[Kfish]

The day of fishing at Isla Blanca with Captain Enrique was highly anticipated since it was next to the last day of our stay in Cancun. 5:30 am could not come soon enough to start heading out to get a taxi. As I walked briskly in the dark from our resort section to the main lobby I noticed a figure who is also heading in the same direction, two stories above, packed fly rod on his back. We met and talked briefly at the main resort entrance, another fly guy from Indiana who's heading Cozumel. We wished each other good luck and departed in our taxis.
My taxi took me to the hotel zone of Cancun where Capt. Enrique showed up not a minute later. Hopping into his Jeep Cherokee we were on our way to the boat docks.
We arrived at the dock and loaded our gears, gas tank and cooler and headed out into the calm sea as the sun peeked over the horizon.

It was a good boat ride, about 25 minutes til we reached the mangrove lagoons and started to look for signs of tarpons. I showed the Capt. my flies, "muy bien!" And proceeded to tie on a pink/white marabou fly.
Moving around the lagoon we started to spot tarpon rollings and bubbles. "Cast there!" I was so excited I casted like crap, flies not turning over properly, landing on the side here and there. No interest from the fish after about 15 minutes we changed over to the Puglisi minnow and I immediately was getting getting taps. He told me to keep working in that shady mangrove pocket, cast, wait for about 5 seconds for the fly to sink, then strip, rod tip to the water, strip, strip, strip...and the line went tight! Whoo hoo! A silvery fish jumped from afar as I tried to keep a taught line by pulling in as much line as I could. The tarpon thrashed, shook his head, turned directions and jumped very close to the boat he almost went onboard. After a few minutes it tuckered out and I pulled him along boat side for Enrique to unhook and quick photo.

My first! It was an average sized tarpon for the area. I proceeded to catch 2 more in the same area after changing out a few more fly patterns to finally a tan tarpon toad that produced, the second was a smaller one and third the largest of the day. He was hanging out way back in a V shaped mangrove pocket that I somehow managed to put the fly in that "perfecto" spot.
In between those few "perfecto!" and "good!" casts were a lot of "Hmm" and "Eh..." and "too short" and countless fly hangups in the mangroves.

After the third fish we moved to a different area that involved crossing a very shallow flat and that I had to sit on the bow to balance out the boat's draft. This spot had a more murky brown tinge to it comparing to the previously green water. The sun was hot and high and fish activities were noticeably less. It was less common to see their rolls and bubbles so we systematically worked the shady pockets and changed flies a few times again. After a contrasting green/tan tarpon toad and green/white deceiver that didn't work we changed to a purple flashabou with black anadromous brush hackles and epoxied eyes and it was fish on one after another! That dark but flashy fly tied with steelhead materials had a lot of movements proved to be a winner. I tied it on a whim really and it turned out to be very effective. You can see how beat up it was at the end of the day.
These worked. Note the eyes on the minnow are gone and head of the purple fly all scraped up

These did not.

To wrap it up, a great day of fishing despite the brutal heat and being baked by the sun. I'm glad I got the wrap around hat and gloves along with long sleeve shirt, they proved to be worth every penny. The Rio bonefish line I wasn't too thrilled with, the running section tangled a lot and it would be great if the head was heavier/shorter to load more easily for shorter casts, but perhaps I just picked the wrong type of line.
The dorky goPro body cam mount works well, frankly I was embarrassed to put it on but I'm glad I did to get the footage, should have gotten a few more battery packs since the one didn't last all that long.
Regarding the guide, I'd recommend Enrique to anyone wanting to fish the area and would not hesitate to book with him again next time I'm in Cancun.
Here is a amateurish video for your viewing pleasure

 

[Nick Clayton]

Great report Lou! Sounds like a great trip. I'm very happy your day was a success. Very jealous! Some day I'll get to do some of that fishing.

 

[GOTY]

Epic! Nice work. That video is sweet...mend left line zooms right.

 

[Porter]

Sweet report and nice pics! Curious what knot(s) to your flies? I can't quit make out, reminds me (or appears like) figure 8 Loop.....?

 

[Kfish]

Sweet report and nice pics! Curious what knot(s) to your flies? I can't quit make out, reminds me (or appears like) figure 8 Loop.....?

