Hi Don,

Here are my comments about the Palometa Club in Punta Allen, Mexico. Feel free to edit my language I have always been a fisherman and not a writer. If you have any questions I’ll be home the next few days—gone on the weekend be back Monday and Tuesday.

I think my first trip was in the 1980’s to Pez Maya so far as I know was the only fishing lodge on the southern end of the Peninsula south of Tulum, Mexico. This was well before they built any bridge you cross when traveling from Cancun to Ascension Bay. I think a hurricane later destroyed the camp. Since then I have fished several times from that area south to Espiritu Santo Bay.

With several friends of mine we spent the first five days of March at Palometa Club Lodge at Punta Allen, a few miles from Ascension Bay where last year clients caught and released 150 permit. We came to catch permit on the fly.

Unfortunately the weather was poor to bad for four of our five days despite that seven permit were caught and as I write this 130 have been landed this season.

Owners Kaye and Dick Cameron run one of the finest fishing lodges I’ve stayed anywhere. It’s a no frills, clean, comfortable place where they make you feel like a good friend the day you arrive.

I have fished from pangas in the Sea of Cortez and other places around the planet and when told we would do so here I was a little dismayed at how pangas might work on the flats. Guides poled the 23 footers silently in a foot of water and when crossing open water in unfriendly seas I was delighted we weren’t in a flats skiff.

An outstanding feature of Palometa is each panga carries two guides who function as a well oiled team. One poles while the other stands beside the angler managing line and locating fish. When a permit is sighted if possible the angler and guide wade to it. This helps immeasurably to insure a hook up. It is the first time I’ve seen two guides working from the same boat and was impressed how much it assisted the angler.

Another asset to the operation is all the guides own their boats and motors. Over the years I have seen guides abuse boats and or motors simply because they were lodge owned. All of the boats at Palometa were surgery room clean, comfortable and the motors in top condition.

There is no question in my opinion if you want to catch a permit on the fly you stand a better chance here than any place I know.

- Lefty Kreh

Reminds me of when Frank the Tank forgot this birthday. Photo by: Cary Williams

Dear David,

Thanks for steering us down to the Palometa Club. Despite the tough conditions, we were already talking about a return trip on the way to the airport. All of us we’re in total agreement. The fishery is outstanding. Dick and Kay are unbelievable. The accommodations and food are great. The two guide system and the guides themselves are the best we’ve ever seen. Next time we are at the Club we promise not to spike Mark’s margarita’s!!!

After hunting Permit all morning it was nice to have other options on the windy/cloudy afternoons. All of us caught bones and cudas nearly every day. Our mission late each day was to put a cuda in the boat for the guides to take home for dinner…Mark set the bar pretty high with a 40-45 lbs fish the first day. Anyway, on the last ½ day fishing heading up to the bridge for our noon pick-up to the airport I was lucky enough to be on the bow for a shot at a “hungry” Permit. The pictures don’t tell the entire story of how the fish was landed…

It was Sunday and it was my birthday. After blowing a perfect shot at a close range feeding fish, within minutes I had a cruising fish swimming straight on at 12 0’clock. Easy cast, good instruction from Pedro…wait, wait, ok slooow strip and the sucker just pounced on the crab. Four nice runs and 15 minutes later, as we’re working the fish in, the backing to fly line knot broke. As you can imagine the video Cary was taking will need some serious editing!!! I guess the Permit knew it was my B-Day because laying in the water was the end of the line. Pedro jumped in the water and grabbed it and Koreano poled the boat hard to gather enough line, I stripped enough backing, and while Cary kept just enough tension to keep the hook set the guide re-tied. Ten minutes later we were taking pictures and tagging my first Permit. It was a total team fish!!! The balance of the day Cary had the bow and I just sat and enjoyed what became an absolutely perfect “HVD” (high value day).

