Ian stopped by last night and brought us Black Cake to try. This is a traditional Belizean Christmas treat, and is almost exactly like Christmas pudding – delicious. So we will be having that with custard some time soon. Ian’s arrival coincided with my making a large batch of piccalilli, so Ian is on a promise for a jar of that. He also went away with some of my special fruit cake – it’s become quite a foodie exchange! However we couldn’t persuade him to stay to dinner – liver and bacon – not a Creole favourite. Anyway, while he was here, we decided to do some fishing together this weekend.
Today’s plan was to explore the upper reaches of Monkey River, where tarpon had been in abundance earlier in the week. When we woke at 6am it was wild and squally, so we thought Ian would probably call it off. However, the weather brightened up, and at 8am Ian in Opportunity drew up at our dock. We scrabbled everything together and proceeded up the river.
Once on the river the sun came beaming out, there was a cool breeze, and the water was good and low. The wildlife turned out in force, we saw dozens of different birds including magnificent ospreys, a pygmy kingfisher, which we hadn’t seen before, and a large flock of parrots squawking away to themselves as they flew overhead.
There were lots of sandbanks, so we were keeping our eyes peeled for one of our favourite denizens of the river, and sure enough, it wasn’t long before we spotted what looked like a log on a sandbank up ahead - a log that got up and swim into the river. As we passed the spot, we saw the creature’s two eyes examining us, before it sank to safety below the surface. A few minutes later, we spotted a small croc in the margins, pretending it couldn’t see us, and further on we just saw the ripples that a real big fellow left as he slipped out of danger.
Crocs aplenty were around, but no sign of the tarpon. We motored slowly up the river until we came to where Monkey River branches to become the Bladen and the Swazey rivers. Taking the Bladen branch, we stopped at a likely place for a cast or two. I made my usual choice, a jointed Thunderstick, old and battered, but still effective. Ian suggested we try some surface lures, so Chris hauled out his old favourite the Top Prop in fire tiger.
Now, Ian loves to take the mickey out of our lures, and he is occasionally right. “That would make a good toy,” he laughed when he saw Chris spinning the Top Prop. “Ian,” I said, “I give you a friendly warning, don’t laugh too soon.” Sure enough, first cast, and Chris was into a small yet feisty machaca, a local freshwater fish. We caught nothing else at that spot, and carried on up river. Then the clouds gathered, and it began to rain. Really rain, the way it does here. “Who packed the waterproofs?” Well actually, in our rush to get out, nobody had. We had two pairs of waterproof trousers, one of which I wore as a combination hat and shawl, very chic, the other as standard trousers. Chris just got wet. In the end we were both so wet it didn’t matter, we just carried on fishing in likely spots.
But the tarpon were nowhere to be seen – it wasn’t going to be our day. So we made our way back down river, the sun came out, and we amused ourselves drying out and spotting iguanas. At this time of year the males are easier to spot as they are in their rusty orange mating colouring. We are certainly getting better at creature spotting as our eyes get use to the jungle. The iguanas tend to rest in the fork of a tree; we saw some pretty big ones, including one which was so surprised by our presence that he fell with a loud splash into the water – an iguana escape route.
Turtles were perched on logs sticking out of the water, we saw six the size of dinner plates sitting solemnly on one log. They plopped one by one into the water, they are rather shy. The whole scene was quite idyllic, and despite no fish and having got wet to the bone.
So, not a vintage day for fishing, but a really enjoyable morning on the river none the less. Tomorrow, weather permitting, out to the reef!
Today’s plan was to explore the upper reaches of Monkey River, where tarpon had been in abundance earlier in the week. When we woke at 6am it was wild and squally, so we thought Ian would probably call it off. However, the weather brightened up, and at 8am Ian in Opportunity drew up at our dock. We scrabbled everything together and proceeded up the river.
Once on the river the sun came beaming out, there was a cool breeze, and the water was good and low. The wildlife turned out in force, we saw dozens of different birds including magnificent ospreys, a pygmy kingfisher, which we hadn’t seen before, and a large flock of parrots squawking away to themselves as they flew overhead.
There were lots of sandbanks, so we were keeping our eyes peeled for one of our favourite denizens of the river, and sure enough, it wasn’t long before we spotted what looked like a log on a sandbank up ahead - a log that got up and swim into the river. As we passed the spot, we saw the creature’s two eyes examining us, before it sank to safety below the surface. A few minutes later, we spotted a small croc in the margins, pretending it couldn’t see us, and further on we just saw the ripples that a real big fellow left as he slipped out of danger.
Crocs aplenty were around, but no sign of the tarpon. We motored slowly up the river until we came to where Monkey River branches to become the Bladen and the Swazey rivers. Taking the Bladen branch, we stopped at a likely place for a cast or two. I made my usual choice, a jointed Thunderstick, old and battered, but still effective. Ian suggested we try some surface lures, so Chris hauled out his old favourite the Top Prop in fire tiger.
Now, Ian loves to take the mickey out of our lures, and he is occasionally right. “That would make a good toy,” he laughed when he saw Chris spinning the Top Prop. “Ian,” I said, “I give you a friendly warning, don’t laugh too soon.” Sure enough, first cast, and Chris was into a small yet feisty machaca, a local freshwater fish. We caught nothing else at that spot, and carried on up river. Then the clouds gathered, and it began to rain. Really rain, the way it does here. “Who packed the waterproofs?” Well actually, in our rush to get out, nobody had. We had two pairs of waterproof trousers, one of which I wore as a combination hat and shawl, very chic, the other as standard trousers. Chris just got wet. In the end we were both so wet it didn’t matter, we just carried on fishing in likely spots.
But the tarpon were nowhere to be seen – it wasn’t going to be our day. So we made our way back down river, the sun came out, and we amused ourselves drying out and spotting iguanas. At this time of year the males are easier to spot as they are in their rusty orange mating colouring. We are certainly getting better at creature spotting as our eyes get use to the jungle. The iguanas tend to rest in the fork of a tree; we saw some pretty big ones, including one which was so surprised by our presence that he fell with a loud splash into the water – an iguana escape route.
Turtles were perched on logs sticking out of the water, we saw six the size of dinner plates sitting solemnly on one log. They plopped one by one into the water, they are rather shy. The whole scene was quite idyllic, and despite no fish and having got wet to the bone.
So, not a vintage day for fishing, but a really enjoyable morning on the river none the less. Tomorrow, weather permitting, out to the reef!
posted by Sue Harris @ 2:17 pm
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