Angler Adventures’ Liam Rosati scored a traditional fly-fishing inshore super grand slam earlier this spring on a short four-day tour of Playa Blanca Lodge. Permit. Tarpon. Bonefish. Snook.
The lightly fished waters of Espiritu Santo Bay—coveted by permit anglers and adventurous mixed-bag anglers alike—need little introduction. Playa Blanca has been a premier fly-fishing destination with a long waiting list for decades. We had an opening at the lodge and sent Liam down to see how the operation runs and to experience the fishery firsthand.
Heavy trade winds lashed the bay on Liam’s first morning and made sight fishing virtually impossible for much of the day. His guide still shouted “Permit!” more than once, but Liam could not see the fish or deliver an accurate cast. Despite the difficult conditions, the mood back at the lodge stayed infectiously optimistic—other anglers were connecting with permit, bonefish, and tarpon in different areas of the bay.
When the wind eased the next day, Liam’s guide said, “Yesterday was tough. Today let’s start by stretching your line on some bonefish.” And they did. Most of the bones ran one to two pounds—what they lacked in size they made up for in numbers. The bay’s bonefish are especially light in color with mirror finishes and pink coral-colored fin tips, which makes them difficult to see even when nervous water gives them away. The hot fly was a sparsely tied spawning shrimp. After lunch they turned to permit hunting. Liam had several nice shots and a brief, heart-pounding follow, but did not convert an eater.
With sixteen hours of fishing time left on day three, Liam felt the pressure to connect with a permit. Southeast winds had picked up but were not quite as strong as on day one. The guide poled into a protected cove where the water lay shiny slick. They encountered a large shoal of happily tailing permit. After horsing in some aggressive jacks, Liam hooked a fish that shook the rod and changed directions several times before hunkering down under the skiff. Eventually he landed his permit—a small model by the bay’s standards, but a permit nonetheless.
Poling along the shore and scanning for larger tails, they came into a long spread of rolling tarpon. The hot fly was an olive-and-white streamer. After a few jumps and drops, Liam landed an acrobatic baby tarpon. After lunch they drifted down tide; the guide told him to put the spawning shrimp back on. A long cast into nervous water produced Liam’s grand-slam bonefish. They spent the rest of the afternoon looking for permit over deeper flats, buoyed by the slam, but did not see another.
On the run back to the boat launch Liam asked about snook. The guide smiled and said, “Sí, Señor Liam,” and about fifteen minutes later they were along an island of old-growth mangroves—a rare sight in hurricane country. Liam cast and gently dropped his streamer between roots at the sight of a rusty gold shape moving against the tide. Without hesitation she turned and charged his Deceiver. After several stunning leaps and a match of tug-of-war, he boated his snook and added another feather to his guide’s cap (and his) for a super grand slam.
On his last fishing day Liam got to fish Tarpon Lagoon. They battened down the hatches and fixed the gear tight to the lagoon boat. Prone on the bow, he grabbed the mangroves and pulled the boat through an arboreal tunnel into the opening of the lagoon network. Crocodiles watched from a distance and roseate spoonbills stood fast on their favorite fishing spots. Standing on the bow, he had many ten- to twenty-pound tarpon chase down his streamer and go ballistic once the hook found purchase. He spent much of the day bowing to these silver princes. Many of the tarpon here have never felt the sting of a hook.
If you’d like to talk about Playa Blanca or are ready to make your next cast in the wilds of the Yucatan, please give Angler Adventures a call or shoot us an email.
Related Links
- Playa Blanca Lodge (Espiritu Santo Bay, Yucatan)
- Mexico fly-fishing destinations
- Angler Adventures contact card
Credits and shout-outs
- Angler: Liam Rosati
- Photos: Matt DeLorme · @mdelormephoto
- Lodge: Playa Blanca Lodge