Capt. Ken Chambers and I travelled to Belize last weekend to take advantage of a CCA auction trip through Action Belize.

We arrived on Thursday, June 24th, and had an afternoon trip planned with Captain Sommers. We left Belize City in a 23' open boat and fished a couple of spots on the way to the mouth of the belize river. The tackle was comprised of medium weight spinning rods, 10-20 lb powerpro line, and medium weight Ugly Stick rods. The fishing method consisted of jigging with 1 oz jog head and chartreuse plastic bodies...Capt. Chambers' riptide chartreuse mullets seemed particularly tasty this day.

At the mouth of the Belize river, in about 18 feet of water, we jigged the mangrove "shoreline" around a large dead tree and it wasn't long before a sizable snook took hold. A quick boat maneuver to get the fish away from the tangles of the shoreline, and an open river fight ensued. The first snook brought on board was an estimated 18-20 lb beauty.

Over the course of the next couple hours, we worked about a 1/2 mile of the mouth of the Belize River and caught 6 snook fro 10-20 lbs...all of which were taken from under the big tree.







After eating some freshly prepared snook at the Belize Biltmore...expectations for the next two full days of fishing was running pretty high. Unfortunately, our expectations for greater numbers of fish were not met, but the scenery was, at times, breathtaking.



For the majority of the next two days of fishing, we trolled 8AFT Bomber lures in the Sibun river, intermixed with a little jigging around certain fishy areas.

Friday saw 3 small tarpon, 1 large Jack and 1 - 10lb snook landed, and Saturday saw 1 mangrove snapper, 1 goliath grouper, 1 - 10lb snook and 2 small jacks landed.

Conversations with our Guide, Martin, led us to believe that the timing for the best fishing is in the fall (October/November) when the rivers flood, the water turns from blue/green to chocolate and the catches can total 100 fishes per day.

Overall, we had a great time, despite the lack of fish, and if I ever go back, I would probably take a day or two to fish the flats by the outer islands...the wind was enough of a problem, that we were never able to take the fly rods out of their tubes.

It was a unique experience, and it reminded me what a tremendous fishery we have right here in our own backyard.

- John Merriwether

hi john, good information and pictures
thanks
mark