Book review: Fly Fishing Mexico - the Yucatan Peninsula

This is a fantastically beautiful book!

I fell in love with it even before I owned it. I happened to pass by a Danish web site, which had a review of the book, and immediately started a hunt for the publisher in order to get a copy to review. Now, this book is published in Argentina, and Argentinian publishers don't really do a great job of making it easy to contact them. At the same time this book is not exactly widely distributed or marketed.

My results were pretty meager, but in the end I managed to find a US online bookshop - Powells.com - that had a used copy of the book on hand for a fair price. I immediately ordered it, and was not disappointed once the book arrived.

This is a book, which has most of what I like from a book: large format, exceptionally beautiful and high quality photos, nice drawings, good print quality, simple and good looking layout, a good and focused subject and text, which is both informative and to the point. Just down my alley.

Thanks to the origin of the book and its authors Juan Pablo Reynal and Daniel Beilinson, the text is in both English and Spanish, which is quite rare for a fly fishing book. I guess a target group for the group could be anglers from South America even though I also guess that this group is far from as large as the English speaking contingent of this world's fly fishermen.

Both the English and Spanish speaking - or rather reading - will get plenty good information from this book about fishing the tropical waters of the Yucatan Peninsula. The book covers not only bonefishing but also fishing for tarpon, permit and other species. It does so by taking the reader on a roundtrip on the Yucatan, which passes by Holbox, Cozumel, Boca Paila, Ascencion Bay and other places, and introduces particular locations and lodges.

Each location gets attention in form of a general coverage of the area and the lodge, a map, a small story or two about the fishing, advice regarding equipment and flies and pictures - lots of pictures, and really good ones too.

The large format of the book has left room for some stunning views of the locations, and both these views, the action pictures and the photography in general is Global Class. Francisco Bedeschi, who obviously is in the top league when it comes to fishing photography, has taken most of the pictures. His panoramas create the foundation for many of the fantastic spreads in the book. His web site shows more of his excellent photos.

Aside from the photography, the book also features some nice, small paintings used as vignettes on the pages. They show the fish and flies and give small dabs of variation between the large surfaces of the pictures.

This book is not the ultimate guide to fishing for bonefish or other tropical species. Neither is it a perfect guide to fishing the Yucatan. But it is the perfect appetizer for anyone who wants to savor the experiences that can be had in this region and with this type of fishing.

Highly recommended!

As already described the book can be hard to find, and I have only bumped into it a few times. I can find no web site for the publisher, but their address is:

Fly Fishing Patagonia
Tiscornia 154, P.B. "A", (8400)
Bariloche, Rio Negro
Argentina

You can also contact one of the authors, Daniel Beilinson, through his operation Fly Fishing Caribe.