The food at Darien Lodge here in Colombia is sensational.  Today began with a unique and delicious taste of poached eggs in local flavors with fresh fruit.  By 7 AM we were headed for the boats.  Today Jess jumped over with the Marrese boys and Scott Wessels, the owner of the famous Bears Den in Massachusetts, came with Ben and I.

 

 

Our boat crew was Edward and Wilmer again.  These two are fantastic.  Only five minutes from the lodge we found activity on sardine bait balls.  Scott and Ben went to work.  It turned out the chaos was entirely from the smallish skipjack tuna.  Scott rocketed a long bomb cast and landed the first fish of the day.

 

 

Our conditions were fantastic.  We were protected from the heat of the sun with slight overcast and there was only a light breeze.  Edward saw a small egg sinker in my gear and asked if I could cast it.  I told him no problem and explained how I make short cast with the sinker above a Clouser and feed line to send it deep.  He was quick to suggest a stop over on a pinnacle that is 50 ft deep and surrounded by deeper water.  A local from a remote fishing village had a similar idea – always a good sign.

 

The plan was to see if the broomtail grouper were around.  Though I’ve caught plenty over the years, I sensed a chance at perhaps another unusual fly rod catch.  Truthfully, I was hoping for a new species to add to my list.  I handed Ben and Scott each a chunky egg sinker as well.  We enjoyed a quick brew then sent our cumbersome rigs deep.

 

 

It was by no means fast and furious.  In fact, we hooked exactly one fish.  I was the lucky guy and even luckier that it was indeed a new species for me.  This is Mr. Spotted Rose Snapper (Lutjanus guttatus).  I’ll make a wild guess that very few if any of this deepwater dweller have been caught on fly.

 

 

That got the juices going for everyone.  Edward saw the enthusiasm that came with the odd catch.  From there we went on a full on pursuit of random species along the rocky Darien Gap coastline.

 

 

 

 

I didn’t get any more new species but here are a few of the others we caught.  This is one of my Baja favorites, the extremely attractive, giant hawkfish.

 

 

 

 

 

Panama Graysby

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bluefin Trevally

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben with his first Mexican Hogfish

 

 

 

 

 

 

We never found the tuna or sails today.  We thought once they broke off in the distance but if it was them, they didn’t last long.  Plus, we were enjoying the change of pace of species bashing in Colombia.  We headed in promptly at 5 PM and had a nice relaxing time at the lodge.  This included a swim in the pool while enjoying yellowfin tuna sashimi.  Life is good!

 

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing