By: Capt. Tim Ramsey
There I was. Panama. The wind was calm. The sun shined brightly. The aroma of steak and lemon trees wafted past. I saw fish swimming along the rocks at the end of the Amador Causeway, an iconic 6-kilometer stretch that gracefully crosses over and connects Panama City to four Pacific islands: Naos, Perico, Culebra, and Flamenco. I had no fishing rod.
Twenty-seven rods in Florida and what good were they? I had only four rods in country. Both my travel rods had broken eyelets. My seven-foot two-piece was so old the reel seat was cracked in half, and a case of “the dumbass” led to breaking my fourth rod while putting it in the car. What to do?
With no tackle shops nearby with anything less than “import prices,” I drove over to a local hardware store called the “Do-It Center,” a place I think they modeled after Ace Hardware. They had only three rods, all combos. The best one was a one-piece, 6’6” Diawa combo that cost a whopping $26. Yep, you read that right. Fast-forward, I caught three jacks and a small Sierra (what Spanish Mackerel are called in Spanish-speaking countries). Bottom line, like Gunny Highway said in the movie Heartbreak Ridge, “you improvise, adapt, overcome.” I did that and caught a few fish off the side of the road and had a new rod. That’s going with what you got.
Then we went fishing with a guide on Gatun Lake, the body of water created when the Panama Canal was built. My wife (the first lady of fishing) prefers short-handled spinning rods she can reel while keeping the rod butt near her hip. All six of her rods were in the states. Luckily, I had such a rod…from the hardware store. Bonus.
It wasn’t our first trip with a guide in Gatun. We tried to keep costs low, resulting in trips spanning the gamut of expertise and equipment from a fat dude with a ratty old aluminum Jon boat and no rods, to two locals in an old deck boat, up to the guide on our last trip. He had a YouTube channel, tackle sponsors, a SeaDek covered bay boat and matching Quantum outfits. Great guy, but he spent more time fishing from the bow than anything else. Since all his rods were spooled with braid and my wife hates that, we went with what we had. I tied a red and silver Monte’s bucktail on the hardware store rod and my wife caught the best Peacock bass of the day.
My point in all this is sometimes you don’t have the rigged-out flats boat or the custom surf rod with fat tire beach cart, chest waders and solar powered bait bucket. Sometimes it’s some dead shrimp in a plastic bag in your pocket and a 30” kids pushbutton spincast rod. Maybe it’s a tired old boat rod with nylon Penn conventional reel, or a casting rod so old there is no ceramic in the eyelets. You’d like to have a brand-new St Croix or G. Loomis rod with a Stella or Saragosa on it, but you have an Angler rod with a Piscifun Chinese reel you bought off Amazon. So what? That setup catches fish too. Handlines work. Cane poles work. $12 telescopic rods work. The Popeil Pocket fisherman that looked like an electric knife worked. Get after it.
I once caught a twenty-seven-inch redfish on a four-foot kids rod with the handle and reel seat shaped to look like Donald Duck. I caught more bass in officer club golf course lakes with a Johnson “cast a country mile” combo than I ever will with anything else. I caught a fish with a handline off the front deck of a cruise ship. I caught a triggerfish with a floating plastic laundry basket. I caught jacks by putting French fries on the hook. I caught bluefish with tin foil wrapped around a hook. I’ve even caught fish with a twister mat. Long story.
Like I said. Go with what you have. See you out there!