| Ascension Bay Report - March 16, 2008
Went with a group of 8 friends from Denver to the Palometa Club last week. Very windy and overcast, but we still managed some good fishing.
Targeting strictly permit can be very tedious, and we were skunked the first day. Second day, we traveled into the mangrove system and caught a few tarpon up to 30 lbs. Interestingly, unlike past trips, everything seemed hungry. The tarpon gobbled a variety of flies and were not picky. At lunch, as out panga was pulled up to a mangrove island, 3 nice fish started to daisy chain not 15 feet from our boat. I threw in one cast and was quickly tight to a 30# fish. After it popped off boatside, I had an enormous cuda glide toward us. Unable to cast perpendicular to the boat, I did a roll cast off the stern and snagged an 8" needlefish in the back. Tried to get it off the hook, but the guide decided the action of the "live bait" fly looked much better. He tossed the needlefish to the 25# cuda, which promptly ate and then took off. Snapped this fish off, but then caught a slightly smaller one on a brown mushmouth.
The third day, the weather was only marginally better, but we found a nice school of permit early in the morning. Again, I was amazed to find the fish so hungry and hooked a small one by 9:00AM. My first fish of the day and the second of my life, came to the boat in just a few minutes.
We had a number of other shots during the day. Another nice school and a series of larger doubles and triples yielded a a 9# fish for my buddy (his first) and a second of the day for me. 4 years of trying for the first one and now two in a day. What an addictive sport.
Another highlight was when we stopped at Iguana Island for lunch. My bowels were troubling me, so I backed into the mangroves out of sight of the other pangas. After a successful aquadump, I was approached by an enormous barracuda that moved towards me threateningly. I quickly retired to the panga and retrieved my cuda rod and returned to where the cuda was hanging out. It was almost 5" wide and probably 45" long and very nasty looking. Unlike the other cudas that had been quick to eat the flies, this guy would not strike anything stripped right past his nose. I was still pissed about being stalked during the aquadump, so I decided to use a little trick that I developed for the super picky, well educated trout on the Green River. I cast just in front of the cuda and slowly retrieved the fly until it was just passing over the top of his head.....and then foul hooked the bastard in the cheek. The cuda immediately headed out and I unfortunately caught my hand in the flyline as I tried to get the fish on the reel. POP! Still was a nice set.
Great lodge with super guides and an easy drive from Cancun now that the road has been bladed all the way from Tulum.
Buena suerte,
T-Bro
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