Northern Colombia

The Pacific Jungle Game Fishing Paradise Shrouded in controversy, cartels and rebel forces during the mid-nineties, Bahia Solano on the Northwestern tip of Colombia promises a saltwater adventure like no other. Almost 12 000km from home in Johannesburg, demanding three flights, a boat ride and a life-reaffirming trip across the Andes Mountains lies one of the richest saltwater habitats on the planet. All I’d heard about from Gareth (Coombs) in the weeks leading up to the trip last April was how 100lb cubera break your heart in under 5 seconds, and that the tuna fishing is so good you’ll be begging not to make another cast! We were headed there for a different reason - to tangle with the area’s prolific sailfish as they begin their migration across the Pacific, and he wanted to target them on fly. Gareth’s been there before and has contact with Fish Colombia run by local Beto Mejia. Beto handles all of the accommodation arrangements, guides and travel to and from Bogota. You literally just arrive with your gear and go fishing. The PACIFICA-HK4895 shuttles passengers from Bogota to Bahia Solano, which includes traversing the Andes Mountains. The author is on the far right. These big Pacific sailfish fight hard but are worth every bit of the effort to get to Colombia. Tyron landed this prized catch after doing battle with it from more than 10 minutes on bass gear. The fully rigged El Bizocho is a world class gamefish platform customed designed by Beto. Be sure to pack different poppers and stickbaits in a range of sizes and colours. Pack doubles if you plan on targeting big cubera that can cut you off before you even get a chance to turn them. Gareth and Pete both hooked this sailfish after it ate both of their live baits. Snook are just one of the 3500 species that call Bahia Solano home. Jack crevalle were plentiful and eager to eat poppers and stick baits. Fish Colombia owner, Beto Meija with a big rooster the area is known for. Tyron doing battle with a hard pulling tuna, note the sun wear, which is essential when travelling to any saltwater destination. These big tuna hurt your arms, this was Tyron’s biggest of the trip. Getting to Bahia Solano Our 5 man group (Gareth Coombs, Pete Furber, Gregory Lew, Warren Saks and myself) embarked at OR Tambo heading for Sao Paulo in Brazil, then caught a connecting flight to Medellin where we met up with Beto, and from then onward to Bogota. There we offloaded all our gear and headed across the Andes in this little frieken plane, which ranks as the scariest flight I’ve ever been on. Even Gareth was S#$&*ng himself because of all the turbulence. Landing in Bahia we had a short transfer to our first beach side lodge, which offered comfortable accommodation and an easy launch for the small boats we used to get to the two main fishing boats, the El Bizcocho, a Colombian-made 36-foot center console with twin 200hp Suzuki outboards designed to Beto’s exacting specifications. The other is La Colombia, a Pursuit C310 with twin Yamaha outboards on the back and rigged to the nines for sport fishing. Both were moored in the center of the bay. An average day in Fishing Heaven We’d budgeted for 10 days of fishing, weather dependent of course, and most mornings were up by 05:00 to check the conditions and then gauge what time we’d head out on the water. With time to kill some mornings we took advantage of the excellent hospitality with the resident chef whipping up a first class buffet. Although he spoke almost zero English the highlight each morning was your order for eggs: “flat or shrumbled?” he would offer. And they serve it all with toast, jams, bacon and pretty much everything you would expect of a fancy breakfast buffet. After breakfast we’d head out to target yellowfin tuna throwing poppers and stickbaits on light tackle, which true to form would make our arms burn to say the least. As far as I know there are no catch limits on tuna, it is just ridiculous how many there are. We’d target them specifically for about an hour or two every day and we’d put 20 to 30 fish in the boat, all between 10 and 20 kilos. We kept some of it for the locals - they make tuna steaks or their version of sashimi, or use it as one of the mains at dinner, grilled or in a curry. The biggest one I got was about 35kg. We were actually following a pod of dolphins chasing bait - if you get ahead of them usually the bigger tuna run underneath the pod. I made a cast ahead and nothing, so I cast behind them and after only 4 winds of that stickbait I just got stuck. At first I thought I’d hooked a dolphin how the reel screamed off. It took me about 20 minutes to land it and after bullying it and putting big muscle power into that fight I was exhausted. Once it hit the boat I had to take a break to recover - I downed 2 bottles of water, a juice and a beer before I was ready to go again! April is the main sailfish season and some big cubera snapper were also our target species. We got them up to about 30lbs but they get really big, up to about 100lbs. You target them on floating and sinking stickbaits and big poppers specifically in bright orange. You’re casting to volcanic rock shelves and pinnacles to target them. These fish are ultra-strong and you need a heavy setup in the 7’ to 7’6” Heavy powered rod range, similar to a GT Popping Rod paired with a 20 000-sized grinder spooled with 100lb braid and a 100-150lb fluoro leader. It might sound like overkill but believe me if you don’t get them turned in the first seconds they just cut you off on the sharp rock. The skipper actually puts the boat in reverse and you lock you drag and pull it out. Trolling for Sailies While we were there we managed to get a few hits on a big stickbait from sailies but they never stuck so we opted for trolling scad that you tether and then hook between the eyes so that they swim down. I actually caught my sailie on a 4-piece Berkley Nomadic casting rod while trolling, it’s almost the equivalent of a heavy bass rod. You definitely need a reel with at least 6-kilos of drag but it doesn’t have to be able to cast far, maybe 50m meters max. Those sailies aren’t shy, you’d literally cruise over them and they would come up to eat the bait behind the boat. We were putting two rods out (don’t know how the baitfish didn’t get tangled) but only one rod would ever hookup. You would visually see the bite - they would knock the bait off the left rod and then immediately get a bite on the right rod. It was a very finesse deal and you had to feed line until the bait was properly gulped