Just home from an enjoyable week in St Lucia, but no fishing this time, just an excess of sun, sea, sand and very good rum! St Lucia is a beautiful island, and the people are genuinely friendly and helpful to visitors. There’s plenty to see and do, with a trip to the rain forests an absolute must. I had hoped to find some inshore fishing for tarpon, snook, jacks and possibly bonefish, but all of my prior research had ended in a blank and having now been there I, too, must conclude that if such fishing is available then it is being kept a very closely guarded secret, certainly it is not a realistic option for those on a typical Caribbean

Secluded beach on Pigeon Island, St Lucia

island holiday.

Cable car ride through St Lucian rain forest

There is, as I discovered, some excellent blue water fishing offshore. Boats here catch reasonable numbers of small to medium size blue marlin, plus occasional white marlin, along with good numbers of sailfish, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, dorado and all of the other usual blue water pelagic species. Several companies book game fishing charters, two of the best I found are B.B.C Yachting and Exodus Boat Charters, both who are based at Rodney Bay Marina, conveniently close to some of the most popular hotels and resorts. They can be contacted through their respective websites at: http://www.bbcyachting.com and http://exodusstlucia.com

Exodus Boat Charters Cabo game boat

Rodney Bay Marina

Mrs Lewis, ‘Alison’, finally finds a way of going for a swim without getting her hair wet!

Visiting St Lucia was for me something of a milestone. I have travelled extensively all of my life, especially since leaving home at 16 to join the Merchant Navy. For some years now I have had a hankering to reach 100 countries and qualify for membership to the ‘Travelers Century Club’. In order to qualify for membership to the TCC you need to have visited 100 different countries and overseas territories from an internationally accepted list of 324 locations. Each of these locations are defined by various criteria, but essentially they are all geographically, ethnologically or politically separate. You can find the list on the Travelers Century Club website at http://travelerscenturyclub.org

Following interest generated by this years trip to Rio Indio Lodge in March, check out the previous blog if you missed it, there is a possibility we might be booking a return trip to this amazing location next March. Aside from the excellent fishing we experienced this year, and reports from the few weeks since we got home have have confirmed the fishing has been even better, I for one am especially keen to revisit at the same time next year. A March 2015 trip will be either instead of or in addition to the one previously advised for October 2015. Sept/Oct is regarded as being the very best time for tarpon fishing the twice annual tarpon run off Central America, but March is, as we witnessed, a very close second. Additionally the jungle fishing peaks in March, as its the dry season and fish tend to get congregated, and as we experienced the snook fishing in March can be phenomenal. If you think you might be interested, please get in touch.

This is why I am so keen to get back to Nicaragua ASAP!