Special to ESPNOutdoors.com
Editor's note: Contributor Gary Giudice, who penned Wannabe Trout Bums for ESPNOutdoors.com, is traveling to Belize in an attempt at the fly fishing Grand Slam, a permit, bonefish and tarpon on fly all on the same day. He'll offer reports following his quest.
The Slam Haunts Me
Catching the Grand Slam of fly-fishing near impossible
Courtesy El Pescador Lodge The Belize flats where Guidice plans to fly-fish for the Grand Slam of tarpon, bonefish and permit. |
Catching a monster redfish in the waters of Venice, La., was not all that challenging. Neither was nailing a trophy largemouth bass on Mexico's Lake El Salto or raising huge Yellowstone cutthroats in the upper reaches of Slough Creek.
But catching the Grand Slam of fly-fishing is harder than qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic. True, several have done it, but, for most of us, it is nigh on impossible.
I love competitive bass fishing. In fact I finished one place out of the Classic a few years back. One lousy place! I almost had to be medicated. A heartbreaker of a season but it gave me undying respect for those who accomplish it.
The Grand Slam on the other hand, the folks who have done that? Well, I think I hate them.
There are lots of "Grand Slams" out there. The Back Country Slam, the Venice Slam, the Billfish Slam, the list seems endless. But this is the original one for me. The first one I heard of as a kid and still, arguably, the toughest of them all.
They make these 'Johnny come lately' slams sound bad, but we all know the most challenging one of all... the Grand Slam of Fly Fishing.
It sounds easy enough. Just catch a tarpon, a bonefish and a permit on a fly in a single day. But I've tried it several times and failed. Oh, I've had two of the three in the same day and once in Belize I had the third one on. And save for a hastily tied knot I would have done it, but it just wasn't meant to be. The Grand Slam just sounds easy.
I am not going to give up on the Grand Slam. The Classic I got over but the Slam haunts me.
El Pescador Lodge on Ambergris Caye down in San Pedro, Belize. |
So I'm cashing in my hard-earned frequent flyer points, drawing down my savings account and heading to El Pescador Lodge on Ambergris Caye down in San Pedro, Belize. I plan to stay there until I get it done or the money runs out. My wife just shakes her head, my friends think I'm over committed to this cause and the folks at work think I have lost my mind. Maybe I have.
Belize is an easy place to love. It's an inexpensive place to visit, the weather is always perfect (temperatures vary about 10 degrees total a year) and the locals are friendly, always smiling with warm greetings.
Well, why the hell shouldn't they be happy, they live in paradise! Snow and ice? Never seen it. High gas prices? They walk or ride a bike. Crime? The cops I've seen don't even wear guns. Damn, I love Belize!
Located in Central America, Belize is perfectly positioned to be a Mecca for fish that frequent the warm, shallow flats. There are hundreds of small islands and mile after mile of shallow, clear waters that host bonefish schools numbering sometimes in the hundreds.
They are there all year long, ready to eat a well-placed Crazy Charlie. Tarpon are there all year as well, but migrants start coming through in early summer boosting the populations several times over.
Permit are the rascals of the flats. Slow to bite, hard to fight and you just don't see that many of them. They also have the local populations increased by migrants in early summer. June is the perfect time to be in Belize. Even the wind lays some.
I'm told to catch all three in the same day you must have a plan. Most tell me to ignore the bonefish and get the permit out of the way first then the tarpon and finish with the bones.
Telling me to ignore the bonefish is much like telling an alcoholic to ignore the bottle or a fat dude to ignore the Snicker's bar. Best of luck with that one. It's little wonder I have never caught the Grand Slam. I've got to work on my mental game.
I'm taking two rods, both nine-feet long, one ten-weight and one eight-weight and both Orvis Helios. These rods may be little heavy for bones and a little light for larger tarpon but it's a good average and that's all I have.
I'll be using that Shark Line made by 3M. I can get 20 or 30 more feet a cast with this stuff! Plenty of backing and fluorocarbon leaders are a must. I'll double-check all my carefully tied knots.
I've already tied most of the flies I'll need. I'm no Lefty Kreh, I'm just cheap. I'm thankful El Pescador's has a fly shop. If my flies run out or they won't catch them I can buy what I need. The bones and permit often come on the same small flies, crab or shrimp imitations mostly. They are size four and six. Tarpon streamers are much bigger and gaudy, size 3/0 or so.
