Fishing Report
July 02 – 09, 2023 #23
Welcome to the Caribbean,
We have closed our first part of this 2023 season. Our last days have been very similar to the board game “Risk”, where our 5-star Generals, Chiara and Dan, have distributed specific missions and tasks to small groups of “commandos” integrated by our staff to achieve, with each of their “missions accomplished”, a much less ambitious objective than in the board game, which is conquering the world, or maybe yes, because for all of us who choose to be part of ESB it is very easy for us to say that it is our own little world while we are here. If you have already played “Risk” you will know that your games are not something that will be resolved in 5 or 10 minutes, so I apologize for the delay in submitting this fishing report… I was playing Risk.
Our last week was very good in general terms although the weather was unfortunately not the best and the fish were active intermittently.
We were visited by the Fly Castaway Team headed by Gerard Laubsche, hyper experienced fisherman and an amazing photographer, Ryan Hammong, another hyper experienced fisherman and, like Gerard, retired fishing guides and pioneers in fishing the outer atolls of the Seychelles. Peter Whitaker Des Soutar, Dale Wigley and Tony Czura, excellent fishermen who have wet their flies in more rivers, lakes, oceans and seas in the world than most of the fishermen I know, all of them of South African origin and who together with Mike Hunsberger, born in the United States, share their fishing adventures for many years.
FishingThe group began their fishing trip in the Caribbean a week before arriving at ESB touring the waters of Ascension Bay and, although it was the first time that everyone visited us, they arrived at our lodge with a clear vision of what species would be their objectives for this week.
Monday started with a lot of instability in terms of weather, isolated rains, many clouds and moderate winds. None of this intimidated our fishermen who faced the challenge with great impetus and willing to discover that the Bay of Espirtu Santo had to offer them, and I do not disappoint, as a letter of introduction the bay gave them the imposing vision of large tarpon rolling something that none of the experienced fishermen overlooked and all managed to stick their sharp hooks in their bony mouths, in some cases more than once, to start those epic battles that I have already told you so many times. Fortune was somewhat elusive, hooks, tippet and in some cases the incredible escapism skills of these giant silver torpedoes denied them victory with the exception of Tony who managed to subdue his rival after a long fight, rewarding his tenacity and effort. Ryan completed the day by starting the count of his scoreboard.
The intensity of the wind during Tuesday morning was increasing and, as Field Marshal Helmuth Carl Bernad Von Moltke once said, “No plan, however good, resists the first contact with the enemy”, this forced our guides to change the original strategy proposed for the day and look for areas that offered greater shelter. Baby Tarpon and snook were active in these areas making the day entertaining until the arrival of a thunderstorm that forced everyone to end the fishing day a little earlier than planned.
The forecast predicted a complicated Wednesday in terms of wind speed and the cloud layer that would cover everything from Cancun to Belize, luckily it was half right, the winds were lower than anticipated by the forecast, but the cloud cover was omnipresent and without any furtive ray of sunlight could break the monotonous gray tone of the surface in the bay. While not ideal conditions to spot fish movement in the distance, our guides’ super-developed sense of sight gave Tony, Gerard and Peter the opportunity to inaugurate their personal permit counters for this week.
For Thursday, a difficult day was forecast for outdoor activities, moderate winds, dense clouds and heavy rain during the middle of the day. Our fishermen started their day of fishing hoping that predictions like the previous day would fail while with one eye they scanned the surface of the water and with the other the sky. Unfortunately, this time the forecast was accurate and the rains were accompanied by a strong electrical component so everyone was forced to seek the safety of the port a couple of hours ahead of schedule, even so, the duration of the fishing day was enough for Ryan to measure his strength and skills against an immense silver torpedo and be able to proclaim himself the winner after a not at all easy battle.
Friday showed the end of hostilities between the two stormy fronts that had battered us so much during the previous days and finally the sun began to be seen along with a slight decrease in the speed of the easterly winds. These somewhat more favorable conditions on the battlefield of the bay were what our guests needed to receive a boost in their energies and start the day ready to prove to the fish they would be up against. It was the day chosen by everyone to go in search of the emblematic spice of the bay, Gerard, Peter, Des and Dale added permit to their counters and some of them in pairs. Some specimens managed to beat the fishermen giving even more value to the victories of the day and demonstrating once again why it is considered a trophy species.
The improvement in weather conditions was even greater on the last fishing day of the week and also in our first part of the season giving chances to almost the entire group of fishermen. Peter managed to land a large permit, Gerard and Ryan continued to increase the number of their personal markers.
In summary, we can say that we have had a very good last week of fishing in this first part of our season.
Weather
The wind always remained easterly with some brief variations to the northeast, their speeds remained between 28 mph and 10 mph by the end of the week.
The different cloud layers that accompanied us much of the week seemed to alternate to keep the bay covered the entire bay during the first days of the week and almost disappeared in the last two days. Some of these clouds were loaded with rain which left us with some heavy but brief rainfall, as well as lightning and thunder.
The tides were absolutely unpredictable as a result of the intensity of the wind, so they were not a factor to be taken into account during the fishing days.
Flies
This week most of the permit were caught with Flexo Crabs, White House and ESB Raghead Crab. No doubt Dane will be extremely happy to know that his “favorite” fly, the Flexo, was one of the most effective this week.
Black and purple streamers were the most used and the most effective to tempt tarpon. If on your next trip you do not plan to bring an intermediate or sinking line to go in search of the great beasts that inhabit the deep entrance channel to the bay, I suggest that you bring one 10 or 15 beads and place 3 or 4 in the loop of the fly and thus give it greater movement and quickly reach depths that you would not achieve only with the weight of the fly.
Bonefish, while not a highly sought-after species this week, the few that were caught did so with imitations of crabs or shrimp on hooks #8.
Finally, the more than deserved rest for our Staff and Guides has arrived, today they are all at home and enjoying family time. I would like to make public the thanks that I have already given you in private for your excellent work attitude, your professionalism and above all your great willingness to live in a place far from your families and loved ones, which is often a “big brother” but without cameras. Nowadays the television programs where the day to day life of gold prospectors, crab fishermen in the Bering Sea or logging on some distant hill has nothing on the day to day life of operating a fishing lodge in the middle of the jungle… ha,ha,ha.
See you in a few weeks with the report of the first week of our second part of the season and do not hesitate to contact our friends at The Fly Shop® so they can tell you first-hand what life islike in Espiritu Santo Bay, 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
