isla del Sabalo trip

[Rick J]

Just returned from a trip to the Yucatan - went with Bill, Don Rotsma, my brother Bob, John Barrena and a friend of his John Burke. We thought we had picked a good week based on moon phases but we got hit with some pretty bad tides that made fishing tough but Isla del Sabalo is a true gem that Bill, Keith and Marco have found - it is absolutely stunning scenery with pristine mangroves and rivers with very clear water!

Photo of van pick up
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Bill pointing to location:
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Arriving at lodge with photo of our dining area and an outdoor dining /drinking area that saw alot of use!!!
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and a storm coming in
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There were three basic fishing options - looking for rolling fish on the outside, 0.5 to 2 miles offshore; looking for fish along the shore line and in the large lagoon flats; and fishing up rivers. Marco found fish one day off-shore but they were scarce. We found them a few times along the shore and in the flats where we often spent early mornings but then normally moved up the rivers.

Typical river:
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Lots of bird life - I kinda wanted to shoot the cormorants that seemed to blast our water - photo of "bird island"
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The frigates and flamingos were more agreeable:
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I will say that anyone that thinks they want to try this and I would highly recommend it even with not alot of fish on this trip - you need to be able to cast 70 to 80 feet and quickly - this is not for novice casters - fish are spooky and water in the flats is very shallow. Our last day we spent most of the time in a huge flat with a number of islands and really found the pods of fish - probably saw over 200 fish in the morning and one pod had close to 100 fish rolling - we had lots of shots and hooked a number and landed a smaller number - but it was a great last day.

Boat coming in at the end of the day
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And boats at night:
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I will post a few photos of fish later

[Darian]

That photo of the pier and approaching storm is mag cover material. Thanks for posting all of 'em. :D :D

[FISHEYE]

Nice report! I look forward to the fish photos. I have been fishing in Belize the last 5 years and I have been thinking about trying further north where you went.

[Rick J]

A bit more on the trip - seems that the winds messed up expected tidal actions that kept a number of fish off the flats thus contributing to fewer fish seen but out the first morning and first fish on and landed
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Bob's first fish - he is a hard core bass fisherman and used conventional bait casting gear that was deadly but also fly fished:
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Fishing a river, hooking a fish and landing a fish:
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There were snook to be found and here is a nice one Bob caught
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The guides did not speak much English so boning up on some Spanish words related to fishing would be a good thing. Although they did not speak English they were excellent guides and quickly positioned the boat to give the angler the best opportunity to get his fly out quickly. Bob and I often both fished with me on the bow and Bob in the middle with conventional gear and our guide Rodrigo would position the boat sideways to the fish making it easy for both of us to cast and we ended up with doubles a couple of times.

[Rick J]

In discussions with Marco, Bill thinks that there are both resident fish (generally smaller) and fish that hang more off-shore (generally larger). It appears that the screwed up tides kept those off-shore fish off the flats. Still, the resident fish generally averaged a bit larger than the fish at Tarpon Cay. The average fish was likely around 7 to 10# but we did have opportunities at larger fish. Bill jumped one up a river that was around 30# and I jumped one probably 20# and both Don and John landed fish in the 15 to 20# range - mostly all on 8 wt rods and let me tell you even the baby fish really pull and can break off 50# class tippet with a surge if you are not on top of your game!