Tailing Bonefish in Belize

Hi Everybody!

We are safely back from San Pedro in Belize located on Ambergrise Caye. We were very thankful that West Jet came to get us out of Belize during the COVID-19 crisis. There were no reported cases of COVID-19 in Belize during our stay. We did have 14 excellent days fly fishing mainly for bonefish and permit! We had a great time although we were being very careful to follow the unfolding world wide pandemic that kept us all uneasy!

Over the next several days, I will post lots of our adventures.

About 8 days into our trip; Doug, Karen and I headed for a flats that Dr. Bill Young suggested we check out. We took a look at Google Earth and made a plan. We loaded up a golf cart and away we went! We drove through San Pedro. When we found the spot, Doug and I split up. Doug fished in a channel while I went crashing through the mangroves into a muddy bottomed lagoon. Doug found a nice bonefish right away to cast to and he hooked up!

When I got to the edge of the lagoon, I could see tailing bones. I was excited but I had a big problem. The lagoon was soft crotch deep mud that was next to impossible to negotiate but if I carefully walked right along the edge of the lagoon, I could get in place to sneak up on some large tailing bones. Karen came over with the golf cart and the camera. We got some cool shots of tailing bones. They were nose down in the mud looking for shrimp and crabs. Tailing bonefish are a great challenge!

Out of the corner of my eye I could see two bonefish heading towards me. I did not have a lot of room to work with, so I cast my tiny size 10 orange Christmas Island Special to a spot I though they would pass by. The fly settled in 8 inches of water. I twitched it when the approaching bones were two feet away, then let it settle. One of the big bones came right over and ate the fly. It was lying on the mud. A few minutes later I recovered lots of backing and fly line and brought to hand a 3 pound bonefish!

Moments later, Karen and I walked along a rough road to find a break in the mangroves to see if we could find more tailing bones. We scrambled through a spot and not 8 feet from shore were two large 5 pound plus tailing bonefish. They did not even notice us. I dropped my tiny Christmas Island Special over by the largest tailing bonefish. Nothing. A few casts later I dropped the fly inches from his nose. He turned and sucked in the fly. I saw the bonefish tail to the fly and I set the hook. Bam! The large bonefish tore through the mangroves into the middle of the lagoon in a blink of an eye. I then made a big mistake. I took a step and both my legs sunk to my crotch in the sticky mud. I was stuck. I was able to hand the rod to Karen and she handled the bonefish while a passing by fly fisher from Colorado helped my out of my predicament. Karen handed me the rod and I was able to steer the bonefish to shore. Wow that was crazy. We realized I had caught our largest Belize bonefish! We took a few quick shots and the monster took off.

We repeated that several times before we headed back to our condo that we rented for the two weeks. Doug got into the lagoon, too. He was quite cautious because of his knee replacement. That was a good decision!

Not often that Do It Yourself bonefishing works that well in the San Pedro area. Today it did.

A good cast and the right presentation definitely got the job done!