8 reasons my kayak fishing trip to Panama was so thrilling

#2 Kayaks are an exciting—and very effective—way to fish the Pacific coast

Using kayaks lets you safely fish near the rocky shore, where big boats would never dare go, opening up a near-virgin fishery, especially for the two of the eastern Pacific’s most prized gamefish: cubera snappers and roosterfish. But the pedal-powered Mirage Outbacks are also excellent for fishing a click or two offshore. Above is Jamie Nelson, also from Denver, with an eater-sized yellowfin tuna, taken on a surface popper.

From the lodge, we could fish a huge area, which we reached by loading the kayaks into the lodge’s custom built super-pangas (above). These stable, nearly indestructible boats are designed to comfortably carry four kayaks, anglers and fishing equipment.

So every day, we headed north or south along the coast (above), looking for the most promising fishing conditions. Then we unloaded the kayaks (below), and got to work, while the panga stayed nearby to act as a safety vessel.

And of course, with this system the lodge uses a fraction of the fuel required at full-powered operations, keeping the cost way down, which is partly why this trip was so affordable (more on this later).