I've been practicing my casting. That's been my biggest weakness in the past. I need to be comfortable with 60- to 80-foot casts and 100-footers can be handy. Plus there's always a problem with the wind. It seems to blow just enough to screw up a well-done cast. I'm not there yet but close.
I've packed my small boat bag. Extra leaders, back-up sunglasses, lip balm, sunscreen and some Band-Aids (that Shark Line will eat right through your skin when you strip it but not a Band -Aid). Pliers, tape measure, light rain jacket, flats boots... I should be good to go.
In another small bag I have a couple of shirts and shorts, toiletries and a back-up hat. My backpack has my laptop and cameras plus a book to read at the Lodge. That's it; I'm keeping it simple.
I live just south of Oklahoma City in Norman with no ocean near but the flight from here to Atlanta then on to Belize City won't take long. I'll catch a puddle jumper from there out to Ambergris Caye. Then it's just me and the fish at the most perfect place I know.
My wife can shake her head all she wants and my co-workers can question my sanity, but I know I might be the luckiest guy on the planet. This time the Slam is all mine.
Slam: Six degrees of Kevin Bacon
As El Pescador Lodge host, Lori-Ann Murphy, who taught the actor, is living the dream
AMBERGRIS CAYE, Belize "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this," I asked.
OK, not a very original line but this time an honest question.
Double date with permit. Lori-Aann fishing with buddy Wil landed a double on permit. It's hard enough to catch one but a double is almost unheard of. |
Lori-Ann Murphy is the fishing and guest relation's host for one of the best fishing and most famous lodges in the tropics, El Pescador Lodge in the Central American country of Belize.
She has Hollywood good looks, the personality of a diplomat and fishing prowess of Lefty Krey all rolled into one.
And she loves her job. Some folks just have it all. It just doesn't seem right, does it? I'm told they interviewed 170 people before hiring her.
"Sure, I love my job. I have the best guides to work with and I live in paradise," she said. "I get to fish as much as I want and I meet some of the best people from all over the world!"
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Lori-Ann is all over the place. Early each morning she's at the dock. I think she's looking for anyone with a puzzled look because she loves to solve fishing problems.
Every new guest goes through an orientation. She tells them what's happening now, what they have in store for the next few days and even how best to communicate with the guides.
She meets most every boat that comes in at night, asking them how they did and what they caught. She listens to every fishing story like she's never heard one before. She truly cares.
Once she even hired on to teach Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon to fly fish for the movie "The River Wild." So help me here. If everybody is six degrees from Kevin Bacon, what's that make Lori-Ann? Or us for that matter?
Back in 1989 she was the first woman to be named an Orvis-Endorsed fly-fishing guide. She has served as a consultant to several fly fishing tackle and equipment manufacturers and makes educational and promotional presentations at sport shows and fly-fishing clubs all over the United States. Lori-Ann Murphy definitely has her stuff all together in a very neat pile.
Lori-Ann Murphy sits on the poling platform of a ponga near El Pescador Lodge in Belize. She's the fishing host for the lodge. |
Looking up ahead I see another guide boat, poling platform in the back and a caster on deck. The closest land is miles away. There was Lori-Ann casting a way to rolling tarpon, smiling ear to ear. Most of us could not have been standing in the boat much less make those casts.
Casting in the winds of Belize takes some practice. If you work fish directly down wind, no problem. But what if a good pod of tarpon come in at 9 o'clock (a right angle on the left side). There they are 60 feet out with a 20-knot wind.
Some guys can cast to them, some cannot. I am one who cannot. Lori-Ann is one who can.
Many use a back cast method that sometimes even works for me. Simply cast opposite of the fish then let the fly fall on the back cast.
It's a saltwater deal that I've never seen used fresh water fly-fishing. I'm sure some do but I've only felt the need out here on the flats. Even then I seem to screw it up much of the time. Big rods help, at least a ten weight but they wear you down quickly.
Flats fly-fishing can be the most frustrating activity many of us will ever face in the great out doors.
Lori-Ann has a philosophy about it.
"The joy is always learning something new, and taking with us what we have learned along the way. Cast to your dreams," she says.
OK it may sound a little corny to you but if it does you have never fished the shallow waters in paradise.
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