatch and hold on to its meal. Pargo do not commonly attack surface poppers throughout their range with
the exception of Central America where a different mind-set seems to prevail.
Maybe its the competition for elusive food in a constant warm-water
habitat that makes these fish more aggressive combined with a lack of anglers to
make them smart. Whatever the
reason, serious anglers head south for premier surface action with cubera and
mullet snapper, the two most important and obliging species of the pargo clan.
My first pargo on a popper taken in January of 1989 hooked me for life.
Casting a pink PILI popper near Matapalo Rock at Golfito, Costa Rica,
brought on a tremendous splash and jolting hit. The fish went straight down and put up a typical vertical fight.
The candy-apple red cubera weighted 24 pound 6 ounces. Things only got better further south in Panama as I discovered beginning
in 1994. One highlight in November,
1995 found Rick Casparian and myself at Montuosa Island again. My notes read: “Lots of rain but incredible action.
Saw a “herd” of pargo attacking tiny fish or something around a
floating log in open water. Easy
pickings for a popper. Caught and
released 17 mullet snapper 8 to 24 pounds on PILI’s and a 31-pound dog snapper
on a red and black PILI.” In
November, 1999 I was on the Hannibal Bank near Coiba Island, popping for big
dorado near a barnacle-encrusted floating log over the deep bank. “The dorado disappeared and a great sight occurred as the ocean seemed
to erupt beneath the boat. An acre
of bright red pargo lisa foaming on bait around the drifting log as it passed
over Lalo’s (Captain) high spot on Hannibal” read my notes. The scene was so awesome we just put down our rods and watched.
Somehow popping under these circumstances seemed anti-climatic.
Cuberas rule a variety of habitat and can be found in tidal rivers as
well as offshore banks and islands. On
March 27, 1998, we ventured into the Boca Grande River on the southeast side of
Coiba Island to do some light tackle exploring. Casting small PILI poppers under the mangrove overhangs and into jungle
cuts we released six cuberas from two to 12 pounds and a pargo amarillo (yellow
pargo). We saw one cubera charge
under the inflatable that was about 40 pounds, a size that would have been
unstoppable in the hostile snags. In
addition to other gamefish an eight-foot crocodile swiped my popper and put up a
rather boring fight before shaking off the crushed plug after a few minutes.
Pargo fishing can lead to some interesting situations.
In the western tropical Pacific a cubera look-alike is called bohar, ban,
red bass, or twospot depending on specific region. They crash poppers like their cousins as I found out at Bikini Atoll in
the Marshall Islands. Mark Santiago,
owner of Pacific Island Lure Innovations (PILI) and I had a great time popping
the coral reef edges in September, 1999. The
bans would make some pretty dramatic surface commotions’ pursuing the poppers.
It wasn’t unusual to release 15 to 20 per day up to 20 pounds. Larger fish were too much of a light tackle challenge to keep out of the
sharp coral formations. In addition
to Bikini, I have caught them at Milli and Arno Atolls, Palau and Australia’s
Great Barrier Reef.
The IGFA lists 26 species of snapper.
These include squirefish, black, blackfin, colorado, cubera, Atlantic
dog, emperor, gray, greenbar, Guinean (African cubera), lane, Malabar, mullet,
muton, Pacific cubera, Pacific red, Papuan black, queen, red, schoolmaster,
silk, spotted rose, twospot red (bohar), vermillion, yellow and yellowtail.
The largest on record is a 121-pound 8-ounce cubera snapper caught in
Louisiana. Many in this pargo group
weigh 30 to 80 pounds. For anglers
popping the Pacific, the cubera, mullet (lisa), yellow, colorado and twospot
reds are most likely to race for the surface and whack a lure. Most pargo, however, are bottom feeders and prefer a deep, natural bait
presentation.
Pargo will often hang out around structure, such as a rock pinnacle,
which will put them within striking distance of a popper. In Panama’s rich pargo habitats, anglers score well simply by blind
casting to promising structure. At
times, pargo will also leave their deep water sanctuary if irritated enough by
repetitive casts or by feeding opportunities as described earlier. In Mexico, chumming with live sardines will often get some surface
activity going with mullet and cubera but they tend to be very wary, possibly
due to heavy fishing pressure in popular locations. During the spring, places like Cerralvo Island, Punta Perico, Punta
Pescadero and Cabo Pulmo (outside the preserve) experience large massings of
pargo allegedly in a spawning display. These
large aggregations may ignore offerings for days then turn-on in a feeding spree
for the fortunate anglers who are in the right place at the right time.
Pargo (snapper) of various species are widely distributed in temperate
and tropical seas. However, in most
areas pargo will not readily respond to surface lures. The following places offer anglers good opportunities to be successful
with the popping style of fishing:
