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 The Global FlyFisher - A Good Place to go for Online Fly Fishing and Fly TyingTrip ReportsFirst published October 9th 2004 - More than 9 years ago
Rio PiratosWhere the sabalo grande - the big tarpon - roamBy Martin Joergensen
Who said anglers aren't crazy?
We had been almost 24 hours under way when we arrived at 3 o'clock in the morning - quite tired after the long journey. And the plan was to fish at 6!So after having traveled from Copenhagen to Frankfurt, from there to Mexico City, on to Cancun and from there on to our final destination we unpacked the essentials, packed them to go on the boats, slept for 1½ hours and woke up to go search for tarpon - big tarpon!
The first hookup
The outcome of the first day was meager. One short hookup in our boat - albeit a large fish - and hookups of smaller fish in the other two boats. None of the fish were landed, though. We did see fish though, and large ones, so hopes were high. We also saw permit in the water outside the mangroves. On the way back we went into the mangrove channels to look for bonefish, which Deigo had said he'd seen there, but we saw none. But there is an extreme abundance of life in these waters with mullets, catfish, skipjacks, ladyfish, needlefish, porcupine fish, rays and a host of other species to be seen all the time.
We talked and ate an early dinner in Diego's fathers place - Isla Contoya. A couple watched the bullfight on the way back, and could announce that it was a pitiful and sorry sight. Lars got a massage from a local barefoot doctor for a sore back, which he had brought from home. A musical bus was touring with happy people and loud music all night.
Three magnificent leaps
We saw fish but not many. Kim jumped one really nice fish - about 100 lbs was his own estimate - but after three magnificent leaps it was off. In the mangrove my mediocre casting skills combined with wind and fish that were either spooky or just not hungry lead to nothing. We saw fairly many fish in the 5-20 lbs range, but none wanted to play. I did hook a porcupine fish that sucked in air with a funny sound. Whatever it saw in my pink tarpon fly I will never know. It was soon unhooked and released again. We returned after another skinny day and had to comfort ourselves with rhum and cokes on the veranda and some huge pina coladas in the restaurant before dinner. I discovered a small Internet café just around the corner. And not only that, but the charge was a fantastic 5 pesos for 20 minutes online. I sent home a couple of mails and checked up on GFF, Tour de France and the situation in the rest of the world.
(Could've been) The first
We saw plenty fish over the deeper water early in the morning. Lars hooked one in the first cast. His and Claus' boat was the first on the spot. We saw fish in the surface all the time during the first 20-30 minutes, but after that they just disappeared. The fish were swimming very fast, and every time we moved to them, they were gone, and would appear in the spot that we just left. After a while things died out and even though we stayed in the area for almost two hours, we only saw fish a few more times. It seems that the first half hour is best, and tomorrow we will try to go out 5:30 in stead of 6:00 to see if that changes our luck. After the deep water we headed for the Mayan island and fished the mangroves for babies. I hooked one of the first ones I cast to - a fish in the 4 lbs. range, but it spat out the hook after one leap. Later on we fished into a school of hundreds of fish, maybe 10 lbs. or more, that were further out over deeper water, and I hooked one more. This time the 80 lbs. bite tippet broke and the fish ran with the fly after a fierce leap. I probably didn't let go of the line in time for the fish to run after having hooked it. It takes some time to get used to this game. It's a far cry from trout fishing, I can tell you! We would run into this large school of tarpon several times during the week, but I don't think we managed to wrench a single fish from this particular flock.
Primero Sabalo!
The town festival was at its peak with a market, tivoli, theatre, processions and the centre full of happy people. And a bull fight of course, where the bull was almost let loose in the streets - albeit kept in tight (but long) strings by a bunch of caballeros. It wasn't Pamplona, but felt much like it, because I was right by the gate that suddenly sprang open and poured out cowboys a la Mexicana. The poor bulls were in agony over the terrible treatment they received.
Sabalo grande!
Kim hooked himself in the belly and Lars hooked (and landed) a 45 lbs fish. We were about to put him ashore on a deserted island never to let him on a tarpon boat again! This was his third large fish.
