Belize | Bonefish on the Brain

Flies — No Comments
07
Dec 10

Lee Haskins ties a foam bonefishing fly… and catches fish.

I was on Blanton’s Board, looking around and I saw “Belize Report” from Lee Haskin. Good stuff about permit and tarpon and a little about bones. The pictures though… well… the “Shrimp Neutralizer” pattern… well… what?!?! FOAM?! I certainly hadn’t seen that before. Really creative and it looks as if it caught fish. Now that would have been handy to see before my Belize trip.

The Shrimp Neutralizer was very effective on bonefish and even had an “eat” from a big permit!

Great to use a fly that suspends and doesn’t hang up in the grass or coral!

via Trips, Flies and Fish: Belize-Rumble in the Jungle!.

Lee's bone and FOAM fly. Cool.

Lee... that's innovation. Well done.

Check out the trip report… you’ll see that Lee’s permit and tarpon were a littttttle bit bigger than mine… like… A LOT bigger. That’s what Belize has to offer.

Gear — 2 Comments
03
Dec 10

The Helios – A review of sorts

When out with guide Katchu from El Pescador we had an abrupt stop on our way tarpon hunting where permit rods were demanded. We were not rigged for permit. I quickly got the Orvis Helios 8 wt. ready and was up on deck, casting to my first permit.

I was pumping the cast out and was carrying the line well in the air and then… then the cast fell apart. The shot was gone. As one or two other anglers may be tempted to do, I thought, well… maybe I need to over-line this rod. Over-lining had proved just the ticket for the Sage Xi3 7 wt., so I put on a 9 wt. line. I missed the next shot, but have no recollection of how that cast went.

Later, in a moment of reflection, I began to wonder if, just maybe, I had jumped to conclusions about the Helios. I mentioned out-loud to my fishing buddy Shane (who happens to be a casting instructor and a beautiful caster) that I was beginning to think that maybe I had just put out a bad cast and blamed the rod.

Shane said in watching the cast that my false cast before the final presentation had been perfect. When he saw me go for the last cast, he knew it wasn’t going to go well. I think I knew it down deep too. I had botched the cast… this was operator error.

Our last morning in Belize I decided to trust Steve at Orvis and I put the 8 weight line back on the Helios and I took that rod out for the last fleeting hours of fishing.

Newsflash… the Helios casts really, really well and an 8 wt. casts an 8 wt. line very well. It is light… that’s the first thing you notice. It feels almost like casting a 5 wt., which may give you the impression it isn’t going to have the power to get you through the wind or the distance you might need (and I think that is why I flubbed the first cast and went through the up-line fiasco). Of course, the ROD has the power to do it and the weight of the rod in ounces does not = the power of the rod.

I’m learning.

At $800, the Helios is in the upper, upper price range of fly fishing gear. It really makes me want to get a Hydros out fishing… a rod that is the twin brother of the Helios… but that twin that was born 20 minutes later and who might not be totally the same. At $500, it is much more in the price-range I’d probably be more interested in. Basically, you get the same technology with a couple of bells and whistles removed.

If you drive a Mercedes that costs $40K, you are probably a Hydros guy. If your Benz costs $143,000… just jump right to the Helios (even though you are probably too busy to actually fish).

Belize Report – The Last Day

We woke up the last morning at El Pescador knowing the clock was running down. We had to be back and packed by 11:45 before we took the boat to San Padro, flight to Belize City and then to Dallas before we’d go separate ways. Since it was 5:00 AM, we still had some quality fishing time to get after and that’s what we did.

We got the canoe out in the lagoon and hit our favorite spot from the first DIY day. When we got there the water was glassy smooth and, as you might expect, there were a few tails working, easily spotted from a couple hundred feet. It was a nice scenario for our last day.

Glassy

I got to the tails first and managed the first fish of the morning, which was nice. Unlike the last time we had fished this spot we didn’t find large schools of fish, but smaller groups. Shane stuck a couple more and then we moved.

In the transition the weather started to change… up came some wind, in came cloud cover and the threat of rain. We came upon a clearing between mangrove chutes that looked pretty good. Shallow. Good bottom. Spooking fish as we paddles. We tied up the canoe and went to work.

