WBA Kay Fly Fishing Lodge

Accession Bay Punta Allen Mexico

Last November I had the pleasure of joining part of the Westbank team at Kay Fly fishing lodge  in punta Allen Mexico what a phenomenal salt water experience.

The group was a mix of angler and abilities making for a fun and unique experience. 5 out of the 10 Westbank team members on the trip including myself has never landed a permit or even seen a permit in there life. Myself falling into both of these categories. The Traveling from Jackson to Cancun was simple. Part of the group including myself departed Jackson early morning of November 7th and landed in Cancun that afternoon. We jumped in a cab and headed to the Marriott for the Night. The shuttle was scheduled to pick us up from the Marriott late the next morning.  The next morning we met up with with part of the group at the hotel and jumped into the shuttle to start to head towards Punta Allen. The drive was about 3hrs we stopped for a few tacos along the way and picked upped the last 3 members of our group. The vibe was high everyone excited to start there week of fishing. After about 3hrs in the van we stopped along the road where the panga boats would meet us to take us the rest of the way in saving us many hours of slow dirt road driving. After the 45 minute boat ride we have arrived at beautiful punta Allen. We unloaded gear into the trucks and headed to the lodge where we were greeted with big smiles cold drinks and appetizers. Just what I needed. The first night was special just for the fact of the pure excitement on everyone’s faces. Lots of drinks and laughs as everyone faded into the night.

Day 1

I woke up early in just pure excitement to start the day. I snuck out of my room and walked barefoot down the beach in front of the lodge to enjoy the windless morning and a gorgeous sun rise.  7am After a group decloius breakfast in the lodge we all grabbed our rods met our guides and were off for the day. Day one I was paired up with Mike Dawes, It was such a pleasure to fish with such a high caliber angler on day one. Today was all about learning, observing anything and everything I could. I know very little about permit and wanted to change that.  Our guides were Jose and William the top guide team on the roster. I knew I was going to see things today like ive never seen before and I did.  We had flat conditions which allowed us to fish floating shrimp in the morning into the mid afternoon.  I can’t believe the amount of permit we saw that day.  From start to finish there was rarely 40 minutes between shots. I even had one eat a dry but missed all of my shots that day. Mike was able to get a nice 8-10lb permit to hand in the early afternoon. Making day one a success. I learned a lot fishing with these 3 individuals a special day to say the least, one I will never forget.

Permit Flats of Accession Bay.

Mike Dawes in his element

Nightly strolls through Punta Allen

Day 2

The morning of day two I was paired up with Annie king one of my favorite guides to work with at Westbank. Annie and I both had minimal experience and It was Annies birthday. I told Annie that it was her program today we will chase whatever species she wants too. She came up with idea of permit fishing the morning while winds and lighting were good. In the afternoon she wanted to chase snook and baby tarpon. In the morning we both seem to have able shots at permit. We saw an unreal amount of permit this day almost so many im imbarressed to say I didnt catch one that day. Our guides were Tino and Jerry my two favorite guides at Kay Fly fishing lodge.  Annie and I were so close to hooking up a few times this day. The could tell that guides could sense that we were close to success and kept poleing us to the next group of fish.  We both had fallows and a few eat the fly but were not able to seal the deal. around 4pm we were fishing a strong current line off one of the point. This spot had so many permit looping in and out of the current continuly. I was so impressed on how hard tino worked this heavy current for what felt like hours to keep us in shooting range. At 4:30 tino looks at me and say “ we have to go back to the lodge I broke the pole”.  Tina was working so hard in this current he snapped his push pole.  As we motored back to the lodge Annie and I both agreed even though we didn’t hook up we were successful in learning the process and very grateful to fish with such hard working guides.

