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FEBRUARY BELIZE TRIP REPORT - ART HINCKLEY
Most Belize mothership clients usually fish for a
variety of species, but there are some “hard-core”
permit guys like Winston Moore and Art Hinckley.
They normally wouldn’t “waste” their time on
bonefish or tarpon. Winston is a 100+ permit expert
and Art now has over 40 released. However, on Art’s
trip in February, he had a friend with him who
wanted to get a tarpon so they spent the first few
days fishing tarpon from the mothership Meca. It
turned out to be an all-around trip that is “as good
as it gets.” Here’s Art’s report:
“We had a really good trip. The weather was good
all week. The first two days, we fished for tarpon
close to where Martin keeps the Meca docked. The
first day, I hooked four about 60-80lbs., but didn’t
land any. Steve and Mike each hooked one but didn’t
land them and Mike caught a snook. The next day we
fished for tarpon again close to the mainland. We
found tailing tarpon as you saw on your January
trip. To make a long story short, Steve hooked six
and landed two, both a little over 100lbs. I hooked
three and got one about 90lbs. right next to the
boat, but the shock tippet wore through and broke.
Mike hooked three and fought one about 100lbs. for
two and one half hours. He ended up in the Belize
River when the fly pulled out just as he was about
to land the tarpon. The next day, we moved south
about two hours to begin permit fishing and I got
two small ones the first day there. The next
morning, I probably had about 10 great shots before
breakfast, but didn’t catch any. After breakfast,
the fishing slowed and I didn’t catch any. Mike and
Steve had several good shots also, but didn’t catch
any either. The next morning, Steve caught a 17lb.
permit before breakfast. After breakfast I caught
an 8lb. and a 12lb. permit. During lunch, we moved
to some flats about 20 miles south. Action was
slow and we didn’t catch any. We moved back north
to the original flats where we’d caught all the
fish. I caught a 13lb. permit, but it was a fairly
slow day. The last morning before we left I got one
small fish and Steve caught a 15lb. permit. Also,
during the week I hooked four other permit that got
off after a second or two. Mike had two eat his
crab, but neither one got hooked. Eight permit
released in four days plus other hook-ups that
didn’t reach the boat. I wonder how many we might
have caught if we wouldn’t have spent two days
fishing for tarpon?”
TRIP REPORT
Fly Fishing Adventures
888-347-4896
flyfish@napanet.net
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