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[Damien]

Yo, Banx.  We may cross paths.

I fly into Belize City and head right to Crooked tree for two nights, then I will be on Caye Caulker on the 30th of April and 1st of May, with three more nights that I haven't booked yet.  Thinking about heading north to Ambergris, or south towards the Turneffe flats.  Not sure yet.  I will play it by ear after I spend a couple nights on Caulker.  Might even just stay there if the island proves to be as cool as it seems to be.

I have given up on even attempting the flyfishing thing.  Maybe next time.  From what I hear, you might not get a ton of opporunities to hook up, and casting accuracy, distance and speed is crucial.  I am still new to flyfishing, so dealing with the ever present wind combined with the distances needed and hitting a moving target with a weighted fly seems like a waste of time for me. 

I am going a great distance to catch flats species, I already frustrate myself enough throwing my 5wt for trout, I don't need to bring that experience with me.

I have loaded up on the appropriate jigs, shrimp and crab DOAs and GULP stuff.  I will even leverage natural baits when I am down there.  I'm not taking chances, lol.

Anyways, best of luck out there.  I will tip a Belikin for you and wish you a GRAND SLAM.

[banx]

thanks.  i've been getting out for practice but i also find this a losing proposition with a fly rod in my hand. hahaha

were there any speific 'gulp's' you suggest?

i have some ghost shrimp, storm chad jigs, and half dozen rappalas.  was also planning on using real bait. apparantly conch is supposed to be great.

good luck to you to.

[Damien]

I got the Gulp mixed bucket thing that come with shrimp and peeler crabs.  Permit and Bone delicacies, or so I read.

And yeah, real shrimp and conch pieces on a jig apparently do very very well for Bones.

[banx]

excellent. I will start packing my suitcase this evening, half of it is fishing gear and the other half clothes. hahahaha.

are you using 4 piece rods? or do you have a large travel case going down  with you?

[Damien]

I bought the Cabelas "Salt Striker" travel combo a couple years ago.  It is a 7', 3 piece that came with a hard case that fits in my checked rolling luggage.  This time, because I will packpacking, I have to carry the rod tube on the plane and mount it to my backpack when travelling around the country.  I'm debating whether or not to bother with my 4 piece Reddington fly rod.  It is only a 5wt, and I will be outgunned by pretty much anything that bites with that set up.

I have booked one guide session with Angler's Abroad on my first day on Caulker, learn some secrets then have a few goes at it DIY style using Kayaks and wading the island.  If that fails, I will book another guided trip.  Hoping to complete a slam, one way or the other!

[Damien]

excellent. I will start packing my suitcase this evening, half of it is fishing gear and the other half clothes. hahahaha.

are you using 4 piece rods? or do you have a large travel case going down  with you?

I hear ya.  Just started packing now, here is my arsenal;

Some gotchas, andros specials and crazy charlies, some top water popper bass plugs for snook, those long green tubes are MURDER on Cudas.  Got my flats boots, 4 piece travel rods, a ton of jigs heads, tubes, curl tails and rapalas of varying size.  Some pre rigged shrimp jigs and the tub of mixed shrimp and crab GULPs.  Some fish grabbing, cut proof gloves...forcepts, and of course some polarized Ray Bans.

[banx]

well, I'm back from san pedro belize, and I caught a lot of fish.  though I didn't catch a bone fish on a fly.

Spent some money on a guide and I enjoyed myself, But I wasn't able to convince a bone to bite my fly.  I had them chase the fly then turn away, chase and turn away, chase and turn away......depressing.  However, I did get much much better at casting, the wind was difficult to cast in but after a few hours I got the hang of it.  I met an english guy and we split a guide/trip... he caught 2.  But he was also a much better caster than I was.  I even got too excited and wrapped my fly around the steering wheel.... kind of embarassing    but apparantly it happens very often. hahahah

I used 2 flies the entire time and found that a pink clouser worked and an olive shrimp pattern worked well for me.

I will be going there again for sure. It was an amazing experience. Wil from tres pescadors fly shop in san pedro was great (originally from campbell river in BC  ) highly highly reccomend his shop as well as the guides they use. (also booked a reef trip through him)

So, all of the 'gear' I brought with me wasn't used much either.  I caught all of my fish on barbless size 0 hooks and I used conch that I bought at the grocery store. about 2 feet of leader and small slip weights....The power bait ghost shrimp was difficult to get a hook set and was put away quickly.  I had no action on the 2 rappalas I tried.

But I did use a glow in the dark spin n glo and glow in the dark hoochie at night. Now that was insane. I had to cut my line as I got nearly spooled and I had my line cut twice by the impact of the bite.... some sharp teeth in the ocean.

I stopped counting how many bonefish I caught, but me and the wife had a blast with our 6 foot trout rods, spinning reels and 8lb test. cast, wait three seconds and bang... bone fish........... the bones would run up and down the 'cut' (or river) we fished and it was like a capilano coho on steroids.  the hmx in the pics here was a bit of overkill but thats what I was using when I got spooled and bitten off. 

and of course my wife caught the biggest bone on her first cast, on the first night I took her fishing.  lucky lady haha. and lucky me. will post those pics up later.  here are some pics of random fish. 

the first is difficult to identify. I didn't see any like it when I went snorkelling and did not catch anything like it on the reef or even another one like it at night.  My neighbour said it was a jack of some sort? I gave it to a local and he ate it...
any ideas on the species?

anyways, for your viewing pleasure.

[Riverman]

Great report.Ambergris Quay and area are my favourite of all in Central America.We stayed at the second last resort north of San Pedro the first time I went there.Magnificent in a word.Am retiring this year and can not wait to return.Second time it was Placencia Peninsula.Fabulous spot,but a tough fish for low budget fishermen as the reef is an hour plus boat trip away from shore.Thanks for making the memories come flooding back.