Greetings from beautiful St. Thomas and happy first day of summer! It has been an absolutely stellar start to the 2016 summer season here in the USVI and the bite is as good as it’s been in the past 5 years. It’s a good thing we only use top-quality, Shimano and Penn tackle because the Yellowfin bite the past 4 weeks has been absolutely non-stop with bruiser 50-90lb class fish burning the drags and testing the strength of our clients. Almost every single offshore trip to the North Drop we’ve had since before Memorial Day has come back with multiple Yellowfins along with Mahi-Mahi and Wahoo. The morning hours have produced a consistent bite, but the afternoon and evening is when we’ve caught the largest Yellowfins, especially right before sunset. We’ve hooked up amidst ravenous surface feeds as well as blind strikes on the drift with live-bait, its as close to a free-for-all as it gets!!! There’s been a handful of trips where we’ve seen some larger 100+lb Yellowfins in the mix but haven’t been able to hook one, much like the 158lb Yellowfin we caught last year smashing the Yellowfin record in the USVI. The Marlin bite is steadily improving and there’s been a handful of fish caught amongst the St. Thomas charter fleet recently, but its been difficult to ignore the Yellowfin bite so many of our offshore charters have opted out of targeting Marlin. As we approach the first-quarter to full moon in July we’ll start switching gears and targeting the big Blues
It’s been a busy summer inshore as well. Yellowtail Snappers, Houndfish, Barracuda, Blackfin Tunas, Grouper, Jack Crevalle and big Kingfish have dominated the day’s catch since late May. Our largest Kingfish of 2016 hit the deck just a couple of weeks ago weighing in at 55lbs! A trophy catch for one lucky angler. Summer is when we start to see the inshore bite subside a bit due to the bait pushing offshore to cooler water, but so far it has been a consistent bite. As we get into mid-late July we’ll start targeting deeper wrecks for Tarpon and Kingfish where we find typically find the best summer inshore bite.
If you’re planning a summer getaway to St. Thomas or St. John please give us a call or email us at capt.alvin@fishinginstthomas.com to inquire on availability. We hope you’re having a fantastic summer so far. We’ll be gearing up soon for the 2016 annual Bastille Day Kingfish Tournament on July 17th, arguably our favorite local tournament hosted here on St. Thomas by the Northside Sportfishing Club! We’re thrilled to yet again be a sponsor in this tournament and offer a 4-hour charter as one of the many fantastic prizes!
Tight lines and God Bless,
Capt. Alvin Turbe
340-626-4220