Here, Shane managed one of the better Belizean bonefish we saw. It was a single, cruising the edge of the mangroves. Shane pulled some ninja stalking techniques out and the fish ate.

An honest 4 pounder... maybe 4 1/4.

Shane really came into his own here… seeing fish I couldn’t see and then casting to them and catching them. I walked through the muck to get to another spot and managed to have a decent bonefish come unbuttoned. I also managed to have THREE mojarra beat bonefish to flies… damn mojarra. I managed a couple more bonefish, included one small enough to make me think I was fishing a creek back home.

This IS the other side of the rainbow... it ends in Belize.

Not a big fish... but pretty.

Shane ended up catching something like 15 bonefish just that morning before we paddled back. I caught three. This bit of ass-kickery kind of illustrated exactly how much the Grand Slam from the day before was up to fate and luck as opposed to skill. I knew I wasn’t as good an angler as Shane and this re-enforced that belief. The guy can flat out fish.

The release

Soon we were paddling back across the little lagoon, wind in our face. We made it back with plenty of time for showers and lunch. While Shane was eating lunch I took 15 feet of tippet and a small velcro crab out to the dock. I had a hunch I wanted to test out about those dock bonefish. I managed to convince a little snapper to eat the crab and then I saw a little school of 5 or so bonefish. With the wind to my back I tossed in the crab. One bonefish came right up to the little fly and ate it. I tried to set the hook, lifting the head of the bonefish up, but the hook simply came right out. Damn, I thought… that would have been a good end to the trip!

The trip had been a good one… a great one even. I had caught my first ever permit and my first ever tarpon in a magical day that had landed me a Grand Slam. I had caught my largest fish to date… a 25 pound Jack. I had caught many smaller bonefish to add to my overall bonefish knowledge for future bonefish trips. We had fished through crappy weather and good weather and some tense times with Katchu and fun times with Katchu. I had shared the trip with a good friend in a kind of magical place.

I hadn’t caught as many bonefish as I had really thought I would, but then I hadn’t figured on chasing permit and a day on the tarpon flats, which were both great experiences.

Thank you El Pescador for having us. You have a special place and a special fishery.

Conservation / Locations — 1 Comment
30
Nov 10

Interview with Ali Gentry Flota – Co-Owner, El Pescador Lodge

Spending a few days as the guest of Ali down at her lodge, El Pescador Lodge (you can follow them on Facebook too), on Ambergris Caye in Belize, you have to admire the beauty of the surroundings. You also get the sense that it all is very precarious. El Pescador, years ago, was not book-ended by other condos/resorts, but now it is. Now, the string of docks and buildings continues about 5 miles beyond EP. Until the US economy took a header, the area around Ambergris was seeing more and more plans to develop fringe “land” that would need to be bulldozed, dredged and filled… ya know… the kinds of places bonefish feed… the kinds of places bait lives. Now, there is a pause in that development and there is a chance to get things back to more sanity… more sustainability. One of the strongest voices for this re-visioning of future of Ambergris is none other than Ali from El Pescador. I wanted to give Ali a chance to get some of her thoughts out there about the future of Ambergris.

A nice place to be.

You’ve been on Ambergris for a while now, what are some of the changes you’ve seen for better and worse?

Sustainable development is a delicate balancing act. As a foreigner investor in Belize, I believe that our relationship must be mutually beneficial. My business must benefit the community through a variety of means – jobs, taxes, support and activism in exchange for giving me the opportunity to operate my business in this paradise. Over the years I have seen many benefits from development including higher quality of life for San Pedranos, access to better education, access to better medical care as well as more (but not yet sufficient) infrastructure such as electricity, water, sewage, cell phones, cable, internet, trash collection and fire trucks. As foreigners we come to Belize for a better and simpler quality of life. But for Belizeans, they have the same American dream our parents and grandparents had – a better life for their children with access to what we consider “basic services.” But, those “basic services” are very hard to attain in a 3rd world country.

