Any advice for St. Lucia?

[FishStyx]

My sister is out from the States and has booked a place in St. Lucia from the 26th June for a week. She has asked me to join her with my 2 daughters, so we're headed off there for the week starting the 27th. I've never been to St. Lucia so I'm looking for a bit of advice.


First question... is a 4x4 much of an advantage at St. Lucia? I can drive down with my Izuzu or in my Polo. The Polo is light and very gentle on the pocket.


Secondly, I cannot do any heavy surf fishing as I recently had a hernia repair op and the quack gave me strict instructions to avoid hard work, but I reckon I'll be good for some light and m/light spinning. I'm intending taking my Berkley Air 9' and 4k reel as well as a 12' light spinning stick with 5k reel.


Should I take a lighter stick for playing in the estuary? Is there any fishing in the estuary?


Any advice on where and what to fish would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks in advance.

[Peter Gordon]

Martin you can use your Polo with no problems. I'll send you George's (Cyclone) number, he lives there and will assist you in every way

[sardinella]

Natal coast very dry at the moment - be prepared for periods without water.
Spinning from the beach early morning towards the closed river mouth (gully where boats are launched), viewpoint and north of the swimming beach should produce shad. Take a chisel nose popper along - you might run into some garrick action where you find the shad - look for a steep bank on the beach with a deepish gutter. Same situation might also throw a snoek when swell are down and conditions calm.
Couta casting spoon in glow for the long shots. Toby in silver for shad close in.
Estuary not producing at the moment.

[FishStyx]

Much appreciated sard. Thanks

[Prego]

Water seems a big issue in St lucia at the moment take lots of drinking water with

[FishStyx]

 Noted. Thx Pregz

[krissi]

We have just spent the weekend in St Lucia - water is definitely a problem!  Luckily the place we stayed had access to a borehole so we didn't have issues.  Sugarloaf campsite had no water and they had to truck in water to the ski boat club.


We arrived on Thurs afternoon and after settling in, we drove around to familiarise ourselves.  We spoke to some anglers at the estuary - nothing was coming out except those little spiky chaps; reports from the tackle shops were of some raggies one night, rubber lips off the main beach and at Jabula Beach we chatted to 2 anglers who mentioned snoek coming out off the beach  They were targeting cob and the water looked good, but we hadn't taken any tackle with us on our recce session.  We had a great supper at the Ski Boat club, load shedding notwithstanding.
 
Friday we went to Umfolozi Game Park (40 min drive from St Lucia) - both Black and White Umfolozi are bone dry with puddles or small pools - otherwise just sand, sand and more sand.  All the little streams and waterholes are dry.  We saw elephant, buffalo, quite a few white rhino with calves, giraffe, zebra, gnus, a cheetah kill and the normal buck species.  That afternoon we decided to try our luck at Jabula Beach but the side current was screaming and I finally managed to get a 6oz grapnel to stick, but the current was so bad it pulled my braid even with a tight drag.  Scotty didn't even bother setting up his rod.  We laughed that off pretty quickly and went back to the Ski Boat club for another great supper.  Highly recommended.

Saturday we visited the crocodile centre, then a quick game drive on the way to Mission Rocks.  We fished the low and incoming tide - Scotty got a small cat face and I got a small speckled snapper.  The water was great but the rugby was calling my husband, so we packed up at 2pm  and went to watch at the Ski Boat Club - a hippo came to graze between the reeds and fence which was pretty awesome.  Supper was a braai with friends at the Sugar Loaf camp site.

What we really enjoyed was that there is so much to do - fishing, river cruises, game viewing, the croc centre, etc. all within comfortable driving distance. 

I would find out what the water situation is where you are staying prior to arriving FishStyx.

[FishStyx]

Thx Krissi. Very informative, and yes, I will ask the lodge. I always carry vast quantities of drinking water regardless, but the odd shower may not go amiss.

[Rory mundy]

drinking water is not a issue you can buy at spar, its the shower and toilets that are the big problem if the place you are staying does not have a jojo/borehole tank it may get a bit unpleasant

[krissi]

drinking water is not a issue you can buy at spar, its the shower and toilets that are the big problem if the place you are staying does not have a jojo/borehole tank it may get a bit unpleasant

100% 

[FishStyx]

drinking water is not a issue you can buy at spar, its the shower and toilets that are the big problem if the place you are staying does not have a jojo/borehole tank it may get a bit unpleasant

Thanks Rory... any tips on light spinning?

[cyclone 123]

Jabula beach and north of the swimming beach producing some snoek luresthe guys are using no2 iron candy

[FishStyx]

Jabula beach and north of the swimming beach producing some snoek luresthe guys are using no2 iron candy

Thanks bud. Peter sent me you contact details, would you be up for a spinning session sometime between the 27th and 5th?

[Rory mundy]

there a few pompano around at the moment

[doc]

Central Gauteng had a League from the 14 to the 16 of June. They fished St Lucia beach and mission rocks.


The catches were as follow:

Total Fish Caught: 114
Edibles: 98
Non Edibles: 16
Total Catface Rockcods: 45


Most memorable edibles were a Southern Pompano of 6kg a Rubberlip of 6kg a shad of 3.2kg
Non eds were a few Giant Sandies in the mid 20kg range


Know one angler got 3 big queenfish on spoon which did not count as well.

[cyclone 123]

Jabula beach and north of the swimming beach producing some snoek luresthe guys are using no2 iron candy

Thanks bud. Peter sent me you contact details, would you be up for a spinning session sometime between the 27th and 5th?

My son will be much better angler than me

[FishStyx]

Sounds good... thanks so far guys.