----- Original Message -----
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, 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.
