The Fly Shop800·669·3474

Your angling package at Copal Tree Lodge includes the respective number of nights' accommodation in selected suite category, respective number of full day fly fishing with a professional guide, all meals and afternoon snacks, and beverages including local spirits and beer. Round trip land transfers from Punta Gorda Airstrip to the lodge, and complimentary use of the gym and self-guided activities: kayaks, mountain bikes and hiking trails, laundry service, taxes and service charge.

Not included in your Copal Tree Lodge package are Round Trip flights from Belize International or Belize Municipal to Punta Gorda, guided tours and activities, Spa treatments, gift shop purchases, fishing guide gratuities, fly fishing equipment, tackle, and flies.

The Fly Shop® is not in the insurance business, but we recommend Travel Guard coverage as a service with a desire to see your best interests protected. It is impossible to know when an unfortunate situation (loss of luggage, fly rods, illness in the family, or an accident) may occur. However, such things can and do happen, and this insurance can provide a means of recourse against non-refundable financial losses.

• Travel Insurance Information

land, one of the Copal Tree guides will be waiting to pick you up in their custom open-air Land Cruiser. In only 10 minutes, you'll be pulling up to the lodge! The Tropic Air Flight is included in the trip packages.

Each deluxe room features the following amenities: private veranda, in-room sitting area, crisp air-dried bedding, spacious bathroom with private walk-in shower, private entrance, air conditioning, complimentary laundry services, ceiling fans, in-room safes, small fridges (upon request), bathrobes, hair dryer, umbrellas, and complimentary wifi.

Jungle Suites:
Nestled amidst lush tropical foliage, lies the Jungle Suites. These spacious rooms, with either two queen beds or one king bed, tall ceilings and full-length windows afford an airy retreat. Situated just a short walk from the Main Lodge, you are never too far from the action. Each room features either two double beds or a king bed.

Ridge Suites:
Copal Tree Lodge features four new Ridge suites offer stunning views from the Maya Mountains to the Caribbean Sea. Each 750 sq. ft. suite with a California king bed provides a private screened porch, outdoor soaking tubs, and access to a 40’ salt water infinity pool and spacious decks.

Family Villa (3 Bedroom):
The three bedroom Family Villa provides a wonderful retreat for your group or family to experience the luxury of the lodge with all the comforts of home with sweeping views of the jungle. Guests at the Villa enjoy an en-suite king bedroom with its own private screened in porch and 2 smaller queen bedrooms with a shared bathroom. The Family Villa includes a central lounge and full kitchen, which opens up onto a private luxurious porch.

The Belcampo Story and the Farm at Copal Tree:
The land surrounding Copal Tree Lodge dates back to the Classic Maya period – around 600 AD – when the Maya people used the Rio Grande river as an important transportation route to the sea. In the 1860’s Confederates from Alabama and Texas settled in the region to produce cane, cattle, and rum. Ms. Marie Louise Young, a Confederate descendent born in Belize, eventually bought the “Big Hill” property and farmed cattle and 80 acres of sugar cane. She produced aged rum and started a distillery called “Rocky Run Rum” on the property until the 1970s. The original cane press can still be seen in the center of the Copal Tree Farm Center. In 2001 the property was sold to the owners of El Pescador in San Pedro and construction began on El Pescador South, a new fly fishing lodge.

In 2005, Todd Robinson purchased the fishing lodge and renamed it Machaca Hill Lodge. During this time, the simple rustic fishing lodge underwent extensive improvements, transforming the lodge into a luxury resort with a variety of new river and inland adventures. As an avid marine conservationist, Todd became involved in the region by aiding in the purchase of more than 45,000 acres of rainforest together with the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE). In 2009, Belcampo CEO Anya Fernald partnered with Robinson to produce Belcampo’s keystone organic crops of cane, cacao, coffee, and vanilla, and provide the lodge visitors with agritourism programs that share and study these exotic ingredients at their origin. In 2018, they changed the name again, to Copal Tree Lodge.

Today, Copal Tree produces on-site more than 70% of the food we serve to Lodge guests. With extensive gardens, tropical fruit trees, and livestock, our day-to-day food production is a hive of activity year round. Join the farm staff for a vist to our egg mobile. Be entertained by the feasting, playful pigs. Visit the Cocktail Garden where they grow limes, coconut and pitaya. Explore the Flavor Garden to see, taste and smell the diverse range of tropical flavors that can be custom blended during their one day chocolate courses.

From Farm to Table:
Delicious, authentic food is at the core of the Copal Tree Lodge experience. Belizean cuisine is culturally complex like the Belizeans themselves, with influences from the Maya, East Indian, Creole, Mexican and Garifuna Cultures. Copal Tree offers a real experience of Belize flavors to guests, based almost exclusively on ingredients from their own farm.

Copal Tree chefs only use local, humanely raised meats. They raise our own hogs and pastured poultry, and butcher and cure their own meats, including breakfast sausage and bacon that is smoked over cinnamon and allspice cuttings. We only use sustainable seafood, supporting small scale, local day boat fishermen and strictly adhere to seasonal fishery openings. We serve all the lion fish we can get, because it is an invasive species and the act of eating it protects the Belize Great Barrier Reef, the second largest in the world, from species and habitat loss. They only use wild shrimp, or shrimp from a well-researched, land locked sustainable shrimp farm, Cardelli Farm in Placencia.

Most fishing days in this area will result in seeing hundreds of permit in a day, sometimes in large schools and sometimes tailing as singles and pairs in very shallow water. A great day of permit fishing is usually experiencing a dozen or so legitimate shots a day. If you’re really lucky, you might even hook one of these extremely challenging fish!

There are hundreds of prime permit flats in the area around Punta Gorda, most less than thirty minutes from town. Copal Tree is about a 15 minute boat ride downriver to Punta Gorda, making the closest flats about 20 minutes away and the furthest flats about 45 minutes away.

In addition to the great permit fishing, there are some great venues nearby for diversity of species including bonefish, tarpon, and snook. The outer reef islands (called the Sapodilla Cayes) offer reliable opportunities for bonefish, and can be well worth the longer boat ride (about an hour) to reach these shallow flats. Bonefish here average 2-3 pounds, while 4-5 pound bonefish are landed regularly. The river systems, including the Rio Grande itself upon which Copal Tree Lodge sits, offer additional opportunities to fish for snook, large jacks, and juvenile tarpon from 10-50 pounds. This jungle fishing can be a great diversion from the flats, and offers an outstanding “backup” option when big winds can pummel the open seas.

Anglers fishing with Copal Tree are catered to by the famous Garbutt brothers and their staff of experienced native Belizean guides, using comfortable 23’ super-pangas with casting decks and poling platforms. These boats are at home all up and down the Yucatan and Belize coastal waters. They are very comfortable in deep waters and just as at-home in shallow flats. The fishing at Copal Tree is usually a combination of poling the deeper flats and wading the shallower coral and turtle grass flats.