Weekly Round-Up: El Pescador Lodge Report
Reflecting on changes and updates to one of saltwater flats fishing's most beloved lodges.
By the time this hits your inboxes, it’ll be the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Hopefully everyone is recovering from a week of fun and adventure with friends and family, and ready to charge hard into the Christmas season. I’m typing this while sitting in the Belize City airport, heading back Stateside after a shoot in Belize. It’s a busy travel day, the airport filled with families heading to and from their holidays, and it makes for great people watching.
I love that about airports. Seeing so many strangers in such a small space—and often so far outside of their comfort zone—begs a series of questions. Who are they? Where are they going to? From? What’s their home like? Ever since I started traveling solo, I’ve loved to get a good coffee and people watch, dreaming up backstories about the people walking by.
Everyone’s on a hurry to somewhere.
Some Things Change; Some Stay the Same
Keeping the soul of a place while the world changes around it.
While most of us seem to all-too-easily get caught up in that “hurry to somewhere,” sometimes we’re able to find a place to stop and just be for a while. For years El Pescador Lodge has been one of those stopover places for me. Every visit to the lodge has been for work—photo shoots, hosted trips, or working as the Fishing Director—but the lodge on the northern side of Ambergris Caye has been a touchpoint. I’m very grateful to call the guides and staff friends, and it’s a familiar stopping place amidst all the other travel.
El Pescador has been a flats fishing staple for decades, drawing anglers from around the world who want to target bonefish, permit, tarpon, snook, jack, and other Caribbean saltwater species. The lodge maintained a family feel, somehow keeping a small, cozy vibe despite sometimes holding as many as 60+ anglers and guests.
In the time since I’d last worked at the lodge (14 months), El Pescador has been acquired by an outside investment group and is making renovations and upgrades throughout the property. (You likely saw many of them on the takeover I did on El Pescador’s Instagram account this past week.) While some of my old favorite haunts around the property have changed (the old bar is now airy and updated, and my old Fishing Director quarters have been turned into the “Sunrise Suite”), I was happy to see the lodge kept the most important part of the equation for any successful venture: the people.
From wait staff to the front office to the ladies who clean the rooms, the soul of any lodge is its people. Anglers come to a destination for the guides, the fishing, and the people at the place… we can sleep anywhere, and eat pretty much anything. (I can tell some wild stories about both in various locations over the years!)
Former bartender Mariano has taken over the role of Fishing Director, and is doing an awesome job. He was able to join me on the boat one day and landed this nice Jack… always a good time on a fly rod.
I was able to hop out with guides (and friends) Michael, Gordy, and Junior, and had an awesome time with them all. The guys were very thoughtful about forming strategies to not make long runs on the rough days, and took good care of me throughout the week.
I was very much on modified duties this week, unable to make long runs in the boat on rough days and purposefully not targeting my usual favorite: bigger tarpon. (I’d specifically promised my awesome surgeon no big fish on this trip. True story.) While we didn’t see many permit during my couple days on the flats, bonefish and snook were around and I was very grateful to hook into this mid-sized tarpon on the Epic Bandit FastGlass Bandit 10-weight and a home-tied purple-and-black tarpon toad, which was a lot of fun. The “bounciness” of the glass rods ended up producing a nice smooth, even fight and made it a little easier on my back, too, which was a nice little treat.
Big thanks to the entire El Pescador family for welcoming me back, and for making this a great first week back in the field (and on the water) post-op. I’ve got a long list of PT and strength-building focus to work on before my next big trip, and look forward to continue bouncing back and once more becoming more durable in the field.
See You In Denver This February
For those of you who are planning (or maybe should be planning!) to attend the Denver Fly Fishing Show this year, I’ll be teaching a couple different workshops during the February 21-23, 2025 show. (And I’ll just have returned from Argentina two days prior, so the odds are good the presentations will be jet-lagged and entertaining.)
I don’t have dates or times for the workshops or talks yet, but stay tuned for more information. I’ll be teaching on the following topics:
Capture Better Fishing Photos With Jess McGlothlin: A 2.5-hour intensive workshop with in-class “assignments”, $95 for the session and limited attendance.
Travel Tips and Tricks With Jess McGlothlin: A 45-minute presentation designed to help anglers be more prepared—and feel more confident—traveling solo or as part of a group. Free with show ticket.
I hope to see many of you in Denver at the show!
Upcoming Hosted Trips
Closing Soon: Argentina
We’re getting close to final call for both these trips! I still have a few spots open on this combined itinerary which offers a full week of fishing at Estancia Laguna Verde from January 25 - February 1, and then five nights on the Golden Dorado River Cruiser from February 2 - 7th, 2025. The prices include lodging, guides, and food.
Want to learn more? Send me a DM on social media or an email, or peek at this PDF for more details.
January 25 - February 1, 2025
Estancia Laguna Verde, Lago Strobel, Argentina
$7,500 (7 nights / 6.5 days fishing)
February 2 - 7, 2025 (ONLY ONE SPOT REMAINING)
Golden Dorado River Cruiser, Paraná River, Argentina
$4,200 (5 nights / 4.5 days fishing)
Q&A
Keep on sending in your questions via Instagram or by commenting by clicking the button below. Each week I’ll pick one and give a longer, more thought-out answer here than those I give on Instagram.
This week’s question came in via a Instagram:
Q: How do you pack rods and reels for travel, especially if you’re bringing more than one setup?
A: I've experimented with different set-ups over the years, and some of my packing depends on the location, the shoot, and the equipment I’m bringing. This last trip to Belize, I used the Patagonia Rod Roll which holds four rods in elastic loops, and nestled another two rods into the case with no issue. As long as I’m traveling with a bag with one hard side (such as a rolling duffel), I can nestled the roll along the stiff bottom of the bag and pad it with clothing. I’ve not had any issues with it.
For reels, I keep them in the neoprene cases and rest them in a packing cube, separated and padded by rolled clothing. Terminal tackle is in a big, labeled Ziplock baggie or two in that same packing cube. It’s a simple system and doesn’t tend to draw the attention of customs agents in case they choose to dive through my bag. Keeping things compartmentalized also results in an easier unpacking / set-up / break down / repacking process when I’m on the road, especially if I’m visiting multiple locations on a single trip.
Recently Published
It’s not all fishing. I recently penned a hotel review on the exquisite Langham in Boston for travel industry B2B publication Travel Market Report.
Pick up the latest issue of American Fly Fishing and peek at the cover. I shot this image of friend Jackie Kutzer on the Battenkill River in Vermont nearly ten years ago. Peek inside the issue for a photo feature on New England fly fishing (and some unexpected adventures you can find in the region’s waters).
Read the latest issue of Fly Fisherman magazine for an article and images on the Golden Dorado River Cruiser, as well as a series of images from Colombia’s Darien Lodge accompanying an article from fly-angling great Jeff Currier.
Not our usual topic, but I recently published a large article on chronic wasting disease in whitetail deer for hunting GPS brand onX Hunt. CWD Planning and Preparation in Two Southeastern States focuses on education and research efforts in the two SE states which do not yet have positive CWD cases: Georgia and South Carolina.
Photography on the Water: Help Your Buddy Nail the Hero Shot ran on Epic Fly Rod’s blog this past week.
In Mind the Gap: Fly Fishing the Darién Gap for InsideHook, I talked about the realities of pelagic and inshore fly fishing off Colombia’s northwest coast in the famed Darién Gap.
Hopping cargo planes filled with concrete and beer in order to go fishing? Sounds like an Australian thing. Read Concrete, Beer, and the American in The Tom Beckbe Field Journal.
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