Salmo, next on the to do list is to type up some more detailed notes/lessons learned for you and Mingo.

Your description of bonefishing is pretty well spot on with what I took away.

Many of the flats they seem to like best in Belize were super shallow and muddy bottom (read knee to thigh deep mud), which made wading within casting range a difficult and dirty affair. Compound that with the fact that these flats are also perfect habitat for fly snagging baby mangrove trees and toss in abundant seaweed that sticks to a flyline like velcro and you have a recipe for quite a swearing session. Take a stripping basket if you have one and plan to fish from shore.

Coley,

I have only fished bones in Belize waaay down by the southern border - Dangriga and south. But there the flats were firm sand and no seaweed issues. I ssupect both issues may be seasonal?

If you can get to South Water Key I can tell you you will find a ton of bones. But they are in water from 2-20 feet deep and they sure didn't seem to fight nearly as well as the ones I have hooked in other places where the water was only a foot deep.

I can't believe no one called me out on the yacht photo. That boat was parked in the harbor at Placencia as we pulled in at the end of our sailing trip. From a distance, the writing on the side which said "Vango" looked a lot like Mingo. At first glance I though damn, so that is how Mingo rolls!

So when my wife finally got tired of following me up and down the beaches and staring at the water looking for tails, we did an all day snorkeling trip that included three stops, the Coral Gardens, Shark and Ray Alley, and the Hol Chan marine reserve. While in Belize, do this trip. You won't be sorry. It was amazing. We got to see and swim with virtually every tropical saltwater creature imaginable. So many I can't begin to recall them all, but many nurse sharks, eagle and sting rays, massive grouper and snapper, 200+ lb tarpon, turtles, moray eels, huge schools of horse eye jacks, and hundreds of colorful reef fish of every shape and size. The reef life in Belize is really abundant and very accessible.

After our day long snorkeling outing we hopped on a sailboat of sorts with 18 random folks for the next three days. Each day was a combination of sailing, snorkeling stops, and then cooking up the days catch with copious amounts of rum punch on some secluded island. Easy living.



Raggamuffin tours on Caye Caulker. Pretty budget trips and very informal. I am not even sure if the word formal exists in these places actually. Good times.









At first I was a bit skeptical of the poorly maintained boat and rag-tag crew, but then I saw this and knew we would be alright.





Our sister ship the Ragga Queen heading out for the snorkeling trip.








Massive Majestic Frigate birds followed us out hoping for a shot at some of the bait the guides carried to stir up a feeding frenzy at Shark Ray Alley.










I can't say I wasn't a bit skeptical about jumping into a feeding frenzy boiling with sharks, rays, and all manner of toothy critters looking for a meal. It turned out OK.















I had been hoping to get a few decent underwater photos but at our first snorkeling stop, I went a little deep and it turns out my piece of crap pentax optio W30 (waterproof to 30 feet) was more like a w21-ish. The camera crapped the bed and I wasn't able to get underwater photos of any of the spectacular life we would see later in the day.
















Reggae all day and all night, casting off on the sailing adventure.








We put out a trolling rod between snorkeling stops and picked up a few toothy critters for the dinner pot.




Spanish mackerel










Baby barracuda





Our camping spot on night 1, Rendezvous Caye. Pretty quiet out there.









Couple of shots from our night on Rendezvous Caye














Our next day and night were more or less the same, we stayed on another little island called Tobacco Caye. Didn't take many photos, could have had something to do with the dead sailors pictured here. My head hurt a bit this morning. Rum punch will get you if you aren't careful.





I am more of a beer guy though. Belikin is the local brew and it isn't half bad. Belikin is the national beer of Belize and it comes in regular or stout. For regular order beer, for stout, order stout.



Well, that is more or less it. I have a few more photos of things like monkeys, birds and creatures of the jungle on our last day down there. We took a panga trip up the monkey river to check out the jungle scene and it was pretty cool. Totally NFR although we did see some locals in the village of Monkey River filleting out some massive snook.

Dave, we stopped at South Water Caye on the sailing trip and like many of the offshore cayes, the flats and beaches were a lot cleaner and a lot more conducive to wading and sight fishing in what I would imagine is a lot more typical style. Unfortunately for me on the sailing trip fly fishing wasn't a group priority and the spots we stopped were for swimming and chilling. Believe you me it was hard to watch all of that epic water go by without being able to stop and check it out.

If I were to do it again I would taking a casting rod and a handful of spoons to chuck while on the sailboat as we passed numerous schools of jacks tearing up bait balls while sailing along.

Kath and I were there last Feb, great country great people. I been in that little cove with the tarpon and it is no fishing for them. You can feed them from the dock by hand which was pretty cool. They are watched closely and I wouldnt want to mess with some of the guys I saw. But they again why would anybody think they can go to another country and act like thier ways the only way to think. Its all about respecting the people that live there. Glad you did Coley

nice report beautiful pictures. I am going to Belize soon and considering both ambergris caye and caye caulker. After reading your post no doubt caye caulker.

worked in Puerto Rico for two months last year. Great tarpon fishing in the two lagoons near san juan. Anyways, want a purely fishing only vacation and its down to sure 20 + reds in southern Louisiana or Belize.

Coley, thanks for the info. You can PM me that guide info, when you get a chance. Spent the day with my fishing gear laid out in the garage; deciding what to bring. I think it will primarily be a bait scene for me, although the fly rod is coming along. It's kind of a long story, but we have gone from a Cabana to a large house on an island in a lagoon. Got row boats to get on and off the island with; so I have a boat to fish out of.

It's the punch in the rum that gets you. Will drink mine with coke if they have it, but like you, pretty much a beer drinker. Kind of reminds me of Fiji, two kinds of beer; bitter or light. I will be drinking the Belize stout. Hope to have a good post on the trip when I get back.

Good stuff, Coley G! Sorry the fishing wasn't better but, that's fishing....

I could use some warm sunshine and a Belikin right about now.

I could use some 34 degree rain and a big shiny steelhead taking all of the thread off my reel

KILLER report with awesome details. Thanks for the extra intel you sent me bro..............I'll sneak some stealth gear on the dive boat and toss a waxwing at those jacks in your honor.

Great chit, amazing photos and great writing!

AWESOME COLEY !

as you know there is no way you could have kept Fly from fishing on those baby tarpon other than maybe pointing an AK-47 at me.......They are so fun to catch and are willing participants.................

Very cool..........alot of times when we travel we all set our expectations way to high ! My best trip to the keys ever was a trip that was mainly a party trip for me celebrating my Divorce.........Landed in Miami, did the high dollar stripper / strip bar routine, partied at South Beach, then got board and rented a car and headed for the keys were I fell in love with Islamorado and the fishing ............and the Fishing blew my mind, all because it was un expected, not planned and last minute...........That's usaully how I roll anyways.........But best trip ever for me !

But great pics and a beautiful place

Peace
Fly

...beautiful...








Your pictures and story are amazing as always.

A good friend of mine is in Belize right now, he left here Feb 1 and will be there for 5 weeks. He had no plans, just a round trip plane ticket, didn't even take the wife. Said he didn't want to spend another fishless February in a cold and wet place like Index.

great report. almost like i was on the trip with you. thanks

Cool stuff.Good luck,
SZ

As per usual, top drawer pixels and prose. Experiences are what life's about. Thanks for sharing some of yours....

I wanna go there, I wanna go there, but probably won't make it in this lifetime,
thanks for taking me along by your PP posts.