Fishing reports

[Robert T]

Hi everyone,


I'm just wondering if anybody has fished the waters of Tobago lately? It'd be nice to read some reports before my trip kicks off.


Regards

Robert

[Steve Pitts]

Hi Robert

Sadly, It's been 18 months since I last wet a line around Tobago, but my friend Mike has just returned from a two week trip. He and his son Richard did quite a lot of fishing from the beaches and rocks.

Mike always posts a report on his website and will undoubtedly add to the two pages already posted.
Check out http://www.mikeladle.com/osa.html and select the 'saltwater' link on the lower left of the page.

Cheers
Steve

[Robert T]

Hi Steve,

Thanks a lot for the info. I had a feeling he might've gone away on a trip cos he hasn't posted anything on his site since christmas. 6 weeks to go so I'm really jazzed about reading some stuff about the current situation as there's been a scarcity of fresh reports on mytobago lately. I've got the DVD you guys made, great work in all sense but unfortunately it still hasn't given me a hint regarding the location of the legendary '' Jack Bay ''.



Regards

Robert

[Steve Pitts]

Hi Robert

'Jack bay' appears to have gone off the boil over the past couple of years.
I haven't heard of anyone (angling tourist) catching a jack there since April 2006.

Mike and I fished it a few times in 2007 and didn't get a sniff of a jack, but there were some big tarpon cruising 75m off the beach.

I can't imagine that jacks have suddenly started avoiding the bay, it's a perfect location for their ambush tactics, but there do also seem to be less jack blitzes at Crown Point too. You could almost set your watch by them several years ago, but they are much more hit and miss nowadays.
Maybe there are fewer jacks around due to fishing pressure?

Having said that, Mike and Richard did have a couple of days when they came across some very big jacks within a mile of Crown Point. I'll leave Mike to tell the tale on his blog.

Cheers
Steve

[Robert T]

HI Steve,


I'd be happy if some of the good ones returned to entertain me as I only caught a couple of babies last year. I spent a mere 7 days on Tobago in February so I hardly scrached the surface. Anyway that vacation was meant to be a typical 7 days in the sun type of thing and I only took a rod&reel + 5 lures. This time I'm all geared up and going with the intention of fishing as much as I can. I checked out Mike's website but he hasn't put anything about his latest adventure yet.

I really enjoyed your DVD (fishing in the caribbean) but I wish there'd been more on fly fishing on the flats of Tobago. I've tried to figure out the whereabouts of the flats where you talk about fishing gear, clothing etc. Is it Canoe Bay? I'm very new to fly fishing (can't even cast properly) but I'm going to give it a go and see what happens.



Regards

Robert

[Steve Pitts]

I checked out Mike's website but he hasn't put anything about his latest adventure yet.

I've tried to figure out the whereabouts of the flats where you talk about fishing gear, clothing etc. Is it Canoe Bay?

Hi Robert

Mike has posted two pages in the saltwater section of his webiste - Tobago 09 and Tobago 09 -small stuff.

You are right about the flat where I did my fly fishing fashion show.
It is the flat to the right (looking to sea) of Canoe Bay Resort.

This is best fished from dead low water (when I filmed the sequence) on spring tides for around an hour and a half. At this point the water become too deep to spot fish, so we switch over to lures.

This is the spot where Rich latched on to his balistic barracuda and where Mike had this jack on a Yo-Zuri crystal minnow.



We have also had bones, tarpon, rainbow runner, snook and snapper here, once the water is what we call 'nuts deep', as depicted in the above pic.

Hope this helps

Steve

[Robert T]

Hi Steve,

Many thanks, your help is much appreciated. Seeing the pictures posted here and elsewhere I've been wondering how many shark encounters you may have had while wading waist (nuts) deep. As I've heard you may come accross them in the Bahamas quite often.

Catching a snook, bonefish or tarpon or permit would be something for sure.


I've checked out Mike's website again with the same result. In the saltwater section the last post that comes up on my screen is 253 ' Confusion' posted 17/11/2008. Something spooky is going on. Guess we're talking about the same website.

Robert

[Steve Pitts]

I've checked out Mike's website again with the same result. In the saltwater section the last post that comes up on my screen is 253 ' Confusion' posted 17/11/2008.

Hi Robert

Try these two links for the pages you're missing -

http://www.mikeladle.com/archive/catch254.html

http://www.mikeladle.com/archive/catch255.html

We rarely encounter sharks whilst wading the flats, but the ones we have come across have mainly been around the back of Pigeon Point. I think that they are attracted by the discarded fish heads and tails etc. of the local fishermen's catches.

Mike had a large shark attack his lure here.
He swears it was a bull shark, but he didn't hang around too long to get a positive ID.

There are far more stingrays than sharks and these tend to partially bury themselves in the muddy patches on some of the flats.


