So, to end where I left off yesterday… Drunken Cheese Lady…
That night the winds got a little too intense to fish and blew 20-25mph all night long. The next morning we were meeting up with a real “Local” guide in the area to cruise up the Hondo River to look for Tarpon, Snook, Jacks and an array of Tilapia species that lives there. Our initial trip was supposed to be on the New River, but apparently all of the sugar plants have slowly been poisoning the river with the bleaching run off and it doesn’t hold much life anymore.
So, I should have known not to let my friend set up some charter trip because he invited a few of his neighbors and now it was a packed panga with people who are un…or less experienced I should say. I’m glad I brought my gear because the captain’s gear was a little beat up from all the salt and humid air over the years. In any case, I was excited to finally get in the boat and see some wild Belize. Thankfully the winds were fairly light and it looked like it was going to be a good trip.
We launched from the local village on the bay and made our way up to river mouth. Right away we started trolling for Jacks and Tarpon, while keeping our eyes out for snook and anything else disturbing the water. Man, it was beautiful! There were tons of old growth mangroves with nothing else on the shoreline. The plan was to troll up to the 4-mile Lagoon and anchor along the shoreline looking for snook, Tarpon and basically everything else. It was supposedly the “Honey Hole” of the Honcho!
While two guys out back were trolling, I was speed casting a Yo-Zuri Hydro Minnow out front and trying to find the rogue snook or first come tarpon before the trollers got to them. Only two semi-broken rod holders in the back of the boat was it, so most trollers needed to hold the rods while they trolled.
The guys just talked to the captain and I was the only one looking out for fish. I saw a few rolling tarpon and alerted the captain, but he wasn't interested in them too much. I then saw a 100# plus tarpon chasing a big Jack and just exploding all over! I started casting over there and everyone was in awe of what was going on, but the tarpon was only interested in that Jack and after 2 casts disappeared out of sight. I thought we should have stayed in the area and fished since we saw Jacks and Tarpon, but the Captain had a plan and it was not my place to tell him otherwise.
We continued up-river and came across a few more Tarpon rolling around. I cast on them and got slammed! After a quick ZZZZZZzzzzz----ZZzzzzzzzz, it was gone. Those mouths must be made of metal since the hook made me bleed when I checked it. I decided to troll the YoZuri for a bit as my shoulder was killing me at this point.
A short while later and I see something huge bust water on my YoZuri plug! Fish On! It was exciting to see such a huge minnow leaping out of the water! Now, it was time for heart break again, as the Silver King was close to the boat, but never made it near any hands to grab for a photo-op. Ugh… Well, we still had miles left of river to troll until we got to the 4-mile Lagoon.
Mile after mile of fishless water were ahead of us. We came across a manatee which was awesome, but we got too close before I could get the camera out and it sunk out of sight.
We also came across the “Plains” where we saw Crocs and croc alleys into the saw grass (or whatever that reed was called).
I kept casting and casting for the same results. Basically the definition of insanity… doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
We finally make it to 4-mile Lagoon and we could see houses in the distance. It looked good, but we saw no life.
I was working the mangroves edge and thought I got hit! After feeling it come loose, I still felt weight and reeled in a big blure lure with teeth marks all over it. I have no idea what would leave those big teeth marks, unless if a person lost a lure to a fish and the fish lost its life to a croc… Unless there are piranha in there. Lol
There was basically more drinking than fishing as casting around the boat for 30 minutes yielded not a nibble.
Here I was teasing Elliot for having his reel the wrong way again. He was getting mad because he was holding a conventional upside down and the spinning reel upside down and we kept correcting him! (Well the captain and I since the other guys didn’t care too much)
We tried multiple places on the lagoon and saw nothing. He had a plan B and it was to run out to the river mouth to the bay and look for Barracuda and Jacks which sounded much more legit than just sitting anchored in a lagoon with no live bait or any bites. So we booked it back down river.
I was feeling a little Chippy as I felt like I’ve been on this rodeo way too many times before.
Kip must have had a bladder the size of a basketball, since he drank so much Rum Punch and never went to the bathroom the entire trip!
I felt a little more confidence getting back out to the salt water and switched up my baits to what the captain thought would be the best for what we were hunting for...
We headed off to a deeper water island to see if we could get anything since the trolling was sucking ass and the wind started howling.
No dice. I cast until my arm finally had it and couldn’t do it anymore. Then the captain ran out of gas and it was a bear for him to get the motor started again, but he pulled through and we were back at the ramp fishless, but had quite the boat ride to see some of the cool nature Belize had to offer. I know, it’s like throwing up a sunset picture right now and saying that Fishing is more about catching fish… sheesh… lol
We got back with a few hours of light to spare. It’s dark by 7:00 pm and there are literally no tides down there. Their tidal difference between high and low tide on a full moon is only 10”… Crazy!!!!
I didn’t want any left overs so told them I’d take them out to dinner, so we cruised to the local village where there was a bar/restaurant of sorts. It was the fanciest place around from what I was told, so I was stoked.
Might as well keep the Rum Punches flowing!
The regional dish down there is chicken with rice and beans or chicken with beans and rice which apparently very different. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find many places that served it and it was just a menu with whatever was available at the time. In any case we had about 5 drinks a piece and 3 huge dinners which all came out to $65 Belize or $32.50 USD. I tipped him $20 since it didn’t look like they get many people there and he literally freaked out with joy. He was great as a server, so I was happy to make his day. Soon as Michelle wanted to start dancing, we knew it was time to go, but it was a great way to end the day!
Michelle showing off her Prehistoric Soul pride! hahahaha
On the way back to the Expat community, we saw Water Opossums, Coati, and other things I couldn’t ID driving through the jungle! As I was heading back to the casitas to get some shut eye and try fishing again tomorrow, I heard the rocks moving from something scampering away. I’ve seen a lot of lizards down there, but pulled out my head lamp to get a better view and almost jumped out of my shorts! A huge spider that was very alert and turned at me when I got close as to pounce! Elliot called the suicide spiders, but they were fast and heavy and didn’t take any sh!t!
The moon was full and it made for a great last minute porch drink before bed… until all of the bugs homed in on me and forced me to finish it back in the casita! Lol
Another day in the books and still a few more days to go. I hope you are enjoying the mini-series, as it would be way too much for me to write in a single sitting.