Thanks again David for all your assistance.
Steve

Photo by: Cary Williams

Photo by: Cary Williams

Photo By: Cary Williams

Jason provided daily images of his six permit landed this week. There were all strong contenders of 12-20 pounds or more. The bitter sweet ending on Wednesday was losing a 150+ pound tarpon at the boat after it had been leadered with no photo. Congrats to Jason for a job well done, and your invoice is in the mail for your return in 2013.

Lefty is loved by all at the Palometa Club! Photo by: Tonya Crowe-Chinuntdet

Lefty had half of Punta Allen throwing tight loops.

TPC was visited by longtime client John Chinuntdet who brought his wife Tonya. Scott Rodgers was back again for his second trip this season and his third in the last two. Dos Rusty’s (Goff and Perry) jumped in from Dallas to check out TPC for the first time even though they are not strangers to the area. Father son tandem of Bruce and Bradford Hanley made their way down from the Northeaster US to enjoy the tropical sun as did Mark Lamos. Bill Anderson was also a TPC first timer who was accompanied by one of TPC’s best friends Jeffery Cardenas. Rounding the group was Rick Pope of Temple Fork Outfitters and Bernard Vincent Kreh who goes by the much recognized nick name of “Lefty”, you may read one of his 30 some books written about this crazy little sport.

Guides Alonso and Toni with Lefty and Rick following a 2 permit day.

Now you might understand a bit of why the days leading up to their arrival were kind of tense for me. As it turned out this was one of the best experiences I have ever had on this side of the lodge business. Lefty was a pure delight for all of us, staff, guides and guests alike were able to get to spend time with a walking talking encyclopedia of casting, fishing, writing, photography and history. Rick brought along the new BVK series of TFO rods for everyone to try and is an awesome caster/instructor in his own right. Those rods are still here at the club for you guys coming in to test drive (plug, plug) and they are pretty sweet casting rigs.

Rusty and Rusty are no strangers to the salt and have spent a pile of time on Ascension Bay but, this was the first assault from this angle. Rusty Goff was the first of this all-star crew to fool a permit then the weather got tough making difficult on everyone. Scott Rodgers is always such a pleasure to be around so it very cool to see him keep his streak alive if catching at least one permit each time he is at TPC.

The Rustys with Lefty and Scotty. Still waiting on Rusty Goffs Permit Photo.

Scotty Rodgers laying the wood down.

Another Ascension Bay victory for Scotty.

Photo by Tonya C.

John “the killer” Chinuntdet, along with wife Tonya, were fishing machines helping the boys gather up much needed protein for the upcoming Easter weekend celebration. Jacks, snapper, cuda, and sharks all feared for their lives whenever this crew hit the water and John managed to get the best of 2 permit amongst all the action.

Tonya and John jacking around.

One of two for John.

Bill Anderson and Jeffery doubled up on the last day of the week to end a 5 year long pursuit of the wily Palometa for Bill. He vowed continually throughout the week that if his quest ended in a permit this week he was going to get a permit tattoo on his ass region. I recommended it be the TPC logo. The depth of admiration and respect that flows back and forth between Jeffery and the crew of guides here at The Palometa club is really a cool thing t witness. These boys simply love him and he them! I guess it’s the recognition of one super star by another.

Charlie, Jeffrey & Alonso. Amigos.

Mark, Bruce and Bradford’s permit dreams did not come true on this particular trip and we can’t wait to have you all back for another whack at evening the score.

Rick had his moment in the sun that resulted in 2 permit landed in the same day while accompanied by Lefty who was more than happy to share Rick’s first (2) permit ever. I describe the joy we get when people who have chased permit across the Caribbean, with little or no luck, get the first one(s) with our great group of guides.

Rick Pope and his First Permit!

Rick and John flying their cerimonial victory flags.

Thank you all and thank you David Leake and cast of characters at Tailwaters for making this past week possible.

Dick Cameron

MORE PHOTOS BELOW…

At 53 years of age I have now kicked around this industry, on and off, since the mid 90’s. My winding road has crossed paths with many of our sports notables over the years either on the water, at the shows or in and out of fly shops. Most of these encounters have been brief, friendly exchanges that I recall but I am sure left little, if any, impression on my heroes.

