“Why bones are special—The bonefish is the nearest thing there is to a perfect gamefish for fly-fishing anglers. A voracious predator, it readily (but warily) takes flies. It accelerates faster and sprints farther than any other fish you take on light tackle. It fights more doggedly than most fish twice its size.
This performance alone would qualify the bonefish as one of the world’s top fly-fishing targets. But what makes this silver phantom of the tropics the ultimate quarry in fly fishing is that you must see it—sometimes from 80 feet away—before you can even cast to it. You stalk it like a predator. You track it down, take your aim, and cast with precision. You must make no mistakes. The ruthless, primitive survival instincts of this skittish creature leave no room for error.”
Reprinted from Fly Fishing for Bonefish, New and Revised by Dick Brown, (copyright 2008). Published by Lyons Press an imprint of Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, CT
Belize is a great destination for anglers traveling during the summer months due to its neo to sub-tropical climate, whose daytime temperatures only vary between 10 – 15 degrees over the course of a year. This consistency makes the fishing in Belize fairly predictable, as well as productive, each month of the year. The following write up by Doug Schink (doug@angleradventues.com) on Tarpon Caye Lodge recently appeared in The Angling Report.
Tarpon Caye is a 10-acre private island situated 15 miles east of Placencia, Belize in the area referred to as “Permit Alley”. The Caye takes its name from its tarpon lagoon that reliably holds a resident population of mid size (30 – 60 lbs.) tarpon. There are also some fair to good bonefish flats in the area, but permit is the main attraction at Tarpon Caye. On the top half of the tide, permit predictably flood the dozens of flats found within a 5 – 20 minute run of the Caye. These are skinny, gin-clear ocean water flats and dorsal as well as caudal fins are frequently out of the water. While you can skiff fish, it’s often more productive to wade these firm, shallow flats. It’s not unusual to have 20 or more legitimate shots over a tide.
Love at First Sight
Tarpon Caye Lodge is owned by “Permit Guru”, Charlie Leslie who has spent over 35 years guiding permit anglers on these flats. What distinguishes the fishing program from more conventional “8 to 4” lodge programs is that they will fish the tides. ‘We do fishing here’, is Charlie’s motto, and he means it. If you are there over a full or new moon, your highest tides occur during the middle of the day and thus the best permit fishing will be during the midday hours. However if your stay coincides with a quarter moon when low tide typically occurs around midday, Charlie will schedule “split day” fishing. For example, during these tides, you might fish from first light until the permit leave the flats with the falling tide, say from 5:30 to 8:30 am. You’ll then return to the lodge for a breakfast/brunch, and a siesta. Around 2:00 pm, you’ll head back out to meet the permit returning to the flats on the incoming tide, and fish until dark.
Accommodations are in basic but comfortable double occupancy cabañas on stilts, each with full tiled bath with hot and cold water and generated electricity. The clubhouse features the bar and dining room where guests enjoy libations and excellent meals featuring the freshest local seafood.
Tarpon Caye Lodge is competitively priced and is currently offering a special for 7 nights/6-days fishing for $1,999 per person double occupancy.
Permit Alley is a challenging fishery to be sure, but if stalking tailing permit on foot on gin-clear flats appeals to you, you owe it to yourself to take the challenge!
We’ve put up a couple of report type posts on the fishing around Turneffe Atoll this week. Since Belize is a great summer fishing destination and there are some great special fishing rates at 5 of the best fishing operations in Belize, we thought we’d get those special rates all posted in one place. Click on the links below to visit each destinations web page or call (800-628-1447) / email (info@angleradventures.com) for more information or to confirm your reservation.
The cost for 7-nights/6-days fishing is $2,859.72 per person based on double occupancy accommodations and a shared boat / guide. The regular rate is $3,384 per person.
The cost for 7-nights/6-days fishing is $2,587.50 per person based on double occupancy accommodations and a shared boat / guide. The regular rate is $2,868.75 per person.
Belize River Lodge – July 24 – December 18, 2011 (limited space available)
The cost for 7-nights/6-days fishing is $2,412 per person based on double occupancy accommodations and a shared boat / guide. The regular rate is $3,668 per person.
The cost for 7-nights/6-days fishing is $2,595 per person based on double occupancy accommodations and a shared boat / guide. The regular rate is $3,474 per person.
The cost for 7-nights/6-days fishing is $1,999 per person based on double occupancy accommodations and a shared boat / guide. The regular rate is $2,890 per person.
The following recap of Angler Adventures owner Chip Bates’ trip to Turneffe Flats Resort appeared as a newsletter in September 2010. Kevin Sheehan’s recent report got us excited about the summer tarpon fishing on Turneffe Atoll as the numbers of large, migratory tarpon rapidly increase over the next few months. Enjoy!
