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IMPORTANT
SITE UPDATE:
Visit the relaunched
Fish & Fly at fishandfly.com
Mangroves are alive and well and living in Holbox
Our August 2003 contribution from Patrick Hillard
Patrick Hillard reports on his trip to Mexico where he went in search
of Mexican tarpon.
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| Holbox Harbour |
It was 8.30pm, pitch dark and no moon when I arrived on Holbox Island (Eesla Holbosh in Spanish). It had been a long day; nine-hour flight, three-hour drive and twenty-minute boat ride to get here. This is the kind of thing that can happen when you like fishing for tarpon. I had made my plans at fairly short notice, three months, and then the first available flight was the middle of October, out of the main season for the big ones, never the less my contact Nassim Joaquin assured me there was still a fair chance of finding Big Moe.
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| Creek tarpon 9lbs |
Holbox is a small island, make that "tiny" measuring four kilometres by a few hundred metres and boasts only one full time fishing guide, Alejandro (Mr Sandflea) Vega and I booked five days guided fishing and left it to him to arrange some modest accommodation. The three and a half hour drive from Cancun to Chiquila the town on the mainland opposite Holbox gave ample time to get acquainted with Sandflea and by the time he dropped me off at my room and gave a quick run down and left saying " see you at six thirty" I just had the energy for a quick shower and lay my stuff out for the morning. Although the night was warm I slept like a log and only needed the ceiling fan and when Alejandro arrived at six thirty I was ready and waiting.
Day one turned out to be a bit of a disappointment as it appeared I would be fishing not with Sandflea but his brother Darwin. Second surprise was that we launched off the beach not from the harbour where we had landed the night before. After loading the icebox and other gear we set off for a place where, the day before hurricane Isidore struck an angler out with Darwin had landed a hundred and fifty-pound fish.
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| Nice 60lber |
But that was three weeks ago, this was now and although Darwin worked hard all day starting off in the channel and then over to the mangroves and poling around lots of lagoons we did not see a single fish all day. I went out for dinner that night feeling a bit dejected but thinking "oh well, tomorrow has to be better".
Day two started with the same routine as before, picked up at six-thirty off to Alejandro's house for a quick coffee then set off fishing except today we headed off in exactly the opposite direction and ran along the coast for forty five minutes, suddenly Sandflea eased back on the throttle and started a searching pattern circling out to sea maybe a mile offshore, after about fifteen minutes we both spotted fish at the same time about a hundred yards away and heading toward us. The fish did not seem to be moving very quickly but Sandflea said " ok get ready" I stripped some line out and almost straight away Sandflea said " ok cast now, long cast far as you can, right, let it sink, let it sink" " yes strip now fast, faster" "ok cast again" but after four or five casts and not a take I was well and truly keyed up. Suddenly there were fish showing all around " Quick long cast, long cast" of course being so keyed up I made a complete mess of it and barely managed forty feet with the Teeny 500. "That's ok" Alejandro reassured me " nice fast strip now" THUMP, and I was frantically trying to strip-strike and clear loose line while the fish ripped line off against the drag, suddenly the angle of the line changed and I knew he was coming up, I bowed the rod as sixty pound's of silver king took to the air, head shaking, gills rattling before landing with a nice splash, he made about three more jumps before settling down to a slug it out kind of fight, ripping line off in nice runs before going down. The water here is only 15ft to18ft deep so they can't really go way down and after about twenty minutes he was on top and being lead where I wanted him looking beaten, then he got a close look at the boat and took off again but after another five minutes I had him back at the boat and Alejandro was able to put the lip gaff in and bring him aboard for a few quick photo's before he was back in the water being revived.
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| Black death, before and after |
I love tarpon, to me they are the epitome of a sport fish, because that's all they are, a sport fish, there's no commercial market for them, no fleets of boats dragging trawls, or long lines just guy's like me who save their hard earned dosh to travel thousands of miles to catch them and let them go. And that's exactly what I did with the next one about half an hour later, it was a really lively thirty five pounder that had taken my "black death" instead of one of the six or seven eighty to one hundred pounders that we could see milling around under the boat. During this time the wind had been steadily increasing and by the time we released the second fish the waves were getting pretty big as well, so it came as no surprise when Sandflea said we would have to leave and go fish the creeks for babies'.
