Trip Report: Playa Blanca, Mexico (August 16-23rd, 2025)
Location: Playa Blanca Lodge - Espiritu Santo Bay, Mexico
The taste of the scorpion really wasn’t the difficult part. They had been soaked in Tequila, which took the edge off. It was the fact that they are very chewy and took much longer to break down than I hoped. My game plan was to simply chew it a couple of times and wash it down with the shot of tequila, but that wasn’t possible. More on this later…
Tucked inside the roughly 530,000 hectares of interconnected marine, coastal, and terrestrial ecosystems of the Si’an Kaan Biosphere, Espiritu Santo Bay is often referred to as the “final frontier of Yucatán flats fishing.” Due to its remoteness and unpressured character, Espiritu Santo Bay has been an area that I have wanted to experience for nearly a decade. Compared to its neighbor, Ascension Bay to the north, ESB is smaller but has a fraction of the lodges and anglers that Ascension Bay sees. Both Ascension and Espiritu Santo are legendary, especially for those anglers looking to target permit.
The private island of Punta Pájaros (aka Isle Pájaros) runs along the eastern coast (Caribbean side) of the Yucatán peninsula and is home to two world class lodges: Casa Blanca and Playa Blanca. Casa Blanca is the lodge on the northern end of the island and services anglers to fish Ascension Bay. Playa Blanca rests on the southern end of the island and gives their guests access to Espiritu Santo Bay and also the Santa Rosa Lagoon. We were going to be staying at Playa Blanca. In order to access either of the lodges, guests are brought to the island via private plane service directly from Cancun.
We flew into Cancun the Friday before our transfer to Punta Pájaros on Saturday. Our short flight the next day was scheduled for 9am, so this allowed us to go out to dinner and prepare for our week ahead. Other than a little hassle at the airport of John, regarding his carrying of 5 rods instead of the allowed 4, our travels into Cancun were generally seamless. After a couple drinks at the hotel bar, we headed over to the highly recommended Harry’s Steakhouse. Soon after sitting down we were presented with an impressive display of raw cuts to choose from. After a delicious dinner, capped by a giant ball of cotton candy that was held up by a metal “Harry’s” rack, we made our way back to the hotel and tried to get some sleep amongst the anxious anticipation of the week ahead.
The following morning we made our way to the FBO in Cancun and boarded a Cessna 206 for a 55min flight to the private runway at Isle Pájaros. This in itself is a great perk of fishing at Casa or Playa Blanca. Most lodges in this area are accessed via a long, bumpy drive through Tulum and into Punta Allen and then a boat ride to the lodge. Friend/client John, had done that trip before and made a point to explain how much better and easier this process was. We arrived, after a truck drive southerly along the island, to Playa Blanca and were greeted by a nicely prepared lunch. With plenty of time to get situated and geared-up, I took a short nap in one of the hammocks outside the main lodge. After waking up, I put some music on and got my rods rigged up and prepped for the next morning.
The first day of fishing started off hot. Not 10 minutes from the main dock we were seeing tarpon rolling all around the boat. Our guide stopped and I got to watch John jump multiple tarpon amongst an impressive display of happy fish. After I stepped up and was able to successfully land one myself, we progressed further south into the actual bay of Espiritu Santo. We worked our way around the bay and found ourselves in the midst of many permit. For most of the week, wind was low, which makes spotting fish easier. However, this stillness also makes presenting a fly without spooking them difficult. But after a few hours to persuing aware fish, I was able to land my first Espiritu Santo Bay permit on a spawning shrimp imitation. One of our guides for the week, Andrés, has a game plan every day. So once that permit was landed, off we went to a bonefish flat to hopefully complete a day 1 Grand Slam. It didn’t take long to find them and I was soon smiling for a picture with the final component of that GS. The week was off to a good start.
After taking a shower and grabbing a Modelo, I took the (very) short walk to the nearby Mayan ruins of Chac Mool. Mayan history is an interest of mine and I was lucky enough to have one of the employees, Chris, give me the grand tour. When the tour guide is wearing a Chacmool necklace, you know it’s going to be thorough, and thorough it was. Every room, structure, and artifact had a story and it was all fascinating. These ruins are another way in which this lodge is unique.
