Where to Stay for best fishing access.

[Ben Meadows]

I was more referring to bluewater flyfishing (tuna, mahi- the works) but then realized my own dumb eyes had fooled me. it was ocean fly fishing for bonefish- shall we say wishful reading??

Andy, that's one heck of a fish! I'm sure it snuggled up well to your grill or frying pan!


Ben

[Robert T]

Ben,


No matter where you wanna sling your fly Kester'll take you there. Just tell him what you're after.




Robert

[Ben Meadows]

Regards from Alabama!

I am still trying to catch up on the sleep I lost, not gained, while on vacation in Tobago, which leads me to believe that I need a "vacation from my vacation" haha, oh well. But here below, as promised, is my trip report/experiences from Tobago. I'll try to be as in-depth as I can, but the days sadly are beginning to run together on me...


Day 1:
Started out the morning (5 am) by fishing from Sandy Point all the way around crown point, until the rocks got too steep to climb. My lucky friend, of course, started the trip off by getting blasted by this 3lb jack on a popper.

But besides that the morning was quiet and fishless.
In the evening, we went and fished from Conrado Beach resort all the way to the back side of pigeon point. We saw a couple of small baracuda hits, as well as nabbing some small Mangoes from the mangrove area, there again was little fish to be found.

Day 2:
We hailed a taxi at first light to Bago's beach bar and fished the beach of Pigeon Point all the way to the backside again (4 hours transpired). It was low tide, so if there were any fish- we'd see them first. Surely enough, I spotted a small school of bonefish feeding/tailing just inside the breakers. The fish weren't wary at all as I was able to walk within 10m of them. I screwed the whole thing up by placing the 3rd cast on top of their backs...oh well.. As we kept working our way to the backside, I noticed some noisy black seabirds feeding between the boats moored there. They were diving and skimming the waters surface to catch small baitfish that were hurling themselves skyward. It took no medical degree to figure out that, something must be pressuring them towards the surface. But, no matter what lure we threw (Poppers, Crystal minnows, spoons, swimbaits, jigs, and 8 different types of flies) the fish were not interested. Even more infuriating, the fish revealed themselves to be tarpon, 5-20 pounds, by rolling on the surface. (sigh)
On the way back we were able to catch an entire school of Mangrove Snapper hanging out by a rock. Entertaining for the guys new to saltwater fishing, but pure mockery to me..


That evening, we headed to Plymouth to see if there were snook or tarpon to be found. In one word? Nope. We fished the river, the pier, the rock, and even walked over to back bay. Nothing. Zip. Nada. And we had a quiteeee interesting stroll/taxi back to town at 9pm. Be careful, eh?

Day 3:
We had the privilege of connecting up with Kester Herbert of Grand Slam Charters and arranging a half day of fishing. We started the morning early of course, and headed ironically, back up to Plymouth. When he saw the conditions he shook his head and said that it wouldnt do. He dropped us off and promised to return with more bait at 1:30. True to his word, we met him again, and we soon found out why he is so well regarded by all in tobago and all who've fished with him. He KNOWS how to tarpon fish. Within an hour, my good friend had lost an 80+ pound tarpon on the jaw-rattling second jump. I personally had been broken off by pure ignorance. Even further, Kester gladly looked through my fly box and offered suggestions on why we couldn't get the Pigeon Point tarpon to bite. (He explained that during the summer there are two types of inshore baitfish prevalent- fry (juvenile bay anchovy) and scad (spanish sardine/menhaden). The tarpon we had seen were exclusively feeding on "fry" which grow no more than 2 inches long. So it made total since that the 4-6 inch lures we had been throwing werent inducing hits.)
Anyways, once the sun began to set, the fishing got hotter than I've really ever seen. Ladyfish and tarpon alike began pounding, boiling the surface everywhere. We got hook ups everywhere we casted for about 15-30min, making up for a slow day. These pictures should surely show some satisfied customers!

Day 4:
We were so excited about the day we had that we celebrated a little tooooo much and thus could not wake up for the morning's fishing. We did however, do some snorkeling at Sandy Point to see if we could learn anything about fishing. Instead, we got a hard life lesson on strong currents and their relations to sharp rocks. Ouch. Anyways, we headed over to Canoe Bay to sample some of the bonefishing we had heard about. To our dismay, the water was deep dingy and cloudy. (Kester later corrected us and said the time was to blame-not the tide or location. Apparently, its a morning only location). We ended up fishing all the way to the airport fence without a hit and had a lovely trekk home through the jungles and marshes of tobago (all sarcasm intended).

[Ben Meadows]

Day 5:
I decided to wake early and hustle out to Pigeon Point to see what was cracking. While there were no bonefish to be found this day, my dear friends, the baby tarpon, were happy to oblige. They were rolling again on the backside of the point, on the small fry bait. I reluctantly tied on one of my bonefish flies that kester had recommend me take out. This fly seemed to be more equipped for catching bait, not imitating bait. Alas, I casted away. It did not take 30 minutes before I caught on to what the tarpon liked. I would slam down my fly into the water to attract attention, and then strip fast a few times to imitate a fry "fleeing the scene" I would soon be rewarded by a boil, roll, or slash. I managed to catch 2 in the hour of feeding that ensued, but photographic evidence only proves the splash of one fleeing my grip as I readied myself for a Kodak moment. sigh.

The first fish was a healthy 5 pounds and the other a respectable 10-15 pounds. A great morning indeed, capped off by a DELICIOUS and friendly breakfast at the House of Pancakes. Highly recommended in my book, one of the few friendly locals I met on the trip.

