Mexico’s Chetumal Bay has the best saltwater fly fishing you’ve never heard of—a guide for Canadian anglers

THE BAY

Nestled along the southern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, Chetumal Bay is a vast expanse of shallow water—rarely deeper than six feet—spanning more than 700 square kilometres. The city of Chetumal, capital of the state of Quintana Roo, is on the western side of the bay, making it an excellent base for anglers to explore the pristine waters.

Despite being a bustling administrative centre with around 150,000 residents, Chetumal has never been a major destination for beach-seeking tourists and retains a laid-back Mexi-Caribbean vibe. Waterfront restaurants serve fresh seafood, colonial-era architecture dots the downtown area and the recently renovated waterfront promenade, or malecón, provides pleasant views of the fishing grounds.

The bay’s diverse ecosystem supports an impressive array of gamefish, but for a variety of reasons, most anglers have never heard of the place. For one, its location in the extreme southern corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, just across the border from Belize, means travellers must pass a lot of other destinations before arriving there. That includes the well-known fishery of Ascension Bay and the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, both of which border on the popular tourist destination of Tulum.

That said, Chetumal isn’t difficult to reach, at least by the standards of the travelling angler. It does, however, take more effort to find than many better-known fishing hot spots in the Caribbean (see “Getting there” on final page). As a result, the fishing is virtually untouched by sport anglers—an extreme rarity for any tropical fishing locale. In fact, the region only appeared on the fly-fishing radar in the last five years, largely thanks to pioneering guide Carlos Godoy.

An ardent lifelong fly fisherman, Carlos relocated to Chetumal for work around 15 years ago, and naturally began exploring the local angling opportunities. Astonished by the quality of the sportfishing, not to mention the lack of pressure, he started his own guiding service—Fly Fishing Chetumal—in 2019. He and his son, Carlos Jr., now offer outings year-round, including day trips and multi-day packages with lodging partner Villa Marcela, a boutique waterfront property. Both men speak fluent English, allowing for the guide-angler communication that’s so essential to successful saltwater fly fishing.

One of Mexico’s attractions is that the dining, lodging and guiding are considerably cheaper than at most other Caribbean destinations, not to mention the Florida Keys. That’s even more so the case with Chetumal, since it’s off the beaten tourist path. Add it up, and full-service fly-fishing trips to the region cost much less than they would in other places. In fact, there may be no better deal out there for mixed-species Caribbean fishing.