What to bring on a wade fishing trip with FFCM?

Here at Fly Fish Costa Maya, we pride ourselves on providing you with excellent quality gear to use during your trip with us. Our gear is maintained and checked regularly to make sure we have no failures or breakages. We are fortunate to work with some great companies in the fly and lure fishing industry to make this happen and guarantee you the best gear available on every trip.

On our fly fishing trips, we have a full quiver of Thomas and Thomas Exocett fly rods from #6-11, as well as spare rods from both Thomas and Thomas and G. Loomis. We also have a selection of Nautilus, and Hatch fly reels, rigged with 50lbs gel spun backing and double Bimini twists. This is a proven formula for success, and we believe the most reliable and durable connection from backing to fly line. In addition to this, we have a range of Cortland guide series and liquid series fly lines cat pawed to the double Bimini. If you would like to read more about this, then please click the link (here) to another blog explaining how and why we do this. Finally, on the front of the fly line, we have a hand-tied leader.

I personally am not a fan of extruded tapered leaders. From experience, these offerings tend to crumple in the wind or casting heavier flies. For this reason, I tie homemade leaders onto the end to give the best possible presentation in a variety of scenarios. I have a blog on making a homemade saltwater fly leader and the breakdown that I use linked above.

On our light tackle trips, we run a range of Daiwa and Teklon spinning rods. These rods are precision built in Japan to high standards. These are very light and responsive, yet have a strong backbone to subdue bigger fish and push out lures or baits into a wind. We rig these rods with the fantastic Daiwa BG series reels from 2500 to 4500 size depending on the fishing type. As the final addition to the setup, we rig our reels with either Varivas Avani or Suffix X8 braided line. These lines are very fine in diameter for the breaking strain and offer fantastic feel, so you know what is happening at the end of your line. We like to attach a fluorocarbon leader to the end of our braid for added stealth and abrasion resistance. It also allows us to use a quick-change system to maximise your time on the water and your chances to target a wider variety of species.

It goes without saying, but we also have a wide range of lure fishing kit and a large selection of flies. This means that you shouldn’t need to bring any expensive kit to have a great trip. That said, there are a few things that may be worth taking or that we are unable to provide for every trip and as such we have added a kit list below.

Kit List;

-Sunscreen (essential)

-UV protective clothing (shirts, sun sleeves, hat, buff etc. We would recommend a company like Simms, Columbia or Patagonia)

-Polarised sunglasses (we provide pairs of Costa 580 G green mirror and sunrise/silver mirror but don’t have lenses for prescriptions etc.)

-Flats boots (necessary on all wade trips. Companies like Orvis, Simms and Patagonia provide a range of boots, but the standard neoprene bootie works great)

-Camera (we carry a camera on al trips, but it is always nice to have one handy to document your trip)

-Rain gear (yes it’s true, sometimes it does rain in paradise!)

-Smile (it is important to enjoy the whole experience along with the fishing)

-Any tackle you would like to fish with

While we provide all gear necessary on our trips, we are more than happy for you to bring any kit you have at home. We can advise on kit to bring or purchase and are happy to rig and set up anything you require. This is also the case with any flies you have tied for your trip. We have a series of easy to follow fly tying tutorials available here to give you an idea of what we like to throw down here. We are big believers in catching fish on flies you have tied yourself. What better way to add that little bit extra to your trip then landing one of the big three on a fly you have tied yourself!

We also provide soft drinks and snacks on all our trips. Our full-day trips have lunch included, along with soft drinks and snacks. We will converse with you before your trip to make sure we cover any allergies or dietary requirements before your trip.

Hopefully, this has covered every aspect of what we provide and subsequently what to bring on a FFCM wade trip. If you have any questions or would like more info, then please feel free to drop us a line on any of our social media platforms, via the ‘Contact Us’ page on our website, or you can drop us a call.

We look forward to fishing with you in the future,

Tight lines

Will