|
#10 beach popper, DISGUISED as Bonefish
bitter.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:37
PM
Subject: Re: Pesca Maya report
Hey guys! My best fly was a small #10 Pop's Bonefish
Bitter.
Leland.
--
Harper Studios & EcoStock
Photography
312 South Lucile Street
Seattle, Washington 98108
Web
Site: www.ecostock.com
Harper
Studios: 206.764.1775
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
EcoStock:
206.764.4893/1.800.563.5485
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: "Tim Harris"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization:
DharmaWorks
Reply-To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 15:27:40
-0800
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject:
RE: Pesca Maya report
We had high wind the second
day so crossing the bay was a ton of bouncing on the seats in the ponga,
pretty hard on the posterior especially after bouncing in the van for 90
minutes on the road a few days before. The Bay is a one hour crossing
in fairly calm water so you can imagine in a 2-3' chop with whitecaps.
I tried a
Clousers for bones once, no hits on it though. I think Jay got one
about the same size as my big one. Most fish are small there, about
14" seemed the average, maybe a bit smaller. The small Jacks were like
really big southern panfish, 12-13" long and just about as broad. Out
on the reef you could find BIG ones though, one guy landed one that was 20
lbs. probably.
Tim
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
On Behalf Of Richard Embry
Sent: Tuesday, February 11,
2003 12:46 PM
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Pesca Maya report
"We were tired of crossing the bay since our
butts were sore so we decided to stay closer to home."
What the heck does that mean?!?
Out of curiousity, did you cast any chartreuse/white clousers
at the bonefish? It sounds like the 18-19" bonefish was your largest
fish; how about Jay? What was the average size of the bonefish?
What was the average size of the jacks?
My wife says we're heading to the Yucatan in April some time,
and I'm scheming on places to go, fishies to catch,
etc.
Thanks!
Richard
----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Harris
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11,
2003 7:45 AM
Subject: Pesca Maya report
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, etcŠ 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.
|
