Tarpon Fishing with Charlie Leslie in Belize.

I was first introduced to Charlie Leslie by an oversized Canadian lady that still runs a restaurant and bar operation out of a thatch palappa tucked under a few bushes just off the main sidewalk in the village of Placencia, Belize, Central America.

The introduction took place in the Fall of 1996 and it wasn't fishing that first brought Charlie and me together. No, back then, Charlie was making ends meet as well as keeping the Kingfisher II in the water by operating a semi-regular passenger ferry service from the dock in Placencia to the Immigration and Customs office at the old bridge in the banana port town of Puerto Cortes Honduras.

Now, some nine years later, my old friend Charlie Leslie, still has his Kingfisher, now the Kingfisher VII, he has his health and a loving family. Charlie Leslie is arguably the best fishing guide in all of Belize. Combing the flats off Tarpon Caye for permit as he guides adventurous anglers from points around the globe to their own personal nirvana, Charlie Leslie loves his life.

Charlie and I started talking seriously about this book when we sat down one day at the Luba Hati hotel on the Placencia peninsula in the summer of 2001. It took another two years and lots of emails with Charles Leslie JR. until late summer 2004 when over the course of several days at Charlie's base of operations, the beautiful paradise of Tarpon Caye Lodge, I turned on my tape recorder and listened to what Charlie Leslie had to say about fishing in Belize.

Charlie Leslie's
Fishing Guide to Belize