I really just met Lefty at the Tailwaters annual Christmas party in December. Kaye and I were able to hang with him during his very full day of casting lessons and book signings and later shared a dinner table with him, Rick Pope and the great crew at Tailwaters. During this memorable day and night it was very obvious to me that the godfather of modern fly casting was a very genuinely nice man. He seemed to have a sincere interest in everyone he had conversations with and was quick to pick up on the excitement level that David Leake and crew have generated around The Palometa Club.

Lefty had very recently lost his wife of over 60 years and he shared some of that experience with Kaye over dinner. It was clear that a relationship was in the making. There was a mixture of our desire to learn more about the man, as well as his curiosity as to figure out what TPC is all about, and who are these people were that he had never heard of in an industry where he knows EVERYBODY.

When David contacted us in December to inform us that Lefty wanted to pay us a visit in early April I was stunned. I felt so honored that we were going to have this icon grace our facility and fish with our fabulous guides, but the idea of it also made me very nervous. When the weeks before their group arrived turned into days, my anxiety intensified to the point of straightening the same piece of art work hanging on the wall 20 times. Compounding all of this was that the group included Rick Pope of Temple Fork Outfitters and Jeffery Cardenas! Jeffery is a friend but a who’s who in this little fraternity none the less. Kaye didn’t share in this with me (thank goodness).

Fast forward, what really came to pass throughout the course of their stay here left me feeling stupid for being so balled up and very sad to see them all go. The way that Lefty settled in and made himself so available to offer anything he could do to help was just simply a fantastic thing to be a part of. From casting lessons to knot clinics he would dive right in. He signed numerous hats and tee shirts for both guides and guest whenever he was asked. He was also very generous with his depth of knowledge and skill with photography. Explanations that are so clear as well as complimentary is a gift that Lefty freely gives without the slightest hesitation.

The highlight, for me, came on the last day of their stay. Lefty had fished his way through the other guests he wanted to spend a day on the water with, so I had the good fortune of being able to jump in the boat with him due to space made available by two clients leaving a day early. I was hoping to see a nice Ascension Bay permit in the hands of this most deserving man, but that was not to be. Lefty had a few chances almost as soon as we stopped the boat and started fishing. He turned a pair of big 15 to 20 pound fish but at the end of the short chase on the fly they did what most permit do, flip you the fin and swim away.

What happened instead was far more valuable, for me anyway. To sit and listen to stories from the great depression to the Battle of the Bulge and of post war America as well as the birth of modern fly fishing. To learn more about a man whose integrity is beyond reproach, who so deeply loved his wife and family, and who has made business decisions based on the character of the participants was far more meaningful and long-lasting for me than another photo of a man and a fish. We laughed a lot and talked about how many friends and acquaintances we shared yet he and I had never met. I learned (in theory) how to shoot aspirin with a BB gun, about casting in the wind and a pile of one liners to add to my already advanced collection.

Lefty is 87. He has been everywhere and done everything the sport of fly fishing has to offer (or that he has wanted to do). To make the decision to endure the journey from Maryland to Punta Allen and spend a week with us is an amazing compliment all on its own. The high praise and accolade he heaped on the guides and staff gave Kaye and I true confirmation that we are in the right place and on the right track. I don’t know how many more trips like this Lefty will make in the future. I hope its 1000 and I hope another is here with us.

Lefty and the group have been gone for just 2 days now and I am still trying to digest all that I was able to devour over the weeks’ time. One thing I certainly want to make clear is that this was a special time with a special man. If Lefty is ever at an event or fly shop or show near you, go! Meet him and thank him for what he has done not just for our sport but, as being a member of “The greatest generation”, what he did for our country.

