Based on the recommendations of several board members here, I booked a reef fishing trip with one of the well known trip bookers in San Pedro. My first email to them, prior to my trip, was a request to be booked with either Captain X, or Captain Y. I was advised that they were both booked for the date I was looking for, but they suggested I book with Captain Z, who is also very good. After doing some research, I came to the conclusion that Captain Z was also highy recommended, so I agreed to the booking with him. We arrived in San Pedro on a Tuesday, and the trip was scheduled for Friday. On Wednesday, I went to their booking office to pay for the trip, plus the beach barbque, and at that time was advised that Captain Z had to go out of town for a few days, but they said Captain Z-1 is also very good. Being the agreeable sort that I am, I said OK, and handed over the money. The morning of our trip, my wife and I were standing on the dock of our hotel when a fishing boat pulled up. I said, Good morning, are you Captain Z-1? He said no...Captain Z-1 had to go somewhere, and he was Captain Z-2, and was taking his place. We climbed on board, and made a run down the reef to a point near Caye Caulker where we dropped anchor, and started fishing. The boat had two anchors, one was a genuine boat anchor, and the other was a handcrafted one, made out of a flat piece of sheet metal with pieces of angle iron welded to it. Captain Z-2 used the handcrafted anchor, because he said he didn't want to lose the "good" anchor if it got hung up on coral. We tried fishing in 4 or 5 spots, and at each one, we caught a few nice grouper and yellow tail. I want to mention here, that after shutting off the boat's motor after anchoring, the motor was hesitant to start up again. It usually took 5 to 10 minutes to get it started up again so we could move. After moving, and anchoring at the next spot, and catching a few fish, the anchor line suddenly went slack...the anchor line had been cut by the coral, and we lost the handcrafted anchor. Captain Z-2 then said we would either have to drift fish or troll now, because we couldn't anchor up. I asked about the other "real"anchor, and he said he wouldn't use it because that too might get lost. The wind and tide were too strong for drift fishing, so we tried trolling. The only problem was that we had no artifical lures on board with which to troll, so, in effect, our fishing was over. We did stop at the Lions Club Park, where Captain Z-2 prepaired a delicious fish barbque for us. Unfortunately, he had neglected to bring along any water, or sodas for us to drink, so my wife and I walked down the beach to a time share property, where we were able to buy a couple bottles of water. As you can see, I'm not mentioning anyone by name here, because the booking agency came so highly recommended, and I'm sure this was simply a case of Mr. Murphy working overtime.
AmbergrisCaye.com 
