Report: Belize River Lodge

Belize River Lodge (www.belizeriverlodge.com)

March 2010

In southwest Florida, one of my cues for knowing when to start looking for the first tarpon of spring is when I am awakened before dawn by a bird calling outside my bedroom window. The source of the call is the southern version of the whippoorwill – called a ‘chuck will’s widow’ - members of the night jar family who are active at night, and actively call in the hours before dawn. Any other time of year, a bird calling outside my bedroom window during pre-dawn hours is not a pleasant experience – it’s usually met by some yelling, and if that doesn’t work some rock throwing. But whippoorwills and their kin are different – their pre-dawn calls are a sure sign of the beginning of another tarpon season.

So imagine my surprise when, on the recent BTT Traveling Angler trip to Belize River Lodge to tag tarpon, I was awakened by the pre-dawn call of a Yucatan Nightjar – the Belizean cousin of the whippoorwill and chuck-will’s-widow. I was probably sleeping rather lightly, anticipation being what it is to any angler who has a big day on the water in store, but it woke me up anyway. The call was slightly different, but it was without a doubt a nightjar. I’m not into omens or signs or anything like that, but it was pretty wild to hear that bird on the first morning (and every morning thereafter) of the trip.

On a couple mornings, the nightjars were nearly drowned out by the howler monkeys starting the day in the nearby jungle. Howler monkeys roar loud enough to wake the dead. With all that noise they produce, you’d think they were huge beasts, but a 15 pound male is a big howler monkey. I don’t think they know anything about tarpon.
We were at Belize River Lodge with the goal of placing three PAT satellite tags in adult tarpon. We’d been invited to the lodge by Mike, Marguerite, Misha, and Dirk, who are strong advocates for tarpon conservation. In fact, Mike helped lead the charge (along with Ali at El Pescador and Craig at Turneffe Flats) to give catch and release status to tarpon, bonefish, and permit in Belize. We had four days to catch three tarpon over 80 pounds and attach PAT satellite tag to each.

The nightjars did not fail me, the tarpon were arriving. It’s all relative, of course, but Belize has had a stretch of bad weather this winter as well, just as we experienced in the States. And although they didn’t have any fish kills like we did in Florida, the poor weather certainly put off the fish at times. Fortunately, we were there as the weather began to switch from terrible toward normal, and the fish started to come into the river, and to feed.

As is often the case with tarpon, they played hard to get for much of the four day trip, and continued to be affected by changing weather. But there were enough good-weather periods that many tarpon were hooked, and we were able tag our goal of three adult tarpon.
All of the tarpon were caught in or just outside the mouth of the Belize River. The first fish, an 85 pounder, was caught outside the mouth of the river on an early morning. We had sacrificed the pleasure of breakfast to get to the river mouth early, and found some fish holding in the outgoing tide, sitting low in the water and coming up occasionally to gulp air. Dirk slowly worked the boat toward a spot where a fish was rolling every five minutes or so, and a few casts into the hole brought a strike and the signature acrobatics of a hooked tarpon.

May 2009

We had five anglers on this trip, and everyone had a fantastic time. Despite the weather – rain, then wind, then rain and wind – we managed to catch a bunch of fish. And since this trip marked the beginning of the Caribbean Bonefish Research Program in Belize, we trained the Belize River Lodge guides to tag bonefish and take fin clips for genetic analysis. We tagged 12 bonefish during the trip, and left the tagging kits and extra data sheets and 2,000 total tags with lodge owner Mike Heusner. To goal is to get these tags in fish over the next couple years, so this makes Belize River Lodge a great place to go if you are an angler who wants to take part in research. We also tried, without luck, to put a satellite tag in a large tarpon. The tarpon just weren’t in an eating mood during our visit. After our time at Belize River Lodge, Mike Larkin (University of Miami, Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science) traveled to El Pescador lodge and trained the guides to tag bonefish and collect fin flip tissue samples. El Pescador will also work to tag 2,000 bonefish over the next two years.

One of the great things about fishing at Belize River Lodge is the variety. On every day an angler has a realistic chance at catching tarpon, bonefish, permit, and snook. While there I think two people caught slams (three species), and there was one almost grand slam (4 species). The slams were bonefish, tarpon, snook. You can fish out on the flats, around the cays, along the mangrove-lined coastline, or up the Belize River. The ride up the river is great – monkeys, iguanas, parrots and countless other birds are common sites during the ride up and down the river. And then there’s the fishing – tarpon, snook, and some wild looking local freshwater species.

The trip in 2009 was fun, and we hope to plan another trip to Belize River Lodge in spring 2010. For information contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .