Thoughts on Permit Fishing, Etc.
- This topic has 31 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated Mar 13, 2009 at 2:02 am by
.
-
Posts
-
Hey people –
As most of you know, I just got back from sunny Mexico. Had a long week: flew out to Oakley’s factory/headquarters in California and from there to Cancun. Three rambly hours via van later, we squeaked onto the sand at Pesca Maya lodge, on the northern end of Ascension Bay. On the return trip, I detoured through Cincinnati to speak to the Buckeye United Fly Fishers club (a very nice outfit, let me tell you).
First off, before I talk about the fishing, how many of you had any idea that Oakley makes all its sunglasses in California? I didn’t – to me, one of the biggest advertising headscratchers I’ve ever seen. I won’t comment on all the tests we saw except to say that I’m fully convinced that Oakley’s polarized shades are as nice as anybody’s (of course, I knew that before I went). I just wish they made some more conservative styles for those of us who are not perpetually Beyond Thunderdome. 🙂
Pesca Maya got whacked by a hurricane last season so large sections of the property were under reconstruction. The beaches were littered with debris except right in front of the lodge, where they have cleaned the sand. I picked up a throwaway dive camera that must have been carried there by the prevailing wind and current – I plan to get the film developed to see if there’s anyone identifiable on it (if there is, we’ll try to locate them through Photography Bay, maybe).
The PM guides were mostly of Mayan-Mexican extraction. They guide on a two-guide system with one man on the tower and the other in the prow; the more experienced guide usually poles unless his assistant is about to graduate to full guide. I had three separate pairs who all followed different inklings about finding fish.
On the first day, I fished with Isaias (Eee-sah-ee-us) and his assistant, a 17-year-old (hypothetically: these folks are awfully short and I had a feeling he was lying to get into the military, so to speak). Isaias was an excellent walk-wade flats guide who put us onto the biggest bonefish I saw on the trip. We hiked a good two miles through sucking muck and had a number of shots at tailing bones. There were a couple problems, though: first, the wind was howling at around 15-20mph, limiting my range to under 50 feet (at best, with many casts getting whacked even shorter). Since we were chasing the bones from behind, we had to wade and cast into the wind. The bones were acting unusually spooky for down there and we were pushing them out at around 60-70 feet, meaning we saw a lot of bonefish skeedaddling.
The other problem was that my Rio Bonefish line (an excellent boat deck line) has a mono core. The running line component just wouldn’t stay afloat around my ankles, so it was perpetually being shot out of the muck. Rio needs to specify that this is a flats-boat line and not a walk-wade line (for that purpose, use one of their Clousers or a different brand with a fatter running line).
At any rate, we ended up landing a three pound bone, which is my personal largest (not saying much – I’ve only been bonefishing on one other trip). Unfortunately, he shook off the leader at our feet when we were holding him for the camera, so I didn’t get pictures. I did get shots of Geoff Mueller’s nice bonefish later in the day. That was it for Day One – not a great showing by me but sight fishing to cruising bones while wading is a spotty proposition. I still could have done better.
We did try for tarpon at one point, in which I followed the young recruit into a mangrove swamp. He waded barefoot over macheted mangrove stick-ups (which were quite sharp: their feet are hard as horn down there). When we got to the pool with the tarpon, they were indeed rolling in the middle (3-5 lbs.: very small). The cast required a tight roll cast into a small window, which I made three or four times before finally hooking a stick on the bottom (inevitable). I took a step onto the wet muck to get an angle on the fly, and immediately plunged to my waist into straight-up quicksand. Weird feeling–land crabs scuttling over your chest while you toss out your gear and pry yourself out by the mangrove roots. Thank god it wasn’t deeper.
On the second day, I insisted on trying for permit. The other groups had actually landed seven permit on the first day (there were 22 fishermen on the trip). We didn’t even see one due to the tactics we adopted. Unfortunately, conditions changed a lot from the first day to the second. The 20 mph wind became a 20-30mph consistent blow that was cutting whitecaps off the water. Day Two Guides Manuel and Reuben had put Tom Bie on a 25 lb. permit on Day One (sweet fish, great job by Tom – it wasn’t easy even on Day One). I had high hopes and fished with Justin, who had been in Kamchatka and will be seen on Travis Rummel and Ben Knight’s Eastern Rises flick when it is released. Justin is a good dude who caught his first bonefish with me.
Manuel and Reuben could show us the fish but with the wind up, we couldn’t see many that were far enough out not to be spooking off the boat. Between Justin and me, we may have seen one or two legitimate shots that an experienced permit angler could have made, but each was about a 10% likely chance. Otherwise, we simply saw many permit leaving the area. At one point, we did float over one of their blue holes–caves on the flats that drop straight down to unknowable depths. This was right by the Boca Paila bridge. As the prow of the panga cleared the rim, I looked straight down at 8-10 permit cruising in circles at depth. They weren’t really fly-catchable but they were sure neat to see.
