TOBAGO
Roberto Ferrario

The island of Tobago isn’t much known, but it offers an incredible mix of beaches, sea, sun (the most common face of Caribbean islands), and it also offers a wild tropical forest with its luxuriant vegetation, mammals, over 200 birds species, 600 butterfly species, caimans and so on. Mountains, cliffs, wild zones and hidden beaches, not counting a very rich sea with various local and pelagic fish species.

This island is up the East part of Venezuela and together with the island of Trinidad it creates a totally independent state. It isn’t so known by mass tourism and you can appreciate the sceneries just like mother nature made them up.
 

Tobago is just 8 miles wide and 26 miles long, but it takes a few hours to get from one end to the other. Another charm of Tobago is the lack of infra-structure. The best way to dodge the potholes, whizz around and have a whole lot of fun is by hiring a jeep. The most developed areas of Tobago are in the Lowlands, Southwest. Here you’ll find Crown Point International Airport, a few smart hotels along the Caribbean coast, Buccoo Reef, the fine white sandy beaches of Pigeon Point and Store Bay, and Scarborough – its colourful Capital and port.

I was interested in this destination some years ago when I read on an American fishing magazine about the great possibility of blue water fishing for pelagic fishes like blue marlin, yellowfin tuna wahoo, dorado and so on. In that article there was a small part in which it was mentioned the presence in the island shallow waters of tarpon, bonefish and snook. Later I read another article that informed about the annual pelagic migration of tarpon in the water of the island from June to August, also due to the constant and high presence of big school of small fishes in the water surrounding Tobago. The most interesting thing was to discover that fishing for these predators and also for barracuda, jack crevally and bonefish was possible directly from the shore. So, in this case, it wasn’t necessary to rent an expensive boat and  hire a captain to zero in on those species!

So having the desire of sun and sea, so why not organize a trip in this beautiful paradise island and also to give a try at the flats and mangrove area at the research of some nice fish? The first step was to find on the web the most information possible, find a cheap accommodation, rent a car and buy a flight ticket at the lowest price possible. All ready, here we go!

FISHING ZONES

I have to admit that it was not my intention to spend the whole day fishing, but do it just for some hours in the morning, then have a long rest and relaxing time on the middle of the day, and in late afternoon do some fishing again. Fortunately, I had with me lots of information; so, to find the best fishing spots was very easy.

All the best fishing areas are very close to each other. To target tarpon and bonefish the best places are in the South part of the island.  The other predators like barracuda and trevally, grouper can be found all around the island, mainly near the the rocky area. The East side of the island is surely the best and seems to offer better possibilities and it is always protected from the persistent winds.

Regarding to bonefish, Tobago does not offer many flats; the most famous are the one of Frindship and Pigeont Point. Both are very easy to find, in Pigeont Point there is a very beautiful white sandy beach and it is very easy to reach; here you can find an average population of bonefish. Friendship’s flat is close to the airport strip and to reach it the only thing is to use a 4X4 vehicle because the road is not very good. Mainly in the evening heavy rains... and the road was very muddy; in this case, full control traction car is mandatory. If you go on Google maps you can have an idea of how to reach both places.

About bonefish fishing I saw an average number of them with an interesting size around 3 kilos, but the persistent wind that moves all day the shallow water to see them was very hard. They also were very skinny and several time refused the small jig I presented them. Any way a trick was to retrieve the lure very quickly and with this techniques I caught some very nice fishes the run like trains. I was fishing with ultra light line and so I lost some fishes, but it is part of the game.

As regard tarpon, it seems that the fishes stay always close the schools of small sardines that they feed on daily. Best area is from Fiendship to Playmouth; based on my experience, I found them close to the rocky zone near the airport and in Crow Point beach. Here there were constantly huge schools of very small sardines and mainly in the morning it was very common to see these predators moving very close to the shore to feed on them. I have to admit that was very very hard, of big fishes was really plenty but to catch them was an other story!

I have to admit that this fish is very very strange. In a my past trip to Cuba I had the chance to understand how difficult iot was to catch them and how suspicious they are. Here in Tobago I tried all possible techniques: with live bait, with dead bait on a float, with dead bait slowly moved, with the bait on the bottom. Zero results, they were there, but they simply didn’t eat!!!! Very frustrating.

The funny thing was that if I started to spin with a Wild Eye Swim Shad of Storm in less of a hour, every day, I was able to hoop up at least an half dozen of these fishes. Incredible! Anyone is able to hook up a tarpon and to land one is another matter, in fact these predators have some hard bony plates in their mouth and after the first or the second jump your hook is almost always off. The only one that I fought for more that 15 minutes, when was close to the shore at less of one meter from me in its final jump won the match and swam slowly away.
 

