T
thesmayway
Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2009
- Messages
- 133
Well, to wrap it all up into a short statement... this was nothing like drifting a dry in a spring creek 
I fished with Enrique of Cancunflatsfishing.net one day and it was a great experience. He did great and put me on a ton of tarpon. Unfortunately, the "strip set" i read about thoroughly before leaving was not learned easily. Trying to break the habit of a typical trout strike was tough and moving from a rod arm set to a stripping arm set took 5 tarpon exploding on the gurgler fly. On the 5th fish I focused myself on making a good strip set and connected with this baby. What a rush! These things launch themselves 5 feet out of the water and it's awesome even on an 8 wt rod. I had a 2nd throw the hook and a couple more misses after. I'm a big archery hunter, and stalking these fish in the mangroves was like stalking a deer. You've got one shot to make a perfect cast in gin clear water under the stress of your guide saying "one cast, 11 o'clock, 18 yards CAST NOW!" A very cool experience that I will defintely try again after I fine tune my casting and hook up skills. The wind and tide wasn't quite right for permit and bonefish and we only managed to spook one small school of bones before heading for the mangroves.
This is a small tarpon but typical for the "nursery" of Cancun. The little guys hang out in the mangroves until they're big enough for the open water. We saw one that would have probably gone 20lbs +. He swam around a section of mangroves and disappeared before I could get a good shot at him.
On another note, Enrique taught me in short order how to double haul. This is a MUST to be proficient at saltwater casting with the wind in your face that I tried to learn on my own in the past without luck. He made it very easy to get the hang of.
I also tried my hand at fly casting on the surf. I took my chartreause and white clousers and managed to hook a couple small snappers. My wife and I took a walk down the beach the first day we were there and saw some small barracuda and I heard there were bonefish in the surf but that first day was the best for wind (or lack thereof) and we were just strolling... no rod! After that day it was tough casting and besides the snapper I didn't see anything of size. Still fun! And besides... when the fishing was tough it's hard to beat 5 days of being waited on hand and foot laying on the beach with a bucket of Coronas!!
I fished with Enrique of Cancunflatsfishing.net one day and it was a great experience. He did great and put me on a ton of tarpon. Unfortunately, the "strip set" i read about thoroughly before leaving was not learned easily. Trying to break the habit of a typical trout strike was tough and moving from a rod arm set to a stripping arm set took 5 tarpon exploding on the gurgler fly. On the 5th fish I focused myself on making a good strip set and connected with this baby. What a rush! These things launch themselves 5 feet out of the water and it's awesome even on an 8 wt rod. I had a 2nd throw the hook and a couple more misses after. I'm a big archery hunter, and stalking these fish in the mangroves was like stalking a deer. You've got one shot to make a perfect cast in gin clear water under the stress of your guide saying "one cast, 11 o'clock, 18 yards CAST NOW!" A very cool experience that I will defintely try again after I fine tune my casting and hook up skills. The wind and tide wasn't quite right for permit and bonefish and we only managed to spook one small school of bones before heading for the mangroves.
This is a small tarpon but typical for the "nursery" of Cancun. The little guys hang out in the mangroves until they're big enough for the open water. We saw one that would have probably gone 20lbs +. He swam around a section of mangroves and disappeared before I could get a good shot at him.
On another note, Enrique taught me in short order how to double haul. This is a MUST to be proficient at saltwater casting with the wind in your face that I tried to learn on my own in the past without luck. He made it very easy to get the hang of.
I also tried my hand at fly casting on the surf. I took my chartreause and white clousers and managed to hook a couple small snappers. My wife and I took a walk down the beach the first day we were there and saw some small barracuda and I heard there were bonefish in the surf but that first day was the best for wind (or lack thereof) and we were just strolling... no rod! After that day it was tough casting and besides the snapper I didn't see anything of size. Still fun! And besides... when the fishing was tough it's hard to beat 5 days of being waited on hand and foot laying on the beach with a bucket of Coronas!!
