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Casa Blanca Fishing Lodge Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Oct 26 - Nov 4, 2007
Well, I took another one of my Foo-Foo fishing trips with my good friend and buddy, Tony Patti.
We went down to the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, near Belize (British Honduras for all of us old farts)
and Guatemala. We fished 6 days there and here is my story. As I recollect.
Landed in Cancun on Friday the 25th of October. Had to spend the night there and then go on over
to Casa Blanca. Tony and I were suppose to meet the next day and fly over together.
Then I got a call at the hotel and was told that I was going to fly out @ 7:30AM.
I stayed at the Raddison El Centro. It was about 15-20 minutes from the airport. $80.00 frickin
US dollars for a "private" cab, round trip!. What a rip-off! I later found out that it was actually a
$20.00 fare back. Sad that the Mexican's feel that they have to rip off the tourists on the way in.
Left a real bad taste in my mouth. And I let the local employees that worked for Casa Blanca
know how I felt. I won't go into details. Ask Tony!
Took this little 4 seater Cessna out of Cancun.
Stopped in Playa Carmen to pick up some other guests.
This is Larry and Elaine. (Photo taken later, obviously) We flew on to Casa Blanca together.
They are Alaskan fly-fisherpersons from Anchorage that really know how to enjoy life. And what
a life they lead! They had just been fishing down in Brazil and had fished in Russia and other
places so numerous that I cannot even remember. I am so jealous!
And then we headed South.
A beautiful coastline. Following are a few of the shots I took on the way down
Lots of reefs and beautiful water.
The end of this spit of land is Punta Allen, I believe. You can drive there from Cancun. It takes a
bout 3-4 hours, and then you can rent a Panga and, actually, get to Casa Blanca. But then you have to leave.
This is a distant view of Casa Blanca. You can see the resort there in the middle of the photo,
on the little point. Accention Bay is to the right and on the other side of that green strip.
Following are the photos I took of Casa Blanca on our approach.
Here we are approaching the landing strip with Casa Blanca Lode there on the point.
That little white strip up there in the left top is the strip. A real small strip!
Here is our gracious host, Tom, carrying my "over-sized" box of tackle from the plane.
I definitely over-packed. As usual!
Here is the area where the guests would socialize when the resort was max'd out @ 20 guests. Our group was 6!
Here's a huge anchor and some glass floats that they had recovered and was a nice "art piece" for that area.
The rooms were very nice but could have used a comfortable place to sit. We mentioned that to
Tom and, immediately, he had someone bring us a second chair for our room. The service was exceptional in that regard.
I had a nice king size (sorta) bed and Tony had his choice of the doubles.
I had a few hours before Tony arrived so I killed some time with the camera. Just a beautiful and tropical spot.
Very tropical!
Tony finally showed up. Thank God! I was getting a little bored. Larry and Elaine had disappeared.
They had gone surf fishing. I read a little before Tony aived and I even took a quick nap. That was the last time I was bored.
Here are a couple of the reasons why! On your right is Mike. On your left is DAN! The MAN!
These guys are jet pilots. Mike flies for Jet Blue Airline. Dan fly fishes, and then fits flying jets
around for Fed Ex and the government when he can. I think this photo will tell you alot about who
was the leader of our "band-of-six" fisherpersons.
Let's get to the real reason I traveled a couple of thousand miles. Fishing! Here are the 16', flat
bottom boats we used. Hard ride in rough water but real solid platforms on the flats. I spent a lot
of time upon that casting platform on the bow.
The guide poles the boat across the flats, looking for fish. These guys can spot a 6" fish from 60 - 80 feet.
Unbelievable! Unless you've done this, you cannot appreciate that. I probably saw about 1 in 50 fish that he
spotted. He would call out "11 o'clock, 40 feet" and we just threw the bait in the general direction. It was crazy!
Took us a while to figure it out but we finally stated catching some fish. Here is Tony on a small (sorry Tony) Tarpon.
Now, this Tarpon is actually larger than it looks. About 1-1/2 tables long, according to Tony.
(You had to be there in the lodge sitting at the table to appreciate this) Tony "released" the Tarpon at the boat.
Not long after the Tarpon "release", Tony hooked this Barracuda. I guess this is a rare, or lucky,
photo, as was the Tarpon shot I got, as I found out later that evening at the lodge.
Here we are after "day one", comparing notes. Turned out that Tony and I had a pretty good first
day, overall. Of course we were fishing with fresh crag as bait and the rest of the group were forced
to sneak up on the fish and then cast a fly near the fish and then hope that the fish fell for it.
It's a whole different world of fishing than what I have ever done and these people were/are
"totally" into it. It's like a cult! I want to join.