Annie King searching for permit

Annie King with a belt buckle permit

Day 3

When day 3 came around you could see everyone starting to get into the groove. I was lucky enough to be paired up with Colin ah. Ive know Colin for years of working at Jackson hole sports. We had good conditions this day fishing a lot of the same spots we fished with Jose on day one. We were both unsuccessful in the morning. We say a group of 8 permit that were so big I had to ask Colin if they were jacks. He laughed and told me they were permit I couldn’t believe it until he had one follow the fly for about 5 feet and then lose instrest.  Afternoon Colin ended up chasing one on foot. Fun to watch the whole scenior go down from the bow of the boat. Colin landed a nice permit to hand. After a hour I was able to catch my first permit belt buckle size. I was picking up my cast and a permit ate my fly as I accelerated my back cast. I ended up dropping the line frantically luckily Colin was there to grab it. So technically I don’t know if that is my fish but whatever. We took a few photos had a few laughs and later that day ate my scorpion. Finally on the board

Colin with a morning belt buckle permit.

My first permit

Colin with a nice permit he chased down on foot.

Day 4

The stress was off after catching a belt buckle sized permit. I know it’s small but a permit is a permit they all count. I was paired up with Kendra Loo one of our guides at Westbank anglers. What a ball of positive energy exactly what you want for a fishing patner.  Kendra’s wanted to chase anything that swims. I was interested in this after a few days of serious permit fishing with little success. We took off again paired with my favorite 2 guides Tino and Jerry.  We had great conditions that morning flat water minimal wind it was perfect out. We both had some shots in the morning throwing a mixture of good shots and bad shots but staying positive keeping multiple rods stripped out waiting for other species as in barracuda and tarpon. After lunch I was able to hook into my first real permit in the 8-10lb range. Made a good shot one strip and the fish was there luckily running  immediately running away from the boat into the backing. After a few nail biting minutes we were able to  tail the fish and snap a few photos. The vibe was as high as it gets. I told Kendra to fish out the afternoon my day as been made. Kendra had a few permit fallows and hooked into a barracuda. I was able to jump two tarpon from the middle of the boat while she hunted permit . I was tired after this day of running circles with multiple rods around the boat.

Hooked up to my best permit of the trip

My best permit ate a size #4 spawning shrimp.

Kendra Loo and Brian Matthews with a Great permit from day three.

Day 5

Clouds were starting to role in. Part of the group were switching there game plan from permit to other species in the mangroves. I was paired up with Brandon Murphy on this day. Murphy wanted to baby tarpon and snook fish the mangroves. I have yet fish the mangroves so I was more than willing to check it out. On this day the fishing was slow. We hooked a few baby tarpon and saw a few picky snook. A storm was pushing in starting to create windy conditions were limited us in areas we were able to access. Still a great day out there non the less. Good to catch up with murph he’s a bag of endless stories and endless Jackson hole local knowledge an absolute joy to have in your boat for the day.

Murphy with a Big Snook from earlier in the week.

Day 6

Well it started to storm some over night. When we woke up this morning to clouds and the feel of rain in the air. My boat partner was dean Burton. Dean and I roomed together all week so we were excited to fish together. Ive know dean in passings over the past 10 years but ive never had the chance to fish with him.  Unfortunately the conditions were rapidly declining, strong winds limited our access to other parts of accession bay.  Around 10pm the winds became strong lighting started to close in we called it early after catching a few bonefish blind casting into current lines and depressions. We ended up back at the lodge with most of the group around 11am some other groups were able to find areas in accession bay that was on the edge of the storm allowing them to stay out till about 2pm.

Dean Burton with a few storm day bonefish

Day 7
We woke up early around 6pm backed our bags ate some breakfast and headed to the boat to head back to the Cancun airpot. The boat ride was simple we had good weather. We were all able to get back to Jackson hole around 8pm that night. It was a long day of traveling but it we made it we no issues. all and all a great trip with 22 permit landed between the group. Everyone landed at least one  permit that week making it a great success. I highly recommend this lodge in Accession bay. From there staff, hospitality ,location and delicoious authentic food you can’t go wrong with Kay Fly fishing lodge. I will do another write up on gear and flys for this location. Like I said I learned a lot this week and can’t wait to share it all with you

Spent after a fun week of Fishing

Sam Denious with a trophy snook.

Sam Denious with his first permit I believe.

Dean and Murphy with a Permit double

Brain Matthews with a Thick and healthy Permit

Maddie Dittbender with the permit of the trip.