Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
A destination saltwater or jungle trip does not require a lodge package. A week in Belize worked with a rental room, a golf cart and water picked off Google Maps, producing bonefish, baby tarpon and barracuda. Local fly shops will share specifics if you walk in and ask before you fish.
Lance Kittel runs Pesca Vita, a small Colorado-based fly fishing brand building custom rods and flies, which he took full time in October after seven years as a side project.
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Can you fish Belize without hiring a guide?
Yes. A seven-day trip to an island off mainland Belize was fished entirely without guides - a hotel room, a rental golf cart, a few tips from friends who had been there, and water picked out on Google Maps because roads run alongside much of it. The plan each morning was to drive, pull over and see what was there. Earlier guided trips supplied the underlying skills, but the DIY version worked its way up the food chain from Mayan cichlids on small Clouser Minnows to baby tarpon, bonefish and barracuda.
Why fish lighter bonefish flies on the flats?
Lighter flies are easier to control and easier to cast well. Bonefish flies for that trip ran mostly size 6 to 8, and the lightly weighted bead-chain versions turned over far more predictably than tungsten-eyed flies of the same size, which carry too much weight for their profile. A bead-chain fly can also be paused to sink through the column, which still reads as movement to a fish. Tungsten earns its place in deeper water where reaching the fish fast matters. Spooked bonefish are more often a fly-weight problem than an accuracy problem.
What leader setup worked for DIY flats fishing in Belize?
Standard 9- to 10-foot tapered saltwater leaders in 12-pound covered bonefish and baby tarpon. Building a real taper matters more than most saltwater anglers admit - a straight length of heavy mono will not turn a fly over, particularly in wind. Barracuda were a constant complication on 12-pound tippet, since they beat bonefish to any fly that sinks slowly, which is exactly the situation a wire bite section is for. Learning the connection knots for a bite tippet or shock tippet is part of what makes Belize a useful place to build skills.
What is a mothership trip and why does it work for golden dorado?
A river cruiser is a multi-room river boat that tows skiffs; anglers sleep and eat aboard and run out each morning to remote water. The advantage over a fixed lodge is that the boat moves with the fishing. In large floodplain systems, feeding is driven by falling water pulling food out of flooded ground and into the river, so a mothership can reposition overnight to stay with the drop rather than being stuck with whatever is happening at one location. Six days of fishing with two beats a day produced more than 200 golden dorado among four anglers.
What tackle do you need for golden dorado?
Two rods rigged at all times: a floating line for poppers and an intermediate for streamers. Eight- and 9-weights handled six days of casting 8-inch flies, with the 9 chosen for the confidence to horse fish. The intermediate line was the more productive of the two - dorado stage on shelves as the water drops, so the fly is laid on top of the first shelf, given two or three aggressive strips, then allowed to sink before the next set. And it is a strip set, never a trout set; the trout set is the first habit a trout angler loses.
Why does fly durability matter more for golden dorado?
Golden dorado hunt by biting a baitfish in half before eating the rest, so a fly gets hit repeatedly before a hook finds anything - four or five fish may take a swipe before one sticks. A well-tied streamer survives that: one hackle-heavy minnow pattern with a bucktail head landed 13 or 14 dorado before it came apart, and a foam popper finished the week covered in tooth marks. The same standard does not apply to trout flies, where a stimulator that gets chewed up can simply be retied.
How should you pack for an international fly fishing trip?
Pack for situations, not for days. Two fishing outfits rotated and rinsed in a sink, plus one clean set for dinner, covers a week better than seven of everything. Carry fewer leader and tippet options and choose what you will fish confidently - and size up rather than down, since landing and releasing a fish quickly beats finessing light tippet. Then check the rules: a country that allows rods, reels and flies in a carry-on on the way in may not allow them on the way out, and a regional bush flight may cap bags at 35 pounds instead of 50.
Key takeaways
- Belize can be fished DIY from a hotel and a golf cart - scout roads and water on Google Maps, then confirm the details by walking into a local fly shop and asking before you fish.
- Favor bead-chain bonefish flies in sizes 6 to 8; a lightly weighted small fly turns over better and spooks fewer fish than a tungsten fly of the same size.
- Use a tapered 9- to 10-foot 12-pound saltwater leader instead of a straight length of heavy mono, which will not turn a fly over in wind.
- Rig two rods for golden dorado: a floating line with a popper and an intermediate line with a streamer, fished two or three hard strips then a pause.
- Strip set on golden dorado - a trout set is the single most expensive habit a trout angler brings to a predator fishery.
- Keep an emergency kit in your carry-on: one rod, a reel with the line you are most likely to need, a small fly box and a change of clothes, so lost luggage does not end the trip.
