The last two hosted trips for the winter/spring of 2014 just finished up at the end of May. We had two separate groups, back to back, with 12 anglers each week down to The Palometa Club at Ascension Bay Mexico. Ascension bay offers good fishing for Tarpon, Bonefish, Snook, Permit, as well as other species like Barracuda and Snapper. Most everybody who joined us on both weeks were mainly hunting for Permit.
Our first week was comprised of a mix of first time flats anglers, anglers who had never caught a Permit, and experienced flats/Permit anglers. Our arrival coincided perfectly with a rare, strong north wind. A strong north flow is fairly rare in May in the Carribean. Although not packing any punch in terms of cold air, the 25 MPH winds from the north made things tough through most of the week. A north or East wind of any strength is not a great thing when fishing Ascension Bay.
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| A beautiful example of Ascension Bay Permit |
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| Stunning, 26 pound Permit, thanks to Greg B. |
Everyone plodded through the less than perfect weather and a few Permit were caught during the first week. Certainly not a banner week for our Palometa Club trips (thanks to the weather) but five Permit landed is better than most places you'l travel to. One of the couples on the trip, Graeme and Mary, had never fly fished on the salt water flats before and did a great job cutting their teeth catching Tarpon, Snook, Bonefish, and gave it their all trying to get a Permit. They were a real treat to have along.
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| Looking for the nasty critters…with bad light. |
One of the high lights of the week was Maureen getting her very first Permit. A very respectable 14 pounder is a great first!
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| First Permit for Maureen |
Then, on the last day of the week, she followed up with a very impressive fish of just over 30 pounds!
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| Second Permit for Maureen, somewhat larger than the first. |
A big thanks to Bob L., Ron R., Graeme D., Mary C., Doug L., Bob K., Raza T., Greg B., Dave P, and Terry A. for joining us and making such a great group.
On the day that our first group headed home the weather started to improve markedly. With our second group not arriving until later that evening, it allowed me and one of the guides to go "play fishing" for the day. The better weather translated into happier fish very quickly. The number of shots at happier fish was better than I had seen all week. A couple of Permit stuck made for a very nice day. |
| Relaxing at the bar. |
Our second group offered up a more experienced flats fishing crew on the whole. Some had never caught Permit before but had spent a lot of time in the salt. The first part of the week you couldn't have made any of this group hunt anything but Permit…no matter what you threatened them with.
The weather cooperated reasonably well for the first part of the week, with good light and average, 12-15 knot winds. Even the wind direction was shifting to a more normal SE flow.
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| Chris D. with his first Mexico Permit |
Permit were landed almost every day, with Ryan W, Doug P., and Andy W. getting their first Permit ever. Completely awesome!Cloud cover increased over the last couple of days with higher wind speeds, making for tougher conditions. A few of the guys headed off to do some Tarpon fishing rather than fighting the weather with decent success on the smaller, resident Tarpon of Ascension.
Two others went and caught about 20 Bonefish in about an hour to take their minds off the deteriorating weather.
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| Doug P. with his first ever Permit. On his first week ever Permit fishing! |
Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 Palometa Club trip dates are all set. Check the dates at
Country Pleasures Travel - Palometa Club All of us at CP, and the Permit of Ascension, would love to have you join us.
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