My son Tyler wanted to catch a big Tarpon on a fly and I wanted to wade flats for Bonefish and Permit in case the Tarpon weren’t “on”. We had a week in August between Tyler’s summer job and school.
The Turneffe Islands have a migratory population of big Tarpon that usually arrive in May and remain through most of October. Bonefish and Permit are year round. On paper, it appeared that that Turneffe Flats Resort had what we were looking for. In reality, it was better than expected.
First, it’s great bonding to travel with your son. Because of his work and college schedule, we hadn’t done this since high school. Secondly, Tyler and I love the fishing lodge schedule: up early, eat, fish, eat, and to bed early. Well, that’s where we differ…at least I was in bed early.
We were assigned Dubs as our guide. Dubs is an upbeat, happy guy who takes his fishing seriously. The only disappointment of the trip was that neither of us landed a Permit. Not for lack of trying. We had multiple, if not dozens, of shots daily. We’ll save the Permit for another trip.
Chip's 8 lb Belize Bonefish
We warmed up on Bonefish and caught plenty. Turneffe Flats has some of the best wading anywhere, but we also poled some deeper flats for larger fish and caught bones up to 8 lbs. To me this was a delightful way to fill in the gaps between Tarpon and Permit.
One afternoon about 3:00 PM, Dubs suggested the tide was good for Tarpon. We motored back to a large creek, adjacent to the lodge, that connects the ocean to the lagoon. This creek is too deep to pole, but it’s crystal clear. As we approached the creek, Tyler spotted something break the surface at a distance.
We stopped and looked but could confirm nothing. We continued towards Dubs’ favorite Tarpon spot. Dubs dropped anchor and asked Tyler to cast his intermediate line perpendicular to the current, let the fly sink, then swing in the current on the retrieve. While Tyler was straightening his line, Dubs saw activity in the area we’d just come from. Next we saw two 100 lb Tarpon come completely airborne like dolphins at Sea World. Holy #$*@!, we all said in unison. Up came the anchor and we got our butts to that spot in a hurry. For the next 45 minutes it was mayhem. Big Tarpon everywhere around the boat, under the boat, airborne on both sides of the boat, all chasing big needlefish and ballyhoo. It was one of the most incredible sights I’ve seen in lifelong fishing career.
Bottom line: Tyler jumped 4 tarpon from 80 – 120 lbs. Every fish eventually threw the fly. The frenzy petered out just before dark. Time for dinner. Dubs said the tide would be good again in the morning. He wanted to be on water before sunrise.
Tyler, Dubs and a nice Tarpon
We got to Dubs’ favorite spot in the pre-dawn light. It was beautifully quiet and calm, except for the tide. Tyler straightened his line, ready to cast the black and purple Puglisi Tarpon Streamer tied on a circle hook, the same fly the 4 tarpon ate the day before. It wasn’t long before we saw Tarpon roll in the current left of the boat. One cast and Tyler was dancing with a tail walking Tarpon that again spit the fly.
Not being a fan of circle hooks, I suggested to Dubs that we change the fly. We selected the exact same pattern tied on an Owner Aki traditional bend hook. Tarpon remained active around the boat and it wasn’t long before Ty connected again. This time the fly held through the first jump, the second and third jumps. 30 minutes later we landed this gorgeous fish, estimated at 80 lbs.
The Tarpon had stopped rolling. We were back in time for breakfast, ready to sight fish for bones and permit the rest of the day.
Kevin Sheehan and his fiancée, Brenna Wiberg recently returned from a fabulous trip to Turneffe Island Resort the week of April 9 – 16, 2011. Kevin fished with veteran Turneffe guide Clinton Wade (a.k.a. KP), and landed 4 out of 6 permit hooked, including the beautiful 30 pounder pictured here!
Nice fish Kevin
Despite it still being early for tarpon on the Turneffe Atoll, KP managed to get Kevin into about a half dozen tarpon up to 80 pounds (he landed 3 including one to fill out a Grand Slam!).
Kevin spent some time chasing the bones, landing a bunch up to around 7 pounds, and devoted time to coaching Brenna (previously a non-fisherperson) into her first bonefish! (She fishes now!). AND, Kevin was perhaps most excited about seeing and hooking, not 1, not 2, but 3 of the extremely rare Turneffe Golden Bones (more on these guys in a future post). Only a handful of these are landed every year, and Kevin has vowed to get one on his next trip (which they’ve already booked – their honeymoon in 2012!).
