News from Steppingstones

2010-03-17T18:15:00.001-06:00

Just when you despair, two posts in a day!

Chris went out this morning, it was one of those muggy, still, overcast days which to the English angler at least scream "fish!"

Sure enough, there were plenty of fish around, including a nice little jack, and a snapper which we had for lunch. I cleaned it on the dock, and cooked it whole in the oven, wrapped in foil, with herbs from the pots on the deck, a whole mild pepper, some slices of lime, chinese peppercorns, a little anise and olive oil, served up with a salad with our own tomatoes - two kinds - rocket, herbs, spinach and lettuce.

Sometimes it is pretty civilised here.

2010-03-17T16:50:00.000-06:00

BLOG-To have and to have not….

Hi everybody this is Chris with the latest tales from Steppingstones.

We have been busy decorating and renewing wood work, and generally sprucing things up. So I cannot say we have been out heaving in the kings and barracuda from out beyond the reef. In fact even on the odd occasion we have been down there, the normally cooperative tarpon in the Secret Lagoon have been very quiet. We are now in our dry season, so the water is rapidly clearing, and the tarpon get more wary.

However here is a pic taken last time Sue and I were down there. The boa was around 7ft long.

On the fishing front, it’s been the end of the dock for me. Not entirely without incident however. I managed a really good sized snapper the other night after a long afternoon punctuated by catfish, plus one miserable little snapper which I released. My supper, safely unhooked, I was about to dispatch when it wriggled, and one of its gill plates sliced neatly into my finger and amid spouts of blood, the fish bounced once on the deck and straight into the water where it swam off with a smirk on its face (Oh yes it did) I was not pleased. Spaghetti Bolognese for supper.

Next night I thought lets try again. This time it was bite after bite after bite. I was using two rods but had to give up on one as I could not keep them both in the water. Fast and furious. Mainly small snappers and catfish. But eventually my rod bent double in it holder and after a short but heavy fight I beached a baby sting ray of around 10lbs. This was returned safely.

A little while later I needed to go back to the house for a moment (refresh beers), so mindful of passing boats I reeled in and left my baited hook in mid water under the dock. Walking back along the dock I noticed a stingray on patrol but thought no more of it. Two minutes later back on the dock I turned round in time to see my rod which had been leaning against the handrail, trying to climb over the rail and into the water. I grabbed it just in time. There was a surge and then nothing. The line was bitten through just above the hook. Maybe it was that ray, who knows?

Anyway tackled up again I sat back and again had an almighty take on my chunk of barracuda.. This time it was no baby. Whatever it was, it ran about hundred yards out, then swam slowly south, turning briefly to give me some hope (and line). By this time Sue was out beside me, discussing strategy. We decided to pay out line to get me back onto the beach and away from the piles of the dock. This I did and started playing the fish from the beach. Still the fish would not concede any line, but continued to make short but powerful runs southwards. By this time I was down to maybe two or three feet of line (20lb) on my spool, so I had little option but to dig my toes into the sand and clamp down the reel. The line parted .

We can only think that this was one of the barn door sized rays we sometimes see along our coast, or possibly a very big nurse shark. I suppose you could argue that it gives us something to aim at, but I confess I would have liked to have at least seen what it was.

The problem is that if you use appropriate sized tackle for such fish, you may have a very very long wait. If you just want a snapper for supper, you use light tackle, and of course that’s when you hook into a monster. Sod’s law it’s called.

So now I wait for the next calm evening to try again.

The long spell of calm weather we have had has had some compensations. The baitfish have been shoaling up and have been herded by blue runners one day, and by small jacks on another day. Once this mayhem comes within casting distance, sport is fast and furious. A small plastic shad cast twenty yards is all that’s needed. The fish are generally not big, but even a pound sized blue runner is a real fight on light tackle. Last evening I had what was probably my biggest blue runner about 2 ½ lb. it ran up and down the beach for a good five minutes. Excellent sport! And with multiple strikes and misses on each cast, some really absorbing and fun fishing. Eventually the fish do move off however, and that’s probably just as well. Its hard work. Still I suppose someone has to do it!

2009-11-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

BARRIE RICKARDS RIP

It was with a heavy heart that I heard the news this morning that Barrie Rickards, a true colossus amongst UK pike anglers, and more importantly, a good friend, had died.

Our American and Canadian friends will I hope forgive me if I mark the passing of a good friend and a man who has been an inspiration to many, many people in the UK. His writing in newspapers and magazines, and especially his books which became the standard works on lure fishing brought lure fishing to many. Our lure fishing business we ran in the UK from 1991-2004 owed much to his advice and insight.

Dr Barrie Rickards was a professor of paleobiology at Cambridge University and at the same time a man of the people. A man who never hesitated to give his advice or opinion. Honest, frank, and with a depth of knowledge of lure fishing for pike very few could hope to rival.

I first met him forty seven years ago on the banks of the Great Ouse Relief Channel at Denver Sluice in Norfolk, pike fishing (what else?). I stopped fishing and just sat behind him bombarding him with questions, as he reeled in pike after pike.

Later I was to see him pioneer the use of spinnerbaits in the UK amid widespread hilarity, wide-mesh pike-friendly landing nets, and many other innovations.

The word legendary is much used these days to describe the departed, and sometimes those who are still with us. Just occasionally, that description fits. This is one of those occasions.

I don’t cry much these days, but I did this morning.

*********

OK you want to hear what happened last night? To recap, I was fishing off our dock for a snapper for supper. Readers will know that our dock has been surrounded by baitfish for some days now, and it seems that the snappers are getting well fed as a result. Still, no harm in trying. Sitting on the end of the dock, beer in hand as the sun goes down is not a bad way to end the day.

So basically, no dice this evening. Until, that is, I threw my remaining half conch that I had been using for bait into the water. A large head appeared from under the dock, and inhaled the fist- sized lump of conch. It just sat there in perhaps four feet of gin clear water. It was a Giant Grouper (aka Jewfish) which Sue and I estimated at around forty pounds.

What follows next was not smart. It was not good fishing either.

After cursing that I had just thrown my remaining bait away, I remembered that my baited rod was still nodding away quietly in its rodrest. So I reeled in, and without a further thought, dropped the bait about two feet in front of our grouper’s nose. It edged slowly forward, and the hookbait just disappeared. I had of course tightened my clutch up and struck into this fish. There was an almighty surge as the fish did a lightning fast U turn and ran straight through the dock. My line parted.

So apart from the obvious what have we learnt? Well we have long suspected that large fish come round the dock at night. My last blog illustrates the point. But there have been many stories of night lines being wrecked, and of course, other tales of the one that got away. I had suspected large rays, or possibly sharks. It could be we now know the truth.

The previous day we had cleaned some ducks, and the bits and pieces all went in off the dock. That almost certainly drew in our grouper, four feet of water or not.

So today is a day of reflection, of what might have been, and in the case of Barrie Rickards, of what was.

2009-11-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

This is Chris, with the latest events at Steppingstones.
Imagine the scene. Sue and I as night falls, sitting by the windows of our office, which look out over our beach, intent on our laptop screens. It’s a dead still night with a bright full moon, the water is flat calm and very quiet. I hear a soft hiss, and I say to Sue “What was that?” She thinks it’s starting to rain. That hiss again. “That’s not rain” I say, and lean forward in my seat to look down. I see the most amazing sight. A white wave of thousands of tiny fish in mid air flying out of the water onto the beach. Behind them the water is boiling. “It’s the blue runners” I shout, leap up, run downstairs, grabbing my light rod as I go.
What a scene awaits me as I race out onto the beach. A carpet of fry, all identical lying all the way up the beach, with sheer mayhem in the foot deep shoreline. Hundreds of blue runners are tearing through the mass of fry provoking even more to jump out of the water in terror to escape the murderous jacks. So a quick cast with my tiny Swim Shad (colour does not matter in this game, these runners will hit anything that moves), and bang, straight away I’m in!
Now I’m not going to pretend this was an epic fight lasting half an hour. No, it was a stubborn struggle for a couple of minutes, line taken off my reel, careful to keep the fish away from the dock, and then in he comes. Maybe ¾ lb. OK not a monster, but real fun on light gear. So straight out again, three turns of the reel handle and bang! In again. Another mini fight of two or three minutes and another tough little blue runner comes in. Same size.
All the time this is happening I am being showered with fry, blue runners are flying in all directions and the calm sea is whipped to foam. But I know the deal. Don’t stop, keep casting. So I do and bang! Well, you get the idea. This goes on for about ten minutes with fish hitting my little shad as fast as I can get it into the water.
However, all good things come to an end, and just as quickly the shoal is gone and peace returns. I can see the same process being repeated further up the beach but to reach them would require a short wade through the high tide. This is not a good idea because the mass of dead and dying fry will have attracted sting rays in to clear up the mess, and sure enough a couple of rays appear, lurking. Wading in poor light with them around is not smart. I know from personal experience. But that’s another story. This one is not finished yet.
We are left with a carpet of tiny fish 2 inches long, dead on the beach. Sue says that looks exactly like the fish we used to eat in France in a dish called “friture” I say “What are we waiting for?” So we collect a bowl of these little fish, Sue rinses them to get rid of any sand, egg and flour, hot oil et voila- Friture!
A mound of these, served with slices of lemon, they were delicious. Heavenly. We were delighted. Free food, straight out of the sea. A genuine taste of the Mediterranean from five thousand miles away.
This type of attack happens from time to time. There is no way of predicting it, you just have to watch out for calm water and large amounts of fry in the area. Usually when the blue runners come in they attract other, bigger predators in also looking for a free meal. It’s a ten minute festival of fun. If it happens during the day, the shoal can be followed up and down the beach. It seems a pity that so many fish have to die, but I suppose its nature’s way of sharing its resources around. The blue runners get fed (ok so do we) but so also do the rays, the crabs, the birds, etc, so I guess everyone ends up satisfied.
A happy end to another day in Paradise.

2009-10-26T12:41:00.000-06:00

2009-10-26T11:33:00.000-06:00

The One that Got Away (Part 298)
Losing a big unexpected fish always hurts.
It wasn’t the first time, oh no, and hopefully not the last, but we’ll come back to that later.
This is Chris, reporting on the past few weeks down at Steppingstones, in Southern Belize.
First up Peter and Flick, with Peter's dad, Trevor, guests from England doing a multicentre tour of Belize as they have done several times before. Indeed this was a return visit to our beachside corner of paradise.
As many will know Sue is manager of the local primary school which has recently taken 25 children from a neighbouring farming community. Just to complicate things, she decided to start up a feeding program, providing all the children with a proper meal at lunchtime.
Thanks to many kind gifts from sponsors both in and outside Belize, the project, employing two cooks, has got underway. The plates, cutlery, cooking equipment have all been bought. But the question arises, feed with what?
When you live right beside a sea bulging with prime fish, surrounded by fishermen, the odd idea might spring to mind right? So we thought ok –we use our resources. What we need is a supply of prime eating fish.
And so back to Peter Flick and Trevor On their first day out, we mentioned that apart from having a brilliant days fishing (which is pretty well taken for granted), it would be nice if they could bring back some barracuda or other major species.
So we awaited their return with baited (as it were) breath.
We were not disappointed, neither were they. Peter had caught an early morning permit shortly followed by a bonefish. One away from a grand slam, but the tarpon were nowhere to be found despite a foray into the secret lagoon.
So they had decided to come good on their promise of food fish, and besides a couple of tuna and a nice snapper or two, had brought us back no less than nineteen barracuda! This equates to meals for sixty children for three days. Good nutritious food too, which the children love. As Peter remarked, its not often you can have an excellent days fishing and be able at the same time to make such a worth while contribution to the health of young children. Amen to that.
The dampener was the failure of the tarpon to appear to give Peter his grand slam. But as Peter said, there’s always next time.
Bright and early next morning Peter and Flick were off tarpon hunting (surpise, surprise) not wanting to get defeated. (Trevor decided on a lazy day back at Steppingstones) Sure enough later in the day, in the secret lagoon they found their tarpon and landed two. Honour was satisfied. They did first find time to stop off and have some fun with the ever obliging bone fish.
It’s probably worth mentioning that food fishing apart, we practice catch and release wherever possible, especially with juvenile fish. Not that we catch that many small ones! Barracuda are a resource, and like all resources must be respected. Fortunately, our number one food fish is prolific around here and is not under any pressure. There is virtually no commercial exploitation of barracuda in the region.
So we bade farewell to Peter, Flick and Trevor, but it was only at the last minute we discovered that at their previous stop in Punta Gorda they had entered a fishing competition which Flick had won with the largest fish (a barracuda of 18lbs). I know how Peter must have felt at the weigh in-I too have a more than competent angler as my wife!
Next up, yet another visit from our “lodger” Bryan Denton. As readers will know by now, Bryan can’t keep away from this place. He just loves the kayak fishing around Great Monkey Caye.
With good reason. On his first day out he caught a double figure Horse Eye jack which towed him around for quite a while. Besides that the usual bunch of snappers, grunts, a big needlefish, and a surprise baby bonefish on one of the mini flats.
Next day Bryan came back in the kayak towing a double figure Cubera Snapper which after photographing we put back. This immensely strong fish swam strongly off despite having given a really stubborn fight. Bryan caught it on one of the mini flats on a chunk of ballyhoo (which he had caught earlier on a fly).
Bryan’s third day out in the kayak, resulted in two more jacks and a couple more big needlefish plus an even bigger Cubera Snapper which towed him half way to Rocky Point. All fish were released.
And so to the two promised days boat fishing. Wayne was Bryan’s guide and took him out for a day of trolling off the reef. Bryan came back with more fish for the school including several really good barracuda.
The second day Bryan invited Sue and I to accompany him. So off we went out to the Sapodillas which are a group of cayes right at the southerly end of the reef which stretches the entire length of the Belize coastline (and beyond up to Yucatan in the north)
We started off livebaiting with sardines (actually pilchards) caught easily with a cast net. This produced a slow and steady stream of barracuda plus a surprise small Amberjack (my first). We later ate this fish and pronounced it as good as British mackerel.
Later in the morning we decided to troll one of the deep channels between the cayes, but despite using the very best in deep diving Rapala X-Raps and Yo Zuri Magnums, we were unable to raise anything from the deep. So we cut our losses, and headed for the nearby cayes for a bite to eat.
The cayes have nice sandy flats surrounding them, but, as on our last visit, no sign of bonefish. Wayne’s incredible eyesight however soon located the bones in deeper water. So while Bryan tried his luck with a fly, I opted for a chunk of deadbait. This resulted in two screaming runs both of which turned out to be needlefish which seem to delight in getting you all excited then spitting the bait out. Looking across to Bryan I could see he was deep in battle with yet another bone, so reluctantly I agreed to tie a fly on.
After a couple of false starts, I hooked a couple of small bones thus proving the point that when bones are up for it, they are not a big challenge. I suppose that’s true of most species though.
Eventually however the school of bonefish got fed up and moved off. Wayne advised we should move too. He took us to a gin clear rocky bottomed flat, with a tree fringed shoreline not far away, probably 250 yards across where he (!) had seen bonefish moving.
Sue opted to stay on the shoreline and try to get some good shots with her new camera.
The flat turned out to be ankle deep, with small coral outcrops studding the surface. But well populated with bonefish. Wayne found us a conch and cut it up for bait. A lump of free-lined conch was just what the bones wanted. Lobbed into the middle of the shoal , or in my case, roughly in that area, the shoal first scatters in spectacular fashion with spray flying in all directions. A short wait while the bonefish calm down and then WHACK! And off we go.
Or not. I quickly discovered that unless you kept your rod high, the bones just wrapped you round the first coral head they came to. Bryan was having the same experience although he duly landed the first fish, probably a couple of pounds. He went on to catch several more some closer to three pounds.
My attempts were proving less successful but eventually after going through goodness knows how many hooks I got a decent bone to stay hooked and despite it running through water barely deep enough to cover its back, and touring every coral head within a hundred yards, Wayne got a hand on it and out it came. By no means my biggest bone, but I got huge satisfaction out of catching it in a really hostile environment.
We then both got turns at stalking an Ocean Triggerfish which came up onto the flat, and despite having to cast a free-lined bait twenty yards straight into a stiff breeze, neither of us could induce the fish to take the bait. As Bryan said, if Wayne had not been there neither of us would have known the triggerfish was there anyway!
At that point I decided enough was enough. Wading that flat in blazing sunshine, Wayne insisting on the most difficult and accurate casting, and then being repeatedly smashed up by bones had all taken its toll. I was exhausted. Bryan is made of stronger stuff, but he too finally admitted that the triggerfish was just too smart, and we agreed to call it a day.
Seldom have I enjoyed a day out so much. Good company, all sorts of fish caught and nearly caught, challenges to overcome, and a top top guide to put us on the fish. We returned a happy boat.
And so to last night, when I sat on the dock as I do often as the sun drops behind Steppingstones, hoping (expecting?) a snapper or two for supper. Sue had fried chicken on standby, but a fresh whole snapper was much more attractive. It all started well with two hand sized pinfish both on conch. Things went a little quiet as night fell.
Then I hooked dinner. A decent sized snapper was on its way in when from nowhere, a large black shadow appeared, dinner vanished and my little spinning rod bent double. On a very short line, the fish surged straight towards me and under the dock straight round one of the piles and that was that. Irresistible unstoppable power, and all over in 5 seconds. As I said earlier not the first and not the last.
We speculated it was likely to have been a shark, following the snapper in. Who knows? I baited up and tried again, but now an invasion of catfish had occurred, and after pulling out a succession of fish cast after cast , I got bored, and the thought occurred to me that maybe fried chicken wouldn’t be so bad after all.

