From December through April the dependable fly fishing is saltwater. Bonefish, permit and tarpon in the Bahamas, Belize and Mexico; giant trevally and bonefish at Christmas Island and in the Seychelles. Fly Fishing Insider Podcast books all eight of these through Frontiers International Travel. South Andros and Ascension Bay are the easiest first trips.
Every year around the second week of December I get the same message from four or five different people: the rivers at home are locked up, they have a week of holiday to burn before spring, and they want to know where to point it. The honest answer is that winter is the best-organised season in fly fishing travel, because the entire tropical saltwater industry is built around exactly those months. The lodges are open, the guides are sharp from a full season of work, and the weather patterns are as predictable as tropical weather ever gets.
What follows is the shortlist I actually give people, in the order I'd hand it to someone who has never done a saltwater week. I'm Christian Bacasa, I host the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast, and I book travel as an Authorized Agent for Frontiers International Travel, so these are all places I can put you into rather than places I read about. I've split them by what they ask of you, because a first-timer at Christmas Island and a first-timer at Alphonse Island are having two completely different weeks.
| Where | Bahamas, Belize, Mexico's Yucatán, Kiritimati (Kiribati), Seychelles |
|---|---|
| Target species | Bonefish, permit, tarpon, giant trevally, triggerfish, milkfish |
| Season | December–April is peak for all eight; several run longer |
| Typical trip | 7 nights / 6 fishing days, two anglers per skiff |
| Getting there | Caribbean: one connection. Kiritimati and Seychelles: two to three, plus an internal charter |
| Skill level | Bonefish flats: beginner-friendly. Permit and GT: advanced |
Where should I go fly fishing in the winter?
Eight destinations, ranked by how hard they are to get right on a first attempt. Each row gives you the one thing that separates it from the seven others, because "warm water and bonefish" describes all of them and helps you choose none of them.
| Destination | Main draw | What makes it different |
|---|---|---|
| South Andros, Bahamas | Bonefish | Andros South Lodge fishes tidal creeks, oceanside hard bottom, white sand and soft west-side flats — you can wade or be poled, and most encounters happen in one to two feet of water. |
| Grand Bahama | Big bonefish | North Riding Point Club reports bonefish averaging 4–6 pounds with 7- and 8-pounders common. It is the closest place to the US mainland where a double-digit bonefish is a live possibility. |
| The Marls, Abaco, Bahamas | Volume of shots | The Delphi Club sits ten minutes from more than 40 square miles of Marls flats fished by skiff, with bonefish averaging 2–3 pounds. High shot count, modest average size. |
| Ambergris Caye, Belize | Grand slam | El Pescador holds resident tarpon year-round alongside bonefish of 2–5 pounds and permit in schools of 4–30 pounds, all reachable from one dock. |
| Turneffe Atoll, Belize | Wadeable atoll | Turneffe Flats sits 25 miles off the Belize mainland on an atoll of roughly 250 square miles of flats, reef and creek. Bonefishing is the backbone; migratory tarpon pass April to October. |
| Ascension Bay, Mexico | Permit | The Palometa Club runs two guides in every boat — two sets of eyes on the bow — which is the single biggest difference-maker on a fish as hard to see and as hard to feed as permit. |
| Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Kiribati | Bonefish volume + GT | Christmas Island Lodge takes a maximum of 12 anglers and fishes bonefish, giant trevally, triggerfish and milkfish year-round from one lagoon system. |
| Alphonse Island, Seychelles | Species variety | Alphonse and St François hold bonefish, three triggerfish species, eight trevally species including GT, plus milkfish and permit. Twelve anglers a week, full stop. |
Which of these is the right first winter trip?
If you have never stood on the bow of a skiff and had a guide say "eleven o'clock, sixty feet, going left," go to South Andros or Ascension Bay. Both put you on fish that will forgive an imperfect cast, both are a single connection from most US hubs, and both have guiding cultures built around teaching. South Andros gives you bonefish in numbers. Ascension Bay gives you bonefish plus a real, non-theoretical chance at a permit, and the Palometa Club's two-guides-per-boat setup means the second guide is often free to coach you while the first poles.
Belize is the other easy yes. El Pescador on Ambergris Caye is the most forgiving grand slam address I know, because the bonefish are abundant enough that a bad permit day is still a good fishing day. If you want a version of Belize with more independence, we also cover the hybrid DIY Belize saltwater trip — that structure works well for anglers who don't want six straight guided days.
Save Christmas Island and Alphonse Island for trip two or three. Not because they're unwelcoming, but because the travel is long, the internal charter to Alphonse from Mahé is a real logistical link in the chain, and both fisheries reward an angler who already knows how to strip-set on a moving fish. Spending that much travel to learn the basics is a waste of the week.
What does winter actually do to the fishing?
Two things, and they pull in opposite directions. In the Bahamas and Belize, December through March is cold-front season. A front pushes through, the wind swings north, the water temperature drops for a day or two, and bonefish drop off the skinniest flats into deeper channels and mud. Guides know this and shift the program — deeper water, slower presentations, sometimes a day on the leeward side of the island. It costs you shots. It does not cost you the trip. The tradeoff is that between fronts you get the flattest, clearest, most sight-fishable water of the year.
