Tomorrow I'm heading off to Panama's Las Perlas Islands and the island of San Jose for our next session of Marlin University. This trip represents a first for us; we've never hosted a trip to Panama before, and I have to say I'm excited to get back there once again. Although I'm a little worried that we might run into a bunch of rain, my good friend Trevor Cockle got us to come down during the month of August since he's experienced some good blue bites during that time before.

Even though I've been to the Tropic Star Lodge a couple of times (and had a tremendous time - it's definitely a place that every fisherman should try to visit at least once!), I'm looking forward to fishing a new spot. After taking a quick look at our accommodations online at the Hacienda Del Mar (www.haciendadelmar.net), I'm probably not going to want to come back home. San Jose is a private island, and the only thing on it is the resort.

The fishing takes place a little farther offshore during the summer months, so we'll probably be running 30 or 40 miles each day to get to blue water. But if we can find it, then the fishing should be worth the effort. We're going to get to show the students some live-baiting as well as the incomparable Panama strip bait - so this trip should be an exciting one. We have four boats for this event, so I'll get to enjoy some more time with Charles Perry, Walker Holcomb and Capt. Peter B. Wright. Four boats means four good instructors, so our students will leave with an earful, probably not all gems, but a lot of information nevertheless. This marks our last Marin U for 2009, so thanks to all of you who might have joined us this past year! And if you haven't made it to a Marlin U, try to get out with us in 2010. We usually have a ball!