The Carribean

Last year I spent my summer holidays in Mexico and went out on a fishing trip. I caught 2 barracuda and a tuna. This year I'm off to Tobago in May/June and am intending going marlin fishing whilst I'm there - has anyone got any experience of fishing in the carribean and especially of marlin?

A bad experience only i'm afraid, whilst off Jamaica.We'd been out for quite some time without success and was on the way back when my rod had a take and the boat accelerated, as they do.My anticipated long fight against a Marlin was only short lived.The fish slipped the hook and it ran down it's flank somehow and ended up in it's side the resulting pull was against a dead weight,apparently the fish had drowned,with the acceleration pushing water back through it's gills the wrong way.
Was this bad boatmanship or just bad luck??

That's terrible and an experience I certainly wouldn't want to live with.

I reckon it was boatmanship - they seem to be too eager to help us holiday makers catch a fish of a lifetime.

We too had numerous hookpulls and I considered then that it was because the boat accelerated too quickly.

Me too.The answer may well be,be certain you get a good skipper,perhaps not those plying for the tourist.

Dave I fish a couple of times every year whilst on Holiday in the Grenadines. I use a local boat. I have not fished for Marlin as I go at Xmas/ New Year which is not a good time.I enjoy it , it is totally different to fishing here. Tips I have picked up are
1. Only go with a boat that is prepared to go either very early or stay till late ie 6am or 4pm to 6pm.Dawn and dusk is most productive.
2. Try to find out when high water occurs around Tobago/ Trinidad and time your holiday for then.
3. Explore on the net when peak time for Marlin is around Tobago. You do not want to pay a fortune to try and catch what is not there.
4. If Marlin are not plentiful fish for something else do not pay to fish for Marlin when Dorado (Dolphin local name) Kingfish , Spanish or King Mackeral Wahoo or Big Eye all offer excellent sport in this region.
5. Lastly you tell the skipper what you want out of your trip. Do not be dictated to. By all means take on board (no pun etc) what he say's but you are paying after all.
Good luck you will love Tobago. Try to get to Trinidad it is a beautiful island.

the boat accelerating is not bad boatmanship it is done to help set the hook obviously it does not always work btu with the very hard mouths of these fish and their weight it is very difficult to set the hook by normal methods due to the amopunt of line out coupled with the stretch factor of monofilament
this method has been used wherever i have fished around the world and to date i have never lost a fish as you guys have described i guess i'm just lucky

Points taken and noted David plus I shall give the Trinidad visit some thought too.

Dave - I understand exactly why they do this but what we were trying to say is that sometimes they accelerate too quickly and the inevitable happens whether it be lost fish or in the case of Fred, hookpulling out of the mouth and into the flanks.

Striking too hard under usual fishing conditions can lead to the same end result and I'm sure most anglers have experienced foul hooking in some form or another.

Dave, Marlin fishing in Tobago tails of by the middle/end of May, so if you fancy billfish then Sailfish would be a better choice, however Tobago is becoming mostly known for Tarpon. Whilst the billfish are 20 miles offshore, the Tarpon are much closer and because the boats are smaller, it will be a much cheaper trip, I do believe Matt Hayes had a crack at them too, a few years ago. Tobagans also use circle hooks for Tarpon, perhaps a new experience too. If you want to know about circle hooks check a thread I left on the Predator forum re 'single hooks'