On Day Three I fished with my two favorite guides from the trip, Nestor (a Mayan) and Freddy (his buddy). Nestor and Freddy motored us all the way across Ascension Bay to the south side, a wet trip. We picked up a half dozen bonefish mudding on the flats, as well as a little snapper. My number has always been seven when it comes to catching fish with the same tactics on the same spot. On the third bonefish, I told Nestor we’d bail at seven fish and we did exactly that. The flats on the south side of that bay are broader, whiter, and prettier than on the north end near the lodge. We again went looking for permit, seeing none, while my partner Steve from Bob Mariott’s fly shop did some walk-wade bonefishing, his passion.
After lunch, I asked to see some tarpon again. This time we actually laid down flat in the panga and hand-over-hand dragged it into the eye of a mangrove lagoon, where a small pond held three 25-30 lb. tarpon. We basically spooked the fish as soon as we came into the pond, as they were holding at the entrance, but it was awesome to see them and cast to them (interestingly, each guide chose Fly Slama Jama when looking for tarpon – I am going to have to send some of those to some tarpon fishing friends).
Zach I brought one that looked to be pretty heavy to the boat trailing my toad on our Keys trip last June. We saw him way out and I was able to make the cast in 15 to 20mph winds. The rod was a Loomis GLX 9’ 1 piece 12 wt and it was a casting machine. Casting in those conditions sucks but you get used to it after awhile. Having someone who realizes that they need to try to keep the wind over your left shoulder (if you’re a righty) is critical.
I am forever haunted by that scene that plays over and over in my head each time I see some white flats and blue water. God I love that place!
That’s true Mike; neither of us are casting slouches, but winds that hard take a different sort of cast than the one we’re used to making.
I’ll never forget learning how to cast in the wind from the back of a 23′ center console that wasn’t meant for fly fishing, (stuff to tangle fly line EVERYWHERE). On top of that I was with a conventional fisherman running the boat who had no idea how difficult it was to do what I was doing in rough water in an open bay. His solution was, “why don’t you just use a spinning rod”. I got so mad the first few days but finally I settled down and it just clicked. The integrated shooting head lines helped a lot on that trip. Later on I was doing well with the fly and the conventional guy ended up tying flies that he could throw on a spinning rod…. More then once I asked why don’t you just use a fly rod? 😛
So, while I was walking the beach behind the lodge one evening, I stumbled onto a washed up disposable dive camera. I grabbed it and seeing that it had a few exposures left on it, I squeezed some off. I was dearly hoping that the film, when developed, would have identifiable people on it, so I could try to find out where the camera came from. Alas, the person who owned and lost it covered the lens with his or her finger for almost every frame.
I still got some interesting shots. Since these would never ever be published, I think I can throw them up here – a bit of a lomographic view of Pesca Maya, if you will. You may see a familiar face or two. All I can guess at here is that this camera might have come from further up the beach in Tulum, further down the beach in Punta Allen, or even from across the Bay as far away as Cozumel. The beach was utterly littered with tourist debris, like single sandals. And cameras.
Zach
zach is such a travel tease.
out of curiosity, could you post a pic of what the camera looked like? i’m either picturing a kodak disposable or some high end david doublet camera.
did you record a podcast while down there?
:jealous
No, I recorded some down there but I didn’t have anything eventful enough happen to make a good podcast.
Make sure to let us know when and where the photos you took on the trip get posted…Sounds like you had a blast down there…I envy the warmth, although the northeast is finally starting to thaw out, I hope.
Since Zach can’t post any of his shots, here’s a few from my day trip down there on monday.
Short story… same gale force winds that zach had, managed to pick up about a half dozen small to medium bones (saw a ton though), but no permit or tarpon (can’t say we really targeted thse either, though). This is the second time i’ve done the pesca maya day trip, and while fun, i was hoping for at least one fish in the 3-5 lb range. But with the sigting conditions – rough, and intermittent sunshine – maybe it wasn’t even feasible to go after those bigger fish.
Zach.. you need to pass along some tips on casting in that wind!! I usually think i can hold my own iwth casting, but wow, was that tough. Downwind wasn’t so bad, i was finding my distance being limited by the amount of line i could backcast into the wind, given that i could shoot 30 feet or so on the forward cast. Accuracy was hard to, given you had to aim 20 feet left or right of the fish to compensate.
PS. what did you think about that gravel road?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.