Take it from me; spectacular inshore fishing awaits those who venture to bountiful Belize.

Our guide, Raul, skillfully maneuvered his 22-foot panga around a sharp bend in the creek and into the main portion of the Belize River. This broad expanse was a stunning sight: tannin-tinted waters created a platform for two huge walls of bright green jungle growth which rose into a patchwork sky of white and blue. It seemed that exotic birds were everywhere in this wonderland with pleasing images of red hummingbirds fluttering around the bushes during our morning breakfast replaced by real-time treetop sightings of toucans, macaws and other exotic species.

As we poled around the corner of a creek, we came upon a triangular sand flat bordered by two channels that ran out to sea. The skiff eased along, and Art Blank spotted tailing bonefish 50 feet away in the three clock position. Simultaneously, I spotted a pair of huge bar jacks slowly swimming away from us dead ahead. After checking with the guide about the hardness of the flat, Art slipped overboard into two feet of water to stalk the bones. I repositioned to the bow of the skiff as the guide poled hard in pursuit of the hefty jacks.

San Diego’s spine-tingling mako sharks!

Believe it or not, Doctor Steve Ward and his wife Randie released more than two dozen mako sharks which weighed up to an estimated 150 pounds during a brief three day fly fishing expedition. Does that sort of exciting shark fishing catch your attention? Well, it sure caught mine!

Welcome to Mayan Land

It was deep in the middle of a star-studded night. The only sounds that could be heard were the collective whooshing rattles of coconut palm leaves in the Caribbean sea breeze. I made my way through dunes and valleys of sugar sand towards the grass-thatched ocean pier- its spotlight cast a luminous orb over the greenish rolling wavelets.

An escape from modern day civilization

What started as a quest to fulfill a lifelong dream, ended with an angling adventure etched with vivid memories of trophy fish in the shadow of mountainside seascapes. Read on and see for yourself if venturing deep into the remote wilderness of southern Mexico for a shot at a once in a lifetime catch is for you. If you’re the adventurous type looking for an unforgettable experience, I would bet it is!

You might have thought that kind of scenery was all in the West, but if you like

Big-game fishing, go north my southern friends, go north!

We sailed at the crack of noon aboard the Moondancer, a 65 ft. Viking sportfisherman owned by friend, Lud Bohler. Our destination, the Hudson Canyon, a huge fissure at the edge of the Continental Shelf off the Jersey coast that rivals the famous canyons of the Colorado River, except the only way to actually see the Hudson Canyon is in a deep-water submersible.