Belize Journey - Monsters vs. Bass Gear and Cheese Lady (Part 4)

[Latimeria]

Every morning I woke up to some of the strongest winds before I got small windows of it slowing down to acceptable limits (at least to me) below 15 mph.  I was going for glory over small stuff because it was that type of trip I was hoping for and I already hooked into a few monsters.  Water was always a green turgid with only a 6-12 inch visibility.



I would have a 30 minute window before things got too bad and went to get a breakfast beer.  The only beer in Belize is Belikin.  There might be another, but I saw nothing besides this one.  It was good but reminded me of the Budweiser of Belize.



Every few hours, I would get a window to fish before the next front moved through and no matter what I was doing at the time would run down to the water and start casting.



There were 2 days that all blended into each other just like this day, but I ran down with the spinning gear instead of the heavier gear since I haven't had a real fish since the last tarpon earlier in the week.....  MY MISTAKE!!!!!

I was casting a castmater on the spinning gear and was watching my 1-1/2 oz castmaster swimming to see if I had the right speed when it got close to shore and a 3 foot Jack Crevalle just arose from below and grabbed the castmaster!!!!!  My friggand reel was tight enough not to break the line in case something like this happened, but I also never hooked into a Jack at this size before, let alone on 10# test!!!!  My heart went into adrenaline mode and basically I felt like I was fighting him, but in hindsight, I had no chance...  200 yards spewed off my spool even while I was trying to cup it.  I thought it finally broke the line as it got to the end, but the hook actually pulled.  My heart sunk like a rock cod weight into the depths at this point.  Ugh....  Hook was sharpas hell, so I'm clueless to what happened except that I didn't get enough lip into hook when it bit.   

I went back to the Casa to drink Rum Punches until I forgot that I lost another monster PB fish because I picked the wrong gear... well maybe I wouldn't have gotten it in on the casting gear either, but I would have had a better shot.

The skies cleared and the wind picked up to crazy levels, so fishing was going to be a bust for the rest of the day.  He had a golf course behind his house and I haven't played golf in 10 years.  My father likes golf like I like fishing, so he would kick my ass every time we played.  I figured my shoulder at this moment in time would not do too well swinging a golf club, but something strange happened.  I would always slice my Tee shots, but it was usually on 200-300 yard holes, but this course is only a pitch and putt 100-160 yard course, so I wasn't swinging for the fences.

Caribbean Entrance....





9 holes game.... For all the marbles!  (Meaning that one of us was going to be the drink whore)





He plays every day, but never had a dad as crazy as mine was, so I had an advantage that he didn't know about.  Hahahaha



I was on fire making par on every hole except for 3 of them.





I bogeyed 3 holes, Pared 5 holes and had a depressing 7 hole, but damn... after a decade that was pretty good!



In the end, I won by a single stroke!  I think he was a little mad at the whole thing thinking he would crush me.  Hahahahaha



We got back and decided to drive to a private pier that he had access to after many a drink.  It was crazy to see how people decided to buy and process the land as this guy bought 100's of acres and just cleared everything for grass.  By the time we walked out onto the pier, he appeared out of no where to see who was "trespassing".  He totally recognized my buddy and after a talk with me deemed me worthy to be on his property to fish his pier. 

It was literally 3 feet of muddy water for the entire distance of the shoreline.  You could see the bottom at times, but only because it was so shallow.







The view from the end of the pier...  Unfortunately it was only 3 feet deep...



My gulp shrimp kept getting slammed, but only chunks were coming out so I figured it was a puffer of some sorts.  We adjusted our rigs and a new species was added to the life list!



Checkered puffer, Sphoeroides testudineus

They were probably the most common fish in the bay besides the Catfish.





We finally called it quits and got back to the casa nad casita when I saw the Jesus Lizard running through the back yard!  I never in my life thought I'd see a wild Basilisk in person, but got great pictures and video!  I was stoked!



That night, I wasn't in the mood for leftovers or home cooked meals, so we headed out of the ExPat community to the local village bar for some food and drinks!  This place was super high end compared to anything I've seen at this point on my trip here on the mainland!

We headed out again at night in the efforts to teach Elliot how to catch fish, so we targeted the Catfish since it was the easiest and he was point on getting dinner for him and Michelle!



More Cats for the fridge.....

Then it was time to go to the Cheese Lady's house for movie night....
OMG

Canadian Cheese Ladies scare me, especially when I already left a bad taste in their mouth with an obnoxious Californian/New Yorker... hahaha 
We watched the Big Lebowski and they hated it, but I made sure they knew I thought it was in my top 10 movies.  Probably why they almost poisoned me by the end of the night, but I somehow was okay with it all.  LOL



Good god, I have to stop again as the next few days were even more full than the last few.   I'm literally struggling to capture all of the things that happened in a short week there.  Normally it would only be fish pictures, but the fishing pretty much sucked at this point, so I'm stuck giving you the rest of the trip.

My big day would be at the Barrier Reef, but that is still a few days away.....

Thanks for staying with me so far.

[jrodda]

Whole thing sounds awesome.

It's nice to come back to the golf course after a long time with no practice and play well, especially at the expense of your buddy's enjoyment.

That pic with the cheese ladies is priceless, that's funny you played up the east and west coast vibes to bug them.

That crevalle heartbreak is rough, but good to see you found a new species in the checkered puffer. I would have thought 200 yards of 10# would be enough for a jack crevale. Tough lesson.

Cool basilisk! One of my favorite things about my one experience visiting Cancun/Playa Del Rey was seeing all the spiny tailed iguanas. I really wanted to catch one but also didn't wanna scare other tourists, or ruin the family trip by getting some crazy disease from them (the iguanas or the tourists). I'm jealous of all the iguanas and chameleons and snakes that the subtropics have, while we just got blue bellies. Not jealous of the suicide spiders though, woof.

Looking forward to the next few installments.

[Tim524]

Something tells me ''The Cheese Lady'' will get more publicity as the saga continues

[sasquatch]

Honestly interested in the day to day. Such a cool place to see and totally unfamiliar.

Hope there is at least one good fish in there somewhere though.

[xjchad]

I've been crazy busy lately, but love reading about your trip Tom!
I too love the day to day and seeing the culture there.
That basilisk is awesome, I love me some reptiles!  Before I got married, I had a whole room in my house that was just for all my snakes and lizards.

[BenCantrell]

Checkered puffers!

[KogaHead]

Nice to see you make a positive impression on everyone you encounter.

[SevengillTheVC]

HEYYYYY! A wild basilisk that is pretty cool! I used to have a male brown basilisk just like that as a kid!

[skrilla]

Screw that, The Big Lebowski is a masterpiece.