Back from Belize! What a great trip. this has been one of my favorite vacations so far. We stayed at the Matachica Resort on San Pedro Island. The resort is absolutely stunning and the people are the friendliest I've been around anywhere ( I told the concierge, as we were checking out, that this was our favorite place to stay and she came out from behind the desk and hugged me - not to mention, all the bartenders came out to shake hands). We are planning our trip to go back next year. The water is so pretty its hard to explain. There are to many activities to do in a month, much less a week. My favorite thing to do was hop on a golf cart and drive into town, after a day of fishing, buy a Cuban cigar and stroll through downtown, watching my wife strike deals with the local merchants on trinkets. Then eat some of the best seafood I have ever found. Great call Hunter498 - Elvi's Kitchen was the bomb! There coconut shrimp is to die for! Belize is the only Central American country that the official language is English so getting around is very easy. The exchange rate is just about two to one ( two dollars BLZ is one dollar US). Makes it real easy to convert on the spot when haggling prices.
I booked a guide through "Go Fish Belize". My guide was Abner "Abby" Marin. Abby is a class act, all the way. He has lived in San Pedro all his life and knows the fish and every square inch of the flats around San Pedro. We concentrated on an area called Savanna Flats for two days. We saw lots of Tarpon but just couldn't get them to eat a fly. I really wanted a Tarpon, bad, but after trying a box full of different patterns, lighter tippets and longer leaders I let Abby talk me into trying for Bonefish. I had never fished for Bones before but after some instruction from Abby on how to make the cast and the proper stripping pattern, I was into my first Bonefish in short order. We saw lots of tailing fish with schools as large as twenty fish and down to singles cruising the very shallow flats. I ended up boating twelve Bones and a Barracuda.
I shot about three hundred video clips so I've got a lot of editing to do but I'll have a video out, hopefully, sometime soon if you guys are interested.
Note: J-Moe - I suspect you can wade fish on the northern end of the island but you would probably have to rent a boat to get there. I booked a guide so I didn't research any DYI trips. You are supposed to purchase a fishing license for catch and release flats fishing but, curiously, not if you are keeping reef fish (?)If I remember correctly its like $20 US for a five day license. This was my only trip and only guide but from what I overheard at the bars, just about any local guide knows their stuff.
