I just got back from Spring Break with the family at the Westin Dawn Beach resort in St. Maarten. Here is a summary report for those who are interested.
Use Google maps to find these 2 spots:
Spot 1
18.026446, -63.045786
Spot 2
18.033633, -63.042854
All tarpon fishing, except where noted, all arrival times varied and I left the parking lot at 8:30am when there were too many cars to properly back cast, about the time everyone showed up for work.
Day 1-no fishing
Day 2-wake at 730am and went right outside hotel. I had my Helios 9wt, paired with Lamson Velocity reel. I used Rio versatip line but never changed out the floating line. Heavy winds and lack of fish led me to abandon surf fishing effort.
Day 3-wake at 5:30am-Found new spot to try. See spot 1 above. Tarpon were rolling all over the corner of the lagoon. There seemed to be 3 spots where they were mostly, along the mangrove edge along the bank busting bait, and about 3/4 of the way across the pond right in the middle. I got two takes that morning. The first broke off a 12lb bonefish leader. Switched to 20lb flouro leader. Got a take but missed it. I think I lifted the rod tip vs. strip setting. After the morning round my buddy sent me youtube about long slow retrieves. I decided to change my retrieve for the next day to try and get one.
Day 4-wake at 5:30am on water by 6:00am-Goose egg, no takes.
Day 5-wake at 5:15am on water by 5:30am, it was still dark and the company across from the pond had red light illuminating the water.
I went with a 2 1/2-3 in clouser, Chartreuse, with some pink and white and silver mylar flash + bead chain eyes. Forgot stripping basket (note I travel a lot and when I need a stripping basket I usually borrow a basket from CVS or the equivalent and bring plastic zip ties. I set it up to have 'fingers' to catch the line. Note- I always return the basket to the business I borrow it from.
Slow long arm length retrieves were key. Focus on the bank near me and had most casts under 30 feet.
Take 1: 7 feet away, he rolled on it I think I lifted rod tip vs. strip set. I saw his side, nice silver and fatter than a football
Take 2: Retrieving fly as stated above, line starts moving in opposite direction perpendicular to retrieve. Adrenaline rush hits, I strip set and boom, yank fly out of mouth. Too aggressive of a strip set.
Take 3: Hero cast slow retrieve and boom he is on for a second or two and I strip set too aggressively again.
Take 4: Casting in front of mangroves, nice slow retrieve, tension on line, I let him take it for a second or 2, line goes tight, I set the hook. He jumps, slack in the line, I'm fine.
He runs, I have good pressure on him, rod in belly, rod bent, he finally takes out all the line off the reel and gets into the reel. I let the drag take over, he is running and running, I look down and there was 1 or 2 revolutions of fly line left. I am chasing him up the shoreline. Finally I see that there are trees coming up so I decide I can't follow much further so I hand slow the reel. I start to put some real pressure on him, retrieving line on the reel. I have rod high, nice and bent. As I put the pressure on him, I realize, he doesn't like it and he jumps. Pause, learning curve1) jerky retrieve no good - thanks for youtube. 2) slow retrieve works, but strip set are shorter than expected and don't need to be done immediately, 3) Bow to the king. I forgot to drop the rod tip. He spit the freaking hook at about a 100 feet out.
He took, I let him have it for a second or 2, strip set about a foot. He jumped and I bowed. He started to run, I keep hard pressure on him, knowing i had 20lb, flouro to 100lb mono. I let him go a bit and he was PISSED. He jumped 6-7 times and I bowed to him everytime. The fight took about 12 minutes. I tired him out and had him to shore. With no net, nor a beach, I had him on his side. I didn't want to do any more damage bc he was exhausted. I had him on the line and did not want to break the rod tip. I grabbed the line and attempted to pull him up the bank. Line broke so I could not get a pic and could not retrieve fly. That guy was landed no question. He was about 3 feet in length.
The pool died down and some guy pointed out another spot to try and find. I stumbled upon it about a 1/2 mile away. Tarpon everywhere. I foul hooked a tilapia. Then a 2 man crew in a big truck showed up. I hooked a nice sized snapper. They didn't even ask just as I landed him, the one guy offers to his buddy, you want that? The stole my fish! I wasn't gonna eat it anyway but more power to them.
