QUEST FOR A SLAM
Mention the words ‘Grand Slam’ and sports fans will think of rugby or tennis – but they have a different meaning for anglers
Tracking the big three on the fly in Belize.
Although not always clear and understood on this side of the Atlantic, fly-fishing specialists, particularly from the USA, go in search of a Grand Slam, consisting of tarpon, permit and bonefish, or a Super Slam that adds a snook to the list – all to be caught on the fly on the same day, or, as some anglers interpret, within a 24-hour period.
Opportunities for achieving such a coveted prize are found in the USA’s southern states, along with Cuba, Mexico, the Bahamas and down through Central America.
Being a fishing guide in South Wales, my ideal getaway is to Placencia, a small town at the end of a peninsula in the Stann Creek region of southern Belize. I visit each year in the quest for my Grand Slam.
The area borders the Gulf of Honduras, with its Barrier Reef running the length of the country some 25 miles out from the mainland coast. It is here between shore and reef that the numerous cayes and flats hold the fish that anglers pursue in search of the Grand Slam.
On some of the bigger flats you can walk or be poled along by your guide on his panga (the fishing boat so popular all over Central America and the Caribbean) for more than half-a-mile in just a foot or two of water, over a coral surface that has permit searching for the crabs and shrimps that inhabit this moonlike subsurface.
The tell-tale black fin tips of the permit while it buries its head into a coral searching for it prey is the first indicator, along with signs of the fish ‘pushing water’ in front of them as they move to a new location to feed.
While your guide is poling the boat from the stern, you stand on the bow foredeck also looking for the fish. Working as a team really helps focus you on the task. It was a compliment when my guide told me this year that ‘I still have my permit eyes’ after spotting a feeding fish before him.
BONEFISH SEARCH
As well as permit, you will often come across bonefish on these flats, sometimes a single or pair of larger fish, or a shoal of smaller fish that could number many hundreds. These guys are also in search of crab and shrimp ‘tasties’ that inhabit the coral.
Be ready for whichever target you first sight. I always carry three fly-rods. When you are searching these flats you should have two rods rigged with crab and shrimp patterns. I use a 7wt with a floating line for bonefish and a 9wt with a floating/sink tip for the permit.
I always leave the choice of which pattern to tie on to my guide, and it helps me get to know what the fish are feeding on or have been taking recently. One of the favourite patterns of my regular guide, Wayne Castellanos, is the Camo Crab, the size of your thumbnail and weighted just enough to make it sink at a rate that does not appear unnatural to your prey.
While casting to a small shoal of permit that were swimming in the same area as a large shoal of bonefish near Water Caye, I let my crab sink and then discovered a small knot in my fly-line. After sorting the tangle, I lifted the 9wt to start a retrieve and re-cast when suddenly a bonefish of about 3lb picked up the crab and took my line and about 40 yards of backing before I slowed it down – and that was on the 9wt rod!
In deeper water away from the flats, an intermediate line might suit rather than a sink tip, so ensure you have all bases covered when it comes to line choice. I like the Rio Tropical series of lines, particularly the Outbound
Short and the Bonefish Quickshooter. You may pay slightly more for these lines, but they outlast the cheaper options and, if looked after, will last you for many more trips abroad.
TARPON TARGET
Around the cayes, lurking under the mangrove roots, you will come across tarpon and snook intercepting baitfish. You will also encounter tarpon feeding off the ‘by-catch’ that the numerous pelicans spill from their bills. These fish will be all around the lagoons, the trick being to cast your fly directly into the region where the pelicans are feeding.
You will be fishing deeper water, so a slow sink/intermediate line will be the choice. Here I rig my third rod, a 10wt, because the fish will be a bigger size than the ‘baby’ tarpon we encounter around the lagoons closer to Placencia.
The ‘gummy minnow’ style of lure is the closest you will get to imitating the baitfish on which the tarpon feed, but again rely on your guide to advise what’s best.
While fishing out on the Sapodilla Cayes marine reserve, some 20-plus miles out from Placencia to the south in the Gulf of Honduras, I caught bonefish when wading out on the golden beaches, to be followed by two permit on a flat just a half mile from the marine reserve.
Next we went to Monkey River for the tarpon, leaving us all afternoon to find and catch our prize. The boat ride takes around an hour, so it left me plenty of time to reflect on my chance of achieving the Grand Slam.
Monkey River has a village settlement on the mouth of the river, and a 10-minute ride upstream is all it takes to get you to the wider areas where you start to see tarpon moving.
Holding mainly ‘baby’ tarpon to around 25lb, the river is a nursery area for these juveniles before they move out to the offshore lagoons. While you stand on the bow of the panga waiting to make your shots at the tarpon, you may hear the sounds of the howler monkeys calling in the trees, and if you are lucky you may catch sight of the toucans flying from tree to tree. The river is alive with birds sitting in the trees or mangroves, ranging from colourful parrots to egrets and smaller fish-eaters, waiting for their chance to pick off baitfish from the water’s surface.
After hooking two tarpon and subsequently losing them during their airborne acrobatics, the tarpon just switched off. No sign of rolling fish, and after an hour of ‘blind’ casting under the mangrove roots, my Slam dream had gone for another year.
OTHER OPTIONS
The beauty of using Placencia as your base is you have plenty of options. If, as often happens in the Caribbean, the wind picks up, which is the curse of the fly-angler and makes sighting fish on the flats almost impossible, you have the option of fishing the rivers or lagoons.
One area near the lagoon at the back of Placencia is a hidden landlocked area of mangrove. Commercial developers have opened up channels to feed their shrimp farm enterprise and this channel runs into the lagoon where tarpon and snook, which I’m sure have never seen man or fly, feed.
As the water is very shallow Wayne uses a small 10ft dinghy to pole along this backwater, and provided you don’t spook your prey by overzealous casting, invariably you will hook up. Indeed, on the first cast on the first day I fished it I hooked a ladyfish – the poor man’s tarpon I’m told. Another first for me! I also boated six tarpon to 20lb and lost countless others. Not bad for a day when fishing the flats or lagoons around the cayes was impossible.
ENJOY THE STAY
On days when the sun and wind have had the better of you, finishing by mid-afternoon
is a bonus. After a quick shower back at my hotel then a short walk along the beach, I find myself in the heart of the town and heading to Tutti Frutti, the best ice cream shop ever after a hot day afloat. You can sit here in the airconditioned shop watching Placencia go about its business. As the sun starts to sink over the distant mountains, it’s time for a Belikin or three (the local brew) in the Pickled Parrot or Yoli’s bar on the waterfront.
There is plenty of accommodation in Placencia to suit every pocket, ranging from larger hotels facing the ocean to a more central hotel like the Paradise, which has its own jetty, and is only a five-minute walk into the town.
I visit between March and May before it gets too hot and the hurricane season approaches.
If you avoid Easter, you will find it rare to see another boat out on the flats, but this will change as commercial development in this area increases.
If you decide to visit Belize or any of the other Central America countries for the first time, put some time into practising your casting/hauling before you travel. I put markers with distance figures in a field and practice switching from hauling out a full fly-line to changing to, say, a 10 o’clock cast at 30ft or three o’clock at 60ft. This means when a guide gives me that shout “permit at 11 o’clock 50ft” I require the minimum amount of false casting to get that crab fly just in front of the fish.
It’s a long way to travel to spend the first few days learning to cast again. ■