Even the little guys hit with abandon. A chugging topwater attracted this peacock bass.

It’s pretty easy to lose count of the fish landed here,” Fidel Reyes said as he reared back on another peacock bass. “This sargento is a little bigger. No, maybe not.”

He was right about the difficulty of keeping track of these aggressive peacock bass or “sargentos,” as locals call them, from Panama’s Lake Gatun. The fish that the Gamboa Rainforest Resort’s General Manager had just pulled in did resemble many we had already caught and released. Our guide Jose “Puma” Rodriquez was kept mighty busy grabbing new bait from our boat’s livewell. We had already landed over 50 peacocks during our 3-hour trip on this scenic lake, part of the Panama Canal.

The word “Panama” means abundance of fish and that’s certainly true on Gatun. Peacock bass were seemingly everywhere and always hungry. On almost every cast with a live “sardine” minnow, a peacock would slam the bait. Reyes seemed glad to have taken a few hours off from running the resort on the Chagres River just off the Canal. We had both caught several doubles, and every fish was aerobatic.

We explored several nice areas around Barro Colorado Island and every spot held numerous fish. Only the size and corresponding strength of their fight varied. Artificials worked as well; they often catch larger fish, but can be slightly less productive than the small minnows. Topwater, minnowbaits and even small spinnerbaits are effective here.

Rodriquez, who has been guiding on the lake for 27 years, the last six out of this resort, couldn’t even keep track of our tally. He did note that we exceeded the average catch of 25 fish per angler in a six-hour trip. It’s not unusual for a boat to catch even more sargentos than we did—and bigger ones.

Blue morphos butterfly.

“Some anglers boat 80 peacocks in a day, and many are in the 3- to 5-pound range,” he says. “The largest peacock ever taken from our marina was 12 pounds and the big fish in last spring’s tournament was a 9-pounder.”

It’s usually easier to catch bigger fish in the rainy season when water in the lake is higher and cooler. The season’s high point usually happens at the end of October, when waters reach the base of shoreline trees. During dry season, peacocks move out deeper to hang out in cooler water.

The water level of Gatun, the third largest manmade impoundment in the world, is maintained by the Canal authority and when it approaches four feet, they open the locks and drain some if rain appears imminent. As a result, the Chagres River, the main tributary entering the lake, is known as the only river in the world that flows into two oceans. There is a 26-foot difference between the lake and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on each end of the Canal.

While this lake is considered a peacock bass fishery, a little secret is that snook are plentiful in the deeper channels running through the lake and along the Canal. In fact snook are common in the lake, particularly during higher water in October and November. The lake record is a 32-pounder and during the last major tournament in March, the largest snook weighed in was a 27-pounder. In that tournament, which had categories for peacock bass, snook, tarpon and the grand slam (all three), one guy landed six snook.

“In the high waters, there is less dredging of the canal (which is ongoing throughout the year),” says Reyes. “As a result, the water is clearer and not as turbid. Snook can see the lures easier.”

Coming off after fishing, at one of the waterfalls on a Chagres River tributary.

I had to try out the snook action for myself. Reyes and I set out two large Rapalas and trolled along a channel running through the lake. The bait moved maybe 200 feet before my rodtip jerked down; a 5- or 6-pound snook took to the air. Reyes and our guide chuckled. Snook here average about 10 to 13 pounds, according to Rodriquez, so mine was a baby.