Fishing Report #37
November 03 – 10, 2024
We’ve wrapped up another great week here at ESB. A welcome change in weather, some friendly returning guests, good food, and fun by all was the recipe for the last 6 days. We enjoyed three generations from the Herzog clan and welcomed back our annual crew coming out of Salt Lake City. Pleasant November weather made it tolerable with cooler late fall temps and I sighed with relief as we watched Hurricane Rafael stay east of us before dumping into the Gulf. It’s been a strange season with storms and by no means are we in the clear. A watchful eye on various storm tracking platforms keeps us on our toes and forever in the hands of Mother Nature.
Fishing
For the first time in 5 weeks, we enjoyed sunny skies and light winds. The bay still had a significant amount of freshwater and red slicks were all over the river systems. Redness comes from tannins produced by mangroves. Lower the tide equaled freshwater zones that leached out of all our backcountry systems. It was a little discouraging to kick off the week with the bay in this condition despite having ideal light and wind. Water quality picked up significantly after the first couple days and the bay started to come back to life. With calm seas and incredible light, it became easier to move around the tainted zones.
Permit fishing is slowly picking back up and our normal zones started seeing a lot of fish coming back into the system. We picked up a nice little permit out of a school at the mouth or river one. Another two were hooked but predation cut the excitement short. More fish started coming through the southern cut close to the boat launch. They streamed through the mouth of red lagoon and outside casitas. The southern third of Isla Cha working west had schools show up in the middle. A couple boats had a few hours of maddening fly changes trying to get a commitment. Guests/guias worked through all the crabs and shrimp patterns and we couldn’t get a take. I think one boat saw more permit in a couple hours than we’ve seen in the last four weeks combined. We don’t really have a reason for the fly refusals but guia Alex promptly told me they’re “nervous”. He said patterns and movement looked like they were almost tiptoeing their way back into the system and not yet convinced of the good conditions holding. I think some of our flies were a little on the heavy side. Slow stripping crabs through turtle grass is a little tough and you pick up junk on every retrieve. I’m fired up with the number of fish seen and we’ll close the deal on landing a few more for the closing week.
Tarpon and Snook fishing is as good as it gets. All of our mangrove lined beaches have big pushes of fresh snook. Santa Alena on the northside working back along sunken boat is prime snook water. Outside Punta Herrero to the lighthouse has bigger fish. Deep west towards river 3 held plenty of fresh groups milling around. One boat landed 9 big fish by 10:30 on a personally tied fly! Guia Marcos ran his normal red lagoon run and was pulling snook out of the woodwork and had pockets of tarpon. Back down to river 4 “area” had groups. Flamingo at the right tide level produced snook and a small creek inlet had small tarpon rolling around. Sunken boat is a haven for tarpon and has some good schools outside in the deeper water. A couple hundred yards outside of Santa Alena had pods of tarpon rolling. What looks like a dark bottom turns into millions of sardine sized baitfish. This is the ESB we love to talk about and that strength and importance of having multiple species available to chase.
Bonefish are around in great numbers. River mouths staged hundreds of fish as they waited for tidal movement. Guests also went skinny and had consistent action with tailing bones rooting around mangrove shoots. You can catch as many bonefish as you want right now. Smaller fish seemed to be in big schools in deeper water. Larger bones were slinking shallow and tucked up with snook.
Cuda chaser Devin Herzog popped a great fish on a chartreuse deceiver style pattern he whipped the night before in the palapa. Tying flies at night and using them the next day with success is so much fun and the energy is infectious.
Tides/Weather
Higher tides in the am with a drop in the pm. We saw a tide flip last Thursday. Mostly sunny skies with occasional light showers. Little to no wind from the north and west.
Flies
Permit was landed on a small shrimp variation.
Tarpon and Snook are hitting the normal baitfish variations and EP Peanut Butters. There was not a real winner that stood out from the rest. Everyday seemed to be a new fly that worked well. Nothing surprising there. One day they crush Chartreuse. The next day it’s Black and Purple. We tried more natural colors and had good results. It’s EXTREMELY important to have a rainbow-colored box of offerings because the slightest change or daily switch has you scrambling for something different. 8 color variations seem to be a good starting point if you want to maximize your “catching”.
Bonefish chomped anything the was properly presented and depending on the depth we played around with weighted eyes.
Our house crew led by Chef Luis kept us well fed and Emmanuel pounded through projects and had accommodations in shipshape.
Last week here at ESB. It’s been a hell of a season, and we have our normal closing friends amongst us. I am trying to jam through this report to grab some beach time. It’s clear skies, no wind, and my groundskeeper was hollering at me an hour ago about 2 permit tailing in front of the lodge. It’s a lovable chaos here at ESB and one that’s hard to beat. Check in with our friends over at The Fly Shop and they’ll give you the lowdown regarding this special place or any other destination the pricks your interest. Get outside, enjoy some fresh snow (if applicable), and take the time to embrace natural beauty around you. We’ll meet again next week for another report.
Saludos desde el Caribe Mexicano,
Dane, Chiara, Lucia, Negri, Canela
800-669-3474 | 530-222-3555 | travel@theflyshop.com | ESB Lodge