Just got home late last night from our incredible honeymoon. We stayed at the Divi Carina Bay resort on the east end of St Croix for 8 days 7 nights and had a great time. Good weather great food beautiful beach and the greatest thing was the crystal clear water. Snorkeling was amazing and we saw tons of tropical fish and a few sea turles and some huge sting rays. I realized on this trip that i married the most amazing woman on earth. While she would lay on the beach i would take some cast with my 6.6 noodle travel rod and caught so many fish right off our beach mostly on a silver deadly dick. Every fish being a new species added to the list. Most days i woke up at sunrise fished for an hour or so and would come back to the room in time for heather to wake up and have us grab some breakfast and go on with our day. Worked out great and i got my fix of fishing. The second night there i took my first cast and in 10 minutes of fishing i lost a 3 foot tarpon on a massive jump and i was shocked. I heard they are around the island but not very common. Next cast i caught a 4 or 5 lb horse eyed jack and it was a battle. Also caught a few small silver fish that i still dont know what they were. Was a great start.
The next day we had a charter booked to go off shore fishing. Lets just say that was not a good idea as we should have stayed in shore. After 8 miles out into the Caribbean we found ourselves in 8-10 swells at some points. Wasn't long before the wife was throwing up over the side of the boat and miserable. The Dramamine did not cut it that's for sure. I felt beyond terrible! We fished for about an hour and a half fishing from 12,000 feet up to 1,200 feet on a huge deep water hump. After about 5 minutes of fishing we had our first Mahi on which came off on a big flip. Then another Mahi which came off after the line dragging 20 lbs of sea weed and the fish.. I was driving the boat almost the whole trip and we were only able to keep out 1 line at a time which sucked. Because the sea weed was out of control. Finally landed a small Mahi and headed back in. Took 2 hours to get back to the dock but heather felt great as soon as we were on land.She was a trooper! Was a huge waste of 900 dollars but lesson learned. I will say trying to fight a fish while the boat is in gear is total bs. When we only had one line out. Made no sense. You don't even fight the fish you just drag in heavy weight. Oh well!
The next day heather wanted to take some cast from the pier with me and we both caught a few of the little silver snappers. She was happy. I also caught a really nice blue fish which is in the jack family. Then she wanted to get out of the sun and sit under an umbrella for a while so i took out a kayak. I caught fish 6 out of 7 cast out there including a beautiful yellow tail snapper before my day took a turn for the worse.. My kayak flipped no warning way out in the bay and i could not get back on. The plug was not in the kayak and it had filled with water. After i flipped the third time i lost my fishing pole my tackle box and was holding on for life and yelling for help. After 5 minutes of heather trying to get help for me... my new friend Joey happened to be walking by got a big kayak and came out and saved me. I was happy to be on the beach and pissed at the people who worked the activity shack.. ( who have been fired since ) I was done fishing for the day and filled a report and all that fun stuff and they did end up taking care of us. The next morning i went out snorkeling with Joey to try and find my stuff. Sure enough in 25 feet of water way out we found both my rod and my tackle box! Was so pumped to get it back. Was a little rough but it still worked.
I took a walk down the beach the next morning to find a enormous school of giant tarpon! I could see there tails and there dorsal fins sticking out all over the place some of which were in the 60-80 lb range or bigger. The tons of sea weed that came to shore was holding lots of bait and drew them in right up close. My rod was not cutting it. I had 15 tarpon hit and could not hook one. The strikes were beyond epic though. They have such a hard mouth that i needed more backbone to get a hook set. I asked a guy Robert who worked at the resort if he knew where i could get a better pole. He went into his office and came out with a 7 foot meduim action rod for me to use no charge! It wasnt much better but it was something. I went back the following morning on a mission. I still had only my small reel with 10 lb braid and a 40 lb leader but i had a rod that would give me a chance and thats all i needed. I threw out a big cast master and would reel it very slowly and within a few cast i was on! I fought 6 tarpon between a few second up to a few minutes and would eventually lose them on a 6 foot jump! It was a thrill. Then i finally really stuck one. Probably the smallest one i had on the whole day but i didnt care! Slid it onto the thick sea weed jumped in and had my bucket list fish in my hands! Was 40 inches and between 20-25 lbs! Let it go and went back to the room to wake up the wife with some great news! She ended up taking a nap that afternoon and of course i ran back down for some more cast. Well i caught one more! This one being 44 inches and closer to 30 lbs! I was as happy as ive ever been fishing. To land two tarpon in one day on ten lb test was nothing short of amazing. I will never forget the way they jump during a fight. Its like nothing else. I ended up hooking two more one of which looked to be well over 5 feet that came loose on a jump. Probably would have broke off anyways but it was great.
