My friend, Jay, and I decided to get out of the Seattle gloom, even though this winter wasn't too gloomy, and head to Mexico for some sun and bonefish. This was my first trip to the tropics and Jay's first trip to the Yucatan. We flew into Cancun and then shuttled down to our lodge, Pesca Maya, just north of the small village of Punta Nicchehabin (Punta Allen). The road is long and grueling but at least the Boca Pailla bridge had been repaired, I was expecting a bridge out of Indiana Jones but instead found a nice, new wooden bridge.
Pesca Maya was right on the beach with the ocean outside our door. In 'back' of the lodge was the lagoon where we launched boats from. The host, Brian, is an ex-pat Brit who used to be in the music business, he was always full of stories and jokes. Other guests included a group of five Brits, all ex-military, and three Belgians.
Here I am at our cabana on the beach and below is a photo of the main lodge hut where we had dinner and cervezas.
Our capitan was Pancho and part of the time we had an assistant guide, Enrique. Here is Jay in Pancho's panga with the guides getting ready to head out for the day. Below is a shot of the dock which was deteriorating daily but finally broke into pieces when one of the British guests was getting out of his boat, luckily the resident crocodile wasn't about when the accident happened.
We fished the first two on the south side of the Bay, crossing to the Tres Marias and Laguna Santa Maria areas. We found bonefish a plenty but, especially on the second day, they were very spooky and were running when clouds came over. That first day we saw the Grand Slam - bonefish, tarpon, and permit but only caught bones. The tarpon were outrunning the boat and the permit we spotted would spook before we'd ever get close enough to cast.
On the third day we fished tarpon on the outside of Punta Allen with no luck but hit into jacks and ended up spending a good portion of the day fishing for what were basically saltwater panfish. We caught many fish that day - 8 species in all. We caught bonefish, barracuda, three kinds of jacks, Spanish Mackerel, Mangrove Snapper, and a grouper.
The fourth and fifth day we fished closer to the lodge in Laguna Paradisio and another large lagoon that attaches at high tide. Here I am with one of my first 'real' flats bones and a photo of the biggest bonefish I got for the week:
We spent time out at the reef looking for larger fish also instead of just targeting bones. On the last day we spent half the day on the reef and I got 8 barracuda and a couple of jacks. Below I'm casting on the reef, one of my big cudas, and the biggest jack of the trip which put quite the bend in my 9-weight.
Here is Jay and Pancho with the big fish of the trip, a cuda taken near the outer reef after he announced he would soon catch the largest fish.
Here we are at the end of the day, I'm coming off the dock and the next picture is me, Jay, and Brian the owner hanging at the lodge.
