The wife and I will be there in just 3 WEEKS!! Were are about to jump out of our skin we are so excited. Can't wait to slow our brains down for a week.

Anyway, growing up and owning property on the Texas Gulf Coast, we are both avid fishermen. Been offshore a million times and reeled in some big fish. But neither of us have had a chance to chase tarpon and understand that August is a great month for the fish in Belize. I also understand it's a whole day trip from San Pedro.

Can anyone suggest a guide with a nice big boat?

TB

tanned banana ,there are some very good guides in sanpedro ,for tarpon I like two local guides capt pete graniel ,or capt pancho verde .all can be booked thru fishingsanpedro.com and he takes credit cards. but you will get a nice boat yes ..big boat no !! the boats are between 20 to 24 foot nice tarpon boats. go enjoy your fishing and live the dream...

The tarpon fishing is not "offshore" so the boats aren't big. When you book/contact a guide ask where you'll be fishing. The quality tarpon areas are an hour boatride south of San Pedro- south of Caye Chapel. Many guides are reluctant to go that far due to the price of gas. If you're told you'll be within 20min of SP, find someone else. There are tarpon nearby but they generally are baby tarpon in the 10#-30# range. I'd suggest you contact either Vincent Dawson(through Ruby's-011-501-226-2063) or Nesto Gomez at 011-501-226-2674.

OK, here is my take on tarpon fishing in Belize from many years of doing it. First of all you need to pick a guide that does the type of fishing you want to do. With the exception of the summer months, most of the tarpon fishing is done on the flats looking for the tarpon and then casting either by fly fishing or casting live bait or lures. During the summer months the tarpon migrate into the channels and they can be fished by anchoring and casting lures or using live bait. You also can troll, both in the channels and outside of the reef, using either live bait or lures. You can also drift fish using live bait. The tarpon can be concentrated in any of the channels from reef point to south of San Pedro. What I do with a guide for fishing this time of the year is to negotiate a price for the guide and boat and pay the guide for the actual fuel used. We might end up fishing one channel close to San Pedro if we find the fish there or we might go to reef point and troll all day looking for them. By paying for the fuel used, I do not have to worry about the guide not going to where the fish might be, and this changes from day to day, so I want the flexibility to do what ever we need to find the fish knowing that the guide does not have to worry about fuel being a factor. That is my take on it.

Now I know I did not answer your actual question as to what guide to hire. I would suggest you decide on how you want to fish and go to Steve and have him recommend a guide that fits your wants. Some guides will only offer one price and fish a predetermind way. Many will "customize" the day if they know what the customer wants. Combining the local knowledge of the guide with the style of fishing you want to me is the best of both worlds.

PS: Steve is who runs fishingsanpedro.com that Capt Jeff mentioned.

This information wont help at all but while tarpon fishing may be fun, helping the tarpon fish is pretty exciting too. Try night scuba diving where there are tarpon. Your underwater flashlight attracts the tarpon that use the light to see their sleeping or slow moving dinner. Nothing like moving through the water with a 6 foot fish swimming inches from you chomping little fish as they go.

Razorfish, amen to that.