10 hard-earned lessons about big-game kayak fishing on Panama’s Wild Coast

#2  Listen to every scrap of advice and instruction from the lodge’s expert staff

I promise you one thing: Unless you are already an experienced big-game saltwater kayak angler, you do not know how to do this kind of fishing. You simply have no clue. You don’t know how to cast and retrieve the huge lures, you don’t know how to handle, rig or fish the live bait, and you probably don’t even know how to use the level-wind trolling reels. But it doesn’t matter.

That’s because lodge founder Pascal Artieda and his partner Sam Wadman know these complex waters, and they’re very good teachers. They’re used to guests being a little overwhelmed, even shell-shocked, by the physicality of the fishing, and the brute power of the fish. But they will help you adapt your existing fishing skills to the Wild Coast’s unique conditions.

So here’s another promise: If you listen, learn, fish hard and ask for help when you need it, you will do things you never imagined you were capable of, and catch some amazing fish.