Posted Sunday, September 16, 2007
 E-mail this page  Printer-friendly page
 |
|
 Jan Stephen Maizler has been a South Florida resident and angler his entire life. He is a past IGFA world record holder for bonefish on two pound line and permit on four pound line. He has caught and released over two thousand bonefish in his angling career. He has published hundreds of articles and seven books, most notably Flats Fishing II, and Fishing Florida's Coast (available at www.flatsfishingonline.com, Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles.com. and Bookamillion.com). Jan also specializes in trip plans for anglers on cruiseships anywhere in the world.
Contact Info: Office: 305-573-3371 Home Office: 305-940-1564
Email The Author
Visit His Web Site
Buy His Book: Fishing Florida's Flats | |
When travel-savvy anglers head to new destinations near or far, they're sure to have done their homework in a full assessment (what, where, how, when) of that new fishing place. This evaluation also forms the basis for thorough planning and equipping to insure optimal results.
Quite possibly, the foundation for all good angling travel is realism about oneself and the angling destination itself. The first step in this process is awareness and acceptance of one's travel style, personal angling desires and goals, level of amenities and services needed, personal strengths and weaknesses both psychological and physical, as well as actual angling skills and shortcomings. The next step is to find a destination that makes a good match for the above factors or to be sure that the place where one is headed truly matches up with what one wants. Some traveling anglers use outfitters and/or angling travel agents to assist them in creating the ultimate match between dreams, skills, and destinations.
Good outfitters that represent land-based lodges, and movable ones such as motherships have an ethical mandate that they follow involving disclosure and discussion of all the features of the destinations that they sell. For instance, this involves discussing the seasonality of Los Roques or realistically acknowledging when a destination has apparent irregular bonefishing, like Penrhyn Island. Some operators are still touting this place as the ultimate bonefish Mecca- despite the now-obvious results of some anglers that throw doubt on those claims. The moral of this is to avoid outfitter hype, an affliction that at times infects some of the more established operators. When it comes to "frontier" destinations, let others sally forth and watch their results. If you want to be one of the first-comers, be realistic and take your chances!
Start-up camps and destinations are not immune from hype. This is where caution should prevail. As a writer, it's easier for me to check out claims of new operations. Yet, with the information-heavy world-wide web, any angler can create a good "due diligence" with good searches, chats, and bulletin boards. If it turns up there is any doubt about the destination's safety, fishing reliability, or transfer availability, discuss your doubts and questions directly and frankly with the owner.
I have turned away from such operations only two times in the last ten years. The first case was when one Bahamas operation that got pushy on a story even when it was clear that a severe cold front was going to decimate the fishing- and it did!. Another instance was an operator on the Costa Rican-Nicaragua border that claimed unrelentingly successful tarpon fishing even in the face of the research I shared with them on the reported irregular results of anglers that fished with them. This is one reason that I frequent well-established destinations that have experience and understand the nuances of season and weather without getting frantic.
While there will be more installments from FlatsFishingOnline on angling travel, one topic that demands inclusion is angler ethnocentrism- a technical term for traveling angler's exporting their home country standards to other parts of the world. This tendency can be a disaster for Americans or EU anglers that travel to the third world, as they are sure to be disappointed in lodgings, services, and amenities. The guiding principle is to be realistic about the norms and features of where you are going. I know that I can stay in the north end of Long Island at a great boutique resort, but I'd opt for the more bonefish-filled waters of Deadman's Cay to the south and accept more modest lodgings.
E-mail this page Printer-friendly page
|
