When you care about a place, you show up for it
Jesse Colten didn’t move to Xcalak to be a hero. “Far from that,” he’d say himself. He moved here because he loved fishing and the flats; but it was the people who call this remote corner of the Yucatán home that he truly fell in love with. When you build your life in a small community of a few hundred people, you don’t get to be a bystander. You see what needs doing, you see people already working toward it, and you join in. Together.
We get involved in Xcalak’s community because we’re part of it. Our team; many of whom are from Xcalak; along with partner brands, donors, and fellow anglers, have chosen to invest in this place beyond just fishing. We don’t do this for recognition or marketing, but because it’s what you do when you truly belong somewhere.
We’re proud to call Xcalak home, and proud of the people here. Below are some of the projects and partnerships we’re honored to be part of: work that makes a real difference for guides, families, and the waters we all share.
Partnered with Yellow Dog Community & Conservation Foundation (YDCCF)
Education opens doors. In Xcalak, English language skills can be the difference between trade school and university, between limited opportunities and a wider world. Since 2022, we’ve partnered with the Yellow Dog Community & Conservation Foundation to host US based teachers who run English programs for both youth and adults in Xcalak.
For kids, it’s about building foundational English skills that open doors to education and opportunity. For adults (many of them guides and hospitality workers) it’s about enriching their jobs, improving guest experiences, and creating new opportunities.
The youth program runs in town at the community center. The adult
program happens here at The XFlats, where we host teachers and co-host the classes alongside Yellow Dog. It’s practical, it’s needed, & it’s working.
Watch the first year in action → The Xcalak English Project
Interested in volunteering with the program? Reach out to Yellow Dog Foundation for details.
Hosted by The XFlats & Howler Brothers
The Mayan Permit began in 2022 as more than just a fishing tournament: it’s a tribute and a fundraiser rolled into one.
The Tribute:
Back in the late ’90s, Mexico’s tourism board recognized the potential for
fly fishing tourism in the Yucatán. At the time, there was only one notable guide: Alejandro Vega, known as “Sand Flea,” from Holbox. Sand Flea traveled the entire length of the peninsula, from top to bottom, teaching locals how to guide and fly fish the flats. Many of our current XFlats guides are products of Alejandro’s work. The Mayan Permit honors his legacy.
The Fundraiser:
Half the tournament participants are Yucatán guides fishing as anglers. The other half are sponsors and U.S. participants who help raise funds for a specific community project chosen by the people of Xcalak. For the past three years, funds have gone toward widening the Mahahual-Xcalak Carretera; a paved road with blind corners where accidents have claimed lives, including the wife of a local guide.
One tournament, two purposes: honoring the people who built this fishery and funding the projects that protect them.
Read Emily Rogers’ article from last year’s tournament → “My Time at the Mayan Permit Tournament”
Annual Student Fly Fishing & Service Program July 25 – August 1, 2026
Fish For Change is a nonprofit that uses fly fishing to build leaders through connection, culture, and conservation. Every summer, we host a week at The XFlats where high school and college students experience more than just fishing: they experience what it means to be global citizens.
Days on the flats mix with hands-on citizen science on the fish you catch. Between tides, students join language-immersion classes, learn traditional cooking, share dinners with guides’ families, and help protect the reef by spearfishing invasive lionfish.
It’s immersive. It’s transformative. And 40% of students attend on financial need-based scholarships, making it accessible to passionate young anglers regardless of their economic background.
Annual Donated Trip for Breast Cancer Survivors
Every year, The XFlats donates a full week trip to Casting for Recovery, a nonprofit that provides fly fishing retreats for women with active breast cancer or in remission. Our donated trip raises $10,000-$15,000 on average at auction, funding healing experiences for women who need them most.
It’s a small gesture that makes a big difference. Casting for Recovery is our go-to nonprofit partner, and we’re proud to support their mission year after year.
Supporting Local Guides
After Silent Spotter won Audience Choice: Best Film at the 2025 International Fly Fishing Film Festival, Tommy Batun (our deaf and mute guide whose extraordinary vision & permit-spotting skills are the heart of the film) got picked up by Umpqua to design his own flies.
Tommy and his family now receive royalties from every fly sold. It’s recognition he’s earned, and income that supports his family in Xcalak.
Ocean currents don’t respect borders. Illegal dumping and cruise ship waste were depositing massive amounts of trash on Xcalak’s beaches; shorelines that should be pristine, not plastic-choked.
The XFlats organized the cleanup crews, equipment, and logistics. Bajío Sunglasses funded it through merchandise sales, with $10 from every Xcalak Rooster tee or hat going directly to pay workers for full days of cleanup.
We worked with Liz Castro, daughter of Xcalak’s first fly fishing guide, to manage crews of 10-15 local people cleaning beaches and hauling waste to recycling centers. The program ran from 2020-2023, removing tons of trash from the shoreline and giving the town’s beaches a fighting chance.
Xcalak isn’t just where we fish. It’s where we live.
It’s where our guides raise their families, where kids go to school, where the reef needs protecting, and where the community deserves support.
When you’re part of a place (really part of it) you don’t get to pick and choose when to show up. You just show up.
That’s what we do.
