El pescador- Belize

I'm heading there in a few months and the lodge apparently has a network of Mangrove back bays that offer some options for some DIY. Has anyone been there? Tried your luck in the mangroves? Success?

go to ambergiscaye.com and register for the bulletin board. Pescador posts a weekly lodge report. Although a "homer report" it'll give you an idea of what they are doing.

I caught lots of bone fish on my own on the north end of the island. I was on an anniversary trip with my wife who does not fish so I only fished from 5 am to 7 am each morning. I did best on undeveloped parts of shoreline. There were 10 -12 inch bone fish right in front of our condo at Co Co Beach which i did not mess with . Most places are not good wading.
Globalflyfisher did a do it yourself trip on your end of the island years ago so you should be able to find it on their website
http://globalflyfisher.com/reports/belize2002/own.php

Fantastic- Thanks Guys!!

El Pescador is THE BEST! My wife and I love it there and the fishing is great. Kinda wondering with all the fishing they have why you want to DIY in the Mangroves? Take LOTS of bug spray if you go into the Mangroves, lots. They have a place behind the lodge that you can get in with a Yak and get out a paddle around, so yes it is possible and doable. The folks there are great. Who is going to be the head fly guide when you go, Ed or Lori? Never been with Lori, been twice with Ed and really like him.

Thanks MarkF- thats great to hear!I booked it through Ed, so I assume its him. I did a couple days through him in Mexico and he has been great to deal with! The DIY part was for the evenings as Im going solo so hope to squeeze in as much as possible. When you were there was there any particular fly/colour outside of the usual stuff that seemed to work?
Chad

They use a lot of crazy charlies. I did well with bone fish bitters. Make sure you have flies of different weights from very light Bead chain eyes to to extra small lead eyes. Belize has one of the best chances for a grand slam( bone fish, permit, tarpon) so you might think about flies for those too.

Thanks ok- appreciate the tips! ive been tying everything so hopefully I have the bases covered.
Cheers
Chad

Great timing ! Just booked a trip there for end of July. Please report back and save a few for me! Rich

My gf and I went in the fall of 2013 and booked through Orvis travel.

It was outstanding---we took advantange of the 2 for one deal. Every detail was thought out. I highly recommend it.

Kathy got a nice tarpon on spinning gear and plenty of bones on fly. I spooked a permit, caught unlimited bonefish, some jacks, snapper and cudas on fly.

The fly of the day was the Gotcha.

The food was great, the service great, thry made you feel like we were their house guests.

This was my second trip, the first done by ourselves and id never do that again after staying at El Pescador.

That's great to hear! I too took advantage of the 2 for 1...but am going solo (still discounted). I have the option of adding a second (big discount plus I get a bit of a discount through Ed). Trip is available, if someone wants to join me send me a pm for details.
Chad

Been to El Pescador twice.....just be aware that most of the bones are small

Chad, did you get there?

Tell me you did and it was fantastic. I leave on Sunday for a week.

Rich

Rich, I did and yes it was fantastic, actually better than fantastic! I just saw this now so my guess is that you've already gone. Lots of bonefish, spent a couple days looking for Permit and Migratory Tarpon but no shots this time. I'm booking same time next year.

Yes, I got home about 1:30 this morning.
Great trip. Managed to hook 3 tarpon. Had a couple of good shots at some nice permit but got no love.
Who did you have as a guide?

Nice! I had Luis for three days and Rattan for one day.

Been to El Pescador in November twice. One trip weather was perfect and I got a Grand Slam. Second trip weather was so-so as was the fishing. Never fished out back but heard it was buggy (need DEET).
Allie and her crew are great.
Good luck,
striper33