2009-05-20T11:51:00.000-06:00

Now you see them, now you don’t………….
I had a tip off that the tarpon were showing in the secret lagoon. Ok, not exactly a red hot tip off because the rainy season had started the previous day and a good flush had drained off the swamp into the lagoon. This always wakes the tarpon up. But had the tarpon actually left the lagoon, or were they there all the time? My thinking is that they were there all the time. We have seen them lurking deep in the fallen timber, seemingly not feeding or moving much.
Yesterday however it was all different. Now we are back to the normal behavior (or so I thought). The tarpon, mainly small fish up to say 10lbs, in pods of four or five were porpoising right out in open water pretty well the whole length of the lagoon. Unfortunately I was late on the water, and a light breeze had sprung up, and this immediately switched off this behavior. Not before I had hooked one fish and played it for several minutes before my knot failed.
We were chatting about knots failing the other day, and all of us agreed that it was something no one likes admitting. Sue says it’s a man thing. It’s a bit like your pride in being a good driver (no one EVER admits to being a bad driver do they?) We ALL tie good knots ALL the time don’t we? Well actually no we don’t! And we NEVER have a knot fail do we? Well yes we do, actually! If we are honest. A lot of the time it is not the knot’s fault, it’s just been tied badly. Generally speaking, the more complex twists and turns the knot involves, the more opportunities there are for a careless moment which might (as in this case) cost a fish- and a lure as well!
Anyway, the fish was lost, and as the breeze strengthened, the fish faded away. And one thing I have learned here is that when the tarpon say no, they mean it. No amount of persuasion will tempt them
So back next morning at the crack of dawn. Flat calm, exactly like yesterday. Well with one difference, where were the tarpon? Not a sign. So Sue and I eased gently down the lagoon in our boat Patience, scanning the water all around us. Tarpon are prone to rolling in the wake of your boat although I can’t think why. Nothing doing. Eventually I spotted a couple of fish porpoising, so we glided gently over to them. Sue hooked one immediately but after one surge the hook hold gave and that was that. So we decided to move back down towards the sea inlet which takes us past a couple of trolling hotspots. We trolled right down to the entrance without seeing a fish, turned and came back up debating whether to call it a day. Just as we approached the second hotspot, Sue spotted a pod of tarpon rolling just ahead of us, so we thought we might as well troll over them just in case. Well I got a big hit as we passed by and 100yds of line melted off the reel in no time. The fish jumped twice in quick succession and then turned and started to run straight back towards us. For the next 20 minutes or so the fish ran back and forwards, but the jumps became fewer and smaller. Fortunately I had hooked the fish out in open water so there was no real danger of snags. However as the fight developed, the boat was drifting perilously close to the edge of the lagoon where there is plenty of timber and refuge for a hooked fish. I knew that I would not be able to stop a determined effort to get into the timber, as my light spinning rod and 12 lb line were already at full stretch. The fish by this time however was tiring and after a couple of slow runs beside the boat, Sue was able to lift the fish on board for unhooking and a quick photo. She has been moaning about a sore finger, raked by the gill rakers ever since – but I think she is secretly proud of the battle scar.
So here is a pic of the morning’s efforts. Not a monster by any standards, but a brilliant fight on light tackle. My little soft plastic fish had survived the battle and so lives to fight another day. That seemed to be a good moment to run back up to our mooring and then home for breakfast.
Whichever way you look at it, it’s a good way to start your day.

2009-05-11T15:32:00.000-06:00

FLY ONLY - the ultimate test!
Our next guests were Len and Juliet from Tanzania (East Africa) and Archie and Barbara from Kansas USA. This foursome were fly only and so offer the toughest test of the fishing down here. We had teamed them up with our top guide, Ian Cuevas, so we were confident that they were in knowledgeable and skilled hands, in the face of difficult conditions.
Fortunately, they proved to be very good anglers and although the permit were elusive, they caught bonefish and tarpon on fly. Monkey River grudgingly conceded some late tarpon as dusk was descending, to add a little extra to the day. Curiously the early morning sessions in the river did not produce. We concluded that this was a tide issue. A rising tide at dusk appeared to be the best time.
Just like our previous guests, Len and Archie found the bonefish uncharacteristically uncooperative and catches were by our standards, low. This is the end of the tourist season and it may be that the fish are getting wary when rods start waving around out on the flats. Both Len and Archie had several shots at permit, but as is the nature of this most elusive of fish, chances were brief and few.
The ‘gummy” fly which Dell had first shown to us seems to be a particularly good bet especially for tarpon. Archie also had these, in a thin tiny baitfish shape, and a fuller more rounded version which Ian thought (correctly as it turned out) would be a better match for river fishing. Len promptly jumped three tarpon on one, and landed the fourth, all in the space of an hour or so.
So what was our conclusion? Well nowhere in this world has fishing that can be turned on (or off) like a tap. However good the fishing, however huge the shoals, however beautiful the surroundings, there will always be times when things just don’t go right. The last three weeks have been like that. Unstable weather has without a doubt played a big part. Len kindly invited me to join him one afternoon and I could see just how difficult it was to present a fly in the crosswinds we had, particularly casting right into partially submerged wild cane along the river’s edge. Only a really good caster could manage that-Len did!
I suppose you could say that this just adds to the desire to come back and try again, a feeling we anglers all get from time to time. No sooner are you off the water than you are thinking about the next time.Still as Sue remarked as we said goodbye to our last visitors, a month which included three new records, two Grand slams, plus a number of fly caught firsts for guests cannot be called poor in anyone’s language. Maybe we expect too much from the fish lurking in their watery world below the silvery surface.

2009-05-11T14:56:00.000-06:00

Return of the flyfishers!
This week we have Dave Lewis, demon fly fisher from Wales, making a return visit to us, together with Terry Smith, and newcomers Ray Jennings and Dell Elliot making up our second consecutive party of four from England (sorry, Britain).
When the weather forecaster on our national radio station, Love FM, knew Dave was coming back to Steppingstones, he immediately changed the forecast to howling gales and rain. As usual however he got it wrong, although we did have a fairly brisk wind.
With choppy seas on Day One, the guys decided to hit Monkey River at first light as we have been getting reports of tarpon and snook showing. This proved to be a good decision. Dave landed tarpon and snook on fly, Dell had his first ever tarpon on fly and the others also jumped tarpon and snook, as well as a few surprise tubas. These perch-like ciclids fight like blazes, and it is a pity they don’t grow all that big! The machacas which can normally be expected to come up to surface lures were however not coming out to play.
Day Two was a blast straight out to the reef with bonefish the main target. The sea has heavy so the guys got bumped and soaked going out, and bumped and soaked coming back. Despite this they were rewarded with some decent sized bonefish on the flats around Nicholas caye. Ray managed his very first bonefish on a fly which is always a great landmark. A strong breeze however made sight fishing a challenge even with our eagled eyed guides George and Wayne at the helm.
By the time the guys got back it was 7pm, so in two days they had averaged 12 hours a day on the water. No wonder they looked tired. Dave made a brief appearance before dinner before crashing out in his cabana. He ate his dinner for breakfast the following morning! Sue’s Mexican tacos WERE good, but for breakfast??
Thursday dawned much calmer, so amidst muttering about permit fishing, the boats set off for the southern end of Port Honduras Marine Reserve. The day turned out to be not a day for permit. A strong wind and colored water made fish spotting very difficult. Ray had some nice jacks on poppers plus more tarpon to everybody. Both boats went up Deep River which IMHO is one of the most enchanted places on earth. But nothing inclined to feed. The rivers need a good flush through which we reckon could happen any day now.
Their day ended in Monkey River hoping for a last minute tarpon, but it was not to be. They did however witness a pitched battle between two rival troops of howler monkeys - probably a territorial “misunderstanding’ as the Belizeans call it!
So to Friday. The plan was to go out to Ranguana and engage the bonefish again. However the wind sprung up overnight, so both boats elected for a starting effort back in Monkey River.
The river was quiet, so a move down to Deep River seemed like the best bet. However this too was pretty slow. After a day of stopping and starting, despite all efforts the day was unproductive. So while Dave and Terry decided to call it a day, Ray and Dell decided to have one last cast. Their persistence was rewarded and a tarpon and snook compensated for a disappointing day.
So the following day, bright and early the team decided today was to be the big day, and duly set out after permit. That evening the guys were back late. When we saw the boats approaching the dock in pitch darkness we knew something was up from the broad smiles. Dave had hit his grand slam of a permit, a tarpon and a bonefish, and Terry managed a permit and a bonefish, and lost no less than four tarpon late on in Monkey River in a desperate attempt to achieve his grand slam! So it was drinks on the house for everyone that evening, which is a Steppingstones tradition. Grand slams are not common, even here in Permit City. It is not just a matter of catching all three species in one day, it is as much a challenge of finding all three species feeding! The purists will insist on Grand Slams being all fly caught, but we excuse a little involvement of hermit crab in catching permit! As the guys will tell you, hooking a permit is hard enough on ANYTHING!
The following day, it was hardly surprising that, sore heads from the night’s celebration or not, the team was headed back out to do battle with the permit again. Terry in particular felt hard done by having missed out on his Grand Slam so narrowly the previous day. Determination often gets rewarded, so it was no surprise that Terry turned out to be the star of the show, with a Grand Slam of his very own to celebrate that night!. This Steppingstones tradition is getting to be a bit expensive on free drinks! Still it does not happen every day.
Next day saw the weather on an improving trend so it was back out to the reef in search of the bonefish shoals. The fish were quickly located but were in a silly mood, swimming around like harbor mullet, as Dave described it, and refusing even the most tempting of offers. Despite this a couple were landed and a very big bonefish showed itself although it remained uninterested in feeding.
Overall this was a story of what might have been. Stories of lost fish, missed fish, and shoals disappearing in a flash. However, the boys, led by demon flycaster Dave all caught tarpon, bonefish and snook . Terry and Dave both had Grand Slams as memories to treasure. Dell and Ray had some decent jacks, plus barracuda, etc. on lures as well as their successes on fly, so honour was in the end satisfied.

2009-04-16T17:26:00.000-06:00

Highs and lows-some you win some you don’t.
Well for our latest guests, Billie and Steve Barlow from England, things did not get off to a good start. Four of their bags including both rod cases managed to go off on a holiday of their own to who knows where. One advantage of staying at Steppingstones however is that as former tackle dealers, we have no shortage of fishing tackle. So spare rods etc were quickly provided, and the guys rushed off down our dock to do battle with the local fish. Things started slowly, as a cold front moved over, with murky water populated by a seemingly endless stream of small catfish. Somewhat unusual for this time of year, but at least it was a diversion. However as the water cleared, the snappers and snook started feeding providing a change from the catfish. One afternoon the bigger fish moved in and a couple of sting rays provided the action, followed by something that picked up Billie’s fish fillet and moved steadily off, eventually breaking his 40lb line without stopping pausing or changing direction. Most likely this was a nurse shark, but who knows?
Next day we had a display from the local dolphins, who at one point were right close to the end of the dock, presumably feeding on baitfish.
We had arranged a couple of days for Steve and Billie to fish with George. Their first day turned out to be quite an active day with a variety of fish being taken. Steve managed to catch his first ever bonefish on a fly, and followed this up with Spanish Mackerel, barracuda (of course) and a king fish. Both Steve and Billie lost unstoppable fish trolling - probably big kingfish. The very high temperatures during the day made things tough, but a mixed bag made up for the inevitable sunburn!
In spite of this they managed to find yet more barracuda, and as Steve said, “We had our string well and truly pulled”. A succession of small grouper marked the morning session, followed by bonita, a couple of lizard fish and a snapper or two.
Next day our old friends from Virginia, Keith and Sheila arrived next, this time with their daughter Heather on a short visit to renew acquaintance with the fabulous fishing and wild life down here. Very soon there was the makings of an international competition on the end of the dock, with the usual discussions and debates on pretty well anything and everything, in between pulling in a succession of small snappers.
We had arranged a block booking with our top guide Ian for the second week to take out our guests in rotation.
First up were Steve and Billie for their third trip out, but the first with Ian. The day was dominated by very rough seas outside the reef. Fortunately Steve and Billie fish one of the roughest pieces of sea in Europe, the Irish Sea, back home, so big seas don’t worry them. They got soaked through in a rising sea, but still managed a bunch of barracuda, mostly on livebait.
Next up was Keith, raring to go, having heard all the stories from Steve and Billie and as the girls wanted a day ashore, I “volunteered” to accompany him. This seemed like a good opportunity to try out my newly arrived Rapala X Raps which Steve had kindly brought out from the UK . Ian took us down south, deep into the Port Honduras Marine Reserve. We stopped on the way where he had seen a big shoal of jacks crashing yesterday. However as usual they had moved on. My Zara Spook was ignored. We moved into the mouth of Deep River to look for tarpon, and although we did find a group daisy-chaining, they were not interested in our baits, and my Zara Spook was ignored again. We pushed on around the river delta but apart from a solitary baby jack to Keith’s crystal minnow, nothing moved, and although I switched to my new shallow X Rap, it too remained untouched.
Then we had a flurry of action with both of us getting a small kingfish in quick succession. We decided to move around the small cayes in the river mouth, but again, nothing. Ian took us around two tiny reefs just north of Punta Negra, and there we found a few barracuda, one small one to me and two close to 10lbs each to Keith. All were safely returned back to fight another day. We discussed the pros and cons of release of barracuda, and with care, we concluded, small and medium sized ones could be released safely providing they were lightly hooked. This signaled the end of our day and we made the short run home to Steppingstones. A good day? Well judged by results, no. But a great pleasure to be out at sea with a knowledgeable angler like Keith who is such good company even when fate deals a bad hand, and Ian with his local knowledge and almost sixth sense.
And my verdict on the X Rap, much praised on one of the on line forums? Well, inconclusive from a results point of view. I can say that the action, a whole body roll, does look good (the fish did not agree on the day!), and at last Rapala have produced a shallow runner in heavy duty plastic to provide genuine alternative to the Yo Zuri Crystal Minnow. Worth observing though that the X Rap is a suspending bait, running at around four feet, whereas the Crystal Minnow is a floater, running at about two feet. So there STILL is no quality marine alternative to the Crystal Minnow for ultra shallow situations. Rapala please note!
So day three for Ian, and it was Steve and Billie’s turn to hit the reef. Ian had decided to try the reef again, as the weather had noticeably improved.
The highlight of the day was a mutton snapper of 13lb 9oz, which is a new Steppingstones record. Stunning! Steve managed two cobia, some barracuda as well as another (much smaller) snapper. Billie had what we all have sometimes - a mare. His best fish of the day would have been a double figure barracuda had not two other barracuda bitten it clean in half, and not satisfied with that, another attacked the head end and ripped that up as well.
It was time for Keith’s “family day out”. Ian took them out to a nearby patch reef for a session of bait fishing. The girls caught a cooler box full of snappers etc which were sent down to a very grateful village. After lunch Ian took Keith up Monkey River looking for tarpon. Keith managed to turn a few over but no hook ups.
Later, Keith and I had a try in the back lagoon for tarpon. They were there, but deep in the timber and almost impossible to lure out into open water. I lost a snapper back there, and we both turned over tarpon.
Next up, the dynamic duo were out bright and early on their way out to the reef for another livebaiting session. True to form Steve hooked the biggest fish which ran backwards and forwards, up and down, ahead of the boat and behind it, while Ian and Billie debated what it could be. They were all wrong. It turned out to be a 15lb 9oz Blackfin Tuna, which is an exceptional size for here. This was followed by a filefish. This is the first of these weird looking fish landed at Steppingstones. Not really a sport fish, but technically a record!
Later in the day Steve hooked two fish in 200ft of water which ran irresistibly into rocks under heavy pressure. Hard to know what these were, but big grouper looks the best guess.
We all had tuna steaks for dinner. There is nothing in this world to match fresh tuna on the BBQ with a salad (homegrown) and a glass of chardonnay.
Last day of Ian’s booking fell to Keith. By all accounts he had a ball, with a double figure kingfish heading a full fish box of barracuda , snappers , etc. The biggest pair of barracudas were released back safely. Keith’s complaints of sore shoulders and strained muscles were not met with much sympathy. But the twinkle in his eyes told a different story!
During this period, Steve and Billie also found time to get out in our kayaks and had some decent fish on the patch reef in front of Steppingstones, and also around Greater Monkey caye. Steves best fish was a 20lb stingray which he managed to unhook at the side of the kayak.
All in all this has been a pretty eventful fortnight, with three new records, the blackfin tuna and the mutton snapper and (grudgingly) the filefish all caught by Steve. Both Steve and Billie lost big fish to livebait in deep water, which raises yet again the question of whether we should have a serious effort to catch one of these monsters.
Please note that all the fish brought to the dock, except those kept for our own consumption, were taken down for distribution in Monkey River village.

Pics will follow - the internet is on go slow right now.