Closer to the equator, the front problem disappears. Kiritimati and the Seychelles sit far enough south and west that winter in North America is simply another month of trade winds. Alphonse Island fishes year-round, and Christmas Island Lodge runs bonefish, giant trevally, triggerfish and milkfish year-round. What you trade for that stability is travel time and the fact that neither is a place you casually add a week to.
One practical consequence: if your week is locked to a school holiday in February or March, build a Bahamas or Belize itinerary that has a plan B written into it — a lodge with both ocean-side and creek options, which is exactly what South Andros and Turneffe Atoll offer. If your dates are flexible, the shoulders of the winter window (December and April) tend to be calmer.
Where you'd actually stay
On Kemp's Bay, South Andros. Single-occupancy, air-conditioned rooms; 8-weight outfits with floating lines are the standard, 9-weights for barracuda and the occasional permit. Peak season runs February through May.
Eight queen-bedded rooms on a bluff at Rolling Harbour, ten minutes from the Marls. Skiff-based, and the guides rarely see another boat during a day out. Open October to July, most popular February to May.
Bonefish of 2–5 pounds, permit in schools of 4–30 pounds, and resident tarpon all year with larger migratory fish arriving in late summer. The FFIP trip page published a range of roughly $2,556–$5,614 as of August 2026.
Twenty-five miles off the mainland, reached by a 90-minute boat ride. Eight beachfront duplexes plus two three-bedroom villas. High season runs from late December to late June.
Six air-conditioned bedrooms, two guides per boat, open year-round. Cancún, then a two-hour van to the Boca Paila bridge and a 55-minute boat run. The FFIP trip page published a range of roughly $4,950–$5,900 as of August 2026.
A maximum of 12 anglers in six bungalows, each holding two private suites. Bonefish, giant trevally, triggerfish and milkfish, year-round.
Twelve anglers a week. Bring 8- and 9-weights for bonefish and permit, a 10-weight for triggerfish and milkfish, and a 12-weight for giant trevally. The internal flight from Mahé is part of the package.
Fourteen anglers, 25 minutes from Freeport, with Hells Bay flats boats trailered daily to nine different launch points along 50 miles of north-side flats. Bonefish average 4–6 pounds.
Who this trip is for, and who should skip it
- You can throw 50 feet into a 15-knot crosswind, or you're willing to practise until you can before December.
- You want a fishing week that is genuinely reliable — the tropics in winter are the most schedulable fishing on the calendar.
- You're happy to be taught. Flats guiding is instruction-heavy and the anglers who listen catch more.
- You'd rather see fish and get shots than sit on an indicator all week.
- You get seasick and can't take a full day standing on a poled skiff. Some of these are wade-heavy, but not all.
- Your week is immovable and you'd resent losing a day and a half to a cold front. That's a normal Bahamas February.
- You want a big-fish-per-day guarantee. Permit and GT are low-percentage fish and any operation that promises otherwise is selling you something.
- You're not prepared for the strip-set. Trout-setting on a bonefish is the single most common reason first-timers go home frustrated.
On the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast episode "Fly Fishing for Bonefish, Tarpon, and Permit in Belize," my guest James Johnson spent most of the conversation not on flies or rods but on seeing — on what separates anglers who spot fish in shallow water from anglers who wait for the guide to spot them. Do one thing before your winter trip: stand on a dock in polarised glasses for twenty minutes and force yourself to pick out shapes and shadows rather than whole fish. The people who catch on day one are the ones who arrive already looking.
Related reading
- Fly fishing for bonefish on the flats — the tackle, the strip-set and the presentation that make or break a bonefish week.
- Fly fishing for permit on the flats — read this before you book Ascension Bay, so you know what you're signing up for.
- Fly fishing for tarpon on the flats — the third leg of the grand slam, and the one that needs the heaviest gear.
- The hybrid DIY Belize saltwater trip — how to mix guided and self-guided days on Ambergris Caye.
- Bahamas bonefishing, island by island — if the Bahamas is where you're leaning, start here.
- The best months for bonefish — month-by-month across the Bahamas, Belize, Mexico and Christmas Island.
Pick the one that matches how you want to spend six days, not the one with the most impressive name. A week of hooking bonefish in South Andros beats a week of not hooking permit almost anywhere. Tight lines.
The trip you keep talking about — go take it
You’ve read about it long enough. Tell us the week you want and we’ll find out what’s actually open.
Plan Your TripA note on prices, seasons and availability. Everything in this guide reflects what Fly Fishing Insider Podcast could verify as of August 2026. Lodge rates, open weeks, charter schedules, licence requirements and entry rules change — sometimes at short notice, and often for reasons no one controls: an airline drops a route, a season shifts with the water, a government updates its rules, a lodge changes hands. Treat every figure here as a planning range rather than a quote. Frontiers International Travel confirms live pricing and availability at the time you book, and re-confirms conditions before you travel.
