March 15 2011
St Vincent, Windward Islands , Caribbean
Yes, I am a long way from the GBR!!!
We have been doing lots of traveling on the “Ambush” and the “Olga” the last 5 weeks.
The boats have done almost 1000nm, and visited lots of countries, from our base in Puerto Rico, and around most of the islands in the US and British Virgin Islands.
From there we fished a couple of days on both the north and south drops, but nothing was happening.
We then started our trip south to St Marteen, where stayed for a few days, then fished our way down to the island of Nevis , and the next day down past Guadeloupe, to the anchorage of Prince Rupert Bay in the island of Dominica.
Tanner, the mate and I fish most of the time while we travel, and missed a blue off Dominica.
The island of Montserrat was on our way and we rode right down the beach to check out the destruction from the volcano a couple of years ago- just amazing the power of nature.
Fishing our way down to Marigot Bay in St Lucia, a natural hurricane hole, we tagged our first blue of the trip, about 400lb on a tuna lure. Both boats spent a week here, resupplying and exploring the island, before heading south to the Pitons, two huge volcanic peaks that surround a nice anchorage with mooring buoys.
Tanner and I fished our way south from Marigot Bay to the Pitons, but took the long way to check out some FADS. We were told there are about 8 FADS around St Lucia, but of the ones we checked out, there was only 2 of the 5 we checked left. Heavy currents and LOTS of shipping would have most probably accounted for these losses.
South of St Lucia, I marked some birds on the radar and off we chugged to check it out. Not only were there packs of birds, but huge stands of bait, and all around 3 home made FADS, that the locals fish out of their pangas. As soon as we arrived we got piled on by a blue, tagged it, and then 2 big mahi mahi.
We fished for a couple of hours and ended up seeing 5 blues, had 4 bites, and tagged 2, not too bad for just the 2 of us on board.
The next day we tried to fish, but couldn’t put a crew together, so we went snorkeling and exploring around the Pitons in the zodiac.
Saturday the 7th of March will be remembered for a long time!!!. We took, Clem, Sara and Claire from the “Olga” for the days fishing. We all left on the “Ambush” at 11am, and ran the 8 miles to where we put the lines in, as soon as we got to the area of the FADS, it was on!!!
By 2.30pm we had fished for 2.5 hours and were 5 from 7 on blue marlin!!! Going 7 7 5 , loosing 2 fish on the FAD when we got split on double headers.
At 3.20 pm, we had missed one on the pitch, and pulled another off, but were now 7 from 9, and heading towards the magic 10 in a day.
Fishing the run in tide all afternoon, I just stayed around the 3 FADS, and were marking fish all over the big stands of bait. The fish were marking from 150 to 300 feet down and coming straight up and just piling on the Pakula Lumo sprocket and the other rigger lure. Both teasers were getting the odd, bite, but the fish were tuned in on the left long!!!
Half an hour with no bite, I was getting worried, but not to worry, by 3.55 we were 8 from 12 and had another hour or so to fish before we had to get back to the anchorage.
Our last fish was released at 4.36 pm, to finish the day with a double header and 10 blue marlin for the day!!! 8 of the 10 fish were on the Lumo on the left rigger!!! Everyone was down and tight!!!
Just an epic day on the Ambush, the boats best day ever, and the first day fishing for the crew from our mother ship- I threw them in at the deep end with a non stop action afternoon. All our fish were 250 -375 lbs, and all behaved pretty much the same.
Unfortunately we had to leave the next day to get down to St Lucia, and Tanner and I fished the FAD for a couple of hours, but they were not biting properly yet, and we had 4 bites. But the Fads were sucked under by the current. Nevertheless, the fish and bait was stacked up, and I must have marked 20-25 marlin on the bait stands. I am sure that after the tide change they would have come on the chew properly. Hopefully we can get back there next month and fish the week up to the moon. Want to join us for that trip?
We are currently in St Vincent, and awaiting the boss and his family for some fishing and cruising around here and Grenada. Should be some more blues and big yellow fin around in April, so we are looking forward to getting fishing again.
The “Ambush” is available for charter from now, until mid August with me running the boat, and we will be down here in the windward islands till May, and then back up to the BVI’s for the St Thomas moons for the excellent blue marlin fishing.
Let me know if you are interested in joining me on the “Ambush” or in conjunction with the “Olga”
My 2011 Cairns season is coming along well, with only a few openings left, including some great tides in mid to late September, which is the week before the Lizard Island Tournament, so the fishing should again be great in September, as it is almost every year. If this doesn’t suit, I have a week in November into December.
Till next update,
