Fishing From Castara

[Stephen Hull]

I was fortunate to manage a couple of fishing trips with "Rusty" from Castara this week. On the first trip we went out to one of Rusty's FADs (fish attraction devices) some 17 miles off Castara. A number of the local Castaran fishermen have started putting FADs out in the last year or so, particularly now that they can buy hand held GPS to locate them for less than GBP100. The FADs attract flying fish and other bait fish and mahi-mahi and wahoo therefore tend to congregate in the area. This makes the job of catching them much easier! Within 10 minutes of arriving at the FAD our party of 3 boats landed 8 mahi-mahi to around 25lb all on hand lined live bait. I got smashed on 30lb class gear first cast and by the time I had tackled up again, the action had pretty much finished.

We then fished trolled lures (Rapala Magnums - red heads/blue mackerel) as we steamed back towards Castara and caught half a dozen good sized striped bonito/black tuna to around 10lbs.

The next morning we trolled rapalas and livebait down from Castara towards Arnos Vale We caught half a dozen kingfish to around 7lb and lost a much larger fish that bit through the wire trace. Towards the end of our session we came across a school of around a dozen bottlenose dolphin at Englishman's Bay which were happy to swim around the boat for half an hour - awesome.

Rusty says it has been very good fishing this year, particularly for mahi-mahi - he took 35 fish over 20lb one day recently. He also won the Charlotville fishing tournament with a couple of big wahoo earlier in the year.

Fishing from a 16ft open pirogue may not be everyone's cup of tea and those of us with fair skins need to cover up completely to avoid getting serious sunburn, but if you like fishing, it's a great experience.

Steve H

[Hugh S]

Now that's what I like to hear! That's the way I like to fish in Tobago, in a small boat after whatever is around. We used to drift a ragged piece of net and chum to snag flyers which would immediately be put out on a hook for dorado (mahi mahi). Non stop action! Drop a leaded wire straight down and muscle up some kingfish and grouper. Oh yes, eleven weeks and counting!

Do you have a phone number for Rusty? What did you pay if you don't mind my asking?

Thanks, Hugh

[Paul Williams]

Hello Stephen
Sounds like you had a great time on your recent visit, those that have followed your fishing posts over the last couple of years might think you are having a go at some of us who do not take enough cover out for their fair skin when they go out with Rusty searching for the "big ones".
Seriously all of those that wish to enjoy the trips out on the Caribbean side do not underestimate the strength of the sun as my knees tool a full year to recover from my trip out .
Regards
Paul

[Stephen Hull]

Paul

Glad to hear the knees have recovered! Despite long trousers, long sleeve shirt and wide brimmed hat and slapping on factor 60 every hour I still went a little pink.

Hugh

I paid in kind rather than cash! - I've been sending Rusty piles of lures and bits of fishing tackle ever since I left Tobago last August! - and on this trip half my suitcase contained tackle for him.

On past form it was around TT$300 for a long half day, but if you just wanted to accompany him wherever he was going on the day and let him sell any fish you catch, he may take you for free. However, I always think its nice to give these guys something for thier trouble.

If you email me I'll send you his cell number. Otherwise you can find him most days at the fish co-op in Castara.

Steve H

[Hugh S]

Thanks Stehpen,

I too haul lures, hooks and even a compass and reels to friends in Tobago. That is by far the best way to share.

Thanks again, Hugh

PS. Look for my email . . .

[Steve Pitts]

Hi Steve

Very nice to hear that you are back - I had to check the date of your post twice to make sure that it wasn't one that I'd missed from last year!

What a blast those dolphin (mahi) would be on a fly rod

Mike and I will be over in a fortnight's time with our wives. Will you still be on Tobago, or home by then? Would be good to meet up for a natter.

EDIT - Just seen your other post Steve - business and pleasure eh?

Cheers
Steve

[Stephen Hull]

Steve

Alas - I'm back and at my desk already. If you are there in a couple of weeks, the fish should still be around. I'm sure it would be a hoot on the fly. You would probably need to set this up with Rusty in advance - if he knows you are coming he will avoid fishing a FAD for the previous week or so, to increase the chances of fish being around.

Unfortunately, some of the less hard working fishermen at Castara tend to follow him out and take a GPS fix on his FADs. He has another four FADs further inshore but when we visited these there was nothing around because they are overfished by these other guys. He also has another FAD 22 miles offshore (out of sight of land) but we didn't go there because there were some other fishermen around and he didn't want them to discover this FAD. Apparently, the further offshore you go, the better the dolphin fishing becomes..

Steve H

PS if you want Rusty's contact details just send me an email

[Hugh S]

Stephen,

Did you receive my email?

Hugh

[Steve Pitts]

Stephen,

Did you receive my email?

Hugh

Hi Hugh

I could be wrong, but I think that the direct email facility was disconnected some time ago, if this is how you have sent your email to Steve H.

If that is the case, then I have lost Steve's email address when my hard drive crashed before Xmas, but seem to remember the tobagonice part

If you still have my email address Steve, could you drop me Rusty's cell number please.........and do you fancy some bass fishing sometime in June?

Edit - just found your email address in your profile - should have looked there first!

Cheers
Steve

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Steve

Allow me to clarify...

