Post-fishing snack, Panama style!




“It’s too late to go flyfishing for jacks Mingo, we’ll hit it tomorrow” – Stam was enjoying the afterglow of his best-ever tuna battle once we were back on the ship, so much so that he at first turned down a chance to go flyfishing with me for jacks! “Are you kidding me? C’mon man, we’re loading the boat, let’s go Stam!” “Aww…..alright!” Stam grabbed his flyrod ………. But I noticed he also had a deathgrip on his spinning rod loaded with a huge popper. He did not know it yet, but his day was about to get even better. Over at the reef I hooked a trevally that ate a crease fly……………………….





Then Stam tossed his giant popper up tight to the shoreline….Chug-sploosh chug-sploosh chug-sploosh WHAM!!!!! Game on! He was tight to a hot cubera snapper that worked him all around the boat like a kid on a merry-go-round. It was awesome to witness yet another epic Stam battle with one of these prehistoric beasties! After 20 minutes, his toasted tuna-weary arms finally worked the massive snapper to boat…….



Back on board we feasted on platters of fresh sashimi and ice cold beers as a tuneup to our evening meal of seared yellowfin steaks, courtesy of Stam. ….



“That was a pretty big freakin’ tuna, wasn’t it?” – Stam ogles his pictures as Blake gets reacquainted with his girlfriend……..



Dessert anyone?????



We polished off three bottles of rum, dozens of beers and several bottles of wine. Everyone was glassy-eyed and goofy and Stam had the quote of the evening --- “tomorrow, I may have to uncork the Pendleton, blow the doors off this joint and do some partying”. Telling a gang of drunken pirates that the next day could involve more alcohol? Priceless.