- Dick Cameron

Alonzo, our head guide, whispered, “John, make a cast at 9 o’clock. There is a big school of permit 45 feet away moving off the flat.” I saw black dorsal and tail fins waving over the deep grassy flat and thought, “There must be at least 100 permit in that school.” As the white/tan crab fly dropped from the pinched fingers on my right hand, I instinctively made a false cast and then dropped the fly in front of the school. As the crab sank, I started a slow retrieve when the line came taut and THEN I HOOKED UP!!!! After fighting the beautiful shimmering permit to the boat, I told my bride, Tonya, that might have been the only “easy” permit that I had ever caught.Through a little luck, Tonya and I had been “invited” to join a great group of folks (including a couple of true fly fishing legends) for the week at the Palometa Club. After meeting Tonya, both of the fly fishing legends told me during the week how my wife appeared to be a “catch well beyond my apparent skills and ability.” I told them I was lucky enough to successfully land the catch of my life 20 years ago this year. After pulling off that magic trick, how hard could it be to catch more permit on the fly???Earlier in the week around Waco Bay, our guides, Charlie and Julio, had spotted a permit following a stingray. After sliding out of the panga and wading into position, I made a long hurried cast right on the back of the ray. Before the crab fly could sink to the bottom, the permit had eaten my fly. After setting the hook, the permit made my Tibor Riptide reel sing as it ripped off fly line. I whooped like a little kid on Christmas morning as I fought the permit. Around 7 minutes into the fight as my “permit” swam by the boat, I heard Charlie mutter from the poling platform, “It is a jack crevelle… The jack ate your crab before the permit could get it.” Well, after some indiscriminate cursing in English, Spanish and Thai, that aggressive jack fed a couple of Punta Allen families that night. Tonya kept reminding me that, for 7 long minutes that morning, we all thought I had won the permit lottery.The next day arrived with dark clouds and strong winds which made for tough sight fishing conditions. In the afternoon, our head guide, Jorge, found a school of 15 nurse sharks frolicking on an Ascension Bay flat. Translation: there were 2 big curvy female girl nurse sharks followed gleefully by 13 teenage-sized boy nurse sharks. Well, this writhing blob of sharks had an entourage of 4 hungry jack crevelles. Being opportunistic fishing folks, Tonya and I picked off all 4 of those jacks one by one as Jorge polled us around that flat for over an hour. I will remember the spectacular image of that 15 lb jack flying out of the water straight toward the boat with its mouth wide open to engulf my black and purple Gary Merriman toad fly. Again, those jacks, along with several nice mutton snappers that Tonya added to the catch, made several Punta Allen families very happy.The most memorable day of our trip dawned gloomy and cloudy, but soon the sun burned away all of the clouds. Sight fishing conditions turned perfect. Early in the morning, our guides, Carlos and Aaron, took us to a flat near Jack Channel. They had found several permit earlier in the week in the area. Right away, we found three permit that squirted around us before we could get into position. We then found a single permit pushing “nervous water” into the wind. After slipping into the water, Aaron pulled me into perfect position where I put the crab fly 5 feet in front of the quickly moving permit. Well, that permit promptly disappeared while I made a long slow strip. Carlos told us later he watched the permit spook even though the fly landed way out in front of the permit. There are times when I really hate permit.

Only 15 minutes later, Carlos spotted another permit 400 yards away “pushing water” toward us. Aaron and I moved into position directly upwind of the fish. As the permit moved toward us, it decided to change direction and swam to our left at a 45 degree angle around 50 feet away. Aaron told me, “Try it!” I made a false cast trying to recall all of the insightful casting advice Lefty had given me. I measured the casting distance and deftly dropped the crab fly right on the permit’s brain (as in the small spot right behind its eyes)!!! The water exploded as the permit spooked across the Mexican border headed to Belize. I laughed loudly and slapped Aaron’s shoulder in deep disgust with my poor cast.

