Fly-fishing the flats

Permit, tarpon and bonefish on the flats, catch and release, with guides who've fished them for years.

A small open motor boat on clear, pale turquoise water beside a wooden dock with a slatted wooden crab trap on it.

A sandy beachfront path beside a pastel-painted dive shop, with palms, docks and boats on turquoise water.

An aerial view of white surf breaking in lines over a reef, with green-blue water behind it.

A night sky full of stars above the tops of coconut palms, with the lights of a town strung along the shore in the distance.

About it

Belize's flats are famous among anglers: shallow, clear water inside the reef and around the atolls where bonefish, permit and tarpon feed. A good guide poles the skiff, reads the water and puts you on fish; you do the casting.

Bonefish, permit and tarpon are catch and release. We book guides who treat that seriously, and lodges that can dry your kit.

How it goes

Choose your base

Ambergris, Turneffe or Placencia, depending on what you want to catch.

Your guide

A licensed fishing guide and skiff, full or half day.

Licence

A sport-fishing licence is required; we arrange it.Check before you travel

Release

Catch and release for the flats species, by law.Check before you travel

Who it suits, and when

Anglers, from keen beginners to people chasing a grand slam
Bonefish all year; tarpon and permit vary by monthCheck before you travel

Worth knowing

Wind affects sight-fishing
Tarpon and permit seasons vary

Rules

Sport-fishing licence required
Catch and release for bonefish, permit and tarpon

Rules and seasons change. Check before you travel

Where it happens

Ambergris CayeThe biggest caye: restaurants, a golf-cart town, and the reef a few minutes offshore.
Turneffe AtollThe biggest of the three atolls: mangrove cayes, walls and flats, and very few people.
PlacenciaA long, thin peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the sea on the other, and whale sharks in spring.