Ascension Bay - Days 3 - 6

March 8 - 11, 2017

OK, a really late catch up post, but the incompleteness was bothering me. Finishing out the week in Ascension Bay, we continued to have challenging weather (windy, cloudy), but still found a good number of fish, though it tended to be spotty, with most of the action coming in spurts.

Wednesday, I fished with Tom in Santa Rosa. True to form, within minutes Tom spotted the first bonefish without the help of the guide and promptly landed the first bonefish of the day.

Always kiss the fish

Proud catcher of bonefish

Then things slowed down. No more good opportunities for some time. Later in the morning, I hopped out with a guide to walk a lagoon, while Tom stayed in the boat to prowl the adjacent lagoon. After 30 to 45 minutes of not seeing a fish (but enjoying the warm water), we encountered a comedero (a.k.a., dining room). The water ahead was a little deeper and slightly turbid from the silt stirred up by the feeding bonefish (they stir up the mud to get at the shrimp), and though I could only see an occasional flash, the guide knew better and started directing me to cast ahead, to the side, at an angle. And nearly every other cast found a bonefish. I was fishing a fly of my own creation, and they loved it. They were nearly swallowing it, and the 11th fish did - completely! It could not even be seen, so we cut it off. Luckily, I had tied one more, and promptly tied it on and caught a few more before the cafeteria emptied.

Swallowing the fly

Nice bonefish

My own creation

Tom cast to a few in the other lagoon, but saw limited action. After lunch, we encountered a couple large Tarpon (3 to 4 ft?), which immediately distracted the guides. Tom had a number of opportunities casting to them as we followed them around the lagoon, and even a couple of strikes, but was unable to get a hook into one. The hour and a half in the comedero made my day today.

Thursday, I was back with Hollis, fishing in the south end of the bay. The morning was very difficult, windy with lots of broken clouds hampering visibility. In one of the lagoons, Hollis had a couple chances to cast to some fish, but barely given they were backhand casts into a strong, gusty wind. When I was up, we chased one school across and out of a lagoon, without a good casting opportunity. So things were pretty slow.

After lunch continued slow. The guides relocated and took to a submerged cenote (blue hole) where we again found little action. As we drifted along this inlet, we encountered another comedero. The guides really don't like fishing these, because it is more or less blind casting, but on a day with strong winds and poor lighting (and fisherman with limited abilities), they must have decided it was OK. We parked the boat and for a couple hours had fairly continuous action for small bonefish, lady fish, and jack crevalles. No size, but the action was great. Hollis had a great time and learned the tradition of kissing the fish.

Hollis in action

Pucker up!

On the way back, we stopped to see the frigate birds that swarm a couple small islands at Isla Culebra. They bring tourists here to see the birds, which only hang around the few small islands, not the big one.

Male frigate bird looking for some action

Frigate birds flocking the small islands

Tom and Rob spent the day in Santa Rosa, and had some good action for large bones. They will have to add more if they choose to share, but here is one nice one that Rob landed.

Friday, I was back with Tom. The weather was supposed to be pretty good, and we told the guides we wanted to go to the Blue Hole, a large cenote offshore where Rob in the past had caught a wide variety of fish including sharks. Instead, they took us to the middle of the bay looking for permit (to be fair, I'm sure they were locations where there were cenotes you couldn't see in the deeper water since they used their GPS to try several locations. But they played the I don't understand card when we tried to talk to them. Saw a shark, but not much else, and after an hour or two casting blind into the deeper water, we relocated to a lagoon in the south of the bay. Still less than ideal weather with clouds continually moving through and ruining the visibility by blocking the sun, we entered a lagoon with lots of huecos (holes) in the mud where bonefish had been feeding, but found the bonefish had pretty much left for other parts (something that makes bonefishing more of a hunt sometimes). I found a couple small schools while walking and caught a couple, Tom didn't find much of anything from the boat.

Tom poleing through the lagoon

Later in the afternoon, we made a quick trip into Santa Rosa, where we found a little more action. At the entrance to one lagoon we had some quick and wild action. One bonefish ran through some small mangroves, and the guide had to hop out and pull the line clear, after which the fish was landed. I had a nice big bone hit the fly dry as soon as it hit the water in front of it. And we found a few more to keep it interesting before heading home.

Nice size bonefish

Hunting bones

Saturday, I was again fishing with Tom as we fished our way up the inlet at the north of the bay to where we would meet the vehicles to take us to the airport. Finally, a clear day without wind, on the day we were leaving! That is fishing. We decided to go to the tarpon channels, where some of the guides had done well earlier in the week. These channels are narrow, shallow channels that wind their way through an expanse of mangroves, the size of a small creek back home. They slowly pole the boat (and sometimes pull the boat) up the channels, looking for the "baby" tarpon that feed here. Short, quick casts. The guides getting mad at you for casting in the mangroves, casting on top of the fish, not stripping fast enough, etc. But finally Tom was rewarded with a nice tarpon at a wide spot in one of the channels. A little later, I also hooked one "dry" in a part of the canal no wider than the boat. We were squeezed between mangroves, and my cast went over an overhanging branch above the water. Flipping the line to try and get it off caused the fly dangling at the surface of the water to dance around, which enticed one of the formerly uninterested tarpon to hit. I briefly fought the small tarpon at the front of the boat, thought about just lifting in up and in (it was literally at the boat) but was worried the guides would yell at me for not keeping my tip down towards the water (the way you fight tarpon). Before the guide could get up front, the fish was off. But exciting nonetheless. We left the channels and cast to some snook and bonefish before meeting the rest of the group at the vehicles. A nice end to a great week of fishing.

Fighting the tarpon

First tarpon