Got back last night from the
Cancun->LA->Seattle flight finishing up a 7-day trip. We
stayed at Pesca Maya just north of Punta Allen and about 4 hours south of
Cancun. I'll spare you the travel details but let's just say that they
can have Cancun, we spent a LOT of time waiting around for ground
transportation, and the road beyond the Boca Pailla bridge sucks. The
once scary bridge has been replaced, I was looking forward to seeing the
semi-falling apart bridge myself.
Pesca Maya is right on the beach one point north of
the village of Punta Allen. The owner, Brian, is Yorkie who has been in
Mexico for 25 years and part-owner of Pesca Maya for 8, he's a good host and
always ready with a joke or good story. The rest of the crew are local
Mayans, the food is great, the cerveza free, and all in all it was a good
place to stay. We spent the week with 5 Brits who were very
proper, like Jay said it was like being in Gosford Park or something.
Part of the week we also had a few Belgians there and two Swedes from a
magazine showed up for one day. Very international crowd but a fun group
overall.
Fishing Summary
The bonefish were turned off when we got there, it
had been cold. Things improved as the week went on though, should have
had the last day been the middle of the trip but that's the way it always
goes. Lots of alternatives though, you can find small jacks on deeper
flats, go for tarpon, cruise all day for permit, or go to the reef (or out of
the reef) and catch really big fish. We got 10 different species in 5
days fishing, got decent bones, and got a few big cuda and one big jack.
We saw tarpon but never got one, we saw permit but never even got a decent
cast off to them.
Fishing Details
Day 1 - The
first task was to get me my first bonefish. We set out across the laguna
to a shore flat where we saw a few permit that never came close enough to get
a good cast too but no bones. We then headed across Ascension Bay which
is a haul, to the Tres Marias area. We dropped Jay off and headed into
the end of the flat where I went with the guide. Within a half-hour I
got my first bonefish fishing the edges of a school that was running up and
down the channel. He gave me a few good runs, we had no camera to
photograph the moment, and I let him go. Mission accomplished. I
got one more fish out of a small group and cast to several tailers that all
spooked apparently for any and no reason at all.
We then went to a small flat close by where we cast
from the boat a while, again the fish were very spooky. Jay got one to
take and missed him. At the edges of the flat we found mudding fish and
did fish the easy way for a while, landing about 8 fish in a short time,
having doubles at times. All these were on olive flies I
think.
We took off since that was like catching fish in a
stock pond and went looking for tarpon. We hit some mangroves first
where Jay got a nice bone on a 1/0 white tarpon fly. We then found
a school of big ones but we just couldn't ever get ahead of them, they seemed
to always be 100 yards away from us.
Day 2 - We
went back to the tarpon spot only to find 3 boats working it already, the word
had gotten out. We went back to Tres Marias and fished for bones but
found the fishing very difficult. There was a ton of wind and clouds so
spotting fish was hard and the fish were spooking when clouds went over.
We managed to each get one bonefish that morning and then gave up on them.
We went in search of barracuda for a while and, of
course, ran into more permit right by the boat and no permit rod rigged
up. We got a few small cuda and then went to the reef where I got a few
other small ones and a small jack. I finally hooked into a big one that
jumped once then everything went dead, my fly line had broke or been slashed
right in the middle of the belly.
Day 3 -
We were tired of crossing the bay since our butts were sore so we decided to
stay closer to home. We went around Punta Allen and fished for tarpon
along the mangroves north of the village. We found a few baby tarpon but
couldn't get a hit from them. Then we started catching small jacks and
cuda an the tarpon fly in a deep flat. We headed back to the reef
and cast poppers for big jacks and had one big one come up but not take and a
few strikes from smaller fish. Jay finally got a small grouper in on a
streamer. By then it was lunch time so we went in to an island for
lunch, set anchor to watch sea turtles and found a school of jacks running
about.
The next hour was a riot, I felt like a kid in a
bluegill pond. We were catching Amberjacks, Yellow Tail jacks, Spanish
Mackerel, and bonefish in this spot. Jay got a bone right under the boat
with a fly just sitting one the bottom. I was casting a chartruese/white
Clousers and just kept catching fish after fish while Jay got them on
gurglers.
