Catch Reports 2006

Yesterday saw 2 small dorado caught and 3 sails missed (striking bait but not returning).

Today saw Canadian Chad Parsons tag a 50lb sailfish and Maurice Parsons a 50lb white marlin on a half day trip off the Celebrity Galaxy cruise ship.....nice!

Date: 1 December 2006

Confidence reflected in last report paid off today with a nice 55lb sailfish tagged & released for Marc "Sal" Galvano after a 15 minute fight. Action was not so hot though as that was the only fish we raised for the trip...

Marc should have a better pic of the fish which will be posted when I get it.

We lost a sailfish the other day and missed another a few days later. Water has been varying wildly between pure blue and dirty green. Catches have been medium - small dorado and we missed another wahoo strike.

Indications are that water is back to blue again and fish are around so we await tomorrows trip with interest....

Today we raised a small blue marlin (c120lb) for Rob Mooney but although it stayed in the spread for 5 minutes it would not eat anything...Some tunas around but otherwise still quiet. Water nice & blue again

Paul Freer caught six dorado today by a piece of bamboo long a ripline 16 miles offshore. We worked this area but could not find any billfish. We also saw birds working over tunas and even saw a 100lb yellowfin jump but could not induce them to strike.

We also saw a lot of drift wood an weedlines following recent heavy rains in the area.

Eric's group of vet students from SGU had quite a good day today - they landed 2 wahoo to 22lbs and lost another, they also caught 2 small dorado and 5 barracudas. They had a lot of fish cleaning to do when they got back to the dock!

Rob & Sharon Bellau with friendds had some fun catching these barracudas and a blackfin tuna. Unfortunately no wahoo put in an appearance today.

Our last few offshore trips have only produced small dorado but another boat recently lost a marlin so there is hope that the fish are about to run!!

Date: 7 October 2006

Scott McKay had a slow days fishing which was only relieved by this 27lb wahoo caught in almost the same spot as yesterdays 56lb fish.

We fished up to 22 miles offshore but apart from a few birds searching we saw no signs of billfish or tunas. Even allowing for the effects of full moon it seems that the main run of fish has yet to show themselves.

Date: 5 October 2006

Bradley Woodard's party had slow action with just 2 barracudas until a fine wahoo of 56lb took a deep trolled ballyhoo and made angler Gary work hard before coming to the gaff.

After that we left the edge and went into deeper waters but the only reward was seeing a pod of four sperm whales some of which breached several times and allowed us to get real close.

Thomas and fellow SGU med students braved some choppy seas and squally weather to catch these blackfin tunas and a barracuda.

Finally seeing some blue water which hopefully heralds the arrival of some billfish and other pelagics - time will tell...

Barry and friends from SGU did a 6 hour trip today which produced 7 barracudas, 2 blackfin tunas and 2 king mackerel (to 11lbs).

Plenty of fish to barbeque later that night!

Date: 16 September 2006

Alison & Paul from Toronto enjoyed catching this mixed bag of barracuda,blackfin tuna and cero mackerel. It almost exactly matched our catch yesterday morning although then we also lost a wahoo which managed to spit out the rapala lure...

Water still green with Orinoco flow.

Virgin flight crew Lesley & friend Nicholas McDonald caught 4 barracudas and 3 blackfin tunas this afternoon - that typifies the results of our last 3 trips - no big fish but reasonable amounts of action.

Water very green - Orinoco flow again.

Date: 7 August 2006

Since last report fishing has been slow but lately we have seen some inprovement - a few days ago we had a shot at a sailfish - first billfish we have seen for quite a while.

Then today we scored 2 wahoo (37 and 25lb) for wedding guests at Spice Island Beach Resort. Julie caught the biggest one at 37lb.

Boat running again but fishing still on the slow side - last 2 half days have produced barracuda, horse eye jack, blackfin tuna and a very small dorado.

On the plus side seas have been relatively calm of late

Last 2 trips have been quiet - only consistent bite has been on the edge for barracudas - David Kraai caught several although his wife Karen caught the biggest!

Business very slow so taking the opportuntity to get the fuel injection pumps rebuilt (in Trinidad) this coming week. Hopefully back in action by Saturday.

Since last report we went through a period where we were seeing sailfish and dorado every trip but could rarely get them to bite and when they did they were difficult to hook!

Now business has slowed almost to zero and worse still the water colour went from blue to green to brown! Hopefully conditions will improve again shortly - at least we have managed to get more ballyhoo bait so we are ready for them!

2 days ago we caught 2 nice dorado for Richard Webb and pulled the hook out of a nice yellowfin tuna. The trip before also caught dorado and lost a wahoo. Today we could only manage barracudas along the edge during the first rains associated with the first tropical wave of the year......

Yesterday we went zero for 2 on sailfish - 1 of which should have been hooked...

Today we went zero for SEVEN! on sails - 3 of which were reasonable chances but just too quick to drop the baits. Good to see so many sails around this late in the year. We salvaged the day by catching the 25lb dorado shown for Roy McMichael (held by his daughter - Shannon) - but even then we were not able to hook one of the other 8 that followed it to the boat!!

