Last year, I flew back from the FF&FT overseas reader trip only to learn from a couple on the plane that it had been the coldest weather Mexico had experienced for 27 years ... and I could believe it! (They told me that they had insisted on lying on the wind-swept beach - wrapped up in two bath towels - simply because they were British!)

Our fishing hadn't been bad considering the weather, so I gambled on the fact that this year - if we got weather approaching seasonal for Mexico - then the trip should work out OK. After all, we had been well looked after at the lodge, the food was great, the guides were excellent, and the potential of the fishing could clearly be seen ... although the tarpon appeared to be in a state of torpor (or, perhaps they had been cryogenically frozen).

However, I couldn't have hoped for better results: 2011 was one of the best-ever reader trips. Three first permit for Ron Low, Dave Graham, and myself. Plus a first tarpon for Peter Willoughby. Bonefish, snook and jacks aplenty, and poor Rick Lilley goes home with the haunting 'what if' thought of a brief encounter with 'Permit-zilla'. Well, with permit fishing, anything that can go wrong generally does – but as I fished with him on that last day I could see that here was a permit fisher well and truly hooked ... by one that he had lost.

In total, the group (we joined a group of four genial and fun Americans), which was based at Playa Blanca, took two Grand Slams and landed five permit (UK 3: USA 2 - for anyone interested in sporting trivia!) with plenty of laughs into the bargain.

One of the 'joys' of catching a permit at Playa Blanca is the celebrated Mayan custom of consuming a pickled scorpion to confirm the captor's warrior status. I noticed with due concern that Peter Willoughby (a gastro-surgeon) was keen to tell us he'd caught permit before, and he'd set his sights on a Grand Slam on the final day, so he wouldn't have to put his own stomach through this ordeal. I have to say, 15 minutes into the fight with my permit I did start to wonder what affect that sting might have on my innards.

Luckily, the scorpion is pickled in tequila which helps ... a bit. And luckily, unlike Dave Graham, I didn't land a Grand Slam, which meant that he had to eat two!

A full report on the Mexico reader trip will appear in the magazine.