The wife and I just returned from an amazing trip to Belize--our first and definitely not last. I wanted to share some fish stories and pics. We flew into Belize Shitty, then immediately went to stay in San Ignacio, in the jungle. We stayed in town, and checked out the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave system/archaeological site, where we witnessed some impressive intact pottery
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and some unfortunate victims of the mayan elite
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strewn throughout a mile of stalagtite/mite decorated caves that we spelunked.
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Through our driver, Peter, I met his dad, Bob, who is a retired british soldier formerly stationed and now living above the banks of the macal river: luckily for me, he is an avid fisherman and offered to take me on his daily canoe fishing trip on the Macal river
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Thanks to Henry, an ital-type of guy for doing the canoe guiding/paddling, we went down to the where the macal/mopan/belize rivers joined and had alot of luck . We did some trolling and some casting using spoons, and pulled out several beautiful "bay snook" (a type of cichlid)
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and I caught a "tuba" (looked like a belizean panfish) :
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Along the way we saw some big iguanas on the shore:
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Thanks Bob Jones!!! (And also Henry Link and Peter Jones). It was hilarious because Bob hates to smell/eat fish, but loves the sport, so he brings home his daily catches for his family and neighbors to enjoy.
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We then headed to the coast, and ended up on Caye Caulker. Very mellow island/village with a diverse mix of meztizos, garifunas, tourists, "renta-rastas," etc. Belize is a very diverse mix of cultures, languages, and traditions, and it seemed that everyone had the "one love" vibe going which made it very special. We stayed at Costa Maya Bungalows for about US$50/night. It was right on the beach of the windward side, connected to a pier:
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Right when we arrived, I went out to the pier to cast. Using leadheads/jigs/plastics, I was able to catch a small snapper (no picture) and recieved several (meanwhile taking several) hits, but did not manage to catch anything else. My MORF jig got pretty torn up, though:
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Here was my basic travel setup:
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The next day, I found a place to purchase what they called "sardines," and went to the landward side of the island right around the "split" (a split in the island created by Hurricane Hattie). Here is the Split, near Ras Creek's dock, around where I fished:
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Here I met some rasta fishermen, and while I could only understand about 30-60% of what they were saying, we all speak fisherman, so it was nothing but good times with Mal, Mariano, and Dama-G (from right to left).
They were handlining the whole time, and were stoked to use my rod/reel:
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I managed to catch my first barracuda:
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and a shad
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Some dude swam up with a lobster:
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A big ray cruised by:
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A star fish was on the prowl:
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We fished until dark: Mal was the best fisherman that night, and together we caught several snappers, shad, jack, etc on sardines...the fish were a little on the small side, but that is how they do it:
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I then went to the other side of the island where I caught my first bonefish on a sardine from the dock :
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Made several line-ripping runs, and was exhilarating! I then caught a respectable mutton snapper:
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and threw him on the grill for a tasty dinner:
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Overall I would highly recommend Belize to visit. Cost varies from being about half-as-cheap to about as expensive as here in San Diego. Overall lots to do, and good vibes. I will definitely go back to explore.
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