St. Martin / Sint Maarten Fishing Trip

I'll try to keep this a short as possible, but with everything we experienced this trip I think it'll be a little difficult.

For March break this year we decided that we needed to get away from the death strangle that winter had on us. So after a few searches to find out what St. Martin had to offer (in terms of fishing) the kids and I quickly decided this is where we wanted to go. This would be our first trip as the Fish-Fighters a.k.a. Team Fishing Team. My wife designed and made up some matching T-shirts for the kids and I and we were ready to conquer St. Martin.

We rented a house right on the beach in Grand Case, which is conveniently located about 100 yrds from the towns large pier (which is where the kids and I spent a considerable amount of time). The local fisherman were great to us; shared their bait, some lures and even gave us some pointers. Our first day we caught a few small jacks and had some aggressive hits from what the locals call a barracuda (a later sighting of this fish told us it was a large needle fish which is part of the gar family).

For our second day I had pre-booked a deep sea fishing trip, not my first one, but a first for the kids. The seasoned captain took us out in his 28 footer and despite some rougher seas the kids held it all together. After spotting a large flock of birds in the distance we headed to the centre of all the commotion and it wasn't long before we had a Mahi-Mahi dancing behind the boat. After a good battle the kids and I brought the fish in the boat and headed back to shore.

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Day 3 proved to be one of our more exciting fishing days. As was the case for most of the trip the boys were up early, bellies filled and at the end of the pier by 6:30am while my wife and I enjoyed breakfast and the sight of the boys walking down the pier like they own the place. By the time I arrived they had already caught a few smaller silver fish which I had asked them to keep as bait, for the much larger tarpon the fisherman have been telling frequent the area. Keep in mind that the kids and I are equipped with 6 foot 6 telescopic rods, spinning reels with 12# test line. As I bait my rod with a smoke swammer and 3/8 oz jig I start casting out in hoping to catch some of the larger jacks that are hanging around. My younger son hooks into a lizard fish as the locals call it, a lightly coloured, toothy little bugger. After carefully taking him off the hook and releasing him I continue to reel in my lure and feel a small strike, I set the hook and feel nothing but dead weight. Thinking I've caught some ocean debris I reel in quickly only to realize that I've caught my first ever lion fish. I was shocked to see the fish at first as I really didn't expect to catch one off the pier. The kids and I admired the fish for a short while as did the locals and the tourists that had since gathered around and back it went to swim another day.

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Most of the local pier fisherman don't use a fishing rod and instead use a large spool of line with 50# test and throw some bait out in order to catch tarpon. I had remembered that I brought a spool of 20# trilene with me and rigged it up with a circle hook and a freshly caught silver fish and threw it out about 10 yrds and waited. By this point my younger son had perfected catching the smaller needle fish that hang around the pier and I just sat down and watched the master at work.
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About 30 mins go by and I see a huge tarpon jump clear out of the water and think to myself, wow that's cool to see, only to realize a split second later that that fish is attached to the end of my hand line. I race over and pick up the spool and try to gather all the slack line and this fish starts dancing on top of the water, jumping 3 times before making a big run for the island of Anguilla. Not knowing what to do I try slowing him down a bit and he turns broad side and starts heading towards the beach...jumps a couple more times and spits my hook. What a rush, even though I didn't land the fish I was still able to battle him for a brief moment.

