Fishing Tobago's waters

[Toine & Lia]

As firsttimers in Tobago, back in Holland we did do some heavy research on the fishing and diving part. In that search we came upon the mytobago-site.
We have to admit that the article on fishing in Tobago was great and a good help to organize stuff. We did our share of big game fishing in other places, loved it but found it expensive too.
We we’re surprised when we learned that in Tobago you can find local fisherman who like to take people on board to fish asking little money for the ride. So we boarded the plane to Tobago with our own 20-30 lbs trolling gear and a box full of artificial lures like Rapala’s and stuff. Although it wasn’t the best time to fish when we were around, we we’re at least gone try.

We didn’t really meet the people mentioned in your article but came up to a guy called Rusty (from Castara, but usually found at Mt Irvine beach where he captains boats for Alibaba tours, Frankie tours or others). Rusty is like his father a damned good fisherman. Knows his way around the waters and the way to fish all species. He took us out on a trip that was arranged by Woody (that’s Woody tours from Castara).
We caught a lot of fish. Mostly bonito’s, a few barracuda’s, two kingfishes, two mahi mahi (delphinfish) and a giant jack on a killer rapala magnum. Some of the fish (bonito’s) was caught on hand lines, the rest couldn’t resist the trolled lures.
Rusty took us up to Cotton bay we’re we barbequed some fishes and the chicken that Woody provided us. (Woody provided the food and drinks for this trip including chicken, baked rice, salads and other snacks)
Spending our day on board fishing, snorkelling, ray and dolphin watching and liming. We had a great time.
Later that week we ran into Rusty and he told us that he was fishing with his father near the St. Gilles islands and caught a lot of Wahoo, Barra’s and some tuna. According to Rusty this mend that the fishing season for wahoo is about to start.

We also did some fishing on Barry St. George’s boat. Barry is the owner of Sublime Scuba which has a dive shop at the Tropikist Hotel in Crown point. Barry is a dive-instructor and an addicted sport fisherman. His best mate is Barnacle of Blue Magic charters who likes to team up with Barry when they don’t have to work.
We couldn’t fish with Barnacle because he was in a fishing tournament in St Lucia (not sure anymore), were he came in second with a 400+ lbs marlin, catching 4 marlin in three days.
Barry’s help on the boat is Tyrone. Tyrone was working with either Hardy Play charters or Grand Slam, and knows his way around on board fishing boats, an around fishing gear, lures and tactics. Tyrone is able to read the sea and see birds feeding long before anyone else did.

Barry’s boat is a 31 footer Formula III, rigged with twin 150 yamaha’s. Although primarily in use as dive boat, at this moment the boat is going under a transformation into a fishing vessel as well. Barry has fitted, two downriggers and is about to fit two outriggers and a carload of electronics like depthsounders, gps, radio and lights, so he can be in some serious off- and inshore fishing.

Barry took us fishing in the South. Trolling the drop off between Tobago and Trinidad, we caught barra’s mahi, mahi’s and got bitten off by some big fellows on live bait. Hand lining for bonito’s, we could lots of ‘m.
On one of our 20lbs outfits we got a massive fish that took us on trail for nearly twenty minutes. When it finally stopped it took a big dive down a stayed hiding in the reef. After loads of work, gallons of sweat we couldn’t do anything more than cut the line. The fish had no intension to go anywhere else than staying hidden in a dark hole of the reef. According to Barry it had to be a massive grouper. Well, the fish won and we didn’t.
Again we had a wonderful day. When we hit Mt Irvine bay, Tyrone started to clean the fish immediately and in a short while we were eating fresh grilled fish while the sun sunk into the sea.

We didn’t fish anymore during our stay. But we concluded that Tobago has a lot to offer when it comes to fishing. Next time when we plan a stay we’re going to adjust to the fishing season and get into some serious action with Barry, Barnacle, or Rusty.
When you want to meet these people just drive up to Mt Irvine bay. Ask anybody, everybody knows these guys.
You can also take a look at Barry’s website; http://www.sublimescuba.com. As far as we know Barry is about to update his website soon with some pictures of his boat.

Kind regards,

Toine & Lia