Fishing Report #14
April 30 – May 07, 2023

Woman with ESB Tarpon

Welcome to the Caribbean!

Great week we have had here at ESB, it seems that Itzamna (God of the sky in the Mayan culture) Kukulkan (God of the storms) and Ehecatl (God of the wind) finally agreed and stopped sending us cold fronts this season, let’s hope that the temperaments of the royals remain calm and don’t have family discussions again.

This more stable weather was more than appreciated by our guests, Tom Petersen, the hero of precise shooting, Rodney Neil, a great fisherman who did not miss any opportunity this week to accomplish his goal, we were also joined by Catherine and David McCann along with Noemi and Tom who with their incredible stories of life and fishing around the world made our dinners very interesting and fun.

Fishing
The beginning of the week was more than promising, Rodney landed a beautiful big permit (estimated at 25 lbs.) and David measured his strength against a big silver torpedo that forced him to apply everything he had learned in his years of fishing. This beautiful tarpon pushed him to his physical and equipment limits in a two-hour battle that finally proclaimed him the winner.

The week continued with great activity, many sightings and shots, but Tuesday came with some clouds that at times made it difficult to see the fish, which led our anglers to use their experience and expertise to make quick and precise shots, generating some very funny situations like the one Rodney had, following the instructions of our experienced guide, who identified a ray with some silvery reflections that followed it through the cloud of mud that it caused in its path. As a true expert and in less time than it takes to find something on Google, execute an accurate cast, placing the fly right in the ray and less than a second later feel the tension in the line … Yes, “fish on!” the joy and excitement that generated the execution of such a precise maneuver and the immediate expected result gave way to bewilderment to see that the responsible for the tension on the line was not the expected species, a frantic Jack struggled to get rid of Rodney’s deception, during the week the jacks captures by Rodney became almost daily, which earned him the title of “Jack-man”.

Man with ESB Permit

The pesky clouds disappeared by the start of Wednesday where Tom was the star of the day landing the first permit of his life and as if that wasn’t enough, he crowned it with a Grand Slam to make the day even more memorable. Of course, his induction into the Palometa Anglers Club was sealed with the traditional ritual of the tequila shot during dinner. An event that practically equals the feat of landing his first permit was the fight with the tarpon that paved the way for his Grand Slam. It was not a baby tarpon, the one that chose his hair and feathers lure was one that in a short time will be part of the great habitants of the depths of the bay channel with a weight in the triple digits. This immense silver cannonball printed such a force in his first run that not only took the whole line and part of the baking but also took the first two sections of his rod, as if battling with such a big one was not enough of a challenge, Tom did it only with the butt and the first section of the rod, if that is not an extreme challenge, you tell me what is.

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, David landed a large permit and Rodney, continuing his winning streak, followed it up with another.

We had the feeling of getting to Thursday in the same amount of time as a piece of candy at the door of a school during dismissal time.

Catherine had an epic confrontation with a Tarpon of more than one hundred pounds that lasted for more than an hour in which, in the best style of “Dominic Toretto in Fast and Furious”, he took advantage of his Nitro loads to take out all the line and most of the baking when they suspected that he would be almost surrendered next to the boat. In the third run and seeing that the battle was not close to end, they began to follow him from the coast towards the deepest waters where they finally managed to cut the distance and our guide managed to take the leader, at that moment it was evident that getting him on the boat to take a picture would be impossible and the signs of tiredness of the defeated rival hastened his release in those deep waters where without wasting a second he went in search of the depths.

Man with ESB Tarpon

Thursday also left us with more permit caught by our guests and Noemi fulfilled her “barracuda day” by spending part of the day looking for them, with good results.

As the week came to an end with more Permits captured, Rodney achieved a very unusual “Grand Slam”, adding Permit to his personal tally with all our guides. Catherine and David added another double-digit tarpon to the week, she also, emulating our “Jack-man” Rodney, managed to land a Jack when her precise one entered the muddy wake that left a ripple on its way through the bottom of the bay.

As you can see, we had a week with more excitement and joy than a season of “America`s God Talent”.

Weather
The light easterly winds were the constant of the week, although we had afternoons or mornings where it was a little more intense, in general they were not a difficulty this week.

Clouds were present this week, but scattered and varying in quantity, which helped visibility during most of the week to be very good.

The tides were much more pronounced than in previous weeks due to the scarce effect of the wind, really demonstrating how much influence they have on the tides.

Man with ESB Permit

Flies
Just as the cream ice cream will be immortal and will continue to give us a lot of joy in future generations, in 300 or 400 years when the evolution of the elusive Permit will lead them to have a third eye or their fins will be transformed into legs, I have no doubt that they will continue to be fooled by some new version of the ESB Yellow Eyes Raghead and Casa Blanca flies. This week we can highlight the good performance of the green Bauer Flats Crab that gave very good and big results.

The silver torpedoes true to their usual habits continue to take streamers of various color combinations where black and purple lead the way to start.

The ghosts of the bay, taking advantage of the good currents generated by the strong tides, were not at all averse to imitations of crabs, shrimps and small baitfish.

Finally, the time has come and the intrepid angler who accepted the “woolly Bugger Challenge” is already here at the lodge and will stay with us for two weeks, more than enough time to check the universality or not of this fly design.

Woman with ESB Tarpon

Sincerely I cannot find words to express the level of dedication and professionalism that our staff delivers every week to make the stay of our customers more than satisfactory.

Our Chef Luis and Sous Chef Angel continue to knock the ball out of the park every night with their dishes, what will my life be without carnitas, enchiladas or cochinita pibil the day I have to return to Patagonia.

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 González and the entire ESB family.

 

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