Offshore St. Marten worthwhile?

[TomL]

Will have several lay days next week in St. Martin (Dutch Side, Simpson Bay) and often wondered if its worthwhile to spend a half day offshore. The experience level of the group is fairly decent, all of us have owned and operated our own larger sportfish programs based in South Florida and Bahamas. I've never noted any decent reports of folks catching pelagics there, and we would probably not be interested in any of the "cruise ship specials" that frequently operate in tourist locations.

[Robja]

Tom

We have a new member who just joined from there. Might be worth sending him a pm.

here is his intro link. St. Maarten Inshore Guide new to Sportsfisherman.com

[mozza]

I worked on a private motor yacht in simpsons bay last year and we did really well on the blues between sxm and Anguilla and around Saba bank. most of the sport fish fleet is over in Phillipsburg but thats a short cab ride away. Tarpon in Simpson bay can be great and I have caught bones at Gallion beach over on the french side

[triniswordfish]

there are bill fish there.... think the season is just starting i know their big tournament is at the end of may.
finding a decent charter that is not cruise ship oriented will be tough though
good luck

[TomL]

Thanks for the info guys, good to hear some confirmation of intel the local color has told us (at the bar!). We may have access to a private tender and a set of 50s in St Marten. We are in BVI and are going to take a trip to the drop on the SE side of Tortola tomorrow. While racing a sailboat race yesterday we passed what appeared to be a FAD that was loaded with mahi.