BELIZE TRIP
DIARY – RISING TIDE MOTHERSHIP, MARCH 8 – 15,
2010
Marte and Don Muelrath, Frank Jackson
Keys to report:
• Shifts
identified as 1st (6:00am til breakfast at 9:00
or 9:30); 2nd from after breakfast til lunch
around 2:00 or 3:00; 3rd from 4:30 til dark
• 2 skiffs out
with one angler each during 1st and 3rd shift.
During 2nd shift, both anglers in same skiff
while second skiff used for snorkeling with Noel
as snorkeling guide.
Arrival eve – Decided to commit first 3 days
with a focus of getting Frank his first med to
large tarpon. Capt Dean thought our odds of
doing that would be strongest fishing around
mainland, near Belize City. Had seen many large
fish in early morning and evening rolling around
the river mouth. Anchored at Sugar Bogue so
Marte would be close to Gallows Point for
snorkeling and we could reach mainland.
1st day – winds med heavy, part cloudy
1st: river mouth, just below Haulover Bridge and
above it – lots cast to lots of big (to 100+ #) rolling
fish….no hookups
2nd: 25 minutes with single 15# permit at back
part of Fowler – came to fly twice……eat???
Snook in mangroves – no eat. Marte snorkeled on
reef, just north of Gallows Point snorkeling
area. Very good snorkeling.
3rd: move RT back nearer mainland since it was
apparent we were going to fish the tarpon in
river mouth for a few days…….eve, lots of large
(50 to 100+ pounders) rolling fish again, fished
through dark, same places in river as the
morn……couldn’t get an eat.
2nd day – winds med, part cloudy
1st – left early, 5:40. In river mouth, feeding
frenzy. Tarpon literally slashing the surface
everywhere, all around the boat. Fish of 40, 50,
60, 80, some over 100…one fish could have been
150. At any one moment, we could see three
different fish on surface – could actually pick
my target. Frenzy lasted about 30-40 min. Could
have ended when tide went slack, but not sure
that was the reason. Could not get an eat – just
not typical of Belize fish. Tried 4 different
flies – have Florida fish migrated down?? What’s
the deal??? Got 6# catfish – tarpon no eat.
2nd – Frank 3 ladyfish, bone, and jack. Backside
of Fowlers. Had another permit follow. Saw 2 big
snook, bone, and 2 permit, all with wrong rod in
hand……had all three rods out and ready as we
were seeing all three species.
3rd – back to rolling tarpon in river mouth…this
time we brought spinning rod to see if we could
get them to eat something……lots of big rolling
fish……puzzle continues…….couldn’t even get an
eat on the Mirro-lure with the spin rod???
3rd day – light-med winds, no clouds
1st - Frank……casting to a rolling fish very near
the boat……he saw the roll, he cast, and watched him
engulf the fly…..20 feet away…..and he exploded
out of the water, full 5.5 feet long, showered
the boat on his first jump. First tarpon besides
baby tarpon for Frank. 80# tarpon released at
boat after 45 minutes. Frank also picked up 6# snook on way in for breakfast
2nd – Frank needs bonefish to complete IGFA
inshore Grand Slam– tide is
falling and very low . . . fish scarce . . . found two and got second for Grand
Slam in under 10 casts!!!!! Special day for
Frank……..Moved the Rising Tide south to Robinson Point
during lunch to fish permit
3rd – evening at Robinson – heavy cloud cover –
could only see moving water or tails. 7
sightings, 3 good shots, 1 response.
4th day
Morning – heavy fog and west wind. Fog didn’t
burn off til after 9:00. Day turned
classic…..light wind and no clouds.
1st – 12 sightings, 5 shots, Frank got his 6th
permit – 6#.....Frank actually had a Super Grand
Slam if we count a consecutive 26 hour period.
2nd – 15+ sightings, 9 shots, Don got his 27th –
8#
3rd – 8 sightings, 5 shots, Don got his 28th –
4#
Eve was calm with strong west wind developing
late – appears a front moving in – moving fish
or tails easy to spot. Total for day – 35+
sightings, 19 shots, 3 fish
Front arrives during the night.
5th day – cool in morning (Noel in 3 layers)
with med heavy wind from NW – cloud cover burned
off by breakfast and warmed.
1st – only 2 sightings, one shot.
2nd – 3 sightings, 3 shots, 1 fish tailed on fly
3rd – 1 sighting, 1 shot, and Frank got his 7th
permit….12# est
Overall, low numbers today due to front and
strange winds reducing tidal flows.
6th day – heavy cloud cover, slate gray surface
on water, winds light from south.
1st – lots of fish on flats…..total for both
skiffs - 19 sightings, 14 shots – 0 fish
2nd – winds light, skies partly cloudy……5
sightings, 3 shots
Moved during lunch back to marina to fish
evening near city for tarpon.
3rd – drew 5 snook out of mangroves, got one to
boat. As sun got nearer the horizon, we moved to
river mouth. During the next 90 minutes, saw lots of
rolling fish (over 50) in river mouth – some
tailing…..big fish of 40 – 100+ pounds. Had many
opportunities to cast to nose of roller, but no
hook-ups….what is the deal??? Frank did get a few
5-6# catfish on his tarpon fly. Did see a very large
shrimp (6+ inches long) skipping on surface – wonder
if the big tarpon are here (big tarpon have been
seen tailing and presumably eating the big shrimp
off the bottom many times in past years near the
mainland) in the early part of the year to feed on
these shrimp?? Possible explanation (and admittedly
only speculation on my part) is that the large
shrimp are in this location for some purpose (to
spawn??) in the early months of the year and attract
the large tarpon……and the tarpon get honed in on
feeding on them and are very selective…….certainly,
during the course of this trip, we had flies which
are usually eaten without hesitation by Belize
tarpon (dumb, unpressured fish) in front of fish
over and over in the early morning and late evening
with only one eat ‘til now.
7th day – we had the early flight out and only had
til 8:00am on the river to try one more time for a
big tarpon. We examined all our shrimp patterns and
the largest we had were about 2.5 inches long and
nothing in white, the color of these giant shrimp.
We settled on trying a large white deceiver type fly
– the longest we had was about 4 inches long – and
fished it with short, shrimp type strips. 6:00am we
set off for the river mouth. Fish were rolling just
like “usual.” Frank got a hook up casting to nose of
big roller, about 80#.....several spectacular jumps,
but the fly pulled loose after about 15 minutes. He
did land a jack crevalle on the same tarpon fly.
Then, I finally had a tarpon eat, another 70-80#
fish, but pulled loose quickly.
The number of rolling fish began to slow and Dean
said it was 8:00 o’clock and time to leave to finish
packing and make our flight. We reeled up, put our
reel covers on, and Dean reached to start the
motor………and noticed a roller about 30 feet from
boat…..I grabbed the rod and flung the fly in that
direction and it was engulfed followed by a
spectacular series of 8 to 10 leaps clear of the
water. Hot fish….three times in the next hour, we
had him to within a few feet of having the leader at
the rod tip and he pulled away. At 9:00, as if to
say, “if you don’t leave now, you will miss your
flight,” the fly line separated about 6 feet from
the fly, just above the connection to the butt
section – the tail had probably been rubbing on it
for the past hour and had frayed it.
Made the plane as boarding was taking place - could
still be in the river chasing that fish without the
early release. We only saw one other
fisherman, for about 10 minutes, during our entire
week.