Yesterday morning i took my final cast with heather by my side because i wanted her to see the tarpon but they were not around this time. I did end up catching my second needle fish of the trip which was a cool way to end the fishing for my vacation. We had such an amazing time down there and the fishing was just an added bonus. Need to thank my wife for being so awesome and knowing how important fishing is to me to let me do as much as i did on this trip. Once in a lifetime trip that i wont ever forget. Sorry for such a long report!
The next day we had a charter booked to go off shore fishing. Lets just say that was not a good idea as we should have stayed in shore. After 8 miles out into the Caribbean we found ourselves in 8-10 swells at some points. Wasn't long before the wife was throwing up over the side of the boat and miserable. The Dramamine did not cut it that's for sure. I felt beyond terrible! We fished for about an hour and a half fishing from 12,000 feet up to 1,200 feet on a huge deep water hump. After about 5 minutes of fishing we had our first Mahi on which came off on a big flip. Then another Mahi which came off after the line dragging 20 lbs of sea weed and the fish.. I was driving the boat almost the whole trip and we were only able to keep out 1 line at a time which sucked. Because the sea weed was out of control. Finally landed a small Mahi and headed back in. Took 2 hours to get back to the dock but heather felt great as soon as we were on land.She was a trooper! Was a huge waste of 900 dollars but lesson learned. I will say trying to fight a fish while the boat is in gear is total bs. When we only had one line out. Made no sense. You don't even fight the fish you just drag in heavy weight. Oh well!
The next day heather wanted to take some cast from the pier with me and we both caught a few of the little silver snappers. She was happy. I also caught a really nice blue fish which is in the jack family. Then she wanted to get out of the sun and sit under an umbrella for a while so i took out a kayak. I caught fish 6 out of 7 cast out there including a beautiful yellow tail snapper before my day took a turn for the worse.. My kayak flipped no warning way out in the bay and i could not get back on. The plug was not in the kayak and it had filled with water. After i flipped the third time i lost my fishing pole my tackle box and was holding on for life and yelling for help. After 5 minutes of heather trying to get help for me... my new friend Joey happened to be walking by got a big kayak and came out and saved me. I was happy to be on the beach and pissed at the people who worked the activity shack.. ( who have been fired since ) I was done fishing for the day and filled a report and all that fun stuff and they did end up taking care of us. The next morning i went out snorkeling with Joey to try and find my stuff. Sure enough in 25 feet of water way out we found both my rod and my tackle box! Was so pumped to get it back. Was a little rough but it still worked.
I took a walk down the beach the next morning to find a enormous school of giant tarpon! I could see there tails and there dorsal fins sticking out all over the place some of which were in the 60-80 lb range or bigger. The tons of sea weed that came to shore was holding lots of bait and drew them in right up close. My rod was not cutting it. I had 15 tarpon hit and could not hook one. The strikes were beyond epic though. They have such a hard mouth that i needed more backbone to get a hook set. I asked a guy Robert who worked at the resort if he knew where i could get a better pole. He went into his office and came out with a 7 foot meduim action rod for me to use no charge! It wasnt much better but it was something. I went back the following morning on a mission. I still had only my small reel with 10 lb braid and a 40 lb leader but i had a rod that would give me a chance and thats all i needed. I threw out a big cast master and would reel it very slowly and within a few cast i was on! I fought 6 tarpon between a few second up to a few minutes and would eventually lose them on a 6 foot jump! It was a thrill. Then i finally really stuck one. Probably the smallest one i had on the whole day but i didnt care! Slid it onto the thick sea weed jumped in and had my bucket list fish in my hands! Was 40 inches and between 20-25 lbs! Let it go and went back to the room to wake up the wife with some great news! She ended up taking a nap that afternoon and of course i ran back down for some more cast. Well i caught one more! This one being 44 inches and closer to 30 lbs! I was as happy as ive ever been fishing. To land two tarpon in one day on ten lb test was nothing short of amazing. I will never forget the way they jump during a fight. Its like nothing else. I ended up hooking two more one of which looked to be well over 5 feet that came loose on a jump. Probably would have broke off anyways but it was great.
Yesterday morning i took my final cast with heather by my side because i wanted her to see the tarpon but they were not around this time. I did end up catching my second needle fish of the trip which was a cool way to end the fishing for my vacation. We had such an amazing time down there and the fishing was just an added bonus. Need to thank my wife for being so awesome and knowing how important fishing is to me to let me do as much as i did on this trip. Once in a lifetime trip that i wont ever forget. Sorry for such a long report!
Great report. Good luck to you an Heather.
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