2008-12-03T16:47:00.000-07:00

Bryan and Chris in the Secret Lagoon
The mile long lagoon at the back of Steppingstones has given up a couple more of its secrets as a result of a week long series of early morning and dusk sessions.
Let’s start however with the tarpon fishing which is not really a secret at all. The local guides know well that the lagoon holds a good head of small to medium size tarpon, and the lagoon is used as a backup if Monkey River is not producing.
Bryan is a frequent visitor and friend, and he and I spent a few sessions in the lagoon “putting away the boat.”
We tried both first and last light and interestingly found little difference. The tarpon can be seen porpoise-ing at pretty well any time of day. The very small Storm Swim shads (the ones with a single hook only) are best. Lure running depth seems to be crucial. Too deep and the tarpon don’t seem to hit. Top water lures also work. Small poppers and a Luckycraft Sammy lure tried by Bryan worked well.
The trick is to sneak up to within casting range if a porpoise-ing fish can be spotted. However, by noting where fish have been active on previous days, it is possible to hook fish which have not shown themselves Doing this, Bryan managed a personal best fish of 10 ¾ lbs on a very light outfit. The fish fought furiously as tarpon always do, jumping clear of the water five times. Bryan did extremely well to subdue this fish which in addition to trying to fly, also went right under the boat several times and made determined efforts to reach the mangrove edges.
Apart from that we both had plenty of hits and jumped a number of fish, mostly in the 6-8lb class. It was interesting to note that tarpon would roll in the wake of the boat on occasion, so keeping an eye on proceedings behind us, as well as in front was important.
I might digress at this point with a story from a visit Sue and I made to the Zapata Peninsular in Cuba a few years back. Fishing a tributary of the Rio Negro, we came upon a group of porpoise-ing tarpon. Whereupon our guide (himself a skilled angler) opened up his throttle and to our amazement roared straight through the shoal, and ran the boat about ½ mile upstream before abruptly shutting off and shouting for us to immediately cast behind the boat. Rather stunned, we did and a double hook-up resulted. Later he told us this was an established tactic for narrow water tarpon fishing. I subsequently checked this out with several other Cuban guides and they all agreed this was so. The other day, Sue and I tried this in a narrow section of our lagoon. Well, all I can say is our tarpon clearly were taught different behavior from their Cuban cousins… Nada, as the Cubans would say. Still I do wonder if we might be herding tarpon in front of the boat when what we THINK we are doing is following them!
Anyway, back to the lagoon. Everyone knows that hooking and landing tarpon is hard, hence the American habit of counting “jumps”. I would guess we are landing two or three out of ten which is about average. I had a solid hookset on a popper, only to have the hook pull out (of the lure). I have subsequently drilled the popper and inserted a long shank hook right through, so this will not happen again. That’s the problem with using poppers designed for large and small mouth bass, so beware, those poppers are not designed for the pressure a double figure tarpon can exert.
Losing fish in a heavily overgrown environment is a fact of life. I lost another good fish in a heap of sunken logs, although we both had a feeling this might not have been a tarpon.
Well during the week we jumped quite a few fish, lost several, cracked off a couple on the strike, and had plenty of follows, near misses and on two memorable occasions two double hookups in the same place! We did have to follow the fish around quite a bit though (hence my thought above that we might have been herding them). We did wonder if the noise of my outboard even at tickover was spooking them. I tried poling the boat, but we could discern no great difference in catch or hit rates.
So what else happened? Well Bryan managed two tuba which look a bit like overweight perch (see pic). They were small but fight like hell. Bryan extracted one from heavy cover right in the sticks in about a foot of water on his Sammy lure. The fish managed to snag itself on a log but with some acrobatics we managed to free it. I have seen these probably two pounds or so near our mooring, but I suspect they grow bigger. He also caught the first ever Cubera snapper (aka Pargo) I know of from the lagoon. I have long thought these would be present in the lagoon, having lost a couple of heavy fish that were definitely not tarpon but slugged away and in both cases managed to get into the mangrove despite my putting heavy pressure on them. The cubera Bryan had was around 3lb but again I am sure they grow a lot bigger in this unpressured environment.
The lagoon teems with fry virtually year round and is a wonderful nursery for all species of fish. I have caught tarpon fry in my cast net from time to time, and on one memorable occasion had literally thousands of two inch long tarpon thrown up on the beach by a marauding shoal of blue runners. I must have rescued hundreds and put them back in the water, but our cats, dogs, chickens and of course wild birds ate them by the bucket load. It’s nature I suppose.
Bryan went on to land three small jacks, a small mangrove snapper and a baby barracuda. All in all a fun time. Not high pressure, just a few leisurely hours in beautiful surroundings where even if the fish are off duty, the bird watching is wonderful.
Ospreys (nesting now), three species of heron, cormorant (only a couple though!) anhinga, two species of wood peckers, three species of kingfisher, various hawks, odsprey, vultures, egrets, tanager, ibis (loads right now) pelicans, kiskadees, parrots, warblers and LBJs (little brown jobs-ie unidentified by me)
And if that is not enough, we have a resident crocodile which locals have estimated at 14 feet. Having nearly run this beast down in my boat would say 12ft but who’s arguing? Bryan did see a baby croc about a foot long but missed a sight of the big one.
OK here’s the rub. Bryan is writing his own version of this little episode, which Sue insists will be posted unedited, so a comparison will be informative!!

2008-12-02T16:38:00.001-07:00

Two days away from Steppingstones.
Hi this is Chris with a report on our two days at sea. We had our friend Bryan Denton staying with us and we decided to organize a two day mini trip out at Seal Caye and surrounding areas in the middle of his fishing week.
We left bright and early from Steppingstones with top guide Ian Cuevas running his boat Opportunity. Bryan is a kayak fanatic so we persuaded Ian to allow us to carry one of our fishing kayaks on board. The last few weeks have been flat calm, and the day dawned mirror calm, so forty minutes later we were picking our way very carefully through the coral heads that surround the entry channel to this small but pretty little caye.
Bryan was unable to overcome the temptations of the shallow flats and banks of the caye, so after a brief stop to unload overnight bags, we left Bryan paddling purposefully towards the nearest coral drop off, along the edge of the flats.
For Sue and I, our task was to get lunch. This involves getting a barracuda, tough job, but someone has to do it. Naturally as soon as we put our lures out every barracuda in the Caribbean for miles around disappeared. However by experimenting with diving depths, trolling speeds, yes and lures too, we eventually fooled a six pound barracuda on a deep diving Yo Zuri Crystal Minnow. Problem solved. A nice Spanish mackerel followed shortly after, but that was it. A small squadron of dolphins escorted us back to Seal Caye.
So to an excellent lunch of fried barracuda with the inevitable rice and beans, Belizean –style. Over lunch Bryan recounted the results of his mornings prowling around the flats. Apart from a couple of small cubera snappers, two small groupers and a jack, pretty quiet. His morning was however dominated by something that hit his lure on one of the flats, ran right across the flat with line pouring off Brian’s reel into the drop off, whereupon the line parted and the fish was last seen heading in the general direction of Jamaica. After due commiserations, we settled down to discuss the afternoon’s tactics.
It was clear from the morning’s slow start that we would need to try something different so we decided to troll along the edge of the drop off using a Mann’s Magnum Super Stretch 30 on a 80lb marlin rod brought along specially for the purpose, and a Yo Zuri deep magnum L Jack Minnow also on a heavy outfit. Sue was to continue with her favourite shallow Crystal Minnow just in case we ran into something feeding on top.
This all sounded right so off we went, and it was not long before the big Super Stretch got its first hit. This lure is about the deepest diving lure around and we were confident that a mega fish was responsible. However, it only took seconds to realize this was only a small barracuda. Moments later Bryan’s rod went and the fish took off on a long run, then stopped abruptly. On getting it to the boat, all was revealed. It was a small kingfish with its tail and back end neatly sheared off.
Then followed a succession of small kingfish, barracuda, bonita and Spanish mackerel all released, and although this kept us all occupied it was not what we had come for. The afternoon was wearing on.
Meanwhile, Ian had been watching out for frigate birds circling, a sure sign of baitfish on the surface, with the promise of tuna below. Now Ian was suddenly fixed on a point on the horizon and setting off in pursuit of some wheeling frigates.
Little did we know that a few minutes later we were to witness a truly incredible sight. A school of baitfish was under attack from a shoal of yellow fin tuna from below, and a blizzard of frigates from above. Mayhem did not cover it. The tuna were 20 to 30lbs, too numerous to count, and were jumping feet out of the water in their attempts to catch the baitfish. Sheets of baitfish were flying out of the ater in all directions. At one point we actually saw a 30lb tuna hit a frigate bird in mid air as it came in to scoop up a fish.
Ian gunned the boat and set us running alongside the school which was moving at an estimated 15 knots. The game is to cut the lures into the path of the oncoming school. We hung on to our rods in anticipation of the coming strikes but sadly it was not to be. I had one hit as we passed through, then nothing. We switched lures and depths but to no avail. The school was moving at high speed which made getting the lures in the right place very difficult. Suddenly the inevitable happened. The school went down, leaving frigates circling in frustration. We motored around for a while but they did not return. So it was back to base, vowing to return tomorrow.
So it was a traditional chicken rice and beans for dinner, a few beers then bed, with agreement to be up at dawn for a morning session before breakfast. Bryan again opted for the kayak, while Sue and I decided to have a troll along the inside edge of the reef. Ian felt that if the fish were not outside perhaps they were inside the reef.
The day began with a Spanish mackerel, small king fish and a couple of reasonable barracuda, all taken with shallow running lures on light rods. I changed back to my deep Yo Zuri Crystal Minnow and was immediately rewarded by a hit. The fish came slowly to the boat without showing itself. I suspected a foul hooked barracuda. As the fish neared the boat we suddenly saw it was a nice kingfish. However it suddenly saw us too, and exploded into a series of long runs, dives and lunges. Eventually Ian managed to gaff it and on weighing it was 20lb . The best fight I have had on light tackle in a long while. It was now time to go back for breakfast.
Meanwhile Bryan had had a number of small fish off the flats but nothing spectacular. It was agreed that some action was desperately needed for the next part of our trip. So Ian suggested a run to the nearby Nicholas and Frank Cayes where bonefish are a banker. On arriving, we were not surprised to find that the stone cold certainty bonefish were not there! As we waited a pair of permit swam past. Bryan and I both hastily threw baited jigs at them but they never even paused in their leisurely swim past.
We went around the caye with eagle eyed Ian scanning the horizon for bones (how do they do it, these guides?) Apart from about seven eagle rays wafting across the flats, nothing. Amazing.
However Ian eventually spotted a patch of cloudy water and bingo! There were the bonefish in around fifteen feet of water. Not normal at all. So we cast blind into the cloudy water and within seconds Bryan was away with a bonefish boring away into the murky water. Sue and I shared a rod and for an hour or so we caught mainly bonefish but with a few grunts, and a small jack thrown in.
Time for lunch and a promised return to yesterday’s tuna killing ground. This time we trolled around with Sea Witches (mylar skirt with double ganged single hooks baited with a big flapper of bonita). This attracted a regular stream of kingfish and barracuda and Spanish mackerel to the boat. During all this time Sue had been very quiet and I was just thinking that any minute now her luck could be expected to change.
The thought was barely in my mind when her check screamed and she was into a good fish which was running hard and fast. The line went right down to the last few yards and then….suddenly nothing. The line had parted. No obvious explanation, just one of those things.
As the afternoon wore on we all turned our eyes expectantly towards the southern horizon where last evenings tuna had materialized. This time it was not to be. Plenty of baitfish around on the surface, also a solitary loggerhead turtle made its way past us. Even the frigate birds made occasional passes overhead just monitoring the situation. But no tuna.
By 4pm it was time to return to Seal Caye to collect the kayak and start the run home. One hour later we were back at our dock after a really smooth ride back.
Was this our best ever trip? No, not by a long chalk. But we had our moments, saw some amazing things, but all too little of the rod bending action the Great Barrier Reef of Belize has to offer.
There will be another time…..

2008-12-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody. Sorry for the long silence, but regular readers will know that we have been very busy doing the annual renovations, painting, decorating, besides looking for lost ducks, building our iguana habitat (I’ll talk about that at a later date) and all the other things we have to do.
Our wet season, nominally May to November, is also the low season for holidays, including anglers. Quite why this should be so is a mystery to us. Ah but the rain… well yes it does rain here, spectacularly. Yes 14 feet a year. BUT. Most of it falls at night while we are tucked up in bed.
And while we are talking about rain, consider the upside. Yes, rain does have a significant upside for anglers. Monkey River floods, every baitfish for miles around comes to feed in the coloured water and guess what? So do the tarpon and snook. Small wonder then that the wet season is the prime time for both these species.
Anyway the self named “ Four Old Fogies”, Roger, Ted, Alan and Adrian from England defied convention and came out to stay with us for a week, in October, announcing on arrival that none of them had ever caught a bonefish or permit before and wanted to remedy that situation.
My heart sank. Bonefish, OK we have loads of bones grazing around our offshore cayes and reasonably competent fly fishermen can (and do) catch them till they never want to see another bonefish. I understand however that that feeling wears off very rapidly when one is back behind a desk on a cold wet day in London, Chicago, Quebec etc
But as everyone knows, permit are elusive, difficult and above all fickle. Permit can become an obsession. To locate them down here is a near certainty, to get within casting range a few times in a day is probable, to hook a fish is an achievement. To land it, well, permit take grave exception to being hooked and are likely to take you on an extended tour of the surrounding cayes before coming to the boat
That said, Southern Belize has one of the world’s highest populations of permit running well into double figures, so the prospects are very good especially when you are in the boat with one of our guides who know where the permit are likely to be on a given day. Even so, permit are not a fish to cut your warm salt water fly fishing teeth on. So this was a challenge for the Four Old Fogies.
So to the good news. The bones duly cooperated and the guys all had a great time chasing bonefish around. One boat managed over thirty bones in one day, and reckoned they could have had many more.
And the bad news? Well both boats found permit, but getting a fly in the right place at the right time proved very hard.
So one boat went off trolling and came back with the usual haul of barracuda, kingfish, snappers etc. The other boat went looking for tarpon and duly landed a number into double figures including one from our “secret lagoon”. It was that boat which hooked a tarpon on a lure in Deep River and got towed 2 miles up the river before the line parted. The lure? Yo Zuri Crystal Minnow of course. No I don’t have shares in Yo Zuri (but wish I did)
So the week wore on with bonefish, more bonefish, tarpon and more tarpon until the last cast of the last day up Monkey River saw one of the guys hook into a log. The log then started swimming upstream. Some minutes later a huge snook came to the boat and was weighed in at 21lbs 12oz. This is the best ever caught by one of our guests, and the lure? Well what do you think? Correct. Yo Zuri Crystal Minnow again.
So the week ended on a high note. Bone fish ambitions satisfied, but despite some close calls the permit won the day and will await a future occasion.
Coming soon: Chris and Brian in the secret lagoon.

2008-10-17T19:39:00.000-06:00

Lots of rain this week thanks to a Tropical Depression which thankfully petered out over Northern Honduras. We are getting huge amounts of rain, even the ducks look depressed. However it is passing over, but many rivers are in flood including Monkey River which is 8 meters above normal at the Swasey Bridge - this translates to a very fast flow once it gets to us. Oh, and the road is flooded and a culvert is broken, so we are cut off for the moment, except of course by boat.

The culvert collapsed just us my friend Kasia was passing over it, being driven by her husband Hudney, our boat mechanic, into Independence to have her baby. Fortunately they were able to get in touch with the village, the boys went and hauled them out - all was well - as you can see from the picture. Baby has no name as yet, the scan was misread and the family were all prepared for a boy!

I am happy to report that the orchids are coming into bloom. I have a very small collection, it's always a big thrill when even the common ones flower.

2008-10-02T14:55:00.000-06:00

One of our local delicacies is Blue Crab, a land crab which is made into a soup with "ground food' - carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, coca, onions, sweet pepper, garlic, hot pepper and of course fresh coconut milk.

Our new "potlikka" (think about it) Sadie, just 9 months old, met a crab on the beach this morning. Hard to say who was the most surprised.

We generally catch these at dusk using big pincers called a "kis kis". Four or five make a nice meal. It's a lot of fun to run up and down the beach catching them - good exercise, and makes up for the calories that the soup will supply.

2008-09-18T15:51:00.000-06:00

We are such bad bloggers! Or is it just that so much happens here, we don't have time to write about it!

Well, our summer has been a busy one with lots of work in the village. Chris and Rambo have been doing the practical stuff, improving the school and finishing off the accommodation for our Principal and a teacher. Unfortunately, our much heralded new Principal who put in so much preparation work and effort found after just two days of term that he didn't after all like the job - Taking with him our promising new teacher too - so he left us in the lurch and I am now hunting for replacements - and I have my fingers crossed that by a miracle the right people may just have appeared.

Back at Steppingstones, we have now turned to work on the cabanas, and as I write, Rambo is hanging precariously off the top floor hammering in replacement woodwork - we had an exciting visitation of termites - thankfully caught well in time. We will be making some minor improvements and generally sprucing everything up. We are currently experiencing some heavy rainfall, and as I look out the window I can see the characteristic yellow sand laden flood waters of Monkey River right out to the horizon. Chris is outside trimming palms, a perpetual job.

Behind us, you would hardly think that we had such a bad jungle fire back in May. The undergrowth has grown back, and the smaller trees. the water is up very high, but the path to the Secret Lagoon is still high and dry for the second year. We wre back thre two days ago and it was crawling with small tarpon (the Lagoon, not the path!). Unfortunately we didn't have rods with us, so we had to confine ourselves to admiring.

We have a new dog! Another rescue, named Sadie, she is like a small, elegant Arbie. Just 9 months old, and into everything. In just an hour today she was found trotting around the house carrying

1. the tv remote

2. a bra

3. a toilet roll

4. half an avocado

5. a shoe

She gets on very well with the others, and especially loves Arbie as he will play with her. Although she is small, she eats like a disposal unit, and she immediately joined in with all the routines, running down the dock and barking, the 5am wake up visit to our bedroom and of course, slumping in the den watching TV.

Both the adult ducks are sitting on eggs, and Daisy should hatch hers any day now, Dave's will be about another 10 days. Sir Frances is moulting and looks rather undignified.

We are planning a trip out with Ian soon, so hopefully with have some fishing news then. The lobster season has been good, and we have had plenty of fesh crab and even some wild fresh shrimp, delicious. We are fed up with lobster though....

That's it for now folks,

take care,

Sue

2008-06-15T11:54:00.000-06:00

2008-01-31T01:19:00.001-07:00

A busy start to the year has meant very little blogging so far, but we did manage to take a break yesterday and went to the cayes for a casual day’s fishing and generally messing around on the water with our neighbours Dennis and Wilma, who come down twice a year at the moment and who will eventually retire here.

Chris was top man of the day with a couple of nice Nassau grouper, one of which managed to get itself in a hole in the coral and had to be retrieved by Eloy, our guide for the day, who dived down and gaffed it. A very delicious supper, cooked in the oven with home grown papaya and green pepper, onion, garlic, ginger and lime.

Wilma enjoyed herself snorkeling around a nameless sandy caye used as a fish camp, out near Ranguana, while Chris found a school of bar jacks who really liked a fire tiger Top Prop. Dennis and I scrounged around the incredibly scruffy island and found lovely fan coral which the fishermen had thrown on their rubbish pile, as well as some lovely coloured conch shells, which I brought back for cleaning and eventual use on the school nature tables.

While we were there the fishermen arrived back with their catch of conch and lobster, and we purchased some conch which will be made into seviche and fritters.

Last week we had the pleasure of the company of brothers in law Charlie and Todd who had a wonderful week of fishing with Ian, scoring many “firsts” for themselves and bringing back fish for the kitchen every night. Charlie hooked and lost what we believe was a very large nurse shark from our dock, he was fishing for snappers and his very light bottom sabiki gave way after a good fight. The big fish took a one inch anchovy which Charlie took from the stomach of a small snapper he had caught earlier, hoping to catch another snapper for dinner.

At the moment we have guests brother and sister Terry and Sally, and Sally’s husband Ned, their second visit (Terry’s third). Sally will be conducting eye examinations for the children (and any adults who want) of the village, which is most kind and useful, as we don’t have a school health service. Terry as usual is full of exciting ideas, he is the person who first inspired the idea for the Monkey River Village Festival and provided us with Monkey Butt powder and great caps as prizes for the Festival last year, as well as sponsorship – as did Sally and Ned. We are fortunate to have so many guests who take an interest in the village.