We had a wet ride back but before we reached the village Sandflea turned and headed in toward the shore and then into a creek that I could not see until we were almost into it. Almost instantly we were in a different world with the breakers crashing on the other side of the sand bar the creek was flat calm but not completely out of the wind. As we ran through this wide channel, past the remains of what had been a bridge before the hurricane I realised one thing. Mangroves are alive and well and living in Mexico. Soon the creek brought us out into a vast bay but Alejandro had already cut the engine and was starting to pole along the edge of the mangroves, almost immediately he said "fish ahead, get ready" " I don't see them" "straight ahead. Hundred and twenty metres" Alejandro was poling hard to get us in range but the small school kept just that bit ahead out of range, eventually they slowed down,
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| Moment of release |
"Ok cast now, watch out I'm behind you" but he angled the boat to give me a better shot but after four or five casts and no takes he decided to change my fly. He tied on a very nondescript, dark red deceiver style fly on what looked about a size 1 hook but by now the fish had moved and he had to pole hard to catch up with them. By now we had been chasing this pod of about a dozen fish for almost an hour when they swam into a small bay about thirty yards wide by ten and possibly as much as two feet deep! First cast with the new fly and a hook-up, this was a real baby about three pounds and no match for a nine-weight rod. I managed a couple more fish from the school before they spooked and after lunch we went back into the mangroves.
And I mean " into the mangroves" as we motored along Sandflea suddenly eased back on the throttle and aimed the boat at the trees I just ducked down and when I looked up I could see we were in a creek about two yards wide that after a few minutes of pushing and pulling, lifting and dodging branches etc brought us out into a nice size lagoon where I managed a couple more fish before it was time to leave. This was to be the pattern for the rest of the week, with the wind howling on the outside but gusting gently in the creeks and lagoons. One of the highlights came on Thursday; we had gone through another of those creeks where a machete or even a chainsaw would have been a good idea and checked out a lagoon. But with no luck. On the way out we suddenly spotted tarpon in a small pool up ahead, "make a roll cast to them"
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| A real baby |
"Yeah right" " go on you can do it" amazingly I did do it and made an almost perfect presentation and immediate hook up and landed a nice eight pound fish " they're still there, cast again" but just as I did so there came a loud ZZZZ, ZZZZ, ZZZZ damn mosquitoes I thought but then I felt a sting and another and Alejandro was shouting " Hold on, we're out of here " and he was gunning the engine as we both frantically beat off the swarm of bees who's territory we had obviously invaded but had seen no sign of when we went into the creek. We spent the next half-hour picking bee stings out of each other and dabbing on anti-histamine. Sandflea assured me this not a regular occurrence.
I've made several tarpon trips and been fortunate enough to catch some pretty big ones but this was my first time fishing for babies and my first time fishing close in to mangroves. It was a pretty steep learning curve for me being asked to make accurate casts under branches two feet above the water or gaps in the trees a yard wide, but it's very exciting fishing and very satisfying when the guide say's "good cast "or " well done". We made one more attempt at the big ones before I left but although the wind had dropped the sea was still quite high and deep down I knew we were out of luck.
Then it was Sunday morning and time to leave, of course by then the sea was flat calm and the wind was non existent but as the saying goes That's fishing". Alejandro was one of the nicest guides you could fish with, nothing was too much trouble, he worked hard all week, he praised me when I did things right he didn't go ballistic when I did things wrong (even when I hooked him) suffice to say I intend going back probably in 04 and sometime between May and August. Jan has already expressed an interest in joining me so any one else who may be interested, give me a call.
Patrick Hillard lives and works in King's Lynn, has saltwater fished most of Europe. For the last ten years has fly fished for tarpon from Costa Rica to Mexico. For advice on tackle and tarpon fishing holidays, lodges and prices e-mail pat@phillard.fsnet.co.uk