Mango Creek Lodge

All is well at Mango Creek Lodge, we are seeing an increase in visitors, does this mean the economy is improving or did people just decide to have a holiday anyway, That is the question. We are optimistic that things are slowly getting better. Let us all hope we are right.

Patrice at the Dolphin encounter

Patrice went with guest to the snorkel with the dolphins and had a great time.

We have lots of projects underway. The fishing boats are being repaired and painted, new super looking stripes. Walter has been busy doing his creative painting.

Walter doing his thing!

We are slowly progressing on our two new Cabanas. We are planning on them being wheel chair accessible, this will require the water flush toilets instead of our composting ones in the other cabanas so we have built all the septic tanks ready for the two toilets. We plan on building the cabana and hope to have them available to guests by November. As well as being great for wheelchairs will be super for families and even just two couples. The front deck will be shared allowing a separate place for families or friends to relax. In addition to the boats we also have redone the lift rack for the fishing boats.

The fishing has been great, we are seeing bigger bonefish. I am not sure why this is but hope it continues. now is the time of higher water levels so the Permit are on the flats, they are just as picky but you see more and we catch more this time of year and again in September when waters rise again. The truly amazing fishing bews is that we are seeing more and larger Snook. Usually by this time of year they are gone, but we got a fish over 12 pounds. That is a great fish for here on a fly rod, sorry no pictures.

OK it is coming onto summer up north but this is still a great place for a holiday so come see what we have to offer.

All the way from the UK, they came they fished, they had a great time. Nigel and Vee had been here before but they brought along John and Katie. I am hoping John will send along some photos of their stay. The first picture shows guide Perry holding a beautiful Bar Jack and don’t be fooled these things fight hard!

This next shot shows Katie enjoying her hammock.

Nigel got a nice Permit while here.

Dalia’s special fish tea served in a fresh unripe coconut, it is becoming world famous!

Thanks Nigel for the photos, hope you come back again soon.

John and Kate have sent their photos.

One of Kate's Baracudas

John with a nice Bonefish

Beauty

Giant Baracuda, glad they got that one away from the flat, they eat a lot of bonefish!

Believe it or not but this one is probably the biggest bone ever caught here, but they saw bigger ones!

Big Bonefish

Hello out there, we have just had a first! Last night a couple staying with us were given a romantic dinner up on the boathouse roof. Now for those who have never had this it is a once in a lifetime thing. The wind was blowing and clouds were scuttling across the full moon when Forest dropped to his knee and asked Leslie to be his, presenting her with a family heirloom with beautiful diamond. Let me tell you Dalia was witness to him proposing and there was very few dry eyes at Mango Creek Lodge last night. This little extra that was dreamed up to be a special night for guests has hit an all time high. Patrice and I hope that Forest and Leslie have every happiness in the world, and thank them for the honor of our first wedding announcement. I will try and get some photos of the happy couple soon.

Oh sorry for those of you trying to get us our internet has been down for over a week.

Katie and Mike were here for their vacation and had a great time. We just loved this young couple. They snorkeled, Scuba Dove, Fished and just had a great time, here are some of their photos, hope you come back soon you two.

Katie and Mike with Lobster Dinner under the stars.

African Pompano

Dom from England was here and stole the hearts of my young kitchen staff. he was on a bit of a walk about and we were lucky enough to have him visit Mango Creek Lodge for a brief stay. Although not a serious fisherman he did go fishing one day and here are some shots of the day he had. We all hope you will come back again Dom we miss you already!

Firstly sorry for not having more reports, my guests have let me down either by not sending pictures to me or forgetting to bring a camera!

Peter and Zoe were back last week and had two wonderful days fishing with Perry. The results were stunning with five Permit in just two days. The best part was that in the photos you can see the lodge in the background. Not all were caught here at the lodge but the photos I have are of the Permit caught and landed right beside Mango Creek Lodge.

Hello everyone, I am getting a lot of inquiries about safety in Honduras. So I thought it is best I do an update. First of all Honduras in the mainland and particularly the big cities are not safe. Can you travel through them? Yes, you can if you use common sense, follow a couple rules: number one, Do not travel at night! number two, know the area where you are going or use a recommended guide or Taxi. number three, watch your stuff, do not carry a lot of cash, don’t flash cash, put cameras away when not in use, like I say use common sense.

There is very little of the violence aimed at tourists, doing illegal activities will put you among the very people you should avoid. Using illegal drugs will put you at risk. Honduras is a wonderful place and the nature here is second to none, there are more cloud forests and rain forests than anywhere else in the world I think but they are undeveloped and take more research and preparation than say Costa Rica.

Roatan is another thing all together. First it is 35 miles from the mainland, it is not as poor as the mainland. We still have a lot of poor people, but the tourism is starting to produce a middle class. There is very little violent crime on Roatan and the areas where it might happen is not typically where tourists go.

Mango Creek Lodge is far from the madding crowd, there are no roads to Mango Creek and we are situated in an area of mostly rural life. We have never had a violence problem ever, we have had some minor theft over the years but surprisingly little. If you come to mango creek I think you will find that there is never a question of safety, all our guests so far have found us comfortable and safe.

