I sat atop an overbuilt picnic table in the damp shade of a large pine tree watching one angler after another fish the water beside me. Like a slow and silent time-lapse parade, over the span of an hour, the next fisherman took the position of the one before him, casting to the same water at the same angles — interchangeable, carbon copy approaches.

Away from the constant “spring break” hustle of Cancun, south into the Yucatan hinterlands, there are fish. Lots of them.

And Rhett Schober knows where to find them. Seriously. He knows the Caribbean coastline like a local. That’s because, for all intents and purposes, he is one.

An ex-patriated Coloradan from Vail, Shrober has taken to the southeast corner of Mexico like … well, like a fish to water. He's traded in his little creek rods for stout saltwater gear and his chest waders for flats boots. Just for grins, he jokes about fly fishing the the flats in a thong.