It is day 4 of our fly fishing adventure to Ambergris Caye in Belize. Dr. Bill Young has made the long trek to San Pedro from snowy Red Deer to join us. We affectionately call my friend Dr. Bill! Today Doug and Dr. Bill headed off with Hilian for the day while Karen and I joined the Doctor of the Flats himself, Omar Arceo. Omar is one of the long time guides in the San Pedro area. He is crazy about permit. They are his passion. Omar's work with biologists and his constant fight to protect the Hol Chan Reserve water and land has certainly demonstrated how much he loves the bonefish, permit and tarpon.
Karen and I knew that we would be looking for permit with Omar in some of his favourite places. We initially motored to Rosary Caye and looked for permit on the flats around the island. We saw none but we did see some bonefish on the edges of Rosary Flats. Omar was able to set Karen up to catch some larger than average bones. She even landed a barracuda. We went looking for tarpon, permit and bones in several places. Karen connected with some bonefish, including a decent grey ghost that was tailing in some mangroves.
As the day wore on, we headed back to Rosary. We hoped some permit moved in with the late day tide. Not much was happening until, ...
Karen and I were about to wrap up our day with my friend, Omar. But wait... Finally, we see a pod of permit but two guides and their guest were already trying to get a hook up. Their client became frustrated and quit the chase and were returning to the island! The guides were chasing the permit with their motor and not poling. That made the permit skittish. The pod had moved off. We decided to wait and see if they would come back and settle.
Omar spots the permit and yells, "Bob into the water, now!" We are on the hunt! Omar is 64 and I’m two years older! We see the permit and we are hot footing though the water as fast as we can go! I start to cast and then chase! The pod of several dozen permit had settled and were actively feeding. We are running in the water that is 3 to 4 feet deep! About cast #35, I hook a permit but I lose it after a short tussle. Shortly after that, I trip on some rocks and do a face plant into the ocean. Omar yells, "Now you are really fishing! Let’s go, I see the permit!" Omar checks my fly as we chase. It has a tangle that he fixes while we pursue the permit. Omar constantly is positioning me based on how the permit are moving. His instructions were extremely helpful.
About cast #50, I hook up. Yep, I got a permit! The permit hit my shrimp on the drop. OMG it is bigger than the trophy I manage to land yesterday! We are a mile away from the boat! Fortunately, I have 16 pound tippet on. The permit almost spools me but after quickly working my way towards my adversary, I manage to get my line under control! My knuckles have been smacked by my reel several times! Finally we get the monster close enough to tail after a 20 minute battle! The tail is too large to grab! After 15 attempts and several dunks in the the water, Omar gets the tail but the monster shakes loose and the tippet catches Omar and the line breaks! It is over!
We limp back to the boat! Omar is quite upset with what has just transpired. We loved everything about the last hour except the ending! I told Omar that what happened was nothing short of amazing. I loved the chase, the hook up and the battle. We did it all just right until the massive permit shook away from Omar and broke the 16 pound tippet. What was also instructive was the number of casts I got into the school of permit because we were on foot! The permit seemed to be easily spooked by the boat but not by a guide and fly fisher chasing on foot! Meanwhile, Karen is on the boat! The tide is rising and the anchor lifts! There is Karen poling Omar’s guide boat or it will be way out in the ocean! She manages to get the boat to shore! We return to tell Karen what happened!
No grip and grin picture but what just happened over the last hour was exhilarating. I can picture that monster just 12 feet from me. That image will not ever leave my brain!
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