TR: Mexican baby Tarpon and other bits - lots of pics

So I just got back from accompanying a group for a few days of fishing at one of the best baby tarpon destination on the planet. Luckily my travel department handles it exclusively. Tarpon Cay Lodge is in the sweet little fishing villiage of San Felipe in the state of Yucatan. It's a super clean nice little town, with a sweet cheap hotel. The fishing was stupid fun, as the number of baby poons is up this year along with their size. Additionally we had good luck going after some bigger fish. I started off my Tarpon career with a bang proceeding to hook 2 50+ pound fish my first morning. I'll let the pics do the rest, most courtesy of my travel guy Keith of Angling on the Fly.

San Felipe is a nice little town far away from the drug cartels etc all over the news
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...iny4/poon5.jpg

The Lodge is very comfortable and you literally walk out the door to get on the boats.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...iny4/poon7.jpg

The guides are amazing, super relaxed and fun, and gave a lot of cool insight into Mayan culture
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ny4/poon15.jpg

It's a lot of sight casting on flats to rolling tarpon like this
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ny4/poon12.jpg

They tend to go a bit bonkers when hooked
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...iny4/poon8.jpg

An average baby is all you can handle on a 9 weight, landing ration is maybe 1/4
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a103/astiny4/poon.jpg

Fishing in the mangroves is quite fun
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...iny4/poon4.jpg


Here I am hooked into a 50 pound brute that 15 minutes, 100 yards of backing, and a lot of jumps later threw the hook, pretty helpless feeling even on a stout 10 weight
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...iny4/poon2.jpg

I got lucky and hooked another 50+ biggun that went apeshit, here I am in disappointment as I see the fish jumping one way and the fly going the other
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...iny4/poon3.jpg

One of my friends and customers Paul has been here 4 or 5 times, he brought this guy to the boat and hooked a 3 more grandes
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...iny4/poon6.jpg

We had great baby fishing jumping an average of 10 per session (2 sessions a day) This was the remnants of a fly that lasted a whole sesh, somehow
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...iny4/poon9.jpg

We decided to get some culture and wandered into a bullfight in the next town over, Rio Lagartos. The stadium was 2 stories literally lashed together out of mangroves, driftwood, and 2x4's. Here I am making my way up the escalator to the upper deck.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ny4/poon13.jpg

Once the festivities started we were quite shocked to find out that the matadors were all little people...
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ny4/poon14.jpg

Overall a rad trip where the fishing is bueno and the living is easy, I'll go back every summer for the rest of my life. It's pretty damn cheap at $2800 for 5 days of fishing all inclusive. Mexico's a weird place where the wealth disparity between the upper and lower class is overwhelming but it was refreshing to see happy and healthy people living off as little as $10 a day, If anyone's ever interested pm me and I can give more details
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ny4/poon10.jpg

Amazing pics buddy...add another destination to my bucket list

Nice. I could summa dat.

Looks like a hell of a place.

Nice. I think that tarpon and silvers are my favorite species to go after with the fly rod. Tarpon are definitely a frustrating fish at times, but that makes it so much more rewarding to land one. And you are right, they go bezerk.

Nice TR thanks for posting up!

What are the transportation logistics for getting there from the U.S.?

Mike, fly to Cancun which was just under 4 hours from our connection in Pheonix. They'll pick you up at the Cancun airport and drive you the 3 hours over to San Felipe. If you join a group that's going they have air conditioned vans to take everyone, if you show up on your own one of the employees or owners, Marco, Jesial, or Rafael will drive you over in their personal vehicles which are all newer Jeep Grand Cherokee's. We've been working with them for close to 10 years now and they are top notch, very professional and speak English. I really enjoyed the drive over and seeing the Real Mexico. I never felt unsafe at all.

Nice pics.

http://vimeo.com/47294359
Only took video for a couple hours when the fishing was stupid one afternoon but this gives you an idea of what its like. Stoked to go back next year, looks like our group has 1 spot open....