Fishing Belize

[Vagabond]

The story really started last January, when, after a few days of catching snook, snapper and jacks in the Placencia mangrove lagoons, the weather allowed us just one tide on the coral flats.

 

 

That produced my first tarpon on fly, (see above) and my first shot at permit fishing. I vowed to return, which we did in December, equipped to have a serious attempt at catching a permit on fly.

 

Secondary targets were provided by the variety of “toothy critturs” in the deeper water outside the flats, but inside the long reef that runs parallel to the Belize coastline, about twenty miles offshore. Norma was to fish lures for them, and I was to fly-fish, using some of Snatcher’s flies.

 

So December found us once again in Wyatt Cabral’s boat, heading for the offshore cayes and reef flats. Wyatt was born and brought up on one of the cayes no larger than a football pitch – one of a family of sixteen – man, wife, ten sons and four daughters. Self-sufficiency was a way of life. For five days Norma, Wyatt and I stayed there ourselves, as guests of Julian, one of Wyatt’s brothers who now lives on the family caye. They told us proudly that the family is descended from one of the Caribbean pirates who settled the cayes in the nineteenth century. Both Wyatt and Julian are superb anglers – particularly for permit and tarpon.

 

The best part of each tide found me wading the flats, using a #9 fly outfit for permit, stalking the small shoals, usually three or four fish together, sometimes up to a dozen. As I had read, and soon discovered for myself, permit must rank as one of the most difficult fish in the world – even a perfectly presented fly is refused nineteen times out of twenty. The least thing wrong with your stalking or fly presentation in such crystal clear water and the permit will spook. Even when you get things right they still might spook.

 

Permit spook at coral rubble scrunching under the feet, spook if you get too close, spook at seeing the fly-line in the air, spook at the shadows made by the ripples as the leader hits the surface, spook at the fly itself unless it moves exactly like a tiny crab, spook at an eagle ray coming across the flats – and sometimes spook at nothing at all!

 

I had three chances in the five tides we fished – one take was spat out as I tightened, on one occasion a permit actually went for the fly but a small schoolmaster (a sort of snapper) rushed in and grabbed it first. The one permit I did hook rushed off the flat and away down the break of slope. Despite holding the rod high, I felt the sickening sensation of the leader grating against coral, and PING! the leader went. Ah well…..Next year…….

 

Once the water had become too shallow for permit as the tide ebbed off the flats, we spent the last of the ebb (the worst time of the tide) fishing from the boat for barracudas, jacks and mackerels. So in a sense Snatcher’s flies did not get a fair trial. Nevertheless, we did catch a few decent fish

 

Here are a few fish that fell to Snatcher’s flies, which I fished on a #12 outfit with a floating line, but having a fast sinking head. Fishing that gear is more akin to beach casting than fly fishing – the amount of line you can shoot with such an outfit is astonishing.

 

Here is a barracuda

 

 

and a black trevally

 

 

and a little tunny not much bigger than Snatchers fly!

 

Whilst I was messing about with fly rods, Norma had a variety of fish – barracuda, cero mackerel, bar jack, and snappers on various plugs and spinners.

 

a mutton snapper

 

a cero mackerel

 

In addition to the fish she caught, Norma had a real monster take her plug, and run off two hundred yards of 30 lb braid. Seeing the spool drum beginning to show, Norma did her best to stop it, eventually clamping down with only two or three turns left on the reel, with the result that the line parted – fortunately at the plug end rather than the spool knot.

 

Although I caught no permit, and the tarpon were few - and those few not feeding (“on holiday” as Wyatt put it) we did catch some bonefish. Ironically, Tony U had commented that Belize is one of the world’s best bonefish venues, and I had replied “true, but not on the Placencia flats – they are supreme for permit but not good for bones.”

 

That is right (go to north Belize for bones) but we did come across one feeding shoal of bonefish – not on the flats, but in water about eight feet deep (too deep to wade!), so I fished with #6 tackle at long range from the boat and got twelve bones in one morning.

 

Bonefish - in boxing terms, not a heavyweight, but certainly a champion

 

Norma would be the first to tell you she is no fly fisher, but as the wind freshened we thought she might reach the fish with a wind-assisted cast, so she had a go. Wyatt paid out some anchor rope to lessen the distance a bit, and casting high and downwind with my #6 gear, Norma eventually reached and caught her first bonefish on fly – and just to prove it was not a fluke she caught another.

 

Talk about the power and speed of bones is not just hype, these are serious and very fast takers of line. They also have a disconcerting habit of suddenly stopping dead, then running straight towards you. Frantic line-stripping is then called for - any slack line and they are off the hook and away. Very challenging fish (though easier to catch than permit). No wonder anglers get addicted to them. I heard Norma describing bonefishing to a friend over the phone “You hook one, and think you have a monster – then when you get it in, its not much bigger than a herring”

 

Punching well above their weight is how I would describe it – mullet and sea-trout are the only British fish that even come close to bones for fighting qualities.

 

We went back to the same spot on the next tide, but the bonefish were no longer in feeding mood, and we only got one fish each.

 

We dined on the barracuda and snapper we caught, plus various shellfish – crays, prawns and conch. The trevallies and jacks were stored in a freezer for barter (“neighbours’ fish”). Julian had a fish-cleaning station on his jetty, and three pet nurse sharks that came in each evening to dine on the fish trimmings. Here is a picture of one swallowing a trevally tail. As the shark were regarded as pets, we did not try to catch them.