It's best to shuffle your feet when wading if the sea bed is anything other than very firm sand. If you step on one, it will probably stick it's spine in your lower leg. Not something we've ever had happen (touch wood), but such an injury would be very painful and can take ages to heal according to Chris Harris of Steppingstones, Belize, who can speak from experience.

It can also be a tad un-nerving when you are wading 'nuts deep' and there is a likelihood of barracuda around, so it's best to be aware of the stingrays, cuda and occasional sharks, but not to let the possibility of impalement, serious risk to your family jewels, or a brush with jaws get the better of your imagination.

I have fished flats of the outer atolls in the Seychelles and these are stiff with black tips, nurse and lemon sharks up to 4m in length.


There is something very sinister about a pack of 3 or 4 sharks working their way over a flat with their dorsals above the water, as they track down bone fish.


The smudges in the middle of the photo are bonefish coming towards me.


The sharks corner them if they can and devour them with much drama, but the bones can usually out-swim them and of course they use the skinny water to their advantage.

The problem with this strategy is that the sharks get pissed 'cause they can't swim in 6 inches of water and so then turn around to look for something else to feed on! A few slaps on the water with the palm of your hand usually discourages the smaller ones, but with the bigger fish, it's best to beat a hasty retreat to dry land or the boat.

I remember that a novice fly fisherman on our first Seychelles trip tried poking an oncoming shark with his fly rod. Inquisitive to find out if this strange object was edible, it bit the top foot clean off his rod.

Who says fishing is boring?

[Robert T]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the links, finally I got to see them and read them. Good stuff from Mike as usuall illustrated nicely with pictures. I'm just wondering how come I didn't come accross any of these fish last year while doing some intensive spinning sessions. Thinking about it , it could've been down to the heavy wire I used. 33 kg breaking strain with really heavy clips. It might explain why most of my victims were barracudas. Don't think they cared a lot about the wire......

It is trully surprising to see how big lures some of these small fish take. Voracious bunch. I'm gonna give it a lot from the rocks with float gear this time.

Judging by what you've written, Seychelles is probably the place where I wouldn't wade too much.

I definitely take your advice on shuffling as being impaled by a sting ray is the last thing on my agenda.

I can imagine the face of the fisherman after having his fly rod chewed up. Hopefully it wasn't a Sage or any of the top quality rods. Talking about fly rods, I'm intrigued to know if you ever used a Abu Accuflex fly rod. THe way I heard they came out highly priced but the quality turned out to be poor.

Nice pictures by the way and who says fishing is boring.........


Robert

[Steve Pitts]

Hi Robert

Most of the small species were caught on bait (shrimp or winkle) using small hooks, but most of the snapper family are aggressive little so and so's, so we often hook them by mistake when fishing with lures.

I can imagine the face of the fisherman after having his fly rod chewed up. Hopefully it wasn't a Sage or any of the top quality rods. Talking about fly rods, I'm intrigued to know if you ever used a Abu Accuflex fly rod.

The rod was an expensive South African make, loaned to him by our guide, Bruce.
I think the rod had an unconditional lifetime warranty, but that's not much good when you're a thousand miles from the nearest dealer.

Fred just carried on fishing with the abbreviated rod and still caught loads of bone fish.


Fred, into his 10th bonefish of the morning

I haven't heard of the ABU Accuflex, but it may be one of those expensive rods that doesn't live up to the price tag.

Cheers
Steve

[Paul Williams]

Morning Robert and Steve
I haven't had a chance to dip my line yet but will be doing so tonight.
I do not know too much about the offshore stuff yet but believe it or not they landed 1400 Crevally in the seine net in Castara on Thursday and I would have been happy with just 1 of them.
Will keep you informed if I hear any news.
Paul

[Robert T]

Hi Steve and Paul,

Steve, landing 10 bonefish in one morning session is remarkable in my book. I'd be satisfied with one. (maybe two.....) Back to the Abu Accuflex, that's the only fly rod I have. I got it for my birthday last year after the trip to Tobago. I haven't had a good use of it yet so don't know what to expect. (especially in tropical conditions). This is the reason why I've asked if you know a thing or two about it.


AS I read Mike's report they must've had a fabuluos time once again.



Paul, 1400 Crevally must be a good indicator that they're around. But the way I know they move around a lot. Very much hope they won't wander far by the end of March. Have a great one tonight, hopefully with a tale to tell.


Regards

Robert

[Steve Pitts]

Hi Robert

I've Googled 'ABU Accuflex' and there are lots of good deals on these at the moment.
I've noticed that most of the the on-line ads emphasise that this is a freshwater fly rod, so it will not have saltwater-rated fittings. You can use it in the sea, but tropical saltwater is very corrosive, so you'll need to make sure that you rinse the rod under a tap, hose or shower after every trip. Pay particualr attention to the reel fitting, which is probably made of light alloy, rather than marine-grade aluminium.
Remove the reel to make sure that the reel seat gets a good flush out.

