What a year. Although unacceptable that I have not been posting stories as they have taken place this year, definitely wanted to take the time to get some posts in before the New Year. For the sake of everyone, I won’t dive into the absurdity of everything that has taken place in 2020. With this said, I will say one thing on behalf of every fly-fisherman out there : can’t wait to travel more for some fishing adventures in 2021.

Fortunately on my end, my dad and I were able to get in an Isla Holbox tarpon trip right before much of the lockdowns took place. Although many tarpon trips are “time of year” dependent, Isla Holbox is one of the few places on earth where tarpon can be caught year round. Personally, I think that fishing during the “winter” in Holbox can be some of the most productive. This year was a perfect example.

We arrived in Holbox just after the start of the New Year to beautiful weather, a quiet island, and lots of “snacky” feeling fish. Although the wind and time of year was not conducive for going after the “larger” tarpon, the conditions were looking solid for the juveniles (ranging anywhere from 5-30 pounds). Although our first day of fishing was a bit quiet due to wind and fish staying down, on our second day of fishing, we tore it up. Fish were rolling everywhere in smalls schools, and we had enough light to watch it all go down. Throwing the lightest flies we had in either yellow/brown, or in tan/white, we were able to land four tarpon (one being an absolute stud of a juvenile that was pushing 30 pounds and pushed our 8-weight to it’s limit). This fish specifically was the largest “juvenile” that I have caught back in the mangroves – was pretty special to watch it come out of a school of three fish to engulf the fly and go air born.

Day 2 of our trip seemed to just set the tone for the rest of the week. Now that we were well on the board, we wanted to use the rest of the week to fish in new spots, connect into some more fish, as well as mix it up with techniques every now and then. Although the majority of the time in Holbox will be spent pulling across the mangroves and flats surrounding them, we took some time this trip to find a few “drop off” channels and throw some clouser style flies to mix it up a bit. What was nice about this strategy was that you would run into the occasional snook (too many to count), mangrove snapper, or jack if the tarpon were tight lipped. Anyone that has spent any type on my blog or followed the fishing that I do knows that I don’t discriminate against any fish species (for the most part), and Holbox provides terrific diversity in between tarpon sessions.

We were fortunate enough in our last couple of days to find some massive schools of tarpon in crystal clear water. I’m talking 50+ fish easy that were making their way up and down the flats, and were rolling consistently throughout the day. As weird as this might sound, there were almost so many fish that it actually made them more challenging than if they were in small groups or individually being thrown at. Keep in mind that the water here was less than two feet deep and clear as can be, so all it took was for one fish to spook to throw off the rest. The trick with these fish was to throw as light and natural of a looking fly as humanly possible, lead the fish by 30+ feet and let the fly wait, to only be stripped when the fish were in range to see it. With the sun as high as it was, these fish could tell when fly line was flinging around, so we had to get these casts down quick and well ahead of time. Fortunately for us, the fish were willing to cooperate once we had the right fly on.

My dad and I were very lucky to get this trip in before the madness of 2020 kicked into gear. Here is to many more Holbox trips ahead of us, and a quick gratitude moment of being able to have this trip line up in the way that I did.

Joe