It was later that night that I also learned about the scorpion tradition. Before visiting, I was under the impression that guests had to eat a scorpion if they happened to catch their first permit (ever) while at Casa or Playa Blanca. However, after dinner that night and right before desert was served, over my shoulder comes a scorpion resting on a shot of tequila. I pleaded my case (of it not being my first permit) to no avail. They remove the stinger, soak it in tequila, and give you a shot of tequila to wash it down. I didn’t expect it to be as tough/chewy as it was, which was definitely the hardest part. You just can’t quickly get them down. I swear I could still feel one of the small claws stuck in the back of my throat a day later.
Day two was brutal. Fishing in Mexico in August can have a ying-yang character to it. The good part is that the fish are happy, it’s the “off season” so pressure is light, and you generally don’t have to deal with heavy (and potentially) north winds. However, due to the already existing summer heat, when the wind dies, it gets hot. On this second day, the wind died completely. The water was absolutely glass and we struggled to even breathe near a fish without it spooking. Additionally we were constantly trying to stay hydrated. Some bonefish were caught, but by late afternoon John and I were struggling to keep our concentration. That day takes the cake for being the hottest day on a flats skiff that I have experienced. Soaking clothing in the cooler ice/water was the only thing that seemed to help.
(glass water on the windless day in Espiritu Santo Bay)
Day three we saw a lot of fish and John and I both shared a similar experience where a large tarpon decided to grab our crab fly while targeting permit. In my experience, I was tracking a few permit cruising and put a cast about 6 feet in front of them which happened to be on a dark spot on the bottom. As I waited for the permit to arrive at the fly, I came tight…really tight. For a split second I thought another permit had snuck in and grabbed the fly, but soon after, a good sized tarpon leaped out of the water and then began a blistering run directly away from the skiff. My guide Andrés grabbed his phone to record the scene, but after just one more jump the fly popped out of the tarpon’s mouth and the line went limp. That day seemed to be peppered with action similar to that.
Day four was a banger for John. After landing two permit in the morning, two tarpon soon after, and two bonefish after that, he had completed two Grand Slams in the same day! With time to spare, as this was all done before lunch, off to the snook spot they went. After playing cat and mouse with some dolphins, John was able to land a beautiful snook thus completing a Grand Slam and a Super Grand Slam in the same day. Incredibly impressive and it was a sign of the consistently good fishing that we were experiencing. I had gone off with another guide, David. Although I didn’t have the success that John had that day, I did manage to land another permit. So all in all it was a good one.
As the week progressed, the wind did as well. Which I didn’t mind at all. I personally like to have it be a little windy while sight fishing, especially while targeting permit. Other than making the heat more manageable for us, I feel it allows me to get closer to fish and with less risk of spooking them. It can also stir up the bottom a little, giving fish more incentive to feed on the dislodged food. So Thursday, which was day 5, while fishing with Andrés, I was lucky enough to pickup my second Grand Slam of the week. A funny anecdote from this day, which also happened to both John and I, were tarpon’s willingness to take a fly even after it getting snagged on sargassum. The tarpon would follow the fly, and then after getting caught in a clump of weeds, it seemed to then make it more alluring to the fish. I’ve caught striped bass in the past on a fly that was draped in seaweed. But in those occasions, the profile of the seaweed, while being striped, arguably looked like a larger baitfish or squid. In these situations, it just looked like a block of sargassum. But, I have no issues with vegetarian tarpon.
Our week of fishing was finalized on Friday with John sealing the deal on the nicest permit of the trip. He had gotten a classic permit refusal earlier, which can be disheartening for anyone. But stick-to-itiveness prevailed and he was able to land a solid fish after a couple classically long permit runs into his backing. He finished his day under the shade of palm trees watching iguanas wrestle over his apple remains - a comically cliché Mexican moment.
The trip was exactly what John and I had hoped for. It was not a group “hosted trip” but a personal (scouting) trip for future hosted trips to this location. Espiritu Santo Bay was a new area for the both of us and expectations can a lot of times not align with reality. Or in the least, it’s not during the week while you are there. But in this case, it was just what the doctor ordered. If there was one thing that I was mostly curious about, it was to see what the permit fishery was like. There are a lot there. Seemingly endless schools of small permit and a wide range of permit everywhere from 10-25lbs were seen daily. This, combined with an incredibly healthy population of tarpon, made our week constantly busy casting at fish. Three Grand Slams and a Super Slam over the course of the week...we had fun!
I also got to spend time with a friend and client in which we share a lot of similar interests and life perspectives. Daily conversations never seemed to go stale and there was always something fresh to talk about at the “Palapapalooza” cocktail hut after a day on the water. Catching fish is certainly the driving force of these trips, but it’s all the “in between” stuff that makes a trip special. This was one of them.