It appeared that Permit were tailing in this new area. I saw HUGE tails coming out of the water. I switched to a crab pattern and made a perfect, I mean perfect 90 foot hero cast, 3-5 feet in front of him with a soft landing. I twitched it a few times, he came over, then spooked off.
Day 7-So Sunday I am in my usual spot fishing a chartruese deceiver pattern that I cut off the feathers to make it a regular clouser pattern.
Boom, this guy hits and hits it hard, he jumps and then runs. Meanwhile, I broke my drag by getting sand in it so I am palming the reel. Ever heard of knuckle buster??? Well I get him slowed down. He jumps a bunch of times, and I bow to him. He gets into my backing and runs some more. He had about 175 yards out on me. I am leaning into him hard. Working up a sweat. He keeps jumping and keep bowing. I have him good. Some guy walks by and I am trying to get him to go to my car to grab the ipad to take some footage.
I lose track of him of him for a second or two but we are at a standstill. He is barely swimming not pulling so I try to horse him in. I am get in about 75 yards and I am back to my fly line. It appeared that when he jumped he tangled the line around his tail.
He starts moving again and since I didn't have drag, I didn't want him to run again and POP out comes the fly.
I think the hook bent because it was pretty open when I got it back. Needless to say I was satisfied as he put up a great fight and jumped a ton.
I was just pissed because they were really active while I was fighting him it seemed like Tarpon were rolling everywhere and they rolling all over while my guy was jumping and running.
I didn't get another take and it seemed to slow down so I moved to my other spot. See spot 2.
The Permit was back with a friend. Cruising out of casting range. Tarpon were rolling so I was casting trying to get a bite. I moved to a spot where I could wade.
I stepped in the water and sunk up to my mid calf in mud. I released some serious toxic chemicals from the mud. It stunk so bad I had to jump out of the water.
Made a few casts to the Permit no luck.
When I got back to bridge/culvert I looked on the other side and almost crapped myself. There was tailing Permit 5 feet away. I quickly changed flies. I literally dipped the fly in the water in front of him and waited for him to turn on the fly.
He did turn on it, but must have noticed it wasn't the real thing and speed off. No wonder those guys are so tough to catch.
All in all a great trip sorry no pictures to post but the things I learned/advice for the newer (like me) fly fisherman:
1-if you fish enough you start to kinda figure out where they should be. For Tarpon and snook, think ambush predator so mangroves are key. Think bass hanging out under tree in the shade,
2-stripping basket key. Bring wading belt and zip ties and you can make one in the field.
3-knots, I got OCD on learning knots, learning 7 or so. I narrowed the field down to the following: Albright knot, good for large leader/small leader connections. Improved Homer Rhode knot. Great loop knot easy to tie and very strong. Allows fly to wobble like regular bait fish. Pitzen or San Diego Jam knot-Another great knot easy to tie. I like it better than improved synch knot. Perfection loop-great for loop to loop connections and quick changes of pre-tied flies/leader combos. All these knots held during Tarpon fights. Gave me great confidence. Check out the knot wars app on iphone and android.
4-Hero casts. While I got some hits on my longest casts, most of the times the takes were <20 feet in. It was kinda fun to be able to cast 80+ feet across the wind but I have plenty of marks on my back where the fly whacked me mid back because of the wind out of the right.
5-Equipment-I failed to properly clean my gear after each morning fishing and paid the price by having the drag fail. My fault.
6-Check Tarpon off the list, now Permit, Bonefish, Snook, Redfish and maybe Mahi-Mahi are left. Hopefully we will take the Mahi trip out of Ocean City that we had to cancel last summer.
7-Buff. Critical to keep sun off face and to keep bugs away at sunrise. Although I forgot to take it off when I went into the bank to get some money. The Dutch guard was not pleased.