I have also seen more of a community environmental consciousness with the advent of development. For a long time, we assumed investors would “do the right thing.” Now, we are learning that laws need to be put in place to protect the very thing that attracts the investors – but for some reason they are intent upon destroying. It seems painfully obvious to me that the only reason a hotel, condominium or real estate project would be successful in Belize is because of our natural beauty (the reef, the fishery, the jungle, etc). Yet – large scale developments that are only interested in short term profits are willing to ruin the environment through dredging the sea grass beds and cutting of mangroves which will in turn kill the reef. They are willing to destroy the very thing that is making them money – because they are only interested in the short term profit.

We need a way to make all developers have a long term stake in their project and we need politicians with a long term plan and goal for the country. One way to make a developer have a vested interest in the future of the country is to only allow them to sell 49% of the development. If they have to maintain 51% ownership then it will be in their best interest to conserve the environment, build with quality materials, provide on-going maintenance and put a marketing plan in effect, among other things.

In the booming days of the US economy it seems development was running at a break-neck pace in Ambergris. What has the US recession meant for Ambergris and what do you see happening in the next couple of years?

The silver lining to the world wide economic break down has been that development has all but stopped for 2 years on Ambergris. Some projects have gone out of business. Others will continue once access to money starts to flow again. This has given us additional time to work on developing a master plan for both the island as well as a tourism master plan. Both of these will guide the future of development on the island and in the country. Then we will not have to fight individual properties like South Beach; instead we should have a master plan that says it is illegal to build it because it is on 100% mangroves and not on real “land” which is a no build zone (for example).

As more and more of the actual “land” gets bought up, more and more fringe land is getting sold and developed. Talk about that?

It is a significant problem that mimics every beach community in the USA. Once all the beach front is gone then they fill in the bay side as the next “water front” property. I am hopeful that the master plan will address this and it will not be allowed to be developed for commercial purposes. One little private beach shack with some solar panels for electricity is not a problem – but someone who fills in the property by dredging our fishery and then builds 100 condos is a problem.

While there is a no-kill law on the books in Belize for bonefish, permit and tarpon, I noticed a large number of fish traps on the west side of Ambergris that seem like just about the perfect bonefish/permit killers around. Is anything being done to address the by-catch in those traps?

Glad to hear these won't be around forever

The stick fish traps you are talking about are illegal – the ones you saw are grandfathered in. When the owner dies, the trap will be removed. Every year there are less and less.

Can you talk a little about the work that Green Reef is doing there?

Not nearly as well as Mito Paz, who is the head of Green Reef.

One thing they are currently working on is a sport fish conservation plan for Belize. They, along with key stakeholders (such as lodges, guides, commercial fishermen, NGOs) are developing recommendations that will be presented to policy makers for the further development of appropriate conservation and management measures for the protection of critical sport fish habitat.

Thanks Ali. Keep up the good work.

Sunrise at El Pescador (photo by Shane)

Gear — No Comments
27
Nov 10

Rod Review – Sage Xi3

I was fortunate enough to get a couple of loaner roads from Sage for my trip to Belize. It felt a little like Christmas when the package with two new Xi3’s showed up. I had a 7 wt. and a 10 wt. which armed me for everything I really needed in Belize.

The 7 wt. was used most and was an especially good rod for hunting Belizean bonefish, which tend to run a bit smaller in size than Bahamian bones. With the 7 wt., I up-lined to an 8 weight line, which cast very, very well at the short distances that you tend to be fishing when wading for bonefish. I am fast becoming a fan of up-lining when you know the distances are going to be short. These fast, modern rods have difficulty loading on shorter casts, say 40′ or under.

Xi3 - a great stick.

I cast the 10 for permit and for tarpon and was happy with how the Xi3 did when delivering some long casts with some bigger flies. The 10 weight I actually cast with a 10 weight line (a Wonderline provided by Orvis, which did great service as well). The 10 weight didn’t feel heavy and it had plenty of power. When I hooked into that big Jack that rod bent to the cork, which was fun to watch.

The Xi3 has a rather major price-tag, which is really the only drawback of the rod. You can feel the quality in the stick and I’d love to bring one out on the flats again at some point. When I finally move up to a top tier rod, the Xi3 will certainly be in the running.