This is Nito. He was the most important person on the island as far as I was concerned. Nito took
care of us! He delivered two cups of hot coffee every morning at 6:30 AM when he gave us our wake-up
call. And he served us our meals, always hovering around the table making sure our every need was
attended too. But most "importante"! Nito was the bartender! He makes a great hand squeezed,
lime, margarita! And a terrific pina colada. And a nice rum and coke. And a mean "tequila marinated scorpion"!
(I'll get to that later) Nito was there from 4 in the morning until we went to bed. He works 7 days a week
and was one of the highlights of my trip. I new friend and a great person. I'll miss his smiling face and great attitude.
This was paradise but we did have a few storms that hit like this. I'm talking going from dead calm
and sunny to this in about 10 minutes,Below is a photo that I just discovered that was taken later
in the week that shows what an approaching storm looks like. It had been, relatively, clear, but windy, until then.
Take a look out to sea. That black spot down on the water is a squall. 10-15 minutes later we were
heading for the lodge before it hit and then it just poured for 10 minutes and then it was clear again.
This was a pretty normal deal and we had a few come through, during the wekk, while we were fishing.
Our second day of fishing was pretty slow but on Tuesday the weather picked up and we started
getting the hang of this type of fishing and we really started to catch a lot of fish.
Here's Tony with a nice Bonefish.
We fished the reef a couple of days and this is a nice little Yellowtail Snapper I caught.
I got a bunch of Bonefish too.
Here's our dinner that night, This is a Cabrera Snapper that our guide, Gaspar, caught on a hand
line while fishing for Barracuda. This the before shot.
Here's the "after" picture. I am talking fresh and delicious. It was like this every night. Great food.
Great company. Great time!
Elaine seemed to really enjoy the Pina Coladas.
I really enjoyed the nightly deserts like this cream puff in a sauce that you would die for.
They fed us real good. This is the offering that particular day for our lunch choices. After a breakfast
of "whatever you can think of", made fresh to your order, you had to come over here and pick out and
make your own lunch, to be taken with you on the boat that day. It was turkey sandwiches and other
goodies on this day. Every day was a new culinary adventure.
Back to fishing. On Wednesday we shot over to an island east of the resort and got into some great
fishing and some real beautiful surroundings.
Here I am with another bonefish, We caught a bunch of these "bullets" this day.
Here's Tony on another fish.
And I got my first Permit today. I regretted it later that night.
This is a protected area for sea birds at this island.
More of the same.
We got into some hot reef fishing that afternoon. Real hot! So I joined them to cool off. Shoes and all!
We were served an appetizer each night upon our arrival at the bar. This evening it was fresh cerviche
with hand made chips and salsa.
Nito was busy behind the bar as usual.
This evening's main fare was brochettes of beef. Desert wasn't as pleasing!
I mentioned I regretted catch my first Permit earlier. The reason for that is that the tradition at the
lodge is that you must eat a tequila marinated scorpion when you do.They tried to get me to eat it several different ways.
I did drink the shooter and then I finally gave in and had it my way.
It was sooooo goooooooood!
Next day, after I came to, we took a road trip to a very special place about a 45 minutes drive
south to a landlocked baby Tarpon lagoon.
Got a good look at the island on the drive down. Ran across a dear, of all things, and saw some other indigenous animals.
We had to go through some "dense" mangroves to get to the main lagoon.
Gaspar is actually pushing us through this section. What a guide!
Finally getting there
Talk about a great guide. I managed to throw a plug way back into the mangroves and Gaspar
insisted on retrieving it. I ended up hooking three Tarpon on that lure later. None landed and no
pictures, but I'll never forget the strike I got and then hooked a 30+ pound Tarpon. Made three
jumps and spit the hook. Just like the first two! But a memory I'll have forever. Unbelievable fish!
Here's our ride back to the lodge.
We had Mexican night one evening.
A fantastic buffet with every Mexican dish that you can imagine.
Desert? Flan, of course. And one of the best I've ever had!
And then the next day I caught this little number in the surf. Notice the fly rod in my right hand?
First time I tried this type of fishing and go figure! I get a 100+ lb. fish! Well, actually you may
also notice the frame on the left. I took a close-up of this guys fish and since the face was
blacked out I though I might be able to pull it off. But this gives you an idea of what you can
actually catch there. This fish was taken in 2006.
Back to reality and my second Permit. No scorpion necessary this time.
I tried to hand the fish off to Tony and he ran to the other end of the boat.
Would have been his first! (see Scorpion cocktail)
Here is the lure that I used (mostly in white) to catch 90% of the fish that I caught. That's a a crab leg
hanging off the hook. I could have carried the lures I would have needed for the entire week in my
carry-on baggage. But I brought that big green plastic thing and took a lot of flack for that.
The last two hurricanes that made their path across the Gulf of Mexico hit very close to Casa Blanca.
