Offshore Species
Sailfish
Free-jumping sails and paddling fins — always a live blue runner ready on the spinning rod. The fight is a whole lot of fun.
The Gulf of Chiriquí is home to good numbers of sailfish. We see enough of them that we're always ready with a live blue runner on a spinning rod.
If we spot a free-jumping sail or a fish paddling along, we'll cast the bait to it. It's an effective way to catch them — and the fight on a spinning rod is quite a bit of fun. We also catch sails trolling plugs offshore and sometimes live baiting with bonito.
Sailfish are widely distributed in our part of the world. Sometimes we see them in the vicinity of tuna schools and porpoises, sometimes around the tuna boats. They jump often, and are fond of "windshield wiping" — putting their head and shoulders out of the water, waving their bills back and forth.
For the wall
That dorsal fin, fully extended.
In addition to the visual nature of their fight, a boatside picture of a sailfish — with its distinctive dorsal fin fully extended — could well be one that makes your fishing-picture wall.
Whether we sight-cast a live blue runner, troll plugs or hang a bonito, catching sailfish is great. They jump often and put on a show, start to finish.
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