Fish Tails / Gear / Locations — 3 Comments
26
Nov 10

Belize Day Four – Tarpon Hunting

The fourth day of the trip and the third day in Belize saw us heading out with a guide for the first time. El Pescador had a stable of highly respected guides and this day we would head out with Katchu. We met him on the dock at 7 and got on the panga, heading south to head through the passage in San Padro. From there, we’d head north to the tarpon hunting grounds of Savannah Cay. That is what we thought was happening anyway.

As we made it through the mangrove and shack lined cut to the bay side of Ambergris we surprisingly went south and in a few minutes the guide stopped the boat and, frantically, said “Where’s the permit rod?!” We weren’t rigged for permit, we thought we were headed to fish tarpon. Katchu was a big agitated, but we finally got rigged up, I was up first and I made my first cast to a school of marauding permit. They didn’t eat. We probably spent an hour chasing nervous water, but the fish were just not in range most of the time. We called time on Permit and headed North for tarpon.

The Savannah Cay flat is 16 miles long, all water 3-6 feet deep. The bottom is a mixture of white mud and turtle grass/aquatic plants. When we got there we saw 4 other boats. On a busy day, Katchu told us, there can be FORTY boats there. I really can’t imagine that place with 40 boats… it wouldn’t be good/fun I have a feeling.

Shane... waiting.

We had cloud cover when we got there, but the skies to the west were mostly clear. It was going to be a good weather day. I was up on the bow first and I surprise myself by spotting the first two tarpon. They were a bit too close to the boat. Casts were made. Fish were not eating.

Katchu spotted nervous water heading toward the boat. A school of tarpon was headed for us. I made the cast. I stripped. The fish ate. I set the hook hard. I raised the rod to clear the line. Ummm… turns out you don’t clear the line like you are fishing bonefish. The fly popped out. I was 0/1 and had botched the job on my first tarpon.

Shane was up next and the first fish to the boat would be coming soon. It wasn’t a tarpon, however. Nervous water, moving fast, relieved a school of jacks. Shane cast in the middle of the school and all hell broke loose. As he stripped his fly fast one fish left the school to chase the fly. Water was sheeting it over it’s head as it chased down that fly. It ate and it started its run. A Jack is a bull dog. It doesn’t jump, it doesn’t head shake. It just picks a direction and goes there. A few minutes later and Shane landed a Jack that ran about 15 pounds or so.

A nice jack, first fish of the day

I was up. Tarpon fishing is long stretches of inactivity, punctuated by frantic moments. I stood there for a while, maybe an hour, without a fish to cast to. Then… nervous water, a school of tarpon coming towards us. I made the cast, but my strip was too fast and the fish turned away. Shane was up again.

Soon, we saw a single tarpon. Shane made the cast and even I saw the fish turn, see the fly and just go up to it and open its massive mouth and eat the fly. Shane did everything right and after a few good jumps the fish was in.

Fish On!

That's what we were after

A cool animal

I was back on deck. We went to the north side of Savannah Cay, but the wind had churned up the water and it was too hard to see the fish. We moved back to where we had started. Most of the other boats had left at this point and there was just one other boat, also from El Pescador, left on the 16 mile long flat.

As I was on the deck, Katchu again spotted nervous water. We weren’t sure if they were jacks or tarpon, but I was going to cast at them regardless. “As long as you can, get as much line as you can out and cast as far as you can!” Katchu barked. I stripped line of and started pounding false casts out to get all that line out. Just as I was about to lay down the cast I saw the fish. They were Jacks and they weren’t 80 feet away, they were 20 feet away. I tried to drop the cast short and it all didn’t go well. I had way too much slack out and couldn’t get tight to the fly. The fish moved on. There were some tense words between Shane and Katchu about the difference between “As much line as you can” and 20 feet. I think Katchu even said at one point “I can’t believe you fucked up that cast.” Katchu just wanted it all to happend and he wanted it so bad that if you screw something up, he’s prone to tell you about it.