 

Despite the fact I have still to catch my first permit, I learnt a lot about them – not least that the commercially tied permit flies produced for fishing the Florida flats are quite unsuitable for the coral rubble flats of Belize. Such flies are too large and too heavy – as a result they catch on the coral rubble instead of scuttling over it as a real crab might. Although I had tied up a few myself, they had the same deficiency, as I had copied the commercial practice.

 

Tiny, unweighted crab imitations are the only ones that stand a chance in Belize – the permit’s main pleasure in life is refusing artificial flies. Wyatt’s unweighted flies produced the only two takes I had – and I now have the pattern to tie up for next time.

 

By contrast the bonefish flies offered by Fulling Mill were first class – all the patterns I tried worked (I only changed the fly when it was getting tatty after three or four fish had chomped it). I had also tied up one or two of my own, but as the Fulling Mill flies were succeeding so well did not get to try my own.

 

Snatchers Flies were superb – as the catches showed. The yellow and green fly shown looked SO like a little golden anthias in the water, I had confidence in it as soon as I saw it in action. The colours that worked best were yellow, green, blue, white and silver. No takes at all on flies with red in them – that has been my experience in both Belize and Cape York.

 

Here is one of Snatcher's flies after recovery from a black trevally

 

The only criticism I would make is that the offset hooks tended to make the fly spin a bit on a fast retrieve. In future I would prefer straight hooks so that the flies would run straight. Having said that, perhaps a spin made the flies more attractive – I can’t complain about their fish-catching abilities – so the criticism may not be valid anyway.

 

One fly I borrowed from Wyatt was superb for catching bar jacks (fish a couple of pounds apiece).

 

A fish a chuck until the barracuda muscled in and started chomping each bar jack hooked. The fly resembles a small needle fish in the water – here is a picture for you to copy, Snatcher. - or rather, I will have to add this as an extra post as I am over the limit for pictures

 

This report is later than promised because we had a bit of luck when we got to Houston airport – the flight was overbooked and they were offering $700 airfare vouchers for volunteers willing to postpone their flight for 24 hours. So we accepted and had an extra night (free with free meals) in a Houston hotel, and got $1400 airfare towards our next permit-fishing trip! The only downside was staying up until 2 am Texan time, in order to phone our taxi firm at 8am British time to rearrange pick-up.

 

We learnt later that the flight we declined was over two hours late anyway, whereas our own flight the next day was only half-an-hour late. The final highlight of our trip was a running report from our captain on the Rose Bowl final as we flew out over the Atlantic. Texas Longhorns won a thrilling game against South Carolina with a touchdown from the Longhorn quarterback in the closing seconds. Triumphant cheering from the large number of Texans on the flight and from yours truly.

Edited January 7, 2006 by Vagabond

[Scotty T]

Cracking post Vagabond, excellant stuff. You certainly do get around the globe!!!

 

Thoughly enjoyed that post, thanks

 

Scotty

[Vagabond]

Here is the fly I was talking about Snatcher

 

Mimics a small needlefish

[A Norfolk Boy]

Great reading. I had a month out there with the Army but never got to go fishing.

 

Snatcher, what can I say? Must be pleasing to see those lures really producing.

[Snatcher]

Nice reports Dave,seems like you had a great holiday and loads of excellent fish. I am pleased Snatchers lures did the biz for you

 

Need any more Dave I am only a phone call/PM away. Have made a note of the needlefish pattern,cheers. As my signature says just give me a description/drawing/photograph of the lure of your fancy and I will knock it out for you.

 

When is the next jet-setting jaunt planned for then? I bet it is just around the corner Need someone to carry your fishing gear Dave? I am your man. Can also bring a portable fly tying vice with me

 

Hope your Texan Xmas with your daughter was a good one as well. It is nice to see the "younguns" again at that time. My own daughter came up to Whitley Bay for the Xmas and it was just so nice to have her back again.

 

Sorry Dave wandering off the topic a bit

 

Congrats again on a great report and some wonderful pictures. Keep it going mate

[Tony U]

Dave

Great post I never thought of taking my 6# for the bones. I have just got myself a 12# outfit for Tarpon mainly so I can sast those big tarpon flies the 9# is just not man enough for the job.

Did you manage to do any birdwatching whilst you were there?

Tony

[chappers]

As usual Dave great report glad to see you had a good time apart from what looked like lousey weather in your pictures

 

Love to Norma

[Simon Everett]

What a wonderful story - doesn't it just make you wish you were a millionaire! I am looking forward to seeing your next post from wherever it is you go.

 

I hope I can catch something when I go to Cape Town next month working, but I shall get out on a kayak and see if I can catch something, other than sunstroke!

[Norfolkdan]

Great report and pics Vagabond, really enjoyed that. The water looks amazing, so blue and clear! The weather looks pretty nice too

Loved the shark pic, it's amazing how many other fish are in the pic.

 

Thanks for sharing

[Vagabond]

What a wonderful story - doesn't it just make you wish you were a millionaire!

 

It does, it does, if I were a millionaire I would fish even more often!

 

If a multimillionaire I would own a 33' Bertram and a big mother ship to ferry it around the world

 

We found great difficulty in getting charters out from Cape Town - finally went out with a commercial boat and all-African crew who fish for snoek (AKA barracouta or snake mackerel). Got some snoek on handline and on conventional rods - plus a smooth hound.

 

Lots of people advertised charters there, but they all turned out to be chancers - ie try to book a client first, and then look round to see if you can borrow a boat.

 

There must be a deepsea fishing club in Cape Town - there is one in Port Elizabeth. It would be worth making some contacts before you go.