Any Charter fishing service rec for Cozumel or Grand Cayman?

[Yankee Clipper]

Hi, I’m taking the boss (my wife) :roll: on cruise this January for her birthday. Small price to pay for all of the time she lets me spend on the water fishing or in the woods hunting!! Since I doubt if the Capt. for Royal Caribbean will let me fish or troll off the back of the ship I want to try and get us out deep sea fishing at one of our stops. I would prefer not to book it through the cruise line as I’ve heard too many horror stories. I want to go on fishing trip not a drunk fest!! I figure with this sight and so many anglers and Capt’s out there someone might be able to recommend or know of a charter service operating out of Grand Caman Island or out of Cozumel MX ?? Thanks

[J.D.]

Been on 5 RCCL cruises to the Caribbean and loved them all !! Going again in 2009. I can't help with fishing info but if you have time on Grand Caman you MUST take a boat to Stingray City.

Swimming around in 4 ft. of water with a couple dozen wild southern stingrays is something you will never forget... You should be able to book a charter on the web....or book a trip from the RCCL shore excursion section of their website.

[Yankee Clipper]

Thanks JD, but didn’t that whacky crocodile guy die from a sting ray attack :shock: ?? I worked pretty hard to get to the top of the food chain and I like to keep it that way or at least keep the odds to my advantage with fire power (bow, gun .. bigger gun for bigger game etc)!!

[Nemesis]

I fished Cozumel about 10-12 years ago. Lord knows if the charter is still around. Just wanted to say we pulled a few bucktail jigs around and other baits. Caught 5 fish and most came on the bucktail jigs. 3 kinds of tuna. Big eye, yellow fin and bonito. It was a half day charter that picked me up at the resort I was staying at. It was fun but I was after a sail or a wahoo. The tuna was fun too dont get me wrong.

Good luck out there.

I'm tring to find a charter in Puerto Plata DR. Anyone have an leads?????

Brad

[Fishtails]

Hi YC. I'm terribly jealous, I really love the Caribbean and It's killing me that we have no plans to go this winter .

Anyway, I've fished both areas. I had an opportunity to fish a 3 day Marlin tourney with some locals I met while on a 10 day vacation in Cayman 4 years ago. I learned alot from the locals, and we came in second place for the biggest fish. No Marlins though, the two big fish were Tuna.

I do know of a captain I would highly recommend, but tracking down his contact info would be a semi challenge. It really comes down to your time on the Islands. Normally, your only in port from 5-10 hours. In Cayman, you have to take a shuttle boat to the island from the ship. Depending on the amount of tours in that day, you can eat up a little time there and it's unpredictable. You want to leave plenty of time to get back to the ship!! Cayman roads can get very congested.

Reef fishing is a great option too....If you have limited time. The reef fishing can be really fun, cause you'll catch fish after fish and you may catch 20 or 30 different exotic species. I enjoyed that as much as the deep water trolling (maybe more). They just won't be as big. Odds are, If you go trolling you'll catch Wahoo, Dolphin, Barracuda and Tuna, with an outside shot at a Sail or Marlin.

Cozumel is good too, and you dock in port so your timing on the island is more predictable. I only reef fished there, so I don't know much.

If I can be of help, give me a shout and I'll do whatever I can.

BTW....I agree that Stingray City is cool, and pretty harmless. If you go to Rum Point, you'll see a fleet of boats off the horizon & that will be Stingray City.

Have a GREAT time!!!!!

Rod

[Just Fishin']

I took RCCL to Cozumel and opted to do the "family" things because nobody wanted to fish with me. So no real help other than to tell you that everything we did, and heard from other guests, that was RCCL arranged was fantastic. I do not think you can go wrong if you book it through RCCL. Just my experience. Have a great trip. I would go again in a second.

[Just Fishin']

One other thing...if you book through RCCL they guarantee you will get back on the boat...even if the charter has to bring you out to the departing ship. You don't get the same guarantee if you book on your own. That alone is worth the "risk" of taking an RCCL arranged excursion.

[UpGrady]

I've done a number of cruises, including one 2 years ago in February. I spent a bunch of time trying to find a decent boat out of Cozumel, in the end I was not satisfied with my chances for a billfish during that time period, Late March thru June appeared to be more likely. The next problem was Cozumel being ravaged for the hurricane the previous Fall, so the port was being rebuilt. It may be rebuilt now, but we had to be tendered in, which is not a huge deal, the cruise lines do it all over including Grand Cayman and Belize, but it added another dimension to booking a charter and trying to get back onto the ship in time.

I would advise booking thru the cruiseline and saving yourself the hassle with time constraints, but you may or may not be able to guarantee that you will not be the charter with 4 other people.

I had a few links that I found, but I can't put my hands on them right now.

[Fishtails]

UpGragy & Just Fishin make a really great point. All things weighted, your safest option may be to book through the cruise line.

The most amazing thing about Grand Cayman is that "The Wall" is only like about a mile or so off shore. It drops off to around 3000+ ft, yet your close enough that you could almost swim to shore if ya had to.

I enjoyed this thread. It was fun going down memory lane. I dug up some pictures and did some reflecting. I'll share a couple fishing pics from our tourney fishing in Grand Caymam.

Here is our second place (Big fish catagory) Tuna....I'm in the back next to the fish

Here's my first Dolphin of the tourney

This is the boat we fished out of.....46 ft Hatteras

A wahoo

Let us know how the trip goes

[J.D.]

Boy do I miss this.......................

[Yankee Clipper]

Thanks guys. You all gave me something’s to think about. I never gave it a thought about getting back in time for the ship, that would be a hoot … missing the boat!! Hey great pictures seeing as I’m looking out my window at a lot of blowing snow and ice!! The “reefâ€Â

[Fishtails]

Yt...one last thought for you. If the wife is going fishing with you, I'd highly suggest you go reef fishing while your in Grand Cayman. Reason is, the winter is the windy season in the Caribbean and the chances of you getting out beyond the reef in anything less than 4-5 ft seas is very unlikely. Your much more likely to hit anything from 5 to 10 that time of year. Flat seas in the winter are pretty few and far between.

On the flip side, the reef in Cayman (at least along the whole southern shoreline) acts as a protective barrier, and the ocean breaks at the reef edge, not at the shoreline. In other words, on the island side of the reef, it's ALWAYS fishable. At it's worst you get a one to two foot chop. You can see what I mean in the picture below. The red dot in the water is me fishing a coral head behind the house I stayed in that held loads of fish. I'd snorkel around and drop a buoy on the areas that held fish.....then I'd wade out and fish the area with conch we'd pick up off the bottom.

You can see how the waves break at the reef edge out beyond where I'm fishing. A half day drift trip reef fishing will be non stop fun for you and the wife. You'll see sea turtles and stuff while your out fishing too!!

Have fun and let us know how the fishing was!

[Yankee Clipper]

Rod, thanks that's a great idea .. my wife can handle some waves but Im note sure how anything more then 4-5 footers would go over with her ... 7 days on the ship with her .... I need her in a happy state of mind for my state of mind!!!