FISHING REPORT

Week of: May 14th - May 21st, 2011.

Weather Conditions: Hot, humid, sunny and windy.

Winds: 10 - 20 knots, E, ESE, SE, E by Saturday.

Air Temperature: High: low to high 90's. Low: low 70's.

Water Temperature: mid�to high 70's.�

Moonphase: Full moon on the 17th.

WHAT GUESTS WERE CATCHING:

BONES: Congratulations to Diane for catching her first bonefish. Tori and Ron made it happen as well. I just love to see what happens�guests show up so excited and wonder if they are going to be able to catch their first bonefish on a fly. By the time they leave, they have the confidence to keep upping their game. Wade fishing this week was productive due to the wind, our beach fishing was good as well on the incoming tide. Our beach fish are smart, so we go down to 8 or 10 lb, with a size 10 fly.

PERMIT: JB had his first permit on this week, but lost it by the boat. Luckily he and his wife Lynnae are here to fish the rest of the week, so we'll see. They saw some really big, "pizza box size" permit yesterday with Captain Gilberto. Can you say, Buck Fever! I only know it so well. We are mixing up the platter for permit. We are using more Avalon flies, spawning shrimp patterns, a few crab patterns as well in addition to CIS.

TARPON: Captain Sinoe and Rich got it done - a Nice 30 lb tarpon of fly! Sinoe will not reveal where these fish live. He is so excited he requested his new guests get up at be ready at 5 am to go check them out. Of course our tarpon mentor, George was here fishing with Captain Nesto for the past two weeks. George had on the biggest tarpon in his 80 something years of life. His wife Judy is always there to cheer him on, but this time it was a two and half our fight with what Nesto said was, "at least a 150 lb tarpon." Nesto is one of the very few fishing guides that I know that really doesn't exaggerate. They lost it - the hook broke where George had it in the vice. So there you have it, from the vice in Alaska, to one hot fish here in Belize, a 2 � hr fight, and the fish won.

SNOOK:�No one really went after snook this week. It isn't our season for snook, but sometimes the guides find them tucked way up in the lagoon system.

JACKS: We had some huge jacks landed this week! All on fly, and wearing our anglers out as they put up a great fight! Twenty plus jacks on fly - you are looking at thirty minutes at least. Really fun.

FLIES THAT WORKED

FOR BONES - Christmas Island Specials size 8 and 6, Charlies and Gotchas. Tan, gold, sexy patterns. Sexy patterns are flies that move so great in the water you just to have it

FOR TARPON - 3/0 yellow toads, green Toads, Black Death cockroach, and look out with purple! Your choice, circle hooks will help people who have not had experience setting tarpon, while the standard is still with J-hooks, or set hooks.

FOR PERMIT - We are starting to throw the Avalon Fly. Our 100% confidence fly is of course�..Orange and pink Christmas Island Specials size 6 stripped fast. Tan and green crabs, size 6, when they are tailing. We strip a lot of flies for permit. It is the way the San Pedro guides do it, and it works! Shrimp patterns, size 6, on long 14 - 16 ft leaders down to 16lb test. Glass minnow patterns work as well. You just have to be brave enough to try.

This Week's Summary:
We see a lot of father/son guests here at El Pescador. Rich and Justin were here - Justin told me he agreed to come if his dad promised not to tell him what to do all the time! So they established their boundaries and then had a great week. Justin told me he isn't the fisherman his dad is�.but then I got him on the casting platform and he was fine! We are so hard on ourselves! Please practice you casting for your trip, but then when you are here, own your shot! Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. I'm hard on myself too - but I remind myself and my students that we are in it for the duration, so learn for each fishing experience and grab a hold of the rewards along the way.

Lori-Ann. [email protected]

Fishing photo of the week:

El Pescador guest Wallis and Capt. Carlos with a beauty of a Permit!