They have had two days fishing with George and are having a fabulous time, coming home with barracuda, grouper, snapper, kingfish and the like which goes both to their kitchen and to the village.

Away from fishing, Chris has been very busy with the project to reverse the erosion which has taken so much land from Monkey River Village over the past twenty years. The idea is to restore the flow of the river which has been greatly reduced by extraction for farming further up on the Bladen and particularly the Swasey branches. As the flow reduced, so did the sand which the river brought down and deposited at the river mouth, counteracting the erosion of the sea. Nature was thrown out of balance, and the intention is to restore the flow by dredging, as well as to negotiate with farming interests to ensure that on necessary water is extracted.

He has also been working with the newly re-formed Monkey River Tour Guides Association to develop some new tours and improve their marketing; I have been lending a hand too.

My voluntary work as Local Manager for St Stephen’s Anglican Primary School in Monkey River is keeping me extremely busy, there is so much to do to bring the school up to the level we would like, and it has been sadly neglected over recent years. My brother David, who works as a headmaster in Yorkshire, England, has just sent us a marvelous donation of very good second hand and new books and educational toys – two boat loads to be precise, and I am working my way through sorting these out. They will be distributed to our school of course, and neighbouring tiny St Cuthbert’s at Punta Negra with twelve pupils, as well as to the school in Independence and a preschool in Punta Gorda.

We’ll post more fishing pictures when we get them, and try to keep up the blog more regularly, but as you can see, we keep pretty busy!

2008-01-01T16:42:00.001-07:00

Another year has sped by, and we greeted 2008 in our normal fashion – asleep in bed – not being great bringers in of the new year. In fact, I always find something a little melancholy about the turn of the year, although here in the tropics with lovely blue skies and warm breezes, it doesn’t even feel like winter.

In 2007 we made lots of new friends, and we are surely looking forward to welcoming some of them back in the very near future, especially Terry, Sal and Ned, Shelia and Keith and Bryan and Kathy. Not to mention our dear friends and part time neighbours, Dennis and Wilma.

We were very pleased to welcome a fun group from the Uk a few weeks ago, which included journalist Dave Lewis (watch out for his article in Sea Angler coming soon) and Chris Tarrant, who caught his first permit, though it just about drove him mad in the process!

We have our own fishing adventures planned for this year, in particular the continued pursuit of a really big grouper, the continued tarpon and jack campaign on the Secret Lagoon and surrounding creeks, and a growing desire to do some shark fishing. Of course, even sitting right next to the Caribbean as we do, there is never enough time for fishing. Always guests to look after, chores, repairs and decorating to do – things deteriorate fast in this hot salty air – and of recent times, lots of voluntary work with various village organizations.

I have been appointed volunteer Local Manager of our village school, and believe be that could be a 24/7 job on its own. The school has really suffered in recent years from appalling teaching and no leadership. My predecessor, the wonderful Miss Eleanor Sandlin, struggled hard, but with her many other duties she was not able to achieve what she wanted. I am luckier in that I have a much better qualified staff this year, but there is still a lot to do.

Chris has been working all out with the newly reformed Tour Guides Association, and we hope that will bear fruit in the form of some exciting new trips and a better distribution of work around the body of guides.

Finally of course, yes, the Festival is looming. I have been saying, I’ll start that after Christmas, well, now it’s after Christmas, so off I go. We already have our first donation, from Dennis and Wilma who are supporting all the prizes for children’s games. This year it will be a two day affair, after which I think I will probably have to have a long holiday myself.

Chris and I would like to wish everybody a very happy New Year, and we hope to be seeing many of you in 2008.

2007-11-01T15:16:00.000-06:00

This is Chris reporting on the latest from our little corner of paradise. I can hear some of you saying, here we go again, more tales of screaming reels, hooped rods, fish caught etc. Well just to show that it ain’t necessarily so, here is an account of a blank. It does happen, even here.

We have gotten into the habit of taking our rods with us when we drop the boat back at its overnight mooring in the secret lagoon. That way we can troll slowly up Black Creek about a mile or so to our mooring. Then it’s a five minute walk up the path to Steppingstones. We do this several times a week. Back to the story.

The lure of choice for this game is a 4 inch Storm Swim Shad. Colour does not seem to matter. Regular readers of our blogs will know we have had tarpon, jacks, snook and blue runners with tarpon predominating in this lagoon. There are other species present but not caught as yet.

I had decided to experiment with some other soft plastics without great success. However Sue fishing alongside me had decided to stick with the Swim Shads and she had not had a hit either. So the jury was still out. We trolled all the way up without any sign of interest, save from a smug looking vulture staring down from his lofty perch on a dead tree. We saw two tarpon roll in quick succession and braced ourselves for action. It did not come. The boat muttered on, cutting through the flat calm water with barely a sound. We always watch out for bird activity, notably pelican, but today nothing apart from a young tiger heron who totally ignored us. Usually we do two passes, up then back down to the creek mouth and then same again before a final fast run back up to our mooring to charge up Patience’s battery before leaving her there over night. Today we had decided on just one pass up and down. Things just did not feel right. On the way back down I switched to a 5 inch Swim Shad (in desperation) and almost immediately had a tentative sniff. Not enough! Another 300yds further on I had a vicious take which nearly took the rod out of my hand, but that’s all it was, a big hit. The hook evidently missed its hold. Sue had not had anything so we decided to call it a day, commenting yet again that we must bring some bait down and fish in the deep water right under the mangroves.

We suspect that, like everywhere, the fish feeding pattern is determined by rainfall which in turn affects water temperature. The lagoon drains the surrounding swamp land to our west and at times has a pronounced flow. The water then is pretty opaque. In the dry season, the water clears and the bottom is clearly visible. As this lagoon is not fished much by the locals, the fish can be very spooky, especially tarpon. Furthermore, being connected to the sea via Black Creek, the lagoon is tidal and salt water comes and goes with the tide. Different species of fish react in different ways to this movement, and if bait fish run up Black Creek, or are chased up Black Creek which we have seen happen, that may further compound an already complicated pattern of feeding behavior. So all we can do is watch, experiment, and try to learn. It’ s exactly what we spent hours doing on our beloved River Thurne back in Norfolk (UK), where many of the above features also applied. So back to the drawing board!

2007-10-28T11:33:00.000-06:00

This past couple of weeks have been dedicated to sprucing the place up, with a fresh coat of paint on the outside of both buildings. Chris has been busy laying tiles in the top cabana, I have been doing miles of sewing, and we've both been busy with village matters - looking into the possibility of a solar power micro grid amongst other things.

One important job which we have had to do is cut down some coconut palms, including the very tall one next to the cabanas. Unfortunately like much of the tropics, Belize suffers from Yellowing Disease which is spread by large and naughty beetles with elephant trunk proboscis. The only cure is to cut down and burn the trees to stop the spread. That, and planting new trees, which we do all the time. So Rambo has been busy, and with the help of Chris and the chain saw and our painting crew and their machete, the big tree came down.

You can see in the first picture the characteristic browning leaves, including the centre leaves, and the real tell tale sign is that all the coconuts drop off. A great pity to lose this tree, which survived Hurricane Iris, but we have lots of sprouties growing around its feet.

2007-10-07T17:16:00.000-06:00

Down at the secret lagoon……..
OK it’s not really a secret, but it IS hidden from view and does not get fished a lot. The entrance is via a small creek opposite Little Monkey Caye, easily missed unless you are looking for it. The creek widens out after about a half mile into a lagoon and then a further lagoon I guess a mile long altogether, all fringed with mangrove and an average depth of perhaps ten feet. We moor our boat, Patience, in the lagoon as it is safe from the open sea and wind there. So I get plenty of opportunities to pop down and run the boat around the edges. With a small lure trolled behind.

The lagoon is currently flooded because it is the rainy season here. That has brought in large numbers of small tarpon up to about ten pounds plus the odd bigger one. There are also jacks, snook, snapper and other species in the brackish water. My last trip produced in thirty minutes a tarpon of perhaps 7lbs, a small snook and a small jack. Good sport on the light spinning gear we use.

Then last night running up the creek, Sue and I ran across an area of fish slashing through a huge shoal of small baitfish. We stopped, out came the rods and we cast into them. They were a mixture of jacks about 2lb and blue runners the same size. They produced fast and furious sport for about ten minutes until in my enthusiasm for that slightly longer cast (you know the one I mean), I put my lure straight into the mangroves. Sue’s polite enquiry as to whether I was fishing for monkeys was not appreciated.

By the time we had sorted that out the fish had moved on. So we continued trolling up the creek, but had only gone fifty yards before Sue had a super hit and a really good tarpon launched itself out of the water. This was the biggest we had yet hooked and must have been well into the twenties. However the tarpon had other ideas and threw the hook fully thirty yards and disappeared amid a flurry of foam. I had just put the boat back in gear and started moving when I had a take which proved to be another tarpon, this on maybe 5lbs.which we unhooked at the side of the boat. We had really only come out to moor the boat up for the night, so we decided to go in. Not a bad reward for an hour’s fishing!

2007-10-07T17:11:00.001-06:00

This is Chris, reporting on Day 2 of our offshore bash. The day started with a run up to Placencia to pick up fuel, which meant an earlier than planned start. However by 7 am we were up on plane running due east of Placencia headed for Gladden Spit, a well known area of reefs with a deep water channel several miles wide in the middle.

Plan was to check out the deep water off the reef for tuna and other blue water fish, then troll the channel, and come up onto the banks and troll the shallow flats inside the reef. We tend to use 30lb class outfits outside the reef, as even the tuna will take too long to bring in on light gear. A fish attack (most often kingfish or barracuda but sometimes shark) is likely if the battle goes on too long. Inside the reef we switch to 10lb class or even lighter. Apart from a solitary Spanish mackerel in the channel, things started slow.

However once inside the reef on the flats, things started warming up (literally), despite being on a falling tide. A couple of barracuda and a small yellowtail snapper (who had an unexpected starring role later) came in quick succession. Then a solid take on my Bomber Jointed Long A (in bonita colour) had us puzzled for a while. Barracuda almost always jump shortly after hitting the lure, especially in shallow water. This fish did not jump; in fact it just kited around with short powerful runs. The mystery was eventually solved when a tarpon of around 25lbs came sliding into view. We prepared to hand land it but just as it came to the side of the boat the hookhold slipped and the fish sank away from view. Long range catch and release we call it! We do not gaff tarpon; slipping the hook out at the boatside is preferable.

So after a quiet period at the bottom of the tide, we went back to trolling the channel. Meantime we had stopped for a quick lunch. Ian’s idea of lunch is to find some shallow water drop anchor eat a quick snack and then up anchor and roar off before Sue and I have even got the champagne bucket, white table linen and silver cutlery out…. Going fishing with Ian, is exactly what it says. No time for eating.

Anyway, back to the channel. Our first run produced one spectacular take, with a sizzling run of around 80yards. This we recognized as classic kingfish behavior, and sure enough a small kingfish of around 8lb eventually came in. We often debate the eating merits between kingfish and barracuda. The local view supports barracuda as top eating fish, and we ourselves tend to eat barracuda pretty much every week. However when it comes to BBQ, I prefer kingfish steaks which hold together better than barracuda while on the barbi.

Ian decided that as I had dominated the morning’s proceedings, he would rig up his surefire lure for Sue. This turned out to be a blue and white rubber skirt with two 6/0 single hooks ganged together, baited with…. you guessed it, the yellow tail snapper caught earlier. Ian cut a very intricate flapper from the fish and Sue ran it out behind the boat.

Now it would be untrue to report that the instant it entered the water it got hit. However, it was only out for a few minutes before Sue finally got off the mark. This turned out to be a barracuda of around 8lbs. Shortly after, using the same flapper, she had a very powerful hit from a fish which moved up ahead of the boat and made repeated long runs across the channel. We could now see this was a barracuda of some 20lbs. Sue got it close to the boat and the fish jumped fully six feet in the air. Although spectacular to see, it does remind you not to try to land these fish until they are ready. A large barracuda thrashing around in the boat is a recipe for disaster! Eventually however, this fish came in and was expertly gaffed by Ian, a really good fight on 10lb class tackle, beautifully played by Sue.

A few more bits and pieces turned up, a couple more yellowtail snappers, a very small barracuda, all of which were safely returned to grow bigger. It was time to be heading back so we decided to troll back outside the reef with big lures. It looked very promising, the water was thick with baitfish, but ominously they were just swimming around aimlessly, not being chased. Were there bigger fish around? Maybe not. Anyway we had to give it a try.

I used a Yo Zuri L Jack Magnum, and Sue used a red YoZuri vibrating lure. After about half an hour, the soporific calm, and the heat of the sun had lured us into dozing. However we were rudely awakened by the sound of my Penn LD245 screaming its head off. This was a heavy fish moving slowly away. Guessing this would be a grouper (as we were over a mainly rocky bottom) I tried to pile on the pressure. At first it seemed I was making progress. Then came that horrible moment. Transmitted up the line from a hundred yards away, I felt the unmistakable feel of the swivel breaking. A sickening moment. This was a quality swivel, American-made, but I guess the pressure was just too much. I have yet to land a big grouper in Belize, despite hooking several, and my jinx had continued.

After that little episode, our day was over. Something of an anti climax, but none the less an interesting day, in the most breathtaking crystal clear waters of our little bit of paradise. As we left the area, a pod of dolphins popped up to wish us goodbye, always a cheerful sight. We can’t wait to get back.

2007-10-07T17:04:00.000-06:00

This is an account of Day 1 of our 2 day fishing bash with Ian our head guide, written by Chris.

I can’t say that Day 1 was the best organized days fishing, but after a long summer of painting, decorating, plumbing, electrical messing about, it takes a little while to get back into gear. However we managed to get away by 7am and roared off into the rising sun towards Ranguana, some 50 minutes run, which would be our starting off point. From there the plan was to cross over the reef and scout the deep blue water for tuna.

We had only been there about ten minutes before Ian spotted a few birds circling in the distance. When we got there, we found an area probably three hundred yards long, by about fifty yards wide boiling with what looked like small bonita flying out of the water in all directions. An amazing, if quite common sight out here. What was even more amazing is that there were only about half a dozen terns flying over the area feeding. Usually the birds gather in uncountable flocks, until the air is almost like a cloud. The water was full of fish scales, testament to the carnage going on below.

Carefully, Ian ran the boat around the outside of the school, so as not to spook anything. The idea is to turn sharply across in front of the school and skate your lures across in front of them. Naturally we had been feverishly tackling up with top water tuna lures in anticipation of a quick hook up. Well the Williamson Sea Witch I was using proved to be what they wanted, and I brought in a blackfin tuna about 4lbs shortly followed by a blue bonito (aka false albacore) about 6lbs . Two hits in quick succession and suddenly the shoal just went deep and disappeared.

We moved into a nearby channel just off the reef and soon started finding the ubiquitous barracuda. We picked up half a dozen all around the ten pound mark, which gave us good sport, plus a couple of yellowtail snappers in the shallow water around the reef.
By this time the sun was at its height and blazing down. The channel we were in seemed suddenly devoid of fish despite us trying very deep divers and all sorts of colours. Suddenly a cold beer on our verandah back home sounded an irresistible proposition. So we decided as we had a long day planned for tomorrow we would head back early. Our fish box was full, so tuna and barracuda for the freezer, plus plenty to take into the village where fresh fish is always appreciated.

2007-09-29T14:36:00.001-06:00

This morning Chris and I decided to combine our daily check on Patience, our 26ft skiff, who now resides about 1/4 mile behind Steppingstones in the Secret Logoon, with a bit of casual fishing.

We tied on some Storm Swim Shads and went off on a gentle troll - a lovely sunny morning. The water at the moment is highly coloured - like strong Cuban coffee - as we are in the rainy season. We chose a mackerel colour and a pale shad colour, the 4" size. We didn't really expect to find anyone at home, but we got a pleasant surprise, jumping three tarpon between ten and fifteen pounds, giving us a nice start to the day. Unfortunately we didn't land any of them, or even get to the camera quickly enough to take picture, but they were a pretty sight leaping out of the water and contemptuously tossing the lure away.

Suzie Q, Faye and Arbie accompanied us on our walk to the boat as usual, and Arbie shows distinct signs of wanting to come fishing with us. Suzie and Faye of course regard boats as the work of the devil, and can't understand why we keep getting into them.

2007-09-26T16:07:00.001-06:00

Just a quick blog to introduce you to three new members of the Steppingstones team – Arby, Dave and Daisy.

Arby is our new dog. Jack sadly had to be put to sleep as he became very very feeble. He had a great life and we miss him every day. Arby arrived on August 20th, a rescue dog from Red Bank. He is a real darling. he still has a couple of minor health problems, a bit of mange and a sore place on his tail which refuses to get better, but he is otherwise full of life and very loving and inteligent.

The ducks are living in the mother and baby unit at the moment until they get a bit bigger. When they arrived, Dave made a break for freedom and was lost in the jungle for a couple of hours. However, Daisy called for him and eventually he came back and hung around until we let him in with Daisy.

Dave and Daisy are a swap from Sunny and Keserine in the village. Keserine gave away a lot of her hens when we thought we were going to be hit by Hurricane Felix, as it seemed better to eat them than have them just die in the storm, which sadly is what happens to them. I currently have a broody about to hatch 6 eggs which will all go down to Keserine when they are hatched, along with their broody – should be Saturday.

The weather has been really lovely, calm all day and a bit of rain most nights. There are lots of snook around, and the fishermen have been catching them on simple jigs. We are planning a fishing trip tomorrow, so we can expect rain!

2007-09-07T16:55:00.000-06:00

FINALLY I sit down to update the blog. Well, we have been working on the first every Monkey River Village Festival – a big success, and then immediately had to deal with the only two force 5 hurricanes ever to hit land in the Atlantic basin in one year. Dean and Felix hit northern Belize and Nicaragua on 20th August and 5th September respectively. At one stage we were right in the path of Felix, and we were within two hours of evacuating ourselves, our friend Dennis, our neighbors Joy and Richard and of course, the five dogs we have between us.