8-Flies. I heard a saying, "if it ain't got chartruese, it ain't go no use." I am a firm believer. Almost all takes were from chartruese clouser patterns. Easy to tie, quick to make. If chasing big fish, use proper hooks. I was using all kinds of sizes and using saltwater grade hooks mostly. When I would synch the knot down using fishing pliers and the tail gate latch, I straightened a few hooks. Those must have been the freshwater hooks I had mixed in. Sizes, I had all different sizes and got takes from 4-1/0. Mix it up, lead eyes, bead chain, no weight. You never really know the depth of the water and where you need to be in the water column.
9-Have fun and don't abuse the family time. I got home in time to take the kids to breakfast, enjoy the day, nap on the beach and have fun. Wife was happy, I was happy.
Hope you enjoyed the report. Next time I promise pictures.
John
-- Use Google maps to find these 2 spots:
Spot 1
18.026446, -63.045786
Spot 2
18.033633, -63.042854
All tarpon fishing, except where noted, all arrival times varied and I left the parking lot at 8:30am when there were too many cars to properly back cast, about the time everyone showed up for work.Day 2-wake at 730am and went right outside hotel. I had my Helios 9wt, paired with Lamson Velocity reel. I used Rio versatip line but never changed out the floating line. Heavy winds and lack of fish led me to abandon surf fishing effort.
Day 3-wake at 5:30am-Found new spot to try. See spot 1 above. Tarpon were rolling all over the corner of the lagoon. There seemed to be 3 spots where they were mostly, along the mangrove edge along the bank busting bait, and about 3/4 of the way across the pond right in the middle. I got two takes that morning. The first broke off a 12lb bonefish leader. Switched to 20lb flouro leader. Got a take but missed it. I think I lifted the rod tip vs. strip setting. After the morning round my buddy sent me youtube about long slow retrieves. I decided to change my retrieve for the next day to try and get one.
Day 4-wake at 5:30am on water by 6:00am-Goose egg, no takes.
Day 5-wake at 5:15am on water by 5:30am, it was still dark and the company across from the pond had red light illuminating the water.
He was probably 3.5-4 feet in size.
After checking leader, it was frayed badly. I figured 50 lb flouro wasn't enough so I stopped a local tackle shop and picked up 100lb mono leader material.
Day 6-Spot 1 about 5:30am. New set up was fly line to 20lb short section with perfection loop. Then 20inches 40lb flouro leader, albright knot to 4 feet 20 lb flouro with perfection loop at end. Loop to loop to 100lb mono leader material. I put on a 1/0 sized chartruese bendback clouser pattern. FINALLY PUT IT ALL TOGETHER.After checking leader, it was frayed badly. I figured 50 lb flouro wasn't enough so I stopped a local tackle shop and picked up 100lb mono leader material.
He took, I let him have it for a second or 2, strip set about a foot. He jumped and I bowed. He started to run, I keep hard pressure on him, knowing i had 20lb, flouro to 100lb mono. I let him go a bit and he was PISSED. He jumped 6-7 times and I bowed to him everytime. The fight took about 12 minutes. I tired him out and had him to shore. With no net, nor a beach, I had him on his side. I didn't want to do any more damage bc he was exhausted. I had him on the line and did not want to break the rod tip. I grabbed the line and attempted to pull him up the bank. Line broke so I could not get a pic and could not retrieve fly. That guy was landed no question. He was about 3 feet in length.
The pool died down and some guy pointed out another spot to try and find. I stumbled upon it about a 1/2 mile away. Tarpon everywhere. I foul hooked a tilapia. Then a 2 man crew in a big truck showed up. I hooked a nice sized snapper. They didn't even ask just as I landed him, the one guy offers to his buddy, you want that? The stole my fish! I wasn't gonna eat it anyway but more power to them.
It appeared that Permit were tailing in this new area. I saw HUGE tails coming out of the water. I switched to a crab pattern and made a perfect, I mean perfect 90 foot hero cast, 3-5 feet in front of him with a soft landing. I twitched it a few times, he came over, then spooked off.
Day 7-So Sunday I am in my usual spot fishing a chartruese deceiver pattern that I cut off the feathers to make it a regular clouser pattern.
