January, 2023

1/15-21:  Another return trip to Saint George's Caye in Belize

After the less than great 2021 trip I had to this resort, we still opted to try it again this January.  If I can't get a "fishing fix" every couple of months, I contemplate suicide.  With this resort being an easy spot to scratch that itch, we tried it again this winter.

The things we like about St. George haven't changed.  It's a relatively quick trip from our place in Arizona.  Instead of having to board another inter island flight to get to where we want to end up, this place is only a twenty minute boat trip from Belize City.  Being Central Time Zone is also helpful for our sleeping since it's only a one hour time differential.  The resort is an attractively landscaped operation, housekeeping is fine, the people operating it are very friendly, and we enjoy being able to get a roughly two mile walk around the island every day after breakfast for some extra exercise.

What we have historically not liked was the community table seating for meals where we've been occasionally been stuffed next to guests that are sometimes loud and/or overbearing (among other things).  Happily Covid apparently changed that issue for the better since tables are now separated into two tops or four tops which works much better for us.

The dinners for the past couple of trips have been on the "iffy" side.  While the presentations have been attractive, the meal itself tends to be grossly overcooked, yet comes to the table luke warm at best.  Breakfast and lunch are decent.  OK.  Enough of the complaining. 

.....except for the wind issue on this trip.  It was not as fierce as when Hurricane Lisa came ashore in early November, but was a lot worse than we've normally seen it here in the past.  The island's ocean side was constantly roiled and murky and casting into that much wind was borderline impossible.  Which led us to do more kayaking on the lagoon side.  And that didn't work well either since the small island to which we normally paddle for some wade fishing has now been sold and has been privatized.

So how did the trip really turn out this time?  Overall pretty darn well I have to say.  Our stay in the Captain's Quarters in the Villa was fine.  Food was OK as noted above.  But the fishing turned out to be better than expected, particularly for bones.  I found a couple new places to cast on the main island and used the long slow retrieve technique which worked great - as did the smallish "pillow talk" and "golden knight" patterns that we tie for Alphonse Island.  Fish sizes were typically Belizian which means one to four pounds or so.

The tarpon fishing off the main dock was less successful as I hooked several fish each night after dinner but lost all of them after they made a jump or two.  One loss came after it had made a series of jumps without throwing the hook but wound itself around a piling and broke off.  The action however was still a lot of fun.

Unhappily I inadvertently deleted 90% of my video clips so the bonefish shots below are all I have to show for this trip.  Such is life.

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