Anyway, thank goodness both ‘canes missed us, and we are hoping for a more relaxed time for a week or two.

MRVF, held on 18th august, was a great event. Music, loads of food, a big fishing competition won by our guide Wayne Castellanos with a big catch of ‘cuda, a football tournament in which the Monkey River Smugglers were runners up, lots of fun fundraising activities and generally a good time being had by all.

Not everything when 100% right, but we have learnt a lot for the future. Those of you who so kindly contributed, a very big thank you. We raised over $14,000 in cash and probably close to the same in kind. We gave out around $8000 in prizes, and we were able to improve our football pitch, build a prefabricated stage which will be used for village events such as dances, graduation, school plays and so on, and we built three new public toilets on the site of the old school toilets which were destroyed by Hurricane Iris. We also raised enough money to put fly screens on the schoolroom doors, which will make the school more pleasant.

The fishing contestants were introduced to the joys of Monkey Butt Powder, thanks to our friend Terry Snowday (who came down from the US for the event, along with sister Sally and brother in law Ned) Monkey Butt Powder is a magic product which prevents chafing – each competitor was given a free pack and it created much amusement.

Chris and I worked like dogs on this project, but it was very rewarding. The village looked great with lots of decorations courtesy of our major donor, Fyffes, and we had a Tidy Yard competition which resulted in the entire village looking really spruce. We had Love FM radio and Love TV on hand, we are looking forward to seeing the film they made, which has been delayed because immediately after the Festival we were plunged into a couple of weeks of hurricane watching.

Next year the Festival will be a two day event, on May 24th and 25th, we are planning already.

Hurricane Dean looked pretty sure to pass us by with just maybe a tropical storm – bad enough when you live on the shore. On The day it struck, we collected our new rescue dog, Arbie, so for his first night we all hunkered down in our bedroom and waited for the worst. Everything which could be brought indoors or tied down was in place, Patience, our boat, was on her moorings at the end of the path to the lagoon, which now runs from behind our house. At around 4pm a big squall started blowing – this is it, we thought. After half an hour the rain stopped, the sun came out, and we had a remarkably peaceful night.

Unfortunately Belize did not escape, and the northern area was badly damaged, although thankfully no-one was badly hurt or killed.

We had guests arriving the next day, Vic and Randi, who had evacuated from Ambergris because of Dean. They got some pretty good fishing but Vic had what turned out to be a virtually severed tendon which required surgery on his return, so although he was brave he was in a lot of pain. Sort of the holiday from Hell really!

Then what do we know, Something Wicked This Way Comes. An invest way out in the Atlantic turns into a Tropical Depression, then a Tropical Storm, then really quickly into a very strong though relatively small hurricane, Felix.

During the week of development, just about the whole of Belize was in the firing line at one time or another. From north to south, everyone was making their preparations – there seemed a lot of uncertainty as to the final destination, so no-one felt safe. As the projected track inched south, we decided that we were going to have to evacuate. Imagine moving house in the most traumatic of circumstances, the work is exhausting and the worry is draining, but you can’t sleep!

We are very lucky in that we bought a small cement house inland, which is totally basic but safe, so we have somewhere to go. With the Festival taking so much time up, we were not able to prepare the house as we had planned, so we were expecting just to be camping out there this time. Things were made worse by the fact that the Monkey River Road was flooded, so we had to make preparatory journeys to the house and to get supplies by sea. Fortunately the weather was pretty kind during the days, so we were able to get our preparations in place.

Also coming along to her house in Bella Vista would be our friend Martha and her three dogs, and of course Rambo who would be going in to be with his family. Three boats, eight people, eight dogs – it was going to be quite a procession.

With the entire house packed up and as much as possible moved upstairs, we had a final dinner with friends Dennis and Wilma, who were visiting their cabana just up the beach. Wilma was flying home next day, so we had sparkling wine and drank a toast. A nice dinner and more wine set us up for the evacuation next day.

During the night I was up and down checking http://www.wunderground.com/ . At midnight, it seemed that Felix was going to make landfall further south. By 5am, it looked certain that we would be safe from all but tropical storms – we called the evacuation off.

We are fortunate in having good insurance and resources, and the thought of losing our house and possessions, though upsetting of course, is not the end of the world. The feeling of possibly losing one’s home, the safe haven we rely on no matter how humble, is deeply disturbing, but made so much easier by the support of friends. In particular – thanks for the offer Craig!!

We are off to have a few days break at Blancaneaux Lodge and in the City. We promise to be better bloggers from now on!

2007-06-25T11:50:00.000-06:00

Hi, this is Chris with an update of the latest news from Steppingstones down here in southern Belize.

Last week we said goodbye to Brian and Kathy Denton who were with us eight days. I should have known we were in for a fun week, because when we met them at the end of the creek next to the airstrip just off the plane, Bryan already had a rod out and had had a barracuda, a snapper and a small jack. And we hadn’t even got to Steppingstones yet.

These two are the undisputed King and Queen of kayaking. Bryan had resolved to carry out a detailed exploration of the area, and at crack of dawn next morning, sure enough he was out paddling into the pre dawn half light. He came back with a nice inshore barracuda of around 8lbs, plus a snapper and one or two other smaller fish. Bryan uses a combination of light lures and flies weighted with a shot for casting on a light spinning rod. This seems to work well and during the week he put this to good use around Great Monkey Caye and surrounding area. On one of his trips, Bryan surprised a manatee which shot off, and a few minutes later surfaced right beside his kayak. As the manatee we bigger than the kayak, Bryan decided to back off and leave the manatee in peace. Wise decision.

Bryan saw several tarpon jumping around Greater Monkey Caye as he went around. Next day, Bryan and Kathy paddled right down to Monkey River itself, and while Kathy hitched a lift back with us (we happened to be in the village at the time) Bryan soldiered on up the river jumping tarpon and catching snook on the way.

They also had a foray into the lagoon behind us and Kathy showed she is no mean angler herself by bringing in a mixed bag of six fish. We had hoped to have our long awaited path back to the lagoon open by the time Bryan and Kathy arrived, but due to a long list of circumstances we did not finally finish until the day they left. This path some 400yds long, provides an easy access to the lagoon, and we intend to keep our Kayaks moored down there for guests use.

The day after their long paddle, Bryan and Kathy decided to have a quiet day on the end of our dock. Sunny day, cool breeze, shade, cold drinks, and a couple of rod tips to watch. Very pleasant. Anyway two stingrays later, we were all wondering what next. We did not have long to wait. Bryan hooked into a heavy fish which just moved slowly up and down the end of the dock. Eventually, Bryan coaxed the fish along the side of the dock, in preparation for beaching it. By now we had identified his fish as a big nurse shark. Sue ran off back to the house to get her camera for the trophy shots.

However the shark had other ideas. It suddenly shot right through the dock pilings, and threw the hook. After a 30 minute fight you can imagine Bryan was not best pleased. But, being the angler he is, he baited up again straight away and cast out. Within seconds of his bait hitting the water, rod still in his hands, another fish was on! Sue came rushing down the dock, and we had to explain that in the two or three minutes she was away, Bryan had lost his first fish and hooked a second!

The fish turned out to be another nurse shark, a very tired nurse shark in fact because Bryan more or less towed it straight round to the beach where Rambo tailed it. For sure this was the same fish Bryan had lost minutes earlier. Anyway we estimated it at around 60lbs, not quite a record but a superb fish all the same. So the quiet day on the dock turned out quite hectic after all.

Next day at 5.30 am, disaster strikes. Our 26ft centre console skiff Patience sunk off our dock.

So it was all hands on deck (yes guests included) to try to prevent a complete capsize. One of our local friends took his boat down to the village and came back with a boatful of volunteers, plus another boat captained by George, our lead guide. So we ended up with about fourteen of us all shouting instructions at each other and waving arms in the air. I remember thinking at the time that amongst the fourteen different ideas how to save the boat, one of them must be right and would work. But which one?

Well after about an hour we managed to get the boat upright, and thankfully the sea moderated enough to stop more water coming over the side. Our heavy duty pump was called into action and with additional frantic baling, the boat was soon re-floated. The boys towed poor Patience down to the village for cleaning and an engine check. Miraculously, no water got into the engine so a big bill was averted. The inquest into what happened concluded that we had the mooring lines too tight, and a sudden change in wind direction over night was enough to swamp the boat. All in all a lucky escape.

Bryan and Kathy had another early call next morning, this time for their trip out to the reef. The chosen day proved to be easily the best weather, and we awaited their return confident that they would do well. We were not disappointed, and neither were they. Besides two really good barracuda, both double figures, they caught a box full of tuna which were very welcome. We distributed the fish around the neighborhood. The bits and pieces after Rambo had cleaned them, were fed to the ever watchful frigate birds who have learned that 6pm over Steppingstones is a good place to circle. These birds must have incredibly sharp eyes. They fold their wings into a swing wing shape and plunge at high speed after the bits and pieces. We never tire of this spectacle, and use it as another little memory for our guests to photograph.

So Bryan and Kathy left on their way back to Kansas. In the course of their two visits they have become firm friends, and we shall miss them. But as Kathy said, we shall be back next year!

2007-05-09T11:29:00.000-06:00

This is Chris with the latest news from Steppingstones, here in Southern Belize.

Well our last guests of the winter/spring season, Ken and John, have been and gone. A week dominated by strong winds and choppy seas. Quite unusual for us, but despite this the fish were obliging as usual. Ken had his first ever permit, a fish of around five pounds and both he and John had plenty of bonefish to report, including respectable fish to the four pound mark. They also jumped their share of tarpon which seem to be going back to their old haunts in Monkey River. Just before they left, Ken and John got a wave goodbye from two huge dolphins that cruised by just off the end of our dock one morning.

So now we enter what is laughingly called our low season. May to November is the traditional quiet time for guests to this part of the world. Thing is, no one told the fish! The permit are suddenly not being chased all over the flats, so they shoal up and just hang about. Ditto the bonefish who seem not to be bothered enough to spook even when we do have guests. The lack of fishing pressure during our summer months means plenty of top class fishing. Snappers are feeding like crazy out on the cayes, so much so that some of the reserves are restricting entry! We have lost count of the number of times our guides have come up to Steppingstones in their boats through shoals of baitfish being hit by tarpon, snook etc, asking where the fishermen are. Still it does give us a chance to do all those maintenance jobs that got put off. It also gives yours truly and Sue a chance to get out ourselves and chalk up some decent fish.

Sue has been busy taking cuttings and planting seeds ready for the start of the rainy season when she has big plans for garden expansion. Everywhere we go we seem to come back with another bunch of purloined branches, sometimes even clipped from the wild.

Rambo has been working hard on the path and found a little friend out there one day. She was put back undisturbed of course.

Big news at the moment is that we are in the early stages of organising a Monkey River Village Festival to be held on August 18th this year. The central feature of the Festival will be a fishing competition open to all and sundry. This is our first attempt at this, but already the Governor General of Belize, Sir Colville Young has agreed to attend as guest of honour. Apart from the fishing competition itself there will be children’s and adult games, a football tournament, Jankunu Stick Dancing (no, we don’t know either), face painting, a massive fish and lobster Bar B Q, and an open air dance in the evening.

The fishing competition will be by boat, and we hope to have some substantial cash prizes. Besides all the local boats turning out, we expect to see boats from surrounding villages, and perhaps from further afield. We intend to make this an annual event. Anyone interested in taking part should contact us for details as accommodation is going to be limited.

2007-03-25T11:32:00.000-06:00

Hi Sue here,

Thought you might like to see some of the things we have come across whilst making the new path to the Secret Lagoon - nearly finished by the way. These animals were put back where they were found - both had come out onto our path, regarding it as a good place to lay eggs. Needless to say, their nest sites will go undisturbed. Full credit to Rambo and Carlos for finding these creatures and returning them safely to the wild - with not a hint of the cooking pot around!

More news of the path soon - we'll have tarpon at the bottom of our garden!

2007-03-25T11:31:00.000-06:00

This is Chris with the latest news from Steppingstones.

Our guests from Florida have now left; with, we hope, some good memories from their short break with us.

Although they only managed one day out at the reef they brought back some pretty good fish, including a nice lure-caught grouper and some good sized snapper by Lupe, some good sized kingfish, and a stunning ocean triggerfish caught by Jeff who spotted it on the surface, which was at least 10lb if not more. It is worth noting that the world record triggerfish is 13 pounds 8 ounces!

Jeff had particularly asked for a session with the bonefish as none of their party had ever caught one. George put them on a huge shoal and in Jeff's words "we caught them till we got fed up with them, and then moved on". Both Julie and Melissa caught their first bonefish too, much to their delight. Jeff also notched up a permit around 10lb just for good measure.

The best of the fish ended up on the barbeque, with a massive triggerfish steak as the centre piece. I have never had cooked triggerfish before, Sue usually prepares ceviche (raw fish, chopped cilantro, onion, chili and lime juice) Triggerfish is reckoned to be the ultimate fish to use for ceviche. However our guests convinced me to throw it on the barbeque, promising me a steak reminiscent of lobster! And so it was. Absolutely delicious. That's another little lesson learned at the barbeque!

We are also still learning about the fishing here, and the capture of several good fish (plus the loss of several even bigger) only serves to confirm that there is still plenty to discover. Deep trolling in conjunction with a fishfinder is something which needs more experimentation and this we will be doing over the coming months.

On their second day, Jeff and Lupe decided to have a day's bottom fishing using the bonita caught the previous day. They also had some live mullet which George had caught early that morning. Fishing just off Little Monkey Caye, half a mile away from Steppingstones, free-lining mullet, Jeff hit into a lunker which wedged itself into a rock crevice in ten feet of water and refused to move. Despite rushing back here for snorkels and masks, alas when they returned the fish had made good its escape. Another big grouper lost!

So on day three, even though the sea had turned a little choppy, our guests went out exploring the surrounding lagoons, and of course Monkey River, where they jumped four tarpon and landed one.

We are very lucky to have really good inshore fishing around our two cayes, plus the extensive mangrove lagoons and Monkey River as well as the offshore cayes, reef and the Port Honduras area to fish. Thus even when the sea does turn choppy, there are always places to go and catch some good fish.

Pictures will follow shortly.

2007-02-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

Chris and I have been promising ourselves a visit to Red Bank to see the scarlet macaws for some time now. there are only around 150 macaws in Belize, and during the winter around 100 of them move from Cayo district down to Red Bank, a Mayan village in Stann Creek, to feed on the Pole Wood fruits they find there.

Guests Keith Bourne and Shelia Lamb and the Sharman family, Paul, Pang and Aranya, were all keen to go on this trip, so very early one morning last week we all bundled into Patience and went round to the Monkey River car park to rendezvous with our friend Basillio Mes of Exotic Belize Tours.

We were soon on our way up the Monkey River road which is an adventure in itself, especially as Basillio is the Mayan Michael Schumacher, and also talks nineteen to the dozen as he drives. Fortunately he is an excellent driver, and our roads, though rough, are empty.

Red Bank is a delightful Maya village with mainly traditional houses, very peaceful and pretty and a thriving community, with 270 children attending the local school. Basillio grew up here, and our first stop was at his aunt’s house. In the front of her house there is a small shop, and next to it is a magnificent diesel powered corn grinding machine, where she grinds the local corn for tortillas, the staple of the Maya diet.

In fact, Mayans believe that the first humans grew from corn, so it has great significance for them as the symbol of life as well as practical value as a principle food. There are maize field all aroundthe village.

Basillio ordered lunch for us which we were to eat later, then we drove on to the start of our walk. We parked in a leafy lane, and walked through to a large tree filled glade, very lovely, which is a camping ground for tourists, though there was no-one to be seen there. We saw a red vented woodpecker who very obligingly posed for us, as well as a troop of toucans in the tree canopy above.

“It’s quite a walk,” declared Basillio. “We’ll take it steady.” My heart sank. Why is it that whenever I go anywhere with Basillio I end up watching him spring up a vertical path like a goat in front of me while I labour along behind feeling as if I am going to have a stroke at any minute? This time was no different. Chatting soon became more difficult as the path grew steeper and steeper. This is saying something as Basillio and I can chat for Belize! Well, it was me having the difficulty. At one point, Basillio seemed to have hunched over and be examining his hands. Then I realized, “Basillio, you’re not texting are you?!” Talk about one foot in the modern world, the other in the Mundo Maya – Basillio was messaging his brother whilst half way up what felt like the highest mountain in Belize.

“How about a snack?” asked Basillio, bending over and picking up a small twig. “Oh, no,” said I, “you’re not going to make us eat…” But oh yes – it was termites! Basillio scraped away the outside of a termite nest and stuck the twig in. Out it came with a few crunchy protein morsels attached. “Tastes like carrots,” said Basillio, seriously. Well, must be some kind of Mayan carrots. Actually, they taste a bit smoky, and not at all unpleasant. if I’m ever lost in the jungle, I’ll eat them to survive, though lord knows how many make a meal! Our gallant crew (most of them anyway) all had their termite snack, which must have fortified us, as eventually, and for some of us, surprisingly, we made it to the top, where there is a look out point.

A few birders were already there, and one had a monocular set up trained on the macaws across the valley. “Just look through that” invited the friendly owner of this superb piece of kit. I did, and WOW! – two beautiful macaws sitting on a tree 300 yards away, snacking on pole wood fruits, and looking as if you could reach out and touch them. Aranya was next up and got a look, but then the birds flew away, so the rest of the party missed this view.

We settled down quietly, and Paul, who is a pro photographer and was official photographer on the day, set up his camera with zoom lenses. The view down the valley was spectacular, with the Swazey branch of the Monkey River lying like a discarded silver ribbon on a green velvet cloak in the valley bottom.

Our patience was rewarded. The raucous cries of macaws rang up the hillside. “They’re flying!” said Basillio in a hushed, excited voice. Sure enough, through the valley came a small flight of macaws, scarlet, blue and gold, and looking larger than I had imagined. The blue was the very colour of the tropical sky, the gold is like the evening sun, and the scarlet is that of the deepest scarlet hibiscus. Truly the epitome of the tropics, and for me, a peak experience that I will never forget.

We sat and chatted quietly with the other bird watchers, saw macaws coming and going though always on the far side of the valley. Sometimes if you are lucky you see them close up – but we had to work for our sighting.

