Fishing Isla Holbox in late March, early April? [Archive]

T-Bro

10-30-2009, 11:11 AM

Thinking of hitting Isla Holbox this year for spring break with the family. Lodging looks very nice and it seems like a sleepy little island with good places to eat and sit on the beach.

Going with another family that we have partnered with for the last 5 years. 4 years in the Bahamas and then to Pto. Morelos south of Cancun last year. Much easier to get to Cancun and then 2 hr. trip to the ferry to Holbox , than it is to get to the out islands in the Bahamas in one day.

I know that Holbox will not have the permit and bonefish action that we usually get in Ascension Bay, but I would be stoked to go for schoolie tarpon and snook. Anyone been there in the early spring and what did you catch? I would also like to know if there is a chance for us to take the kids out reef fishing for snapper or grouper to keep them happy.

Best regards,

T-Bro

backwater

10-30-2009, 04:57 PM

I've was there in June of 2007. I would imagine that April would also be great time. The island was nicer than I expected. There is a rather "high tech" sanitation system on the island. There are a lot of European ex-pats that live there, so it gives the island a little more flavor than your normal sleepy Mexican town. It's not crazy by any means, but I wouldn't call it sleepy either. There are several nice restaurants and a great little espresso shop. There are plenty of things to do for your family. There's some shopping, a nice little jewelry shop owned by an American expat and plenty of beach things going on also. You can pretty much walk to anything, otherwise you can rent a golf cart.

As for the fishing. I saw more tarpon here than I've seen anywhere else and that would include Boca Grande. The fish form up in big schools and charge along the top of the water. Even big ones are doing this. There were easily hundreds of tarpon in these schools because what you saw on the surface was only about a third of the total. There were plenty down below. When your guide spots one of these pods moving along, he attempts to position the panga in a spot where they will come into range. Sometimes it works, often it doesn't, then you chase them down again.

While you see plenty of fish on top, they only seem to bite way down deep. I would STRONGLY recommend bringing a couple of RIO Leviathan sinking lines in 500gr, 600 if you can manage it. 500 will probably get it done. Make SURE you get a sinking line that can handle the intense heat of laying on the deck of a panga all day. The best I had was an Orvis 450gr and it s*cked. Not meant as an Orvis bash, but this line was not designed for this and 450gr just wasn't enough. The line starting taking on that punky sweaty sort of look, like cheese that's been sitting out for too long.

Keep in mind that you will only get ONE shot at these pods of fish, because once you cast your line, which will be well in advance of the fish (giving it time to sink) you won't be able to strip in you line and recast before the pod has passed you by. I would recommend that while one guy takes a turn on the bow with the fly rod, the other guy should bring along a medium/heavy spinning rod with either a lead jig or a sinking magnum rapala and take a few casts at the pod. I only brought my bonefish rod with 10# mono. I was hoping to hook a small one but it didn't work out that way and I to break off a 120# fish before he spooled me.

This is the type of fishing that you do within 2-5 miles from shore. If you want to catch little tarpon and some snook, they can take you to a lagoon area that is about a 1hr boat ride away. I can tell you that one hour each way in a panga is about all my back can tolerate. We had some nice sight fishing, not quite a great as I thought it would be, but there were plenty of fish around.

As far as the snapper fishing, etc. I'm not sure what's available. A lot of the non-fishing folks that come to the island are there to see the spawning of the whale sharks. On a total fluke, we happened to see one while we were fishing. We sneaked up on him, took a few pics, then watched him swim away.

One other item. All of the fishing guides work for the same company. It wouldn't really matter where you were staying, you'll get you guide from the same place. There is one "fishing lodge", but they get their guides here too.

Hope that helps.