While we were still having our conversations about exactly how it all went wrong the school of jacks reappeared. I made the cast and the school went insane. The school of fish balled up in a feeding frenzy. I couldn’t see into the school, as the chaos had churned up the bottom. I just kept stripping, felt weight and set the hook. The jack just took off. I stood up there on the deck watching the line just rip out. The run lasted maybe 60 solid seconds, taking about 200 yards of line out. If ever there was a workout for a reel, this has to be it. The Nautilus NV 10-11 did the job very, very well. The Sage Xi3 10 weight we bent at the cork on this fish. Jacks are just amazingly strong and more fun than is reasonable.

And it is off to the races.

Nautilus... good job.

Damn nice fish.

The Jack probably went 25 pounds, making it my largest fish ever.

There were no more tarpon. There were no more jacks. We were done for the day. Even though I didn’t get a tarpon, it still felt like a good day. He had lots of fish to cast to. I had hooked my first tarpon. I had caught my largest fish ever. It had been fun. I had learned a lot.

The next day was going to be about production on our last full day in Belize.

Fish Tails / Locations — 2 Comments
25
Nov 10

Belize Day Three – The Lagoon

The weather was set to continue being crappy and that didn’t seem like a good day to go out with a guide, so we decided this would be our DIY day. El Pescador is on the beach, but in the back, it has a small dock that leads to a lagoon… in the lagoon are bonefish. Instead of walking the beach, we set out by paddle. El Pescador has a rough map with some spots marked and we used that as a starting point to get to the fish.

Stormy skies and the red canoe

The first shore we patrolled was devoid of anything resembling a bonefish, so we moved on. Shane moved further down the beach and I stayed closer. Twenty minutes on I saw a bonefish cruising out of some flooded mangroves. I threw a brown gotcha in a #8 and the fish saw it and charged it. I set, the fish was hooked and it started its run. I tried to clear the line, but… well… the line still jumped up and wrapped around my hand. I was now 0/1. Rumor has it that I dropped a couple of f-bombs at this point in the trip, but those reports are unconfirmed. About 5 minutes later and Shane was hooked up… first fish of the trip was in the books.

The seal breaker.

One more move and my rod was finally bent all the way to conclusion.

Get bent.

Well, isn't (s)he cute?

Turns out what you’ve heard about Belize bonefish is largely true… which is they aren’t very large. This little guy was about the size we caught. We did see a few bigger fish and even caught some (mostly Shane), but there are a lot of smaller fish here. They are still very, very fun and it does present an opportunity to down-size on your rod selection. You could easily get away with a six and, ya know… maybe even a 5. That means if you want to get into bonefishing and don’t want to go out and buy a new rod for one trip, you could grab your trout gear and head to Belize. Just say’n.

Out in the lagoon for the rest of the trip we had a simple rule… before you dip into the cooler for a beer, you have to land a fish. So, this was a nice beer.

Mmmm... good.

Belikin is the beer of Belize and we drank a fair bit of it… 58 of them according to the bar tab. Here’s the thing about Belikin… they are a LIE. The bottle is heavy… very heavy… the weight of each bottle is roughly 95% glass and 5% beer. They are about 2 ounces each… or 9.6 ounces as it turns out. You can grab and empty bottle and the weight makes you think it is full… but it isn’t. That is a tragedy. When you have a Belikin you are largely holding glass. Someone said when you buy a Belikin you also buy a weapon… and I can see that. In my totally imagined feud between Kalik and Belikin, I’m going to raise the Kalik on sheer volume. Hope that doesn’t offend anyone, but really… a beer should be AT LEAST 12 ounces… AT LEAST.

I only managed a couple of fish that day, Shane had about 7, which was a sign that things were as they should be. Shane’s a much better angler than I am since he’s a guide on the water about 200 days a year and he has about 350 days of bonefishing under his belt.

It seemed appropriate with it raining that hard... to have a beer.

The rain came and went… and then came again. Our paddle back to El Pescador was a wet and windy one. Just as we got to the mangrove chute we’d take to get to the dock Shane was mentioning that this particular environment looked ideal for baby tarpon. Then I saw one roll. So, we fished for some very small baby tarpon for a few minutes. I cast from the canoe while Shane stood in the back of the canoe trying to locate the fish. I had one eat, but didn’t hook it.