Terry

Hello, hope everyone had a great holiday season. We had a great one here, two families one very much into fishing the other into Eco activities. I hope to have some photos soon to show you.

We are at work removing the Australian Pines that have reached an incredible height and are now ruining our view. We have a crew here who will take the trees down and will then prepare them for use as lumber, I have been assured that it is very strong and hard and hope to use it on the building we will be doing. Invasive means they are not native to the Island, a previous caretaker planted them about eight years ago and they are taking over. I apologize to my neighbors if the are spreading their seeds over to them. They are messy too with long pine like needles. please look at this link:  http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/caeq1.htm

Invasive species 2 is the Lion Fish. Last week we joined five sailboat crews who were anchored here to go and spear Lion Fish. We got quite a few and then we ate them. If you are careful to remove the spines with shears they may be handled and cleaned and are very good eating. I hope to get a license myself so that I can do my part in slowing down this destructive fish. please read this web page

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111695369

a very large King Helmet

Patrice, found what may in fact be a world record King Helmet while snorkeling. The book identifies that they have a maximum size of 12 ” well this one goes at least 16″. These beautiful shells are wanted for ornaments but we are pleased to say that for the time being he or she has been placed where we hope we can keep an eye on to keep it safe. These critters are predators and eat things like urchins and Sea Biscuits. They can bury themselves completely in the sand.

beautiful King Helmet

Some people carve these white shells with intricate cameo designs. They are for sale to cruise ship passengers down Island.

Patrice, snorkel mask marks and all, with King Helmet

I have to confess that we have a Cameo carved shell on the bar, but this one is still walking about in the Sea.

Well we made it and I believe a great time was had by all. The Saturday that Huntingdon College of Montgomery Alabama arrived was a rainy day, a very rainy day. The adventure realy started as we watched the Delta flight from Atlanta try to land but could not get it done. So our 14 guests we wisked off to Belize City where the plane took on extra fuel. The flight then touched down at about 4:30pm about three hours late. This put us in the situation of ferrying our guests to Mango Creek in the rain and early dark. This group took it well and there was a sense of adventure and not fear which was great. We fed this tired hungry crew and settled in for the night. It rained all night and most of the next day. Instead of being depressed this group made the best of things and were jumping from the boathouse roof and kayaking in the rain. I will be posting more soon and expect to receive a full set of Blogs from the students themselves, right after Christmas.

In the mean time we have some guests arriving today and two more later, then next week the cabanas are full with the arrival of the same two families that were here for Christmas last year. So everyone out there please have a great Holiday Season and watch for more blogs coming soon.

Hello from the rainy tropics. Tropical Storm and later Hurricane Rina is now a memory, a very wet memory. It was reported that our area received over a ten day period about four feet of rain. Now for you that have never experienced this tropical downpour, thank the lord for that. Rain falls in the tropics and at times we just cannot believe that there is that much water or that the rain can stay at that intensity for as long as it does. It rains so hard that some kind of water shed is necessary or breathing gets tough, I kid you not there are times that it rains so hard that having a baseball cap is a necessity.

I do need to say at this point that all is well here at Mango Creek Lodge. We have had to rethink our plans on building or at least completing building of cabana five and six. Shortages of diesel were the first blow to our plans, some of the supply ships did not get here so we had to ration diesel. Thank goodness we installed those new solar panels and that allowed us even in low sunlight days to stay charged and not need as much diesel as usual. We have most of the beautiful hardwood sawn and ready for making our lovely louvered windows and doors.

The fishing continues to amaze all of our few guests who brave this weather, Tarpon catches and Permit catches have been fantastic. I hope to have some pictures and a report for later this week as we have some fishermen from our hometown ( Durango, Colorado ) out fishing today.

Now comes the final prep for the approach of Holiday Season and one of our busiest times of the year. we are also getting excited to receive Huntingdon College from Montgomery in December. For guests that are coming again please get booked as soon as possible and don’t forget to remind us that you are returning so we give that discount that you earn.

Thanks, Terry

Well we are getting torrential rains from what might become a tropical depression, located on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua and just offshore. The rain hit early we do not usually get this much rain till November but I guess it is close enough. The good news is that the rain brings lots of Tarpon and Snook to our shores. The other good thing is that it cools us and more importantly our ocean water. This makes for better snorkeling after the storm and lessens the chance of a big storm coming our way. Notice I say lessens not stops. The jungle is a bright vivid green with lots of our most fragrant flowers about to bloom. We have decided not to build the new cabanas just now, they will have to wait for drier weather.

In other news, the airlines have better prices right now so do get your booking in soon. For those of you that have been here before remember to let us know that you have been here because I have a poor memory of names, you will then be given our special discount to returning customers. Terry

Early Friday morning Kessel our Mango Creek fishing guide took Michael and Christian, brothers from Austria out fishing. By 9:30 am they were back for breakfast and Michael had caught a Grand Slam. This is the quickest caught grand Slam in Mango Creek Lodge history.

fishing along the edge of the Island

Their wives relaxed at Mango Creek while the boys fished.

