fishing in St. Lucia

[SylvanOwner]

Just like the title says, leaving this coming Sunday for a week and will be bringing some basic tackle. We'll be staying at the south end of the island (Coconut Bay resort). Anyone tried it here?

 

 

[aplumma]

Small world. I am going there on the 20 of Feb. for a week of fun and fishing. My brother was there two weeks ago and was on the far side of the island and found that most of the fish to be had were reef fish. He fished the Atlantic side for a limited amount of time though and caught a few fish over a foot. The bait of choice it seemed was the silver/chrome rattletrap burned back behind the surfline. The area that you (we) are going there should be more of a surf fishing type environment. That being said the fish can be caught with bait or lures just behind the surf line. I usually use a 5 oz sinker with a slider hook rig and a 1/0-4/0 hook and small fish caught in the surf with a sibiki rig. (5-7 tiny hooks inline). A few top water and a few large wiggling and tight wiggling lures 4-8 ft running lures. a few Crappie sized jigs with marabou and if all else fails and you want to just jig around the rocks and have fun get a tiny hook and some bananas (no I'm not kidding ) squish up some banana and chum with it then a hook with a little banana gets dropped in the middle of the fun.

 

Good luck and send me a P.M. when you get back and tell me what you found worked please.

 

Thanks

 

Art

[cram]

Shimano waxwing might be fun to cast there.

[steelhedrmatt]

Was there 8 years ago to get married. My wife wouldnt let me bring fishing gear, so being me, got hooked up with a local. He gave me a big orange spool, spooled with 20# line. we tied a piece of coral to the end of the line, and about 2 feet up tied on a hook, and got some raw chicken from the chef at the resort. Every night and morning, we would meet at the breakwall in front of the resort, and catch TONS. A lot of pink snapper, even a small barracuda. It was a really neat way to fish. Just fire it out into the surf, and slowly bring it in. When they hit, they really nail it. He (Gaston) said that rods and reels were too expensive there, so thats why they used these spools. He let me keep the spool he gave me to use, so when I returned home, I sent him a heavy duty ugly stick, and reel spooled with 40# power pro, and a pile of terminal tackle. (hooks, and bell sinkers). Cost me about 160 bucks to send it all down there, but it was well worth the experience. To this day I keep in touch with Gaston. Have fun!! Its a beautiful island.

[davew3]

Have fun down there. When I was there I learned that you will be on the windward side of the island, There will allways be waves and seaweed around. So using three way setups will work the best. Try different leed lenghts until you can keep your bait off the bottom. A 10 ft pole will help to keep your bait up off the bottom as well.

 

Righ in front of the pool is a little break wall. Standing on that you could try casting jigs or small spoons.

 

If you rent a car or take a taxi to the other side of the island there is calmer deeper water.

 

About the resort. The bar inside, by the restaurant, ask for frosted mugs for your beer Not to many people know about that. At the pool side restaurant try the jerk pork sandwich if you like spice.

 

On the family side of the resort the waterpark can be a refreshing way to cool down.

 

And , most important, keep your ears open for the bug truck. It is a pickup that sprays insecticide. When you hear it head for the other side of the resort.

 

Try day trips to the Volcano and rum factory. The zip line is a work out as it is based in a valley and you walk up one side and zip down then walk up the other side and zip down over and over again. Fun but a work out.

 

Have a good trip.

Edited January 29, 2013 by davew3

[SylvanOwner]

Thanks all for the responses. Some great advice there for sure. I'll let y'all know how it goes when I'm back.

 

Dan

[lhousesoccer]

So, Dan. How did it go? I saw your original post too late. You were actually leaving the day we were coming back from our own Caribbean Cruise vacation, so I didn't see your post until a couple days after you had already left for Coconut Bay.

 

My wife, 5 year old son, and I went to Coconut Bay in January 2010 for 1 week. We had a great time! I packed only my 8 wt fly rod and a box of streamers, and I fished inside and outside of the rock pile break walls right in front of the resort. I had no luck on the flies, and I started talking to one of the locals one day at the bar about fishing and he said I had to use live bait. The next day, he flags me down and hands me a small bag of frozen squid strips and a single hook! Those guys are just awesome. I tied on the hook, threaded a squid on, stripped out a pile of line, and managed to chuck it out with a decent cast. The fish were ALL OVER my bait. Problem was, with my 8-wt fly rod, I couldn't drive that big thick hook home. I had barracuda (and I was wading!!!) and snook on a number of times. There was a good school of snook in the eel grass between the beach and the furthest breakwall every evening before dark, but I just could not hook up. They were all over that squid. Finally, I wading out armpit deep to the left (north) of the further northern breakwall, and laid the longest cast I could way out into the surf and just let that squid lay on the bottom. After about 2 minutes, something picked it up and starting moving out to sea. I tightened down, lifting high and sunk the hook home and I was on. The fish took me well into the backing, then I gained, then it stripped me again big time, and I was truly afraid, for the first time ever, of being completely spooled. I finally managed to turn it and get all my line back. By this time, about 50 people from the resort were watching me do battle, and cheering me on from the boardwalk. I had backed up closer to the beach to about waist deep water, and got the fish in pretty close to me, but I still couldn't see it well. Then, it turned and came at me and swam by me in about 3 feet of water - it was a freakin' stingray, man. About 3 feet across. I got out of the water and up on the beach so fast! I kept fighting it and I managed to drag it into about 4-incehs of water and it was flailing around. I yelled at one guy to grab my boga out of my tackle bag, and two local guys from the resort came running down with a club. I'm pretty sure they were going to bash it in and take it to eat. Neither the resort works or the guy with my Boga made it to me before the stingray finally snapped my 17-lb fluro and rocketed off.

 

It was awesome. One thing is for sure, next time I go (we're planning on going back maybe next winter), I will have a 4-piece med-heavy travel rod and my baitcaster with 30-40 braid. And I will rule those breakwalls!

 

Unfortunately, my wife was off somewhere else in the resort with our son when all this was going on, and so I never got any photos of the epic battle. Below are some general photos my wife took of my fishing the breakwalls that week though. I'm sure you'll recognize the setting.

 

Hopefully you guys found some fish around them and were better equipped than me. Let me know!

 

 

 

 

 

[aplumma]

. I had a great time at St. Lucia. The fishing was good after I found the pattern of what they wanted. The lure of choice was 1/2 oz silver/blue Rattletrap. The place was between the 2nd and third reef was good but the action spots were next to the Spa after dark in the light that cast over the water. The morning and evening spot as it darkened was up the beach 50 ft past the blue shack for kite surfers. The fish caught were amberjack, schnook, and the blue reef fish. I got spooled once using 40lb braid and a medium heavy rod and shimano calcutta 300 reel. I had to clamp down on one and pulled the hook and a busted line on a third one. I wish I could have seen those fish. I also did the charter and while we got skunked we did raise a Marlin but could not talk it into striking. Thanks for taking the time to fill me in it made it easier to chose my tackle and have a successful trip.

Art