There's no better time than the present to plan your escape to an amazing destination. Beckey and I took this trip mid November with accommodations booked at Gone Fishing Panama Resort. One week at this top notch five star resort, with friendly staff, great food, wonderful scenery, exotic plants and animals will last you a lifetime..
Fishing with Captain Bruce and his 1st mate Joe was a dream come true for all fishermen.
Becky and I highly recommend this vacation for anyone who wants to enjoy the peace, the beauty and worry free accommodations of this resort
and great fishing! Leaving this fabulous place and staff was hard to do and can't wait to return. All vacationers need their hospitality at least once.....

I first went to Gone Fishing in June 2008. I have been there 6 times since for a total of almost 3 months. I have fished most of the Caribbean and many places in the world. I agree with everyone on 1) how well appointed the accomdations are 2) how friendly the staff is and 3) the excellent meals. I am just amazed that some have not caught fish. We had one day in which we caught 28 yellowfin tuna. Another day we had a mixed bag with 16 wahoo. ---- 2 over 60 pounds! One day we did well on dorado so Bruce let my son deep water spearfish. My 14 year old son speared dorado!

Just like any other fishery, there are going to be days you don't do that well fishing. But, it has not happended to me yet.

The lodge is a wonderful place. Rooms are very nice and built in a wonderful setting. Dana is very nice and the staff make wonderful meals for you. Be aware that there is nothing else around you in Boca Chica and you must buy all food and drink from the lodge. However, the price is reasonable. If you goal is fishing, however, I would not come here. Greg is not a very good guide. Besides not being very friendly, he does not really know what he is doing out there. The area is set up to be a wonderful fishery, however, Greg is more content to try one area and leave the guest frustrated and without fish. FISHING IS NOT A GOOD EXPERIENCE.
All in all, it is a wonderful resort with lots of opportunity, unfortunately the fishing service is one of the worst I have experienced. If you are only looking for a nice resort, this is not a bad one. It's a little out of the way, but a great setting once you make it.

Living in Florida and being avid fishermen (wives included), we were very excited about the world-renowned big-game fishing available in the waters around Panama. As part of an extended trip to Panama, we booked a 5 night stay with 3 days of fishing at the GFPR after researching and comparison.

Two other couples from home joined us for the week at GFP. Our trip had been planned for about 6 months and we kept an eye on the GFP resort website and regular communication with the owner, Donna. The photos of the resort, boat and fishing results helped to increase our enthusiasm about the trip. Donna picked us up at the airport in David and we on our way to the small town of Boca Chica. (If you blink, you will miss it!) The resort and property are situated perfectly, overlooking the lagoon with beautiful views all around. The main part of the resort (kitchen, indoor seating, outdoor dining and bar ) are all beautifully appointed with teak being the prominant wood. The infinity-edge pool was a regular after-fishing meeting spot. Each room has a theme and is tastefully decorated with large bathrooms ensuite. It is definitely worth the few extra dollars to book a deluxe room which are a little bit larger and have hammocks on the balcony overlooking the pool and lagoon. The staff (Lupe, Ares, Uri, Felix and Louis) are fantastic! They are constantly smiling and eager to help in any way they can. Lupe is an amazing cook and went above and beyond to fix dishes that would give us a taste of Panama! Ares is a hoot and great behind the bar. Not everyone is fluent in English (nor were most of our group in Spanish), but we did just fine. Needless to say, we ate very well! All the meals were prepared fresh and plentiful! The pictures of the resort on the website are true-to-life. We met some interesting people that would come to GFPR for a cocktail or meal in addition to a few others who were staying there.

After our first day of fishing (where we did catch 3 dorado), we quickly realized that Bruce, the Captain, did not appear to be as interested in or as excited about fishing as we were. The boat is the one on their website, but the tower has been removed. The livewell is inoperable and therefore cannot keep live bait so you are only able to fish with lures and cut bait. The fuel gauges are broken. In addition, the front seat had a huge split where water stayed and anytime you sat on it, you ended up with a wet butt. The equipment (lures, reels, etc.) does not appear to be maintained on a regular basis as we had problems with a couple of the reels and we lost numerous fish. He failed to do any kind of safety review before leaving the dock. Our day dedicated to marlin fishing was a bust . We got several hits, but ended up loosing all the line on one reel, and several lures to what was probably a very large marlin.

If you are a non-smoker, this is not the place for you. The Captain and Donna's son, Cedar are 2-3 pack-a-day smokers and don't care who is around or where they are when they light up (outdoor dining, indoor seating, bar, boat and even the car).

As mentioned above, it was really the attitude and interactions with the staff that made our stay enjoyable.