Fly Fishing for Snook and Tarpon in Belize
By Rocky Ferraro

I took a little side trip from my family cruise vacation. As usual I always take my fly fishing equipment where ever I go. You just
never know! I did not do much pre planning for this trip and I had envisioned something different. I landed in Belize on a tender
with my gear bag in hand. Good thing they speak English and I did not have to use too many hand signals. I asked many
venders that were stationed at the docks ready to grab the tourist dollar if anyone would care to take me fishing. They all
wanted to take me snorkeling or sightseeing or shopping but the fishing excursions were few and far between. I said “I’ll go
snorkeling if you let me carry a spear gun!” They just smiled and said “No way mun”. Unless you set this up in advance and
plan to stay aboard a yacht or fishing lodge the fishing purveyors/guides are a bit of a challenge to find. I finally did find
someone and to make a long story short I was able to haggle him down to what I thought was a reasonable price. Finally after
a ride through downtown Belize City in a little truck and strained unsure conversations I made it to what I think was a Belizean
fishing village and my guide Jamil ended up being a commercial fisherman. He was a knowledgeable guide and I ended up
having a fun time. He took me places that I could site cast to snook and tarpon. Good thing I brought my own equipment as I
needed a good intermediate saltwater fly line and flies. I used his 12wt fly rod which was not so much of a broom stick and I
could easily cast it. I ended up getting a few strikes from snook but had a challenging time casting in the mangroves and I got
hung up several times. I could see the snook swimming back and forth in the mangroves. Towards the end of the trip we raced
the boat over to some diving birds and I got to cast into some bait balls that were being cut to shreds. Bait fish were being
tossed like salad up into the air by huge tarpon but I could not get a strike.