Humbled by the salt...

[Matt4.0]

Just returned from Mexico, including a day fishing the mangroves for juvenile tarpon. This was my second trip fly fishing saltwater, although I didn't get much in the way of experience from the first one a year ago.

This time I thought I was more prepared. Picked up a 9wt setup and actually practiced casting with it a bit before the trip. The problem (one of them at least) is that most of my practice with it was at 50+ feet and seeing far I could throw it as I had it in the back of my head that would be the majority of the targeting I'd be doing.

Well, after a 30 or so minute ride out on the panga the guide polls into a small mangrove-surrounded lagoon, and we immediately see tarpon rolling regularly. The guide then positions us in a spot where we see can see them coming up within 30' +\- from the bow.

I guess I hadn't pictured this kind of fishing, as the water was pretty much opaque the strategy was "wait until you see one roll, and either cast on top of it or to either side if we could tell which direction it was moving". As a trout fisherman, I'm fairly confident I could have hit these spots pretty well with a 5wt in my hand, but I simply wasn't prepared to "accurately" be able get enough line out and hit the spot at those shorter distances quickly enough every time with the 9wt.

With that said, I didn't miss all of them. In fact my 2nd cast I had a take...did a proper strip set...and promptly turned the rod sideways from trout fishing instinct and adrenaline....fish gone. Next couple I had chasing my bug I think I stripped in too fast and never really gave them a shot at a solid take. Only other one I actually got a set on chased it all the way to the boat and finally took it with less than 3' of leader still out of the rod tip!! Of course then one quick jump 2' off the boat and it was gone .

Cant complain "too" much about my guide as he got me more shots at tarpon than I could have expected, but I didn't feel there was much effort on his part to instruct much other than saying "cast there". For example after blowing a couple chases I asked what I should be doing differently while stripping and I didn't get much more than a shoulder shrug.

After 2-3 hours of futility on my end I told him we should give my wife a chance with a spin rod. She of course immediately catches a small snapper, then after a lunch break he takes us out in a bay area as the wind really started picking up, and proceeds to let us drift downwind throwing plastic worms. Wife hooks a decent sea trout and he asks if we mind if he keeps it...I could care less but I feel that was his only goal for the afternoon by the time we had lunch. Wife caught a couple more and seemed to be halfway enjoying it, and I didn't imagine my accuracy would be any better with 3x the wind we had in the morning so I just let it go.

All in all one of the more frustrating days I've had on the water. But, it still beat the heck out of a day at the office, and now I have a better idea of what and how to practice (and more time to do so), so I'll be back!

Also, was hoping to find some DIY opportunities where we stayed on Isla Mujeres but as others on this forum guessed there weren't really any conducive spots, at least not that I found.

 

[lacivic99]

I enjoyed your write up. I do a lot of fishing for juvenile tarpon in Florida, and it sounds like a really similar experience. Casting in the murky mangrove backwaters at rolling tarpon. Sometimes you can see 15 of them, all rolling, but it's really hit or miss whether they're interested. And even if you get them interested, landing 1/4 fish is an excellent catch rate. I caught my first two tarpon I hooked, became obsessed, and proceeded to miss the next 10 over the next 6 trips.

I've found that casting at rolling fish is a fools errand, and you're just as likely to catch them blind casting. By the time you get your fly out to a rolling fish, they're probably 3 feet under the surface. It's always good to see rolling tarpon cause you know they're there, but definitely a tough target to lead.

A lot of it just comes down to things out of our control, but it's fun to dissect and think of ways to tip the scales in our favor. Hope this helps. Come to Florida if you want some practice in between your next Mexico trip

 

[clsmith131]

Still sounded like fun. Every time I get a chance to tangle with "the silver king", I get excited. Here's a picture of the mate holding the leader on one of my bigger tarpon, just before it broke off.From Boca Grande

 

[tomilg]

Tx_Newb,

Glad to her you were able to get out on a Panga and see some fish....where did you end up going, Isla Blanca?

Did you get any shots at Bonefish or Jacks?

 

[Matt4.0]

Tx_Newb,

Glad to her you were able to get out on a Panga and see some fish....where did you end up going, Isla Blanca?

Did you get any shots at Bonefish or Jacks?

Yep, Isla Blanca, seemed to be the southwest side of it. No shots at bonefish or jacks.

 

[tomilg]

Even though we have wide open spaces down here in the salt, the majority of shots are within 30-40 feet. When we were out several weeks ago, off the beach, we got spied a school a big Permit just feeding along the surf line, but staying pretty much in a small area. They were only about 40 feet off the beach, and after wading in about 15 feet and casting to them, we couldn't even get them look at our flies.

One of our local guides that we regularly fish with, was casting for baby Tarpon at 30 feet or so, when he had 2 other Tarpon swim right right in front of him, not three feet away!

 

[tex68w]

The majority of shots on the flats down here are usually 30-50ft, that hasn't stopped me from practicing 50-70ft recently, it's good to be confident in those longer distances for that moment when you need it. I was talking to a buddy yesterday about how I feel I need a lot of work at that 70-90ft cast and I was asking him for pointers and he replied, "you don't need that 80ft shot in Texas if you have a good guide pushing behind you!"

As soon as school is out for the summer down here, I plan to get over to the practice football field and set out some paper plates to work on tossing to targets at different distances.