# Belize Fly Fishing



## E-money (Jul 7, 2016)

Looking to start planning an affordable trip to Belize to hopefully catch a permit and some larger poons. Thinking around August or September 2018. Hoping for a week on the beach, a couple of those days on a guide skiff, and a couple of them just wading with the rods.

Does anyone have any advice on how to get this done? Thanks in advance.

Eric


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

Are you dead set on Belize?


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## E-money (Jul 7, 2016)

jmrodandgun said:


> Are you dead set on Belize?


No. I've just heard the fishing is good and the flights are cheap and quick.


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## TheAdamsProject (Oct 29, 2007)

Wife and I stayed at Victoria House out on Ambergris for our honeymoon and fished 3 of the 5 days. VC isnt cheap but there are many other options. August/September would not be my ideal choice due to the tropics firing up. If you can push the dates back even just to July you would have lees of a chance of a storm. We have been to Ascension Bay numerous times in the summer and really like it because not many people are there that time of year and the fishing is great. We like Ascension Bay/Punta Allen area better than Belize but there is certainly more to do in San Pedro town for non-fishing activities.


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

nativejax said:


> Ascension Bay/Punta Allen


Correct me if I am wrong but didn't they place some restrictions on fishing inside the ka'an?


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## TheAdamsProject (Oct 29, 2007)

jmrodandgun said:


> Correct me if I am wrong but didn't they place some restrictions on fishing inside the ka'an?


Not that I am aware of. We fish the BioSphere area quite a bit from Grand Slam lodge as well as the guys from the Palometa club, Casa Blanca..etc. There are also a few people that make the drive from Tulum or Cancun and do a little DIY down there.


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## jsnipes (May 1, 2011)

I would definitely consider all of the MX / BZE options. There should be a number of them that fit the bill of relatively cheap and mix of DIY / guided fishing.

I would also probably try and shoot for June/July instead of the Fall. Weather should be more stable, less risk of major events like a hurricane et cetera.

Ambergris Caye on Belize has tons of places to stay at basically any price point and you can rent a guide for ~350-400 USD per day. And there's lots of good DIY action + plenty of relaxing and other activities for wife etc.

Akumal / Punta Allen also is similar. I have only been there once vs. 4 times to Ambergris but also struck me as pretty family friendly, great fishing DIY and guided, and pretty cheap.


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

I've been to Belize in each of those months - June to September. I've had excellent fishing in September with calm conditions. A hurricane hit last August but that is an anomaly. I'd have no problem going during any of those months. But I've fished Belize a lot but also like to branch out.

Just be prepared that storms can pop up and you may get rain. Have multiple days to work around it. And it is always windy around Lobster Fest in June. It is the Lobster Fest curse!


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## Pbertell (Apr 22, 2015)

I fished Ambergris 2 days with a guide and weather was a factor the first day - 4 hours sitting in a rain storm - literally... Threw at a snook the size of my leg - perfect cast from 60 feet and she swam right by... Still having nightmares about that one!!! The next day we were on tarpon and had a lot of shots (like 30) - felt like I was in Biscayne Bay they snubbed perfect casts after perfect cast (not that I didn't spook a few with shi%%y casts). Fish seemed pressured to me. The guide kept telling me to keep doing exactly what I was doing and one would eat - never happened - had a few follows. Went and caught a couple of bonefish but I was thinking you get in front of a fish in central America and it is going to eat... Not so for me... Seemed like area guides fished the same flats day after day - toward the main land from El Pescador lodge. I was disappointed but that's fish'in.... I thought I did a lot of research on who to fish with but.... 

FYI - It was my wife's 50th and we stayed at Azul and the Rojo Beach Bar - http://www.azulbelize.com/ greatest vacation we have ever taken!!! It is no BS off the chain. Everything you read is true - not cheap but best money I have ever spent. Hooked a permit from the dock on a rapala!! Cool place.


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## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

Ambergris Key gets fished pretty hard, relatively speaking. I would go further south if fishing was important.


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## Whiskey Angler (Mar 20, 2015)

I'll second that! The bones over the turtle grass on the ocean side are totally paranoid! You will spend half an hour getting position (which usually requires running down the beach 200 yards ahead of the school and then wading out 100 yards so you can cast with the seabreeze at your back), and then you make a perfect cast with the slightest of plops, and the whole school goes nuts and disturbs the entire flat and then you walk back to the beach and drink hot Belikin and smoke weird Belizian ciggys and bitch about it and the you see another razor blade sticking out of the water further down so you start running again......
it really challenging, but still pretty awesome. There is definitely easier places to catch lots of bones. The people on AC are cooler than anywhere else I've been though.


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

The resident tarpon do see lots of pressure these days with the high numbers of boats coming from the lodges and shop in Ambergris. The time to go is when seasonal, migrating fish come through. That can vary each year though.

One of my favorite flats used to be Savannah but it seems that nearly any boat searching for tarpon from AC goes there. 

Tarpon fishing is down right tough. Even fresh fish can be tough to feed. They aren't 250 million years old because they are dumb.