I really do not understand why a lively small fresh sardine didn’t attract the attentions of these fishes….I will never know. Any way I had some good hit with live bait, no tarpon for sure, maybe some huge jack crevally, but all them broke my 0.70 flourocarbon; surely they were big fishes because to break such a thick line is not that easy.

Several small jack creavalle, barracuda and ladyfish were caught on artificial lure, but I had the best surprises in late afternoon fishing from a rocky point on a sandy bottom using dead sardines.

Probably it was an intuition, because there was a particular bottom shape that created something like a submarine channel, a zone where I saw the schools of sardines moving up and down. I noticed that in that area these schools were always attacked from bottom predators but despite the very clear water, I did not figure out what kind of fishes were.

One late afternoon I tried to cast on the bottom a big dead sardine and no more of ten minutes later I have my rod bent like an incredible curve. In a few moments I had surely more than 100 meters of line of 80 lb out of my reel. The run was very powerfull and long. I immediately thought: “tarpon? Not for sure. A big jack crevally, nor it is too powerfull or must be over 20 kilos….may be a big barracuda…no, at this point should cut the line. Could it be a nurse shark? No, they are very rare here. So what kind of huge fish could be??” After few minutes I had the answer, the fish finally stopped on the bottom and didn’t want to move. “Yes, could be only a big ray!!”

I fought this fish for about thirty minutes before I saw it; in effect it was a nice ray of around 25 kilos. These fishes have a very dangerous sting so I decided to cut the leader.

That evening I hooked up other two rays of almost the same size, 25-30 kilos; the two days after I landed other five rays with sizes ranging from 15 to 35 kilos. Very nice fishes that fought very very hard.

WHAT TO BRING ALONG

I know that could be a little bit tedious to read about tackles and lure, but in every article about  my fishing experience abroad, I dedicate a part of the text to describe what is the best tackle assortment; this way a fisherman that wants to do my same experience can avoid my errors and make his fishing trip easier and  more enjoyable. You cannot forget that in an island like Tobago it is almost impossible to find good fishing tackle or artificial lures, so it is very important to bring a good assortment of tackle to try to catch the largest quantity of predators possible. So give a close look at what to bring.

Tarpon is a fish that can reach easily the mark of 100 kilos, however the ones that patrols Tobago waters have a size that  ranges from 7/8 kilos to 30/40 kilos maximum. Small tarpons are always good fighters. They love shallow and medium lagoons, but also like to stay near mangrove forests.

The best choice for Tobago is a 80-100 gram rod with a strong reel full of 30-50 lb braided line. As best artificial lures there is surely WildEye Swim Shad of Storm, but silicone lures as Storm Wildeye Procurtail worked fine. As hard body lures Shallow Tunder and Mag Thunderstik always of Storm worked well. Good attacks also with 8 centimeters Rapala Skitter Walk for baby tarpon. Natural colours seem to have better chances due to the very crystal water.

Usually, it is more productive to fish with live bait, but it is not always so easy to find sardines or google eye of the right size. I found some small schools of sardines very close the Tropiklist Hotel at Crow Point I used a strong rod of 150-200 grams and a reel with 80 lb braid line. A big float of 50 grams or over, a fluorocarbon leader of 70 or 90 millimetres and a VMC circular hook 5/0 completed my tarpon tackle. To catch sardines I used very small sabiki in green colour.

Bonefish here has an interesting average size, so rod and reel must be adequate; anyway this fish must be fought always with ultra light equipment. So a common spinning rod of 10 – 15 grams and a reel loaded with 150 meters of 0.20 nylon is a good choice. As lures I used 4 centimetres silicone jigs in orange colours. Here seems that yellow and white colours do not work well. This fish can be also targeted with fly equipment but I am not an expert on this technique to give you some information about tackle and fly types.

Jack crevalle attacks regularly minnows, popper and spoon. I find a good action lure with a blue Storm Chug Bug of 11 centimetres because was the perfect size and color of a sardine. The trick to catch this fish is the retrieve that must be always very very fast. In fact many times you can see the fish to be attracted from high speed lures other than a normal lure retrieve. Mainly in conditions of clear water, for medium size fishes I also used big Silver spoons from 9 to 11 centimeters as Inkoo and Lucius by Blue Fox. I usually change the treble hook for a stronger one or with a bigger single hook.

There is also the barracuda, a fish not very much appreciated, but if fought with the right tackle it is a good and strong adversary. Here in Tobago I didn’t find it in big quantity and good size, but almost every day I caught one or two of these toothy predators. If you target this fish primarily, remember always a steel leader of a minimum of 50 lb in front of your lure.

The best period to fish from the costs in Tobago is from July to October.