Yellowfin Tuna in Panama's Pacific

Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) is one of the most sought after species in Panama's Pacific, and not for its subtlety. It is the fight that brings anglers back to it, season after season. Around Coiba you do not look for the fish, you look for the feed.

Reading a feed

Yellowfin is caught almost entirely on feeding schools, in the middle of fish tearing up the surface. The frenzies are loud and violent: the water starts to boil, seabirds circle above and drop into the middle of it. The birds come first. You usually see them before you see a single fish.

In the eastern tropical Pacific this pattern has been documented for decades. Yellowfin school with fish of similar size, associate regularly with dolphins, pantropical spotted and spinner in particular, and seabirds work those mixed aggregations whenever they push bait to the surface. That is what makes the fish visible from a distance, and it is also what made this region so costly for dolphins during the purse seine era.

Sessions start at first light, off Coiba. The feeds show up early. Nothing about it is quiet fishing: people shout, people laugh, someone calls it out across the boat the second it starts.

The fish

Yellowfin grows fast and lives short: mature at around two years, six to seven years of life, spawning year round in tropical water with peaks in spring and fall. Maximum published size is close to 2.4 m and 200 kg, roughly 7 ft 10 in and 440 lb. The IGFA all tackle world record stands at 443 pounds, about 201 kg, caught by Earl Gill IV off Mexico on 11 November 2024 and certified in 2025. It replaced Guy Yocom's 427 pounds, which had held since 2012.

The fish spends most of its time in the surface layer, above the thermocline. Tagging work shows that 90 percent of recorded depths sit above 88 metres at night and above 190 metres during the day, with far deeper excursions on occasion. It holds in water between 18 and 31 degrees Celsius.

The popper, and the size of the popper

On a feeding school, topwater is the most direct way to reach the fish. Lure size is not a detail. On one day of well established feeds, it took a couple of missed strikes and one pulled hook before anything worked: switching to a 21 centimetre popper changed everything. Same school, same retrieve. The volume of the lure made the difference.

What the calendars say

A note on method. The seasonal windows quoted for yellowfin in Panama come from the specialist press and from sportfishing fleets, not from published science. They agree with one another and they are worth knowing, but they remain aggregated field observation.

Those sources put the peak in the Gulf of Chiriqui between March and July, and the most comfortable popping window between April and early August, when the sea lies down and the bait is tightly packed. Fish are present year round, with less consistent conditions outside that period.

On the Caribbean side the question does not arise in the same terms: in Panama, yellowfin fishing happens on the Pacific coast.

Status and legal framework

Yellowfin tuna has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since the September 2021 reassessment. In the eastern Pacific, the Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission assessment concludes that the stock is neither overfished nor subject to overfishing.

In Panama, purse seine fishing for tuna is prohibited in jurisdictional waters by Executive Decree 239 of 2010. Law 44 of 26 July 2004 further creates an exclusion zone north of parallel 6°30', where purse seines for tuna are banned. Longline and permitted fisheries remain authorised, within the IATTC conventions to which the country is a party.

That same Law 44 of 2004 is the one that creates Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection, inscribed as World Heritage in 2005.

On the table

The meat is firm, bright red raw, in large flakes. The flavour is stronger than albacore and leaner than bluefin. Sashimi, grilled, or seared rare: all three hold up, and the fish does not need much done to it.

Frequently asked questions

When is the best time for yellowfin tuna in Panama?

Sportfishing calendars put the peak between March and July in the Gulf of Chiriqui, and the best popping window between April and early August. These are aggregated field observations, not scientific data. Fish are present year round.

How do you find a school of yellowfin?

By the birds, first. Seabirds dive on surface feeds, and in the eastern tropical Pacific yellowfin associate regularly with dolphins. A feed is seen from a distance long before it is heard.

How big do yellowfin tuna get?

Maximum published size is close to 2.4 m and 200 kg. The IGFA all tackle world record stands at 443 pounds, about 201 kg, certified in 2025.

Is yellowfin tuna an endangered species?

No. It has been listed as Least Concern by the IUCN since 2021, and the eastern Pacific stock is neither overfished nor subject to overfishing according to the IATTC assessment.

ELSE CODED coordinates private fishing expeditions off Panama's Pacific coast. Fishing expeditions · Start a conversation.