Boom, this guy hits and hits it hard, he jumps and then runs. Meanwhile, I broke my drag by getting sand in it so I am palming the reel. Ever heard of knuckle buster??? Well I get him slowed down. He jumps a bunch of times, and I bow to him. He gets into my backing and runs some more. He had about 175 yards out on me. I am leaning into him hard. Working up a sweat. He keeps jumping and keep bowing. I have him good. Some guy walks by and I am trying to get him to go to my car to grab the ipad to take some footage.
I lose track of him of him for a second or two but we are at a standstill. He is barely swimming not pulling so I try to horse him in. I am get in about 75 yards and I am back to my fly line. It appeared that when he jumped he tangled the line around his tail.
He starts moving again and since I didn't have drag, I didn't want him to run again and POP out comes the fly.
I think the hook bent because it was pretty open when I got it back. Needless to say I was satisfied as he put up a great fight and jumped a ton.
I was just pissed because they were really active while I was fighting him it seemed like Tarpon were rolling everywhere and they rolling all over while my guy was jumping and running.
I didn't get another take and it seemed to slow down so I moved to my other spot. See spot 2.
The Permit was back with a friend. Cruising out of casting range. Tarpon were rolling so I was casting trying to get a bite. I moved to a spot where I could wade.
I stepped in the water and sunk up to my mid calf in mud. I released some serious toxic chemicals from the mud. It stunk so bad I had to jump out of the water.
Made a few casts to the Permit no luck.
When I got back to bridge/culvert I looked on the other side and almost crapped myself. There was tailing Permit 5 feet away. I quickly changed flies. I literally dipped the fly in the water in front of him and waited for him to turn on the fly.
He did turn on it, but must have noticed it wasn't the real thing and speed off. No wonder those guys are so tough to catch.
All in all a great trip sorry no pictures to post but the things I learned/advice for the newer (like me) fly fisherman:
1-if you fish enough you start to kinda figure out where they should be. For Tarpon and snook, think ambush predator so mangroves are key. Think bass hanging out under tree in the shade,
2-stripping basket key. Bring wading belt and zip ties and you can make one in the field.
3-knots, I got OCD on learning knots, learning 7 or so. I narrowed the field down to the following: Albright knot, good for large leader/small leader connections. Improved Homer Rhode knot. Great loop knot easy to tie and very strong. Allows fly to wobble like regular bait fish. Pitzen or San Diego Jam knot-Another great knot easy to tie. I like it better than improved synch knot. Perfection loop-great for loop to loop connections and quick changes of pre-tied flies/leader combos. All these knots held during Tarpon fights. Gave me great confidence. Check out the knot wars app on iphone and android.
4-Hero casts. While I got some hits on my longest casts, most of the times the takes were <20 feet in. It was kinda fun to be able to cast 80+ feet across the wind but I have plenty of marks on my back where the fly whacked me mid back because of the wind out of the right.
5-Equipment-I failed to properly clean my gear after each morning fishing and paid the price by having the drag fail. My fault.
6-Check Tarpon off the list, now Permit, Bonefish, Snook, Redfish and maybe Mahi-Mahi are left. Hopefully we will take the Mahi trip out of Ocean City that we had to cancel last summer.
7-Buff. Critical to keep sun off face and to keep bugs away at sunrise. Although I forgot to take it off when I went into the bank to get some money. The Dutch guard was not pleased.
8-Flies. I heard a saying, "if it ain't got chartruese, it ain't go no use." I am a firm believer. Almost all takes were from chartruese clouser patterns. Easy to tie, quick to make. If chasing big fish, use proper hooks. I was using all kinds of sizes and using saltwater grade hooks mostly. When I would synch the knot down using fishing pliers and the tail gate latch, I straightened a few hooks. Those must have been the freshwater hooks I had mixed in. Sizes, I had all different sizes and got takes from 4-1/0. Mix it up, lead eyes, bead chain, no weight. You never really know the depth of the water and where you need to be in the water column.
9-Have fun and don't abuse the family time. I got home in time to take the kids to breakfast, enjoy the day, nap on the beach and have fun. Wife was happy, I was happy.
Hope you enjoyed the report. Next time I promise pictures.
John
http://www.tpfr.org
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