We headed back into the mangroves for tarpon after
lunch and instead hooked some Mangrove Snappers there. Coming back in we
hit a mud looking for bones but instead hooked more jacks, some of them yet
another species of jack. We ended up with 8 different species for
the day.
Day 4 - We
finally found the close by bonefish flats today and spent the whole day wading
them for still skittish bones but they were getting more willing. We
found a lot of singles and doubles tailing about or just milling about. I saw
three permit but they never got close enough to drop a fly to. This was
great fishing, challenging but fun. I hooked three that day, all big and
in 4-5" of water and Jay hooked about 4. We each landed one of the fish
we hooked, mine was the biggest I'd caught to date, about 16-17".
We got a few cuda in the mix too, small ones that you could land on a bonefish
fly. Light numbers but very satisfying.
Day 5 - This
was our last day so we split between wading the flats for bones and looking
for that elusive big fish. In the morning we hit the flats and the bones
were showing more interest, more follows, a bit less spooky. I finally
hooked a big one coming out of a channel between the big lagoon and a small
flat surrounded by mangroves. This was a good fish, he ran out the
channel to the mangrove side of course and gave me 5 pretty scary runs, some
stopping inches from the mangrove clumps. Finally I landed a 18-19"
bone, the best of the trip for me. Jay got one also though he hooked
many more.
We put away the 7-weights and rigged up the big
rods for the reef after lunch. We cast poppers a bit to no avail then I
stuck on a chartreuse/white Popovich and we trolled a bit. For the next
few hours I couldn't keep fish off the fly. I got a few small
cuda, a few 1m sized cuda, a 12lbs. jack and a 5 lbs. jack all on the
same fly. My arm was sore. The big jack put up the best fight, I
was difinately watching the backing go away and waiting to see spool on the
reel but he stopped just in time. We headed out of the inner reef into
blue water and to the outer/lower area of reef where Jay announced he would
soon catch the biggest fish which he then proceeded to do, getting a cuda that
was over 1m in length on the same streamer I'd been using.
That was it, then we had to run back to the dock,
pack, and head out by ponga to the Boca Pailla bridge where we were to meet
our driver for a ride back ot Cancun. Instead we got dropped off at dusk
by the bridge in a mangrove swamp and no driver was to be found, we were
greated by swarms of no-see-ums and mosquitos. Luckily there were two
guys from Utah camping there with pontoon boats so we waited with them about
an hour before the driver finally showed up. We really weren't sure if
we were going to have to camp on the beach that night or what.
Overall a good trip, I got my first bones, a decent
bone the right way, and my first big saltwater fish that wasn't a
salmon. I will definitely be heading back to the tropics.
Flys that Worked
Bonefish -
got a lot of them the first 2 days on olive flies. My favorite was an
olive Charlie that I made using the olive crystal flash for tail, a body of
olive thread covered with Swanandaze, and a wind of olive craft fur and
crystal flash. I also got them on an Olive Mini-Shrimp with plastic eyes
that first few days if the fish were shallow. After that lighter flies
began working, got them on Gotchas, a Hot Tail Bunny Gotcha, a white Charlie
with grizzly wings and a Chico Fernandez flie. I got one nice one to
take a big orange shrimp that the guide had tied. Most my flies were
#6-#8. Jay got one bone on a 1/0 white tarpon fly, go figure.
Jacks - small
jacks we got on the 1/0 white tarpon fly, gurglers, small poppers, and the
best fly for me was my chartruese/white Clouser that I use for cutts
here. I also got Spanish Mackerel on the Clousers. Big jacks were
taken on a chartruese/white Popovich streamer.
Cuda - I got
them on everything, the called by Cuda Tim. Big ones on the Popovich and
Jay's big green needlefish fly that was very simple. I landed several on
Charlies fishing for bones, on a Black Death, on the white tarpon fly,
etc� If there was a cuda around I caught it.
Equipment
7-weight was perfect for bonefish, we both had 790
RPLXi's. I had a 9-weight and a 10-weight too usually rigged for
permit/tarpon or for cuda/jacks. Jay was using a 8 and 10 instead.
Three rods per person is about ideal, you could get by with two. Take
extra everything, I had a line break and so did one of the Belgians who also
broke a rod.
