Well another trip to Ascension bay’s Punta Allen has been and gone; with the weather playing its usual mixed hand. The first couple of days saw the normal steady trade winds and a mixture of bright sunshine and cloud which is always a tough way to try and tune your eyes back into fish spotting mode. Bonefish and barracuda were interspersed with shots at Permit and Tarpon some of which were up and over the very magical 100lb mark but none that size fell to our offerings.
Two days of much heavier winds and cloud made fish spotting increasingly difficult but none the less bonefish were tracked down and caught with some of the group hitting up to a dozen fish in a day. A day of heavy storm clouds building and the onset of a brief visit of low pressure saw us all arrive back into the lodge just in time to see the heaven’s open and thunder and lightning fill the air. A tentative night followed as we waited to see what the next day held and if the storms had passed, thankfully they did only leaving a slight higher than average cloud level. A couple of very good days chasing tarpon saw close to 30 tarpon landed up to around 25lb+.
A couple of very good days chasing tarpon saw close to 30 tarpon landed up to around 25lb+. 3 of the group left including one of my regular travel partners Paul Procter leaving 5 of us to head out on the last day. All bar 1 of the group had Bonefish on the mind but for me a single boat meant that my usual past time that occasionally results in a Permit could resume; standing on the bow of a boat staring out over flat after flat! As ever when you place a Permit rod in your hand it results in every other species of fish appearing, Bonefish, Barracuda, rays, boxfish, puffers all came by to say hello but only a couple of permit. Some really good shots that my guides and I couldn’t believe ended in a “no eat” took us up to Lunch with a couple of stray Bonefish to the boat. The afternoon resumed in the same vein of form as the morning but this time a rather obliging permit started tailing in front of the panga, not content with eating the fly once it came back and had a second bight of the cherry and this time it stuck.
A trip to find a tarpon to complete a grand slam saw a snook get in there first; a little more hunting for Tarpon a couple of flashes at the fly and there were no Tarpon to show, it was time to make the long run back home for a beer. Just missing out on a super grand slam on the last day is just another reason that I will have to head back again in November with Paul for a couple more weeks!
If you are interested in joining our trips to Ascension Bay we have a number of options in May and November. For more information please email us or call on +44 (0)1621743711.