Honestly I'm not quite sure, the Capt. tied it on for me with a section of shock tippet from his spool. When I have time I'll take the knot apart to investigate.
Here's a close up

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Batt B]

Shiny fish. Thanks for the report and images. I wanna do that again some day.

 

[Gard Nale]

Awesome reportage! Headed out for some of this kind of fishing myself next week so thanks for the stokage.

What weight rods? I'm a little worried about trying to throw a 11wt!

 

[Thrasybulus]

Very nice report and photos/video. That looks like a great baby tarpon fishery down there. Thanks for sharing.

The knot for fly to shock tippet looks like a Perfection Loop. 8 weights are perfect for tarpon that size.

 

[Kfish]

Yeah the Salt 8wt was perfect for those fish, not too over or under. If its really windy then 10 or 11wt would be beneficial. The day I was there it was breezy, not too windy.
Good luck Yardsale!

 

[past user]

Well done!

 

[cnnorgil]

Glad you had a good day! Got me jealous and wanting to go back!

 

[GelJockey]

For a recent snook fishing trip I took, I needed to learn to tie a loop knot. I came across two knots via YouTube.

1. Canoe Loop Knot - very easy to tie except that until you get the hang of it, it is very difficult to control the size of the loop.

2. Non Slip Loop Knot - a little more difficult to tie, but more control in the size of the loop.

 

[Porter]

Thanks. That loop knot is a bit different but worth trying. I have used the rappala loop knot. But this one looks simpler.

 

[BigLeboski]

That's awesome man, nice job.

 

[Kfish]

Thanks Bruce, I have never seen that Canoe Loop knot but it looks useful especially in cold weather.

 

[ffb]

I suck at tying a non slip loop knot for my fly connection and when I'm tired or trying to swap flies out quick I always end up going back to clinch. I've had a couple fail on me as well but i think it was just bad knot tying on my part. After reading the comments here and looking at those knots I practiced a few perfection loop knots to fly connection and I love it! I can tie it just as fast or faster than the clinch and easily adjust the size of the loop. I've always used the perfection loop to connect leader to fly line but for some reason never thought of doing it for fly connection.

I guess my only concern would be the tag end sticking out at 90 degrees but I imagine trimmed short shouldn't have any noticeable affect on fly action.

 

[Batt B]

I suck at tying a non slip loop knot for my fly connection and when I'm tired or trying to swap flies out quick I always end up going back to clinch. I've had a couple fail on me as well but i think it was just bad knot tying on my part. After reading the comments here and looking at those knots I practiced a few perfection loop knots to fly connection and I love it! I can tie it just as fast or faster than the clinch and easily adjust the size of the loop. I've always used the perfection loop to connect leader to fly line but for some reason never thought of doing it for fly connection.

I guess my only concern would be the tag end sticking out at 90 degrees but I imagine trimmed short shouldn't have any noticeable affect on fly action.

Perfection loop is a weak knot. They have a tendency to give out at about 60% line test strength. Use with caution.

 

[ffb]

Perfection loop is a weak knot. They have a tendency to give out at about 60% line test strength. Use with caution.

Thanks I'll keep an eye on it. I've been using perfection loop on the leader to fly line connection on my salt rigs where I'm using straight 8lb Maxima UG and haven't had any issues so far but then again I haven't hooked an 8lb sea run or rezzie yet.

 

[Thrasybulus]

The Perfection Loop is a great knot, as is the Nonslip Loop knot. The size (diameter) of your shock tippet is a good guide for which knot to select for your saltwater fly. When rigging for adult tarpon, knot selection gets more complicated and opinionated.

 

[Batt B]

Thanks I'll keep an eye on it. I've been using perfection loop on the leader to fly line connection on my salt rigs where I'm using straight 8lb Maxima UG and haven't had any issues so far but then again I haven't hooked an 8lb sea run or rezzie yet.

I used to use the p-loop for the same application. I don't recall breaking many (any?) fish off on it, but when I would snag up and have to break off I would lose the whole straight leader b/c the p-loop would break before the tippet-to-fly knot.
It's a handy knot; just be careful where you use it.