Fishing Report #9
March 24 – 31, 2024
Welcome to the Caribbean!
The Maya culture had a unique conception of happiness, intrinsically linked to their worldview and religious beliefs. Although it is important to note that the perception of happiness could vary between different periods and regions within the Maya civilization, there were certain common elements that can be observed in their thinking.
In the Maya worldview, happiness was not understood simply as an individual emotional state, but rather as a harmonious balance between the individual, the community, and the universe. Connection with nature and participation in religious rituals were fundamental to achieving this state of harmony.
In summary, happiness in Maya culture was understood as a state of spiritual and social harmony, in which the individual was in balance with his or her natural environment and fulfilled his or her religious and social duties.
Based on the parameters of Mayan culture, we can say that our week was a very happy one. Our guests fulfilled their social duties and enjoyed a week of excellent company and interaction. They honored Mother Nature, even though Mother Nature put them to the test during a few days of fishing. If we dare say lightly that fishing is a kind of pseudo religion, our guests professed it rigorously this week, with its ups and downs logically, as in all matters of faith, where results sometimes take time to come, especially when we talk about the “ritual” of Permit fishing.
Our community this week consisted of Todd Darling, Rob Hewett, Lou Fehrenbacher, Steve Gotanda, Mark Wolfe and Waverly Crenshaw; excellent people who undoubtedly deserved to be rewarded with a happy week.
Fishing
The dawn of the first day of fishing was cloudy with light to moderate winds. Not the dream conditions to start the week, but like good fishermen, with unwavering faith, they headed out to the bay and Waverly was the first to add a few Permit to the scoreboard. Todd followed in his footsteps, and it could have been more if the tippet he used for the execution of his fishing ritual had lived up to the endurance it promised. Rob added snook and the rest of the group completed the tributes to the rest of the species that populate the sanctuary of Espiritu Santo Bay.
Tuesday’s weather conditions, like Monday’s, tested the emotional balance of the group, where the Permit gods almost permanently rejected the offerings in the form of crabs or shrimp that our parishioners made to them. Despite this, Todd showed that his commitment to the cause was extreme and scored the first Grand Slam of the week. Waverly continued to add Permit to the counter and Mark showed a great affinity for the silver gods of the bay and scored half a dozen beautiful tarpon.
Wednesday presented itself with only a few scattered clouds and the wind intensity dropped significantly. Our faithful parishioners kept adding permit to the scoreboard and we can highlight the three Grand Slam that Waverly got in his fishing day. He had plenty of catches but lacked the time to increase his achievements.
Winds from the north brought some clouds during the morning on Thursday, but by the afternoon they dissipated, and the wind began to gently rotate to the east. Steve and Lou added Permit to the already hefty score for the week. Waverly landed more than half a dozen tarpon, while Todd and Rob added snook, bonefish and tarpon.
In a repeat of the previous day, winds started out of the north on Friday morning, but brought no clouds with them. In the afternoon they rotated back to the east and became almost a gentle breeze. Mark experienced a rather peculiar situation, on the white altar of flats in the bay he encountered several schools of the revered permit and several mixed schools of bonefish and jack, intermingled with or within walking distance of the schools of his favorite gods. For every crab or shrimp offering he sent to the schools before a Permit God could pick it up, a jack or bonefish would intercede and keep it. Despite this amusing inconvenience, it added up to a few catches as did Todd, Rob, Steve and Waverly. We could say we had a Super Grand Slam of guests with five of them landing ESB’s flagship species.
The last day of fishing was idyllic, with light easterly winds and completely sunny. Steve claimed a Grand Slam, while Lou, Todd, Mark and Rob added the final “ojonas” to the week’s scoreboard. That night we all celebrated a happy week where they managed to obtain and maintain the harmonic balance referred to by the Mayans and which we call happiness.
Weather
While the week began with thick clouds and winds ranging from 15 to 21 mph, as the days went by the clouds disappeared and the winds began to diminish and vary in direction from north to southeast, but with speeds that were in the high 13 mph range.
Tides were predictable for most of the week.
Flies
As in the last few weeks, the permit were presented with several different patterns, sizes and colors of shrimp and crabs with no particular interest in specific one, but among those that performed well were the classic Flexo (Dane’s favorite fly, ha.ha.ha), ESB spawning shrimp, Casa Blanca, Esb Yellow Eyes Raghead Crab and Tequila twister.
The large silver torpedoes that migrate or resi
de at the mouth of the bay this week were pretty much banned by the weather, but the baby tarpon were receptive to taking streamers in sizes and colors present in the EP catalog. My dear reader, I invite you to accept the Woolly Bugger Challenge and on your next visit invest ten to fifteen minutes of your fishing time and test if this mythical freshwater streamer is effective with tarpons.
The bonefish are still willing to accept imitations of crabs and shrimps in small and not so small sizes, we have had cases where they willingly take permit flies.
With the first days of warm weather arriving in this corner of the Caribbean, I hope you all had a happy easter with your family and found lots of eggs, here we change them for coconuts, they are easier to see.
See you next week with a new report and do not hesitate to contact our friends at The Fly Shop so they can tell you first-hand what life is like in Espiritu Santo Bay, the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve (which means “Where the sky begins”, in the Mayan language).
Taak ulak k’iin and Ka xi’ik teech utsil!!!!
(See you later and good luck! in Mayan language)
Martin Ferreyra Gonzalez and the entire ESB Family
800-669-3474 | 530-222-3555 | travel@theflyshop.com | ESB Lodge