Date: 6 May 2006

After 2 slow days offshore (we caught a 20lb wahoo on the edge though) we lost 1 sail and then tagged a 55lb one for Richard Webb (pic).

Richard is on an extended holiday in Grenada and is determined to add to his already impressive list of billfish catches around the world!

Richard Webb caught this nice dorado today and had a blue marlin miss a bait 3 times! Several other dorado somehow declined our baits whilst we were bringing in this one...

This is the first real action we had following more than a week of green Orinoco water which moved the fish away or put them down. Now that the water is nice and blue again we are hopefull of improved fishing...

Since last report we have had more wahoo success including the 23lb fish caught by Craig Keller & Paula LaTouche (pic). Yesterday we hooked 2 blue marlin for Mr Grey - the first (c200lb) was bought alongside the boat only for the fish to suddenly dart around the rudder and break the leader before we could tag it! The second (probably bigger) was hooked and started to run only for the 50lb line to suddenly pop (probably damaged by the first fish as it was the same rod/reel).

Today we tagged a 55lb sailfish for Robert Miller (2nd pic)on a trip down the edge where we were not expecting billfish! He also caught barracudas and blackfin tunas.

Last few trips offshore have been very slow and what few strikes we have had have gone wrong!

We had a big missed strike whilst working around some birds - thought it was a tuna judging by the big splash but when we checked the flying fish bait it had 3 widely spaced gashes in it - conclusion - probably a mako shark!

Today we also went offshore with no luck but then decided to come up the edge and had 2 small blackfin tunas chopped off by wahoo! We eventually caught 1 of them - a nice 30lb fish for Mr Hodgson (pic).

Again the week started slowly with a missed sailfish on Monday and a lost dorado on Wednesday. Thursday was barracudas and blackfin tunas down the edge.

Today Andy Windmill nearly achieved his billfish dream when we hooked up a blue m,arlin over 300lb - twice! Each time the fish managed to throiw the hook although the 2nd time Andy at least got to feel the power of the fish as it ran off 200yds of line... Later we caught a dorado and lost another as well as having a sailfish knock down.

This week started slowly and with rough seas and squalls. Wahoo and dorado strikes were the only reward.

Things improved at the end of the week when Steve Smith tagged a sailfish and saw another.

Next day Ronda Doan caught a 91lb yellowfin tuna (pic). Today we hooked another tuna for SGU students only for the hook to fall out with the fish only feet from the boat!

Yellowfin tuna action continues (if you can find the Sei whales around which they are feeding). Martyn Berry also tagged a big sailfish (75lb) which ate a marlin lure, he later lost a 150 yellowfin after we had it almost in gaff range...

Tim Jennings and Jack Jones had better luck with the tunas when they went out - they got 1 each (135 and 120lb) - they also had a brief hook up on a small blue. While Tim was playing his tuna a 500lb blue marlin came swimming up to the back of the boat looking for food!! They nearly did not get back to their cruise ship in time that day - especially when the exhaust manifold on the port engine cracked and I had to shut it down...

Since the tournament we have released 1 sailfish (and lost several more owing to the flyingfish baits which the sails find hard to eat!)

We have also caught several dorado and yesterday an 84lb yellowfin tuna for Colin Vandalfsen. The tuna was caught next to a Sei whale. We have also raised a couple of small blue marlin but we did not get good strikes from them.

seas were rough again yesterdy with strong easterly winds.

Well - we tagged another sail for Badger on the last day but it was not quite enough to hold on to second place as the boat "Contendress" from Martinique boated a blue of 375lbs which edged us into third overall - still not too shabby.

Badger was top release angler for the tournament and "Yes Aye" was third overall boat, top release boat and top Grenadian boat.

The 37th Spice Island Billfish Tournament started on Tuesday with 8 to 10ft seas and 25 knot winds! not ideal passage or fishing conditions and that led to a much reduced entry of only 19 boats. Anyway the field managed to tag 4 billfish and we got one sailfish for Badger Dearman plus a dorado (many dorado were caught) The second day saw reduced seas of 6 to 8ft and many more fish caught. We thought we were doing well with 2 more sails tagged but then the boat "Legacy" froim Barbados reported boating a large blue - it took them several hours to get back to port with it and it weighed in at 669lbs - a new tournament record!!

We are now placed second behind Legacy, and one of our anglers "Badger" Dearman is second placed angler at present.

Friday is the last day so we hope we can find a few more fish!

Today Badger and Mike had a better day with a tag & release of a 180lb blue marlin plus a dorado of 31lb and a 25lb barracuda.

37th Spice island Billfish tournament starts next tuesday 24th January

Today Alvin Pesachowitz and friends missed 2 sailfish but were rewarded with this 20lb wahoo right at the end of the trip. Last few trips have been a struggle with few strikes per day. This should slowly change as the days go by - next week is the 37th Spice Island billfish Tournament and we always have good fishing for that! Our only other problem at present is that we are desparately short of the ballyhoo bait that we normally use.......

Grenadian Floyd Williams tagged a 40lb white marlin this week on a trip with his friend Mr Lee. We had 3 other shots at sailfish but were unable to get a hook hold in any of them...

Last week Alan Watts family had wahoo to 41lb