Me and a bunch of fishing buddies decided to check out Blue Bonefish Lodge in Ambergris Caye, Belize this past June. It’s run by our friend, Chris Leeman, his wife his dad and mom and his extended family. Chris was a guide up in Alaska for around 9 seasons working at two top lodges, The Rainbow River Lodge and The Illiama River Lodge. It was there he learned the hospitality business prior to purchasing a piece of property of his own in Belize with his family. His life-long dream was to someday own and operate a fly fishing lodge and low and behold his dream came true.
My guys unanimously agree that Chris’s friendly staff hit it out of the park, they were all well trained, hospital and his guides knew how to find fish. The accomadations were first class. We all had an amazing week of fishing and caught lots of species. Many shots each day at permit, tarpon and bonefish. There were many diverse areas to fish each day. Our group of ten anglers put 18 permit on the board for the week, not too bad, especially since a few of our anglers were new to flats fishing game.
We were ready to rumble. The flies of choice for the smaller permit and bonefish were tan mantis shrimp or EP spawning shrimp. Tarpon ate EP peanut butter streamers in black/purple, chartreuse/white, rabbit toads and glass minnow flies. The bigger permit preferred crabs like Bauer crabs, ragheads and small floating sargasso crabs. The food at the lodge was superb. A great trip, one I would definitely do again, hopefully next year? – Al Q
flies, sand & surf 