This is a huge piece of the mangroves that was ripped out by the roots and flipped up.
This is a light house that a hurricane toppled!
On Friday evening, the day before we departed, they had a fly-fishing contest for the guides.
They even let Nito participate. Nito had been bragging at the bar about how he was going to be
the champion. Well, in Spanish or English, zero means zero. That was Nitto's score. Also notice t
hat Mike is taking a picture of me taking a picture of him, taking a pictue of me.......
Tom, the manager of the resort, set up this target for the guides and others, that was about 20-30 feet from the pier.
The guides started to warm up with the fly rod. It was pretty windy and the surf was up and sloppy,
making the goal of placing a fly inside the floating ring pretty hard.
Elaine jumped right into the fray and held her own.
Larry was having a few cocktails and posed with our favorite bartender, Nito, here.
Somebody hit the ring here as Dan acknowledges! Dan is an intense individual and an expert fly fisherman.
So with that being said, Dan was chosen to judge the actual competition and was brutally honest in his judging.
But that was later.
Larry steps up next and demonstrated his great technique.
The they made me get up and give it a try. This was my first time with a fly rod in my hand and
I'm just glad that I did not put out an eye on anyone. I have a whole new respect for the fly fisherpeople!
That's not easy.
Finally the competition began. Here is our guide, Gaspar, trotting out his stuff.
Dan was tough, but fair, in awarding a hit. A score of 1 or 2 was a great one under the conditions.
Our guide, Gaspar, came in second or third, I think.
Dan got up after the official competition while Larry judged and claimed he hit 4 or 5 while Larry
only gave him a two score. Dan did not agree! (Dan's eyes are probably a little better than Larry's too.
Especially after all of the tequila that was flowing!) But I have to go with the judge. Sorry Dan. But "you still the man"!
Here we are at the dinner table after the contest.
Tom got up after dinner and handed out a couple of awards.
Elaine nailed a Tarpon on her second hook-up (the norm ratio is 20 to 1) and was awarded this T-shirt.
But she didn't have to eat anything other than desert!!!!!
I was also honored with a Permit shirt that didn't fit. Not a problem. This sucker is going to
be framed and will go up in my office along with a picture of the fish and my scorpion desert! Thank you, Tom!
Here is another one of the great deserts (sans the scorpion) that we were served every night.
The food and service was fantastic, as was the fishing.
You gotta do this once in your life!
Oh yeah. I almost forgot. This is Robert. He's one of the owner's son.
He's a spoiled brat. Not really! Robert works along side the staff for
an hourly wage that is not that impressive. He's a good kid and I even
showed him how to do a couple of my "very impressive" card tricks! (Yeah! Sure.)
Robert dragged out a guitar and serenaded us.
The down side of that was when I grabbed it away from him and proceeded to make dogs strain
on their leashes in Cancun! But Mike seems to like it or he was just humoring me. A good time
was had by all. Dan and Mike even took me out on the pier later that night and Dan actually
got a little Tarpon to hit his fly in a 20-30 MPH gale.
This photo still brings a little tear to my eye, as it was tough to say goodbye to my new, good friends
at the end of a great week. (Plus I knew I would be stuck alone with Tony for the rest of the trip. Not!)
I think Tony may have been reflecting back on a great trip. Then again, he may have been thinking
about getting off this little island!
I took some photos of the resort after Larry, Elaine, Dan and Mike left. You get a little better idea
of the winds from this shot. This is at about 10AM. Following are a few of my other shots.
And then I came upon the following photo-op.
Now, we've been here for 8 days and seven nights. No TV! , No telephones. No internet. The employee
n this hut has satellite TV. We only had Tom and Nito for entertainment! I think we, definately, got the better end of the deal
!
I hope you all have enjoyed my pictures and overview. I know I certainly enjoyed my stay and I definitely plan to visit
Casa Blanca in the future. Following is a link to Casa Blanca through the outfitter we used, Doug Schlink. Doug was v
ery responsive to any and every question we had and was most helpful in our planning, regardless of the fact that Tony
and I spent several hundred dollars on lures that we never threw. I highly recommend Doug as did Dan, the "over-the
top fly fisherman" pictured above. Dan has had experience with numerous outfitters and has fished all over the world
and rated Doug right there at the top.
If you actually book a trip, please let Doug know you heard about it here and maybe I can beat him up for something
the next time I use him!
KK
Doug Schlock ><(((((*> Angler Adventures
PO Box 872, Old Lyme,
CT 06371, USA
Tel 800-628-1447 (US) 860-434-9624
Fax 860-434-8605
Email: doug@angleradventures.com
Website:www.angleradventures.com
http://angleradventures.com/CasaBlanca/CasaBlan.htm
