Granny and I fished with a new guide today down here at Belize River Lodge – Mikey. As much as we enjoyed reuniting with Pedro, Granny and I also enjoy fishing with a variety of guides. Not only is it fun to meet new people and experience different angling approaches, but often times you fish new water. Mikey took us straight upstream from the lodge on the Belize River to some of his tarpon nooks that I haven’t fished in 20 years.
At certain times of the year you can find huge tarpon in Belize. I’ve already mentioned the giant Granny landed here in 2012. Usually the big fish are here in May but for some reason they have yet to show up. Baby tarpon however, these scrappy 10-30lbers live in the Belizean rivers year-round. Mikey took us to an overhanging tree snag in the river and told Granny to start casting. It didn’t take long before my 12-weight nearly got yanked out of her hands and a 30” tarpon was in the air!
Baby tarpon are hard to hook. Tarpon mouths in general are hard as a rock and have a texture like coarse sandpaper. It’s hard to perch a hook. Granny and I jumped five of these leapers in the first 30 minutes and brought exactly zero to the boat.
No doubt, a big part of losing all these fish after a few jumps was the fact that our size 3/0 black and purple fly was barbless. Let me mention, I’m a barbless fly guy for 99.9% of the fishing I do. I in fact preach to people during show season to always knock back the barb when trout fishing – even in my streamer talk. But when it comes to baby tarpon, and I want to put a few in the boat, I like a barb. Otherwise they spit the hook almost every single time you hook up due to their twisting gill-rattling high jumps.
These tarpon were on the black and luckily I had another black fly in my box with a barb. It was a size smaller but with the baby tarpon I wasn’t worried. In fact, another tidbit for you is that the smaller the hook, the smaller the diameter of the metal and the hook points are often sharper and penetrate better. This made all the difference in the world. On granny’s next hook up she kept her tarpon on.
Granny landed the next three tarpon she hooked. One was about 10lbs and her next two were these slick 18-20lb class fish. There’s no better satisfaction than to kick back and watch your wife hammer away on some beautiful tarpon.
After jumping five and landing three, Granny handed over the 12-weight. She was ready for an early day Belikin and it was well deserved. You may think – wow, kind of early for a beer?!?! But I’ll tell you, Belikin’s are light and the bottles are 10 oz. Honestly, they are far more refreshing than a soda pop and after three tarpon, they taste better than water. After I dropped the first two tarpon I hooked, I finally landed a few as well. What a morning!
We spent more time on the river but the tarpon bite came to an end. It was brutally hot too, so Mikey suggested heading to the flats and trying for the Belize River Lodge Grand Slam. This includes a tarpon, snook and bonefish. It’s easier than the usual slam because it excludes the permit but it’s a long haul from the lodge to the permit flats. We only had a half day left.
Figuring the bonefish would be easy, our first target was a snook. Snook, while you can luck out and get one quick, usually are a chore. We prowled the mangroves for hours. We saw a few stubborn fish but for the most part the snook were hard to find or catch.
By 3 pm we had not caught a snook. Granny pretty much gave up. You know I keep going forever. Lo and behold, we spotted one on the edge of some mangroves. I made the cast and wham! I landed a small one but it would do.
All we had left now was the bonefish and based on yesterday with Pedro, that should have been easy. Naturally because we were going for the slam it wasn’t. It was 4 pm now and the sun was low in the sky creating some difficult light for spotting. We saw a couple and one was big for here. I got the fish to eat twice. The first time I missed him. The second time I hooked and lost him. My hook actually broke, something that has never happened to me with a bonefish. The fly was old and perhaps the fish got the hook deep in his crushers.
Before we knew it was 5 pm. BRL likes to have all the boats back in by 6 and we were at least 30 minutes from the lodge. Mikey suggested a hail Mary. He wanted to look inside a tiny lagoon. It didn’t look like a place for bonefish but I have seen them in locations like this before. Though my Slam was at stake, I put Granny in the bow hoping she could end her day with one more fish.
But, the bonefish were scarce. It wasn’t until the last cranny we looked that we found a school. With less than ten minutes before having to head home, Granny handed me the rod and I landed my bonefish. The Belize River Lodge Slam was official!
Mikey is an excellent guide and Granny and I will fish with him for two more days. We’re pretty stoked about it. Tonight we kicked back at the lodge and as usual had an enjoyable cocktail hour sharing stories with Mike and Marguerite and Misha and Dirk. Then we closed down the day with a shrimp meal to die for. This place is amazing!
Be sure to keep tabs on my IG at @jeffcurrier65
Its never to early for a Belikin! You are a true Wisconsinite now. Well done Granny and Jeff! What an awesome place.
Congrats on the river slam !!
Congrats on the slam! Did you catch the baby tarpon near the surface or down deep? I fished BRL with John last year and he had us using sinking lines.
Thank you guys! The tarpon came on sinking lines. We start with the intermediate and after we don’t get hits anymore, we go with the 300 gr sink. That gets the job finished! A Belikin sounds good right now – ha!