Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Mexico is worth it on the coast, not in every mountain river. Passek caught around twenty species fishing Mexico's Pacific side, including snapper and a thirty-pound jack crevalle, but the river beside his highland base in Chiapas is too polluted to fish, with almost no shore access and very few guides available.
Rick Passek is a Canadian fly angler and fly tier who spent a decade inspecting and maintaining dams for the Alberta government, retired in late 2023, and now lives and fishes in Mexico while running the Fly Fish Fanatic YouTube channel.
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Is fly fishing worth it in Mexico's mountain rivers?
Not everywhere. Passek spent two months based in the Chiapas highlands at around 7,200 feet and did no fishing at all, because the local river is one of the most polluted in the country. A better river runs from the state capital to the ocean and holds fish, but there is effectively no shore access and almost no guide network, so arranging a day on it becomes complicated fast.
What can you catch fly fishing Mexico's Pacific coast?
The Pacific coast is where Passek found the payoff, estimating roughly twenty different species caught in one area. Snapper came on fly, and a jack crevalle of about thirty pounds came on a spoon on a day when the surf was overhead and unfishable with a fly rod. Roosterfish, dorado, snook and bonefish are the targets he separates by structure, with beaches offering different opportunities than rocky points.
How do you read saltwater when you have only fished rivers and lakes?
Passek could read rivers and stillwater but had no framework for saltwater, and rebuilt it by watching local subsistence and working fishermen rather than reading more. The clearest signal he adopted is birds: diving birds mean bait, and bait means predators. Beyond that, learning which species hold on which structure, off rocks versus off open beach, is what turns a coastline into readable water.
How should you approach a lake you have never fished?
Passek leaves rod, reel and boat in the vehicle and walks the shoreline first. He looks at insect activity, whether fry are moving, whether damsels or dragonflies are hatching, and what the bottom is made of. If the lake is small he then trolls the perimeter making mental notes of drop-offs, sunken logs and shallow feeding areas, reading fish behaviour as he goes: no surface activity means fishing deeper, subtle rises mean emergers, hard explosions mean dries.
What is thread control in fly tying and why does it matter?
Thread control is Passek's number one fundamental. It covers touching wraps, correct bobbin tension, keeping a short length of thread outside the bobbin, and spinning the thread deliberately so it lays flat or cords depending on whether you want a thin or thick body. Matching thread to job matters too: GSP and nano silk split beautifully for dubbing but can cut deer hair, so a heavier conventional thread is better for spinning.
How do you stop a fly from unravelling on the water?
Add a half hitch at every stage of the fly, not just at the end. The logic is simple: if the fly starts to come apart, it only comes apart back to the last half hitch. Passek applies it most reliably after anything slippery, such as hackle, deer hair or synthetics, and finishes with two sets of three whip finishes, or three sets when the fly will be brushed out with Velcro.
Do fly tying materials have to be natural?
No. Passek treats hardware stores, dollar stores and craft aisles as material suppliers. Plastic press-on fingernails become shellbacks on saltwater shrimp patterns or, painted, backs for dragonfly nymphs; a finger-thin pool noodle cut on the diagonal becomes gurgler bodies; organza becomes buzzers. He also uses harvested natural materials including squirrel, moose, elk and beaver, and the point is to experiment rather than to prefer one category.
Key takeaways
- Mexico's coastal saltwater delivered around twenty species for Passek; the highland river beside his base was too polluted to fish at all.
- Diving birds are the fastest saltwater read: birds mean bait, bait means predators.
- Walk the shoreline and read insects, substrate and fish behaviour before touching your gear at a new lake.
- Thread control, correct bobbin tension and matching thread type to the material are the foundation of durable flies.
- Half hitch at every stage of the fly so a failure only unravels back to the last hitch.
- Prioritise observation, silhouette and size before colour, then focus on presentation.
