Better late than never........
Despite all the hassle with the ash cloud, flights returned to normal two days before I was due to fly and we got there. Long flight to Cancun follwed by a fairly serious drive from cancun airport down to Punta Allen along what is little more than a dirt track down the peninsula.
On arriving at the lodge we were greeted by the owner and, given beer and pointed in the direction of the local bars which were superb, local beer is cheap, about $2.
Main Street in Punta Allen
Bad picture of the lodge
View from upper terrace of the lodge
Rooms were airconditioned thankfully, some days it was approaching 30 degrees at breakfast time. Got no useful pictures of the rooms really but, I did get a shot of the most important fixture.
As for the fishing, species avaialble were Bonefish, Tarpon, Snook, Barracuda, Permit, Shark, Snapper and a few other small things that I'm still not sure about. Fishing was two anglers to a boat with two guides. We fished both from the boat and whilst wading on the flats. By the end of the first day and when conditions were good (which for fishing the flats is bright sunshine) fish were fairly easy to see and even easier to spook. The bones were not huge but still good fun, we had excellent numbers of fish each day with the largest about 3lb which was great fun on a 9' 6wt trout rod
Was tricky at first not to set the hook by lifting the rod, most of the first morning saw us both shouted at constantly by the guides for "trout setting", once we managed to overcome this, the bones were not that difficult to catch. Although the water is crystal clear most of the time, the eyes of the guides are invaluble, particularly in the first few days, they can recognise shapes on the bottom and identify them as fish before the untrained eye even notices a dark spot on the sea bed.
Permit fishing was interesting, most of this is done wading as it is not possible to manouvre the boat quickly or stealthily enough. I had a rod set up ready to go for permit at all times, every so often whilst the guides were polling the boat, I'd get screamed at to get out of the boat, this meant they'd seen permit. The guides are very serious about permit, there is some serious competition between the guides as to how many permit they have got for their clients. So it goes without saying that when I managed to get broken by one about 30lb and tried to trout set another about 20lb, I got my arse well & truly verbally kicked!!
Wading for Permit
The only permit I managed was about 1lb and possibly not even a true permit!!
For me, the most exciting fish was barracuda. We cast at these from the boat as they would randomly appear when polling about the flats looking for bonefish & permit. On the flats these fish move at a speed that I did not think possible. I hooked a fish estimated by the guides at about 25lb about 20' from the boat, as soon as the hook was set and I had lifted the rod I could not even see the end of the flyline, the fish jumped a few seconds later and it must have been at least 60 yards from the boat, very cool fish.
Last few seconds of the fight
Of the other species we caught, the coolest had to be a lemon shark, approximately 4'6" - 5" long, one on fly and another caught with half a snapper whipped to a tarpon fly. Technique for this is to pull about 40' of line through the tip of the rod and simply throw the fly / bait towards a cruising shark.
One of the shark, sorry about the dead fish pic but the guide wanted to take the shark as food for his family which I thought was fair enough. Photographing it whilst still alive was not really an option, it was just a bit pissed off when we got it played out and to the boat.
Few more pics....
wading for bones
One of Alastair and stood in the boat
Fly caught mullet, bread assisted!!
Our guides for the week Elmer & Tarantula, super guys.
The guides & lodge staff could not have been better, very friendly & helpful. The lodge was superb, clean well fitted out but not OTT, similar story with the food, basic but good quality and plenty of it.
Will be looking to go back next year, probably late May as at that time of year it is possible to catch Dorado, sailfish & tuna out on the reef too.
Superb trip.
Cheers
Ben