You’ll start your day with breakfast and a sunrise coffee from the beachside palapa. Afterwards, you’ll meet your guides at the dock just steps from the palapa. From there you’ll motor along the coast possibly encountering tarpon and barracuda before settling in to chase bonefish and permit, most likely in Chetumal Bay.
Chetumal Bay is a shallow water flats fishery, featuring a dazzling array of blues and greens. The Bay is a consistent, year-round producer. The Zaragoza Canal, between Xcalak and the Bay allows for healthy exchange of fish and water, rich in shrimp and crabs.
The species include the Grand Slam of Permit, Bonefish, Tarpon and Snook, with Permit the primary focus of most anglers who visit.
You’ll target bonefish and tarpon from the bow deck of the panga and wade in shallow water as well. You’ll mostly scout for Permit from the panga, but then exit and wade closer, to make a stealthy approach
If you're really serious about catching Permit during the week of your trip we recommend bringing two 9-10 wt rods, 1 with an intermediate sink tip like the Rio flats pro stealth tip and one with floating line. 16-20 lb fluorocarbon leader and size 2-8 flies. The permit really seem to like mantis shrimp patterns, becks fleeing crabs, ragheads, and strong arm merkins, baby lobster, and flexos, but having a wide variety of permit flies in white, tan, and olive will help. We typically fish very shallow for our permit so very light landing flies are a must, beadchain and small lead eyes are typically the go-to choice.
For Bonefish, we recommend 7-8 wt rods with floating line, 12-16 lb fluorocarbon leader, and size 6,8 flies. The bonefish really like mantis shrimps, bonefish magic, crazy charlies, bonefish bitters, and gotchas in tan, pink,olive, and white.
For Tarpon, we recommend an 8-9 wt rod. Typically you are chasing the tarpon early in the morning along the mangrove edges and in the lagoons. 20-40 lb leader is perfect and when they’re in the mood to bite they will eat a variety of bait fish patterns in sardines and mullet intimations and OG tarpon flies like tarpon toad, black death, gummy minnows and ep minnows, in black and red, purple and black, chartreuse, and red and white in size 2-2/0.
On a daily basis you’ll see Barracuda and Snook on the flats. Along the patch reefs and coral heads you may also find triggerfish ready to chase a fly. In the fall and winter months we see snook in the lagoons and along the beach feeding on bait. There are a ton of snapper and other reef fish that will give a good tug on your line throughout the day. It’s completely up to you what species you would like to target for the day and in Xcalak there’s a wide variety of species to go after.
Just be sure to talk with your Wild on the Fly Travel Coordinator to convey what you’re looking to target on your days of fishing. While many start with a plan to target all species, plans can quickly devolve into Permit Fever!
