The Celebration of Belize

My head was a bit foggy from the evening before, our first night in Belize was cause for celebration that ran late into the evening. The pounding waves weren't helping my head any, but misery loves company, and my partner Steve looked just as bad. As we approached Glovers Reef, the seas turned from a deep purple to the color of the sky, to the point where it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began.

Our guide Lloyd slowed the motor as we cruised the edge of the reef. He explained to us that he was looking for muddy water caused by schools of bonefish feeding on the bottom. He stopped the boat when he found what he was looking for, a large area of off-colored water. Steve went first, I still had to finish rigging my setup.

Within minutes he hooked into something. It wasn't a bonefish, but a spunky little reef jack. A few casts later he was hooked up again, this time to our quarry, a nice bonefish of about three pounds. I took over at the bow of the boat, and hooked a bonefish on my third cast. It drained a considerable amount of line from my reel and I had just begun to gain some back when a large flash swam by and suddenly the resistance lessened considerably. I learned a quick lesson in the food chain on the flats as I reeled up just the front half of my first ever bonefish. The fish had been cut precisely in half buy a marauding barracuda.

It was time to even the score. Lloyd grabbed the rest of the bonefish and snared in onto a large hook, Steve chucked the bait into the water at the end of a 10 wt. fly rod (not exactly the purest form of flyfishing). The cuda grabbed the bait as soon as it hit the water, and leaped once he realized he'd been duped.

The cuda's position in the food chain was about to change, as Lloyd took the fish for dinner. All this in the first few minutes of fishing "this saltwater deal is okay," I thought. Though I had a blast that first day hooking numerous bonefish, reef jacks, snapper and 2 barracuda, those species weren't the ones that brought me to Belize. I wanted to experience permit fishing in the worst way.

The permit is highly regarded as the most difficult species to take on a fly rod, and after my four days of pursuing them, I would have to agree. These fish are born spooky, and require that the angler perform flawlessly under ever - hanging, and difficult circumstances. I cast to at least thirty permit on that trip, and never brought one to hand. I had one confidence-inspiring moment when a permit bit my crab pattern, but the hook pulled free as I attempted to set.

Many people can't understand how one can fish for four days and not catch a fish, and still have a successful trip. This type of fishing is not for everyone. In some sports, one must focus on the game and not the prize. Flyfishing by nature has a different set of limitations than bait or lure angling. That's what makes it such a rewarding sport, the process of learning and overcoming the restrictions of the equipment. In no other aspect of the sport are those limitations more apparent than in the pursuit of permit, which are, I'm convinced, more animal than fish.

Good fortune shined down on one member of our group, however, as Doug Brady, landed his first ever permit on his second cast. Two days later he put another one on the beach. Doug Brady's had earned his bragging rights, and used them every chance he had for the remaining evenings around the bar. Curse you, Brady!!!

The fishing opportunities at Southwater went far beyond the frustrations of the permit. Two guests from Michigan weren't fly anglers (though by the end of the week they had each landed bonefish on a fly rod), and spent the majority of the trip trolling the deep cuts with hardware. They landed something like 27 different species, and fed the rest of us poor, fly casting saps.

By week's end everyone had made at least trip to Glover's Reef, save the two die-hard permit anglers. The numbers and diversity of fish that could be had on a fly rod out there were impressive to say the least. As a group, our overall head count for bonefish alone by the end of the trip was well over 100 fish landed.

Our venture to Southwater Caye Belize was more than a fishing trip. The overall Belize experience is about more than fish species and numbers. Southwater Caye defines "Island Paradise", and the food, guides and accommodations were top-notch. The Belizeans are the friendliest most carefree of any people you will meet. Everyone in that country that we encountered would give you the shirt of his or her backs.

This was just too much fun to experience just once. Next year we have two weeks at Southwater Caye reserved, Feb. 27-March 5 and March 8-15. We have the trips about half booked at this point, and are looking for a few more adventurous, fun-loving anglers to come experience Belize with COO!!!