I started stripping in line to go back to the boat WHEN the line came tight and started screaming off the reel. “WHAT THE ____????” Aaron and I couldn’t believe it. The permit must have spooked when I “brained” it, but then circled back to see what had scared it. And there, the permit found my little crab sitting on the bottom looking delicious and vulnerable… After a long delicate fight because I was unsure of the hookset, I brought my 5th gorgeous permit to the boat. As I said above, it is always better to be lucky…Knowing that the fishing gods had told us that the odds were in our favor, we decided to see if we could feed all of our Punta Allen friends. With Carlos’ knowledge of Ascension Bay, we moved to a deep grassy point where Tonya quickly landed 4 nice barracudas on tube lures. Tonya then caught several snappers and jacks on her favorite tube jigs. Then, around 3:15 pm, we moved to an oceanside flat looking for lemon, blacktip and bull sharks. In a scene straight from the “Madfin Shark” television show, we used two of the cudas as chum and soon had at least 9 lemon sharks all around us tracking the scent of the fresh cuda blood in the water. As the sharks swam in “S” patterns toward our boat, we pitched cut barracuda chunks to the sharks. We landed 2 of the sharks (and of course, hooked and lost the biggest shark). The lemons weighed around 50 lbs and 75 lbs each. Carlos and Aaron were ecstatic. When we returned that evening to the Palometa Club beachfront, the other guides cheered when they saw the sharks. They told us those 2 lemon sharks would make 300 fish empanadas (sp) and feed about 50 people in the Punta Allen village. And then we told them we had caught another permit on the fly. WHAT A DAY!!!Thank you to Lefty, Jeffrey, Bill, Bradford, Bruce, Mark, Rick, Rusty, Rusty, and Scotty for the great stories, comraderie and memories. Thank you to all of the guides, staff and Dick and Kaye Cameron for their advice and hospitality. Thank you to David Leake at Tailwaters for putting the trip together. Lastly, thank you to my wife for joining me on my third Palometa Club trip and tolerating my fishing addiction for over two decades. It is always better to be lucky…

S.P. and the Little Osprey Nino. 3rd Week is the charm.

By:  Dick Cameron

Anchorage Alaska is a beautiful place for sure but, February can test the metal of even the longtime resident of “The Great Land”. This time of year you are getting skied out, the days are not getting longer fast enough, you are sick to tears of shoveling snow and there is no local fishing in your foreseeable future. I should know, I lived it for 40 some odd winters. Couple that with an advanced case of Permititus and the only logical solution is a trip to Mexico and TPC!

John and Lynda Baker visited us a few years back and pledged to return so this year they made good on their promise. Maybe sitting in the Slouse Box at the Alaska State fair last September and enjoying some great live music (and a few frosty brews) with Kaye and I helped make up their minds, who knows? Any way they took the red and made it all the way to Punta Allen in one long day. The effort was rewarded with John’s first Permit ever and what claims will be the design of his first tattoo ever. John doesn’t recall the agreement however.

John & Lynda Baker. Fellow Alaskans.

Fellow Anchoragite, longtime TPC guest and real permit sick-o Joe Seelig made his first trip (2 scheduled) of the 2012 campaign this week. If you recall, Joe spent 17 days with us in 2011 and landed 20 Permit which extended a streak that had him on pace for 100 fish quicker than anyone in history. The week ended with Joe landing just one Permit and posing the larger question, where did Joe’s Mojo go? With a couple of break offs and some high wind days the reality that it is still Permit fishing after all was truly driven home.

John Baker. First ever permit flag raising on the new flag pole. Beginning of awesome tradition!

Stephen P. was back for his 2nd trip (so far) of the season and his journey from the north east was rewarded with one of this seasons largest fish to date. His big Permit weighed in the high 20’s and was tagged before being happily released. Stephen has really got the bug in a big way and I’ll bet we see him again before this campaign is over. He told me that he has place his experiences here amongst the highest he has had anywhere. This is coming from a guy that is a regular on some of north and south America’s most famed Salmon, Trout and Steelhead water!

What a great week with truly wonderful people.

Toad.

More Toad.

Today, at TPC, we just think it is a fun way for our guests to show off their bragging rights.  Below are the first two flag raising ceremonies.  I am very much looking forward to a multi-perm day to test the fortitude of Dick’s flagpole.

The First Ever Permit Flag Raising. John Baker.

Joe Seelig. Advanced Permititus has set in.