Fly Fishing Blogs | Xcalak on the Fly

If you’re standing on the dock in Xcalak, fly rod in hand with a local fishing guide, staring out at that endless turquoise water, you’ve got a decision to make. The flats and mangroves of Xcalak are alive with three legends of the salt: snook, tarpon, and bonefish. Each one will test you in its…

Saltwater fly fishing looks easy when you see the highlight reels of big tailing permit, bonefish sliding into range, and tarpon blowing up on the fly. But if it’s your first trip, especially somewhere like Xcalak, the reality hits quick: wind in your face, fish vanishing before you even pick up the rod, and your…

Some places just have a rhythm to them, and the waters surrounding Xcalak, Mexico, are no different. It’s the hush of the wind across the mangroves, the push of the tide over white sand, and the whisper of a guide calling out from the poling platform, “Permit. Ten o’clock. Coming in hot.” In that moment,…

You’ve booked your trip to Xcalak or are planning to. So now you’re trying to figure out what you can get ready for. First, get into the mindset that fishing here will be different from the streams of the Rockies or the marshes of the East Coast.  One of the things that makes Xcalak such…

You’re standing ankle-deep in warm Caribbean water, the sun rising behind you like a fireball over the mangroves. The sky is cloudless, and the flats are glass-calm. You scan the turquoise shallows, your guide pointing just ahead, “Permit, eleven o’clock, thirty feet.” You squint, trying to pick out the fish through the glare, but all…