I spent a week down the the Zapata with some guests from the US and we had a spectacular time. There were a lot of fish up on the flats during the week and we had light winds and plenty of sunshine. We were seeing a lot of tailing bonefish during the first half of the week and the specially modified flats skiffs were ideal for getting us in tight to the mangroves where the bones were feeding.These unusual fiberglass skiffs only draw about 4 inches of water and if you don’t have any back or knee issues, they are fantastic to fish from. I was using a Gotcha size 6 early in the morning while the water was still cool and as the day progressed and got warmer, I went to a size 4 Gotcha. The average sized fish for the week was about 4 pounds and we had several in the 7-8 pound range.

One of the highlights for my week was tagging my first tarpon for the Tarpon and Bonefish Trust. I have tagged many bonefish during the past 6 months but never a tarpon. The fish only weighed about 5 pounds but I certainly did not mind. The river in general fished very well the day we were there and there were a lot of tarpon in the 5-20 pound class. The heaviest of thre day was about 20 pounds and it must have jumped at least 6 times before tiring out. I went exclusively with a Purple Bunny Strip fly and I find that when fishing tea stained water, that purple and black are definitely the top producing colours. We were all using a heavy grain sinking line to get the flies down to where the tarpon were feeding. 

Back to the main page

April in Belize usually traditionally means lots of sun and manageable winds. This past April however, the winds in Belize were very strong for much of the month. It was frustrating for the anglers who did their homework, booked good weeks in a month that usually produces angler friendly conditions. It just goes to show you that when you book a trip to fish the salt, weather plays an enormous role in all aspects of your trip and there is not a darn thing you can do about it.

Josh Nugent, the owner Out Fly Fishing Outfitters in Calgary brought a group in early April and he and his clients had to contend with a constant blow for their entire week. Josh runs an outstanding guiding operation on the Bow River in Calgary and I highly recommend him and his services on your next trip into Calgary. The winds were up but everyone in his group caught fish and many of them had shots at permit during the course of the week. There were an awful lot of permit around during their week and some of Josh’s guests were getting 30 + shots per day. After about 3000 casts to permit over several saltwater trips, Josh finally landed his first sickle fin. Proving that they do actually eat every now and then!!!! 

Back to the main page

After my two weeks at Los Roques I flew from Caracas back to Havana where I spent Saturday night walking the Prado and the Malecon and just watching the city in all its glory. Saturday night in Havana is electric and even though I was absolutely exhausted from fishing in Venezuela for 2 weeks and the subsequent travel back to Cuba, I still could not pass up the opportunity to spend time out and about in downtown Havana. The bar at La Torre is one of my favorite places to watch the sunset. It’s an incredible view! By midnight I was out of gas and made my way back to my hotel room at the Parque Central. Booking my wake up call to catch my flight out to Cayo Coco the next morning was the last thing I did before I fell asleep.

By 2 pm the next day I was relaxing by the pool at the Melia Cayo Coco and waiting for my guide to show up so that we could plan out the next couple of days.

The hotel is really nice and I was booked into one of the rooms that is built right over the water. The rooms are big and spacious and even though I was traveling with a lot of gear, there was plenty of room for all my camera equipment, fishing gear, cloths and laptop. The pool bar is a revelation and it did not take long for me to get into a routine whereby I would head there right after fishing for a pizza and a cold drink. The bar tenders all love to fish and would eagerly pump me for info on how my day was, what kind of fish I saw and what I caught. A good group of guys and I left them with a bunch of fishing supplies when I flew back to Havana.

I spent two days fishing the flats at Cayo Coco and while I caught some nice fish, the entire time I was fishing was a real battle due to the hard, ever present 25-30 mile an hour winds I was dealing with the whole time. It made conditions really tough and the guide had to work overtime just to get me into fish. The water was cooler than normal and this translated into less fish than we would usually see each day. My guide Michael was visibly frustrated about 2 hours into my first day when we’d only seen 2 fish but I told him to relax and that there was not much either of us could do given the conditions. We didn’t see any permit or tarpon during the 2 days but that was hardly surprising given the weather. For any experienced flats fishermen, when it comes to the weather, you get what you get and you make the best of it. Pissing and moaning does no good and sets a bad mood in the skiff that is not necessary and is actually counter productive.

