We arrived at El Pescador on May 19th with my friends John Mendola, Glenn Sudol and Tom Gillingham. It was cloudy and calm...Tropical Storm Adrian was churning over Hondurus and kept an ESE course well to the south of us. To our benefit, Adrian sucked all the energy out of the region's atmosphere and provided us with dead calm conditions for 3 of the next 4 days.
Day 1 - Johnny and I fished with Nesto who is reported to be El Pescador's top tarpon guide. We loaded into the panga at 7AM and headed south for about 40 minutes. The water was completely glassy and the sky melted into the water without any hint of a horizon. We poled across 15-18' deep flats for about a half hour and only saw manatee. Nesto fired up the boat and we slowly motored about 5 minutes and the flats seemed to come alive. All of a sudden their were tarpon rolling, singles and packs of 8-10; schools jack crevalle cruising by; manatees blowing and an occasional school of permit. I took the bow and within 10 minutes jumped my first ever tarpon. It had rolled about 60 feet from the boat and I immediately cast a chartreuse cockroach to the ring. The fished boiled on the fly and rocketed into the sky as soon as it felt the hook. He jumped several times and suddenly there was a HUGE splash as a 12' bull shark decided to have a tarpon snack. Within an instant it was over and they were both gone.
The scene repeated itself for Johnny just a few minutes later...roll, cast, boil, jump, SHARK, gone. Then me. There were fish all over and the squadron of 3 huge bull sharks simply hung near the boat and waited for us to hook up. Johnny tried again and this time the sharks stayed away. He put his first tapon, a 25# fish in the boat.
By about 11AM the wind came up. While we had a few shots at some large permit, the tarpon cooled off. We spent the rest of the day looking for tarpon and finding only unhappy, deep fish that were completely uninterested in us. On the way back in at the end of the day, we spent about 1/2 hr on a bonefish flat where Johnny got one and I didn't get any shots.
Glenn & Tom spent the day with a crusty guide who put them on a lot of baby tarpon (Tom got 1) and finicky permit (Glenn hooked 2 and lost them both).
Day 2 - Johnny and I fished with Nesto again and made the run to the same spot. Glassy conditions again and again it started slow. By abut 830 we started seeing fins about 200-300 yards away. We slowly eased over (remember Nesto is poling the boat in 15-18' of water) and were surrounded by completely uninterested permit. We would cast to them, they would look but never took the fly. We fished to these cruising permit all morning and had no luck. Some of the fish probably went over 30#. Around noon we ran about 1 hr north inside Chetumal Bay near Blackadore Caye. The water here was 8-10' deep and crystal clear. We were fighting some overcast skies but again, it was dead calm. After searching for an hour or so, we started seeing a few tarpon again but they were deep. Finally, we found a +/- 125# tarpon laid up about 2' deep about 80' away, laying perpendicular to the boat. I laid the fly about 5' in front of him and started to strip, he immediately came to life and slowly followed. I kept it slow...strip...strip...strip. As he got about 30' from the boat, Nesto told me to speed up. I gave it a quick strip strip strip and the fish rushed the fly. He opened his mouth and inhaled the fly. I completely pulled the fly out of the his mouth (and the water). I immediately plopped it right back into the boil, the fish did a 180 and exploded on the fly a millisecond after it hit the water about 10' from the boat! FISH ON!! He gave us a bunch of great jumps and runs.
After about 20 minutes we got him to the boat, touched the leader and he popped off. A great way to end the day.
Glenn & Tom spent the day trying for permit and came up empty...except for a couple small bones that ate the permit flies.
Day 3 - Glenn and I teamed up to target permit with Pedro. We ran about 20 minutes inside Chetumal Bay and setup poling a beautiful flat about 3-4' deep...classic permit water. We immediately saw tailing fish pushing along the flat. Pedro poled us up into position and we took turns making shots...too long, too short, too right, too left, perfect, ingnore, refusal...again and again. Finally about 10AM I finally got one (out of in a school of 20 fish) to pick up my big gotcha and we were off to the races. He came to boat fairly quickly and then took off again time after time. I had him to the boat 3 times and started to get impatient since there were 2 other schools of permit pushing around the flat and Glenn was hot to get one too. Finally, the 4th time he neared the boat I put the boots to him, I failed to pull him into the net and the hook pulled. OK by me, it's all about the bite anyway.
We continued to work the permit schools taking turns, switching flies, switching rods but those permit are SOOOO picky.
Finally about 10AM we decided to give them a rest and look for some baby tarpon in a small bay in the mangroves. Glenn was on the bow with his 11 wt and a cockroach as we poled into this small pocket of water. There was what appeared to be a small creek inlet, completely covered and shaded by the mangroves. I noticed a tiny bubble or maybe something else but anyway I told Glenn to take a shot. He cast the fly about 5' into the shadows (a total cast of +/-80'). Strip...strip...strip. As the fly came out of the shadows, it was being followed by a 90# tarpon. Glenn's strips picked up speed and the poon rushed the fly. Being a very experienced trout fisherman, Glenn lifted the rod to set the hook and pulled the fly out of the fishes mouth. The fish rushed past the boat and out of the lagoon. Pedro went off on him and so did I. Glenn sat down disgusted with himself. After a couple minutes of shit giving, I took the rod from him and took my place on the bow. After 5-10 minutes I thought I saw something in the same spot Glenn's fish was laying. I put a cast into the shadows and began to strip it out. Again, it was followed by a 90# fish. I sped up and he took the fly and turned back toward the mangroves. I strip set in a HUGE way. Glenn says I panicked and clamped off the line but but I like to think I was giving this poon a little lesson in how to set a hook Missouri style. Nonetheless, the pressure was such that POP, the brand spanking new $75 Scientific Anglers Mastery Series Tarpon 30M Line, became a piece of $0.25 trash when it broke about 20' above the leader. Just imagine our surprise when the fly line popped and we're left standing there watching the end of the line attached to the tarpon disappear into the mangroves. Tarpon 2, humans 0.
We went back out to the permit flat for the rest of the day. We cast to school after school of tailing & mudding permit. It was amazingly beautiful and you could see the fish up to 200 yards away. I boated one more permit and Glenn made some beautiful, perfect casts to mudding/tailing permit only to have a bonefish pick up the fly.
Day 4 - Johnny and I went back to Blackadore Key with Nesto to find more tarpon. The fish back there were bigger (+/-100#) than in all of the other locations (25-50#). We made the run and immediately began to find happy cruising fish. Johnny took the bow, made 1 cast and was tight to a 125# tarpon within 30 seconds. He fought it for about 25 minutes and finally got it to the boat where I attempted to land a 5' fish in a 3' net. All hell broke loose and the net broke but the fish ended up in the boat. It was a beautiful fish...and there were more all around the boat.
It was incredibly hot that morning and there wasn't a breatch of air. I took the bow and immediatley hooked up. It's all about the bite and after 3 jumps, I popped him off and handed the rod to Johnny. We each jumped 3 or 4 more fish each and simply popped them off once they jumped a few times. It was simply too hot to fight them and we didn't want to miss out on the bite! The fish slowed down about 11 and we spent the rest of the day casting to deep, unhappy fish but man, what a morning!
Glenn fished by himself while Tom went snorkeling. Glenn finally succeeded and put a permit in the boat.
El Pescador is a fantastic place for a bunch of fishing nuts to spend 4-5 days. The lodge was great, the food good, the bar (all local liquor & beer are included in the rate) was incredible. Every day we rose to a great breakfast, had a fantastic day of fishing, came back to ice cold Belikins around the pool and had dinner on the beach under a beautiful full moon. I can't wait to get back and do it all again!
