A wonderful report from traveler Trip M. and his family after a visit to Victoria House on Ambergris Caye:
The Travel: I can’t believe how easy it is to get to Belize and Ambergris. We left Charlotte at 9AM and ate lunch at Victoria House. Probably the easiest fishing travel I have ever had. The transition from the Belize international terminal to the Tropic Air flight was unbelievably simple and seamless, with a Tropic Air “concierge” ensuring that you make the flight and that your hotel is aware of your arrival time in Ambergris. The flight from Belize City to Ambergris crosses stunning flats and we even saw several manatees from the air. In comparison, getting to the Punta Allen lodges from Cancun (or even Tulum) is several extra dusty, sweaty hours that I didn’t miss on this trip!
The Hotel: Victoria House is stunning. Beautiful grounds, good food, unbelievably friendly and attentive staff. I was told the spa is fantastic too, though we did not utilize it. My wife does not fish and I have dragged her to more than her share of fishing lodges that fashion themselves as “family/couples” friendly, and, good sport that she is, she has always said that at the end of the day, they are still just fishing lodges. Victoria House was a luxury hotel that allowed my son and me to fish. It is the quintessential “family/couples” hotel. Our room was beautiful with a deck overlooking the ocean. The two pools were really nice, and the bar and restaurant were great. She was able to book snorkeling trips each day through the hotel in addition to kayaking out front of the hotel and biking into town on the hotel's bikes. Other guests told us they also arranged fantastic scuba trips.
The town: San Pedro has grown immensely since I was last there 14 years ago. That said, it remains a fun, funky little town, with restaurants that are worth visiting. You could stay on the hotel property the entire time, but it is well worth a trip or two into town for dinner. We especially liked Elvi’s and Maxie’s. Hidden Treasure (walking distance from the hotel) was good as well. We heard El Fogon was good, but it was closed the night we tried to go.
The Fishing: I cannot say enough good things about the fishing and the guide, Nate, that Yellow Dog booked for me through Tres Pescados Fly Shop. I fished three days. The first, I fished for bones in the AM. It was what I think of as a typical bonefishing day. About 10 shots for cruising bones with 5 landed. We chased baby tarpon and snook in the mangroves in the afternoon with probably 8 shots, 3 snook follows and 1 tarpon take. A typical day, though Nate felt it was below average.
The following day proved him right. My son arrived overnight and the following day we again began with bones. We headed north almost to the Mexico border and, interestingly, could see a boat from Xcalak fishing just on the other side of the border buoy. I had not realized how closely the Ambergris fishery overlaps with the southern Mexican ones. My son has only flats fished one other time, and I wasn’t sure how it would go, but on the first flat we fished, we found pod after pod of cruising bones, and he landed 10 before we moved on looking for permit. After lunch we found a flat with several large schools of good-sized permit. We chased the schools for a couple hours, and my son was able to get a solid 10 shots with 3 follows, 2 strikes and a permit hooked for a few exhilarating minutes. All in all, more than I could have possibly hoped for.
The final day was blowing 20 mph from the east, and at breakfast, I wondered if we would be able to fish at all, but Nate found plenty of spots out of the wind and, to be honest, wind was never an issue all week. We tarpon fished a few canals near town in the morning and my son had 3 takes and a small tarpon jumped. Then we headed north and walked the boat though a tiny, almost dry creek into a hidden lagoon which had several cruising tarpon (and a large, somewhat irascible saltwater croc!). We had several follows but no takes. That said, it was an extremely exciting adventure.
During lunch, a giant school of small bones began making a mud around our boat, and my son and I alternated catching about a dozen small ones while the other ate lunch. Then Nate asked if we would be interested in wading and we immediately jumped at the chance. What followed was probably the best two hours of flats fishing I have ever experienced. We waded a shin-deep, beautiful white sand flat that stretched for about a half mile. Pod after pod of medium-sized bones tailed their way towards us, offering dozens of shots just 20-30 feet away. We landed several and it was the perfect end to the trip.
A word about the size of the bonefish: they ranged from large schools of small fish making muds into which you could have blind-casted and caught an unlimited amount to pods of what I would call medium-sized fish which would take you to your backing on their first run. In addition, we found a fair amount of bonefish that were big enough to make two or more runs into the backing before they were subdued. I was really surprised, as I expected the size of the fish to be really small, but the cruising singles and doubles would have been respectable even in lodges I have fished in the Bahamas.
Finally, the “Yellow Dog Touch.” The trip was planned as a getaway for my wife and me, as my son was busy working his first job out of college. At the last minute (3 days in advance of the trip) he found out he had the weekend and Presidents’ Day free. I called Matt at Yellow Dog at 5:30PM Eastern Time to find out if there was any way to add my son to the trip. I knew by looking at the Victoria House website that the hotel was already full and that our room had just a queen bed, so I was sure there was no chance. But in just fifteen minutes, Matt had arranged Victoria House to open up a spare (usually unreservable) room for my son and the trip was complete. I have never had such service from any other booking agent. My wife looked at me and said 'that’s why you use Yellow Dog.'"
