Got home late Sat from Belize. What a full week. We landed in Belize July 1, Sat around 4 PM. their time which is 2 hours later than our time. Van from the lodge met us at airport & 40 minutes later we were at the docks boarding a 30 ft something boat with all our gear, 14 or so guests, & a handful of crew & lodge workers. Met all & settled into about 1 1/2 hour trip to the Atoll where the lodge is located somewhat on the South Eastern side or Turneffe Atoll. The lodge had 5 or 6 cabanas which had 2 units elevated, plus a couple of larger sleeping units & a main lodge area with dockage for 2 or three larger boats & 9 or 10 flats boats. I fished with Dexter Simmons a guide from Sugarloaf Key who organized the trip & had been doing the same trip for 9 or 10 years. Most of the anglers had made the trip several times & some had also gone to Cuba in April with Dexter. There were mostly couples with a few single guys. Also at the Lodge were a small # of anglers not with us & a 1/2 dozen or so divers. A well rounded diverse group of people who all got along with each other. We fished 2 to a flats boat & we kept the same guide for the six days of fishing. Breakfast was served in the lodge at 6 - 7 AM., & you met your guide after 7 AM at the boat. We met our guide Dion, at 7 each morning ( except 1morning where we fished early for tarpon at 5 AM, stopping after 6 for breakfast & then back out. We fished hard all 6 days, usually the first boat out & the last to return, usually by 5 PM., lunch on the boat wherever you were. Dexter was interested in tarpon & I was after bonefish & permit. We fished for tarpon with 12wt int. line usually anchored in channels, blind casting purple & black toads. One time we found them feeding on a large ball of sardines in 10 ft of water or so, & I really thought we would hook up. I had my floating 12wt. with my long night fly, white with a bunny head.. Really expected to hook-up but not to be. Some really intense casting to cruising fish. There were several hooked by others & many landed, but not by us. Next were permit, sought after by both of us. we would cruise a certain mangrove shoreline (don't really know if this shoreline was the only, best or just the one we used.) but we always did this shoreline. Water was from 18 inches or so down to several ft deep couple hundred yrds off. We would motor, yes motor along until we would see "nervous" water, pushing water or tails & fins. This was the way it was done which was way different than I was used to. However, it worked & worked well. We spent a lot of time doing this every day as both of us were more interested in permit than the other two. We had daily good shots at lots of big tailing, cruising permit, several takes, lots of looks & we did get 2 to the boat, which were the only ones caught as we did spend more time doing this. Floating 9 & 10 wts with crab patterns heavily weighted to sink fast. Lots of frustrating good fun. Now for the bonefish. The atoll was full of flats on the inside of the reef all of them "appeared" to be loaded with many different sized schools of many fish. You would wade a bit, sight some coming, position yourself & cast before them, Hook up & again realize why you need a good reel & FAST retrieve. The bottom was hard with loose & solid coral & you needed good sturdy wading boots. This was my best & really most fun fishing. We did very well with the bonefish, usually olive bitters, Pop's bitters, horrors all in 6 or 8s. I found that the fish would readily take, just not when you thought they should. Runs were long, fast & many. Had to keep rod very high & attempt to avoid large standing coral & a few mangrove shoots. Really loads of fun & usually successful landings. We did okay it really was I that seemed to excel in this. Talking to others I learned to fudge a little on how many I caught. (Had to downsize,) which doesn't happen much. Everyone seemed to enjoy the week. We did have some strong SEasterly winds with serval rain showers that moved through. We were always able to work with the wind & usually stayed out of most of the rain. Most days we traveled 20 - 30 miles total, fishing 7ish to 5ish. The divers apparently had good, interesting dives & the eco boat, which my wife was usually on, did a vast # of interesting trips & their guide was one of the most interesting, knowledgeable person I have had the pleasure of knowing. BTW there was a wadeable flat in front of our lodge, that produced bonefish daily. Sorry for the long post, but it was a very full week. Turneffeflats.com KeyWestFlyFishing.com Capt. Dexter Simmons