Post by glitchmo on May 3, 2019 20:36:42 GMT -6
Hey y'all,
So, just back from Belize. We had a great trip, with snorkeling, exploring jungle rivers and Mayan cities, lots of relaxing, and of course one day of flats fishing, for which I wildly overprepared and overpacked
I have tons of pictures and stories about everything, but I'll stick to the flats fishing for this post. We booked with Tres Pescados in San Pedro (where we were staying for the whole trip). Our guide for the day was Darrel Smith, who I thought was excellent. He had with him Francisco, who acted as assistant guide, poled the boat, and often got out to push the boat.
Darrel definitely expected a lot out of me and my casts, perhaps more than I had to give in some cases, but he never got negative or discouraged and he absolutely found the fish. I had never been flats fly fishing, though I did a little spin fishing when I was much younger in Mexico.
Anyways, my goals were first to catch a bonefish on fly, then to try for a tarpon on fly. Based on what I had heard and read beforehand I was pretty confident that I would accomplish the first goal, and maybe 50/50 on the second. On the day we went out it was cloudy pretty much all day, which made for bad sight fishing conditions, but Darrel set me up over a deep turtlegrass channel with one of the many flies I had tied in preparation and within twenty minutes of leaving the dock I had my first bonefish on fly to hand!
We got a few more on this fly, as well, and though all of them were small they put up a hell of a fight for their size, better than stripers I've caught five time that size.
Darrel picked this fly, which is like a pink gotcha with rubberlegs and a weed guard, for the first spot.
Anyways, after catching I think five small bones in about thirty minutes we made a long run to a secret tarpon hole he knew back in the mangroves.
You obviously can't see them in this picture, but there are about fifty juvenile tarpon rolling furiously just past those bushes.
It took a little doing, and I made every rookie mistake there is to make, but after missing about five good hits I finally connected with my first tarpon! We got hits on several baitfish patterns, but the landed fish came on a chart/white Cowen's baitfish.
He's also a baby, but I was still pretty thrilled.
After that we went looking for the rest of the school, which had moved out of the little lagoon we were in, but we never really found them. So after lunch we headed back north and hit a few bonefish flats to try and upgrade the size a little.
I had a couple more bonefish come tight, even though the sight fishing conditions were tough, but they all got off. Nonetheless I did manage to get a few miscellaneous critters to hand, including this schoolmaster snapper:
And this mayan cichlid:
We chased the bones around for a bit more until we ran out of time and headed back. I was, and still am, thrilled with the results! First bonefish and tarpon in a single day? Yes please!
So, just back from Belize. We had a great trip, with snorkeling, exploring jungle rivers and Mayan cities, lots of relaxing, and of course one day of flats fishing, for which I wildly overprepared and overpacked
I have tons of pictures and stories about everything, but I'll stick to the flats fishing for this post. We booked with Tres Pescados in San Pedro (where we were staying for the whole trip). Our guide for the day was Darrel Smith, who I thought was excellent. He had with him Francisco, who acted as assistant guide, poled the boat, and often got out to push the boat.
Darrel definitely expected a lot out of me and my casts, perhaps more than I had to give in some cases, but he never got negative or discouraged and he absolutely found the fish. I had never been flats fly fishing, though I did a little spin fishing when I was much younger in Mexico.
Anyways, my goals were first to catch a bonefish on fly, then to try for a tarpon on fly. Based on what I had heard and read beforehand I was pretty confident that I would accomplish the first goal, and maybe 50/50 on the second. On the day we went out it was cloudy pretty much all day, which made for bad sight fishing conditions, but Darrel set me up over a deep turtlegrass channel with one of the many flies I had tied in preparation and within twenty minutes of leaving the dock I had my first bonefish on fly to hand!
We got a few more on this fly, as well, and though all of them were small they put up a hell of a fight for their size, better than stripers I've caught five time that size.
Darrel picked this fly, which is like a pink gotcha with rubberlegs and a weed guard, for the first spot.
Anyways, after catching I think five small bones in about thirty minutes we made a long run to a secret tarpon hole he knew back in the mangroves.
You obviously can't see them in this picture, but there are about fifty juvenile tarpon rolling furiously just past those bushes.
It took a little doing, and I made every rookie mistake there is to make, but after missing about five good hits I finally connected with my first tarpon! We got hits on several baitfish patterns, but the landed fish came on a chart/white Cowen's baitfish.
He's also a baby, but I was still pretty thrilled.
After that we went looking for the rest of the school, which had moved out of the little lagoon we were in, but we never really found them. So after lunch we headed back north and hit a few bonefish flats to try and upgrade the size a little.
I had a couple more bonefish come tight, even though the sight fishing conditions were tough, but they all got off. Nonetheless I did manage to get a few miscellaneous critters to hand, including this schoolmaster snapper:
And this mayan cichlid:
We chased the bones around for a bit more until we ran out of time and headed back. I was, and still am, thrilled with the results! First bonefish and tarpon in a single day? Yes please!
I hope to go back sometime, and I really thought Darrel was great. If anyone else is going down, feel free to shoot me a PM and I'd love to help with packing lists, logistics, etc... The food was great, the snorkeling was great, the tours we did were great, our AirBnB was great, the people were great. Some of the beaches were great. Great trip!