Fishing in December and aboard the "Hog Snapper"

[Toine & Lia]

After a period of hard labour and hardly any time to even think about fishing, we finally boarded a plane to Tobago to spent Christmas.

Next to our normal luggage, we brought in a fully loaded rod case and, according to my wife, fifty pound of unnecessary fishing gear. (Seems like there is more to bring every time again).
Our two year old son Sam, like his dad, is already becoming addicted to collecting fishing gear. Every time he took a look a my lure box, I had to take the hooks of a plug so he could play with it and stash it in one of his toy boxes.

The first week we fished Grange beach, Mt Irvine and Bateau. The swell was heavy and with a high tide in the morning it didn’t produce much fish. To be short…. At Grange beach, to the left, about 100 yards to the rocks there is a reef. Fishing surface lures over the reef was always good up till now.
We finally managed to catch a good size jack and big barracuda on light tackle.
The gear we use; Shimano Beastmaster spinning rods, Shimano Twinpower 6000’s loaded with 30 pound Whiplash. Our favourite and most productive lure, early morning and just before dark, Rapala Skitter Walk, colours Grey, Blue and Yellow back. Next best lure is also a Rapala, the Long Cast Minnow, the salt water version.

In Scarborough we fished the harbour in the evening. Next to the jetty where the commercial fishing boats a moored we saw some small fish jump. After throwing a couple of time with a small jig we hooked up a good sized fish that rapidly took off under the jetty, racing towards open water and got away after biting through the monofilament leader. Later on, we were told that locals catch sharks in the harbour. We saw pictures of a big lemon shark that was caught, last year, just in front of the fish market.

As long as Sam was awake early morning, we fished the beaches. After about five, six days he got used to the Bago clock and he opened his eyes after sunrise. So much for early morning sessions.

Before we arrive we already made arrangements with Barry St. George to fish a couple days offshore. Barry sold his diving business and took the “Alpha Lime” out of the water to sell it. He now operates as a semi commercial fisherman on his new boat, the “Hog Snapper”. The Hog Snapper is a 50 ft Bowen, build in Trinidad an similar to one of the Hard Play boats. These boats are built to concur rough seas and stay offshore for days, even weeks.
Barry will use this boat to fish for the market as well as to use it as a charter boat and even join the tournaments in the lower part of the Caribbean. The boat is well equipped with top of market electronics, good fishing gear, downriggers and every thing else a good game boat needs…
‘Hog Snapper” is moored at Scarborough harbour. Barry can still be reached by Email on [email protected] or on his cell phone; 682 8096.

The offshore fishing was bad. We fished two days from 6 till 6.
The first day we fished up North. Trolling from Scarborough up to St. Giles and back along the deepwater drop off between Trinidad and Tobago. We didn’t ran into any birds. Normally there always birds around, Fregats that show the way to Dolphin or other surface hunters or packs of birds that feed on bait fish. None of that this day. At the end of the day we ran into a school of Blackfin Tuna. All five rods hooked up. Screaming reels, lines mashed up, a couple of hands short. It was a mess. We managed to boat two of ‘m. The others were lucky and got away. Nice fish about 20 pounds each. We than trolled the same path over and over without finding the school of fish.
It was already starting to get dark when we had another multiple hookup. This time we got into two Wahoo. The biggest one got away. I was lucky to bring a nice 30 pound Wahoo to the boat. Too bad I caught it on a 50 pound outfit. A fish like this gives great sport on a 30.
December isn’t the best month to fish the waters off Tobago when you target Marlin or Sailfish. But after 7 times Tobago, this was the worst day up till now, fishing for species like kings, dolphin wahoo tuna and all the smaller fish that will take a trolled lure.

The second day, due to the weather, we fished the shallows in the South between Crown point and Trinidad. If there is a place around Tobago where you will always find birds (and fish) then it’s in the Shallows. Again, not this day.
Normally when Barry runs into a pack of feeding birds we kill the engines and I start casting a spoon or jigs into the area where the birds dive. Most of the times you will get into a sorts of fish like yellowtail snapper, kingfish, rainbow runners or bonito. This year the spinning rods kept untouched.

We fished the edges of the shallows, we fished the channels, we fished the deeper edges, we fished the shallows itself, we fished with small lures, big lures, live bait, dead bait, at the bottom, on the surface. Not a single bite.
Finally we ran a small Rapala Fat Rap on a downrigger, it bounced against the bottom, and trolled it very slowly along the edge of a deeper reef. This lure produced three barracudas and a small grouper. On our way back, again almost dark, we caught a huge barracuda where you least aspect it (very deep water) and a small kingfish.

Barry. like always, tried everything to get us into some fish. You can’t blame him. Too bad he had to leave to Barbados a couple of days before Christmas, otherwise we would have fished another time at night. Barry found a very good place to go banking a couple of miles out of Scarborough. Next time we’ll try that.

The Hog Snapper is a nice to boat to fish on. I can and will recommend it to anyone who wants to go out fishing. There are a few point to consider;
You are fishing on the Atlantic side of Tobago. That means there is always a swell, and from time to time the sea can be rough. So if you tend to get seasick, don’t go.
The Hog Snapper isn’t a fast fishing machine. So Barry doesn’t go out on short trips.
It is not a luxurious boat. Don’t expect seats and sofa’s. It’s a fishing vessel.

Opposite to that; Barry is fun to be with, always good music around, food and drinks as much as you like, and most important…he knows how to fish.

So much on the offshore fishing.

Tight lines,
Toine

[B Jack]

Sounds like the fishing wasn't very hot but at least you caught some. Can you post a pic of the jack or barracuda, I always love to see a good pic of a nice jack.