The Private Messaging facility was discontinued a couple of years ago. This system effectively just made a private forum post that only the sender/recipient could see. It was simply for messages between registered users of the board. For various reasons it was discontinued and all buttons/links relating to it have been removed from the pages.

If you see an Email button at the bottom of any post, it means that the registered user who posted the message has indicated that he/she is happy to share their email address with other users. This can be set via the Profile link at top of the page. When you click on the Email link it simply opens a blank email via whatever email client (Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express) you use on your machine. The message will not pass through our system - it goes directly from you to the recipient.

Of course all this assumes that the user has not changed email addresses and forgotten to update the address in his profile.

[Chester Burris]

I am a fisherman from Parlatuvier and after reading the comments made by Mr. Stephen Hull in regards to the subject “Fishing in Castara”, I would like to point out that the information given is misleading and wish to ask, how a visitor to our island degrades the fishermen of Castara - and by extension Tobago - without getting the facts straight. I must go on to say that some of the things stated by Mr. Hull are far from the truth.

Therefore, I would like to comment on some of the statements as follows:

1. It is written that Rusty has one FAD 17 miles off Castara, four FADs further inshore and one 22 miles offshore. This information is incorrect. Fact is that these FADs are not Rustys’ but belong to other fisherman (presently there can be found approx. 15 FADs in this area). As a matter of fact Rusty is the one doing the tracking and because of this, the other fishermen trying to reach the FADs first. When confronting Rusty with this and presenting Mr. Hull’s statement to him, he insisted that he never told Mr. Hull the FADs were his own, but somebody else must have done so. Something there smells “fishy” to me and quite a number of other fishermen. The question that arises now is: Who gave Mr. Stephen Hull the information that the FADs are Rustys?

2. The statement which upset me and others to a great extent is the one about some “less hard working fishermen in Castara”. There is nothing as a less hard working fisherman. Being a fisherman means being exposed to the elements such as sun, rain, salt water, waves etc. which are not easy to take on a daily basis. If you hook a big one, it sometimes takes hours until you have this one fish in the boat. We love what we do, but it is not an easy job. We are certainly sure that some people are very surprised at times when they shake our hand and it feels like a piece of sandpaper. Fishing on a professional basis with these small boats that we use is hard work. To make a living from fishing is a fight by itself.

3. The other fishermen got something to giggle about when reading that a FAD 22 miles off the coast is out of the sight of land. Please be informed that you must go approx. 43 miles offshore before losing sight of Tobago.

4. Furthermore it is a fact that fishermen put out FADs for years. This is nothing new. It has just gotten easier to find them with the usage of a GPS.

There is no doubt that Rusty is a very good fisherman, but somebody tries to make other fishermen in the area look very bad and not trustworthy. The question is for what reason? To boost own interests? Taking into consideration the price for lures and fishing tackles here in T&T are quite expensive, it could be an incentive to get these free on a regular basis. As stated before, Rusty denies that Mr. Hull got all the information from him. Therefore it is not me to make any accusations, but still it would be of great interest to a lot of us on who is not telling the truth.

In my opinion an apology to the other hard working fisherman of Castara and environs would be appropriate. Next time you come to Castara, I recommend you exchange views and experiences with other fishermen as well, in order to get a whole lot more of unbiased information.

[Steve Wooler]

Hello Chester

Welcome aboard!

I will try to wipe the grin off my face and leave you fishermen, local and visiting, to argue the rights and wrongs of this one. I got lost as soon as you mentioned FAD. Given your comments, I assume it stands for "F*!@ing Awful Dilemma"?

[David Watkins]

Well said Chester,and well researched.Thanks for defending our fishermen friends in Castara.
David

[Steve Pitts]

Taking into consideration the price for lures and fishing tackles here in T&T are quite expensive,

Hi Chester

If there are any lures, hooks or line you need I would be happy to bring some over next week with me. We will surely be up around Parlatuvier during our stay.

Regards
Steve

[Tony G]

Hi Chester

Don't know anything about fishing except to say that the guys in Castara certainly looked like they work hard to me.

I'm presuming that you are Iris's husband and just wanted to say 'Hi' and to ask you to send her our very best wishes from the sunny Isle of Wight.

One Love

from

Tony & Janette

[Hugh S]

Fish Aggregating Devices - FADs

[Roger D.]

Next Question to the experts for the benefit of us non fishermen;

What are Fish Aggregating Devices

[Steve Wooler]

FADs of course. Come on Roger, you've got to keep up with this.

[Brian Taylor]

chester (and alibaba) would be able to explain it better... but it is like a bamboo floating in the water, beeing connected to an anker with a rope to be kept it in place (at the nower days by GPS marked lokation). mahi mahi and friends seem to like that stuff, nest their or so...stick arround it and are easy to catch there... is that about right? not beeing a fisher (wo)man at all thats all I got.
by the way: applause from ali to chester , well said and if he would have been aware of the topic he would have said something, too. but I must admit that I tend to blend out when it comes to the fishing questions... so I did not tell himearlier...

steph

[Hugh S]

Try this link: http://www.hawaii.edu/HIMB/FADS/FADFAQ.html

Basically, the small (bait) fish hide under any floating object which attracts the whole progression of larger and larger predators. The FADs are anchored and stationary.

Hugh