March 3, 2023 -- First full day back from Belize. Haven't even unpacked yet! Wanted to jot some things down regarding what I took on the trip, what I should have taken on the trip, and what I shouldn't have taken on the trip. Before I get into the details, let me give you some background:
First let me explain that the trip was not for the exclusive purpose of fishing. It was a family fun vacation with some great fishing opportunities thrown in. Secondly I am not a big saltwater fly fishing guy. I've fished for stripers and blues around Cape Cod and the Islands and I did one DIY bonefishing trip in the Bahamas about 10 years ago. Other than that I have very little saltwater fly fishing experience under my belt. My fishing partner on this trip, on the other hand, is really big into fly fishing for saltwater species. He talks about saltwater species that I've never even heard of. That being the case, and the fact that this was "his trip," ... his 40th birthday present from his wife (my daughter), I pretty much let him do all of the planning. He picked the place, decided what we would fish for and booked the guide.
Because this was a combination family trip and fishing trip, we decided on 2 days of guided fishing and the remainder would be DIY fishing around other family activities. We booked a 5 bedroom house on Ambergris Caye for a week. It was my daughter Jess, her husband Matt, their 3 year old daughter Carly, Matt's parents, me, and Jess's friend Trisha (who would help with Carly and give Jess some time to fish or participate in other adult activities aka bar hopping. The group dynamics worked well. Matt's parents, being a little older wanted to relax around the house and kept it clean and tidy, while the younger contingency went off exploring and generally making a mess of the house. I consider myself part of the younger contingency because I enjoy being on the go and really get bored just hanging around.
Matt and I discussed the trip quite a bit during the year leading up to it. I had to try to tone down my expectations because he was talking about us each getting a grand slam -- meaning catching a bonefish, a permit, and a tarpon. He was imagining us catching all kinds of fish and I was rebutting with comments like, "it will probably suck -- we probably won't even catch a fish." My reasoning was that I would rather be pleasantly surprised than disappointed... and I explained that to him. He insisted on being very optimistic and I think was ultimately disappointed. The fishing was good, but not great. Because the wind blew hard (20-30mph) every day and had been blowing like that for 2 weeks the guides couldn't take us to the flats they normally fish -- the good flats. The only flats that would have given us a shot at tarpon. We were restricted to fishing in the lagoon behind Ambergris and there only on the lee shore.
With tarpon off the list we had no use for the 12 weight rods we brought. I had two with -- a Loomis graphite and one of my hand made bamboo rods. I can't call that a mistake because we had no way to know that tarpon fishing was not going to be part of the game. But I still brought way too much fishing gear. I envisioned that I would get a chance to test a lot of fly lines, so I brought 2 reels with different lines for each of the three rod weights I had with. Winter in New England isn't an ideal place to test fly rods and fly lines and I had a lot of testing I wanted to do. But because of the strong winds and the incestant inflowing mounds of sargassum there was no good place to fly cast near the house. That fact I probably could have discovered prior to heading down there but it wasn't something that I expected so I bought 5 fly rods, 6 reels with lines on them, and 3 additional lines. I ended up using 2 fly rods and two reels. That's a lot of extra gear to lug around, especially considering that I carrying all my rods and reels in one carry on case.
I purchased a Simms travel case for the rods and reels. It is designed to fit in the overhead compartment of an airliner, which it did and it worked great! But I think if I were to do it again, I'd take it but I'd check it. And I'd split my rods and reels up so if one of my cases got lost I'd still have another to fish with. The suitcase I used is designed to hold rods in the lower compartment and that worked great too. The only thing I did wrong was take too many rods, reels, and lines. Next time I might take 3 max but I would consider just taking 2 -- a 9/10 weight and a 5/6 weight. Only if I knew for sure that I would be fishing for tarpon would I take the 12 weight.
I also bought a Simms waterproof sling pack which I used for my "personal item" allowed to be carry on the plane. It worked great as a carry on pack and as a fishing pack. I'll do a full review Youtube of both Simms products in the near future. I'll also provide a complete packing list with details about every item along with the pros and cons of each item.
Stay tuned ...
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