Hi all,
I am home now and Tinypic has appeared so I can share with you my recent fishing day while on holiday in Mexico!
I managed to get a day pass from mission control to have a day fly fishing for bonefish in Ascension Bay.........although I did have the cost of a spa day including massage and manicure on top of my fishing cost.
The day started with being picked up at my Hotel in Riviera Maya at 6.30am, a 30 min bus drive took me and my new American fishing friends to the worst road I have ever seen, this leg of the journey lasted 45mins going at 5mph as this was as fast as you could go around and over the potholes, proper merry mixer stuff, the funny thing on this road was the speed bumps and 40km/hr speed limit signs!, welcome to Mexico!
The last leg of the journey to the Pesca Maya fishing lodge was by speedboat ride through the mangroves, this all felt very James Bond......this took around 30mins and during the trip we near hit two alligators, this was the first of many amazing wildlife encounters for the day.
After Breakfast I met with my guides Luis Mukul and Miguel Mukul who were brothers from the local area. I had decided before I went that I would like to target Bonefish with the fly rod. I was tackled up and issued with fly’s to suit, which were mainly pink gotchas and some local tied shrimp patterns using rabbit fur.
Of we went to try spotting bonefish, the trick here was to look for shadows on the sandy bottom, nervous water and tailing. Soon enough I spotted some movement of around 8 fish, I cast around 60yds and my fly landed with a splash and spooked the whole shoal. The conundrum that needed cracking here was, very shallow clear water with no ripple and spooky fish, long casts with gentle presentation. This was not going to be easy!
However on the third attempt I cracked it, fly landed nicely and I started stripping back quickly. I saw the fish chase for what seemed like forever and then take the fly. Next lesson learned, do not try hand lining a Bonefish like a Don Trout!, the line took of at such a speed it near cut my finger off!, these are mega powerful fish for their size. (note the sunscreen on the camera lense, doh!)
I landed another few fish from this area and then spotted a 20lb snook in the margins and decided to have a go at it. I changed my fly to a size 4 big woolly thing and cast at it, of course it spooked and was off like a bullit, 7wt size 4 hook cannot land like a size 16 on a 3wt!
Cloud appeared for the afternoon which meant the fish were really difficult to spot, apart from the Barracuda which were easy as you just looked for entire shoals of mullet clearing the water. Unfortunately we never had the tackle on the boat for one of these.
However during the afternoon I did see, wild dolphins, flying fish, a few permit, sea turtles and pink flamingos, this all added to the day and I was well pleased with my first time Bonefishing. I’ll be back again soon for more than just a day!
Steven
