Another incredible opportunity I had on a cruise ship was a stop by the ship at Belize City. This was on a West Caribbean cruise that also featured stops in Costa Rica and Panama. These other stops are another story.
Although I had ample opprtunities to contact the usual operators of fishing trips for Belize City, I did not. I was snooked out by prior trips to Key Island Estate (www.keyislandestate.com) where I lost count of what I caught and released. My permit fever was eased the prior June by my second trip to Tropical Beach Resort (www.bayislandtropicalbeachresort.com) where I was successful. Now I was way up from Honduras in Belize and looking for something new. Since I was taking this as a partial family experience, I thought I'd better mix up shore excursions with fishing opportunities.
So, I chose a snorkelling trip to Goff's Cay on the reef dropoff and packed two rods. After jumping into this incredible water for a good dive, I saw what was underneath the 3 -engined 25 footer than ran us out there: loads of fish from top to bottom. After the other snorkellers were in the water and under the guidance of other boats, I persuaded my Captain, "Pike" to take me slightly further out and away from the people.
I had two ultralight spinners loaded with 4 and 6 pound line, so I kept my casts to the ascending reef wall from 5 to 20 feet deep. I was loaded up on 30 pound fluorocarbon and small white bucktails. My first cast yielded an immediate hookup with a "flag" yellowtail snapper..then another, and another. "Pike looked longingly at the fish, but said the fish could not be kept, and had to be released..to his regret! More casts slightly offshore were nailed by some of the biggest houndfish I have ever seen: one was almost 4 feet long. When these fish got cautious, big blue runners moved in, and it was one after the other again. Periodically, cero mackeral would crowd the act, and cut me off.
The one deep drop I made with the lure in 50 feet of water was nailed within three seconds and cut off in three seconds more..Pike was sure that was a 'cuda. It turned out to be a riotous 4 hours of fishing.
I was glad I made an angling choice that was offbeat and unusual. I could have done the usual things..maybe gone off for permit on fly and pray for a catch so I could drink cognac from a silver cup to join the annointed few. I am grateful to follow a different drumbeat, one that avoids the runaway elitism that has almost totally polluted flats and inshore fishing. Simply, I was happy to be under the bright tropical sun, catching and releasing fish, in fellowship with new friends!
Jan
No comments:
Post a Comment