Belize Shines with Two World-Class Fishing Captains

Belize’s fishing community has hooked a major achievement. Joel Moratoya of San Pedro and Stefan Musa of Belize City have just landed one of the sport’s top honors, earning FishingBooker’s 2026 Angler’s Choice Award. Out of nearly ninety-five hundred captains worldwide, fewer than eight hundred made the cut, placing these Belizean guides among the best of the best. The award highlights more than just great catches. It recognizes consistency, top-rated customer experiences, and strict safety standards. With an impressive ninety-eight percent reliability score, Moratoya and Musa are now being recognized as some of the most dependable operators anywhere in the Caribbean. For Belize, it’s a major nod to the country’s growing reputation as a premier fishing destination, and to the captains who help drive that success. Today, we caught up with Stefan Musa to hear what this global recognition means to him.

 

Stefen Musa, Angler’s Choice Award Recipient

“It feels good to be recognized. There’s a lot of multi-talented guides across the country. We put in a lot of work day to day ensuring our equipment, our boats, our crew, everybody is up to standard, everything is top tier. So it felt good to be recognized for that award. We prioritize safety, boat safety. Just try to create a good atmosphere for all the guests that come our way. Try to keep everything positive. We advertise. I try to promote my country a lot. So even if it’s not on the water, if there’s something they would like to do inland, I’m always pointing my guests in the right direction, engaging with them, making them feel warm and welcome here I think goes a long way.”

 

Britney Gordon

“I noticed that, there’s two of you that won the award from different different tour companies. So what would you say to other guides that offer similar services in Belize that, that they can do something like this, too?”

 

Stefen Musa

“I would just say keep dedicated. Keep trying to master and stay disciplined to your craft. Pay attention to your guests and your audience, and try to just make everyone feel warm and welcome here as best as possible. Promote sustainable fishing. Take care of the natural resources for future generations to come. It’s very important.”

 

FishingBooker CEO Vukan Simic praised their achievement, noting that these Belizean guides have shown “the highest quality fishing trips, maintaining incredible consistency across the Western Caribbean’s most iconic waters.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: