Even though I could scarcely believe my eyes, I was delighted to see that an old friend, Garry Pierce, is back and “fit to shoe horses,” and, better: fit to cast a fly to, hook, play, and land a 20 lbs. permit in Mexico.
Garry is the pioneering guide on the Red Deer River tailwater, and has guided and fished in winter in several other countries. He is, personally, as accomplished a fly fisherman as I have ever known.
But Pierce, and his Tailwater Drifters operation, have largely been out of commission since late October of 2009, when a bad fall left Garry with a wrecked right shoulder and a bicep that was rolled up like one of those antique spring-loaded window blinds. He had reconstructive surgery late in May last year and has done some fishing, since he casts left-handed, but it is difficult to row a drift boat with one arm. During this same period, Connie, Garry’s first mate and shuttle driver on float trips, also underwent major surgery. Recently, Garry has been working hard at other day jobs, trying to recoup long months of lost income.
Recently, having had his fill of our everlasting winter, Garry accompanied a client south on one of Tailwater Drifter’s other ventures, as a booking agent for Los Boyas guides and eco tours of Punta Allen, Mexico. Los Boyos are three brothers who have grown up and guided all their lives on Ascension Bay. Garry assists in the hosting, flight logistics, generally organizing guests’ details from start to finish. That help can be invaluable, because getting to Punta Allen can be complex: basically 160 miles south of Cancun airport to Tulum then 40 miles further to the more than a million-acre Sian Kaan Biosphere Reserve and Punta Allen.
Garry does not guide on these trips, so, on this early-April sojourn, he treated and guided himself to what he says was the great fly fishing trip he needed on Ascension Bay, long a favoured destination for salt water flats fly fishermen. Having hooked himself on permit on previous trips, Garry targeted that species first on this trip and was rewarded beyond most salt water fly fishers’ lifetime dreams, landing five permit, the largest being 20 pounds, considerably dwarfing his previous best, a 12-pounder.
Some perspective: the permit is possibly the wariest, wiliest and wildest of all anglers’ fish, most difficult to hook in the first place, then agonizingly hard to land. I’ve never experienced the second part because, like most anglers, though I’ve had my chances, all “my” permits have refused to eat my flies. In Belize I saw a permit of around the size of Garry’s when my guide, Nesto, pointed and reverently whispered “palometta,” even though he spoke perfect English, then consoled me that my cast was OK, and “that fish was just busy being a permit,” when the monster fled my first and only cast.
Garry Pierce’s battle with his personal best permit lasted exactly two hours before he landed, photographed and released it, surely acid and torture tests combined for that re-built shoulder. It could even have been better: the world record permit is 56 pounds, two ounces and the fly-caught record, 51 pounds Garry says “what amazing fish they are . . . I was getting tired of watching fly line disappear and the constant sing of the reel . . . never thought I’d say that.”
Garry’s account and pictures sent me to my library and a re-reading of a battle with a large permit in Thomas McGuane’s Ninety Five in the Shade, less known, but perhaps even a better “fishing” novel than A River Runs Through It.
After landing his big permit, Pierce concentrated on tarpon for three days, his best showing there being 10 tarpon running to around 20 pounds in under four hours, another major test for that shoulder, because, after the jumping is over, landing any tarpon is pure gut and rod-busting labour. In Cuba six years ago I swore off tarpon forever after three or four running to 40 pounds all but wrecked one rod and both my shoulders. The bonefishing is also good on Ascension Bay, but for some reason, Garry Pierce says, they seldom exceed six pounds.
Garry’s trip was just at the right time, as the weather and water is warming up and fishing just gets better as it gets hotter. Tailwater, through Los Boyos, provides guided fly fishing trips for bonefish, permit and tarpon in Ascension Bay and accommodations in comfortable air-conditioned rooms with private bathrooms and two queen-size beds.
Maximum capacity is six anglers per week. For one or two anglers, guided fly fishing and accommodations only is US$500 per day. Meal packages, airport shuttles, etc. are extra and are discussed and negotiated at time of booking.
Inquiries and arrangements may be made at drifters@telusplanet.net or phone 403-886-4666.
Bob Scammell is an award-winning outdoors writer living in Red Deer. Email: bscam@telusplanet.net