If you are out for the day and use the rod, try to wash the rod off as soon as possible, rather than waiting 'till the evening. A few hours in the confines of the boot of the car can begin the process of corrosion. A bottle of water for this purpose is a handy thing to take out with you.

I've said this before and it's worth repeating again - Tobago isn't a bonefish destination like Los Roques, Seychelles, Cuba, Belize or Bahamas. You just don't see large shoals of fish on the Tobago flats, that these other destinations are famous for. Small groups of three or four fish are the norm and more often one's or two's are more likely.

On the plus side though, the average size of Tobago bonefish is quite large, compared to other places. Perhaps it's something to do with Tobago being one of the most Southerly and Easterly bonefish haunts in the Carribean. In fact, two of Tobago's bonefish flats are on the Atlantic coast and you don't find too many bonefish in the Atlantic

We have caught many more bonefish on plugs than we have on the fly (20 times more!) and undoubtledly, this method selects for bigger fish, as the bigger fish feed a lot on baitfish / fry.
I don't think that I have seen a Tobago bonefish smaller than 2lb, which is a big fish in some places.
The biggest Tobago bonefish that I have heard of (from a very reliable source) is 14lb and the largest that Mike and I have caught is just over 10lb.

These are world-class bonefish, in the same league as the very best destinations like Cosmoledo in the Seychelles and Christmas Island in the Pacific, so Tobago is a worthwhile destination for bonefish officianados seeking bigger fish and it's a whole lot easier to get to.

If you have never fished for bonefish and really want too catch one, I would strongly recommend that you contact Kester Herbert of Grand Slam Charters and arrange a half-day guided trip. He will know where to go and put you in front of fish. The rest is up to you, so spend some time practicing your casting as accuracy is very important, as is controling your cast and fly line in windy conditions. It can be very breezy out on the Tobago flats.

All this talk of bonefish is giving me withdawal symptons

Cheers
Steve

[Robert T]

Hi Steve,


You definitely got the point there. These rods weren't made for tropical use specifically. Even though this one came out with an aluminium reel seat It cannot guarantee to withstand the effect of tropical saltwater. I'm more worried about the guides.

Last year I did the exact same thing with my Beastmaster rod despite the fact that the Beastmaster family was designed to cope with these conditions. Even the bottle of freshwater played a regular role. I also took care of my lures but some of them still succumbed to corrosion. Overthere even the air can start up this process therefore I found it a good idea to tap the gear dry with a cloth or a towel after a thorough freshwater wash.

I know that Tobago isn't a bonefish destination, it must be down to the rarity of the flats around the island. But I'm still very determined to land one of those cute-faced crab eaters. Went through all the bonefish related posts in the last months and I came to the conclusion that most of them were hauled in on lures and baits.

As I'm an absolute rookie in the field of fly fishing I'm going to be more concentrated on lure and bait fishing.

I bought some Maria lures and I was surprised to see that the Angel Kiss family doesn't have a wire-through body construction. JUst wondering how much force they could endure...

cuda.jpg

Hope Paul woke up this morning with some good news to share..

Robert

[Steve Pitts]

I bought some Maria lures and I was surprised to see that the Angel Kiss family doesn't have a wire-through body construction. JUst wondering how much force they could endure...

Quite a bit as it happens, but they are not out and out big fish proof.
Perfectly adequate for bones, snook, jacks, small tarpon and cuda though.

Mike has posted another report - http://www.mikeladle.com/archive/catch256.html and mentions using Angel Kiss lures.

Cheers
Steve

[Henry Thompson]

Robert,

If I didn't feel obligated to Steve for all of excellent information that he has provided to anglers through this site I would have given up in my quest to upload these picture by now. The pictures if they are visible (please let them be visible) are of two bonefish which I caught during my recent family holiday to Tobago (8-22 Jan). One of the fish was caught at Pigeon Point Flat, the other was caught while fishing with Kester Herbert at what he described as Friendly Flat (it was on the Atlantic Side at the end of the airport runway).





Steve is absolutely right to qualify the Tobago bonefishing potential. Yes the fish are relatively large but in my fairly limited experience they don't appear to be there in big numbers. I would suggest that visitors should book at least one session with Kester Herbert. It will cost around 170 USD for a four hour session with Kester but it will be money well spent. Although I only landed 1 fish (around 5lb in weight) on my trip with Kester, I lost two equally large fish - in both cases well into the fight. I'm sure I would have caught more because I'd left my polaroids behind in the car (you'd think after fishing for nearly forty years I'd have more sense) and found it very difficult to get a fix on many of the fish that Kester had spotted. Although I caught a bonefish at the Pigeon Point flat, I fished it on four occasions (approx 2hrs each time) and saw no than 4 or 5 fish in total. The possible reason for the low numbers was that the flat was constantly being bombarded by pelicans and in addition the local fishermen were often criss- crossing the flat in their boats and casting nets for baitfish. The flat at the end of the airport is probably a much better bet but unless you have a proper four wheel drive to negotiate the rough track that runs alongside the airport security fence, I think it is necessary to park-up and walk for perhaps twenty minutes (but I may be wrong).

