2012_12_05 Deep Sea Fishing

Cabin #8 - our place for 3 nights at Turtle Inn

Started up the day with a breakfast delivered to our cabin.  WAY too much food but really good.  Granola with delicious yogurt, pastries, jams, coffee, tea, orange juice..... On and on.  Somehow I managed to pound a bunch of it down before we headed out at 7:00 to fish.

Trolling thru the lagoon on the way to the gas station

School kids on water taxi.

Walked across the street to a little marina where Mr Eloy was waiting with his fishing boat loaded up with a lunch we planned last night at Turtle Bay.  Plenty of soft drinks and water as well.  We had to go an gas up and saw local school kids being ferried by small water boats across the lagoon to where they would board a school bus for school this morning.  Mr Eloy said this is just and every day occurrence.

Gassed up we headed out to a private island where Steve did some fly fishing.  Took about an hour to get there.  Originally, looked like it might rain.  Steve fished for bone fish from the shore.  He caught a few and released them and said it was fantastic.  We walked around the island - took about 5 minutes and sat in some lounge chairs enjoying the sun while he was fishing.  They went just off shore and netted a bunch of sardines for bait for later.  Pretty cool,  into the bucket they went.

Approaching Ranguana Island - Threat of rain - GONE!

Sailboats anchored off Ranguna Island

Anchor out!

Unloading the boat

Connor's lures

Mr Eloy and Mr Steve scouting for bone fish

Steve casts and Mr Eloy gives looks for the schools of fish

Water was pretty clear

Bone fish on the hook.  Mr Eloy had to run to boat to get pliers to release it.

Bone fish are there says Mr Eloy

Pretty tranquil place - a SMALL island

Chopping vegetation with a machete

We sat on these deck chairs while Steve was bone fishing

Ranguana Island has a $10 US fee - Paid by Mr Eloy as part of our fishing trip

One of the cabins for rent - $50 US plus tax

Kasey and Connie while Steve casts

Catching sardines for bait.

View from the beach - picture perfect Caribbean moment

Got back into the boat and headed out some more pat the famous Belize reef.  This reef is way out there unlike most reefs we have experienced before  I would guess it's at least 3 miles off shore - which you can no longer see by the way.  Once pst the outer reef we began to troll for big fish.  Mr Eloy had 3 hooks on each line with some pretty fancy lures and a sardine.  2 lines were out at a time and you just kind of wiggled the line a bit until you got a strike.  After a couple of hits but no fish on the line I caught the first fish - a pretty good sized Red Snapper.  I thought it was a whale on the line and Mr Eloy said it was a good sized one (8 pounds).

Red snapper 

Connie was next a while later and she caught a yellow tail snapper.  a bit smaller, but it fought nicely!

Yellow tail snapper

Steve caught the first of a total of 3 barracuda.  One for him, one for Kasey and on final one by me.

Steve's barracuda

Another barracuda - fought hard.

Kasey's barracuda

Connie snared a nice grouper.  Brother-in-law Mike would be so jealous!

Such a beautiful fish - tasty too!

After some more fishing we stopped at another small island for a break.  We went snorkeling for about 30 minutes.  Real nice brain corals and some purple fan corals.  Not too many fish but we saw some we knew.  Then, after quite a while trolling around we had to give up and headed back to the resort.  The wind had picked up quite a bit so we got pretty soaked from the splash over the front of the boat. Looked like there was rain ahead but it never rained at all.  Got back around 5:00 - a long day but quite fun - and fruitful.  Looked like it might have rained back at Turtle Bay but they told us no.

Found a

Nice conch shell

i

Rain ahead?  On the way back to Turtle Inn.  Never did rain on us, but the splash way just like a rain!

Boat on the left and Mr Eloy cutting up the fish at the end of the dock.

Grouper

Red snapper steaks - should taste great!

Mr Eloy.  What a great guy!

Mr Eloy filleted the grouper and the big red snapper at the dock when we got back.  We told hime to take the other 4 fish home for his family to eat for dinner tonight.  We got back the hotel and dropped the fish off at the restaurant.  Later this evening we had the chef come out and asked him to make us a meal from the fish.  We had grouper "fish fingers", lightly battered and fried as an appetizer with a tomato based sauce.  Then, he prepared the snapper three ways - blackened, with lemon and butter and the third I'm not quite sure.  All 3 were great but the blackened was especially tasty.  Plenty for all to have a bunch of each type.  Some mashed potatoes and grilled veggies completed the meal.  Some desserts followed and we waddled back to the room.  Another fine day in Belize.  Tomorrow is a rest and relaxation day I think.  Pool time?