When we got back the light was failing and we were both wetter than seemed possible. It had been a challenging day, but we had made it work. The best time to go fishing, after all, isn’t when the weather is perfect. The best time to go fishing is when you can.

wet, wet, wet

We made the right call and had a fun day under the Belizean clouds.

Small? Sure. Pretty? You bet.

The third day of the trip and the second day in Belize were done. Dinner was fantastic… Lobster and Chicken Parmesan. They treat you right at El Pescador.

The next day was going to be with a guide and a trip to the tarpon flats.

Fish Tails / Locations — 2 Comments
24
Nov 10

OK… Belize Report, Day 2

I’m back from Belize now… it was 55 in the house when I got home. I miss Belize already, but I look forward to seeing my wife and daughter again (which I’ll do on Friday). I’m going to pick up reporting on the days of the trip, starting with Day 2.

Day 2 started out in Miami and from there on to Belize City and from there to Ambergris and El Pescador.

As we descended into Belize City my heart kind of sank a bit. There was a lot of rain on the ground and buckets still falling. The puddle jumper from Belize City to Ambergris was a cool flight, but still the rain was coming down. Lori-Ann met Shane and I at the dock for the ride to El Pescador.

After we got our room, we got ready to hit the beach in the rain in search of tails. We found them (the first fish spotted was actually right when we got to El Pescador… right by the dock… crazy). The turtle grass was so thick it was tough to get flies to the fish and we ended our first actual day there without a fish to our name, but at least we had gotten out there and paid some rain soaked dues.

We were scheduled to go out with guide Katchu the next day, but decided to push that off for a day to let the weather settle. We’d day the canoe out in the lagoon system behind El Pescador for the second day there.

Dinner was great and we met the other anglers and divers staying at the lodge. Everyone got on well and we were looking forward to the next day, despite a less that totally awesome weather forecast.

Stay Tuned for Day 3.

Fish Tails / Locations — 25 Comments
22
Nov 10

A very, very, very good day in Belize

I didn’t expect it. But it happened. Amazing.

Bonefish

Tarpon

Permit

A Grand Slam at El Pescador.

My Grand Slam Pin from El Pescador.

All the other stuff — 1 Comment
19
Nov 10

El Pescador Trip – Day 1 – Travel

The first day of my El Pescador trip was pretty much a normal day… woke up to the shouts of “DADDDDYYYYYY!” These verbal explosions take place about 20 minutes too early, but it isn’t a bad way to wake up, really.

From there… store, swim lessons, store, cooked up my totally awesome and unhealthy Mac and Cheese (there’s bacon in it… 4 cheeses, butter, milk, flour, cream, garlic, onion and corn… damn good), Grandparents came in, Thanksgiving Feast for Pre-school… started getting a little anxious and finally the luggage into the car and a trip up to SFO (two hours early). My daughter, dressed in her Princess costume from Halloween (she wears it about 2-3 hours a day) sacked out on the way up, so I didn’t get to say goodbye to her, which was the only part of the day that didn’t go to script, but at least she didn’t cry.

At the airport and I’ve heard so much about the stepped up security. What’s the fuss? I was through in a matter of seconds, really. No groping, sadly. No body scanner. I know it isn’t the universal experience, but it was really totally painless.

Now… the waiting. Board a flight to Miami, arrive at 5:something, wait… flight to Belize City and then on to Ambergris to meet up with Shane and the good folks from El Pescador.

I’ll keep things as up-to-date as possible.

Need a rod carrier... old soccer sock and a couple of cam straps. Done.

Good times are here… the trip is here… let the adventures begin.

Before I even get out of the Miami Airport and on to Belize , I see my first bonefish… in fact, a whole school.

A good omen?

Met up with Chris Lewis in the airport… he saw me post the above pic on my facebook page… turns out he works here. We got to chat about bonefish for a bit and the fishing in Biscayne Bay. Always nice to meet folks who take the time to follow the blog and who love bonefish like I do.

Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).

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