fishingbuddha

Well today I went out with a guide to target some fish on my bucket list….tarpon and permit. The guide took me to the mangroves where we searched or should I say hunted for tarpon. Hunted because you quietly moved through out the mangrove shallows looking for surfacing fish. As soon as we got to the first place we saw some moving and surfacing right away. Almost like trout sipping flies off the surface. But before I go on let me back up a bit.

My guide is a true Belizian dude with a Rastafarian accent who had a Guatemalan side kick. I started off the day having to show the guide I could cast and then proceeded to give me specifics to how he wanted me to cast and retrieve and set the hook when we see a tarpon. Specifically …don’t cast on top of tarpon, retrieve constantly with smooth strips of 25 inches and most importantly when the fish bites don’t pull the rod ip like we all do with almost all the fish we catch. Now let me reiterate the scene, this Belizian Rastafarian sounding guide says when u set the hook you pull back hard and if u have to pull twice to get the hook through the tarpons plated mouth…..DONT raise the rod…we say you have to bow to the gods and keep tip down always.

He also followed up with “you can cast well, some fuckers say they can cast but they can’t which fucks everything up!”.

I think getting pumped up by an experienced guide made me feel a bit over confident going into the tarpon area.

Fast forward, we travelled through some amazing water and entered the mangrove area. The guides side kick, jumps out if the panga and tucks us against a small mangrove island. The guide peeks around the corner and says there are tarpon here. I get excited and make some thumping sounds as u frantically get to the casting platform with the guide telling me to slow down and quit making fucking noise…again in a Rastafarian-Belizian accent. He tells me to start casting and then tells me to shoot….I don’t because I felt I was already back casting and as a result my cast was shit. He tells me to pick up and cast again thirty feet between two mangrove trees. I hit it and start retrieving. He doesn’t like my strip, he said I cast too short and then as he is giving me feedback…bang fish on! I was so jacked up I set the hook by pulling my rod up…the fish jumps and spits hook. Well….my guide loses his shit….”I fuckin told u to shoot and you didn’t…and then u fucking lifted your rod tip!” He continues to throw a tantrum …”you fucking want to do u go ahead. Don’t listen to me! You do u!”

I turn to him and say I was just too excited! I saw the tarpon come out of the water to hit this bait fish pattern that was just inches below and it was just too fucking exciting. The guide responds…I know , I know. He tells me the story of bowing down to the gods in order to catch tarpon , in reference to keeping the tip down. We see more risers but no luck and we decide to move to another bay. As soon as we arrive at the other bay it was game on again. We see moving fish and he tells me to shoot a cast to the fishing moving right but fifteen feet ahead of the fish. I am on it…until the wind picks up and in my excitement I make a high cast and my fly floats down in a pile of line like I have never casted before. Darrell starts swearing and telling me to re cast. But we miss the fish. Of course he proceeds to tell me to cast lower so the wind doesn’t catch the fly. I respond by thanking him for the tips and he turns and starts telling me to cast left to fish now moving left to right. I make a few casts to these fish which are now moving towards us and one takes…..except again in my excitement I pull the rod up instead of keeping top down and pulling the line back like I was instructed. Well….that was it. The guide went ape shit crazy telling me I don’t listen and I just do me. Now some people might take offence but everything he is mad about just made me more focussed to do better. He made a lot of sense. I again tell him this is hard. When u see a tarpon chasing your fly and this is all being done just meters away from the boat in clear water …one can’t help but get excited. Darrell calms down and within seconds shouting out commands again. I see the fish, I shoot the line when he instructed me to start stripping 25 inch constant and smooth retrieves , he yells it’s going to strike and this time I pull my retrieving hand back feeling the weight of the fish, give it a second yank and it’s game on! This fish pulls line out like there is no tomorrow, darrell continues to shout out commands like keep your tip down….and if the fish moves right rod goes left and vice versa. The fight goes on and on but at one point starts darting towards us. Unfortunately I reel with my right but this reel was a lefty and at one point I thought I was going to lose the fish as it darted towards me followed with a jump. Eventually the fish tires and we land a decent juvenile tarpon. What an amazing fish! So strong and majestic.

We get a few photos, celebrate with a drink and the my guide asks “Should we move to try and get permit?” I respond with a yes. Landing bones yesterday and this morning a tarpon… of course we try for the grand slam.

I was warned that permit would be hard and we needed some time to hunt them down. We took a long boat ride through the mangroves and across most of the bay to an island Leonardo dicaprio owns. We hit these amazing flats and start piling through the flats looking for shiny flashes, nervous water or moving fish. The water was amazing but it was a bit overcast. Apparently this is not good as u want the sun out so u can see what is going on in the water. We see a ton of barracuda but no signs of permit. Eventually we see some fish feeding and try to cut them off so we can cast but the fish were moving too fast. Throughout the rest of the day we saw one flash and one school of permit but we lost them as a cloud blocked the sun and as a result blocked our vision.

In the end we were not successful for permit but nevertheless I learned so much about tarpon and permit fishing. No regrets. And although my guide was very animated it also humbled me a lot as under pressure and in windy conditions the casting, retrieving and hook setting in this type of fishery made me feel like a rookie again.

Would I come back and hire darrell again? Absolutely. He was so knowledgeable and a straight shooter which is the coaching one needed when hunting for these fish.

Belize has been a fishing destination bucket list trip and I have to say it didn’t disappoint. I am enjoying this trip a lot! Travelling around a tropical island in a golf cart, seeing Mayan ruins, eating amazing seafood, and snorkelling with sharks manatees and seahorses! Definitely a place I will return to!

By the way I know some of you are wondering what happened to Rebeca. Don’t worry, she was happy pool side and beach side reading a book, going for an exploration walk, having a shrimp burrito for lunch and ending the day with a facial. for those of u who know here…this is kinda like me doing a diy bonefish day and catching one!