down and then you reel up the slack and pull the rod to get the bait out of the gullet and set the circle hook in the side of the mouth. I was using Berkley’s Fusion Circle hooks as I have a lot of faith in them. I use them for all my saltwater fishing, from 2/0 for surf and up to 12/0 when targeting sharks. One key part of the setup when targeting sailfish is the line colour; I was fishing Berkley Black Velvet as my mainline, because it is dark. If you use high-vis yellow line you need to have a 10m plus leader not to spook the fish, but the problem even with a Fluoro leader of that length is that there is just too much stretch to keep them pinned. You need the direct connection a shorter leader offers so the fish don’t create slack and throw the hook. In April there is a change in current in the Pacific that pushes up plankton into the shallows that attract bait and game fish like roosterfish, jack crevalle and of course the sailfish and tuna close inshore with bigger predators like marlin just off the channel. The ecosystem around Bahia Solano is incredibly healthy and everyday we saw killer whales and big manta rays. There were also many sharks around those balls of plankton and krill and at any one time we had 4 or more whale sharks right at the boat. Gear The guides are pretty well rigged up and you can rent tackle from $90 a day if you want, but I took most of my own. I broke one of my rods while fighting a tuna - it was dogging me down and I put just a bit too much pressure and tightened the drag a bit much. I was fishing light inshore gear so I could enjoy the fight, there was no point of fighting them on the heavy rod, as you’d just wind them in the boat. It was my rod for throwing poppers when targeting roosterfish. I borrowed one of theirs but it was an absolute pole for targeting big cubera. I took 4 rods in total, a light rod for popper, stickbaits and spoons to catch jack crevalle, rooster and tarpon and heavier outfits for cubera and tuna and then the nomadic. Good sun wear and plenty of sunscreen is essential. If you don’t own a lightweight UV sun shirt Beto can arrange them for you from his Dorado range of outdoor gear when you get there but you need to stay covered up. I preferred fishing with a hooded long sleeve that has the gloves and finger slits built in so that you can pull the sleeves over your hands. Take extra line with braid for any break-offs and one thing I would pack more of are different sizes and coloured stickbaits, especially bright colours. Regarding our rods we checked them in as sporting equipment all into one rod tube and the rest of the gear went into our luggage. Flying to Brazil you’re allowed 23kg of carry on luggage, which is more than sufficient. Looking back I would also take oversized poppers that make a large water disturbance instead of just regular sized poppers as they just didn’t do enough to get those bigger fish keyed in on them. HIGHLIGHT My fishing highlight of the trip has got to be the sailfish that stayed on for about 5 minutes - something inside me knew this was the one I was after and we were going to land it. It jumped about 10 times clean out of the water (I’ve actually got video of it but it's not suitable for families). I was so excited - this is what we travelled all that way for! The only thing I regret about landing that fish is that I didn’t get a very good photo of it. The Colombian government is incredibly strict on conservation of these fish and it is illegal to take them out the water - if you get caught you’ll get fined heavily or have your permits revoked. According to Beto the reason for the strict regulations on sailfish is that removing them from the water exerts pressure on their internal organs and removes too much of their slime coat so 9/10 times they end up dying. Total Cost: For 10 fishing days with absolutely everything included: flights, accommodation, guides, boat rental and transfers worked out to R82 000. You’ll need some spare US dollars to cover bar tabs or any extras and for tipping it's recommended to take Colombian Pesos as well. Beto arranged the tipping for the guides and per person it worked out to roughly $250 for the entire trip. STICK TO FISHING! Obviously the area we were fishing is surrounded by border tension. The second camp we moved to was about 20 miles up the coast, right next to the Panamanian border with troops regularly patrolling the area. There were a couple of locals staying there and one day when some military on patrol pulled in we walked up to them and asked what they were doing - the locals thought we must be crazy, only South Africans would do something like that! On one of our last days we were running out of fuel so our skipper, Ed took us into a bay that’s demarcated with buoys and beached up on the bank. He got off the boat in about waist deep water with a Jerry can in each hand and headed off into the jungle. While we were waiting there were Jack Crevalle blowing up everywhere around us and we caught 3-4 big, 10-12kg fish. Only when Ed returned did we ask if we were allowed to fish there? “No, No, No, it's not a good idea!” he replied. I think it's because there is a big cartel that runs out of there. They go out at night from those bays up to Panama to distribute the stuff and that’s why there are such hectic patrols. Gareth, Pete and Beto were on a separate boat and they headed right up to the border where there is a beacon that is one of Beto’s best snapper spots. While fishing they must have drifted 200m or so across the border and all of a sudden this boat comes out of nowhere, guys in balaclavas, with masks on armed to the teeth. They came up to the boat and asked them what are they doing here and Beto had to explain that they were fishing and he knows where the beacon is on shore but because it’s very overgrown he could hardly see it… Thankfully they got out of that sticky situation! *Readers looking to book this once in a lifetime trip can contact Gareth Coombs on: Tel. 27 83 708 3787 / email: garreth@afrig.co.za / web: www.afrig.co.za TRAVEL THERE NOW JULY - AUGUST: The marlin come in close to shore again. This month brings cooler weather much more enjoyable than during the warmer months (January – February) and the inshore fishing for cubera snapper is red hot during these months. SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER: September means wahoo! – and a lot of them. And also big ones. The inshore bite is also good during this time as well as a great time to target both black and blue marlin in current lines offshore.