As you all know I have been on vacation with Tania. We went to Belize for 10 days. Spent 4 days in the jungle and 6 days in the beach. We booked our whole vacation through Central America Fishing, and we were very pleases and I am excited to share our fishing adventure with Hardcore Fishing Charters out of Placencia. I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures!

Thursday June 8^th was the day I have been waiting for. I was super excited to go fishing on the barrier reef here in Belize. We woke up at 5:00am and got ready for our day. Once we were ready Tania and I went for a walk along the beach.

While on the end of the dock at our resort, we saw a manatee off in the distance. We proceeded to watch the manatee for about 30 minutes before it moved out of sight. At this point we returned to our room as we had requested our breakfast be served at 6:15am.

Captain Erwin, of Hardcore Fishing, reached out to me at told us to meet him at the dock across from our resort at 7:30am. We wanted to be early as Tania and I love watching the water as we never know what we will see. We arrived at the dock about 7:10am and were enjoying the view, when a skinny boat started to pull up. Tania asked me if this was our boat? For those of you who don’t know, Tania does not like boats with low gunnels and the thought of going out 24 miles to the barrier reef had Tania worried, but she got onboard anyways.  Captain Erwin assured Tania the boat was safe, and it was a nice day to be on the water.

As we exited the lagoon, Captain Erwin told us he had to make a quick stop at the beach in front of his house. Since he found out we wouldn’t mind targeting tarpon, he asked his wife to bring some balloons to float some baits if we saw any tarpon.

After we picked up the balloons, we headed out on our adventure. Our first stop was an island about 20 miles offshore, to get the bait we needed for our trip. There was so much bait at the island, I have never seen so many pilchards in one location in my short time on the water. Even though the bait was thick, it took Captain Erwin two cast with the net to black out the live well. It was hard for Captain Erwin to get the net over them as they were holding close to the dock. 

Once the live well was filled, we continued to run to the barrier reef, which was 24 miles offshore. Tania and I were just amazed at how beautiful the water was and how shallow the Caribbean Sea is until you get to the barrier reef. We started fishing on the outer reef by slow trolling live baits along the reef. We were in water depths ranging from eight inches to 25 feet while we were trolling. It was hard to believe we were so far offshore with such shallow waters. The tide change here is about eight inches max, so the reef depths are anywhere from 8-16 inches in the shallowest part.

It didn’t take long for Tania to get the first hit; however, she didn’t hook the fish. We have never fished this way before, so we had to become familiar with what we needed to do when we got a bite. Captain Erwin told us once the bait started to dart around or the first hit, we were to open the bail for a few seconds then close it and start winding. Instinctively the first multiple bites we had we tried to set the hook instead of opening the bails. It was hard to overcome setting the hook immediately, as soon as I felt the tug, I wanted to set the hook.

Tania caught the first fish shortly after we started fishing. She landed a yellow jack. While she was reeling in the fish a barracuda nailed her fish and cut off its tail. Right after Tania landed her fish, I landed a decent barracuda. We believe the barracuda I landed was the one which tried to take Tania’s fish.

We trolled the shallow reefs for a few hours. In that time, we lost many fish as Tania, and I were still getting used to this style of fishing. We did land a few barracudas and several large needle fish. The real excitement happened when we came across a school of permit. Captain Erwin told s it was very rare to see permit at the outer reef. He turned the motor off and set up a rod to target the permit. Once it was set up, he handed it over to Tania and told her were to cast.

We were hunting the permit for about five minutes before Tania hooked up with one of the larger permits. We saw it hit the bait and knew she would have a fight on her hands. She fought the permit for 4 to 5 minutes before her 30lb braid broke. I’m sure the braid was nicked on the shallow reef we were fishing. Tania was heartbroken as this was the third time, she fought a permit and lost it. The first two times the hooks on the jig straightened out and this time the braid broke.  We saw the fish close to the boat multiple times and since permit are catch and release only in Belize, I consider the fish caught and self-released! Check out the short 2-minute video of Tania fighting the permit below.

We ended up slow trolling a few more hours with very little luck. We had a few hits during this time and we saw the barracuda and needle fishing tearing up our baits but we were not hooking them. To be honest we didn’t want them we wanted snapper!

Captain Erwin took us out to the wall, which was about half a mile from the reef were the water dropped to about 1000 ft. During this time, I had a yellow jack chase my bait but turned away near the boat. We trolled the wall for about an hour; however, we didn’t catch anything, so we headed back to the reef.

It didn’t take long for the bite to turn on at the reef. I hooked up and boy did I have a fight on my hands. Captain Erwin was cheering me on telling me that this was the snapper we were after. Because the reefs are shallow, Captain Erwin could not slow down or the snapper would get back into the reef and I would lose the fish. So, I was not only fighting the fish, but the current from trolling. It took me a few minutes to get the fish to the surface and man I was tired. I was glad to get it up; however, the fight was not over as the fish surfaced about 50 feet behind the boat. Once the snapper was onboard and in the cooler, I was finally able to catch my breath. This dog snapper was one of the largest snappers I have ever caught.

Tania hooked up shortly after my fight, and her reel was screaming. I was grateful as I was able to film the last portion of the fight. Unfortunately, she had a large barracuda and not a snapper we were hoping for. I was able to film her fighting and landing this fish!

By now it was 2:30pm, so we started our trek back in. The wind picked up and it was a choppy ride back in. Captain Erwin decided to hit a few of the flats to hunt permit to break up the long 24-mile ride back in. On the two flats we only saw one pair of permits and neither wanted our bait. Captain Erwin said today was an odd day as we saw a school of permit outside the reef and none on the flats. He believed the extraordinarily hot temperatures may have pushed them to deeper waters.

After the second flat, I told Captain Erwin we were spend and we could head back in. It was a long day in the sun with no shade. I don’t know how Captain Erwin can do it day after day, but Tania and I were exhausted.

When we got back to the dock Captain Erwin cleaned our fish. I had a yellow tail snapper, a yellow jack, a dog snapper and a barracuda. I took the fish to the kitchen and spoke with the chef. I asked for one fillet of the dog snapper and gave the rest of the fish to the chef to prepare for the staff. The staff at Chrbil Mar enjoy fresh fish, and they really love barracuda.

It was a long day and we finished it up with a nice meal in our air conditioned room. Tania, since she doesn’t eat fish, had chicken stir fry and a cheese board, while I had blackened snapper, broccoli, and coconut rice. My fish was pretty good; however, I enjoyed the blackened seasoning from the Secret Garden, a restaurant in Placencia we ate the night before, better.  

The Treasure Coast Chapter of Salt Strong is now holding monthly meetings in Fort Pierce. The meetings are being held on the 4^th Thursday of the month. The next meeting will be June 22^nd. These club meeting are for inside members only. If you would like to become an inside member here is what the membership includes: access to the in-person meetings as well as all the other perks such as 20% off all tackle, Smart Fishing spots, and insider information on trends in your area. We will also have guest speakers at our meetings and we will be holding monthly tournaments. Click the link below to get a FREE pack of slam shady or a 10-Day Test-Drive of The Smart Fishing Spots App and The Salt Strong Insider Club . . . And We’ll Ship You $35 Worth of FREE Lures, an “Inshore Fishing Manifesto” Book (Physical copy) & Decals – Yours to Keep Even If You Cancel!