Antigua Wahoo Fishing - Double Header by Luxury Locations Magazine Antigua
What is fishing like in Antigua? Can you catch wahoo? Sam Dyson and Nadia Dyson of Luxury Locations Antigua go to find out on Double Header Fishing Charters based out of English Harbour on the south coast of Antigua to try their hand at offshore fishing in Antigua.
Double Header is a 55ft Hattaras fishing boat, we head out to south bank, located between Antigua and Guadaloupe to try to catch som wahoo, mahi and tuna.
From Luxury Locations Magazine Antigua - Whale of a time - Aquatic adventures aboard Double Header
As the sun rises in the early dawn over English Harbour, a lone vessel, a 55ft Hatteras named Double Header, glides out past the many yachts which have overnighted in the harbour. Double Header is bound for the fertile fishing grounds of South Bank, a sea mount located between Antigua and Guadeloupe.
The nearest northern corner of South Bank is 13 miles from English Harbour and though the journey begins with gentle lapping of waters, as the sun rises the activity soon begins merely a few hundred metres from shore.
As the water depth drops by hundreds of feet below us, Captain Derek declares that we are ready to begin fishing. Deckhand Tony, a seasoned fisherman equipped with seemingly impossible balance on the rolling vessel, calmly wanders the deck preparing the rods and lines. Within moments, six lines are out and we are poised for a great day of fishing.
Our fish targets for the day are pelagic fish species including wahoo, mahi mahi and tuna, as well as larger pelagic fish including marlin or swordfish. These species aggregate around the sea mount resulting in rich and more plentiful biodiversity in these locations.
Within 10 minutes, the tip of a rod flicks then springs forward bending to the sea, its reel clicking aggressively as line is stripped from the reel.
From the flybridge Captain Derek shouts down that it is probably a tuna due to the way the bait has been taken. My father, who until a moment earlier was calmly basking in the morning sun in the fighting chair, is now wrestling with the rod as the fight begins.
After 10 minutes of hauling and winding, Captain Derek’s hypothesis is proved correct as Tony lifts a black fin tuna over the transom. Exhausted and happy from the catch, my father relinquishes the chair ready for the next fish.
The morning continues with more tuna and a few mahi mahi over the next hour, when a call from Derek announces that we have humpback whales off our starboard side.
The massive cetaceans, as if on cue, gradually move within 100ft of the vessel, occasionally blowing up clouds of vapour, giving us a clear view of the pod of six or so. Over the next 30 minutes they meander on a similar course until we see tails flap as they dive into the abyss, leaving us to continue our fishing.
As if by way of a parting gift, as we turn away one of the lines is struck. Although we have had a few fish of different species this seems different and a lot more powerful. As I am passed the rod it seems like a monster is attached to the end of the line. As I haul and wind it seems as if I am winning the battle in a similar way to the other fish landed, but this is something different – it is a wahoo.
Fifty feet from the boat the rod is virtually ripped from my hands as the rod is bent double. The line screams from the reel as the wahoo charges away; this, I am told, is why they are called wahoo! After several similar charges over the next 10 minutes, my first wahoo is landed.
Towards mid-afternoon we head back to Antigua. We have had multiple wahoo, mahi mahi, tuna and barracuda on board, seen whales and tails and are happily worn out as we crack open a few well deserved, ice cold beers.
On the dockside Derek presents us with a few pounds of fileted fish destined for the evening’s BBQ.
Tarpon Time Jolly Harbour Antigua
The crew of sport fishing boat Pacific Marlin feeding tarpon with fish scraps at Jolly Harbour Marina - Antigua.
Fishing mangroves in Antigua
Wading around the mangroves in Antigua for whatever is around.
Antigua Sea Fishing 1
James hooks into a barracuda the first fish of the day, was it the last ? Of course not click below to see what we also caught aboard the Obsession out of falmouth catamaran harbour Antigua.
See the full blog post here -
Fishing Tours and Charters in Antigua -
Other Antigua Fishing Websites of Interest :
Antigua Fishing Tournament. Something to do in September in Antigua.
The Antigua fishing tournament happens at the end of September every year among others. This one is done from and back to English Harbour and the car park gets so full the island tilts up and the northern end gets a foot higher.
Special Thanks to EZZY RATTIGAN for allowing us to use his GOLD CUP winning Antigua Carnival song :
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Day 1 Antigua
1st fishing outing on holiday in Antigua. Went to a small cove I've nicknamed 'Pelican Cove'. The pelicans were there feeding on baitfish, but all the action was beyond casting range in a bay where the stiff prevailling easterly winds limit casting distance.
Antigua & Barbuda 2013
This video is about Untitled Project
Carlise Bay Lobster
Whilst snorkelling in Carlise Bay, Antigua we filmed this footage of a lobster and moray eel.
Antigua Sea Fishing 2
Tim lost the Dorado (Mahi Mahi, dolphin fish) really bad luck fella.
Tuvalu | Wikipedia audio article
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Tuvalu
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SUMMARY
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Tuvalu ( ( listen) too-VAH-loo or TOO-və-loo), formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island country located in the Pacific Ocean, situated in Oceania, about midway between Hawaii and Australia. It lies east-northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands (belonging to the Solomons), southeast of Nauru, south of Kiribati, west of Tokelau, northwest of Samoa and Wallis and Futuna and north of Fiji. It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. Tuvalu has a population of 10,640 (2012 census). The total land area of the islands of Tuvalu is 26 square kilometres (10 sq mi).
The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians. The pattern of settlement that is believed to have occurred is that the Polynesians spread out from Samoa and Tonga into the Tuvaluan atolls, with Tuvalu providing a stepping stone to migration into the Polynesian Outlier communities in Melanesia and Micronesia.
In 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. The island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island in 1819; the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. The Ellice Islands came into Great Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century, as the result of a treaty between Great Britain and Germany relating to the demarcation of the spheres of influence in the Pacific Ocean. Each of the Ellice Islands was declared a British Protectorate by Captain Gibson of HMS Curacoa between 9 and 16 October 1892. The Ellice Islands were administered as a British protectorate by a Resident Commissioner from 1892 to 1916, as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT), and then as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony from 1916 to 1976.
A referendum was held in December 1974 to determine whether the Gilbert Islands and Ellice Islands should each have their own administration. As a consequence of the referendum, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony ceased to exist on 1 January 1976, and the separate British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu came into existence. Tuvalu became fully independent within the Commonwealth on 1 October 1978. On 5 September 2000, Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations.
Deep Sea Fishing In Antigua
We did some deep sea fishing while in Antigua. The catch was Mahi Mahi, Blackfin Tuna, Barracuda and Wahoo.