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## Copperspoonfly (Oct 26, 2015)

I was in Ambergris last October. The Savannah flats looked like a Walmart parking lot. Every guide in Belize had parked their skiff on that flat. The Tarpon were spooky. We left to go to another flat. A couple hundred feet away our guide spotted a huge school of permit heading in our direction. I made a false cast, just to get some line out and to make sure everything was ready once we were in position. Meanwhile, another guide saw me casting and hauled ass onto the flat we were on. He came towards us at full speed causing the school of permit to change their direction. I was pissed. I thought about running the length of the skiff and making a canon ball into the water to scare the hell out out of any remaining fish that this other guide wanted to put his clients on. 
I have heard it can be good during the summer months migratory fish, but overall I was disappointed with the experience we had there.


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

Copperspoonfly said:


> I was in Ambergris last October. The Savannah flats looked like a Walmart parking lot. Every guide in Belize had parked their skiff on that flat. The Tarpon were spooky. We left to go to another flat. A couple hundred feet away our guide spotted a huge school of permit heading in our direction. I made a false cast, just to get some line out and to make sure everything was ready once we were in position. Meanwhile, another guide saw me casting and hauled ass onto the flat we were on. He came towards us at full speed causing the school of permit to change their direction. I was pissed. I thought about running the length of the skiff and making a canon ball into the water to scare the hell out out of any remaining fish that this other guide wanted to put his clients on.
> I have heard it can be good during the summer months migratory fish, but overall I was disappointed with the experience we had there.


Unfortunately, that is the case right now in that area. I know guides that will no longer go there because of how heavily fished it is. Some of the younger guides have a lack of etiquette and respect for the older guides, who try to keep their distance. It's become an area where you have to run earlier, further and longer to escape the pressure.

Belize is a great spot to fish, but you have to find the right areas and be clear you want to get away from the high pressured areas.


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## texasag07 (Nov 11, 2014)

Those are pretty much my experiences on Savannah. I would go elsewhere for tarpon.

Those juvies have a phd in ******'s flies. 

Great bonefishing around there.


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## jsnipes (May 1, 2011)

One of my earlier experiences permit fishing there was also shocking in that regard. It was something out of a nightmare.

We were fishing a school of permit and literally 2 other pangas came roaring in from the opposite direction. Gringos on the bow flailing around with their rods, literally jumping off the boat while the boat was still on plane trying to wade after and get into this school of fish. Was everything bad you could associate with fly fishing. I just told the guide to get out of there and go find some other fish. Apparently in the spring when the big schools of small permit are around, that's how they all behave. I think it's time to start fishing farther south in BZE


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

That's the problem - the fishing directors at some of the local lodges aren't doing a good job policing what's going on. I don't care who you are, you don't run up on another boat and have your clients jump out of the boat and into the water. Leave them be and go find your own fish. But when the largest lodge on island has around 20 boats going out at peak, and it isn't managed correctly, those things can happen.

I go to spots in Belize where we are the only fly fishing boat we might see that day. Maybe one other one. And I am in no way giving any info on where and how that is done.


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## matauman (Nov 4, 2014)

I know the op was looking for inexpensive belize but just back from turneffe island resort and hooked three permit, a tarpon, snook, and too many bonefish to count. Not cheap, but for other readers may be worth a look.
Food was great, the place is awesome and they pick you up at the airport.
You could bring your wife/girlfriend or both, some of the rooms have private pools and George the bartender will deliver.


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## paulrad (May 10, 2016)

I have done well DIY on the ocean side flats on Ambergris. I walked many, many miles and thoroughly enjoyed myself there. 

I would not recommend El Pescador. Thankfully we didn't stay there. But the owner lady was disgusting and rude when we had the misfortune of meeting her. Of all the people we met in Ambergris, she was the only one who was really just awful.


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

paulrad said:


> I have done well DIY on the ocean side flats on Ambergris. I walked many, many miles and thoroughly enjoyed myself there.
> 
> I would not recommend El Pescador. Thankfully we didn't stay there. But the owner lady was disgusting and rude when we had the misfortune of meeting her. Of all the people we met in Ambergris, she was the only one who was really just awful.


Are you sure it was the owner? Ali Gentry is the owner and she is nice all around. She moved back to the states a few years ago to raise her daughters. He mother and step father, Chris and Steve, managed the day to day until a few years ago and turned it over to lodge managers. Is that who are referring to?

I just want to be clear, my experience with Ali and Chris was very pleasant. I haven't been in 8 years, but a few years ago we were in the area and stopped to say hi (the fishing manager at the time, Lori Ann, has mutual friends with my brother and I) and hung out with Ali for a bit and chatted. We saw her in the airport another time and chatted as well. Friendly as ever.


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## paulrad (May 10, 2016)

coconutgroves said:


> Are you sure it was the owner?


Not absolutely sure it was the owner, but this is my recollection. I just had the run in with her and someone else told me that she was the owner. I might have just caught her on a bad day. But I know I'll never go there.

One other place I've been in Belize that might be worth mentioning...Glover's Atoll. If you want to be really primitive, it's a possibility. I went there with my boy. The flats out front are pretty marginal. But you can definitely catch bones there. And if you pay them for a boat ride to the middle caye, then you'll have a lot of nice flats to work.


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