Mike Bilson kindly shared his thoughts on his second trip to Mexico with us on one of the Paul Procter hosted weeks. It makes for an interesting read and sums up the experience nicely....
Fishing Report – Punta Allen, Mexico: 22nd Nov to 27th Nov 2010David and I met John Honour, Steve Grimes, and David Hoskins at Gatwick on Sunday 21st November for the ten hour flight to Cancun arriving at 14.30 local time. The Thomson flight was only half full so we had plenty of room. The AGI Tours minibus was waiting for us and we set off for Punta Allen, stopping briefly on the way at Tulum for a very pleasant meal at a road-side restaurant. The next part of the journey was a real test of perseverance with the main road running out and turning into a very hard and long 40 km drive. The road has clearly been badly damaged over the last year with constant pot holes and craters meaning that we averaged about 10 kph until Punta Allen. This was very unpleasant and will undoubtedly put some people off from returning, but the positive side is that Punta Allen will never become over fished with excessive anglers.
We were warmly greeted at Casa Veijo Chac by our host Paul Proctor who had organized the rooms. Since last year three new rooms have been built with good air conditioning and new showers, but the electricity did fail briefly on occasions in the evening. Not a major problem as it was quickly fixed but showering in the dark could be a challenge.
The first morning we were allocated guides over breakfast. Pepe and Marbella produced excellent authentic Mexican food all week which was wholesome and tasty with good measures of spice, onions and chilies. Breakfast was served at 07:00 before setting off for the boats at 08:15. A packed lunch was provided each day with plenty of drinks. Dinner was served at 19:00 and consisted of a three course meal. Beer was freely available and we settled up at the end of the week which was very reasonable at $110 each including staff tips and laundry.
The weather started mostly cloudy with a stiff East wind which was the aftermath of a heavy storm at the end of the previous week. The wind and cloud gradually calmed down each day until a magnificent last day of flat calm and few clouds. Temperatures were around 25 to 30 degrees centigrade.
Monday 22ndGuides were Edwin and Osca who are new this year to Veijo Chac but very experienced. David’s first day started with an excellent 12 Snook on fly. I lost one Snook of similar size due to a straightened hook, and lost a tarpon of around 14lb on one of its airborne leaps. We also had several bonefish averaging about 2lb mainly on Cuban Shrimps, as well as a small Jack and Barracuda on a Deceiver. Fishing off the Punta Allen pier in the evening was not productive due to cloudy water from a strong onshore wind.
Tuesday 23rdHeavy rain overnight cleared by the morning but still a stiff Easterly wind and 40% cloud cover. Philip was our very experienced guide. We chased permit in the morning and saw about half a dozen. I got one reasonable shot. After lunch we changed tactics and went for Snook, Barracuda, and Tarpon. David landed his first ever Barracuda on popper weighing in at 16lb. Soon after I landed a 15lb Barracuda on fly with wire trace. We saw a Permit cruising through so a quick change to crab fly was presented beautifully only to be stolen from the Permits nose by a greedy 2lb Snook. David then had a great shot at the Permit which followed the fly but turned away. We finished that day by wading for Bonefish at “Lagoon Duos” where we came across a massive shoal of tailing Bonefish, landing a few between us.
Wed 24thWeather improved again with the wind calming and 30% cloud cover. Guides were William of 24 years guiding experience at Punta Allen and his boatman Edwardo. We waded for Bonefish in the morning and while doing so David got an excellent shot at a Permit which took the tan crab fly but after a very brief encounter, spat the fly out before he could set the hook. I later hooked a large Barracuda which bit through the 25lb wire trace and made its escape. Then we saw two Shark cruising and after casting a fly and getting a couple of follows with no takes the guide suggested we used a bait fish. So I rigged up a large wire trace and hook on the end of my AFTM 10 fly rod and line. We threaded half a Needle Fish on the hook and waded into the flat to stalk the Shark. After a brief sniff the Shark took the bait and there followed a massive fight on the fly rod taking about 150 yards on the first run. Many more long runs followed but after about 25 minutes the 30lb Lemon Shark was beached and duly dispatched presumably to feed the guide’s family for a week. The using of bait earned the esteemed prize of the “Pink Bow Tie” in the evening. Later David was smashed up by an estimated 40lb Barracuda on popper which ripped off line on its way to the mangrove snags 120 yards away. It took the hook, trace, braid and backing. During the day we also caught a few Bones.
