St. Maarten Fly Fishing?

[MDanglerbart]

I'm heading down to St. Maarten in the end of December and would love to do some fly fishing for bonefish, permit, etc. I have been looking online but all I see is offshore charters. Does anyone know of any flats guides down there or have any experience going alone?

[JohnCSullivan]

I was down there last summer. You would think that the climate and ecosystem is ideal, but apparently not. We rented a beautiful villa at Baie Rouge and I fished the reef off our beach every morning and afternoon. I didn't catch much of anything, I did catch a few of these blue/yellow iridescent grouper looking fish, the size of a small bass. About 2 days later I grabbed a mask and swam through the reefs, not much in there! There are some beautiful coral fish, the kind you would see in a fish tank. And there were these guys that looked like cuda cruising around, but I never landed one.

Someone did tell me that there was decent tarpon on the north side near Marigot. I didn't try it, but perhaps Simpson Bay has some fish in there and it is definitely wade-able. I think its basically a tidal pool. We did go fishing offshore and landed some really nice mahi-mahi.

My family just bought a villa down there, so please report back with your results.

[CaptMikeStarrett]

Bring back a bottle of Absinthe at least..

Also the local rums are good and cheap. The fishing is mostly offshore but the dutch side beaches are topless. I would fish that side all day...

My two daughters just came back from there and caught some nice offshore fishing..

I got the rum...

Yipee..my daily rations have arrived.

Capt Mike

[Sleeves]

I was in St. Maarten 3 weeks ago and was inquiring about the fishing. Doesn't seem to be a lot of it going on other than a few off-shore charters. Couldn't even find a tackle shop on the island.

p.s. It's the French side of the island that is "clothing optional". There's good and bad with that scenerio. I highly recommend a trip to Orient Beach.

[TytLynz]

The next time anyone is looking for an inshore guide on St. Maarten/ St. Martin look no further.