February Thaw

Well now . . . 10 days out of the icebox and into tarpon heaven makes another cold winter month whizz right by.  Boom!  February is history.  I need to do this in January too.  Now I just wish I was still there, or going back soon.

Campeche never gets old.  We fished mostly the same areas I've come to know, but every day is still different.  The wind blew every day from start to finish, but mostly from the east and southeast.  It prevented any offshore fishing, but the mangroves and certain coastline stretches were protected.  Extremely low morning tides early in the trip gave way to perfect falling water the last three mornings.

The week was highlighted by pure fantasy fishing from first light to sun-up on three consecutive mornings.  Tarpon rolling all around us, just begging for a white gurgler to chase and slurp down.  Pop-pop, slurp-slurp!  Just wow. Silly-good.  The shit dreams are made of.  It couldn't have been better, 70-80 minutes of mayhem. We were squeezed out of the islands after a couple of fish on the final morning, but those first two . . . wow.  I'll always want more.

The rest of the fishing followed how these trips go.  A dead first morning, a couple of good steady afternoons as the water came in, a couple of good days fishing the creeks and lagoons, random fish along the coast most days, and a couple of long-ass boat rides for nothing (that still make me scratch my head).

I got lazy with the camera and played with the Go Pro.  The captures from video just don't cut it, at either 60 fps or 120 fps.  The lens is much too wide.  Maybe next time.

Rumor has it the baetis are popping good on the home river.  It's gonna take some time for my mind to get back in tune for wrist casts, trout sets, and 6x.  I'll try.

Hot Fly!

Chewed Gurgler