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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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