Belize #64 – Butch M.

I had a 50” BARRACUDA make my 10 weight fly reel sound like it was screeching in mortal agony! However, for the rookies or the folks looking for their first bones, the guides had their secret spots. Our guide (Daniel- top notch- but so was Michael and others) had such a spot and he put Joan in the bow, worked on her casting and in 3 casts she had her first bone, followed by 3 more bones in the next 10 minutes. My turn, I caught my 4, and put Joan back in bow to catch her 4, and so we kept trading all morning. Then it got truly hot, and we went trolling for barracuda (using big orange tube lures on our fly rods). Action was non-stop with blinding runs and incredibly vicious strikes.
Guides spoke great English, were adept and patient. Joan and I probably each caught around 40 or more bones, and 5 or 6 barracuda. One group of rookies had the trip of lifetime catching a permit apiece and probably 10 or more bones each in their 3 days of fishing.
The wives could not stop talking about their snorkeling trips with the Lodge’s dive instructor who is a naturalist who also entertained us all at night with his National Geographic like under water closeup photos taken that day. The ladies had a ball. They simply floated and looked. Dinners were superb, the bar was excellent (watch out for their rum punch!). Several in our group had little or no fly fishing experience but guides taught them enough for them to score on bones and hook them on the sport. No need to worry if you need to learn- you will