Relaxing on the boathouse roof

A wonderful week for all four with fishing snorkeling and Pigeon Cays trip and it all came down to Friday morning with the culmination of the week a Grand Slam. Here are the photos.

Michael with nice size Bonefish

Michael with early morning Tarpon on 8wt.

Michael with Permit for Grand Slam!

That permit was his second of the week!

Nice permit right in front of Mango Creek Lodge

In truth Michael and his wife now live in South Texas and Christian and his wife live in Vienna Austria, all I know is that they were wonderful guests and we want them to come back to Mango Creek soon.

Adam is back and his beginners luck is starting to get even stronger. Adam will freely admit he is a beginner and his earlier grand slam was just being in the right place at the right time, but this week he has continued. Day by day he has been hammering big bonefish, his average bonefish must be about four pounds. The smallest yesterday was 2.5 pounds and there were at least four over six pounds. He is out again this morning and has photos. I will see if I can get some and show you his amazing run of success. The weather has been picture perfect light winds scattered clouds clear water, it just doesn’t get any better. All this in spite of a full moon, and everyone knows the fishing is lousy on a full moon, right?????

Nice Bone

Another bone

A safe release

Then on the way Home they found a school of Tuna rising!

ity bity but the fastest to the fly

Then before Breakfast this morning Michael put Adam on a very nice fish, caught on a fly and eight weight rod. Well done Adam!

Jumping Tarpon

about 30 lbs or a bit more

Happy Adam!

Permit Time at Mango Creek lodge

Hi there, just a quick reminder that for anyone brave enough to risk tropical storms and stuff Now is the best time for Permit. We are seeing school after school and last week we landed a bunch. We have been seeing fish in the +20 pound range. Remember we still have our deal on so try to get here soon, air flights are going to go higher so come now.

Ten new panels are installed and we are getting much more power. Unfortunately at the same time our old inverters decided that they needed to retire. So we are waiting for two new Outback power inverters that may even fetch up today. I will be posting a photo log of the inverter installation soon.

New Double Cabana

The big news is that we are going to complete the new cabanas #5 and #6 that we started two years ago. The septic is going in as I write this and the water and electric should be roughed in soon. We are waiting for the 6×6 for the corners but they will be here next week. The design of these cabanas is to feature two new thoughts. One is that they will be a sort of duplex and in this way be a terrific platform for friends travelling together and families, Max and family will be staying in them over Christmas. The other feature is that they will be wheelchair accessible. I am hoping to allow some of the great sportsmen who may be handicapped to come and enjoy what we have to offer. We will be changing docks etc. to make getting around in a chair easy. Our staff will be coached to anticipate the needs of these guests.

I will keep you all up to date with pictures as the construction goes along.

Sharon and Dave were here from Washington DC, for five days last week, a wedding in San Pedro Sula caused the shorter week. Despite terrible service from Taca airlines and their Honduran counterpart Islenia they had a great time. David fished three days with a trip to the Pigeon Cays to allow for some time with his wife. Many bonefish were caught and two Permit on one day, they could not entice the Tarpon out from under the mangroves but he says he will be back next June or July. Unfortunately David did not bring a camera so the photo evidence is lacking, the smile on his face and his declaration that these had been the best fishing days of his life told the story without photos. Sharon snorkeled with Patrice and I and became a hammock potato for a while but loved their trip to the Cays. Patrice and I agreed that these lovely people make our running Mango Creek all seem worthwhile.

Hi everyone, I am back on the job in Roatan. Patrice has been great, she can do almost everything that I can do and kept it all in order. This week we will be doing some new Posts on the website.  I will be installing our new solar panels to help us be even greener. We will be doing some more painting and lots of yard work. I hope too have all new pictures so everyone can see the new color scheme. This is the worst part of the year for tropical activity and soon to be our rainy season. Good news for people thinking of coming to stay with us, we are going to hold the prices for another year.

On another note,  I found a wonderful add on a big sign at the airport in Houston. There was a young man with a large ball of light held over his head with the caption ” How many light bulbs does it take to change an American?” This play on the old joke is a startling reminder that we people of the world have to change our ways and thoughts about energy use. We at Mango Creek Lodge are doing our little bit and hope to do more. I ask all our future guests to look at what we are doing here and please start to think about what they can do when they get back home. Solar and wind with a big dose of conservation will go a long way to solve a lot of our problems in the world.

To see this sign: http://mangocreeklodge.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/psa2009_lightbulb.pdf

Late but still great is the pictures from Sarah and Dan who came to us from Nantucket where Dan is a commercial fisherman. Now this was a bit strange because while Dan was interested in being always close to Sarah he is a total fishing nut. They did some diving kayaking and lots of snorkeling, even did a trip to the Pigeon Cays but Dan was into fishing, fly fishing, and spin fishing. Sarah was also into the fishing as long as the sun was there to work on her tan. I will be posting more pictures as soon as I’m back on Roatan so this is just a tease of what the photos will be like.

Sarah with big teeth Barracuda at Mango Creek

Hello again, we just want to announce that Huntingdon College of Montgomery Alabama will be visiting Mango Creek in December this year, we look forward to hosting this fine College.