General thoughts.
My son, Tanner, graduated August 10, and starts his job tomorrow. I decided to book this trip as a graduation present for him. We had such a great time, and are already talking about how we can make a trip like that on a regular basis. May actually happen now that he will be able to pay his half. El Pescador Lodge and Resort is hands down the coolest place I have ever experienced. The atmosphere is very relaxed, but at the same time, completely professional. Having not been on a trip like this, I was a little intimidated going in. I'm not used to other people carrying my bags to the room, or handing me a beer as I'm walking from the shuttle van to the boat that takes you to the lodge. The food was plentiful and really good.

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Now for the part y'all really care about. Fish porn.

Day 1. We are novice fly fisherman, but had practiced a good bit this summer. The lodge also offers lessons every afternoon, of which we took full advantage. The first day had very little wind, probably around 5mph, which was great for us to build confidence. We fished a place called Savannah that morning. We had shots at bonefish, permit and resident tarpon in about a 250 yard stretch around that island. My son let me go first, and I landed a decent bonefish right off the bat. At this point, we were still not seeing the fish very well. Just casting in the direction and distance the guide told us to put it. Everything was probably inside 35 40 feet. Although the permit were there, we never really saw anything but a flash of light as they swam away. Lol. Tanner was next up and the guide chose a fly out our box that he had actually tied. That was a pretty big deal for him. I think he was trying to copy the Gotcha flies with that one, and hooked two barracuda. The first one in the boat, and the second kept the fly. We focused on bonefish this first day, and each landed 5 or 6. My goal for the trip was to get one fish to the boat. Needless to say, I was already on gravy by the time the sun got very high the first morning.

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Day 2. By the end of Day 1, we thought we were experts. We decided to target migratory tarpon for the second day. We went south of Caulker Caye looking for the tarpon. That was a bust for us. We saw maybe 2 or 3 tarpon rolling in the distance, but never had a shot at anything. Long boat ride with nothing to show for it, but we gave it a shot. We worked our way back to the lodge fishing the islands for bonefish. Came across an area full of Lemon sharks, but no bones. Cool thing to see in 2 foot of water, but not really conducive to bonefish. The next spot had a group of really big bonefish. The guide said they were in the 5 pound range. We both spent at least 30 minutes each presenting a variety of flies to this same group. They would turn and follow, but never ate the fly. A little frustrating but it's the opportunity that you are after. You can't make them eat. We did manage a few bonefish this day, so we didn't get skunked.

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Day 3. This last day our strategy was to maximize our opportunities, and we did not care about a particular species. We managed a good number of bonefish this day. We actually went inside one of the islands to a lagoon. I had a shot at a tarpon in about 10 inches of water, but spooked him before I could actually get the fly in front of him. Pretty exciting. We got into some deeper water in the lagoon and found a school of decent sized bonefish that were moving back and forth over maybe 100 yards. As it turns out there were some smaller permit running with this school. I saw a flash in the school, and put my fly in that area. Landed a permit. The guide was pretty excited. I honestly did not know how special that was until we talked to some of the experienced guests that evening. Tanner had tied some EP Baitfish (I think that is the right name) flies for the trip. He put one on a snook and landed it.

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Final thoughts. If you are considering going to Belize, I highly recommend El Pescador. They are a top shelf outfit. More importantly, do not think you don't have the skills to fly fish down there. I came into as a complete novice, and left a much better fisherman. I actually have enough confidence to fish just about anywhere now. I still have a long way to go in terms of skill, but I'm not afraid of it like I was before we went.
Sorry for all the words.
Thanks and Gig'em.
Todd Kassaw '87 and Tanner Kassaw '18

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