I flew back to Havana just in time to meet friend and client David Anchell from Ireland, who had just arrived in Havana with his business partner to fish Cayo Largo the following Saturday. We had a marvelous dinner (Thank you Maurice) and they are there now, fishing their hearts out. As soon as I get a report back from David, I will be sure to post it. After a whirlwind of 10 flights in 25 days, I’m now office bound for the next few weeks so if anyone has any questions about any of our destinations or upcoming hosted trips, please email me at and I’ll be happy to help in any way that I can.

Back to the main page

Our second week at Los Roques saw guests coming in from Portland Oregon, Southern Ontario and as far away a Lausanne Switzerland. It was a smaller group of only 6 of us and the pace of our second week was decidedly slower than the week before when there were 12 guests fishing. Hani Ghali brought his wife Monique who relaxed on the beach all week and daughter Stephanie who fished with him. A wonderful family and it was a real pleasure to finally meet them. Gerald Hunt pretty much hammered bonefish to the tune of about 15 per day, to the point where he started to wear out his arm. And Jeff Long spent a lot of his time targeting bonefish on the beaches with the all mighty Gummy Minnow.

Ian Davis from Yellowdog was at Los Roques with a group the same time we were and it was nice to see him in such a laid back environment. We shared some industry stories and his guys were having every bit as much fun as our guests were. The pancake flats were getting a little busy for my liking during week 2 and so I chose to head out down south to some of the remote beaches. The isolation was just what I hoped for and the guides knew some great out of the way places that were full of fish. Ozzie, Carlos and Howard were all able to make recommendations as to where to spend the day which meant that even though there were 10 flats boats flats fishing the atoll during week 2, I never saw any other boats until I got back to the Gran Roques harbor at the end of each day.

The beaches the second week provided some great action and and all of our guests were very happy with the size and number of fish they caught throughout the week. After scarcely fishing the beaches the first week it was amazing to me that I could fish a completely different type of environment and that it was as equally productive as the pancake flats had been the week before. This really is a Top 5 flats fishing destination and an absolute must do on every destination anglers ‘bucket list”. There were no cold front to worry about as there often are at this time of year further north in places like Mexico, Belize or the Bahamas. The temps were about 85 every day and during the course of our 2 weeks, we had only one day of overcast skies.

On my last day of fishing I was invited by the owner and founder of Pez Raton, Alex Gonzalez, to come back to the mainland to do a day of deep sea fishing with him from a Viking 58 Sportfish. After two weeks on the flats I was ready for a little change and I gladly accepted. I had not seen Alex in about 6 months and figured that the change of pace would be a great way to spend some time with him and to possibly catch something a little bigger than I had been while out at Los Roques. At about 10 am on Friday March 11th, a tuna hit my ballyhoo on a stand up rod we had been using to catch 30 pound dorado. It took just under 3 hours to land this 187 pound yellow fin tuna. And I have to say that never in my life have I been beaten up by a fish the way that this fish did. My rod was loaded with 30 pound test and I was so undergunned that I didn’t really think that I’d be able to land it. Even though I landed the fish it pretty much got the better of me as I was sore and could barley move for the next 4 days. BUt move I had to as I was due to fly abck to Cuba the floowing day to go out and fish the north shore and Cayo Coco.

Back to the main page

We had a great start to our 2 back to back weeks at Los Roques with guests from Scotland, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Toronto, and the Calgary contingent. What a great group of people to spend a week with in such a spectacularly beautiful setting.  Everyone except for me was a first timer to Pez Raton and without question the facilities and food were every bit as popular with the group as was the quality of the fishing.

The bonefishing was superb and the average sized fish was weighing in at about 4 pounds. The largest fish of the week went to Ken Unger who landed this 9 pounder on a gummy minnow in the harbor. Top flies for bones were the Bonefish Bitters in olive size 6, the Pink Puff size 6 and the Gummy Minnow, when we were fishing the beaches. 

There were some absolutely enormous barracudas landed during our first week as well. Alan Lin landed one of about 30 pounds while the biggest one I managed to land was a 15 pounder. Howard was the guide who managed to get most of the guests into the big cudas and he certainly knew where to go in the atoll to find them. We enjoyed poached barracuda one night for dinner and it was truly outstanding.

Back to the main page