Kim's belly was a more serious catch - a real sabalo grande, a huge tarpon. He had to press the barb through the skin to enable us to cut the hook. I broke a pair of pliers trying to clip the 5/0 Owner hook - "The strongest hook in the world" as Kim said. Sure is! After that we had some fun in a small mangrove channel and each caught a 4 lbs. fish. We tried to get pictures of the fish when they jumped. We'll see how that worked out. (PS: after returning home I had about three rolls of film mostly with "holes in the water". Even my potent SLR, which shoots five 4-5 frames per second was not enough to enable me to get a tarpon in the air. I have a few, but they are blurred and too far away... so it goes...) The weather came back later in the afternoon after we returned as a huge shower that flooded the streets. It was the last day of the town festival and the weekly day off so even the rain could not keep people - or the horses - off the streets. We spent some time in the afternoon tying leaders and learning the Homer Simpson knot and the Bikini Twist - which are really called the Homer Rhodes knot and the Bimini Twist of course. We also fooled around with the formula for estimating the weight of tarpon and I promised to create the Tarponometer when we came home. The formula is girth*girth*length/800 in inches to get pounds or the same divided by 29000 in centimeters to get kilos.
Bahía de Cochinos
Not before we entered a small, muddy bay did things start to happen. It was the Bahía de Cochinos - Bay of Pigs - with lots of hogs rolling in the mud. We had fish all around us in the murky water, constantly rolling and easy to get to take the fly - provided that the fly was placed close enough. I missed a further ten (10!) hookups before I got a 1 lbs. snook to hang on. That was 14 bummed tarpon in a row! We switched over and Kim hooked a fish after a few casts. Eager to show me how to set a hook properly in a tarpon, he gave it all he could - and snapped a class 10 Burkheimer rod in two places! We shared the 10 weight 8'8" Scott S3S the rest of the day... An excellent rod by the way. Armed with a pink fly I managed to get lots of takes but no hookups - except for two more snook. Kim landed several tarpon, and it was not until late after noon that I finally landed a 4 lbs. specimen. Kenneth and Soeren had joined us and landed a couple each. We could see rain come closer, and decided to return home before the thunderstorm really broke loose. On the way back we had the rain front in our back and lightning striking on our outside over the ocean. After our return to the hotel we sat on the front porch and watched the rain, lightning and thunder roll by. Man what a sight! If someone played that show every night in front of my house, I'd be out watching every day. The streets filled with water again, and cars, bikes and pedestrians walked and drove through ankle deep water.
Cinque kilos
None of the other boats observed anything either, so we headed for the mangrove fairly early.
After the experience in the muddy water, we sought out the same place after having tried a few other spots. We fished on and Kim hooked and landed a 4-5 lbs. fish before we headed home. In the afternoon I took a walk along the waterfront, where crabs were burrowing in the mud left after the rainfall. I went all to the end of town and back - not a scenic walk by any standards, but a walk in a plain and very ordinary looking Mexican village. The others could tell about deeper water, a wreck in the depth and seeing both a tiger shark, large manta rays and mating turtles.
Hot, hot, hot!
The morning was clear an the sun rose in an almost perfect circle on an undisturbed horizon. The water was smooth and undisturbed too. Not a single tarpon for the third day in a row! Quite disappointing considering the expectations we came with. This was the place where we were supposed to land a 100 lbs. fish.Again we decided to leave early, and went along the mangrove probing different spots until we reached the same bay. This time not as muddy, but still with fish. I missed quite a few before I managed to set the hook in one, which escaped with my fly and the tip of the leader. I had seen the wind knot, but ignored it. That does not pass unpunished in tarpon country!
Kim took over and landed one. We poled along the mangrove, but saw no fish. My sweat was dripping in my eyes. This day seemed a lot warmer than the previous ones. Soren and Kenneth returned together with Diego and his son. They had been fishing over deeper water and Kenneth had managed to land one of the two bonitoes he hooked. Quite a fight he said.