On the way down, which was much easier than going up, we had leisure to look at the trees, plants and other small birds and creatures around us. We all felt very pleased with ourselves, and the shade of the jungle made it a pretty pleasant descent.

Once back in Red Bank, we enjoyed watching Basilio’s aunt and cousins making tortillas on the open fire hearth in traditional style – not put on for the tourists, just what they do every day. The lady guests were entranced by the beautiful happy children, and many photos were taken. The chicken lovers amongst us (me, Keith and Shelia) were entranced by the lovely chickens, and a deal was made for me to go and buy some of auntie’s chickens in the near future to add to the diversity of our flock. Keith was green with envy!

We sat down to a nice lunch of caldo (spicy chicken stew) and tortillas, washed down with water, and finally returned home at around 2pm after a quick shopping stop in Independence.

Later that night we all had a barbecue on the beach, there was a great feeling in the air, we had had such a wonderful day together and seen something that very few people in the world have seen.

The photos here are from Paul and Shelia.

2007-02-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is Chris with the latest from Steppingstones, here in Southern Belize. Sue is promising to write up a blog very soon – she claims to be busy!

When guests Keith and Sheila left our dock bright and early the other morning aboard George's boat, Vagabund (Creole for vagabond), a perfect dawn was breaking and weather reports and fishing reports were all favourable. As I watched the boat easing its way through the coral heads on its way out to the reef, I told Sue that I would be firing up the barbeque in advance of their return, so confident was I that a box full of fish would be coming ashore later in the day.

And so it proved. About 10 miles off shore there is an exploratory oil rig which has been there about 2 months now. This rig is becoming a magnet for all the fish in the area, and in short order Keith and Sheila had barracuda, Spanish mackerel, and kingfish coming in at regular intervals, plus Sheila's now customary needlefish. How DOES she do it? Later, they ran the rest of the way out to the reef, where George spotted a huge shoal of yellowfin tuna ripping the surface of the sea to a foam. Keith estimated the shoal was over 100 yards long. Needless to say this yielded the kind of mayhem that only hungry tuna can provide. However even this level of catching eventually becomes wearing, so they moved on to new challenges, picking up some nice snappers along the way.

It was there, right out of the blue (literally), that a group of whale sharks made an unseasonable appearance. So fishing was suspended while Keith and Sheila took time to watch these magnificent, huge, gentle creatures, which came so close that they could have reached out and touched them.

So when Keith and Sheila finally came in, the barbeque was ready and we dined on snapper fillets, tuna steaks and kingfish steaks. As Keith remarked, life does not get much better than that day had been. However I reminded him that the next day (their last day) was still to come, and that he had an early morning date with the grouper on the rough ground a few miles offshore.

Keith had proved himself to be a bit of a grouper magnet, so I was not surprised when he came in with a nice grouper as well as some good sized snappers all caught bottom fishing. Unfortunately it was one of those days when the several big fish he hooked all broke off. Any one of those would have turned a memorable day into a red letter day, but as we all know, fishing is like that sometimes. But there is always next time….

We are still experimenting with the grouper here. There are certainly much bigger fish around than the ones we and our guests have managed to land whether offshore, a hundred yards in front of Steppingstones, or even from the beach itself. Rambo has had four big fish break off recently whilst out in one of our pedallos with a handline. The last of these left him with a nasty cut on his thumb as he tried to play the fish. We suspect grouper are responsible but tackle needs to be beefed up to cope with these heavyweights.

We are coming up to peak grouper season, as the fish come to spawn around Glovers reef in April, May and June. Some 25 species collect there, and the whale shark follow them to feast on the resulting plankton. We are going to suggest that grouper caught in this area at this time by our visitors are strictly catch and release – but we should get some big beasts this year all going well, if we have to go and catch them ourselves!

We have noticed a much higher density of baitfish around our dock over the past few months and we have concluded that our new dock lights installed just before Christmas are responsible. This is having the very welcome knock on effect of drawing other predators closer in. We are getting many more blue runners from the dock than we did last year, and barracuda too.

The February issue of Sport Fisherman has a five page feature on the fishing at and around Steppingstones, featuring Chris Woodward, Editor of the magazine and her husband Spud who had a memorable stay with us last August, and also of course featuring our friend and head guide, Ian Cuevas. Chris did a great job for us, the pictures are super. Those of you not in the US will be able to catch up with the article on the Sport Fishing magazine web site when it goes on in a few week’s time.

The photos here are of a typical jack and a nice 45lb tarpon caught by the two Steves at Xmas time. We should have more fishing pics for you soon when Paul and Keith get theirs sorted out.

2007-02-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hi. This is Chris with news of our recent activities.

Over the past couple of weeks fishing has been pretty good, with all sorts of surprises from unexpected places.

Pride of place goes to Paul Sharman, who on his first day out managed a fly- caught permit of 12lb and a tarpon of 35lbs in quick succession, but his chance of a grand slam disappeared when the bonefish mysteriously went missing. Unfortunately, the area he was fishing whilst excellent for permit, can be unpredictable for bonefish, but I guess that's fishing. The tarpon seem to be a bit hit and miss right now, but over the past week Paul has managed to jump several on lures and flies.

Out at the cayes, Paul also had a day with the bonefish, and besides catching his share, his wife Pang and daughter Aranya both had their first fly caught bonefish. The bonefish are on fire right now in the lower cayes, with excellent fishing conditions. Paul also took his first snook, a fine fish of 12lbs. He went on to jump more tarpon and snook on fly and lure in the mangroves and in our secret lagoon, fishing from one of our kayaks. He also almost literally bumped into a manatee busy grazing in the shallows.

From the beach, another guest Keith Bourne took an unusual grouper on a shallow running lure right in close, and followed this up by a nice blue runner. We have a ton of baitfish close in right now, and this is attracting in some unusual visitors, besides the huge dolphin which cruised gently past a few days back. Aranya Sharman probably raised the most eyebrows with a lookdown caught on a strip of fish from our dock with almost her first cast.
The lookdown is a strange-looking fish more often seen offshore.

Keith's wife, Sheila spent an entire afternoon trying to hook one of the needlefish which patrol our dock. These long beaked fish will attack bait and small lures readily but are very difficult to hook, and up until now no one has managed to get one in. Eventually however, Sheila's persistence paid off, and we were treated to a display of aerobatics and short dazzling runs before she finally got the needlefish in. Keith however was not to be bested, and an hour later caught an even bigger needlefish casting further down the beach. This kind of fun fishing can be great for the family and provides a change of pace from the serious business of stalking permit and bone fish or tugs of war with barracuda, kingfish and the like out on the cayes.

Our guests all went on our Night Croc Watch a couple of nights back with our nature guide Babe (Winsley Garbutt), accompanied by Sue. This involves a four hour slow creep up Monkey River by boat, spotting crocodiles, birds, iguanas, bats and other creatures. The guides spot the crocs by the torch's reflection from their eyes. These can range from little baby snappers to fourteen foot giants who are definitely not to be messed with. Babe even managed to gently lift a 24 inch croc dazzled by the torch beam into the boat. Needless to say Babe was very careful how the croc was handled, holding it behind its head so it could not bite anyone. This however did not stop the croc growling with indignation like a puppy at having his evening disturbed.

The Croc Watch is not confined to crocs, as many species of birds roost along the river bank at night, and with care you can approach very close and get a good look , without them flying off,. Other animals seen besides loads of crocs of different sizes, were frogs, iguanas, possum and bats and a solitary mouse. It was a beautiful dark starry night, ideal for getting close up and personal with the inhabitants of Monkey River.

Yesterday Sue took a party by boat into one of our nearby villages to pick up some supplies and do a little shopping. On the way there, they passed an osprey flying with a live fish wriggling in its claws, and a little later, a turtle busily swimming along. A bit further on a manatee came into view with its calf in attendance. On the way back a dolphin swam slowly passed, so they stopped for a while and got some good photos. I suppose it is not often you get to see such sights on your way to shopping!

Finally as part of our work with the Belize Humane Society, we have helped to rehome a six month old abandoned puppy called Jazzee, who for the second time in her short life has found herself homeless. Jazzee will be coming to live down the beach from us, with Richard and Joy who look after a new house being built for some American friends of ours, Dennis Okane and Wilma Lingle. So a sad little story ends well.

Today Keith and Sheila have been taken out to the cayes for a days fishing, so we await their return, barbeque at the ready!

Sue will be reporting on our trip to see the red macaws of Red Bank. More later, and more pictures when we get them from Paul Sharman, who has been photographer in chief lately as he is a journalist and wildlife photographer by profession..

2007-01-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hi, Chris here, my turn to blog.

Finally, the pictures we promised are posted to this blog.

One of our guests, gazing into the water off our dock recently, casually asked us if we knew we had sea horses in residence! Sure enough, when we looked we found pretty little sea horses feeding off the algae on the piles of our dock. This was a revelation because they are so well camouflaged they can easily be missed, as we had proved! So in addition to the snappers, barracuda, needlefish, Nemo (the black and yellow stripy one) and the rest, we have yet another resident species.

Talking of needlefish, we have quite a few tiny baby needlefish around the dock feeding on microscopic fry and larvae. I spotted one last night which was all of three inches long and had grabbed a tiny fish which was way too big for it to swallow, so it was swimming around with the unfortunate fish clamped across its jaws, obviously unsure what to do next! Big brother needlefish however had no such problem. He (she) spent yesterday afternoon stalking a huge shoal of baitfish that appeared from nowhere, picking off the stragglers at the tail of the shoal. We were on standby, rods at the ready, in case some larger predators followed the baitfish in. This time however, nothing showed up. A big baitfish shoal is a magnet to blue runners in particular, and they in turn attract other bigger predators within casting range.

One visitor we did get was a full size, solitary dolphin, which cruised slowly by, about sixty yards offshore the other morning. Quite a spectacular sight in flat calm water. Dolphins seem to come in very close along our beach, and we frequently get an escort of three or four around the boat as we run out to the reef. It could be that they are hunting in the fish rich waters at the mouth of nearby Monkey River. Certainly the kingfish come into the shallow river estuary to feed as Spud Woodward, one of our guests back last summer proved, when he had one take a bait right at the river mouth.

Currently we have John and Amanda Bennet staying with us. John is a keen fly fisher who until now had never fished warm salt water. We promised him a crash course in screaming reels and hooped rods. Well first cast on his first day out he hooked his first permit, but as sometimes happens, the fish surges off and a knot slips. It happens to all of us sometimes, but very frustrating for all that. John went on to get amongst the bonefish, and next day finally got his longed-for permit. Not a monster, but as Ian says, a permit is a permit. John also got an 8lb jack which towed him all over the place before coming in. In between boat trips with Ian, John has been exploring Great Monkey Caye which lies about 700yds off our beach dead in front of Steppingstones. He moors the kayak, and then wades the small flats at the northern tip of the caye. This has produced snappers, barracuda etc for John all on fly.

This type of approach often yields an unexpected bonus, in John’s case, a close encounter with a manatee (aka sea cow) grazing the extensive grass beds that surround the caye. Belize has quite a population of manatees, and here in Southern Belize we have one of their major breeding grounds. In many parts of the world manatee are under threat from man, most often because of collisions with fast moving boats in shallow water. Apparently the manatee which spends all its day grazing on sea grass, has poor hearing and cannot hear approaching boats. The locals here are well aware of the importance of this protected species, and everyone watches out for them.

Rambo, our resident handyman, has just got back from a short kayak trip to get a couple of snappers for his supper. He fishes with a baited handline local style. I used to sneer at this until I saw how successful he is! This time he came in having had both his lines broken by big fish in the channel right in front of us. I suspect this may be groupers straying from the reef, as I had the same thing happen in the same area. Whatever it was it just bolted into a coral outcrop and that was that.

On another front, Sue and I have been planting sprouting coconuts all along the highwater mark on the beach. We discovered that coconuts cannot be successfully transplanted once strongly rooted, but a sprouted coconut will turn into a viable palm tree within three years or so. It is the nature of a wild uncultivated beach that coconut palms eventually fall down into the sea unless well-rooted. So we decided to give nature a helping hand by planting “sprouties” all along the beach, to replace the ones which have fallen in over the years.

We still have plenty of mature palms, and a vast excess of coconuts. We use the palm fronds for shading of our chicken run, the husks and shells as barbeque fuel, and the nut meat for eating either raw or in dishes like curries etc. Some people enjoy the milk from the green coconuts, this is not a taste we have cultivated ourselves. I have learned how to chop a coconut open with my machete. This is a job which requires concentration and a good eye, otherwise your fingers are going to be at risk.

2007-01-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

Ian stopped by last night and brought us Black Cake to try. This is a traditional Belizean Christmas treat, and is almost exactly like Christmas pudding – delicious. So we will be having that with custard some time soon. Ian’s arrival coincided with my making a large batch of piccalilli, so Ian is on a promise for a jar of that. He also went away with some of my special fruit cake – it’s become quite a foodie exchange! However we couldn’t persuade him to stay to dinner – liver and bacon – not a Creole favourite. Anyway, while he was here, we decided to do some fishing together this weekend.

Today’s plan was to explore the upper reaches of Monkey River, where tarpon had been in abundance earlier in the week. When we woke at 6am it was wild and squally, so we thought Ian would probably call it off. However, the weather brightened up, and at 8am Ian in Opportunity drew up at our dock. We scrabbled everything together and proceeded up the river.

Once on the river the sun came beaming out, there was a cool breeze, and the water was good and low. The wildlife turned out in force, we saw dozens of different birds including magnificent ospreys, a pygmy kingfisher, which we hadn’t seen before, and a large flock of parrots squawking away to themselves as they flew overhead.

There were lots of sandbanks, so we were keeping our eyes peeled for one of our favourite denizens of the river, and sure enough, it wasn’t long before we spotted what looked like a log on a sandbank up ahead - a log that got up and swim into the river. As we passed the spot, we saw the creature’s two eyes examining us, before it sank to safety below the surface. A few minutes later, we spotted a small croc in the margins, pretending it couldn’t see us, and further on we just saw the ripples that a real big fellow left as he slipped out of danger.

Crocs aplenty were around, but no sign of the tarpon. We motored slowly up the river until we came to where Monkey River branches to become the Bladen and the Swazey rivers. Taking the Bladen branch, we stopped at a likely place for a cast or two. I made my usual choice, a jointed Thunderstick, old and battered, but still effective. Ian suggested we try some surface lures, so Chris hauled out his old favourite the Top Prop in fire tiger.

Now, Ian loves to take the mickey out of our lures, and he is occasionally right. “That would make a good toy,” he laughed when he saw Chris spinning the Top Prop. “Ian,” I said, “I give you a friendly warning, don’t laugh too soon.” Sure enough, first cast, and Chris was into a small yet feisty machaca, a local freshwater fish. We caught nothing else at that spot, and carried on up river. Then the clouds gathered, and it began to rain. Really rain, the way it does here. “Who packed the waterproofs?” Well actually, in our rush to get out, nobody had. We had two pairs of waterproof trousers, one of which I wore as a combination hat and shawl, very chic, the other as standard trousers. Chris just got wet. In the end we were both so wet it didn’t matter, we just carried on fishing in likely spots.

But the tarpon were nowhere to be seen – it wasn’t going to be our day. So we made our way back down river, the sun came out, and we amused ourselves drying out and spotting iguanas. At this time of year the males are easier to spot as they are in their rusty orange mating colouring. We are certainly getting better at creature spotting as our eyes get use to the jungle. The iguanas tend to rest in the fork of a tree; we saw some pretty big ones, including one which was so surprised by our presence that he fell with a loud splash into the water – an iguana escape route.

Turtles were perched on logs sticking out of the water, we saw six the size of dinner plates sitting solemnly on one log. They plopped one by one into the water, they are rather shy. The whole scene was quite idyllic, and despite no fish and having got wet to the bone.

So, not a vintage day for fishing, but a really enjoyable morning on the river none the less. Tomorrow, weather permitting, out to the reef!

2007-01-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

This will be a shortish message; I just wanted to share some pictures from Steve Wade and Steve Polley, our most recent guests – we miss you guys! Just for the record, Steve Wade's tarpon was estimated at 45lbs and like the double figure jack crevalle caught by Steve Polley, took a lure. Also have the promised chicken pictures of the new punk girls, Holly, Ivy and Tinsel, Tinsel is the baby with Wozina, her adopted mum.

Last night I cooked for the first time a Belizean delicacy, gibnut, sometimes known as Royal Rat (because it was given to the Queen to eat when she visited here). This particular specimen was shot by our friend George whilst it was raiding his vegetable garden, digging up yams. Various of George's friends and relatives got a piece, and I was forewarned by Joy, George’s granddaughter, that this particular gibnut must have been about 90 years old, it was so tough.

So I decided to try a little science, and knocked down a few wild papayas from our tree, broke them open, and smeared them all over the meat – a piece of belly I think. The idea is that the enzymes in papaya act as a tenderizer. After a couple of hours, I rinsed the papaya goo off and marinated the joint with sesame oil, brown sugar, chopped garlic and fresh orange juice for a couple of hours. Then it was cooked in the oven on a low light for about three hours.

The result? Delicious and tender! It’s a bit like pork or maybe more like wild boar. Anyway, it’s very good, and just a pity that we don’t get it more often. They are wild animals though the odd one is kept in the village, as pets I think. It would be interesting to know why they aren’t farmed, though I have heard that there are some plans to set up smallholdings with gibnut farming. I have a permanent request with the local hunters for “Gibnut please!” but so does everyone else!

We managed to hatch just one egg from the latest clutch, and I was pleased to even have that as Wozina deserted the nest midway through to look after Tinsel and I didn’t notice in time. Spotty was put on the nest to finish the brooding, and she has been rewarded by a beautiful little baby of whom she is very proud. Now it seems that I may have yet another chicken going broody, must be a dry season phenomenon.

We killed a couple of roosters the other day, not my favourite job but it has to be done. Rambo and I do the dirty deed as a joint project, as we are both a bit soft (Chris’s function is chief taster). Turns out that we have an interesting variant, black skin chicken – actually more like grey, with dark flesh. This is highly prized by Chinese people apparently, cooked with ginseng it is supposed to do wonders. We will be serving it up as coq au vin to our next guests, should we warn them?

