Wilfred W R Mutrie Jr. is a 30 years old Creole, born in the town of Santa Elena in Belize's Cayo District. Wilfred moved to Hope Ville, the northern part of the town of Punta Gorda in the Toledo District in 1998. Since that time Wilfred spent his time fishing the outer Cayes and waters. He does commercial fishing for conch lobster and other fisheries and has been guiding fishing trips with his own 23ft Fiberglas skiff with a 70hp Suzuki 4 stroke for over seven years now.

Wilfred, Tim and a 29 pound Permit

Most of the fishing he does is fly fishing, which is becoming more popular each year. Permit is one of the fish that is more abundant on the flats and lagoon off Punta Gorda coast. Bonefish is also a possibility along with Snook, Tarpon, Jackfish and Barracuda. You can fish for them in the region most of the year.

Wilfred says about himself "I love to fish and meet people so it makes my job easy and fun, for all of us in the boat fishing for those smart permits on our many and great flats".

When it comes to fishing, as every one else, Wilfred too shared with us one of his "big" fish stories. "Here is one of a fish we hooked and had on for about an hour and when it seemed like it was all over and we had this one, we had an equipment problem.

David, one of Wilfred's clients with a 25 pound permit.

The thing that failed was my dip net, just when the fish gave up and I scoop it up the net fouled due to the size of the fish. It was exiting to have hooked a fish that big, meaning it was more than 35lb easy. Even though we lost it, we got another fish later that day, not as big, but good enough."

Wilfred's largest fish landed in the waters off the coast of Punta Gorda was over 40lbs. The area is abundant of game fish partly due to the fact that it is in a marine reserve known as the 'Port Honduras Marine Reserve'. This reserve has been under protection for over 3 years and net fishing is banned from the reserve, so the fish are multiplying.

As Wilfred puts it "Our fishing is the best in the south, you have a good chance to land a fish on and around the flat and lagoon."