Later that evening after dinner the kids and I headed out for the pier once again, a routine which lasted the entire trip. After telling the one commercial fisherman my story as he prepared to head out for yellowfin tuna he lent me his hand line and some yellowfin guts and told me to launch it out as far as I could. After a few poor attempts I was able get the bait out about 30 yrds. Satisfied with my cast I sat down and played the waiting game. Around 8:00 pm I see a tarpon flash under the lights of the beach front restaurants, within seconds its game on...round 2. This time I feel better prepared, with my new gear and my buddies Charlie and Patrice giving me advise. The tarpon only jumped the one time this fight, and although the fight only lasted about 3-4 mins I was still tired as I walked it down the pier towards the beach and jumped down into the water the get my hands on it. I get it up on the sand and quickly take the hook out and hold it up so the kids can see it. Charlie jumps down into the water as I was about to release the fish and tells me he is going to cook the fish up for us tonight at his sisters restaurant. He clubs the fish and throws it up on the pier so I could get a few pictures taken with it. After putting the kids to bed I head back down to the pier where Charlie and his friends wait for me with some cold drinks and freshly cooked tarpon. Aside from all the bones it was very tasty!
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The next day I was invited out by our neighbour to go surf fishing. Once a week the gentleman and two of his coworkers meet at his place and launch an arsenal of live baits just steps from our back deck into the dark waters and wait. Well we didn't do much waiting, we ate a fair bit and drank a fair bit more well into the night. When midnight rolled around we had landed 1 bone fish, 1 jack and a large silver fish.
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Despite all I've written we did do other things aside from fishing, but Team Fishing Team's ultimate goal was to fish and that we did. A couple of other cool sites was a 4-5 foot stingray that swam around the pier for an hour and an up close and personal encounter with a moray eel while snorkeling...no picture of that.

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Thanks for reading
Rob - Captain Fish Fighters a.k.a Team Fishing Team

Looks like you and the boys had a blast.
Go Team! :)

Way to go team , great memories for sure.

Damn, awesome report. Congrats to you and the boys. My kids are chomping at the bit, it's almost bluegill time at the local pond...lol.

Awesome read and pics Rob.
Just love seeing the kids involved...can't wait til my little is old enough.

Great job Team Fishing!!!!!

FSHN 247
Jay

Great Looking Trip... I travel to SXM quite often and have never thought to try pier fishing, going to have to now!

Is that Captain Rudy you went out with?

I am surprised he is still running his charter company. I went out with him in 2006 (didn't catch anything) and he told us he was trying to sell the business, guess he never did!

Is that Captain Rudy you went out with?

I am surprised he is still running his charter company. I went out with him in 2006 (didn't catch anything) and he told us he was trying to sell the business, guess he never did![/QUOTE]


Yes that is Rudy. Things move slowly on his boat, partly because of his age and partly because he is on island time. Doesn't bode well when you only have 4 hours to catch something. But I kept my eyes open for the birds and once I spotted them we headed straight for them. Rudy had a tough time seeing them. Next time we go I'll save my money and just fish from shore and buy the mahi-mahi from the market

Pier fishing was very kind to us. Mind you we did put in many hours, but the pier did exceed my expectation. I was planning on fishing some of the salt ponds for land locked tarpon but we never made it there....next time.

Rob

Great report and looks like both you and the kids had a great time. Next time you catch a lion fish you should kill it as they are an invasive species in the Caribbean and I hear they are excellent eating. Be careful cleaning as their spines are very poisonous.

Never have to fret about a writeup like that being too long, it was a great read. Sounds like a great time.

Awesome Story, really enjoyed reading and pics! Jeff

I had read that the lion fish are invasive species to the Caribbean and I'm all for killing invasive species no matter where I am. At the time I was more concerned about getting stuck with one of the spines and ruining my good fishing day. Next time.

Great story and pics! Awesome to see young people stoked about the natural world.
X2 on the Lions they are totally invasive. Catch and kill in full effect in the Florida keys as well.

Sounds like an excellent trip. Nothing beats a recap with great photos to go along.

That is the only reason I want to go on a southern vacation, fishing. Thanks for sharing it looks like a lot of fun out there.

Thanks for the report, looks like a great way to escape the cold.

Nice report Rob.

A couple of notes...

1) Needlefish are not in the same family as gar. They are very, very, very unrelated species. Their looks resemble each other, but Needlefish belongs to the Infraclass Teleostei while Gar belongs to the Infraclass Holostei. Needlefish is more closely related to Channel Catfish than to the Gar; since Needlefish and Channel Cats are both in the Teleostei Infraclass. Other common in the Teleostei Infraclass are Common Carp, Rainbow Trout, Tarpon and Bluefin Tuna. Yeah, looks are deceiving...

2) The silvery fish in the same picture with your bonefish is a Yellowfin Mojarra (Gerres cinereus).