I have also found out that my punk chickens are frizzles, this is a genetic condition which makes the feathers stick out, and can be bred for. So looks as if we will have the frizzle strain in future chickens. I think they are cute, but as apparently it isn’t a good idea to breed frizzle to frizzle, it means we will be culling the frizzle roosters quite young.

Well, that’s all for today, off to do some work in the garden. More news soon.

2007-01-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well after something of a busy time, I finally have a moment to sit down and wish our readers a happy new year. We have been full since the end of November and we now have a little break until our next guests arrive.

Fishing has been superb, with the highlight for us a 70lb nurse shark caught by Steve Polley from the end of our dock. Very expertly handled on 20lb line and a 2 3/4lb rod, and witnessed by an admiring crowd including Ian and his little girl Ariel, who had her first close up sight and touch of a shark. Steve Wade, Steve Polley, Sue Polley, Ian Zeffert and Larry Schlorff all had memorable fishing firsts, including snook, tarpon, bonefish, permit and much more.

Steve and Ros Wade stayed with us for five weeks, and they are now more or less part of the family, they are promising to come again next year. We had to examine their luggage carefully when they left, as they were threatening to kidnap Faye and Suzie Q, as did Steve and Sue Polley. I think the dogs were a little tempted by the thought of delicious Sainsbury’s dog food!

We had some rather chilly (by our standards) weather at the beginning of December, a low sat over the western Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico and didn’t seem to want to move. The rainy season has gone on and on, but seems to have more or less ended now. By the middle of the month much nicer weather set in and we had day after day of very calm weather, perfect for fishing with just a little light cloud to cool things down.

One of the fun things which guests have been doing this winter is spending time catching pretty little fish from the end of the dock. These included a sea horse – one of two which we have spotted hanging around the posts of our dock. Steve P caught this by hand, though we disallowed this from our record list! Our little black and yellow pet fish, Nemo and Nemetta, resisted capture to the end. Probably the best small fish caught was a 10” long leather fish, caught by Sue P, quite a monster for this species.

The big news is, I suppose, that we now have our backup generator up and running. Having run just on solar seamlessly for 18 months, the day the generator was installed we needed to run it. A combination of a full house with some of the strangest, most overcast weather we have experienced meant that the solar couldn’t cope on its own – at least, not without having to cut back electricity consumption drastically, which is not ideal when we have guests. The generator has coped beautifully, it runs very quietly and the fuel consumption is excellent, so we are very pleased with it. It lives in the new generator building, which Rambo has built behind the old generator building, and which is surrounded by an area which will become a garden, with a cane fence. It is painted a fetching lilac colour, and actually looks quite nice.

Christmas was suitably jolly, with traditional Christmas dinner with turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing, peas and yes, brussels sprouts! We also had Christmas pud surrounded by hibiscus flowers and carried out to the veranda in the dark, looking very pretty, finally cheese and port. Ian joined us for dinner, and he enjoyed the “white woman food” and the Christmas traditions.

So what lovely pressies did you get, I hear you ask? Well, Chris had two boxes of his favourite sweeties, Maynard’s Wine Gums, also we had a lovely Sunday newspaper and a dvd from Robert, and a cd holder for the truck from Sam and Martha, shortbread and Harrod’s jam from Steve and Ros, oh, and I got three new chickens.

The chickens are kind of punk looking with sticky out feathers, I spotted them at Maya Centre, the village where the jaguar reserve is situated, while we were stopping off to buy Maya crafts. I asked the lady there if she would sell me some, and went back and bought two hens, a black one and a white one. The lady gave me a small brown one as a Christmas present – not sure if it’s a rooster or a hen, I hope it’s a rooster. They are called Holly, Ivy and Tinsel.

Tinsel was put into the broody coop where Wozina was sitting on some eggs. He is rather small, so he was safe in there rather than being loose with the main flock. After a couple of days, Wozina abandoned her eggs, figuring that there was a lovely baby there that she could have for her own, without all this sitting around. I had to hastily put another broody on the eggs, hopefully I noticed in time that Wozina had left them, and they should hatch in a few days time. Meantime, Wozina thinks Tinsel is the most lovely baby in the world, and makes a huge mother hen fuss of him all day long. The pair will be moved to the main coop if we manage to hatch the eggs.

We have too many roosters at the moment, so next week we will be doing a bit of culling, not our favourite job, but we will have some nice coq au vin to show for it. You really can’t get sentimental about the chickens. We only name those we plan to keep as broodies or roosters, and some of the layers get named.

Well, now we are about to watch Man Utd and Newcastle on TV, come on you Reds!

2006-12-09T03:10:00.000-07:00

Since we last posted we have been joined by our first guests of the season, Ros and Steve from the UK and their friends Fran and Larry from the US, so we have had a busy couple of weeks which have just flown by.

One of the first things which everyone wanted to do was get out and explore, and our new kayaks were put to good use by Steve and Larry, and they were joined in a small flotilla by Ros and Fran in one of the pedallos - excellent leg exercise, better than a Stairmaster, everyone agrees - better views certainly.

Steve, Fran and Larry are all anglers - Ros likes cooking and eating the catch and just watching the world go by. They have done a lot of beach fishing, and early on were rewarded by barracuda, snook and a fine mutton snapper to Steve from the beach. They've also done quite a bit of river and lagoon fishing with our head guide Ian Cuevas this week, which has been rather tough going, although yesterday they were rewarded for all their efforts with some decent snook.

The Western Caribbean has been enduring an unusual cold front which has meant that we have had cool, rainy, cloudy weather, and this has sent the local fish into the sulks. Could it be the effects of El Nino this year? Luckily for us, even with this unseasonal weather, Ian managed to work out the pattern of the fish movement and successful predict where the snook would be yesterday - but it has been quite hard this week.

Larry and Fran leave us today, Ros and Steve stay on for another three weeks. Later today we will be joined by two British anglers, also friends of Ros and Steve, Ian and another Steve, it is going to be interesting as the Brits are likely to be very competitive!

OUr four guests usually have their winter holiday in the Anna Maria Island, Florida area, which can be quite cold apparantly in the winter, and they are amazed at how warm it is here in Belize despite the cloud, especially at night. Chris and I, being acclimatised, just pile on the blankets once it gets below 70.

One of the highlights of this week was a night trip up Monkey River spotting crocodiles and birds. Seems an unlikely thing to do, but the jungle comes alive at night and animals and birds are much easier to see. Our guide was Winsley Garbutt (Babe as he is known) and his ability to spot birds, animals and even insects in the dark is nothing short of breathtaking. Traveling along the river in the cool of the evening, we saw dozens of beautiful roosting birds, iguanas, racoons, roosting bats and of course crocs. We were able to get really close to everything except the biggest croc, the smaller ones you could reach out and touch - not recommended. Oh, I should say that once Babe spots the animal, we illuminate it with torches. Really a great trip and recommended for any nature lover visiting.

The weather seems likely to turn kinder and more normal during the coming week, so we hope to have some trips to the reef to report soon.

2006-11-26T06:27:00.000-07:00

This is a really quick blog as we are expecting our first visitors of the season today and we are running around doing all those last minute things.

The big exciting news is that we now have a backup generator to complement our wonderful solar system. The solar system here has run without a break for 18 months, but in the winter, with shorter and sometimes cloudy days, plus guests using extra power, we felt we really had to have a generator. And as if to underline the point, we have a big high pressure sitting over the Gulf of Mexico bringing us cool and cloudy weather. So Chris is enjoying himself reading all his readouts and watching the power come in.

We had a visit to the city last week and went to the Belize Tourist Industry annual cocktail reception, where entertainment was provided by the great Leela Vernon, Queen of Bruk Down. Bruk down is the lively party music of the Kreol kultur, and we have enjoed Leela on the radio since we first came to Belize. She is a lady probably in her 60's, boy, can she sing! We had a great night, and had the pleasure of meeting her after the show and teling her how much we enjoyed it. A very charming and gracious person.

Next night we went to a big charity auction for the Belize Humane Society and Animal Shelter. This was a really successful night, with loads of great things to bid for, we came away with an excellent keg barbecue, which many readers will get to use no doubt, and a trip to Caye Caulker. We have decided that we should be tourists in our own country when the winter season is over, so we'll be reporting on some great Belizean vacation spots, which we hope we can tempt you to try as an add on to your visit to Steppingstones.

As I write, a large flock of parrots is flying over the jungle, making a terrific racket. The sea is calm as a mill pond, and the sun is breaking through light cloud, turning the sea to silver. As they say on the postcards, wish you were here.....

2006-11-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

We have had a succession of really lovely days here, flat calm, sunny, and with just a little cloud. Earlier this week all the local boat owners gathered in Monkey River Village for the annual boat registration exercise. We club together and bring the inspector down from Placencia - yes, you have to pay government officials to come down here to carry out their job - and he takes photos of all the boats, checks out that they are carrying the correct equipment, and generally keeps us on the straight and narrow, sort of marine version of the UK MOT inspection.
Obviously, this all takes time, so we spent a couple of enjoyable hours chewing the fat with our guides (and watching George catch a double figure snook right in front of the village). We decided that the weather was great, we had nothing urgent to do, so we'd plan on a fishing trip for the next day.
This trip was slated to be something of an in service training session, with George Garbutt and Ian Cuevas doing the fishing, me and Chris observing and learning. The two guides wanted to spend some time together checking out some areas that they don’t fish very often, and also wanted to share their own personal hot spot information with each other. This is all in aid of making sure Steppingstones' guests have the very best fishing experience in Belize - we work hard for you guys!
We were targeting permit, so no need for an early start as permit are highly responsive to the state of the tide; we left around 8.30 am and headed south into the Port Honduras Marine Reserve to the Snake Cayes. The water was mirror calm, making it a really smooth ride, but these conditions are tough for the angler. Fish spotting is easy, but presenting a fly without spooking the ever wary permit is difficult when they can see you even more easily than you can see them.
Early on, while the tide was still low, there was not much fish activity apart from a solitary huge tarpon which swirled at Chris's Zara Spook, and a couple of small barracudas. We did notice quite a few turtles though, mostly green back turtles but one hawkesbill, plus the usual assortment of eagle rays. There seem to be a lot more turtles down south, probably because the Port Honduras Marine Reserve is a strictly controlled area and the turtles, like everything else, can breed in peace.
Ian was poling and George was up front, spotting and fishing. Chris and I were standing on the thwart, straining our eyes to spot fish and to see what Ian and George were seeing. It wasn't long before the guys saw "nervous water" about 100 yards away or more, and sure enough, underneath the nervous water were permit, who obligingly showed us their sickle shaped fins. George made a great cast, but his fly was snatched from under the nose of a permit by a fast moving small jack -damn!
The jack was landed in short order, and we moved on. More permit were spotted on a small flat, we snuck up on them, George fired, and lo and behold, the same thing happened again, this time a snapper snapped up the crab fly before the permit could get to it. Maybe that's why they are called snappers! Although that was not what George called it….
The Snake Cayes are very lovely, just small patches of mangrove really, divided by flats, under a big blue sky, and we spent an hour more searching for permit, finding the odd school, getting in the odd shot, but not having the kind of action we were after. So Ian and George decided to move on to fish the huge lagoon which is in the delta of Deep River, and off we steamed. The sun was beating down, and we were glad to get some breeze as we went along.
Once in the lagoon, a small wind came up, putting a tiny ruffle on the water, which was unusually coloured up. Ian and George were straining to see into the water, and to us it seemed they had no chance of making a spot. Then suddenly, the soft Creole chat backward and forward became urgent and intense, as they both spotted a good fish about 25 yards off the bow at 12 o'clock. George made a cast, twitched the green crab fly back and with a howl of the reel the fight was on.
The fish set off on a fast run which soon had George looking anxiously at the rapidly diminishing backing line on his reel, as the fish headed for a distant island. Eventually it stopped and George got a breather, and was able to start cranking the fish back. About thirty yards off the bow and the fish set off again, and again ran unstoppably for the island some two hundred yards distant. We were all offering advice on what to do if the fish succeeded in going around the island.
By this time George, who had been doing all the casting, decided he had a tired arm, and handed over to Ian. "This is gwan' t' be a fight 'bout ten minutes." he declared. And we settled down to admire Ian's fighting technique.
It's a funny thing, but that ten minute fish seemed to grow bigger and bigger as the fight progressed. We lost count of the number of times it came to the boat, only to turn and proceed to take all of Ian's line right down into the backing. "I jus' don' know how guys ken fight a fish fo' a hour", declared Ian after twenty minutes, labouring away in the sun as we sat back and ate our lunch. "It's a jack," the audience declared after half an hour. "It's a big 'cuda," we decided after an hour. "It's a small foul hooked permit," was the verdict a quarter of an hour later. After an hour and forty minutes, we declared it to be a permit of 24 1/2" nose to fork - a fish of around 17lb which fought like Mohammed Ali on a good day.
Ian and George did a fantastic job. They knew that to horse a fish like that meant to lose it. Fishing with a 7/8 weight rod and 12lb bottom, slow and steady won the race. But what a fish! Ian got into the water to revive it, and we had the feeling that it had been a real battle of wills, with much respect from Ian to the fish - and maybe from the fish to Ian.
We then had a recce round the lagoon, checking out some good looking spots for future exploration. There is such a lot of water to fish around here, that even our guides are still learning. So this year Chris and I have begun working with them to look at new techniques, new place and new ideas, the ones that work will be brought into the mainstream fishing programme for this winter.
On the way back, Chris and I trolled light outfits with very shallow lures, pretty fast up the river. This resulted in three barracuda to me, including a nice one which made a beautiful leap clean out of the water. This was on what Ian calls one of my ugly lures - a battered Storm Jointed Thunderstick in silver scale, which still bears the scars of many Norfolk pike. Chris caught an excellent snapper with a brand new black and silver Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow, but unfortunately it came unstuck right at the boat.
So we had a fun day, learnt a lot, got too much sun, and generally had a great time. There will be pictures available soon, but our pc is sick at the moment so will have to wait until next week probably when it comes back from the pc doctor.

2006-10-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

Chris’s turn to write……………
We finally got away for our long planned two day trip out to Seal Caye, after a combination of other commitments and choppy seas forced a series of postponements. Living here we get the luxury of picking and choosing our fishing days, on the basis of “if today isn't perfect, tomorrow probably will be”.

So Sue and I, with our head guide, Ian Cuevas, roared off at dawn in his boat Opportunity, on a south east course bound for Seal Caye and the channels and gullies which surround it. About ten miles off Monkey River we suddenly realised we had company. A big splash in front of the boat, and we had a pod of dolphin escorting us out to sea. We estimated there were around a dozen dolphins including a pup, swimming alongside us, taking it in turns to take up position one on each bow and one right in front of the boat. They stayed with us for a couple of miles and then disappeared just as suddenly as they had come. Although dolphins are a common sight here, even sometimes right beside our dock at Steppingstones, I never tire of seeing them playing in the water.

Seal Caye is part of the Sapodilla group of cayes, which mark the very southern most tip of Belize's barrier reef, incidentally the longest barrier reef of living coral in the world. Seal Caye itself is a tiny privately owned caye consisting of conch shells and small pieces of coral, maybe 100yd long and 40yds wide with a couple of cabanas on it. This particular area is best known for its permit and bonefish which shoal on the numerous flats in the area. The deep channels, in fact some of the deepest channels inside the reef, are home to a wide variety of sport fish and frequently deep water species will be found there too.

Our plan was to explore the kingfish potential in the area in particular, so we settled down for a morning of deep trolling with 20lb class gear, pulling Yo Zuri L Magnums and Manns Stretch 25’s. It was not long before a wrenching hit and a screaming reel gave us our first fish of the day which turned out to be a barracuda of around 8lbs. Ideal size for dinner. Contrary to popular belief, barracuda meat is not poisonous, and the ciguera toxin associated with them only seems to be a regional problem in some parts of the world. Fortunately, not a problem in this region for barracuda is highly prized as a food fish locally, having meat very similar to cod we used to get back in the UK. Fortunately, unlike cod, barracuda here are prolific, so there is never a shortage of good fish to eat. Nevertheless we only take what we intend to eat, and release everything else. That is just common sense.

So we trolled along through a quiet period with only an occasional flying fish to capture our attention. I had one more hit, but whatever it was pulled free. Then another hit, this time with a long run which is characteristic of kingfish. Sure enough, a kingfish of around 10lbs came into view, a bright bar of silver blue showing deep against the translucent green water. Anyway, in it came and at least confirmed our thoughts that the kingfish are here.

We then decided to take a run outside the reef, and found a channel which Ian's fish finder showed as 150ft, hoping for a tuna or two, but nothing showed up, so we decided to stop for our lunch. We ran in to Nicholas Caye which was nearby, so we could anchor up on the beach and over a picnic lunch of cold chicken with Sue's famous 'chips and dips' decided on our plan for the afternoon.

Ian felt we would be better off inside the reef in the deep channels where we had found the kingfish in the morning. There are also tarpon in this area so this sounded like a good bet. Sue wanted to check out the bonefish in the area first, so as we were on the edge of some flats Ian poled us across, following a huge shoal of bonefish, with a scattering of permit. We did not have a fly rod with us so we watched as the shoal melted away in front of us. We did run across an area where the sand had been stirred up, a common sign of bonefish feeding, but it turned out to be a large eagle ray digging for its lunch.

So back out to the channel just inside the reef. At Ian's suggestion I ran out a Rapala Sliver in needlefish colour. It was not long before my rod ripped around again and this time a nice little bonita came in. The bonita, or false albacore, is extremely common here and large shoals roam around getting preyed on by pretty well everything else, so this was a good sign. The bonita unlike most of the tunas is not particularly good eating, but does make first class cut bait. However as bottom fishing was not on the agenda for today we put the bonita back to rejoin its shoal.

All this time, Sue had been sitting patiently waiting for her turn in the limelight. I turned to make some comment to Ian about this and no sooner were the words out of my mouth than Sue's rod slammed round and she was away. Five minutes later a dark shape appeared under the boat which Ian identified as a grouper. It was not until we got it on board he could positively identify it as a yellow fin grouper, one of the rarer ones apparently! Not a huge fish, but a pretty one, and it fell to a Halco Laser Pro in blue/silver, running at about 12 feet. Interestingly this fish had hit in around 30ft of water, so it had shot up from its coral lair to hit Sue's lure.

