Fishing with the Merrill Boys: Two more four-letter words for when you are fishing

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Two more four-letter words for when you are fishing

Punta Allen, Mexico

One of the nice things about fishing in Mexico is you don't have to be looking over your shoulder and worrying about large mammals coming up behind you and making you their lunch. Just large reptiles, and they aren't quite as fast. Out on the flats while catching bonefish, Rick and Antonio, his guide, were watched by a crocodile from a distance. The croc was only about 5 ft long, but they grow to 15 feet. And the guides here say the same thing as the guides in Alaska about the bears - Oh, they are good crocs (bears), lots of fish to eat, so they don't worry about people.

The croc eyeing us while we were eyeing him

As for the fishing, we learned a new 4-letter word today to go along with "wind" - it is "nube", which means, cloud in Spanish. The wind makes it hard to cast and see in the water, the clouds blowing by and intermittently blocking the sun make it impossible to see into the water more than a few meters from the boat. Come to think of it, "croc" is also a 4-letter word that you would rather not use while fishing...

We spent the morning in the mangrove channels and lagoons looking for tarpon. Found several schools, but too far or moving the wrong direction. Rick had one good chance to hook a tarpon to complete his grand slam (permit, bonefish, and tarpon caught on the same trip), but when casting to a lone, cruising tarpon, the tarpon turned and crushed the fly on the surface. Seeing the splash, he forget all he had been practicing in his mind about strip-setting (setting the hook by pulling the line rather than pulling up on the rod), instinct took over, and he pulled up like he was setting the hook on a trout, and pulled the fly right out of the tarpon's mouth. The only chance of the day.

In the mangrove channels searching for tarpon

After lunch, we parked by a small island and walked the flats, finding decent numbers of bonefish. Walking in tropical warm water warmed by the sun is pretty awesome in March! Before dinner, Rob and I took a walk through town, talked to a couple people, and enjoyed the pretty flowers. An awesome dinner of tender flank steak with mango and kiwi crepes for dessert. Can't wait until tomorrow!