Mosca Pulpo
So we set off and sailed to the hole. GPS's helped us find the location, and when all three boats where over the hole and the outboards were turned off, we realized how hot and calm it was. The sea was smooth and even though it was well before noon, the temperature was already soaring. We were all wound up by the number of fish, and offered them all kinds of flies fished in all manners. Nothing seemed to work. The best result was obtained on a large school of jacks swimming close to the surface. 20-30 fish would follow a fly that was two hand retrieved at maximum speed, but turn off as soon as the fly lost pace. The other two boats gave up and headed for the mangrove, but Lars - with whom I fished this day - and I decided to stay. Carlos - our guide - suggested that we tried trolling, and sure enough: we didn't have to pass over the wreck more than a few times before we had the first take. I was holding the rod on this pass, and the 12 wt. TFO armed with a Billy Pate reel bent double and the reel whizzed off line at a frightening rate. Like hooking a steam train! I had no idea what was on that hook, but it was strong and heavy. It took off about 50-60 meters - up towards 180' - of backing or more before it decided to go deep. We had the wreck to worry about, so I tried to hold it hard. Reeling in as fast as I could, wanting to lift the fish off the bottom, it rushed off again, and was off... Whoa! So much power! Lars was next, and he had the same experience, except that the fish broke him off, running with fly, leader and everything. In one short moment he feared that it had taken his fly line too, but not so. We rigged a new leader and fly, and was on again. This time the fish stuck. I had set the brake extremely hard - maybe 5 kilos or 10 lbs. - but still the fish stripped backing like there had been no resistance. During the fight it went down straight under the boat and almost made the top eye touch the water. Carlos landed the fish, a jack in the 4-5 kilos or 8-10 lbs. range. Beautiful and very strong fish these jacks. And they never give up.
"Muchas coumida" as he said. A lot food indeed! Both fish were kept, and we ate part of one for dinner that night. Our day was made, and even though Carlos had a hard time leaving the place, we decided to head home. The boat ride was more than one hour, and we had had sufficient action and heat for one day.
PS: It may be the fact that we "stabilized" the large fly with a piece of octopus - pulpo - that made it work, but Lars and I agreed on that the trick had worked even without the Mosca Pulpo, the Octopus Fly, and the speed alone could have done it.
Slow for some
The heat from yesterday combined with an upset stomach made me decide to stay home. I spent most day in the hammock and just acting Mexican: doing basically nothing. The others left at 6 as usual to head directly for the mangroves and the baby tarpon. The fishing here was expected to be better in the morning due to higher tide and morning activity.Some of the guys had some fine fishing in the mangroves while others had a day as slow as they come on a tarpon trip. Need I say that the big ones didn't show up this day either? I spent some time talking to Raphael and Gloria who had moved into the room next to ours. Raphael had seen our rods and we had seen his heavy spinning rod the evening before when he arrived. He had been fishing for barracuda in the morning with his son and a local friend and had caught a single fish with bait and heavy wire tracers on his large hooks.
Raining dogs and cats
We fought the heat and the mangrove trees in several incidents, chasing fish that again were chasing smaller fish between the mangrove roots.
After an hour of calm a real thunderstorm took over. Lightning flashing and thunder cracking and dogs and cats - rain galore. So there we were, slowly soaking, watching tarpon roll right outside the mangrove about 5 meters or 15' away from the boat! The rain kept pounding, and finally we decided to return, and raced through the stinging drops back to town. As we returned wet and obviously not looking too pique, our neighbors Raphael and Gloria came to our rescue with konk geviche and chips and as the others returned we had a ball on the terrace with their delicious servings. Raphael was an angler too and was very fascinated by our flyrods - although somewhat baffled by the prices we mentioned. Raphael Jr. - his son - and I went to the small pier and Raphael Jr. cast a fly for the first time. "That's easy" he concluded. His casting was actually excellent, as was his English.
Going home
We could sleep in! The morning was really slow and we just packed our stuff and prepared for the trip.We were picked up at the hotel at 11:30 and had an almost 4 hours ride in front of us to Cancun. In Cancun we treated ourselves to burgers and pizza - and espresso! Great! The flight out was late - of course - and we were somewhat stressed when we arrived in Mexico City with less than 15 minutes to find our connecting flight to Frankfurt. We managed, and the rest of the trip was quite without excitement - apart from the luggage being late, of course. But having traveled in these parts of the world before, I was prepared for that. And the fact that it had been opened and stuff had been stolen. So it goes...
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