We recently took a family vacation to Cancun to get away for a bit. Of course, I had to book a flats trip since the last time I was there in 2010, I landed my first tarpon on a fly rod. Since it was the whole family this time, we had to book two boats. My son and I were in one boat and my wife and daughter were in the other boat.
We started off at sunrise and almost immediately our boat hit a school of permit. I found out how much I need to practice my saltwater fly casting, but we did our best to sneak in close to the school of about 500 fish. I laid out a great cast, had a take, and set the hook perfectly. After about 20 seconds, my line went slack. I reeled in to see the fly gone and my leader broken above the knot. As we were discussing what happened, a 5-6 foot lemon shark rolled on the surface about 10 feet from our boat! I'm guessing that is what happened to my fish and the fly. We quickly tied on a new fly and then our guide rigged a spinning rod for Jacob to cast off the side while I was launching flies. He ended up missing two hook sets and I hooked another fish. This one worked out and I ended up landing a ladyfish that sneaked in between us and the permit. The guide dismissed it as a trash fish (which they are to sport-fisherman), but I was proud and excited to finally break in my Orvis 9wt with a landed fish! The permit finally spooked, so we took off after tarpon again. It didn't take long to find rolling tarpon, but they were super picky and wouldn't take a fly. I let Jacob jump up front for his turn and he had a blast. His first cast landed a mangrove snapper! Not long after that, a tarpon came surging out of the mangroves and caught everyone by surprise. It was over as soon as it happened. We worked our way around the mangroves and our guide spotted 6-7 tarpon swimming up ahead, but there were 3-4 barracuda between us and them. Jacob needed a long cast to get past the cuda, but landed right in front of them. They didn't disappoint and grabbed his lure before he could get away from them. It was his biggest cuda to date (about 18"), but we opted to forego pics and get back after the tarpon, which were still there. About 10 casts later, he finally got everything lined up and a nice little tarpon hooked him up! He fought it amazingly and it jumped three times before it took him straight to the mangroves and broke him off. It looked to be about a 10-15 lb class tarpon and the look on his face said it all. He LOVES tarpon fishing now!
Shortly after that, we found another school of rolling tarpon and it was my turn. I had a take on my fly rod and managed to set the hook. Two jumps later, the fish was gone because I forgot to give it slack on the jump, even though I “bowed to the king” lowering my rod. The school didn’t spook and I had a few more takes, but I couldn’t get a hook set. On three or four of the takes, I stood the, mesmerized, as I watched the tarpon inhale my fly and then spit it out. The other couple of takes resulted in me reverting to a “trout set” and yanking the fly completely out of the fish’s mouth. When we got back to the boat, I found out my wife landed a nice 15-20 lb class tarpon and my daughter had a couple of missed strikes. We saw lots of sting rays, including eagle rays, and my wife’s boat saw a crocodile from a safe distance. Man, I love saltwater flats fishing! If you’re down there and interested, I highly recommend Cancun Fly Fishing (https://www.cancunflyfishing.net/). Enrique and his son, Bernardo, do a great job!
I really hate that pics come out sideways and upside down and I can't fix them on this, despite my best efforts. My apologies for the crazy pics and my ignorance at how to manage them.