That evening we boated up with Kester again, and were amazed, again, by the acrobatics of tarpon and ladyfish alike. Although no fish were boated and photographed, 2 were "leadered" before they Houdini-ed themselves out of the the hook. Still, an excellent day by all accounts.

Day 6:
While I should today "sucked" that would be terribly biased of me. It was "cold" (80 degrees) and pouring down rain when Kester picked us up for a shot at the morning bite. At mornings end, I would have caught the same number of fish if I had snoozed in bed all day, but alas, the following pictures prove the morning's worth to my friend. Truly, a morning of a lifetime...

The evening that followed was filled with rain, and chickens, and thus, no fish.

[Ben Meadows]

Day 7:
On the last full day of my Tobago trip I got a jumpstart early, and little bit of luck. Halfway to the point of Pigeon Point, i noticed a shark's fin protruding the water. I watched to see what he was after, but noticed there were now 2, 3, 4, 5 sharks in the water!! As I walked closer to check it out, I felt like Christmas had come early. They weren't sharks, they were rolling and tailing tarpon in 1-2 feet of water. I was so excited that I forgot my flats shoes on shore (much to my feet's dismay). Like the bonefish, these fish weren't spooky, and would let me sneak up to them and cast from 15m away. I was armed with my fry-imitating bonefish flies and casted away. On the first cast, I saw a monster 60 pound tarpon roll in front of me. Surely a good omen right? Nope. Even better. I had a good fish on! The brute took 2 minutes to even realize it was hooked before making my reel squeel and exploding off of the flat and into the air... My joy was short lived though as it parted ways with me due to it straightening my bonefish fly hook into a straight line...sigh... I retied my fly and went back at it though. The school had moved off a little bit, but not out of walking range. When i got my casts close enough, I was rewarded by another, smaller roll, and a fish that took 45 minutes to get in. I thought it was a small one, but the picture below convinced me otherwise..

Once the fish was revived and swimming off to the reef, I was bummed to find the school long gone..

The evening was filled with stress, packing, and cleaning so while no fishing was done, I replayed the morning's events over and over again..


In summary:
I've had a couple days to think over my trip, and I've come to the conclusion that I agree with Mr. Pitts and others- Tobago gives the shorebound angler a real shot at quality fish. But, it comes with a price I dont think most will enjoy. I did 6 months of research trying to figure out how best to fish it, and when it came down to it, it was really all for naught. I had to adjust on the run to conditions and be flexible to unfeeding fish. The trip was racked with frustrations, difficulties, and problems. To me, maybe not others, I found Tobagoans to be cold, unfriendly, and very demanding. There was an air of entitlement and condescendingness that I'm not accustomed to while traveling. While my manners and smile may not be flawless, I try to cordially greet everyone I meet and be open and flexible to what they have to say. In Mexico, Belize, Vieques, and the Caymans, I've usually been returned with same. Not so in Tobago. Everything I did and experienced was difficult to the capital T. Kudos though to Kester Herbert and the owners of the Pancake House. Thanks to them, I have the pleasure of knowing that there are good, genuine, kind people in Tobago who arent in it just for the money.
The fishing took a long time to figure out, and who knows? if not for Kester I may have thrown huge tarpon flies all week and not caught a darned thing ...but physically, Tobago is a beautiful island, and it finally gave me a fair shot at good fish from the shore, which I will remember forever, fondly. But due to the frustrations that made the trip feel more like work than pleasure, I'm sad to admit I may never return.

Mr. Pitts, Mr. Tarjani, and Andy, I really appreciate the time and information you put into your posts. The information and help was truly invaluable. The trip couldn't of been a success without y'all. I offer y'all a hearty southern THANK YOU for your help

And again, I offer my limited knowledge to those who have questions pertaining to any of the fishing or locations above.

Thanks again!

Ben

[Robert T]

Hi Ben,



What a great report, excellent shots, thanks. You guys hauled in some incredible fish. I just got kinda excited as I'm gonna be out in Sept/Oct.


Thanks again

Robert

[Hugh S]

Excellent and detailed report. Sorry your experiences with Tobagonians was not better but I do know what you are talking about. I think that eventually you may change your opinion of the majority of locals as you get to know them better and you will probably find the fishing better at other times of the year (Feb -April).

Thanks again for your generous report.

Hugh

[Steve Pitts]

Hi Ben

Thanks for posting such a detailed report.

You had a good week, which got better the more you adapted to the conditions and figured out what the fish were looking for.

All credit to you and your buddies for looking, listening and then being open-minded enough to change tactics.

If you'd have had another week (or return sometime) your new-found knowledge should put more fish on the shore for sure.

WRT to the info. that you received before your trip - I'm sure that Robert and Andy are as pleased as me that we had a small part to play in landing those tarpon. It's the next best thing to being there!

Cheers
Steve

[Ralph]

Hi Ben,
An excellent report, nice looking fish.

I will be in Tobago next week for a couple of weeks so will be hoping for some Tarpoon as well. What flies where you using? I intended to book a couple of trips with Kester when I arrived - now I cant wait !
Cheers
Ralph

[Ben Meadows]

Hi Ralph,
I used sparsely tied #2 and #4 Chartreuse and white Clouser Minnows to the most success. The flies should be no more than 2 inches long or the fish will simply ignore them No flash either, which is weird, but that's what they were biting... also make sure you use saltwater hooks when tying them. I thought my #2 bass hook could hold up, and yeahhhhhh, a 50 pound tarpon made a needle out of that one..


Good luck!


Ben

[Andy K]

Ben,

thanks for this comprehensive report and congratulations to your catch.
After 6 weeks on dry dock me and my boat are looking forward to going fishing again
I second what Hugh says about your experience with locals and hope to see you
back in Tobago any time.

Greetings from Trinidad

Andy