Sisters fishers hit grand slam in Mexico

Five Oregonians including four Sisters area residents scored big in “one of the best salts flats trips we’ve ever hosted,” according to Jeff Perin, owner of The Fly Fisher’s Place.

The Fly Fisher’s Place hosted a week-long guided fly fishing trip to Ascension Bay in the Mexican Caribbean earlier this month.

Everyone in attendance caught numerous Bonefish, the elusive “Gray Ghost” of the shallow corral shoals. Bonefish, which range in size from three to eight pounds, are an easily spooked sport fish requiring the stalking abilities of an Antelope hunter combined with pin-point casting precision.

An error on either account and the fish will simply vanish into the vast expanse of the flats. More impressively, when spooked (or hooked) Bonefish have a burst speed of nearly 50 knots (25 miles per hour).

Anglers routinely travel the globe in search of these elusive fish, hoping to experience the thrill of several hundred feet of line and backing screaming off the fly reel at 40 feet per second.

In addition to the plentiful Bonefish, anglers also caught the sharp-toothed Barracuda and hard fighting Jack Crevalle. However, the abundance of Tarpon and Permit made the trip special.

Tarpon, one of the hardest fighting fish in the flats, have a hard, tough mouth that is very difficult to set a hook into. Once hooked the Tarpon seems to spend more time out of the water — performing amazing aerial acrobatics — than swimming hard against the angler. The combination of tough hook-set and explosive vertical leaps makes the Tarpon one of the hardest fish to land.

Permit don’t have the vertical leaping ability of the Tarpon, but are significantly spookier than the Bonefish and just as hard to land.

Shaped like a Bluegill on steroids, the Permit has an ability to blade its pan-shaped body against the angler and turn the fight from a sprint to a marathon. Permit can get as large as 40-50 pounds but even the average fish can put up an epic battle.

From a fly fishing standpoint the Permit is the paramount achievement.

During the course of the trip Permit were spotted and cast to every day. Some days more than 20 Permit were spotted. Four Permit were landed during the trip, including one by first-timer Dave Parman, one by shop owner Jeff Perin (his first after 10 years of trying) and by The Fly Fisher’s Place guide Todd Williver.

But the true capper of the trip was the coveted Grand Slam — in fact, back to back Grand Slams by Perin and Williver. The Grand Slam, one of the most sought after achievements in fly fishing, requires landing a Bonefish, Tarpon and Permit, all in the same day. It’s estimated that less than 2 percent of saltwater attempts achieve the Grand Slam.

That’s due in part to the fact that there are less than one dozen locations world wide where the opportunity for the grand slam exists.

On Day Two, Todd Williver quickly picked up his second Permit of the trip leaving the balance of the day open to chase the slam. A flukey jumping Tarpon in a narrow Mangrove slot ended in Williver’s favor, leaving only a Bonefish for the slam. A few hours later a school of tailing Bones created the opportunity and Williver quickly capitalized and landed the Bonefish, completing his first Grand Slam.

Not to be outdone, on Day Three Jeff Perin hooked and landed his first Permit and followed that with a nice-size, hidden-from-view Tarpon. Later a delicate cast to roaming Bonefish gave Perin his first Grand Slam.

“The trip was the best saltwater angling experience I’ve ever had,” said Williver upon his return. “The weather was warm and cooperative and the fish were abundant. It was an experience of a lifetime.”

The Fly Fisher’s Place in Sisters regularly hosts trips abroad to fish not only the saltwater flats of Mexico, Belize, or the Bahamas but also trout fishing trips to the Patogonia region of Chile.

For more information contact Jeff Perin at 549-3474.