One of the really nice things down here is the seemingly endless varieties of fish we bring in. Almost every trip out we see something new. Probably if we spent some time bottom fishing we would see still more species, but we are concentrating on lure fishing for now.

So we trolled onward, running over a coral floor in depths varying from 20 ft down to around 80ft, but nothing much happened apart from one more hit which did not hook up. Then just as we were thinking of running back to Seal Caye, I had another hit and a really nice Spanish mackerel of around 3lb came in. Again not a major sporting fish although a good fish when on light tackle inshore, and not a great eating fish, so back it went. We don’t see Spanish mackerel much bigger than this around here, so it was a good way to end the day.

Ian wanted to get back to Seal Caye before dusk as the channel in to the dock is not marked and requires a careful approach through razor sharp coral heads. So we ran back up to the caye and Ian eased our way in to the dock without incident.

Our hosts Orwin and Pal welcomed us at the dock, and were delighted with our catch of fish. We ate with them that night and crashed out in the very pleasant cabanas they have there, promising an early start in the morning. As usual, after a day on the water we slept like logs and I had great difficulty dragging myself out of bed not long after dawn next day, leaving Sue dead to the world in bed. I wandered down to the dock to find Ian permit spotting in the early morning light. Unbelievably he had located a shoal of permit about thirty yards off the dock on a stony flat just tailing, quite unconcerned about us watching them. Orwin had set a night line and something had made off with his snapper livebait, breaking his line, after first taking a few loops around one of the dock piles. Probably one of the big eagle rays which are common here, although Orwin said he had caught some big snappers off the dock at night.

Well, time for breakfast. We ate a hearty breakfast of refried beans and scrambled eggs (Sue brought out some of our own new laid eggs from Steppingstones as a treat for Orwin and Pal for whom fresh food is a bit of a luxury), plus coffee and fresh squeezed lime juice. We decided over breakfast to run down the inside of the reef, hopping from channel to channel, right down to White Reef at the very tip of the Sapodillas where there was a channel even Ian had not fished.

So, despite some angry looking clouds on the southern horizon we set off. At the beginning of each trip I make a point to get Ian's confirmation of the sea condition since as our guide and captain it is his decision (and his alone) to go to sea or not. Ian has fished these waters man and boy and has learnt to read the weather and sea conditions. Ian had said we might get wet, but the sea was ok. So there we were running down a channel about 30ft deep with the reef marked by a line of jagged rocks and surf about 200yds to the west off our port bow. The day was not as bright as yesterday, but a pleasant breeze was keeping us cool. Ideal kingfish conditions, they love cloud and a bit of a chop.

Our confidence was high and I had one of those 'good feelings' about today. For the first hour or so, however, nothing happened. How could we be so wrong? The lures which had been accepted yesterday were ignored today. Not even a stray barracuda. I decided to run a smaller lure on a light rod just behind the propwash from our boat. I chose a Rapala CD9 Magnum in blue sardine colour. Right on cue my little rod slammed around and the reel screamed as line poured off. I remember thinking, it HAD to be the light rod that got the hit didn't it? Anyway 100yds later the fish stopped and I started pumping it back. Heavy and not much fight I thought. As the fish approached the boat I sensed something was very wrong. Could it be a huge clump of weed? It was not until I hauled in the front half of a 10lb kingfish that the truth was revealed. Something had chopped my catch clean in half!

Whatever could have done that? We speculated it was either a shark or a very big kingfish. I had felt nothing on the line so it was a very sudden and powerful bite whatever it was. We spent the next half hour arguing about whether half fish counted or not. This debate went on until suddenly Sue took centre stage with a good hit followed by a long run and the acrobatics typical of a good barracuda. Eventually the fish came in, estimated at 18lbs or so. It was a male and very thin so we thought it had probably just spawned. In good nick, that would have been a good 25lbs possibly more.

No sooner had that fish been dealt with than Sue's Halco Laser Pro was hit again. This time a long, long run which Sue could do nothing about except watch the line flying off her reel. The fish stopped then started running across behind us, and Sue started gaining line. After ten minutes or so her catch came into view - a 'proper' kingfish and on landing it we reckoned about 25lbs (Sue thought about 30lbs).

By this time I was feeling a bit upstaged so I was relieved when at last my little rod slammed round again and I was clearly into another kingfish. Hopefully I would get the whole fish this time…. I got the fish close to the boat, ready for gaffing, when it suddenly found a new lease of life and made a sudden lunge under the boat. My poor little spinning rod hooped over and then there was a sickening bang as the rod blew up.

Quick as a flash Sue grabbed the 18inch top of my rod and started playing the fish as I frantically let line out from the reel on the butt section of the rod. Then Sue started tiring and Ian took over my rod tip. Ian told Sue to take the helm of his precious boat (which shows how excited he was, letting a woman touch Opportunity). Sue climbed over the seat and took the helm and expertly steered the boat away from the kingfish which seemed determined to cause as much trouble as possible. Despite the desperate situation there was a lot of humour flying around and it became hard to concentrate with all three of us laughing our heads off, shouting comments and instructions at each other.

So a further ten minutes elapsed with Ian playing the fish with (effectively) an 18 inch rod, and me reeling in or giving line as needed. Eventually the fish took pity on us and gave in, and Ian gaffed it one handed. A very skillful balancing act I thought. It was not until we got the fish on the deck that we realised it was foul hooked just behind the gill covers. No wonder it had fought so hard. The kingfish that caused all this trouble was at the end no more than probably 18 to 20lbs, but it gave the three of us a fight to remember.

At this point the weather looked to be closing in, and although the sea was, as Ian had forecast earlier in the day, fairly calm, there were black clouds, and worse, spectacular lightning approaching. So reluctantly we had to turn and run for shore. It was clear from the start of our 50 minute run back we were not going to outrun a front coming down from the north, and so it turned out. We arrived back at our dock like three drowned rats, but somehow after two days full of incident and adventure we hardly noticed. Even though we are lucky enough to live and fish in this little corner of paradise, none of us will forget the trip when teamwork won the day.

2006-10-24T14:22:00.000-06:00

Well, we have had a bit of lull in fishing here, that is, not actually a lull, as we have been catching snapper from the dock for lunch most days, but we have been busy organising our new generator building, and Ian has been busy diving for lobster, so we have found it hard to find a day when we are all free to get out on the reef - hopefully that will be put right soon.

I have been working on the Secret Garden, and the thunbergia I planted has gone quite mad, full of lovely lavender flowers and must be fifteen feet tall. I have planted a honeysuckle and a couple of other climbers, so the framework is starting to take shape. (Well, Geraldine at the nursery says it's a honeysuckle - but not a variety I recognise. We shall see how it gets on.)

The chickens are all doing well although egg production is not what it might be. I am experimenting with cutting out layer mash from their rations, not sure if it is worth it. They spend all day long wandering round the jungle getting as fat as pigs, so they must be getting the protein they need. I kept the adult females in for the past few days, and tried to identify who was laying. The Mennonites now each have blue nail polish on their head, as they are alike as peas in a pod, and I wanted to identify the layers. They are disgusted at their rakish appearance, I think it goes against their religious observance!

The last clutch of eggs produced 7 chicks, 5 roosters and 2 hens. Of course that is too many roosters, so the day will soon arrive when we hav eto decide who is going to be "sopa por Mister Chris" as Rambo puts it. There is one little runt, pure white, who is about half the size of the others, and hasn't feathered up totally. Nicknamed Baldy, he should be first for the pot, but of course, I have developed a soft spot for him. he is a tough little character. I really don't want his genes in the flock, but I just like him. Another pure white beauty, Paxo, has chosen himself, then it's between three fairly non descript brown chaps. Still, they have a little while yet.

The water round the dock has been crystal clear for the past few days. We have seen so many interesting fish, including a pretty good sized jew fish, some unidentified silver dollar shaped reef fish, some pretty yellow and black striped fish which they call sergeants round here, plus of course the usual mullet, snappers of various kinds, our pet barracuda Baretta and some very elegant needlefish. Rambo has just been diving under the dock for some a lost pair of pliers (retrieved) and was amazed at the number of fish, so he will be out with his hand line later no doubt.

I'll be posting more pictures as soon as this pesky website is working properly, seems not to want to post pictures at the moment.

2006-09-30T15:01:00.000-06:00

After a couple of days in Belize City (confusingly usually refered to as "Belize" here) Chris and I are back home at Steppingstones.

We usually go to the city about once a month, and we are getting to know it quite well. We always say that here in Belize we are not shoppers, we are hunter/gatherers. In other words, you can't just go to the hardware shop, say, and buy white paint. No, there is no white paint to be had. But while you are there, you see a bath plug, a tennon saw and some cable ties which just might come in handy..... And next time, when you are looking for those energy saving lightbulbs, well, low and behold, there will be white paint - so let's stock up just in case!

We stayed at the Princess Hotel and Casino, which is having a September special. It was US$80 plus tax which included breakfast, and actually for that price it is a pretty good deal. The rooms all have a Caribbean view from a big picture window, a big bathroom, two very comfortable king size beds, and the breakfast is not bad. But don't whatever you do eat there in the evening.......it's awful!

I have just discovered a wonderful plant nursery hidden away in Belmopan. It's owned by a Belizean lady called Geraldine Sosa. She started her business about 20 years ago, when her plants and cuttings threatened to swamp the family home. She now has a beautiful large site bursting to the brim with glorious tropicals, in particular, orchids. She is only open on Tuesday and Thursday, so I insisted on a visit.

We didn't have time to linger, which was perhaps fortunate as I could have spent a small fortune. The first thing I saw on arrival was a honeysuckle growing on a fence. I am always after sweet smelling flowers, so that was top of my list. The honeysuckle doesn't look like a British one, and I can't identify the species, but it's a nice looking bushy plant and will go in the Secret Garden, which we are just making out back. I took two cuttings this morning, so fingers crossed they will take and Martha and Wilma will have one each too.

Next acquisition was a lovely salmon pink ixora. This is a member of the coffee family, and stands up very well to salt wind. It too is destined for the Secret Garden, but I plan to take cuttings and try it out front. It is too luscious a colour to lose, so I am giving it a pampered spot while it settles in.

Then I found a very pretty reddish purple grass about 3ft high, which will be make a good colour accent. Then the creamy white flowered shrub Mussaenda phillippica 'Dona Aurora' (I think it's this one) which will also go in the Secret Garden as it doesn't like salt, but it is so pretty, reminding me a bit of white poinsettia, although the flowers are floppier.

Wandering round with Geraldine was so interesting, I could have spent hours. She is a real orchid expert, and her orchids are just wonderful, the colours are delectable, and the forms are so varied. They are mainly grown for cut flowers. She also has a nice collection of cactus, brought in from the US as seedlings and grown on, although she is struggling with some of the varieties as it is a little too hot for them here. It was nice that she was ready to point out her woes and failures, reminding me that all gardeners have them.

Under the shading I spotted a fabulous succulent which has flowers just like an oleander. Gerladine calls it Rose of the Desert - I need to do some research to find out what its proper name is. I couldn't resist this, and chose one which has both pink and white flowers on the same plant - grafted. This will be kept safely on the kitchen veranda - safe that is unless Faye and Suzie Q get overexcited.

Finally, I just had to have an orchid. Those of you who have visited Steppingstones know that we have wild orchids growing around the place, the green bull horn orchid, a beautiful white one and an orange one which I have been too lazy to identify. So I chose a black orchid - the national flower of Belize - encyclia cochleatum. Just beautiful, with a very dark mauve and green flower like a baby octopus. I can see I am going to get badly hooked on these. Fortunately we have a great climate for orchids, and they are not expensive to buy.

On the way back from Belmopan, I stopped off at the tiny roadside nursery near St Michaels, run by Lennox with the help of his friend Edward. This is a great place, everything is $5, and you can find not only your basic crotons, mangos, etc but there are usually some tucked away unusual oddments.

This time was no exception, and I came away with a pink flowered ginger, a miniature white ixora, a lovely zebra plant - cryptanthus zonatus - and a plant described as oregano by Lennox but which has a large thick leaf smelling of mint, like a very large leafed apple mint. This latter was pounced on by Rambo as we were unloading the boat, with cries of "Bueno, bueno", so I think it must be used in cooking in Honduras. Anyway, I have taken a cutting of this one too, and will quiz Rambo on it when he gets back from his weekend off.

It's a nice bright day after quite a bit of rain overnight, tomorrow may be a day to go kayaking, after all this gardening.

2006-09-25T11:31:00.000-06:00

We were up at the crack of dawn for our fishing trip with Ian. Ian Cuevas is our head guide, and friend. He lives in Monkey River Village with partner Alison, from Canada, who is doing her doctorate on the howler monkeys of Monkey River.

We are trying to fit in a trip to the reef every week at the moment, brushing up our skills and “doing learning”. Later on in the season Ian will be working every single day with guests, but for now, we have the time to play a bit ourselves and build up our knowledge of the cayes and the reef.

It was not a promising morning; the sea state was described as moderate, which translates to a very bumpy ride out to the reef, especially as we had decided to go north to Glovers Spit to try for kingfish. The wind was coming out for the northeast, and despite Ian’s skill at sliding up and down the big waves, our bones were well jolted around by the time we reached Pumpkin Island (sometimes called Pompion). This is our bait catching place, but for once the baits just weren’t there. Just as well Chris had just done a complete overhaul and refit of our lures.

We head out to the outside of the reef and began to patrol along Gladden Spit. In April, May and June, this is where you can spot whale shark gorging on plankton produced by a huge grouper spawning – especially around the full moon. Using deep running lures, we trolled up and down in a pretty big though gentle swell. Glass green transparent waves 8 foot high are beautiful when the sun is shining and you have a great boatman at the helm.

Chris started getting hits on his Yo-Zuri L Jack Minnow in bright silver. Small bonito. Ian started to see kings jumping, and Chris hauled in a bonito, neatly cut in half on its way back to the boat. “Big kingfish” declared Ian. So we were into the bite, and another bonito followed shortly, surely only a matter of time before we hit the kingfish. But I was starting to feel very queasy, unusually for me and despite travel sickness tablets. Rather than spoil the whole day, I asked Ian to take us inside the reef into calmer water. I was angry at myself, as Chris and Ian both knew the bite was on, but they were kind enough not to point out that I was a wimp.

I just threw myself down on the foredeck and had a brief doze, while Chris and Ian pottered around and caught a few snappers, small ‘cuda and the like, in the lovely turquoise waters of the inner reef. Feeling better, I joined in, and had a baby big eye jack – my only fish of the day.

We stopped for a chat with the rangers at Little Water Caye. That place is spotless; the guides really do a good job out there. As usual, the jokes were in Creole, but Ian and co be warned, I understand more Creole each day! They have a nice pack of dogs out there, a lovely brindle mother dog, a big male that looks to have boxer and rottie in him, and some pups, one of whom has a perfect gsd head, and another looks a bit like Faye.

The guides had been fishing for ‘cuda for their dinner, and for the dogs’ dinner as well. We watched the german shepherd-looking pup gently and delicately retrieve a fish tail from the water, look around for the others to make sure they weren’t watching, and take it off to eat in private.

We had some quiche and my trademark chips ‘n’ dips, then off for a bit more fishing, this time trolling the banks around Little Water Caye. Ian was amazed as we set off to see a shoal of mixed permit and bonefish in the shallows by the Caye. In all the time he has fished that area, he has never seen bonefish and permit there before. We weren’t out for permit and bones, or they would have been a good cheap shot.

The afternoon’s trolling produced a decent barracuda of about 10lb on a Yo-Zuri Tobimaru, which Chris later lost when after a ten minute battle a fish took him round a coral head. Then finally, a kingfish, not a monster, but good enough for a few meals, was tempted by Chris’s Halco Laser Pro is silver blue and pink, which Ian had earlier declared to be an ugly useless lure! However, when the fish came in and we could see fish and lure together it was clear that the colour of the lure imitated the colours of a small kingfish.

We don’t get many wins when it comes to pitching our knowledge against Ian’s, so we treasure the ones that come along!

We decided not to push on with fishing into the dark, it had just been too bumpy a day for all of us. Chris and I were worn out when we got home, and absolutely covered in salt, it felt like sand we were so thickly encrusted from the spray. The hot water shower that our solar water heater supplies felt wonderful!

I think we were in bed by about eight o clock, completely worn out. The week ahead will be occupied with trips to Independence for supplies, and a trip to the city to look at a backup generator and to buy some necessary fripperies. More fishing next weekend – but we will pay more attention to the weather next time.

2006-09-23T16:21:00.000-06:00

Hi there everybody,

This blog is designed for what you could loosely call the Friends of Steppingstones - our friends, relations, guests, and those thinking of visiting. Here we will attempt to keep everyone up to date with the news, gossip and happenings down here in southern Belize - especially fishing news.

I'll start with a little introduction. Chris and I starting building Steppingstones in 2002 - working mostly at long range from the UK with the invaluable help of Sam and Martha Scott. In March 2005 we moved down here for good, and opened for business as a tiny fishing eco resort in November 2005.

Since then we have had a small be very select band of visitors, from the UK, Canada and the US, and these included Mike Ladle and Steve Pitts, who made a lovely DVD while they were here, and Chris and Spud Woodward, working on an article for Sport Fishing Magazine, Feb 07 issue.

Chris and I have been very busy with the seemingly endless tasks involved in building Steppingstones into the kind of fishing resort that we would like to stay at. And of course, this being Belize, we wake up every morning wondering what little challenge will present itself today!

For example, we have been having a bit of trouble with the starter motor on our launch, Patience, so we called in the excellent Houdeny, our mechanic from Monkey River Village to sort out the problem. He came and picked the motor up, brought it back a few hours later, refitted it, wasn't quite happy, so decided to take it apart on the dock.

Yes, you know what happened next - a small but vital spring fell through the crack into the blue Caribbean. So our starter motor is back in the village again, fingers crossed Houdeny will be able to find a spring that fits, or we will be forced to manual start - not an easy task on a 50hp outboard.

In the pic you can see that we have had Patience done up, and also built a nice palapa and a dock extension. The palapa has two hammocks and a couple of chairs, it's a lovely place to sit in the breeze.

So, I am off to cook barracuda and chips (fries) for dinner. We have had lovely weather recently, so we are planning to go out to the cayes tomorrow with Ian for some fishing. I'll be reporting how we get on in the next post.