Hi, this is Chris with the latest from Steppingstones, here in Southern Belize. Sue is promising to write up a blog very soon – she claims to be busy!
When guests Keith and Sheila left our dock bright and early the other morning aboard George's boat, Vagabund (Creole for vagabond), a perfect dawn was breaking and weather reports and fishing reports were all favourable. As I watched the boat easing its way through the coral heads on its way out to the reef, I told Sue that I would be firing up the barbeque in advance of their return, so confident was I that a box full of fish would be coming ashore later in the day.
And so it proved. About 10 miles off shore there is an exploratory oil rig which has been there about 2 months now. This rig is becoming a magnet for all the fish in the area, and in short order Keith and Sheila had barracuda, Spanish mackerel, and kingfish coming in at regular intervals, plus Sheila's now customary needlefish. How DOES she do it? Later, they ran the rest of the way out to the reef, where George spotted a huge shoal of yellowfin tuna ripping the surface of the sea to a foam. Keith estimated the shoal was over 100 yards long. Needless to say this yielded the kind of mayhem that only hungry tuna can provide. However even this level of catching eventually becomes wearing, so they moved on to new challenges, picking up some nice snappers along the way.
It was there, right out of the blue (literally), that a group of whale sharks made an unseasonable appearance. So fishing was suspended while Keith and Sheila took time to watch these magnificent, huge, gentle creatures, which came so close that they could have reached out and touched them.
So when Keith and Sheila finally came in, the barbeque was ready and we dined on snapper fillets, tuna steaks and kingfish steaks. As Keith remarked, life does not get much better than that day had been. However I reminded him that the next day (their last day) was still to come, and that he had an early morning date with the grouper on the rough ground a few miles offshore.
Keith had proved himself to be a bit of a grouper magnet, so I was not surprised when he came in with a nice grouper as well as some good sized snappers all caught bottom fishing. Unfortunately it was one of those days when the several big fish he hooked all broke off. Any one of those would have turned a memorable day into a red letter day, but as we all know, fishing is like that sometimes. But there is always next time….
We are still experimenting with the grouper here. There are certainly much bigger fish around than the ones we and our guests have managed to land whether offshore, a hundred yards in front of Steppingstones, or even from the beach itself. Rambo has had four big fish break off recently whilst out in one of our pedallos with a handline. The last of these left him with a nasty cut on his thumb as he tried to play the fish. We suspect grouper are responsible but tackle needs to be beefed up to cope with these heavyweights.
We are coming up to peak grouper season, as the fish come to spawn around Glovers reef in April, May and June. Some 25 species collect there, and the whale shark follow them to feast on the resulting plankton. We are going to suggest that grouper caught in this area at this time by our visitors are strictly catch and release – but we should get some big beasts this year all going well, if we have to go and catch them ourselves!
We have noticed a much higher density of baitfish around our dock over the past few months and we have concluded that our new dock lights installed just before Christmas are responsible. This is having the very welcome knock on effect of drawing other predators closer in. We are getting many more blue runners from the dock than we did last year, and barracuda too.
The February issue of Sport Fisherman has a five page feature on the fishing at and around Steppingstones, featuring Chris Woodward, Editor of the magazine and her husband Spud who had a memorable stay with us last August, and also of course featuring our friend and head guide, Ian Cuevas. Chris did a great job for us, the pictures are super. Those of you not in the US will be able to catch up with the article on the Sport Fishing magazine web site when it goes on in a few week’s time.
When guests Keith and Sheila left our dock bright and early the other morning aboard George's boat, Vagabund (Creole for vagabond), a perfect dawn was breaking and weather reports and fishing reports were all favourable. As I watched the boat easing its way through the coral heads on its way out to the reef, I told Sue that I would be firing up the barbeque in advance of their return, so confident was I that a box full of fish would be coming ashore later in the day.
And so it proved. About 10 miles off shore there is an exploratory oil rig which has been there about 2 months now. This rig is becoming a magnet for all the fish in the area, and in short order Keith and Sheila had barracuda, Spanish mackerel, and kingfish coming in at regular intervals, plus Sheila's now customary needlefish. How DOES she do it? Later, they ran the rest of the way out to the reef, where George spotted a huge shoal of yellowfin tuna ripping the surface of the sea to a foam. Keith estimated the shoal was over 100 yards long. Needless to say this yielded the kind of mayhem that only hungry tuna can provide. However even this level of catching eventually becomes wearing, so they moved on to new challenges, picking up some nice snappers along the way.
It was there, right out of the blue (literally), that a group of whale sharks made an unseasonable appearance. So fishing was suspended while Keith and Sheila took time to watch these magnificent, huge, gentle creatures, which came so close that they could have reached out and touched them.
So when Keith and Sheila finally came in, the barbeque was ready and we dined on snapper fillets, tuna steaks and kingfish steaks. As Keith remarked, life does not get much better than that day had been. However I reminded him that the next day (their last day) was still to come, and that he had an early morning date with the grouper on the rough ground a few miles offshore.
Keith had proved himself to be a bit of a grouper magnet, so I was not surprised when he came in with a nice grouper as well as some good sized snappers all caught bottom fishing. Unfortunately it was one of those days when the several big fish he hooked all broke off. Any one of those would have turned a memorable day into a red letter day, but as we all know, fishing is like that sometimes. But there is always next time….
We are still experimenting with the grouper here. There are certainly much bigger fish around than the ones we and our guests have managed to land whether offshore, a hundred yards in front of Steppingstones, or even from the beach itself. Rambo has had four big fish break off recently whilst out in one of our pedallos with a handline. The last of these left him with a nasty cut on his thumb as he tried to play the fish. We suspect grouper are responsible but tackle needs to be beefed up to cope with these heavyweights.
We are coming up to peak grouper season, as the fish come to spawn around Glovers reef in April, May and June. Some 25 species collect there, and the whale shark follow them to feast on the resulting plankton. We are going to suggest that grouper caught in this area at this time by our visitors are strictly catch and release – but we should get some big beasts this year all going well, if we have to go and catch them ourselves!
We have noticed a much higher density of baitfish around our dock over the past few months and we have concluded that our new dock lights installed just before Christmas are responsible. This is having the very welcome knock on effect of drawing other predators closer in. We are getting many more blue runners from the dock than we did last year, and barracuda too.
The February issue of Sport Fisherman has a five page feature on the fishing at and around Steppingstones, featuring Chris Woodward, Editor of the magazine and her husband Spud who had a memorable stay with us last August, and also of course featuring our friend and head guide, Ian Cuevas. Chris did a great job for us, the pictures are super. Those of you not in the US will be able to catch up with the article on the Sport Fishing magazine web site when it goes on in a few week’s time.
The photos here are of a typical jack and a nice 45lb tarpon caught by the two Steves at Xmas time. We should have more fishing pics for you soon when Paul and Keith get theirs sorted out.
posted by Sue Harris @ 12:54 pm
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