I also did a fair bit of fishing with lures and bait from the jettys at the Sandy Point Beach Club. I didn't catch anything of note, quite a few Houndfish, some Palemeto (?) and loads of grunts. If you have a car I would recommend that you visit Parlatuvier Bay. This bay has got to be one of the (if not the) most beautiful in the whole of Tobago but best of all it has a jetty which runs out to fairly deep water. When I was there there anglers, local and visitors, caught Jacks, Ladyfish, large houndfish and many small fish. You'll also see some huge Ray's, although I wouldn't recommend that you try to catch them as you'll end up in a battle you won't win. One of the hand lining locals hooked a huge ray and was almost trailed off the jetty before his line snapped. You'll also find that the locals at Parlatuvier and the warmest, friendliest bunch you could ever wish to meet.

You should note that fishing from the popular Pigeon Point Jetty has been banned, probably on the grounds of health and safety and/or conservation. I don't know when this rule was introduced but a regular visiting angler who I met and who fishing there last summer was shocked at this news.

Steve will probably be interested to know that on the very first day of my holiday, I was sun lounging at Pigeon Point with my wife and young son. We (that's my son and I) had two spinning rods rigged up and ready for action as soon as the wife appeared to be comfortable with her surroundings, when along comes two anglers whom I didn't know but instantly recognised from the rogues gallery as Mike and Richard. Nice blokes.

Good luck with the fishing and enjoy you're holiday.

[Robert T]

Hi Henry,

NIce report and enviable pictures(more please), thanks for sharing them. Last year I didn't pay too much attention to Pidgeon Point fishingwise, only visited twice with some lures. ( didn't catch a thing).THe thing that struck me about the place was that it was swarming with people (as you also mention) which made fishing a bit awkward. Even early in the morning.

Wondering If you tried Bucco bay and had some success there or not. AS I said to Steve, bonefish aren't my primary target though I wouldn't say no to them.(of course I wish I could catch one or two...) Thinking about going out in a boat to fish for kingfish, wahoo and so on but I'm gonna have to opt for fishing with one of the local fishermen due to tight budget.

Parlatuvier bay sounds good , i'm definitely not going to give it a miss this time. We went up there last year but without the gear.

35 days to go and your post made me wanna roll the days even faster.

Thanks for the pointers.

Regards

Robert

[Henry Thompson]

Robert,

I did visit Buccoo with the intention of fishing as I was told that there was a decent saltwater flat to the left hand side of the jetty at the boatyard and that there was a good chance of catching bonefish on it. But when I arrived the tide was on the high side and despite waiting around for another three hours the water level didn't fall enough to expose a flat. I got fed up waiting and left, so I don't know if there's a flat there or not. Perhaps someone could post a message to confirm if there is a shore accessible flat at Buccoo or not. The only thing that I saw at the Buccoo jetty was a few rays, huge shoals of mullet and some houndfish.

[Steve Pitts]

Hi Henry

Thanks for your detailed report.
It's nice to find out how other anglers find the fishing around Tobago and even nicer when they have success like your two bonefish on the fly. That's a great achievement.

The 'flat' to the left of the pier at Buccoo is really just the main bay, which is shallow in most parts and there is no doubt that bonefish, tarpon, snook and permit all visit here on occasions, but the water is deeper (as you discovered) than a conventional bonefish flat and fishing from a boat is probably the best way to approach Buccoo bay.

It is difficult to wade because of the varying depths and not advisable in anything but glass-calm conditions. There are many deep holes where you can step into 10ft of water if you are not very careful.

Edit - Just remembered this photo of Buccoo Bay, in the arial photos section, which illustrates the varying depths.
The village of Buccoo is to the left of shot, with the boat moorings to the right of the village.
The flat that you mention runs from the boats, around the bay to the right, looking at the photo.
See - http://www.mytobago.info/photos/aerial/IMG_4563.htm

Cheers
Steve

[Henry Thompson]

Steve,

Thanks for that info about Buccoo. I think if I'd hung around for another hour or so I may have been able to distinguish the flat. That said, the water was quite cloudy so I don't think I'd have found it easy to spot fish anyway. Hopefully I'll get to Tobago again and if I do Buccoo will definitely get a bit more attention.

Regards
Henry