myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

Thank you steve and steve. It was nice meeting you Steve!
Fished with a great guy from Norway on the frienship flats, saw kester a couple of times fishing, fished with sammy (and laughed a lot) from king david 2 complete days, catched lots of small tunas, bonitos and even some skipjacks, hooked some big tarpons on the fly (both from shore as on the boat) and catched a couple of small ones(DIY), saw very few bones, lots of rays, lemon sharks (one was just cruising besides me to have a look what i was doing and he was over 2 metres, brr ) and catched some other species with the fly such as big polemeta, red snapper, small jacks and snappers, horseye jacks and some other species, had 3 big horseye jacks (by big i mean real big) following the fly but not taking him, thought i finally really hooked a tarpon over 50 pound, but after another jump he got away, saw some permit, lots of turttles and then the island as beautiful as she is...

I will definitely write an article in the upcoming days, but for now...it is sad to be home again.

Sounds like you had a ball

Look forward to more info. and pictures

Cheers
Steve

Edwin

Glad you managed to at least hook a big one on the fly. For me I think I will continue to 'cheat' with the livebait. Still plenty of tarpon at Sandy Point this morning, especially close by the jetty - I think they are missing you already!

Steve H

sorry to ask, what flies were you using for red snapper jacks etc?

still not convinced that I'm taking a fly rod, given steve's success on the livebait.

Phil

Livebait is no panacea, especially for early morning trips - I was up at 4am in the rain trying to catch some this morning!

Take the fly rod as well - although I've no idea what patterns you should be using although white seems to be quite popular! Edwin had quite a few follows from the first jetty at Sandy Point as well as some hook ups. Hopefully he'll post a full report soon. Sometimes when the bait is quite thick, a fly retrieved near the surface may be more effective at getting a tarpon's attention than another fish (livebait)!

Steve H

Phil,

Yes it is a challange to catch the big tarpons at for instance Sandy Point. The first 5 days and last 2 days of our beautiful holiday we stayed at the Sandy Point Village appartments (they were much better than we expected and next time we will most probably go back to these appartments), so I have fished a lot (and watched a lot) with the flyrod a this place.

Perhaps also interesting to know - although I only fished at tarpon at this place - is that in the evening at the lights near the yetties big snooks are cruising in the shallow waters and by big I mean really big (between 70 - 90 cm) snooks.

Before our holiday I thought big flies can perhaps make a change, but now...

Make your flies the size the baitfish are (+/- 10 cm) en not too thick!! Just small flies, best colours, blue-black-white and some spranckle. But some other colours will be also ok. They like clousers more than the normal tarpon flies, I think the eyes of a clouser gives some vibration that attracts the tarpon.

Look at the holes in the black big scools. I do not know of you can understand me, but if you are there you will )

Casting your flyline wherever you want is important. Almost all my hookups and followers where in 5 seconds after I saw a fish diving through the surface.

Although they are there... most of the time tarpon is just cruising through the baitschools. in 90% of the cases they really hunt if you see them in the surface. (they just cruise and the real hunt starts with a fast action towards the surface)

If you see small fish jumping it is most of the times no tarpon. In my opinion then the red snapper are hunting from the bottom to the surface and sometimes Horseye jacks.

If you have the time book a trip by King David (Sammy - what a great guy and a beautyful smile -if you do - give him my greetings - the flycaster from Holland )

A tarpon hooked is completely different than a tarpon catched....I have hooked several big tarpons between 20-50 LB, but catched no big ones (only small ones untill the size of 70-80cm - babies)...so i will come back!! A norwegian guy and a Danish guy had the same experience.

These flies have been succesfull...





Take your flyrod with you, otherwise you will miss him )
Edwin

Ps. I will finish this posting with the words from Sammy, Edwin - next time - JAAAAAACK them, even harder than you think you can!!! (We - Europeans - are not used to this kind of fishery - always a bit frightened of the strength of FluorCarbon / Nylon - dont be - use 100 / 130 pounds Nylon and JACK THEM!!

cheers guys, maybe I will pack the fly rod too, i've got ages to wait yet still a few salmon to catch before I have a go for the tarpon.

they will be around in november wont they??? I only saw samll ones in barbados at that time of year.