Thursday 25thWe had the most experienced guides today being Manuel and Choo Choo. Some cloud and threatening rain at first but this cleared nicely by the time we reached the fishing grounds. David landed his first ever Tarpon on a fly weighing in at around 10lb. Several others were seen cruising. Then we moved around the Island were Manuel put me on a massive Bonefish. I cast my Cuban Shrimp four feet in front of his slow feeding path. He moved to the fly and made a confident take, followed by my two strip strikes setting the hook. After a long fight it came to the boat at 7lb. Manuel believed it should have been a 9lb fish due to its length but was a little under-weight for its length. Still, a magnificent specimen. After lunch we went for Permit and found a large shoal of tailing Permit in the bay with an average size of around 15lb and some going much larger. I cast a tan crab fly, the lined tightened and after setting the hook the large Permit made a brief strong run before parting the leader on what turned out to be a wind knot. A quick change of fly and increase in leader strength from 16lb to 20lb gave me another clean shot at a large oncoming shoal. The fly was perfectly presented and the line tightened at which point Manuel clarified that a 10lb Jack Crevalle had intercepted the fly in front of the Permit. There followed a 20 minute tug-of-war resulting in the AFTM 8 Helios rod exploding into six pieces leaving me with just the cork handle and reel left in my hand. With no other option I had to hand line the rest of the fight. By the time the fish was returned and a new rod tackled up the clouds had come over and the Permit shoal moved on. This episode also earned me the “Pink Bow Tie” for the second time. Thankfully Robin had lent me his Orvis Zero Gravity AFTM 8 rod just in case of a breakage which proved to be very valuable.
Friday 26thGuides were William and Edwardo for the second time. David waded on the flats for Bonefish while I went for Permit with William. We found a tailing shoal of about 20 Permit and got out the boat to wade gently from 50 yards away. At 10:30 I landed a 6lb Permit on Manuel’s china man crab fly, being smaller than most of the shoal but still a good fish. I then got a Bonefish at 10:45 so we decided to go for the Grand Slam and picked up David who had caught a few Bones. We went to the brackish mangrove swamps and found a school of three Tarpon. The second one took the fly aggressively and weighed in at 10lb’s and completed the Grand Slam before 11.00. We spent the rest of the day trying to get a Snook to make it a Super Slam but none were found.
Saturday 27thGuides for the day were Pablo and Marcus. Weather was magnificent with a mirror calm trip to the Bonefish flats where we found many large shoals of tailing Bones on the low tide. Everyone had endless fun taking Bone after Bone some up to 3lb. After lunch we decided to split up with David continuing to wade the flats for Bones while I chased Permit. Unfortunately the clouds came over putting an end to the splendid Bonefish sport and making it hard to spot Permit although we did see half a dozen and get a good shot at one which ignored my crab fly. During the afternoon I saw a large Barracuda and cast a Popper at the fish using Martin’s Greys spinning rod. It took the popper with a massive attack and a long fight ensued culminating with me landing the beast at 30lb. That evening I won the “Pink Bow Tie” for a third time for casting at a Bonefish which in fact turned out to be a crab moving sideways towards me from 30 yards.
SummaryOver the week the group managed three Grand Slams (Pete, Paul, and me) with a fourth closely missed by Steve whose 40lb Tarpon just held off taking. Individual fish of the week was Steve’s first ever Permit at 25lb. Several good Snook were taken by most anglers. Six Permit were landed in total (Pete 3, Steve 1, Paul 1 and me 1).
Endless species of various sizes were seen, many of which are not mentioned here as they were not landed. The trip back was much easier with the difficult road tackled at the start of the day and in the light. The journey was made fun by the admission that John had inadvertently been wearing his room-mates trousers all week, and commando style at that! David had wondered where his second pair went but all was revealed at Cancun Airport.
Overall a great week.
Mike Bilson
